Galactic Civilizations 2.0

Saying that what I would like too see is
better graphics, sound. Maybe more film clips.
Be neat hear what the aliens sound like.

Customization build in. I know many people mod this game but it would be cool if you had a built in interface to create and manage this mods. A shipyard ?

Bigger Galaxies and customizable Galaxies.

my suggestions:

-space dust and gas clouds, where sensors arent very effective, so that way you can park a ship or starbase in the cloud to have it hidden from the other AI's.
-a lot more minor civs. right now, they tend to dissapear fairly early in the game
-dont let the AI's know where the resources and habitable planets are, let the search for them.
-have preferences for the AI, such as: would rather own lots and lots of small cheap ships / would rather own a few big, expensive ships then lots of small cheap ships.

You mean GalCiv II, not GalCiv version 2.0 - we're almost at 2.0 already.

Since GalCiv II - if it comes - won't be for a long, long time, I'd be more interested in hearing about post-free expansion features. I'm perfectly willing to wait until after the expansion is released, however. There's so much coming in that, it's candy enough to think about that instead of worrying about even further down the road.

GC is at 1.09 which is no where near 2.0/

While I would not mind more free updates and the expansion pack will come; If I was Stardock I move on to new projects after the expansion pack.

Maybe have bug fixes only for GC.

The game has been released for months, a new minor revision will not sell many new games.

Besides I am thinking is the long term 2 or 3 years from now.

I say a mention in some thread of the expansion pack becoming GC 2.0 when it is released to the public. I'm not sure why they don't make it 1.1 since it's not a whole new version, just an update with additional features. GalCiv II is the next game and it probably won't be here for a while. I can't even begin to think of what I want in the next game, since I still want to see the improvements in GalCiv

the expansion pack will make it v1.1, afaik the one thing they had to cut out of the game which they wanted in was a multiplayer inferface that they had considered doing in v2.

at least those were the talks back in the beta days.

and for my choices of what would be nice to have in later versions:

-Some form of ship customization.

-A Raider ship which allows you to steal Credits from trade routes.(they mentioned there would be a Marauder class ship eventually but it hasnt arrived yet)
-Some form of Territorial boundries which you can set between civilizations so that you cant just enter another races territory without repurcussions.
-More political options such as forcing the losing side in a war to surrender its fleet or limit its military for x turns.
-Static wormholes or ones you can build once you aquire the technology.

Sounds like Star Trek Birth of the Federation...

Stardock promised a year of updates and improvements to Galciv from the original release date, so I don't think any real work wpould start on a Galciv 2 until that period is complete. I expect there will be another 2-3 major expansion packs over the next 8 months.

Paul.

~SDC~

You do not think Stardock is backing away from the product ?

Updates are rare and you rarely see Frogboy post.
I think they have already moved on and right now I am only dreaming on what future games years from now may look like.

Mind you I had to wait before. How may years did it take them to come out with the Windows version.

I thought the original was programmed alone by Frogboy, and Stardock didn't exist back then. Perhaps he rarely posts because he's busy programming the expansion to have it ready by late summer.

I would expect that Stardock are busy with their other products with a small core of people supporting Galciv. I seriously doubt that Stardock would change their '1 year of free updates' concept. It's a core part of their gaming philosophy. I suspect that they have reduced the initial frequent updates to focus more on sizeable 3 month updates. They had a poll on this a few months ago and most people seemed to favour the once every few months option.

Paul.

~SDC~

Fulgrymm-- The original, Galactic Civilizations for OS/2, was indeed programmed by Frogboy. And Stardock at that time consisted of Frogboy. (He started the company.) Just found my original GC manual the other night, with the little security pictures... talk about crappy packaging! Gack.

Technician-- I don't see how you can say Stardock is backing away from GC because "updates are rare"; updates to the 1.05 branch have stopped because it's stable enough, with no show-stopper bugs, and they're cranking away on the 1.1 branch. Frogboy himself, as CEO (or whatever senior management title he has) has to focus on project development and future ideas, but the core GC team is still in here every day.

Updates are rare?

GalCiv 1.05 came out in June didn't it? 1.09 betas soon after that with 2 1.09 betas already released with a third one about ready to go up.

We plan to continue to release updates to GalCiv for the next several months (roughly a year after we went gold).

On the other hand, I don't think it would be accurate to describe that future updates would be equivalent to 2 or 3 more expansion pack level updates.

But after the expansion pack we do plan to keep updating the game with new features, tweaks, additions, etc.

GalCiv is using the same development system as our Object Desktop system (RD&D - rapid development & deployment). We release a product and keep updating it for a long while afterwards.

As for a GalCiv II, that's hard to say. Depends on a lot of factors. THat wouldn't be for a long while if we do a sequel. But things I would imagine it would include would be a 3D engine (2 D point of view still but 3D acceleration so that you can zoom in and out as much as you want and get a lot better effects), ship design, artifacts, more of the back story having concrete effects on the game, More races, more sophisticated planetary management, a lot more kinds of starbases with specific pros, cons, and expenses, multiple human factions to choose from (i.e. multiple races but for story reasons it would still require human species, just different factions).

Plus we have to figure out how we would sell a GalCiv 2. Most people who aren't in "the industry" might be surprised to learn this but develoeprs don't get paid until many months after release. I.e. Even as I type this, Stardock hasn't gotten a single cent in revenue from Galactic Civilizations from retail sales (this is pretty standard fare). So we've been doign all these updates and enhancement and paying for developemtn on the expansion pack based on the sales of Drengin.net and direct GalCiv purchases and sales of Object Desktop (which is why non-game stuff gets posted on GalCiv.com).

Thanks for the information, Frogboy, it's good to hear it straight from you.

One comment I'd like to make: I think GalCiv 2 would sell very well via direct sales for a few reasons. This assumes it will be at least 3 years until a GalCiv 2 is reality:

1)By that time, A majority of internet users will have broadband internet access (cable or DSL) which removes a major obstacle to this type of marketing.
2) Direct sales via internet downloads will be much more mainstream by then. It won't just be hardcore computer users doing this stuff, but grandpas and soccer moms.
3) GalCiv will have a lot more name recognition and get a lot of press (print & internet) attetion. People who want it will get it.

I'd forgotton those....

Alex

~SDC~

Didn't realise this. I'm glad I downloaded my Galciv direct.

Never confuse Frogboy's posting level with his lurking level, and never underestimate the level of product support for Galciv. There have been plenty of updates for what other companies would call trivial problems. We get frequent updates that not only fix the major and minor problems alike, but even add new features as well. Galciv has been supported very well in my experience, and the forum is looked after.

I don't beleive Stardock has not seen a dime yet! After all my whining about my $40 - the crew at Stardock puts up with a lot. I just might subscribe to Dregnin.net now to help them along

I am very impressed that Stardock has not dropped support for GalCiv by now like most companies would have done and started right away on the next game for us to buy. They have spent all of their time and money improving an existing product that is already great. Most gaming companies would be already working hard on a sequel and let the first one sell in the stores and run its course. Don't get me wrong, I would love a GalCiv 2 but I love it even better that the game I bought gets better and better. Once GalCiv is the product they want it to be, then they can decide what to do next. Until then I'll be playing the most enjoyable game I've played in a long time

Hi bgofct

that's the reason, why I subscribed to Drengin and even bought Object Desktop (which looks very nice but I haven't got an idea what I should do with it ).

Ralph

Frogboy,
If you make a Galciv2, I know I for one would buy it direct this time - the 5 buck difference is not significant enough- I think a fair amount of people here would do that.