GalCiv has been a big success at retail (as well as direct). Getting PAID for those sales, on the other hand, may prove to be more challenging.

Brad,

Will there be any "surprises" announced at the chat, like some sort of extra gizmo you secretly added or that you are thinking of?


~-~ Weird Question Commencing ~-~

Also, and I know this isn't terribly relevant, but can you tell us of any Easter Eggs that haven't been found in the game? I am assuming the names of the systems were intentionally used as Easter Eggs, but are there any other ones?

What happened with making this post a sticky one, we need this post at top of page for future info about the expansion pack.

Looks like somebody was listening, Mayito!

Sorry for that, I see it already at the top, thanks guys. Good job, I am counting the days, I can't wait, 12 more days, this is too much for my heart, I think I am cracking!!!! Help, NURSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

And then there was a sticky! Yay.

Anyway, even though I do not crank out many games these days, I would buy a second X-pack or Drengin.net just for completeness sake at the very least. Now I know that my one vote along with the scattered handful of others do not add up to 5,000 literally coming here to say they want it, but there is an interest at least among the die hards. I am not one to know the obscure formulas of how many written letters equals how many votes, or how many e-mails/posts equals what proportion of interest, but I will point out that Galciv is not a flash-in-the-pan game where most people get into it heavily for two weeks and then ditch it. There is some long term support here, so this must be a good product and there must be a decent potential customer base because of that. It is going to be a gamble all the way, but the more time and features put into that X-pack, the better it will sell.

GalCiv is the new Zork!

I too would probably buy and expansion. For twenty dollars I would hope for some significant additions and enhancements to the game. I of course have know idea what they would be, seeing how the game is already so much fun. Would this be an opportunity to include some kind of multiplayer support?? Or is that still just out of the question (untill GalCiv. 2)

I think that this tread could be use to give to the developers some suggestion about what else we would like to see in the game. Just my opinion.

We were brainstorming today.

Here's what we're thinking of doing:

1) We would do a poll and email eveyr Galciv player a link to the poll. The poll would ask if they would be interestedin a december 2003 expansion pack.

2) The ideas being thrown around for the expansion pack would be (not promising here because it depends on how much interest there is -- more interest, more budget and therefore more features).

a) 2 new alien civilizations

map editor

c) scenarios

d) New United Planets System where you could submit a resolution for vote. But so could the aliens.

e) New ships

f) New techs

g) Logistics ability that would affect how many starbases you could have per billion population.

Item D is the only iffy one because that could break the time table but one I would like to see.

On my personal wish list:

Would like to see metaverse stuff integrated into the game where metaverse account stuff is handled in game along with data from the metaverse.

And we could wrap up the mystery of  the Altarians.

russellmz goes into broken record mode:

so, like, what about free stuff? are we still gonna get free stuff before/during/after the second expansion set? still quite a long time before the one year mark of galciv's release.

Sounds like a good idea. I suggest you put in the poll:
-No thanks
-I'll get it anyway because I have Drengin.net
-I'll buy it
-I'll buy Drengin.net if there's an XPaxk (what I'd do)
-I'd rather buy Bananas (look at polls on Apolyton if you don't get that one).

Map editor and scenarios would definitely be nice. If you could also make it so all tech effects are moddable (like government changes, seeing yellow stars, etc.) it would be great.
[Message Edited]

I'd probably be in that boat myself.

One thought about the extra races - instead of more major races, it might be fun to have lots more minor races activated in the beginning of a game. Maybe even have some options for the minor's expansionist desires - at low levels, they behave like now, often powerful but happy to stay on their own planet. At high levels, they'll colonize as quickly as everyone else (though they shouldn't be quite as powerful as the major players).

Looking forward to the chat

I think there should be a ship editor in-game if there is another EXP or save it for GalCiv 2.

Russell: There will still be free updates to GalCiv throughout the year.

 

Nice poll, I like the idea.

My suggestion: adding sliders for a whole bunch of aspects of the game. I want sliders for the number of minor races, the occuracne rate of random events, everything. Fully customizable games would make me so happy .

I wouldn't mind seeing a far different alien race, right now you can combat the AI by a pretty standard method. I'd like to see a race that requires a completely different approach to deal with. I was thinking to something similar to the bad aliens in Starship troopers. They have no tech per say. They spread via astroids. They can't be diplomaticly whiplashed, they can't be techwhored into economic obvilion, and they can't be intimidated. Give them the ability to land on occuppied worlds (in which case your population drops along with your production and morale on the planet, have your spending skyrocket). Basically a nightmare species to deal with because the usual method just don't work on them. I would imagine something like this would probably be impossible in Galciv1.

Just a thought,
Kelly

Bought mine at Wal-Mart. I'm sure they must pay their royalties. If not, I'll bring it up at the next shareholders meeting! BTW, did you have to make this game soooooooooo addictive?

Stardock is the developer. Not the publisher.  Analogy: When you buy a Stephen King book from Amazon.com, Amazon.com doesn't pay Stephen King, they pay their distributor or possibly directly to the publisher.

Similarly, the stores don't pay us directly. They pay the distributor who then pays the publisher who then pays us.

The free expansion pack has been funded entirely by Stardock thanks to people who bought Drengin.net or bought the game directly from us.

I'm a political junkie, so anything that gives the United Planets more to do would be lovely! I would also love for the Terran Senate to DO something (pass bills, or whatever) other than sit around and get re-elected every so often.

Wait, that DOES sound like real life...

I have to second Nand1's comments -- adding sliders allowing for customization of as many game parameters as possible would be a really welcome feature that adds replayability without requiring lots of new programming.

In general, I like Gal Civ a lot (just bought it at retail a couple of weeks ago) but honestly I'm not sure that I'd pay $20 for an expansion pack. I'd love to be convinced, though!

What would convince me would be changes that really provide for a different game experience. Minor changes to techs and ships wouldn't be sufficient, I think. Some of the things that have been mentioned might be -- scenarios perhaps, or the logistics requirements for starbases. I'd be looking for things that force significant changes in the balance of the game and open up new winning strategies-- e.g. compelling economic alternatives to tech whoring and multiple trade starbases.

And lest I forget, kudos to Stardock for being the rare breed of software company that is both committed to and responsive to their customers.

#26 by Avatar Frogboy - 9/4/2003 3:07:03 PM
GalCiv has been a big success at retail (as well as direct). Getting PAID for those sales, on the other hand, may prove to be more challenging.

Not if you hire a guy named Vinny...

Kelly

Here is the questions.

1. What feature will this new release have?

2. When you say new scenerios, do you mean mission like?

3. Will there be cheats for those people *cough* me *cough* that wants to play as a super power?

4. Great Game

Also I like to make a suggestion. I'm sorry if this is already implemented or suggested.

Make the events and such more editable.
I was trying to add a UPissue but I couldn't find the affect I want, I was trying to make it so that the UP meetings will happen more frequently.
I'm using GalCiv writer so I dont know if it's limited or you cant do it full stop.

and there are many more but thats the main one.