Hi All
Forums always get filled up with ppl who get problems while the thousands who don't have any issues are to busy enjoying the game to post their experience. Now that I am at work, longing to get back to my beloved GalCiv2, I want to take some time to post my experiences.
1. Purchase and download. Smooth as pie. Went to the site registered, said give me give me and they sent me an excellent email explaining everything I needed to do to download. Now that email has everything you need to know but ppl tend to only read what they need to so miss things like having to select option packs like media and tutorials. Download was a breeze I am in australia on a 10mb cable that really maxs out at around 4mb. I preloaded at about 300k/s and on launch day I got the remaining few Mb in a flash.
2. The Game. Because I am a details person and I was looking forward to the game I read the manual in my spare time while waiting for launch day. Well prepared when I got home form work I launched the game (nice intro by the way). The game lauched smooth and beutiful. I quickly adjusted the resolution to my native LCD res and restarted. Again not a problem. The game allows you to smoothly flick back to your desktop and back to the game very quickly. I created a game (love the map and other settings available). The game looks great zooming right in on my ships and planets, whatching a detailed model of earth around our sun with my flag ship looking great. Zooming out you can instantly see the state of your empire. I am hugely impressed with this game design it scales like nothing I have seen before. The interface is easy and intuitive and I was establishing my second planet in no time and building more colony ships eager to expand my empire.
3. Ship design. Oh my god how good is this thing. I spend 2 hours mucking around in there before I remembered I had an empire to build and ppl to conquer. The single best included features in a Space 4x I have ever seen. Great way to bring your own personality to your empire and have some laughs building some monstrosities and some smiles building some sleak beasts.
4. Developers. These guys and girls have the best relationship with a community I have ever seen. My first question on the forum was about download size before I preordered and I had a response from a stardock employee in a matter of minutes. Absolutely unheard of in this industry. I get a genuine impression they love their game and I wish them every success (based on the preorder and supply demands I think they are getting it). Well done stardock I am telly every one of my friends and collegues about this game and your company.
5. Bugs. I have read the forums and apparently their are a couple of documented bugs. I haven't found any and they have already said they will be fixing them on Friday. It's that kind of turn around that impresses customers.
4 Final thoughts. This was one of the easiest online purchases and launches I have ever had and I already love this game. I can't wait to get home tonight and continue to expand my galaxy. I have been waiting for new space 4x to play for a while and I am glad I stumbled upon GalCiv2.
Thanks again