Beginner questions about updating

Just bought GC2 gold and have started having fun and losing sleep, but I have a bunch of questions about updating the game(s). Some of these are pretty basic, so I apologize if these have been answered before elsewhere, but I couldn't find anything that made me sure of what to do.

My GC2 gold versions seem to be both 1.5.0.0 (when I look at the .exe files).

When I go into Impulse this is what I see for updates:
gc2 dreadlords 1.53.136 1.4gb (!!) 11/5/2008
history: Version 1.5.3 + Adds Vista and Vista 64 compatibility fixes.

gc2 dark avatar 2.00.104 278.7mb 11/5/2008
history: Version 2.00 + Contains compatibility fix for Vista 64+ Bug fix for list box entries

When I go into Stardock Central this is what I see:
installed available updated
gc2 1.50 1.50.135 6/7/2008 530mb
dark avatar 1.50 1.80g.100 7/1/2008 34.94mb
tutorials 1.0.016 1.0.018 7/1/2008 155mb
movies 1.0.014 1.0.017 " version refresh only
multimedia 1.0.043 1.0.045 " version refresh only

So, questions:

1. Are the updates completely independent? If I want to update DA, do I need to update DL also?
(Updating DA doesn't update DL, does it? My guess is no.)

2. Do I need to update DL? I.e., do the 1.53.135 or .136 versions add any fixes or functionality over 1.5.0.0?
Do I need to update it if I update DA?
(I'm running on XP, so don't really need a fix for Vista. .. and don't relish the thought of a 1.4gb download)

3. Should I use Stardock or Impulse? (I guess Impulse is the route for the future, so my guess is
Impulse, but if so, is there any way to get versions before 2.0, or shouldn't I even think about that?)

4. Is it recommended that I do the other updates? (tutorials, movies, multimedia, etc.)

5. Any other tips on updating?

Thanks a lot for any help or suggestions.

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It's not a 1.4GB download. It's somewhere in the range of 10-15MB, if that. If you click on the Updates tab, it will show the size for the update itself. When clicking back on the games tab, it should show the update size-I don't know why it's showing the installed size instead.

Yes, all updates are independent (okay, almost all).

Impulse is the only platform with the current versions; the versions SDC has are outdated.

Why, specifically, would you want a non-2.0 version of DA or TA?

Do note, 2.0 brings more changes than bug fixes-for one, there's the changed spying system for DA.

The components (tutorials, movies, etc) should not be in need of an update and in any case the games aren't broken down into components in Impulse, so even if they are in need they will be updated.

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Thanks for the reply, but in my impulse (v3.10.330), there is no Updates tab.

There are only tabs for Explore, Community, My Games, and My Desktop.

I tried "Check for updates..." but nothing changes.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

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Quoting pickles7,

reply 2

Thanks for the reply, but in my impulse (v3.10.330), there is no Updates tab.

There are only tabs for Explore, Community, My Games, and My Desktop.

I tried "Check for updates..." but nothing changes.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

That's odd-the Updates tab should show up when there are applications that have updates available.

In any case, you won't be downloading 1.4GB/280MB for DL/DA updates...of this I'm about 99.5% certain.

On second thought:

Do you perhaps have GC2 installed in a directory that Impulse isn't aware of? Does Impulse know that you have GC2 installed and is it showing that the applications have updates available, or is it showing that the applications themselves are available for download?

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It sure does look like you're right, that Impulse isn't aware that I've already installed them and wants to download the whole apps. (Even though it shows them as registered.)

I did a standard install, and then installed Impulse. (They're out in \program files\stardock\totalgamin\galciv2 and ..\galciv2\darkavatar.)

How do I make sure that Impulse is aware of the installations and actually sees which versions I have? (I've tried refresh, but no change.)

Thanks.

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To be perfectly honest, I don't know. If someone from SD can come by and give you some advice, I'd follow that.

Barring that, you might consider dropping into IRC (via Impulse, even, if you don't have a standalone client) and trying probably the #stardock channel, as I doubt anyone's really around in the rest of them at the moment, considering it's the weekend.

Apart from that, the only suggestion I would have is to uninstall DL & DA and then reinstall them, and seeing as how Impulse is installed it should be able to recognize them at that point in time. This idea is based on the problem being that you installed them before Impulse, which is a conjecture on my part. My suggestion is also dependent on your having the actual discs handy.

You might be able to get it to recognize them by checking the install directory via Preferences:Folders, which you can access by clicking on the blue orb in the upper left corner, but it should default to C:\Program Files, so I'm not sure that will do any good.

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OK -- thanks for help. Maybe I shd email support.

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