Uh ok. Thanks for sharing.

Fallen Enchantress and Legendary Heroes are great games btw. 

I'm surprised that Stardock still gets guff about Elemental. People who pre-ordered Elemental end up getting an insanely good deal at the end. I was disappointed with the original game but FE and especially LH are excellent.

I do have to admit that Elemental basically killed the company for me for quite some time. I've only started to feel tentative optimism about their products again fairly recently. A completely botched release like that can destroy any kind of faith in a dev team, and that'll ruin smaller outfits without the reserves to take the hit in a real hurry. Stardock turned out to have these reserves, and it looks like it's worked out alright, but it was a close thing, and I can understand the people who are still wary because of it. Especially in the wake of things like Legends of Pegasus and the recent mess with StarDrive.

Eh I liked StarDrive. It was rough but I think I think as a proof of concept it worked. I think it only had 1 programmer though. Last I checked he is still releasing updates for it. I played the hell out of it when it came out. Not because it had the deepest mechanics. I thought it was fun. Just had WAY too much hype and expectations. Generally if I see a game is going to be earth shattering, some sites said this game would change 4x forever, then I lower my expectations to be safe. 

hehe isn't he an x-lawyer. Isn't "being an asshole" required? I donno I prob won't buy SD2 but I still don't feel I wasted money buying it. Pricing isnt black and white. Just because it is a sequel does not mean it's a $60 game. An expac is also not required to be 39.99. It's just pricing models that have worked in the past. If it doesnt sell at whatever price they will decide he wont make money. I'm pretty sure he knows that. 

To be fair, the Demigod fiasco was largely caused by piracy and GameStop's early release before Stardock had their servers up.  It became easy to get online before long, but the reviews were already out.  I enjoyed the game for a while and didn't have many issues finding a game the few times I wanted to.

I have no exposure to or interest in Fallen Enchantress, so you might have that one pegged ok.  I assume Fallen Enchantress is part of the Elemental thing.

The GalCiv series is a core product of Stardock.  They have much more control over the launch than they did with Demigod and Stardock is a very competent team.  I think we have reason to be optimistic about the launch.

As pointed out, DG was not a SD produced product, i have no qualms whatsoever about laying down my hard earned and getting a playable game on release.
OP, you could always get in early and help craft the game by alpha/beta testing and help ensure the game is released bug free.

The problem with testing a game like GalCiv though is that some bugs are not obvious.  I mean, we can look for things that can cause trouble for the AI in the tech tree, but it can take hours and hours of testing to see if they react properly, and even then there isn't always a clear-cut case where one tech was researched when another one should have been done first.

Granted, we're all maybe a bit more vigilant for these things now, but I worry that too many people will say 'that's good enough' and move on without criticising the AI enough.

I used to be a die hard fan of SD since the original GalCiv, but after Elemental/Fallen Enchantress which I really didn't enjoy (sue me), I think I have to agree with the OP and will need a bit more convincing.

I'll just wait for more hard data, especially on ship customization and battles, as this was a really low point of GC2, IMO, which mainly offered superficial visual customization.

That's fair enough though.  Some people will have their reasons for not pre-ordering.  Mine happens to be a lack of money to spend on games.

I feel the same as a lot of others here. Fan since GalCiv1, but unhappy how the Demigod thing went (and yes, I'm aware they weren't the developer). Sins of a Solar Empire went pretty well. Elemental didn't interest me (never liked the art style), so it was the first game with Stardock's name on the title I didn't buy, and I have to say, I'm happy I made that decision. Somewhere in there they also sold Impulse off, and embraced Steam, which was just peculiar, although I suspect the simple reason it was done was because Impulse just wasn't making them any money.

So a few years back I would've jumped on this preorder, but now I think I have to use all my might to not do it. The $100 deal is a no brainer...I can't spend that much up front without knowing more about what expansions they plan to release. The $40 one? Eh, for $10 savings I can afford to wait to hear what the buzz is based on alpha and beta feedback. With the sales places like Green Man Gaming offer on preorders these days, I'm likely to get close to at least $10 off right before release.

As for playing the alphas and betas...well, I always think I'm going to play the heck out of that stuff, but I usually don't. It's nice for those that do, but for the most part, I don't like working for free. Oh wait...in this case, PAYING to work.

Yes, it will be quite a while before I get to play GalCiv3, but there are so many games to choose from these days, so I can afford to be patient.

-HM

It sounds like Brad's problem is he didn't know how to handle the company once he decided to grow more and branch out into other areas. It's too bad of course...I liked how Impulse worked and that I didn't have to have it running once the game was installed. Steam needs competitors, and right now it has almost none.

Brad will have to do more than write an essay to convince me that this "new" Stardock is better than what I've seen over the last few years.

-HM