The GalCiv 2 website is now open to the public

[Asmodean]

Guys, check out www.galciv2.com

It's got a host of information available about the upcoming Galactic Civilizations 2, as well as a forum.

Asmodean

[Brent]

Players sharing the same star system: good
Play as any race: good
Create unique race: very good
Lower System Requirements: very good
Nonlinear Campaign: very good
Better AI: not good for me.
More types of Starbases: no opinion
"cleaner" tech tree: no opinion.
Sandbox mode remains: very good.

I don't really like it being a completely different game. I'd rather they just make many big improvements to the existing one, in the ways that the Civ series does. I would think more existing fans would stick with it that way. I want to still begin at the beginning of the same story as the original, at the beginning of human spacefaring. I want the game to be very openended. I generally don't like campaign games, but at least this one is nonlinear and more importantly there's still a sandbox mode.

[LDiCesare]

I don't like hte campaign either, but the cleaner tech tree is very important imho. It's also supposed to be cleaner and easier to mod.
The nonlinear campaign I'm not sure about since they say you can continue if you lost a scenario, which is not exactly what I'd call nonlinear. It's a "if you lost, instead of retrying, you can skip and see another scenario". Thus if you want to play all possible scenarios, you have to lose some games on purpose, which is not really bright.

[Brent]

Easier to mod: good.

Your comments support a preference for Civstyle openendedness, then, which is good.

[Hywel Dda]

Almost all of the improvements mentioned could be both good or bad, depending upon how they are realised. For me the best thing on the site is the news that they are not going to release it officially until 2006, after some good 9 months of feedback on the Beta.

[LDiCesare]

Yes, the beta is supposed to start end of next month or march if I'm right. I just hope they won't have used some weird DiretX9 thingies that don't work on my computer.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Brent
Easier to mod: good.

Your comments support a preference for Civstyle openendedness, then, which is good.

The ability to mod the game easily should produce a heightened interest. I can see that leading in many good directions.

[Trifna]

Modding really seem to be of interest only to hardcore fans... most people don't even know what a mod is!

I'll have to try some day...

[Asmodean]

Modding can be a good thing if either:

A) The game is flawed to begin with

or

B) You have played the hell out of the game in it's original form.

I generally like to play the game as intended by the authors. Occasionally, I have used mods, but never to a large extent.

Asmodean

[Darkstar]

The first beta is starting up soon.

Most of the changes loud suggestions from the player community, or were things Brad and company wanted to do in GC1, but decided to put off because they only expected to sell 30K of units (instead of the ~150K of units that GC1 sold).

Beta will be several stages. Star Dock beta's really start in what most companies would call "pre-Alpha". The "beta" most people are familiar with is Beta phase 4, and it will be some time from now. It's all detailed in the GalCiv2 forums, for those interested.

As companies go, you'd be hard pressed to find a better, more supportive company of their customers then Star Dock in the gaming sector. If you like TBS Galactic Conquest, it's worth checking out.

Ok ok... raving fan boy spell is expiring.

[Desert Dog]

Amen! I agree with that comment on the company. The beta is excellent thus far, I suspect that it will surpass GC 1 with ease. Modding aspect yes it will be far easier due to the entire graphics interface done with DesktopX. Be sure you own this program from SD if you intend to Mod GC 2 at all.

NeoTech Games has begun full support for Galciv 2, though we are not posting much of any news due to no real news to report. Beta is on its 3rd round of updates it is 95% stable at this point.