Great GalCiv2 Experience

from GalCiv2 Forums
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

6,604 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Thank you very much. Its alway nice to here from the people thing went smothly from. I guess it one of the problems of being in the game industry . If people like the game thay tend to be to busy playing it to comment on the forums. So all what we tend to see most is the people who run into problems. Oh well once we fix every problem it will be ok.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I'll be short with my comments I had a great experience too ...one that began with 'lets see how it works...' then the next thing I know : 'it's one a.m. already???? just a few more turns....'
Awesome game, great job!!

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Personally i heard some good things about this game back in January, but was still undecided as to whether to preorder (even with the goodies) so I got a pre-owned of the original from the local EB.

After a slight snafu involving my CD key being registered to another SD central account (which was quickly resolved by your support department), I quickly got into GC1 -- which led to a quick online purchace of the expansion pack and a preorder of GC2, based not only on the original game, but also on the excellent service I recieved from Stardock Support.

My preloading went well -- got it done the week before the release, and the release version downloaded fine as well.

The game itself runs smoothly and well, no crashes or stuttering (even with my Intel Celery processor and old drivers for my Video Card), and is as addictive as the first game was -- almost called in sick to work today (but i'm still here, and 1 1/2 hours from finishing my 3rd metaverse game).

The game itself, like i said, is a blast. I like the fact that i can coose to either add lots of non-affecting hardware to my ship, and the tactical battles are a nice addition as well.

In short, great work stardock, keep it up
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have only one thing to say... No freaking DRM!!! Maybe there is hope.

Stardock has the greatest distribuntion method ever. No DRM, no download limits, nothing to make me feel like a criminal for buying the game.... Proof that distributers can be reasonable if they choose to.

Only thing I'm not too crazy about is how dependent they are on microsoft technology. I run linux 90% of the time and refuse to upgrade to vista. I hope that won't be an issue in the future.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, I have never posted comments on a game before (though a manical lurker!), but this game is quite simply
superbly put together and as my first experience of direct download it was a breeze.
I love Civ 4 so was tempted to try this , but in many ways, despite the difference in size of the developers budget (I would imagine!) I find it at least as immersive.
I also love the irreverent humour.You really do not get that in Civ 4!

Have just finished my first game with too many memorable moments to mention , though the time my best ever friends the Alterians had their leader assasinated in a coup and they switched sides as i was taking on the Drengin aqnd was somewhat stretched was excellent.

Looking forward to this games secrets being revealed over a long time to come.
BIG RESPECT GUYS !