You're only partially correct. A new empire is indeed forming. But it's not that one. Behold the world's new overlord:

i've been trolled by too much Doug Winger art, I flinched when I first saw that.

After that scare, I'm kinda okay with My Little Pony Viking or whatever the hell that is.

That's the image of Pinkie Pie that was used by one of the people who hacked Chrome during Google's last contest. It's called "Hacking Pinkie Pie", because she's going to go hack stuff up with that axe.

So it uses the axe to hack off the pinkie finger of little children and make a meat 'pinkie' pie? That's cruel.

It is also fruitless and futile as a corrective attempt to stop children from picking their noses, since they use the index finger for that anyways.

Tridus - That pic is epic.

Yarlen-Any patch news, or is this it until release?

I was just testing game with one of devs looking for desync.... Some inside information

There will be patch on day 0 as in release day patch. Otherwise no more patches.

What if a huge error is exposed gurantee that they would patch that....blanket statements do not work

I think he means no more beta patches - just a day 0 patch. But once the game is released, I'm sure it will still be supported with more patches.

Stardock main attribute and appeal is that they support their games much longer than any other developer on earth. 

I hope so..  I mean, previously, they were doing it in part because they had intent to expand the game.  Now..  Well..     They said they're done with it for a while at least with the title..  Are they really going to keep patching a game after they've released the final version of the game?  I mean, I certainly hope they do, but it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't..

You cant just look at Sins for what Greg means, look at all their games. 

Elemental: War of Magic is prime example. Even though the game had a horrible bad start, they kept patching and working on it for a very long time.

Galactic Civ 2, another great example of patches well after most Devs would of stopped. Heck Frogboy himself did one of the last patches himself in his spare time on the weekends, just b/c he wanted too.

No game is ever 100% complete...the most recent version of GC II: ToA still has bugs, balance/variety issues, or things that just don't make sense...Diplomacy v1.34 (released 2 years after Diplomacy) still has balance issues, but is very stable and is only plagued by the occasional string error...

I think it is fair to say that bugs and compatibility issues will be stamped out by updates...however, I wouldn't count on balance ever being perfect...I think balance will generally improve with updates, but it ain't going to be perfect....

Does SD support it's games?  Yes...but that support does not bring perfection even if it lasts years and years...we are looking at a game that has been around for over 4 years...it's great that SD still supports the game after all this time, yet you'd think it'd be near perfect by now...

Perfection is solely based on opinion when it comes to these things.

I think its close to perfect to me. But that me. What I dont like, I have to option to mod. As have many many others, most represented by those who never post or even look at these forums.

In the end though the Devs cant please everyone...law of human nature there. So they make the game how they like it.

EDIT:(After rereading this again, this next part makes no sense since I just repeated more or less what you just said and basically contridict what Im saying anyhow, just thought save you the wtf moment) Bugs aside, there have been games out for almost a decade that receive regular patches that still have bugs, things are broken, etc etc. So I dont understand what this near demand/entitlement of perfection is coming from? Its so think here on the forums its ridiculous.

I don't expect 100% perfect...but what about 99%?  Or 98%?  You'd think you could get really close, right?

To give an example of what I'm saying...the deliverance engine has been underpowered for a long time...I wouldn't say since Original v1.0, but definitely for a long time...

It's an issue that has been brought up several times on the forums...it's become an inside joke...

Novaliths have been buffed...Kosturas have been buffed, then subsequently nerfed...yet the DE is, well, pretty much the same....

Now, I think it's highly likely all superweapons will be very different with Rebellion v1.0, seeing as they were limited and the devs have hinted they'll be buffed accordingly...but the point is, we've had this game a very long time, the DE has been criticized for a very long time, and yet it still sucks...

I understand that we may not all agree on how to improve it, but no improvement has been made recently...that's not 99% perfect, that's like 85% or 90% perfect...still "good enough" for most, but I'd hope for better than that...

I don't play SD's other games, so I wasn't aware of them patching for so long.  That is encouraging though.

I dont think the DE is underpowered, In fact I would take it over the Novalith any day.(But as Ive been told, No one cares about my personal preferences though)

Eliminating the enemies culture at a grav well, so they dont get their culture buff. You get your buff oh and your ships do more damage.

Its just not that big exciting bang. And that why no one likes it. Or maybe the high research requirements.

the only patch coming is 1.0 lol

Yes the next patch is 1.0. A day 0 patch. There will be more.

Or the fact that a couple of culture buildings in the gravity well completely negate it? The DE in Rebellion flat out can't possibly work with 3 broadcast centers present. Ever. It's possibly even negatable with 2 with enough upgrades.

If the DE actually did what you say it does all the time, then it wouldn't be that bad. But it doesn't. A lot of the time it does the fleet damage boost and absolutely nothing else. And yeah, that is pretty lame compared to the other two Superweapons.

Deliverance engine is awesome weapon.

Only problem is you need more of them to work and in MP it rarely comes to the point that anyone would use it. Fire 4 of them 1 at the time on border worlds and you take 4-5 planets out simultaneously. More toward heart of empire you get more shots you need to be effective.....

I use it regularly against AI, Against human well not so much. 

Yes it can be countered but for that you need to sacrifice a lot of logistic slots,

Novalith requires a SB with auxiliary government...kostura, well, there isn't much of a defence against it (maybe repair crusiers) and it can disable/destroy other superweapons from afar...

The problem with this attrition strategy is that it's just too slow, allegiance doesn't drop fast enough to compete with the other superweapons...novaliths instantly hurt the enemies' economy and are more expensive to counter...as for kosturas, even one can allow the Vasari fleet to be all over you, and disabling structures for several minutes is a lot more valuable when hitting a fortress world than a mere damage bonus...

DE's are the easiest to counter, act the slowest, and require the most in order to be effective...add on the fact that they have a lot of tech prereqs with questionable utility, and the DE just doesn't compare to what the other 2 superweapons can offer...

DE is and likely will always be USELSS in 90% of MP games and dev DONT CARE about MP. pretty much point blank

 because in the time it takes u to build them research them fire enough of them to make it worth a sorry ****.

VL will of eaten the entire galaxie and laugh their ***s off. and TEC would of already wiped u with Nov cans.

or u could just build 300 covettes with the same $$ it took to build 2/3 DEs. and wipe u because u cant build enough to counter if all ur $$ is invested in DE, 

Hmm....maybe make DE have % chance to cap planets/ships in the grav well it hits?

If your trying to use it attirtion style your using it wrong. Its a fleet booster. It synergies. Thats the Advent thing. You use it help break a tough defense.

Sure you can pepper the enemy words and try to flip planets or hurt culture, but its not what its designed to do.

They only downfall as Greg said is high prereq cost. Which throws it out most of your MP games.

Novalith is counterable. Yet there no complaining about having to build SB's and buy the upgrade.

It still gives your fleet the damage boost. 25% is huge in bigger fights. Add your own culture from a neighboring planet your trying to attack DE can reduce the culture at that planet for a short time. Its enough to break a planet and create a gap/foothold. 

Also it synergies with the tech that allows you too see where your culture is at, just another plus to it.

Out of all the superweapons the Novalith is the oddman out. I would trade in the planet damage and stuff any day for a fleet buff.