+1 Non-Steam version

Maybe a collector's edition? add a figurine of one of the races and a large poster of something. But not a tech tree! The one that came with GC2 was useless with ToTa

That's not what I said.  I said lots of games have steam and non-steam versions.  Typically the non-steam versions are released as a direct download by the developer (such as the games I can download from the Stardock site) or GoG and the Humble Store are becoming quite popular.  A lot of kickstarter games are done this way because most of them shoot for Steam Greenlight in addition to having the non-Steam version for backers.

But it doesn't require you to remove the features entirely, they can check if Steam is running and if not disable them until it is.  That's apparently what Dragon Commander does and if so I'm sure it's not the only one.  I don't have a ton of steam games to check but if one can do it everyone can unless somehow Larian Studios got some special deal from Valve. Just because some people are playing it off steam isn't going to mean you can't mine the data from those who are playing it with steam running.

Maybe it's not worth the effort to do the checks though, I honestly don't know how many of us that prefer non-Steam versions there are.  I know it's not just me though, looking at kickstarters there appears to be a lot of us but "a lot" on a niche thing like kickstarter doesn't necessarily mean a lot in the grand scheme of things.  The point here is to let the developers know that there are those of us that would prefer a non-Steam version.  For some that preference isn't a deal breaker and we'll accept steam if we have to and for others of us it IS a deal breaker and it's a lost sale.  I have no idea how the value of those lost sales compares to the price it would take to make a non-steam version.  For me personally if I can't run the exe and play the game (even if multiplayer, achievements, etc. are temp disabled) without steam running then it's a deal breaker.  For me it's NOT a dealbreaker to require steam to download, install, and update the game.  It's not a deal breaker for me to have to have steam running for multiplayer (though again LAN play without steam would be nice).  I couldn't care less about achievements.

I do think though if it requires steamworks so fully that you'd have to "cripple" the game without it then you should probably update the FAQ to be more clear as the FAQ seems to say the "user account" (which doesn't mention Steam or SteamWorks) is just needed to enable installs and receive updates and support.  I guess you can technically say that everything else falls into the "support" category but that's kind of a stretch.  It might also be a good idea to show on the buy page more clearly that what you are buying is a steam code.  Maybe a steam logo or something more visible than the tiny "All game code will be delivered through Steam when available." at the bottom of the page.  I'm sure it's not the case but it kind of gives the impression that you're trying to hide the Steam requirement.  Just some suggestions to try to clear up some of the confusion.

Sounds perfect for a GoG version once it has ended it's life cycle and needs a nice retirement. 

If Gamestop had done something with it instead of becoming some kind of Steam franchise... Or if EA had managed to do something with their Origin...

What I do wonder is how expensive in time and money is to develope a new Not-Impulse. You can use Steamworks features no matter the engine of your game or what kind of game you make. Impulse was supposed to be similar in taht regard. So while creating a new one would be expensive (or not cheap at least), in the long run you could use it for all your games and retain more control over your product.

I do admit that I'm quite ignorant about the inner details of what Steamworks really imply so keep that in mind when thinking about what I said previously. Stardock is no super duper small indie that only makes money from a game once in a long while so maybe I have the false impression that if really wanted (and circusmtances allow it), they could do it again... but this time just for their games and not to create also a digital shop. Or hell, where are the phylanthropists? We need an open source one  to rule them... er... as alternative.

I do think that Steam is a good service. Really good. Unfortunately, too good compared to what competition offers. But I only support those Steamworks games that I really think that are awesome for me. XCOM:EU and its hundreds of hours played are evidence to me. I expect the same from this game, offline mode or not. We will worry about the Windows emulator, the Steam emulator and the game in 20 years, huh?

Valve is good for PC gaming in the same way that dictatorships are initially good for countries that are in poor shape. It's a "Good Thing" for now, and probably for a while longer, but in the long run it's not beneficial to anyone (other than Valve). It's not good for customers whose choices are severely restricted, and it's not good for developers who can barely sell their games anywhere else, and it's not good for innovation. 

I don't blame you for adjusting to the market and protecting your employees and your company, in fact, I applaud you for it, but you used to have and voice the same concerns (one fish in the pond, the dependency on Gabe being in charge, etc.) as the people whose concerns you now play down ("entering a user name and a pw"). If anything, the situation is far more dire now than it was back when you pointed out the dangers of a quasi monopoly like Steam.

Because not everyone is so mindless to agree on Steam's terms of conditions and licence agreements. I cannot believe why so many people blindly accept the unacceptable agreements of Steam, Facebook and other data collectors.

So... I have Steam now. Bought Sins of a Solar Empire so I needed that. So I guess I don't mind now if GC3 is Steam-only but I still would like a physical version and would be willing to pay extra for it.

And how is the one you signed to post here or on register on stardock any different?

In order to Keep Distribution in any way managable for stardock, they will have to use established Distribution channels.

All galciv games up to now were available via stardock store (now GameStop) as well. I would suggest - in order to Keep steam in check - to go to the declared arch-enemy (according to steam ceo) and make the game available via Microsofts own store xbox-games. that would put a crimp in "pinki" Newells plans to take over the world ...

pretty much all the game-developers. that are not able or willing to put in the (serious) coin to sustain their own store, should opt to have at least two options open, otherwise steam will just become as powerful as dear old microsoft once was, and that NEVER is a good thing.

I can see alot of peeps buying Gal Civ 2 Ultimate Edition or Endless Universe on disc over the next few weeks/months?

That would be nice, yeah. Course int hat case Steam really is the only game in town as nobody else offers even remotely similar distribution and features across all three platforms.

I sure hope nobody complaining about Steam ever buys anything on their phone or tablet, because those app stores are far, FAR more restrictive than anything Steam is doing. Hell, the Mac app store won't even let people offer discount pricing on a new version to people who own the previous version.

Why? Because Apple says so.

Steam has been around a long time, and has given no indication that they're about to turn into a cartoon supervillan. All they've done is put out a better product than everybody else doing the same thing on PC, and that's why they won. As a bonus they put out libraries and services for developers that let them add features to their games with minimal effort, that have been tested and used by millions of gamers in hundreds of games.

These are the good guys, and I have a hard time with "well they might become bad guys one day, so Stardock should make life harder on themselves trying to make this game just in case."

Interacting with Steam "customer service"  was the most aggravating, hellish experience I ever had with any company.I will avoid them whenever possible.Borderline games....I just won't buy if it's through STEAM.

We all know that Apple is a dictatorship so why complain about it? 

The consumer is king.Companies go out of business if they don't satisfy you, and get your purchase. You just have to have the fortitude to say N O !

http://notalwaysright.com/

The customer is just a customer sometimes.

I started SoaSE and my computer exploded after I tried to take out the disc, but not before I got dozens of pop ups to the SD store and it's malicious mystery drivers.

As much as I'd like a non-Steam version of this, and many other games, it seems unlikely, oh well.

Mobile games cost 99 cents often, a handful of dollars at most. A new Steam game costs $40-50 frequently.

But yes, I felt too trapped by Apple and switched to Android after three years of using iPads. Took less than $150 to replace pretty much everything I had purchased in the Appstore. Walking away from Steam would cost me several thousand.

I don't have a tablet, and I don't know, if my mobile even supports apps. It's pretty old, and I only use it to call people. However, even that is pretty rare. I think, I only used it once in the last four or five months.

Please make a DRM FREE GOG version, I hate steam and I don't buy games there I made the bad decision of buying Shogun 2 and I regret it.

I'm also very disappointed that Stardock does not have Galactic Civilizations II Collection there, I bought GC there thought. 

GOG is so good so easy to download, buy, no 3rd party software only click download and play and you can play in any PC without internet, I have GC II Dread lords the box version but I wouldn't mind buying the collectors edition on GOG, I would actually buy it straight away.

I would only be interested in founding this game if I got the game DRM FREE in GOG.

Just curious, why specifically did you regret buying Shogun2 on Steam?  I use GOG as well, but it's more of a pain to use.  You have to manually keep track of updates and install them.  I couldn't imagine managing 120 games using GOG, when Steam handles everything automatically and brilliantly.

The only things I really recall about the actual Steamworks integration was that because of the way the data was structured in Shogun2, patches were about 2-3GB in size every single time. This lead to inevitable outcries of "My bandwidth!"

Note that however, the new SteamPipe data structure now sends users smaller delta packages, which are then extracted and applied locally. HOwever note that this trades off bandwidth for temporary disk space. As a VERY extreme example, Payday2 for major patches uses 20 GB of temporary storage to apply the patches. So we've gone from "My Bandwidth" to "My Harddrive" complaints really. Which you think is 'worse' depends on your perspective, but the current system I think is likley a better choice and less likely to be harmfully and financially impactful to users (since 'omg your stupid patch cost me money give me $50 steam you pos' were extremely common for awhile)

Other than that, I mean you had the usual de-sync issues, but that was more the game not steam. Or how much people 'loved Realm Divide'

I've been a Steam user since day 1...to play Counter-Strike 1.6. If you think it's bad now, you should've seen it then!

-HM