If they fix the game breaking bug of the combat viewer not working and freezing the game after a few runs, the game would be almost ready for launch. Right now if they release it with that bug its going to be a massive fail. They will get terrible reviews as a lot of people will encounter this game breaking bug, also some of the ideologies don't work as intended yet. I haven't played the Yor so I can't comment on that feature, the AI still seems to be able to cheat and see where all the planets and resources are when they can't possibly know it. 

I'd be interested to play Beta 6 and see if I agree it would be a 4 Star game if that where the release candidate, going on the 5.3 release I would clearly say the game won't be ready in 3 weeks, but given we don't know how far Beta 6 has come yet I guess we will have to wait and see from a personal point of view I know you guys will continue to work on the game after release and I will go on playing the Betas until you do.

I just don't want reviewers to pull the game apart for being buggy and unfinished, after elemental I'm sure Reviewers will be looking at it particularly critically.

Rome 2: Total War got released *at least* 6 months before it should have been and got totally destroyed by critics and fans alike. Actually, it really took them about a year to get it into a decent state.

But I am confident the Beta 6 will be a long way advanced of Rome's status at release time

I never played Rome2, but I have played games that where not only in a worse state than Beta 5.3, but where also less fun even years after release, (Moo3) comes to mind that's still thoroughly broken and no fun. In fact it's disappointment with that that bought me to GC2.

GC3 is already at it's core a great game, unlike Moo3 which sounded good on paper. But Beta 5.3 certainly looks and plays like a Beta not a release candidate, I guess we find out next week if Beta 6 is a Release Candidate or nearly so in our opinions.

For what it's worth I truly hope they are ready to release May 14th and wish them luck, just had to express my doubts.

This was sort of listed in the fixes for B6. It went something like this. Fixed the game stalling error when a survey ship entered a pirate anomaly on auto-survey. That sounds like it is fixed, but I have had the game stall when a colonizing event happened in the same turn that I had manually directed a survey ship to a pirate anomaly. That may be a inconsequential detail and it is probably fine. We'll see soon. 

The current bugs do not other me. The game is great except for one huge problem which makes it dull and not worth 49.99 and a minor annoying one.

The minor:

There needs to be a way to permanently, for a particular play through, delete base ship designs as as well as designs you can choose to build in your ship yard.

The major:

The AI is awful. An AI using fleets is very rare regardless of race or AI characteristics. The AI rarely attacks when at war. Its a rarity you will fail invading a planet with a single transport containg 2 population. The AI is very poor at placement on their planets. The diplomatic penalty of moving ships into opponents borders is universally ignored by the AI when making ship movements; open border treaties are pointless. Players are able to sit back and with a few culture buildings and if needed a few cultural starbases. The player's culture will easily flip one planet after another. The AI does nothing to combat this. Cultural victory is incredibly easy. If at war you can ignore building ships early in the game because the AI sends nothing against you. The trades offered by the AI are a joke. There are many other AI deficiencies. This game is too easy. I've played from normal to the hardest setting. The above applies throughout.

This game is not ready for release. Sadly it reminds me of the state of the AI of Fallen Enchantress at release.

@econundrum1:

If I like CG3, would I like MOO2? (Taking the latter's presumably vastly dated graphics and UI into account). Thanks for your advice

Quoting Ed1975, reply 32

@econundrum1:

 

If I like CG3, would I like MOO2? (Taking the latter's presumably vastly dated graphics and UI into account). Thanks for your advice

Moo2 is different, but the same too. I realize i'm no econudrum1, but wanted to say moo2 is one of the best games ever made regardless of genre.

I'd say GC2 and GC3 are better at least once some of GC3's bugs are fixed, but you'd enjoy MOO2 I'm sure it's a classic for a reason.

Don't touch MOO3 though, although it sounded ok on paper during the development it was unplayable, buggy and really more like playing a spreadsheet than a game. It had a different developer than Moo2 and they went out of business sohortly after Moo3's release.

Quoting econundrum1, reply 34

Quoting Ed1975,

reply 32

If I like CG3, would I like MOO2? (Taking the latter's presumably vastly dated graphics and UI into account). Thanks for your advice

I'd say GC2 and GC3 are better at least once some of GC3's bugs are fixed, but you'd enjoy MOO2 I'm sure it's a classic for a reason.

Don't touch MOO3 though, although it sounded ok on paper during the development it was unplayable, buggy and really more like playing a spreadsheet than a game. It had a different developer than Moo2 and they went out of business sohortly after Moo3's release.

Indeed. I bought MoO3 and it was a huge surprise how bad it was. I shelved it after an hour and had no desire to play it again. I've read even player created patches/reworking of the game could not make it enjoyable.

Birthday, 

Brad has spent countless hours getting the AI up to speed. I am hopeful that the AI will put up a good fight when it comes to the 15th. I have a current war with the Yor and they are fielding 4 and 5 (mixed ship) fleets of medium and large ships. I have not seen it build or use support ships to make their fleets more effective. Currently you can beat most fleets using the support ships in a fleet. They are well worth the sacrifice of the logistic points.

Yes I belive the player made Mod patch managed to fix some of the bugs especially  the ones that meant you couldn't  Finnish the game even if you sat through the tedium. Their was little they could do to fix it's  fundemental design  flaws.

The combat AI seems to be enhanced now though, they do attack, but there does seem to be a problem with 2 units of soldiers capable of conquering a planet with 8 units of planetary defense. 

This.

This is fixed in Beta 6.

With GC1 and 2 I saw concern expressed on their forums that the game wasn't yet release quality, but Stardock managed to get them out with good quality releases. While there is much missing in the UI in Beta 5, I will be very critical if Beta 6 is lacking UI features that GC2 had, especially the sorting of lists, such as the planet/ship/stardock/resources list, the colony list, the ship update lists, etc.

Is it Tuesday yet?

It is...   in Japan

Konichiwa!  Where my Beta 6?

Oh so patch is coming out today? Hope it fixes that damn combat viewer bug, I can't get past the second combat never fails to lock up

That is what was stated before, but so far, Brad/Frogboy has only been saying "this week", even in his post today so I'm now not holding my breath...

Quoting Avatar137, reply 46

but so far, Brad/Frogboy has only been saying "this week", even in his post today, so I'm now not holding my breath...

Yes, I noticed this too...

He's also said "(probably) Tuesday". I think they don't want to make any assurances and then have unforseen problems forcing them to delay such a big update. Or they've already run into problems and had to delay it and are unsure if they'll get it out today, or it's in QA and they just hope it passes through today, but it might not. All sorts of reasons are possible.

Or they want to just keep stringing us a long as they get a kick out of it in the office reading all these speculation posts  I have to work today anyways so it can come out late today or tomorrow

i work today as well but its an evening shift and im off tomorrow i wouldent mind downloading it today but i hope it comes out before i get up tomorrow morning