We could use your help

I personally can't recommend it, Brad. I'm sorry.

Still respect you and your company, but this just didn't do enough for me. 

Yeah, I like the addition of mercenaries and the two races etc, but it really is rather underwhelming as far as an expansion goes. It does improve the game, but it doesn't really seem like a big step in a positive direction. It's kind just, meh. The precursor world DLC seems to have had more of a dramatic change to the game then this expansion. With so many things that need to go into this game, and that players would like to see put into the game, the addition of mercenaries, while not bad, kind of leaves me scratching my head.

Feels to me like 3 DLC's for the cost of 4,

Torian faction 1 DLC

Arcean faction 1 DLC

Mercenaries DLC (there might be a little more here but, right now as it sits they are done by mid game.)

I'm split myself at this time I'm not putting in a review as I don't have anything horrible to say about it but, I don't have anything great either.  Hoping that some additional tweaking can be done to the Mercenaries as a whole, either with upgrading them or more of them for later in the game before I draw a conclusion.

Looking forward to my positive review as I would like to see this game succeed as time continues on.

Done, I gave a thumbs up and a good review...

Of course you did

I think this thread makes the case that free updates that add features has to come to an end. We don't get any credit for that. 

We'll do version 1.7 as promised (the constructor thing) and that'll be it for the free updates.

Then when we do GalCiv III: Crusade next year, we can incorporate a year worth of development into that and get a lot of kudos.

If we had done that with Mercenaries we could have easily charged $10 more and delivered:

GalCiv III: Mercenaries

• Share your ships and races on Steam and download the ships and races from other players!
• New, much better Diplomacy System
• Planetary Governors!
• 3D Print your ship designs!
• Mercenaries
• Torians and Arceans return
• AI military generals
• The Metaverse

I'm not suggesting you guys are wrong for not counting these updates.  I think it's natural.  And it's useful to see it plainly.

After 1.7 I'll be taking over the day to day GalCiv executive producer role. Other than bug fixes everything beyond that will be DLC or wait for the expansion.

With Master of Orion and Stellaris coming out, we're going to need to have a big splash next year anyway to remain competitive.  

First off I always give credit for you as a company for doing what is right, and if you look at my review for the game I put that in there for that.  (Hoping the larger bugs get fixed soon ).  

What about the invasion thing?  This was mentioned during the beta process and ran out of time to complete the way it was wanted.

I hope so I can't wait sounds super awesome.

Some of this was pre-Mercenaries and sharing races on steam was pre-release.  However, still love all the new stuff...

What is happening with Paul?

No competition to you, no interest in purchasing that...   Right now Stardock is the only company I purchase new games from and have no intention of looking elsewhere,  may pick up Cities Skylines in the near future but, that's been out for a while and even though Space Engineers is "early release" it's always going to be early release and purchased that on sale for less than $20.  Either way I think you and you're company are awesome and, I would hope that just like us as fans and users you don't take some negative or not positive comments personally and use them to help improve things in the future.

P.S.  If there is anything that we can do as fans aside from the mentioned post please let us know.

I have to speak up and say that founders who stood by you from the start don't deserve that kind of change in the support system.  However, you do what you need to do.

Review submitted.  Tell Paul and the crew thanks for the work.

Although you have the right to do this change you mentioned Frogboy, I hope you are not serious. The reason many of us buy Stardock products is the implied continued work and addition of features. It's why you shell up large amount of money up-front to support the game. Without even seeing it. If you remove this reason all you will do is tarnish your reputation. If you drop to other companies level you will lose your differentiator.

reviews are all well and good, but it is your marketing department which should be doing the promotion and not the players, they are busy enjoying the game! I for one am not very interested in buying those other games. I was planning to stick with galciv and updated content whether from free updates or dlc or expansions. If you are going to limit that and update o only slowly, it takes the sheen off the game and in,fact pushes people towards those other games (for,something new!).

perhaps expectations for the expansion should have been set from the beginning

people are not bashing it, they like it they just thought there would be more because they liked what they saw.

in any case there,are now lots of positive reviews so your post   worked,  no need to punish your greatest fans...

Well, IMO, it would be ideal if Steam forced people to actually play software for some time before leaving any review, good or bad.  I'll try it out and see how it feels.  The patch notes overall are ok (I'm more interested in changes to the current game - this xpac doesn't interest me at all).

Upon first look at what's in it, I would have to agree.  Seems pretty light for $20.  I'm a founder so I just get it but if I was someone who bought the game and was looking at $20 for this, I'd likely pass.

But that's partially due to the fact that this whole mercenary thing isn't in any way interesting to me.  I'm already hoping there's an option to disable the entire mercenary thing because honestly, I want to run my empire and fight AIs that run their empires, this mercenary thing doesn't fit GC to me and isn't something I ever wanted.  I don't play campaigns but I realize some do, so that's not something I'd ever buy DLC over (I get the same issue with Civ DLC since I'm a sandbox player).

There are so many things I would've rather seen added (including items from galciv 1 & 2 that were never in the base game of 3) - or reworked - or improved.  Maybe some of that doesn't fit the DLC, dunno, but at the same time I don't think adding random stuff to the game just to call it DLC is really necessary either, unless it's something people actually want like tactical ship battles or leaders.

/shrug

Re Crusade - Founders get that for free anyway (as part of their original Founders Elite purchase)

Reviewed, while I feel it's a small expansion, everything there is fun. Thanks for a great game.

Thanks.

Hey, are we related?  There aren't that many Wardells around (my last name is Wardell).

That doesn't count lol, j/k.

On a side note I have thought about my stance on no review right now and will be putting up a positive review shortly.  I still feel things maybe a little weak as well but, you guys deserve it.  Way to go!

Brad, First I want to say I love the galciv series and have probably played it more than any other series of games. That being said I think this game needs a lot of work, and I trust you guys will do it, but lets go over this list for a minute. 

• Share your ships and races on Steam and download the ships and races from other players! - wasn't this supposed to be part of the base game but didn't make it in on time?

• New, much better Diplomacy System - You fixed what was broken at launch and you want to call it a free feature? 

• Planetary Governors! - While i see this as a good thing, I don't use them, because they really aren't very good (yet), but I don't play on anything larger than immense anyways.

• 3D Print your ship designs! - This feature, while kind of cool, probably wouldn't have been worth charging for because the number of people actually using it is a tiny fraction of those playing the game. I'll give you props for adding it, but good luck selling it. 

• Mercenaries - The centerpiece of the expansion is nothing to get excited about

• Torians and Arceans return - The best part of the expansion, and would have been good DLC on their own.

• AI military generals um, I'll have to look up what these even are.

• The Metaverse - This something that was a staple of galciv2. Not  including a feature that was in the previous part of the series then charging extra for it  is something that EA does, don't go there.

So in your list of "free" updates you have things that seem to either be fixes for things that were broken at launch, things that I thought would be included at launch but didn't make it and were added later, things that almost no one would pay for, and things that only the  real money grubbers of the industry would charge for. The only really good features that I wanted or use are the ones your charging for as it is. I became a founder  because of how you operate Stardock, and that is continued support of games long after release and being different from the others in the gaming industry while listening to your customers. I admit there may be some confusion on my part as to what was intended to be base game and what was added later at the request of players or just your being nice. Also the fact that some of the things you guys do aren't used by some of us, so it's hard to be grateful for something we don't pay attention to.

I wouldn't have a problem with you guys charging for additions to the game as long as:

1.  They are actually substantial improvements to the game and not just dressed up fluff sold as real improvements

2.  They are not things that are required for the game to play it fully (selling me the steering wheel after you already sold me the car)

3. They are not things that, while maybe not vital to the game, should have been part of the game in the first place (I'm looking at you Total War: Warhammer and your ridiculous Chaos faction DLC)

4.  They are fluff items, that are sold as fluff items to those that will want them (ship part packs or leader pictures etc.)

So if you want to charge for real features that were not meant to have been in the game at launch, go ahead. As the Joker said "If your good at something, never do it for free"

That being said, I'm going to be blunt:The mercenaries feature is weak. It adds a few cool doodads that give you a cool special ability, but most aren't that strong or are quickly outdated. I'm also not convinced that it's working properly because with the exception of a minor race I have yet to see the AI hire any of them on two games that have gone nearly 200 turns each (restarted after patches). This is the center of the expansion (you named it mercenaries after all) and it's just a bland feature that does little to improve game play. The addition of the two races and their ships and abilities are awesome, but those are just sidepieces. If the features of mercenaries were great, I would have been happy to write a good review. I don't think it deserves a negative review by any means, but there just isn't anything there worthy of special praise. I generally don't write reviews, good or bad, but I would have been happy to write one when you asked, if I thought it deserved it. I don't think it does. So don't come in here and call your customers ungrateful because they don't want to write a glowing review about a lackluster expansion.

Edited because I need to proofread before I post something, instead of afterwards.

Brad I've been enjoying all of the DLC and free perks you've been developing. I gave mercs a good review and a thumbs up in Steam. I like it. Thanks for making a great game even better!

Brad, done my bit.

Really appreciate the patches/updates.

My review did contain a little plug for Espionage. Hint, hint

Thanks guys.

@Toonz, since you consider the updates since release to be essentially trivial or bug fixes at best, then you should have no issue if all updates post 1.7 are only bug fixes.  So it would appear there's a consensus on that.

We'll do the new constructor system because we promised it and after that only bug fixes will be provided as free updates. 

The DLC we plan to do for 2016 largely involves campaigns. We want to bring forward the 20-year long story arc into GalCiv III.   But that'll be another post.

In 2017 there'll be Crusade and so on (espionage and much more!)

While I would have liked to see a bit more in Mercenaries (the campaign in it to be specific), I'm fairly satisfied with it.  I think the potential for mercenaries, for one, is only just being scratched at.  With just the base ones there are a lot of interesting combos that can be made if one puts their mind to it.

Moistly, I just hope Paul isn't going anywhere, as I feel he's been a tremendous advocate for GC III above and beyond the duties he's had as Lead Designer. 

Brad,

Will there be AI enhancements post 1.7 or will this only be offered in DLC and expansions..? Outside of the starbase/constructor spam being the primary source of anti-fun (I so can't wait for this to be addressed, my wife will never see me again..! :)) there are definitely some weaknesses in the current AI and I'd hate for some ungrateful twerps to mean it will go long periods without updates.

To have integrity, a review needs to fairly reflect an individuals perception of the value of the specific content provided.  I would caution against giving reviews that are positive just to express support generally.  

Personally, how content is organised for release doesn't bother me, but I would hope there is a conversation about priorities and focus for the future.  I enjoy the game but feel there are significant issues, some of which have been highlighted for many moons e.g. invasions.  I have attempted to provide save games and guides to clearly identify issues which make the game trivial even on Godlike, included versions with numerous house rules such as no colonisation, no sensor boats and with negative custom races, and the response included a claim I'm modifying xml's despite the evidence to the contrary.  So I'll join the various other voices here expressing concern about a failure to listen or even acknowledge reasonable comments.

I wrecked the first day and might have brought the end of free updates.  Well, haven't I been busy.

The Elite of Founders, the Wrecker of Mercenaries, and, oh yes, the man who ended the free updates of Galactic Civilizations.

<pause>

Somehow, I thought you'd be taller.

Reading some posts here and on steam- community may be harsh at times.

I understand Brad and his side of the things. And Community as a whole also has some points to add.

I think this is the case where current DLCs> Expansion you know.  I mean those DLCs combined change the whole play experience by 180- they are just that good. Those Dlcs were 5$/euro each so thats 20 bucks.

Now if we compare DLCs(4) vs Expansion .... you know. In my mind Expansion gives you 360. But it adds just 2 major races + heroes. Its basically DLC worth around 5-10$.

Now.... the problem is here- free updates- though the cost for them is in these DlCs/ Revenue. Its still manhours, hardwork, design choices etc. Also That 1.7 wont be free either- It will be paid from future DLCs.

We understand this. But you must also agree- For expansion- can you tell us- that this expansion gives us 360 play experience? I think we all know- its not quite there. The logic is sound but....

In this case Game>DLC> Expansion where it really should be Game+ Expansion> DlC

You just made those DLCs better than the expansion- and we(Community) took that as a checkmark/benchmark so Expansion is felt underwhelmed. Simple logic.

I think the general feeling here as a community is even though Mercenaries is decent, and has it's great things about it, it seems like you're failing to listen to our expressed concerns we have brought up both through the beta process of Mercenaries and now after.  Instead we get don't trash my game and because of this no more of this...

I don't think anyone here really is telling you that your game sucks and they don't enjoy the game, okay maybe one or two.  Instead most of us are simply trying to provide decent feedback and it's not being heard.  Most of us generally love the idea of the Mercenaries, it's just anything we've mentioned whether it be upgrading them as the game goes on, or more of them for mid to late game has been ignored.  

Why wouldn't you want to at least listen to some of the ideas, that don't drastically change your view of them?  Again I'm not meaning anything negative here just expressing some concerns, it would be nice to have a conversation about it.

Thanks, for reading and the continued presence in the community.