Q: The third beta for GalCivII is available for beta testing. Can I play it if I pre-order the game today?
A: Unless you pre-ordered the game before September 1, the answer is no. Those who pre-ordered the game September 1 or later will have to wait until the fourth beta is released to playtest the game, scheduled for release in late October.
Q: Can beta testers publish GalCivII screenshots without first receiving permission from the game's developer?
A: Yes. Beta testers -- those who pre-order the game -- do not have to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before gaining access to the game during its ongoing development period. As such, no prior permission is required for not only screenshots but written observations as well.
Q: Who is GalCivII's publisher?
A: Developer Stardock Systems (SS) is an independent developer and has no explicit outstanding agreements with any publisher to market and distribute their games worldwide. United Kingdom-based Paradox Interactive has contracted with SS to publish GalCivII in Europe. Montreal-based Strategy First, a wholly owned subsidiary of Silverstar Holdings Ltd., will be publishing the game in North America as it did with its predecessor.
Q: Is development progressing as anticipated?
A: At least as far as is publicly known, the answer is yes. With the exception of an unexpected delay in late spring as a result of developer Stardock Systems moving into a new building, there have been no reported setbacks with the company's development schedule for the game.
Q: Will there be any expansions to GalCivII after its release?
A: Normally there is no official word from a game's developer or publisher about this possibility until after the game is released. However, developer Stardock Systems has already confirmed that there will be at least one expansion (also known as an add-on) for GalCivII after its release. To main purpose of this add-on, says Stardock, is to add multiplayer capabilities to the game which will not be present in the initial release.
ACS: As "sequels" go, how much of a sequel is Galactic Civionzations II: Dread Lords? Is it really so different?
BW: Yes. We didn’t go and take the original game and just slap on a 3D engine or something. We took a long hard look at the original Galactic Civilizations and listened to what players and reviewers said. For instance, people wanted to be able to design their own ships; so we put that in. But we didn’t just put some basic ship design feature; you literally grab pieces and put together your own unique ships. Similarly, people wanted to feel more in touch with the planets, to feel like each planet was truly unique.
ACS: As popular as the first GalCiv for the PC was, it was turn-based. The strategy games that get most attention these days are real-time. Why stick with the turn-based format?
BW: Because it’s a viable market that is currently underserved. There are millions of gamers out there who want to sit down and really think out their overall strategy and not feel rushed.
ACS: The original Galactic Civilizations was a 2D sprite based game. What was the reason for "going 3D" in GalCivII?
BW: There are a number of usability reasons on top of the basic reason that it looks a lot nicer with a 3D engine. As much as we enjoy having the phrase "dated graphics" put into all our reviews, we thought this time around we would forgo that element of the article hopefully.
But the real reason was usability. With a 3D engine, you get to zoom in and out for free without visual degradation. You can change the camera angle as well which lets people play however they want, and it makes it much easier to play the game at any resolution. My laptop does 1440x1080. I want to be able to play the game at its native resolution without it looking scaled. With a 3D engine, [GalCivII] looks "native" at any resolution.
ACS: Software piracy is rampant in some parts of the world, and a rising threat in many others. Copy protection has become an industry-standard in a struggling frontline defence against piracy. GalCiv didn't have any such protection, and neither will GalCivII apparently. Are you not concerned about piracy of your work?
BW: Our primary concern is our customers –- the people who pay my salary. They’re my overlord and I don’t want to inconvenience them. Moreover, piracy is really about how many sales are actually lost. What we do is put out free updates after release. We got "Editor’s Choice Awards" from most of the major game magazines for the original Galactic Civilizations, and that was on the 1.0 version in the box. However, we put out tons of updates after release that greatly enhanced that experience.
So let’s say someone got a "warez" copy. If they like the game, they’re going to want the updates, and to do that, they have to have a valid serial number that is verified on the server side (i.e. no cracks). So at that point, we’re going to get that sale. Or we would have never gotten the sale.
I don’t like game companies treating me like a criminal. If I’m paying $50[US] for a game then I better well be able to put it on my laptop and PC and not have to futz around with keeping track of the CD. Besides, I end up losing my CDs anyway.
ACS: Your company's TotalGaming.net enterprise is also in the news constantly. What is it exactly and, more critically to our readership, how does it relate to GalCivII?
BW: Sure. TotalGaming.net [(TG)] refers to our overall gaming network. You can buy our games individually at the store directly, or you can just pay $69.95[US] and get 10 tokens that you can use to get specific games at a steep discount. So even years from now, TotalGaming members may have their tokens that they can use to get a new game instead of getting titles they may not want.
To steal an analogy I saw online, it’s like iTunes for games. Except you can re-download our games at any time. Let’s say you lose your GalCiv CD, no problem, you can download the whole game from us as long as you have a valid serial number. Plus once you’ve registered once with us, you can lose your serial number too because we can resend it to you forever after. So even five years from now, you can get a new PC, put in your serial number (or have it emailed to you automatically if you’ve lost that) and install the latest/greatest version of our games.
The biggest advantage of [TG] is that there’s no hassle. There’s no digital rights management (DRM) or anything like that. You install the game on as many of your own computers as you want. We do keep track to make sure it’s not being installed from say California and New York at the same time, but if you want to put our games on your PC and laptop, knock yourself out.
ACS: If a gamer picks up a copy of Galactic Civilizations II in a store or download it online, will it have multiplayer capabilities that they can use?
BW: Not in the retail release. However, we are writing it in such a way that we’ll be able to add multiplayer in later. Everyone knows I love multiplayer and most of our PC games have had multiplayer in them. The fact is, though, that most people don’t play multiplayer and I don’t want to divert resources into that. So what we’ll probably do is have an expansion pack that adds multiplayer. The people who want multiplayer can thus buy that feature and those that don’t aren’t forced to have to pay for it.
We do, however, have the "Metaverse which has been very popular with Galactic Civilizations I players.
ACS: Now that you've brought it up 
, explain what the "Metaverse" is.
BW: The "Metaverse" in [GalCivII] is a specific way of playing the game. No mods, no tweaks –- you’re playing specific scenarios downloaded from Stardock.net. Players then score points in these scenarios and the results are submitted to Stardock.net, thus allowing gamers to accumulate points in a persistent virtual galaxy. Players can also band together to form empires and actually see their empire on a map of the galaxy.
Their individual games are logged and [in Galactic Civilizations II] they’ll be able to... see how their game progressed and compare their results with thousands of other players. The "Metaverse" was a huge hit in Galactic Civilizations I, much bigger than we had anticipated. It also lets us look and see what weaknesses we have in the computer A[rtifical] I[ntelligence (AI)] and see what we can do to improve it.
ACS: In a single player game, many will agree that the AI needs to be tough. How are you planning to make this happen?
BW: Tough AI isn’t the key. AI that plays intelligently is the challenge. It will be easier to have intelligent AI in Galactic Civilizations II because there’s a lot more choices for players to make.
For example, battles in GalCivII are different than in GalCiv I. In [the former], we had the usual “ship has attack of 5, defense of 3” type thing. In [the latter], each ship will have three types of attacks and three types of defenses (on the attack side, they’ll have beam weapons, missile weapons, and mass drivers and on the defense side they’ll have shields, point defense and armor). Good players will be able to plan out their research strategy to make sure they have the right weapons and defenses to take on the right player. But humans will have a hard time out-computing the AI in this field. It’ll be able to do a lot more analysis to optimize its fleets.
The same is true on planets. We’ll have the advantage of having played the game for so many months before release that we’ll have a feel of how to structure one’s empire of planets. The right balance of research, economics, and industry across an empire and then put that into the AI.
Since the AI will have these native advantages, one change we’re making from the first GalCiv is that the AI did have one big unfair advantage (actually two): it could see all the good planets and had a much bigger sensor range than the Humans did. The new 3D engine lets us get a lot of fog of war stuff easier, so this time the AI will be on a much more even footing with the player.
ACS: We're going to put you a bit on the spot here. If you had to briefly bullet point exactly what’s special about GalCiv, what would you list?
BW: I would say:
- 3D engine
- Ship Design
- Planet Colony Design
- Resolution Independent
- Play as any race
- Zoom in/out on the map seamlessly
- Fleets
- Unique planets
There’s much more than this, of course, but those would be some of the highlights.
ACS: What is your goal with Stardock? The number of independent American game developers of significant size seems to be dwindling.
BW: Our goal this year is to build up to being able to have two game development teams. That way, with an 18 month cycle, we can still release a game per year on average. In 2003 we released [the first[ Galactic Civilizations, [and] in 2004 we released The Political Machine. In 2005 or early 2006 we’ll have Galactic Civilizations II. In 2007 Society and in 2008 a fantasy strategy game of some kind.
ACS: Speaking of other titles, what of Master of--
BW: Don’t say it! We don’t know yet. Still in negotiations. We have an agreement on the money. There’s just a lot of contract issues that have to be resolved still.
