Greetings to all. This is my first post on this forum, and I would like to apologize in advance if my newness shows. I have attempted to follow discussions on this site since I first learned of the upcoming sequel to the game that, IMHO, pulled the space 4x genre's tuckus out of the incinerator (kudos to Draginol et al for your outstanding and clearly loved work in the past -- devs like you (pl.) keep my hopes ever new.) Regrettably I'm not involved in the upcoming beta, but believe me if I wasn't trying to finish my MA thesis, I'd be on it like white on rice.

That said, I would like to pose a question to the GalCiv 2 team (and please forgive me if this is "old hat," but I've so far been unable to find a related topic on these forums. Bump me if necessary,) concerning the development of playable alien races. I've always enjoyed being able to don the mantle on inhumanity in games such as this, and I was overjoyed to learn that GC2 will allow this option. But in doing so, I can't help but wonder -- what steps are being made to make these non-human races -feel- different from playing as the good ol' Terran Alliance?

Granted, from what I've seen so far it looks to me as though the nine established races in the game have their own racial traits, appearance, and ship designs (once again, most impressive,) and these factors will no doubt add a flavor to gameplay. But what about other factors? Will all races ultimately use the same criteria for determining planet desirability? In the first game, a standardized planet class system was fine, as you were restricted to one race which of course sought planets with Earth-like environments. But aliens, OAIMHO, should be alien -- therefore, maybe they require vastly hotter or colder environs, or a different chemical composition in the air. Thus a planet which has a high class for a Human civilization (or Altarian, be fair) might prove uninhabitable to a chlorine-breathing race.

One user previously posed the question on another thread asking for anything that MOO3 (ugh) did right, and I thought that this was one of a very few areas in which the game excelled. By having different "target environments" for the various races, you had entire civilizations competing for the same space but different resources. It added a distinctly alien feel to it.

This is just one example of my concern list. Ultimately, I feel certain that I will like the finished product, and that the way the game is progressing suggests that each player's style will depend upon tech-tree choices and overall gameplay. Yet I do hope that the races themselves each have their own distinct personality and flavor, and aren't simply there for eye candy (Draginol, in one of your recent posts you mentioned a concern over the built-in reaction the Torians should have to the Drengin -- I believe I'm thinking along the same lines.)

Thank you for your patience with this long post. I would appreciate any info or feedback from either the development team or the beta testers (lucky bastards! Argh, thesis!)

Best,
KIY