"all of us"? 

The new build should, overall, feel a bit slower than previous builds as work was done to try out multi-core optimizations starting with quad core; unless you have quad core you will probably notice a significant slow down. As we go forward we will continue to refine performance.

The map is also 4 times larger than beta 2a so that should also have a noticeable impact as well.

Then where are your posts with hardware information? Debug.err? And other basic feedback mechanisms?

https://forums.elementalgame.com/364285

No one can help you if you don't give information. 

ALL STARDOCK BETA BUILDS SUCK.

Repeat after me: They suck.

If the beta reports were to come in and suggest people were having fun with the beta (i.e. playing the game for enjoyment rather than suggesting ways to make it not suck) I'd purposely disable whatever the source of fun was.

Here's a preview of the beta process of our next game: THEY WILL ALL SUCK.

Here's a view of how the Sins of a Solar Empire betas were: THEY SUCKED. 

It would be very easy to make a fun beta build. I'd put some really optimized fun map. Put in some really balanced and interesting techs and improvements and have a scripted AI designed for that map. It would take relatively little time. But that would result in the final game being terrible because the best ideas are always from the players who find something in the game problematic and suggest a better way.

Even today, someone came up with a wonderful system for handling enchantments: Enchantment slots. You cast an enchantment and a new tab shows up on your caster called "Enchantments" with what enchantments they have going. If you run out of slots, you select an enchantment and decast it. Research technologies, build wonders, etc. to get more slots.

I didn't think of that. And if people were having a blast with the beta, that idea may never have come up.

Hope this helps.

Frogboy, your'e starting to sound like a broken record Just blow away all the haters at release. 

edit: also, as for your optimizations, the game itself seems fine to me but the main menu screen lags like crazy. I have a dual-core 3.0ghz e8400.

Well i'm sorry everyone else is so...*sighs* i don't know all i was saying was that the performance had gotten better for me from unplayable to enjoyable.

That and i like the new magic and some such so i was simply praising them for all their hardwork to get us to this point not the game its self but the developers whom put so much work into it.

and i guess alittle thank you must be issued to us beta testers since we did help find bugs and report issues etc. to get us to this point and contributed our own ideas.

I hope we can all continue at this pace and maintain this wonderful quality.

This explains why my laptop's overheating, anyhow. I'll post my stats in a bit.