Are they nuts??? The game is barely half-ready!

While i might argue it is more then 1/2 ready, it does still need a lot of work.  Can't see that release date unless they want a buggy one

Responses like this make me laugh. The game is actually ready. Some polish here and there. Its fairly feature complete. If you have a mediochre computer it will run like hell on any maps of large or larger so you will be limited by map size, however that is not the Game producers fault, they built the game knowing that  you need multi core processors, more than 6 gigs of ram and a more recent video card. 

There are bugs but what game does not? 

Furthermore I am of the opinion that it is WELL WORTH the price tag of $49.99. I have five personal friends who say the game indeed has the 'one more turn' addiction which is rare now days. 

It is already a AAA quality game and the AI and performance tweaks we get in the next month will only make the that much better. 

To say the game is 1/2 done would be misleading. 

Firstly lets ignore things like:

AC:Unity's fiasco from hell

GTAV launch issues with Rockstar social and non ASCII usernames

The fact that Diablo3/Starcraft2 infrastructure were almost universally unplayable upon launch and collapsed under the sheer weight of everyone trying to log into battle.net at the same time.

Note that "I was able to play the game" does not mean "100% playable and enjoyable".

This is also the utopia fallacy. The game is not 100% ready (despite the fact that no game is 100% ready) thus its not fit for release.

These are not 'bugs' and would not begin to fall under your mystical '95% before release' metric.

A 'billion' you say? Really? Really? A billion?

No one is 'defending bugs'. Straw man

But if you're going to make hyperbolic exaggerated claims about the state of the game, then yes you're going to get slammed for it.

3 weeks seems really early to me.  There are a lot of things that haven't even been released for testing in the tech tree, they're planning on implementing collapsing specializations this late, lots of events don't work correctly, the AI isn't ready yet, the Yor are broken, Assembly doesn't get the growth bonuses its supposed to, I haven't checked this part but last I checked synthetic still relied heavyly on the Yor tree.  Plus all the bug tracking, polish and balance passes that need to be done.  3 weeks doesn't seem to be enough time to do all that.

Ok Ill bite

Yes its my opinion. I have literally played dozens of games up to 5.3. Zero crashes. Zero functionality issues. Zero UI issues. I have long pauses between turns late game (post 150 turns). I play only on Excessive or Larger with 15+ factions and all minors. Game feels fun and again, I do not see the issues you are experiencing, nor are any of my friends who are also playing. 

In my opinion, This game is ready for release ~ if we compare it to other fabulous releases like 'Sword of the Stars 2' or Distant Worlds or Endless Space. All of those games upon launch were HORRIBLE and SotS2 was UNPLAYABLE! However they got very good after. In fact DW which is one of my favorite games was not really great until its first expansion.  

The game has nearly all of its features. Every patch we get the AI get REALLY better!

At least here they can get the game out the door and if needed (like EVERY game ever launched) can patch up stuff as it is revealed. 

Granted I am in the 'game runs fine' camp. I am ok if they push back release, I get it all anyway. However for what seems like the 100's of detractors it is as if they complain for the sake of tearing down the game. 

Several bugs. Features still need thought out. AI needs work. Yor are broken. Many features 'coming soon'. Not ready i think.

I fear for the terrible reviews this game is going to get if it is released in 3 weeks time.  There is just no way this game is release ready in 3 weeks.  I mean, really.  Bad reviews will kill this game's future which is not what I want to see.  It is in a fine state for a beta and will be a great game, but not in 3 weeks.

Just what i was thinking.  I am a total SD/GalCiv fan and would hate to see bad reviews due to an early (not ready) release. No need to list the issues, just look at the forum!   Unless SD has a secret army of beta testers out there (obviously besides us) and has been holding back on releases with polish, fixes, balance changes ... This is just NOT ready IMO

I'll keep playing regardless but it bears repeating ... I fear for the terrible reviews this game is going to get if it is released in 3 weeks time.

Now that's the spirit!)) There is no limit to perfection indeed. Though a good start would help a lot. I trust in you and your team to do the right thing. Having fingers crossed for ya! 

Larsenex, really we were meant to be here to find bad stuff in the game. That what beta-testers do. No offence it's kinda strange you see no issues in the game while they are laying in plain sight.  

Still If you think it's all's'well then just make me a screenshot how would you paint a ship in blue color with the golden trim))

Personally, I'm not worried and won't be getting my panties all in a twist. I trust Brad and company based on my experience with them over many years. They have known what they were doing in the past and I see no reason that this will change any time soon. If it's not ready to their satisfaction, then the date will be pushed back, reading Brad's comment above makes me feel that this won't be necessary. Until proven otherwise, they've got my trust and vote that the release will be a decent one. I've been enjoying the heck out of this game so far, and yes, what we have in our hands still needs a lot of work to go gold but we haven't seen what they currently have. Until then, I'm keeping my big mouth shut on giving them grief over something I know nothing about, i.e., the current state of the game. Makes no sense to get all worked up on what we have and assume what they have is close to the same level. So wait until we have more info (beta 6, which is feature complete for the release candidate) and then you can start to complain about what you see. All IMHO of course.

During development of GC1, after the last beta there was a gamma test, where all the features were in and no more were introduced, the entire focus of the gamma testers and developers during that period was on finding and fixing bugs, not adding anything new.  I am hopeful that GC3 Beta 6 will serve the same function, as the current list of bugs maintained by Seilore is rather large, and the number of enhancements in Beta 6 (which includes all the governmental techs and presumably all those other techs currently marked as "Disabled for Beta") is rather large and needs a lot of testing.

I've already paid so if it comes out still in beta or gold on May 14th won't concern me. I've got all I need and more.