I'd be interested to play Beta 6 and see if I agree it would be a 4 Star game if that where the release candidate, going on the 5.3 release I would clearly say the game won't be ready in 3 weeks, but given we don't know how far Beta 6 has come yet I guess we will have to wait and see from a personal point of view I know you guys will continue to work on the game after release and I will go on playing the Betas until you do.

I just don't want reviewers to pull the game apart for being buggy and unfinished, after elemental I'm sure Reviewers will be looking at it particularly critically.

I never played Rome2, but I have played games that where not only in a worse state than Beta 5.3, but where also less fun even years after release, (Moo3) comes to mind that's still thoroughly broken and no fun. In fact it's disappointment with that that bought me to GC2.

GC3 is already at it's core a great game, unlike Moo3 which sounded good on paper. But Beta 5.3 certainly looks and plays like a Beta not a release candidate, I guess we find out next week if Beta 6 is a Release Candidate or nearly so in our opinions.

For what it's worth I truly hope they are ready to release May 14th and wish them luck, just had to express my doubts.

The current bugs do not other me. The game is great except for one huge problem which makes it dull and not worth 49.99 and a minor annoying one.

The minor:

There needs to be a way to permanently, for a particular play through, delete base ship designs as as well as designs you can choose to build in your ship yard.

The major:

The AI is awful. An AI using fleets is very rare regardless of race or AI characteristics. The AI rarely attacks when at war. Its a rarity you will fail invading a planet with a single transport containg 2 population. The AI is very poor at placement on their planets. The diplomatic penalty of moving ships into opponents borders is universally ignored by the AI when making ship movements; open border treaties are pointless. Players are able to sit back and with a few culture buildings and if needed a few cultural starbases. The player's culture will easily flip one planet after another. The AI does nothing to combat this. Cultural victory is incredibly easy. If at war you can ignore building ships early in the game because the AI sends nothing against you. The trades offered by the AI are a joke. There are many other AI deficiencies. This game is too easy. I've played from normal to the hardest setting. The above applies throughout.

This game is not ready for release. Sadly it reminds me of the state of the AI of Fallen Enchantress at release.

Quoting Ed1975,

reply 32

@econundrum1:

 

If I like CG3, would I like MOO2? (Taking the latter's presumably vastly dated graphics and UI into account). Thanks for your advice

Moo2 is different, but the same too. I realize i'm no econudrum1, but wanted to say moo2 is one of the best games ever made regardless of genre.

Quoting econundrum1,

reply 34

Quoting Ed1975,

reply 32

If I like CG3, would I like MOO2? (Taking the latter's presumably vastly dated graphics and UI into account). Thanks for your advice

I'd say GC2 and GC3 are better at least once some of GC3's bugs are fixed, but you'd enjoy MOO2 I'm sure it's a classic for a reason.

Don't touch MOO3 though, although it sounded ok on paper during the development it was unplayable, buggy and really more like playing a spreadsheet than a game. It had a different developer than Moo2 and they went out of business sohortly after Moo3's release.

Indeed. I bought MoO3 and it was a huge surprise how bad it was. I shelved it after an hour and had no desire to play it again. I've read even player created patches/reworking of the game could not make it enjoyable.

Yes I belive the player made Mod patch managed to fix some of the bugs especially  the ones that meant you couldn't  Finnish the game even if you sat through the tedium. Their was little they could do to fix it's  fundemental design  flaws.

This.

With GC1 and 2 I saw concern expressed on their forums that the game wasn't yet release quality, but Stardock managed to get them out with good quality releases. While there is much missing in the UI in Beta 5, I will be very critical if Beta 6 is lacking UI features that GC2 had, especially the sorting of lists, such as the planet/ship/stardock/resources list, the colony list, the ship update lists, etc.

It is...   in Japan

Oh so patch is coming out today? Hope it fixes that damn combat viewer bug, I can't get past the second combat never fails to lock up

Quoting Avatar137,

reply 46

but so far, Brad/Frogboy has only been saying "this week", even in his post today, so I'm now not holding my breath...

Yes, I noticed this too...

Or they want to just keep stringing us a long as they get a kick out of it in the office reading all these speculation posts  I have to work today anyways so it can come out late today or tomorrow