I'm really liking the direction the version 2.6 opt-in is going.

That said, I feel like I'm really only touching the surface of where we're going with this game.

Do you guys understand that the engine is state of the art and brand new? As a game developer, it's very exciting.

The next big thing on my plate is all the political stuff.  That's what the next major expansion will be about but the main game and Crusade players will benefit as well as balance continues to get more and more interesting.

From the AI side, the next major effort for me personally will be the ship design AI.  I'm going to be tossing out the "modding" stuff that no one uses and instead have the AI procederually design its own ships which I think will be a lot more interesting anyway.

Meanwhile, lots of interesting editors are being made for you guys to actually access the 11,000+ files that make GalCiv III.

I promised you some years ago that for GalCiv III we were in it for the long haul.  Well, I can say for a fact that here at 2017, we're not even warmed up yet.  There's so much more we can do.  

The only real question will be whether people WANT turn-based strategy games.  I have nothing but joyous feelings about Stellaris and Sins of a Solar Empire.  But there does seem to be a preference for real-time games over turn-based.   Real-time makes pacing a lot easier since you just speed up or slow down the game as needed.  But I feel like RT games (and yes, I mean Sins too) lose some of the crisp game mechanics that turn based games can have.

In any event, we have a lot of exciting stuff coming up!