Adni has updated his incredibly popular Vista Plus skin to support the new features of WindowBlinds 6. 

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For users who have Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar (or Galactic Civilizations II Gold Edition) the first beta of Galactic Civilizations II v1.7 is now avaiable.

The new update includes a host of new features including several new governors, a new lease management screen, galactic event logging, AI updates, and more.

Use Stardock Central to download the latest version (make sure you have check for betas checked).

For a change summary see here.

Unlike many of our change logs, this one isn't as exhaustive in length but instead focuses on have fewer much more significant items in it.

Here is what's new:

+ NEW: Lease and Maintenance tab on the Economy Screen to manage your finaces better
+ NEW: The CivManager now keeps a log of events that have happened during the game
+ NEW: Governor that changes the Ship a colony is building
+ NEW: Governor that sends all ships of a specified class, and the colonies building that ship class, to target a given rallypoint
+ VERY IMPORTANT CHANGE: Made debug.err always go in user defined data directory.  This is to deal with problems encountered by people with limited user accounts and for consistency with Vista.

+ NEW: Hitting CTRL + PRTSCN (Printscreen key) will save a screenshot in My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\Screenshots
+ NEW: Made it so that the saved scoring information also saves mod name + description if mods are enabled
+ NEW: Local High score list including default high scores; files are saved in My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\SandboxGames
+ NEW: Anomalies Randomly Reappear over the course of the game

+ TWEAK: Terran Alliance more inclined to focus on building larger starships
+ TWEAK: Optimized AI sorting routines (performance)
+ TWEAK: Spore module more expensive
+ TWEAK: Spore Weapons technology more expensive
+ TWEAK: Morale buildings more powerful
+ TWEAK: New lightmap for planets courtesy of Stefan and i-mod productions

+ FIX: Bug where ignored races still could be chose in the Opponentwnd
+ FIX: Reduced lag when clicking on a star ship caused by a function that was looping through ALL the ships in the galaxy and setting them to not be selected whether or not they actually were selected
+ FIX: Changed it so that the stacked ships and fleet windows recycle their entries so that they aren't constantly allocating and deallocating.  The stackedshipwnd will attempt to shrink the number of saved entries if it hasn't used the last max number in awhile - this may need tweaking if it affects memory usage
+ FIX: Bug where notification icons were not showing up
+ FIX: Bug where the turn button was always green even if there were ships with moves left
+ FIX: Crash where code was still trying to access destroyed ships; they are now removed from the main list the turn they are destroyed so that nothing can access them
+ FIX: Bug where ignored races still could be chose in the Opponentwnd
+ FIX: The distribution of planetary tile bonuses so that there is a good number of them and that they are likely to occur on the starting homeworlds, but no more than 3 on the starting home worlds.
+ FIX: Bug where planet thumbnails were not being reused even if the planet surfaces were identical
+ FIX: Bug that was causing unnecessary information to be saved
+ FIX: Bug in the Dread Lords campaign when playing from Dark Avatar where it was not possible to continue due to it not finding the location of the next mission's files
+ FIX: Bug in the Dread Lords campaign when playing from Dark Avatar where scenarios with the Dread Lords would never end because they had the incorrect race ID
+ FIX: Bug where the graphs did not scale properly and would end abruptly without taking up the entire graphwnd
+ FIX: Bug with activation code on Win98.
+ FIX: Changed code that writes out debug messages to be more threadsafe
+ FIX: Made it so that the dxpacks are kicked out of memory after the screen has been created if there are not multiple instances of the screen, like custom list box entries, thus reducing the amount of stuff kept in memory.
+ FIX: Changed screen code to make sure that the textures created for the screens do not create mip map chains, which are unnecessary in screens and just take up more memory
+ FIX: Crash caused by not being able to find strings in the flavor text files (text that appears when the AI talks to you)

It's available on Stardock Central as an update to the Dark Avatar module to Galactic Civilizations II. The "check for betas" check box must be selected to see.

The expansion pack, GalCiv II: Twilight of the Arnor, will have unique technologies per civilization. This means full trees, not just a few special techs per civ.

Below are the general concepts for each.

Terran Alliance

The Terran Alliance will have more propulsion technologies than the other civilizations. Its weapons will be the most like the default tech tree. It will have a series of technologies called Stellar Defense which will enable it to be more effective in fighting within its own area. The Terran Alliance will also have additional diplomacy and economic technologies.

Drengin Empire

The Drengin will not have factory technologies. Its tech tree will be very different from the default one in that its technologies will tend to provide planetary improvements that have a significant drawback. For instance, the slave pit technologies will provide more production but will reduce the planet's influence.

Arcean Empire

The Arcean tech tree will tend to focus more on materials rather than industry and economics as we know it. Their technologies will tend to focus on making things cost less and be of higher quality.

Altarians

The Altarians will have a much smaller technology tree than the other civilizations but they will be much much more expensive.

Torians

The Torians will have technologies that tend to produce low quality but high quantity products. For instance, they will have military techs that are relatively easy to get and cost very little to manufacture but are not as effective.

Yor

The Yor won't have entertainment based technologies at all or any sort of farming technologies. Instead, the Yor will have energy production centers that increase the # of Yor units on a given world which can then be divided between production areas and research areas.

Korx

The Korx will have a lot more trade technologies than the other civilizations and gain a lot more benefit from them.

Drath

The Drath will, like the Altarians, have a much smaller technology tree that costs more but gives a lot more benefit. It will differ from the Altarians in that it will have more diplomacy and influence based technologies.

Korath

The Korath tree will be very similar to the Drengin except that they will have technologies that convert flesh into energy.

Thalan

The Thalan will have a very cool technology tree based on the concept of planetary improvements that do multiple things. Thalan buildings will cost more but they will be multi-functional. There won't be a specialized entertainment area or a specialized farm but instead be buildings that do both. Similarly, there won't be a research lab or a factory but instead be a "labor" area.

The Krynn

The Krynn will have the most alien of the technology trees (other than maybe the Yor). The Krynn are focused on the Jihad. As a result, their buildings are based on having maximum morale in order to always have maximum production levels and maximum taxation. They will have buildings and super projects that lower the cost of leasing units so that the Krynn buy things for the Jihad far more so than other civilizations and do so with relatively little penalty.

As I get older (read more experienced socially) I have gotten a lot better in determining whether someone is a winner or a loser. Without knowing how much they make, how well they get along with their families, how in order they have their lives, I can usually tell in the course of a conversation whether the person is basically a winner or a loser.

So how can you tell? Here's some things I look for:

A Winner…

1. Leaves a given situation better than they found it. If you loan them something or let them use something of yours, you'll get it back in as good or typically better condition than when you loaned it.
2. Never takes advantage of the good will of others. Winners see the good will of others as a gift to be honored and will respect it.
3. Takes responsibility for failure without making excuses. If something goes wrong, they cut to the chase and will say "I blew it, it's my fault I will make it better."
4. Takes the long view of things. Winners are very good at looking at things from the long term. One of the reasons why winners tend to have money is because of this trait.
5. Has a strong sense of delayed gratification. Winners can control their short term desires in order to build a better future. For instance, proving that money isn't what separates a winner from a loser, a winner's home will almost always be bigger and have nicer things in it even if they make the same amount of money as their loser friend because the loser will have squandered their money on junk.
6. Sees themselves as masters of their own destiny. Winners are captains of their own lives. Whether they are poor or disabled, they will still see themselves as being in control.
7. Tries to learn how successful people became successful. Winners learn to recognize other winners and see what they can learn from them.
8. Knows life ain't fair and deals with it. Winners know that life is indifferent and random. They will adjust their course based on the obstacles put in their way.

A Loser…

1. Tends to leave a given situation worse than they found it. Ever loan someone a car or let someone borrow one of your things or stay at your house? The quickest way of seeing if someone is a loser is if they trash your stuff. Loan a loser a car and it'll come back with a stain on it. Loan them a tool and it'll come back broken. Let them stay at your place and they'll leave it a mess.
2. Will exploit the good will of others. Losers are fundamentally inconsiderate and this is a big reason to what dooms them to being a loser. "Success has many fathers" is true in so many ways. To be successful you need people to help you and losers will always ensure that people aren't helping them because they will squander the good will of others before they can get very far.
3. Makes excuses for every set back and blames others for failure. Another easy way to spot a loser is the plethora of excuses they give. Nothing is ever their fault. You can even get an idea to what degree of loser the person is by how ridiculous their excuses are. The greater the length the person goes to avoid taking responsibility the bigger the loser.
4. Thinks only of the here and now with little thought of the future. Losers always seem to lack any foresight. They'll do things that have inevitable severe consequences and yet be oblivious to those consequences because they can't think more than a few days ahead.
5. Has to have things now. One of the reasons why losers never seem to have money is that they have no self-control. A loser won't have any sort of investments or savings but will have an Xbox 360, Play Station 3, and a Wii and then bitch about not having any money. Losers seem to consume toys and junk like others breath air. As a result, they never build any sort of assets.
6. Sees themselves as victims or having "bad luck". Nothing screams "loser" louder than someone saying how some authority figure "had it out for them." Please. While there are certainly bad actors out there, nearly always it's just a loser trying to argue how they just got screwed rather than recognizing that maybe they should have done what they were supposed to be. "Oh, she had it out for me, she was just waiting for me to show up twice in a row stoned so that she could fire me!"
7. Thinks successful people were just lucky. Losers have envy down pat. It rarely if ever crosses a loser's mind that they might learn something from winners. That's because they think winners are just lucky. A loser is good at finding a minor obstacle and using it as an excuse to fail. "Oh, if only I could sing, then I could be a rock star and be rich! If I could sing then I wouldn't be living in this dump." Life is a bit like a race in the sense that from the end of high school on you see increasing differences between the different people in terms of lifestyles. Some people certainly get head starts because of mom or dad helping them. But over time, life has a way of sorting things out quite a bit. If you've become successful in some way, the differences between you and others may be quite significant. So when if you run into a contemporary, you can usually tell without asking about their background if they're a loser by how they react. If they behave enviously or use the term "luck" several times then odds are they're a loser. In the few times where I have inquired about what they're up to, sure enough, they're a twice-divorced, semi-dead beat dad working at some crappy job in which their boss is "screwing them over" living in a crappy apartment (but with a state of the art cell phone and Playstation 3 of course).
8. Worries about what is "fair". Nothing is more annoying than people who think there is some sort of objective "fairness" to life. Here's a quick way to know if you (the reader) are a loser or a winner: Are you making enough money where you currently work? If you feel you're underpaid, then a winner will work harder to show demonsratable results and failing to get appreciation for their hard work will find another job. A loser, by contrast, will rationalize working less and screwing off more at their job because they're not paid well enough (which due to #4 means they'll always be a low paid drone because they don't recognize the logical consequences of that strategy).

What's amazing is how easy it is to spot winners and losers. It's usually incredibly obvious within moments of meeting someone. Most people aren't losers. But it's not a gradient or anything like that. Those people who fall into the loser category tend to be full-hog into that category (i.e. meets almost all the criteria in a big way). That's what always shocks me is that losers don't just have one or two of these traits, they almost always have all of them.

As an employer, I've employed my share of losers (I'm getting better in the interview process). I've seen people who have had every opportunity completely squander our good will and blindingly sabotage their own futures through an amazing lack of foresight, victim-role playing and lack of self control.

Tomorrow we plan to put out the beta of GalCiv II v1.7.   My work has mostly been on tweaking the AI and some of the values.  I made morale buildings a bit better and made the spore stuff a bit more expensive.

v1.7 should definitely have stability improvements for players.  The new garbage collector code should reduce the memory foot print which will hopefully resolve the problem with out of memory errors that some players have run into. 

Another improvement is the AI ship sorting should be significantly faster and keep the AI from touching ships that have been destroyed (a rare but existing crash problem).

I'm pretty happy with what v1.7 has done so far.  It definitely needs more play testing since there are quite a few new features and other tweaks in there but I think players will be happy.

At the airport today I was amazed at how many "Get rich!" books there are at the book stores. I don't happen to ascribe to the belief that everyone can get rich.  I think there are a number of basic prerequisites that one has to have in order to become wealthy.

In no particular order, here are characteristics that wealthy people seem to have in common:

1. They don't just have ideas, they do something about them. This is a big deal. I always hear people coming up with interesting ideas but then finishing with saying "Yea, someone ought to do that."  I've passed on some ideas in the past that I think could make someone much better off financially but when I follow up, they've done nothing.  For example, up at Higgins Lake they have a serious zebra mussel problem. I read on-line that a 400hz frequency generated in the water near them will cause them to not be able to secure nutrients from the water which, after around 40 days kills them.  Someone could build this relatively easily.  Parts would cost around $50 and could be sold to dock owners at lakes for around $200.  Another simple example would be cheap, easy, hand sand sifters for beaches at lakes.  These ideas won't make someone rich. But I'm amazed at how often I'll bump into people who could make these things easily, need the money, and have the time but still won't do them.
   
   The point being, people come up with ideas but few people actually follow-up on them.
    
2. They don't get discouraged.  When doing something that requires effort, setbacks are inevitable. Successful people tend to not be discouraged easily. In fact, for a lot of successful people, being "discouraged" is a foreign concept.  This is important in multiple ways. First, it means they won't grow bored or lose focus on what they are trying to achieve. Secondly, it means that when something blows up on them, they won't give up.
    
3. They have delayed gratification.  This is another big one.  People who build a successful enterprise are almost always people with a well developed sense of delayed gratification.  They don't plitter away their capital on things.  In my own example, for the first 10 years of my business, I didn't own a high end car.  I could have.  I remember the owner of a website who sold out during the dot-com. He was 22 and took his $300k buy out and bought himself a Ferrari.  I suspect he's probably working for someone else now.  By contrast, that $300k could have been used as capital to invest in things that would have far greater long term rewards.
    
4. They don't blame others. Whenever I meet someone who starts blaming their problems on other people I can't help but think "loser".  If someone takes the attitude that other people
   "have it out for them" the odds are that they're failures.  Successful people tend to blame themselves and combined with item #2, use that to make themselves better.  If you meet someone who uses the word "luck" (either good or bad) a lot you're probably meeting someone who isn't successful.  Whenever someone thinks their destiny is in the hands of other people or luck they're limiting their success.
    
5. They have a positive attitude. Successful people tend to believe in themselves and have a "can do" attitude.  This doesn't mean they're bubbly or happy people. What it does mean is that they think that if they put their mind to it, they can do it.  The people I meet who haven't done so well in life tend to be very quick to list off the various obstacles that they face that keep them from succeeding.  A successful person might list challenges they face but is also working out a plan to overcome those challenges.
    

My first Summer as a bee keeper is starting to draw to a close. I've had decidedly mixed results. Of the 3 hives, one of them is thriving and the other two are failing. The bees in those two other hives just don't seem that interested in building comb (they have to build comb in order for the queen to lay eggs or store honey and pollen). 

When I get back from my latest trip (I'm currently on a plane on the way to San Fran) I am going to merge the two weak hives in the hopes that it will give them a fighting chance this Fall.  I'll have to aggressively feed it.

I don't have any pictures handy of my apiary but it is a golden rod paradise. There's definitely no shortage of flowers to forage.  My one strong hive appears to be in pretty good shape for the Winter. 

Still, I'm not discouraged.  I learned a lot and I still plan to have 5 hives next year.  Probably the biggest thing I learned is not to mess with them so much.  The hive I spent the least time on did the best.  I also think that I overfed the two weak hives.  The one strong hive I only fed in the Spring.  Next year, I'll take a much more hands off approach -- feed in Spring and Fall but in the Summer they're on their own.

When I did my most recent inspection, I had to tear things apart quite a bit. I was wearing a lot more protective gear (thankfully) as I got 3 stings in my gloves. To be fair, I wouldn't have been so quick to nudge bees around with my fingers if I were bare handed. 

One thing I've also learned is that bees die. A lot.  I used to spend inordinate amounts of time making sure I didn't crush any bees when I put the tops back on.  But as the hives get bigger, they get more defensive and the one real sting I got was due to me pushing bees with my thumb away from the edges.  Now, I will try to get as many as I can off the edges but I have had to accept that I'm going to probably kill a few bees each time I open them up.

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