Most screenshots will be found on game sites. But we're keeping a few handy for new users to find here.

The 3D engine used by Sins is being continually enhanced. Over time, you will keep seeing the graphics get better and better as we get closer to release. The Ironclad team is really kicking butt on the shading technology used in the game as well as the dynamic tactical interfaces which we think will help set the standard of how to interact with units of different scales (you'll see what we mean as time goes on).

The first public beta of Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar is nearly ready to go out. Now we're in the final testing phases for getting something that functions. It's not done but it's definitely playable.

A good portion of the challenge has to do with packaging. There's a LOT of stuff in there and we have to make sure that you can play Dark Avatar or Dread Lords together which means making sure the directory structure is in place.

What I'm about to show you is a brief walkthru of the game from the new screen on. I'm in the debugger while doing this so you're going to see uglier graphics, frame rate counters, and  more.   Here we go...

The new title screen. It has a grimmer look to reflect the darker nature of the backstory.

This is the new choose opponent screen. It's much simpler (I think) and yet more powerful since it supports user-designed players.  I'm going to create a quickie custom opponent now.

So first I set up the basics.

Now, on the customize opponent screen on appearance I can choose a custom ship style. This screen still needs work because it's hard to find the custom button, it's way too small for such an important feature.

On the custom ship style screen, I can actually tell what ships the AI will use visually. This screen still needs some work. It needs icons or thumbnails for one thing. Secondly, the available ship templates are based on the chosen style which I'm not sure is a good thing or not.  In essence, players can design the ships that the different computer players actually use -- even modded ones.

Now, on the customize opponent screen, is something we're still working on and will be worked on more (along with the repercussions of it) for months. The different settings are pretty self explanatory.  But the ones that we think gamers will find interesting are:

1. The Natural Abilities.  The AI in GalCiv gets more difficult baesd both on amount of resources it gets (like most games) but also on which algorithms it gets to use. So we've split the amount of money they get from the "smartness" of it.  We still have more work to do on this because we need to display what "Difficulty" the AI is now at based on these settings which will be a combination of Natural Abilities plus Financial Resources.
2. The CPU Usage is going to require a lot more work.  Basically, for many functions I'm writing a "HCPU_" function equivalent that lets the AI project further into the future. This will be a big deal for players who want to see the AI perform better tactically since a lot of "smartness" of computer players boils down to raw CPU -- how much analysis should the AI do about strategies?  But it does mean re-writing a lot of AI code which I've only started to do.  What's a bummer is that this is really a BIG feature for players but I'm not sure how many people other than the people who actually play the game ongoing will really see the benefit. This feature costs as much as say a full cut scene or two.
3. The Super Ability. Players can choose which kind of super ability your custom race has.

And so we have the civilizations set up.

Now you might say, well big deal that Dark Avatar has two new civilizations. But the real work is in the AI personality -- the coding behind the AI.  The custom created opponents still have to borrow the AI algorithms and they still have to rely on the text written for others. So it's not a trivial matter creating new races (not even counting all the artwork involved).  But still, I think most gamers will find it pretty cool that they can set themselves up with opponents of their own design.

So now I'm in the game. The selected ship is my colony ship. The other ship is a space miner which is used to construct mining outposts on asteroids.

On the finance management screen, there's a new slider -- Espionage spending. You can spend up to 25% of your economy on Espionage.

The constructor has been improved graphically. That's one of the things gamers are going to notice pretty quickly is that we went back through all the graphics and re-did them to look nicer. And they actually use less memory.

Diplomacy has been enhanced and will continue to be enhanced with better dialog and more options.  For instance, there are now Economic and Research treaties. You can only hand this out to one player (and them the same way). But the result is that 10% of your economy or research is shared with them. The key words -- shared. You lose nothing from these treaties, they're basically a way of helping civilizations you like.

Here's a bug in my code. But what you are seeing here that the dialog is trying to find a response for the treaty being too early.  One of the annoyances I have with GalCiv II is that you aren't given very much information as to why they reject a given offering.  So we're going through and trying to improve this.

Here's a bug -- the Snarthi didn't remember what image I assigned them.

Meanwhile, I've gotten my first agent. See the red button over on the left. That's my quick link to place the agent. If I press it, the mouse cursor changes and then I select what world I want to put him on. Let's do bad things to Iconia.

The ugly agent graphic is still in this build. But basically I just assigned an agent to the factory on New Iconia. Now, their production is weakened significantly. I can use agents to really slow down my opponents early on if I want.

Since UI is so key in a TBS game, you can in the espionage tab quickly manage all your agents in the field as well as see if your planets have agents on them.

And so now I can see there's an agent on the planet. As a side note, you can't really see in this shot but ships in orbit now actually orbit the planet, you see them flying around.. it's kind of a cool effect.

I've also found an asteroid field to mine. But I have competition for it.

The Altarians are in Dark Avatar but now they're the Altarian Resistance due to the events in GalCiv II: Dread Lords.

My mining base is now in. But I'm only getting 1 industrial point from it since Earth is so far away. There's a secondary problem, because it is so much in the Snarthi sphere of influence, it is likely to end up rebelling and working for the Snarth.

So that's all for now.  Lots of work still cut out to do. I didn't even touch on custom environments or tons of other features...that's for later!

I can't say I'm happy that Republicans have lost the house of representatives.  I went out and voted today. My votes tended to be for Republicans overall. I don't consider myself to be a Republican but given the choices, I'm going to vote for the people who come closest to representing my views as long as they have worked within a certain threshold of what my expectations are.

Since I'm in Michigan, in Wayne County, that basically means that the incumbants are Democrats anyway.

Nation wide the Republicans didn't just lose. They got CRUSHED. What conservatives have been warning the GOP about for months has finally come to pass.  Only in the last month did the GOP wake up and realize just how pissed off the right of center population of the United States is. They're pissed off at what appears to be corrupt and lazy Republicans who don't represent their values anymore.

When they right did wake up, GOP idealogues like Rush Limbaugh had the audacity to blame US for the GOP's problems. In a text book case of shoot the messenger, GOP labeled me and others like me as "cut and run conservatives" for daring to say that given how poorly the GOP has been in the house (and senate) that it wouldn't be the end of the world if the Democrats win.

Well, now they have. The Democrats are in charge and in the next two years we'll get to see if, once in power again, behave like a bunch of fringe kooks like so many of their leaders and supporters are. Or whether it will be, as many of us expect, not quite as bad as one might think.

So...

Why did the Republicans lose?

1. Their base didn't come out in strength. The house Republicans, who once promised to get rid of things like the Department of Education saw instead a huge increase in funding. In fact, money for pork was available all around. The GOP, in power, decided that our money was really their money after all. Worse, they didn't get very much done. Only at the 11th hour did they finally -- and only because of the election -- finally throw some meat back to their supporters in the form of a border security policy which wasn't even comprehensive (not that I favor Bush's quasi-amnesty plan but we do need vastly increased guest worker programs).
2. The war in Iraq motivated many moderates and Democrats to come out. I happen to be in the camp that supported the war and is still glad we removed Saddam. But I am scratching my head as to why, exactly, are we still there "nation building" 3 years later.  The entire thing has been handled poorly by the administration since the end of major combat operations. Absolutely incompotently.  And many moderates who might tend to vote Republican decided to vote for Democrats to send a very clear message that they're pissed off too.
3. Incredibly biased media coverage. This is a story that will probably not get told but it has gotten out in some channels just how left-wing the major media in the US has become.  For instance, for the first time in history, the New York Times did not endorse a single Republican house or senate candidate. Not one. That's how far left it's drifted and the NY Times is pretty representative (I think) of the major news outlets.  They have done an effective job of making Iraq look far worse than it actually is, have managed to not report the excellent economy we currently have, and have managed to ignore scandals by Democrats while spending weeks and weeks on things like Foley.

But really, item #3 only mattered because the Republicans had botched 1 and 2. And they paid for it.

Now, between now and 2008 we can see IF the right-wing fear mongering comes true. As a reminder so that we can come back to this...

The Republicans have claimed the Democrats will do the following:

1. Pull us out of Iraq prematurely by cutting off funding.
2. Raise taxes.
3. Force Bush to only nominate moderate Supreme Court Justices.
4. They will attempt to impeach Bush.

There were others but these are 3 that are most easily verified by 2008.

So what should the Republicans do between now and 2008? Well first they should pray that the Democrats act like deranged kooks. But failing that, they need to recognize that conservatives expect a lot from their representatives and if you want to represent us, you better be ready to get off your ass and do it and do it in a way that serves our interests (balanced budgets, lower taxes, secure borders, smaller government, not toadying up to incompetent Presidents, etc.).  Sure, the Democrats won't serve our interests either. But they're not pretending to be likely to get our votes.

 

Normally I would feel,  you know, dirty for pimping one of Stardock's non-game applications on GalCiv2.com.  But here's the deal -- if you have two computers in the same room then you should definitely get Multiplicity (better yet get Multiplicity Pro). Seriously, of all of Stardock's products, non, including GalCiv, have as high of a satisfaction rate as Multiplicity.

Here's what Multiplicity Pro does:

It lets you use both computers together with a single keyboard and mouse. It then sets up a universal clipboard between the machines so that you can copy and paste files, images, text, etc. between the machines as if they were a single box. It can really boost your productivity. Every developer at Stardock -- every single one -- uses it.  Ask anyone on our team how we were able to make a game like Galactic Civilizations II with such a small staff and Multiplicity inevitably is one of the reasons.

If you've ever used multiple monitors, think of Multiplicity as being the next step -- each monitor is hooked up to its own computer and when you move your mouse cursor onto a different monitor, you now control the computer that the monitor is connected to. Multiplicity Pro adds the ability to control up to 7 computers (instead of 2) and its clipboard support includes actual files/folders too.

Here are some of the key points:

• It's incredibly easy to set up. Just install it onto your computers and assign one of the computers to be the primary and the others to be secondary. Then from the primary you can easily set up the secondary in minutes.


• If you do anything that is CPU intensive, you know that having a secondary monitor is largely pointless because it'll be bogged down. With Multiplicity, you can still be working.


• It's great for working with two different OSes. Let's say, you have one machine running Windows XP and another one running Windows Vista. Multiplicity makes it easy to work with both together. A MacOS X version is about to go into beta as well.


• It's great for migration. The Pro version of Multiplicity allows users to copy and paste files between machines seamlessly. So moving documents and programs back and forth becomes very easy.


• Great for gamers. Play any MMOs? You could play two characters at once or have your game running and your IM and email going as well without worrying about something taking focus from the game.
  

Here are some things that I think especially apply to people here:

Have you ever emailed yourself a document to a machine next to you? Like a laptop or whatever? If yes then get Multiplicity Pro.

• Have you ever wanted to say play a game in one window while having instant messenger in another? Problem with multiple monitors is that many games become minimized when you click on another window but that's not an issue with Multiplicity because that monitor is on another computer. 


• If you have an MMO like WoW and two computers, it's a total no brainer.


• Every game play example I've ever posted has been done via Multiplicity where I have the game running on one machine and Front Page running on another.


• Some of you probably do some rendering. Our 3D guys rave about it because you can have Maya or 3D Studio doing its thing but be using a second computer seamlessly.

Version 1.1 adds Windows Vista support, support for monitor placement above and below the primary machine, numerous bug fixes, and more.

There's a demo of Multiplicity so you can try it for yourself and see what we mean.  Its home page is www.multiplicity.net.

Screenshot:

 

Ever played a game where you knew...just knew that if you could have talked to the developers even a week or two before they went gold that they could have made the game so much better?

With Sins of a Solar Empire that is exactly what you'll be able to do! Users who pre-order the game will be given access to the beta. No non-disclosures. You don't like what we're doing, you're free to howl from the rooftops about it. Our job (at Ironclad and Stardock) is to make sure that the final game is as good as we can make it.

By pre-ordering and being in the beta, you can let us know what things you think needs to be tweaked. What game mechanics need refinement or even what additions you think the game makes. 

That way, the final game is not just more reliable and stable but also has the balancing and tweaking that normally gamers have to wait to some post release "patch" (for those games that even do address balance after release).

The first beta is due out after the New Year (think January).

We look forward to seeing you!  Just click on the store link to pre-order. You can download it or you can have the final version sent to you in its retail box form (and still download it).

Stardock has released Multiplicity v1.1.  Multiplicity is a program that enables users to combine their computers into a single computing platform. It does this by enabling users to control their local computers with a single keyboard and mouse and establishing a universal clipboard between them.

If you've ever used multiple monitors, think of Multiplicity as being the next step -- each monitor is hooked up to its own computer and when you move your mouse cursor onto a different monitor, you now control the computer that the monitor is connected to.

Nearly every person at Stardock uses Multiplicity Pro (which allows for file copying and pasting between machines). It vastly increases productivity. Here are some of the key points:

• It's incredibly easy to set up. Just install it onto your computers and assign one of the computers to be the primary and the others to be secondary. Then from the primary you can easily set up the secondary in minutes.
• If you do anything that is CPU intensive, you know that having a secondary monitor is largely pointless because it'll be bogged down. With Multiplicity, you can still be working.
• It's great for working with two different OSes. Let's say, you have one machine running Windows XP and another one running Windows Vista. Multiplicity makes it easy to work with both together. A MacOS X version is about to go into beta as well.
• It's great for migration. The Pro version of Multiplicity allows users to copy and paste files between machines seamlessly. So moving documents and programs back and forth becomes very easy.
• Great for gamers. Play any MMOs? You could play two characters at once or have your game running and your IM and email going as well without worrying about something taking focus from the game.

Version 1.1 adds Windows Vista support, support for monitor placement above and below the primary machine, numerous bug fixes, and more.

Download: www.multiplicity.net

Screenshot:

The public beta of the expansion pack, Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar is scheduled to start on November 16th.  We have the main features done, still doing AI which will continue right up until release.

The main features of the beta over Galactic Civilizations II v1.4 include (but are not limited to):

1. Planet environments. You can't immediately colonize all the good worlds. Now players will need to research the correct technology for that.
2. Agents. Players can spend money on espionage to hire agents who in turn are assigned to defend planets or do harm to opponent planets (they nullify the activity of most planetary improvements).
3. Custom Opponents. You can design your own opponents including what they look like and what their ships look like (i.e. you can assign what the AI uses for various classes of ships). A lot of modding support has been done so that modders can upload their own ship styles rather than replacing what's on disk.
4. Templates. Players can design a template ship and use it in the future.
5. Two new civilizations. Are now in.
6. Tons of new ship parts -- hulls, and extras.
7. Ship Intelligence center.
8. Asteroid Fields. Players can now harvest resources from an asteroid field and send it to a destination planet.
9. Lots of new planetary improvements and techs.
10. Diplomatic treaties. There are some new treaties players can make with alien players.
11. Graphics. Overall the graphics in the game are noticeably better across the board.

What's not quite ready yet but will appear somewhat in the beta:

1. The Epic Generator. It..kind..of..works...but...it's really complicated. This is something the betas will help pin down since it's so subjective.
2. Super-Abilities. To make each civilization truly unique, they've been given their own special super ability (i.e. an ability with code behind it). These..kind of work sort of but not in all cases. Still working on these.
3. Mega Events. Same. We have some in, but a lot more need to be added. These are like regular events in GalCiv II except a lot more of them.

What's not in at all yet: The new stream-lined technology tree interface.  That should be in by December.

The beta will be available to everyone who has pre-ordered the game.  See the link below to learn more about Dark Avatar and how to get it.

 

For discussion on Space Rangers 2, this is the place.

Recently Microsoft announced licensing terms for Windows Vista which made many users cringe -- your Vista license was essentially tied to a single machine. You could upgrade the machine -- some -- but the activation was pretty strict on how much you could change and how often.

Many users were understandably upset.  Microsoft was thinking of piracy while many hardware enthusiasts felt that they were being left out in the cold.  Many MANY users rebuild machines and don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for another copy of the OS.

Microsoft's new system is much more fair and, in my opinion, quite impressive in the technical work that had to be done to make the change on such short notice. 

With the new license, you can uninstall the software and install it on another device instead. But you can't have it on two machiens. That is what is nice about activation when it reaches its potential -- since it's "Calling home" upon installation, it can tell how many devices it is being put on and you can (one presumes) deactivate it on the previous machine.

This is similar to what users already see with products like iTunes where users can deauthorize a machine when they upgrade.

So hooray for Microsoft for this one thing.

Now, if they can listen to Robert McLaws suggestion that they make family upgrade pricing more affordable (so that a household with multiple computers can get multiple licenses very cheaply) then we'll be really talking (my household has 4 machines plus I have 2 laptops on top of it, would be nice to get a discount for those 6 machines that are only going to be used by 3 people).

 

 

Today I thought I was going to just crawl under my desk and die.

I worked from home today and was using a VPN to connect to my work machine.  I was working on a lengthy documented in Microsoft Word and had been saving periodically during the day.  On my last save, Word locked up. Locked up hard.

It turned out that my VPN disconnected me during the middle of the save. No warning, it just had. But Word didn't handle the lost connection gracefully and it died taking out not just my recent changes but the entire document itself.

Because the document was confidential in nature, I didn't have it on the network, only my work computer and now the file was gone. I had a USB backup from some months ago but I'd made so many changes to it that that would have been useless.

What saved me was KeepSafe.  I have it installed here and every time I had made a save to the document, KeepSafe had made an archive of each one (I have it set to save the last 10 revisions of .DOC files).  So I pulled up KeepSafe, typed in the name my document and pulled the one up the version from 17 minutes before the disaster.  I still lost 17 minutes but I could have lost the document entirely (or even if I had daily backups, I would have lost many MANY hours of work -- creative work at that).

I have to say, of all the software I use on my computer, the one I absolutely must have on there is KeepSafe.  I've had it save me in the past from more minor stuff but never from a disaster of this magnitude.  I had forgotten I even had it installed almost until the sweat was coming down my forehead and I was trying to think of some way to get my file back.