Seems to be one of the less obscured mysteries in gaming, though secretly I suspect the pre-order can be used to fund some extra's or even much needed base parts of the game, while also providing an extra motivation for its fanbase.

Another thing i can't wrap my head around is to call the pricing for a complex 4x game steep. The logic about spending hundreds of hours at a certain game while at the same time finding the price of 40 or 50 dollars too high for that amount of time spend eludes me!

The big question with alll these TBS and 4X games is always "Is this the AI good", this will make or break these type of games.

I am glad we get a day-one release on GOG.

Preordered, yeah!!!

Now the game lost its old-school niche charm with transfer into boring featureless 3D. All that had to be mended has been mended by mods already. No need for DW2, really.

Gladly supporting Slitherine on this one.

Edit: Regarding pricing:
I presume the market for such kind of games is not that big and selling the game 10x cheaper will not make it expand nor raise the overall profit.

Why not both?

Oh DW2 is the easy choice here. Stardock really blew it with GC3. Distant Worlds 1 and GalCiv 3 were both broken messes and required numerous DLC to fix and turn into decent games (and paid DLC boot). DW1 actually did it and the Universe edition is one of the best 4x games ever made. Galciv 3, while even enjoyable at times, just is what it is and forgettable.
Plus GC4 is an Epic exclusive, me believes. To heck with that. Support GoG where you can.

one should be enough, not enough time for 2
we will see , it is in EA atm

I forgot GC4 might be EGS only. Yeah, do DW2.

Thanks a lot! I just earmarked that page. I remember trying the game out without much time. Made the mistakes the poster mentions: things were automated, the game seemed to be playing itself and I could not really find what I was suppossed to do. Overwhelming, yes, and automation did not help an ounce. Maybe going the opposite way helps. This is a game that not so many years ago I would have enjoyed thoroughly... (see document attached, hah). Worth another chance, I guess. Thank you! :)

You are welcome. Hope it works out. DWU is my favorite 4X game.