Tbh, I'm more concerned about the 'in-app purchases' that are mentioned. Data collection is nefarious, but it's not DRM. These days, you have to assume that any piece of proprietary software is going to be harvesting your data in some form (including Galaxy).

Can anyone provide any more details about these in-app purchases? What sort of content does it relate to? Is the game still playable offline if the player ignores the MTX store and doesn't create an online account?

I've found something interesting on Matrix website:
https://www.matrixgames.com/amazon/Art/Battlesector/Battlesector_roadmap.jpg

Seems like there is already planned DLC with new factions (so single DLC with more than one faction) - this is actually quite positive thing, if they won't split every single faction for separate DLC. Yeah, I know that we're starting from literally 2 factions, but still, I have hope that available sides of conflict will increase (and that DLCs won't be too pricey).

I hope I am mistaken, but I am afraid it just means that this particular feature (units, factions) will be delivered with DLCs, while other points from list with patches. So it could have the same delivery model as Gladius Relicts of War.

For crying out loud, the data collection is done by Unity, not Black Lab Games.

The options menu links to a web page that has a check box you can click to make Unity delete any telemetry data they took from your machine and stop taking any more.

The telemetry data is about gameplay stats and it's the same data that any Unity game takes. It's not taking your credit card or social security number. The scariest data it takes is your IP address. And again YOU CAN OPT-OUT!

This is a fine game and I'd hate for a couple chicken-littles to convince yet another publisher that GOG isn't worth the bother and to go steam-exclusive.

CLICK THE OPT-OUT CHECKBOX!

Well if you have the patience you should,

Gladius has been a very satisfying experience from the start for me, Total War Warhammer 2 too ( if we talk about DLC intensive games ) Pure campaign wise i don't think there will be a lot of changes towards this game. The balancing part is usually well thought out from the start... and with Slitherine most do now what they are getting themselves into

I mean, mission 2 and i already had a lot of casualties ( well not that much ) and a 5 minute line of thinking if i should keep wounded units in the battle line or withdraw them , which maybe shows either, how much i really know about the blood angels or what type of gamer i am. though i haven't seen any upgrades for the non special units and with no pay for recruiting your army, which is something that surprised me ( though probably a for warning about the difficulty ) keeping a full line of units is rather simple

battlestar btw does not seem to be very much my cup of tea, with or without dlc in case you where wondering

Mission 2? The one where you rescue the priest?

Protip: heal with the priest. He can do it once per round.

lol like yea duh, there are multiple icons on the UI that stand for different actions ;)

but ...

I had the priest rushing for the last geneseed ( the one that's located between the ridges ) thinking the mission would be over, meanwhile my already weakened troops, that damn poison ! , faced of against a ridiculous amount of newcomers ....

that sad the first unlockable for the sergeant works also pretty oke but it was really a choice of using him to finish of those poison spreaders and using your own troops...

I actually lost a incissor squad and a assault squad

Non-hero units don't earn XP (yet) so no biggie.

You're gonna want to use aggressor grenades and mass intercessors against those Venomthropes, they're meant as a counter to chainsword assaults.

Go light on the assault marines that mission and just use them (and the sergeant) as blockers for the priest.

Thank you. And to others too for their response.

Nevertheless data collection always should be opt-in, disabled by default! The IP address alone is the least to worry about. The sum of the collected data which can be used to profile people is the problem. Being done with Unity, accumulated over several games, makes it only worse. And of course accepting data collection in a paid product as the normality is the real problem.

Look, if you're saying games collecting telemetry data is bad, I agree. That's why I opted out.

But Battlesector doesn't deserve to get review-bombed like this on GOG for a practice that's currently industry standard.

I go to the steam forums for upcoming games and ask the devs all the time to consider a GOG release, and a lot of them don't think GOG is worth the trouble. Review-bombing campaigns like this don't help my side of the argument any.

'Industry standard' is no defense. DRM could also be viewed as 'industry standard'. GOG has made its name by pushing back against certain pernicious industry standards.

I'm opting out by not buying the game.

If publishers are going to bring games here that engage in anti-consumer practices, imo they should be made to feel unwelcome here.

Kinda sad that some GOGers are reviewing bombing this game.

The game scale gets very big quick by mission 5, you can command 10 units and more, it will probably get bigger as army capacity increases.

That is absolutely disgusting. Thanks for the heads-up on the spyware. I'll be sure to avoid anything by this unethical developer and publisher.