Kudos to Stardock

Amen angryandroid- I whole heartingly agree- this patch is like playing a new game!

Indeed!! Many thanks to Cari and team

Thanks Stardock

I'll wait to praise them until the 1.3 final comes around.
This release is just another beta (and a rather poor one at that, considering the remaining as well as several new bugs), prematurely released as the "final".

Seems fine here. Don't see you posting anything in the official bug report moosetek.

Cheers to Stardock for the improvements.

I'm having a great time with it. The AI is smarter and the pacing just seems better.

Moosetek, I saw that you're having a problem with the mini map or something but that's a pretty harsh thing to say that it's a "poor beta" just because you are having a problem. The bug report area doesn't exactly seem full of bug reports.

Look in the bug thread and you will see several new bugs. I don't have to post anything that is already being posted on.

I have had this issue with the minimap for quite a long time.
And I have sent in several SE reports with the crashing in the last beta. Hopefully those helped track down that particular problem for the 'final'
But there were a lot of changes for this version, many of which introduced more bugs which are being listed, and there was not another beta to try out before they released the "Final Version". And that last beta was a bug in itself, it seemed. I had more crashes than I have had in the entire history of the game, with that version. To release a final but untested version was really lame, especially when the final beta was so, so buggy.

If they want us to help beta test, then why stop half way and release a version that has so many changes that the beta testers are unable to test for?
It defeats the purpose. as shown by the numurous bugs in this version.

I have had this issue with the minimap for quite a long time.

And yet there are no reports of it in the bug database.  Even now, it's like pulling teeth to get even a description of what is happening. I've not seen it, I have a dual core machine (several in fact).

I am not seeing reports of crashing either btw with 1.3.  The last beta did have some crashes, we took those reports and addressed them.  But the final version was tested and having gone through the bug thread, the only issue I see that is new is the turn button doesn't turn green.

It defeats the purpose. as shown by the numurous bugs in this version.

There is nothing "new" (problem wise) that has been reported in 1.3 that didn't exist in the beta. The problem is that people who run the beta simply assume that we know about it. 

Clearly we have reached diminishing returns.  What is going to happen is that I will make sure that the problems mentioned are addressed in a 1.31 or something but that will be the end of the updates to GalCiv II.  After that, it'll be Dark Avatar updates only.

For example, the end of turn not turning green was a result of people asking that ships that are on sentry or guard not go off sentry guard when clicked on (even though that is the behavior they've had since the OS/2 days). So they made a change so that you can click on a ship that is sentried or on guard and it won't go off guard. That introduced the selection problem and introduced the end of turn problem.

That net result is that as we add features, the chances of introducing a new problem increases. 

 

BTW, I don't want to make it sound like I'm downplaying the turn button thing. I consider that a real black eye.  I'm pretty unhappy about the problems resulting from the change to sentry/guard behavior getting through -- especially since it was an unnecessary feature tweak. 

To me, when we're starting to make those kinds of changes it's a sign that it's time to stop. Especially since these updates can't (obviously) have the kind of QA budget that the original release had. 

Just want to add my thanks to Frogboy and the developers for 1.3.

I am a long way into a gigantic game on suicidal and the games really testing me. The AI is vastly improved over 1.2. The Terran alliance/Thalans/Iconian Refuge r playing a hugely improved game now.

It might be me but I don't really notice those small things like the turn button turning green(does it really matter, surely u know when u have done yr turn) and I have not personally had a crash since 1.11.

Clearly we have reached diminishing returns. What is going to happen is that I will make sure that the problems mentioned are addressed in a 1.31 or something but that will be the end of the updates to GalCiv II. After that, it'll be Dark Avatar updates only.

Agree 100%. Concentrate on making Dark Avatar a fantastic expansion to a great game. GC2 in my opinion was a near perfect game in 1.2 (no game is ever 100% perfect), 1.3 is just a huge bonus, thanks. U have already given us more updates than 90% of any other developers do, forget the minutiae, concentrate on big new features for Dark Avatar.

https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=274&aid=126949#995850
https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=274&aid=121107#996481
https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=274&aid=123472

Here are three threads that talked about the problem with the minimap repaint issue.
They go back to about mid June or so.

It has been described time and time again.
The minimap stops repainting correctly, and the bounding box repaints itself all over the minimap until it is completely blue.
It almost always happens during a planet flipping to the human player.
The graphs (all of them) stop updating shortly thereafter.
It may take a very high influence level to recreate it.

Moosetek - making a post on a forum isn't necessarily going to get something fixed.  Only if it's either told to support or emailed to gc2bugs@stardock.com will it definitely be put into the list. 

I don't doubt your report but I've never heard of it until now. And I can't say it'll get addressed any time soon because it's never shown up here.  We'll keep an eye out for it but it sounds very odd.