Stardock Central Beta available
from 
Stardock Forums
Stardock Forums
In my experience, developers say they're going to support their stuff after release and often fail to do so. I mean, if it were me, watching Stardock as an outsider without knowing anything about the company, I would be pretty skeptical about Stardock's claims that they're going to be providing lots of updates to the game after release.
So for people like me, and everyone else, here is a link to download the latest beta of Stardock Central:
http://scripting.stardock.com/private/sdcentral_current.exe
Now mind you, without serial numbers you'll only have access to demos and such. BUT you will still have access to chat, message boards, documentation, news, and more and it's very fast. And it auto-updates itself when we make a new version so you shouldn't have to redownload it again when a new version comes out.
When Galactic Civilizations comes out, you will be able to put in your GalCiv serial number into this (whether that be at retail or at amazon.com or direct) and be able to download not just updates to GalCiv but the whole game. Just make sure you don't give out your serial number to anyone since our server has a pretty advanced algorithm for noticing anomalous account behavior (Based on years of experience with Object Desktop).
But it is through this you'll be able to get regular updates to the game and the BonusPak which will be displayed as an additional module (you'll see what you try it out).
Stardock Central has had as many people involved in its develoment as GalCiv and exists soley to make it easier for us to provide updates and easier for users to get them.
Now some people might think we're doing this because we're just really nice or idealistic, but that's not the reason, heck, I'm a rat bastard for that matter!
There is a solid business case for this program based on years of experience in software development -- IF you can keep providing free updates of your software to users AND make it EASY (i.e. painless) for those users to make use of those updates, then you:
1) help decrease piracy
and
2) help keep the product "Fresh" (the reason why most games die 90 days after release is because new updates are either not forthcoming or are too inconvenient to obtain and word of mouth stops and people start thinking of the game as old). Seriously, who here hasn't been told about a great game but not bought it because they thought it was "too old" even though it was only a few months since release? I know I have. But if I also know that the game is getting regular SEAMLESS updates that don't require me to hunt around on some website then I'm much more likely to get the game since it'll still seem "new".
We hope you like Stardock Central. Let us know what you think of the beta.
~SDC~
So for people like me, and everyone else, here is a link to download the latest beta of Stardock Central:
http://scripting.stardock.com/private/sdcentral_current.exe
Now mind you, without serial numbers you'll only have access to demos and such. BUT you will still have access to chat, message boards, documentation, news, and more and it's very fast. And it auto-updates itself when we make a new version so you shouldn't have to redownload it again when a new version comes out.
When Galactic Civilizations comes out, you will be able to put in your GalCiv serial number into this (whether that be at retail or at amazon.com or direct) and be able to download not just updates to GalCiv but the whole game. Just make sure you don't give out your serial number to anyone since our server has a pretty advanced algorithm for noticing anomalous account behavior (Based on years of experience with Object Desktop).
But it is through this you'll be able to get regular updates to the game and the BonusPak which will be displayed as an additional module (you'll see what you try it out).
Stardock Central has had as many people involved in its develoment as GalCiv and exists soley to make it easier for us to provide updates and easier for users to get them.
Now some people might think we're doing this because we're just really nice or idealistic, but that's not the reason, heck, I'm a rat bastard for that matter!
There is a solid business case for this program based on years of experience in software development -- IF you can keep providing free updates of your software to users AND make it EASY (i.e. painless) for those users to make use of those updates, then you:1) help decrease piracy
and
2) help keep the product "Fresh" (the reason why most games die 90 days after release is because new updates are either not forthcoming or are too inconvenient to obtain and word of mouth stops and people start thinking of the game as old). Seriously, who here hasn't been told about a great game but not bought it because they thought it was "too old" even though it was only a few months since release? I know I have. But if I also know that the game is getting regular SEAMLESS updates that don't require me to hunt around on some website then I'm much more likely to get the game since it'll still seem "new".
We hope you like Stardock Central. Let us know what you think of the beta.
~SDC~
