Computer Games: What are the more signification content additions to the sequel compared to the original?

Brad Wardell: The ship design is the biggest. I think it's safe to say that no game has ever had ship design quite like this. Players literally get pieces to choose from and can stick them together however they want. They can design and build almost any type of ship they can imagine. So a lot of the content is coming from designing those pieces. This is particularly challenging because since we let players play as any race, different races have their own unique sets of pieces and styles.

Another big area is the planet screen. In the original game, there were 20 types of planets. Of those 20, players would colonize typically around 6 of them. So there were effectively 6 types of planets. In the sequel, the planets are unique. Each planet has its own unique surface. And you now place your planetary structures on the surface of the world and where you place them can matter. Before it was just a list box of goodies to build and you'd realisticaly build them all. Now you have to think about what you can build because there's only so much stuff to put on there.

There's a bunch of other things such as fleet battles, enhanced diplomacy, new music and cut scenes, etc. that all add up to give a player a truly different experience. I don't think anyone will load up this game and think "Oh this is just GalCiv with a 3D engine". In fact, we've had to go out of our way to put things in that look similar to the first game for continuity reasons. It's a essentially whole new game as far as content is concerned.