I purchased Dread Lords in North America years ago, and have been looking for the expansions ever since but don't have a credit card. Now I have the opportunity to purchase Endless Universe. Does the fact that I have two different versions cause any issues. Presumably the fact that they can't combine makes it that I can't use my saved games from one to the other. Would I have been able to do this if purchased the others from via download somehow? I can't remember, If that was the case, Is there anythng else i would miss out on by having "Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords" and "Endless Universe" seperately on my PC?

DL, DA, and TA are all completely different games.  They're not just updates to the original game.  They're not cross-save compatible.

As far as I'm aware you wouldn't be missing anything by doing things that way.

I've never played GC, but I think it is the kind of game I will like.

I'm just confused which pack to buy.

Shall I buy Ultimate Edition or Endless Universe?

Which are the diferences between them?

One of those has languages beside english. Which languages?

Thanks

I am confused. 

I bought the boxed german version from Paradox to have a localized game, but it turned out the translation was not up too far. Nevertheless I had a lot of fun with the game as it could be easily registered on Stardock Central to get the english original instead.

Unfortunately purchasing Dark Avatar and Twilight of the Arnor didn't turn out to be straight forward now. I don't care which is the cheapest distribution, but I don't want to buy it twice because I made the wrong decision.


As far as I can see there are three opportunities for me:

* Galactic Civilizations II: Expansion Bundle from Stardock via Impulse
https://www.galciv2.com/Purchase.aspx

Is it possible to play the game in German after installing via Impulse using the translation I-Mod made for Kalypso? If it isincluded, will language files receive updates or is it just the best to play GalCiv2 in english if purchased directly from Stardock?

* Galactic Civilizations II Ultimate Edition from Kalypso
http://www.kalypsomedia.com/de/games/endless-universe/index.shtml

FAQ: 1) What is GC2: Endless Universe?
GC2EU is a standalone retail bundle of the Dark Avatar and Twilight of the Arnor expansions. GC2: Dread Lords is neither included nor required. GC2EU is also translated into a number of languages for the areas that Kalypso covers.

Okay, there was a lot of confusion if there will be support for the Kalypso versions from Stardock or from Kalypso themselves. Acocrding to this forum you finally found a solution with Kalypso and it sounds to be the best one for customers as we will be able to register our game on Impulse.

Does that mean improved versions of the localization (needs fixes badly from what I've read and all the love it can get btw) will also be availiable via Impulse or will you just support the game engine and we will still have to look for updates to the german language files at Kalypso or play the english version?

As a owner of Galactic Civilization II: Dread Lords, if I register the standalone bundle on Impulse, will it turn out the same as purchasing the Expansion Bundle or is it in any form a different branch because of its standalone nature?

* Galactic Civilizations II Ultimate Edition from Kalypso (January 2009)
http://www.kalypsomedia.com/de/games/ultimate-edition/index.shtml

I want to get the best out of it, namely german translation from I-Mod  and the great Stardock support via Impulse. Which version should I aim for?

+1  

Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas Stardock!

I installed both the gold edition AND endless universe, did I install two "dark avatars" now?

A question: I understand that the DL engine is not included in Endless Universe, but I read somewhere that the DL campaign is included; is this correct?

Yes.  You can play the DL campaign from the DA game, with the DA engine.  If you've updated to 2.0 (server's down at the moment but to my knowledge EU is updateable now), you can play the DL campaign from the TA game, with the TA engine.

I have been playing for the last couple of days and it works like a charm.

Great job there, Stardock and Kalypso.

I felt like playing over my holiday but at least for the German version of EU Stardock and Kalypso fucked things up. It seems as of December 24th patches for Endless Universe German still are not up to date, so buying from Kalypso will get you a version that probably will be always behind upstream patches:

http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=586&pid=4664#pid4664

On the other hand, I-Mod (the modder team who did the german translation for Kalypso) is forbidden to give away the language files to use them with DA and ToA bought via Stardock, so they couldn't keep their promise due to legal issues:

http://www.i-mod-productions.com/showthread.php?t=1029

I am really sorry Stardock, but your efforts to get a localized retail version into german shops failed again. Yesterday I gave Dread Lords (german retail from Paradox) another try and although updated to 1.53.xxx via Impulse the translation still stinks (still not completely translated, atmosphere killing word by word translation, ...). I fear it will turn out the same with Kalypso and their lousy german distribution, but getting EU seems to be the only chance to try out I-Mods translation at all. I hope registring on Impulse will give me the chance to switch to the english original in case (remember, users of EU want to get updates the same time as all the others), but there is no way to find out how "EU German" behaves.

I finaly got the German version of GalCiv2 Endless Universe and played around a bit, here is what I found out:

• I could register Endless Unviverse in Impulse.
• I was able to install without the game disc directly via Impulse. Impulse installs version "2.02.010 English "then, no german translation included and no option to choose your language.
  
• I was able to install the game from disc (version 1.97.001 German). I consider it unplayable due to crashes and lousy localization.
• I was able to install the game from disc and the update via Impulse. The game updates to version "2.02.010 German". There are also localization updates included. The crashes are gone and while the translation still has it's quirks, I would call it bearable.
• If you archive a fresh install from disc (version 1.97.001 German) within Impulse, restoring it will always give you the english version (Bug in Impulse?). So the only way to play with german translation is to do a fresh install from disc and then update via Impulse. Also note that the patch availiable at Kalypso is no longer needed, the fix is included within Impulse.
• puntarenas

  reply 19

  As a owner of Galactic Civilization II: Dread Lords, if I register the standalone bundle on Impulse, will it turn out the same as purchasing the Expansion Bundle or is it in any form a different branch because of its standalone nature?
  
  According to this forum the most recent version of ToA is 2.02.030, while Endless Universe German only updates to 2.02.010 as released on 12/18/2008. I would say Stardock indeed uses a seperate branch for Endless Universe and so you have to wait until patches are ported over.

I am curious if the english version of Endless Universe is behind when it comes to updates too?

I have Endless Universe registered and updated to 2.02 but cannot  create Metaverse characters due to a message The serial number you have entered is not valid, or has not been activated so I contacted Support who advise EU is not supported for the Metaverse yet.

Is this correct, if so it might be worth adding to the FAQ in this thread to save your  guys answering  the same question from everyone...

Apologies if this information was available elsewhere and I failed to see it.

Grrr double post

Hi, if you are comfortable with the English language version, you *can* switch between languages. However, there is no configuration switch in the game or its config files for this (that I am aware of). This can be configured via the registry, instead. The registry path for the language key is: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, Software\Stardock\Drengin.net\GC2EU.

Changing this was the first thing I did after installing the game from disk, long before the patch came out. I then played without localization related crashes or anything, and even finished my then running game before getting the patch.

I have had only a brief glance at the German language version after the patch. There seem to be issues with the encoding for umlaut characters. But I didn't purchase EU for the German localization, just didn't know that impulse accepts Paypal

This may come a little late but thank you Stardock for supporting the EU release.  I highly appreciate the efforts you've shown in supporting your games.  You can expect more business from me in the future.  Thanks again.

Is there any difference between Ultimate Edition and Endless Universe if I just want to play the normal game without the campaigns? i.e. A normal game in the latest TA expansion.