If you had read the article you linked to, you'd see those drivers stopped the fan controls from working correctly and nerfed the cooling capabilities.  

On a more serious note - at what point can we go back to talking about the release date? The last thread on the subject said you aimed to have the game "completed" by July 16 to make an August 4 "gold" date. But since this build doesn't have tactical battles, we're not going to see those until... July 15? At the earliest? One day before the "complete" date?

That schedule doesn't sound at all realistic.

I've thought about that quite a bit too, my friend. I figure it could go one of a few ways.

A ) It will be Awesome so we probably won't have anything to worry about or nothing that can't be changed through Modding.

Or.. (I feel I should mention the next example is the decidedly Less Likely of the two)

B ) They are doing that on purpose so we won't get a chance to complain about things that need changing..LoL. Then again we already know there will be a launch day patch and some things are going to get tweaked and changed anyway between the "Gold Date" and the Actual "Launch Date".

Honestly, what I'd like to know is how close will our final beta version be to the version that is sent to make the Gold date? The way I see it we've all already paid for the game, so what's the logic behind not giving us access to the Gold version when it's ready? Call me Mr. Impatient but I want to dig in and start some Serious Modding. I have much to do and precious little time to do it in.

This is the thing I don't like about distributors and digital download systems. Some bad developers like EA or smaller indie companies that routinely put out sub-par games can rely on these services to let them "Patch" or fix bugs at any time automatically. This means they can purposefully rush the release of a game that most other Devs and Players alike would say is "Un-Finished". EA can do that full well knowing they can drastically alter the "Gold Date" version of the game between the time it goes Gold and Actually Ships/Launches. I can't think of an example of a game that's done this lately but I'm sure we can all think of some games and companies that have done it in the past. Of course I Don't think Stardock would do something like that. If I thought they would I wouldn't have spent my hard earned money buying their games and software. They have a good track record for putting out quality products on the first run through. Also there's a Big Difference between having a Launch Day Patch that Actually Fixes  Bugs and one that Completes The Game Because of Rushed Development.

I think that the release date is set in stone. Just take a look at this reply by Froggie. This is the key sentence: "As of July 1st, the game is running approximately 55 engineering hours ahead of development schedule."

*EDIT*

Ooops, somehow I've missed Froggie's latest reply, which was posted right before my reply.

I just wanted to point out that even a problematic driver can cause overheating problems [..even if your GFX card & fan(s) are operating perfectly].

No worries chief, if you say it's done I'll be ready and willing to play  . I'm challenging you to a game of multi-player

I'm curious how far ahead of the public beta your internal build is. Do you have tactical battles working? The improved UI? The full tech trees and all the buildings/units/creatures implemented?

So assuming we get tactical battles July 15, the earliest the modding beta could be is a week after that... and that's assuming things go smoothly. That'd leave a couple of weeks before your "gold" date of August 4.

I hope to be proven wrong. I really do. But a week of beta for tactical battles and every other victory condition, then 2 weeks for modding isn't exactly confidence inspiring.

(As for not playing it... I intend to play it as soon as I've got a build where I don't wind up wandering around for 20 minutes at the start of the game in order to find any resource that isn't an Ice Shard. So hopefully tomorrow. )

I think you mean "The only feature I should be worrying about is the computer AI" We aren't writing it, you are. If bugging the shit out of you to make it better helps though, just say so

well imo thats completely arguable

its not like i dont trust frogboy but this is  a software not a house

its not like you can say "we miss 55 bricks to the ceiling" or "we miss 2 floors" and you can calculate exactly

a software is much more unpredictable, you can end up working N hours on a problem you couldnt predict, also since a game is also creativity you cant really predict how much creativity work is needed to "complete" the game

you shouldnt be so harsh since many of us already bought the game and i think we deserve respect

16th july as feature lock looks scary to many of us since the beta we saw doesnt really look complete

i can understand our beta is behind your beta but still then there will be not much test on core features teh game miss, like magic system, diplomacy, combats and basically all the game

you should understand most ppl here is not complaining cause they are jerks but cause we all want to improve this game and see it out the best he can, while sometimes you react to criticism like we are trying to sabotage the game

its not fair

my 2 cents

No, but it is posted by people who care. A much worse situation would be everybody shrugging and not caring about things being ready in time because the plan is to play Civ 5 anyway.

Of the two, an occasionally annoying but concerned playerbase is the better one.

I'm worried this game is holding up any further Sins content.

and why not?

in their opinion the game ISNT actually going to be ready

so what they are trying to help is sharing their thought

OFC they can be wrong

i hope they are wrong

we all hope they are

but in their opinion they arent wrong, they think the game need more time, and giving the game more time would actualyl help the game, IF they are right