I am hoping that we can have either technologies (or something) that unlocks them or maybe achievements.  At the very least a paid DLC that gives us these items?

Its a toss up.  I have not decided yet if its a loss or not.  Its fun but not.  It is not hard but it can be.  It has problems and problems. I have made many noob mistakes, I was expecting, for instance, that I needed to research a technology to build on the fertile land and did not understand why at level 3, I still could not do it while the enemy cities were all level 3 or 4 or 5 and all mine were stuck at 1 with fertile lands.  Personally, I was shocked... there are no mystical relics or civilization options for government controls.  The building queue is too short to keep it occupied but we can train troops and buildings?  Did Stardock expect us to mass hordes of troops by turn 100 and build the best city you can by turn 50 ?

I guess I just feel those designs were one of the ways the game was gonna be elevated beyond something like GalCiv2, which lets be honest, wasn't the most awe-inspiring in that department.  Went from very creative to pretty dull Sovereign design in one beta.  Le sigh.