quick question about 64 bit

It will come with a 64 bit version.  With bigger maps.

There are many of us beta testing currently with Win7 64 bit, so you should be fine.

It works of course. Even old DOS games are working on my x64 Vista.

Yes. Right now the 32 bit version is being used on 64 bit Windows, but it works great. Eventually we should get a 64 bit version that will be able to use more memory and larger maps.

Enjoy!

Game runs fine on 64-bit.  But we are also working on a 64-bit specific version with larger worlds.

So the 64 bit version will be able to address more than 3.2 GB of RAM?  That implies these larger worlds will be taking up 4+ GB! Wow

i plan to get my new pc to be able to max out speed on turns on the biggest maps

You do not wait after end of the turn, do not worry . But if you will have faster computer, you will be able to enjoy Elemental in its full glory and use advanced algorythm for AI which will make them play a little bit better as in GC2 and also, you computer will be able to chew more data for the AI during the turns.

so my intel 6 core thing and 12 gb ram wouldn't do much in that sense?

What I wanted to tell you is, that AI in elemental is multithreaded. Which means, you do not actually wait at the end of the turn for the PC. PC is thinkink during your turns, and when you hit end turn button you get immediately next turn, without any waiting. If you have faster PC you will get nicer graphics, and you will be able to use (if it will be like in Galactic Civilization 2) advanced algorythm for AI, which makes them play better.

Now that's a reason to go 64bit on my gaming machine.

Hah! Think about the modding possibilities if you know you can release mods to a dedicated community of 64bit users! Think of how huge you can get those maps, how many models you can cram in! I was hitting the 2 gb ceiling in 2004, finally getting away from it will be amazing.

Hehe ... 40K GALAXY :p