Will we see more graphical enhancements in future update/expansions?

I hate to say - even for all the cool ships people design, I rarely ever zoom in on the map to see the detail, so I guess I'm more of a content/strategy wanter.

I like strategy, empire management and icons too. But I also like watching big space battles and admiring my ships I want to eat all the cake.

I can respect this view of the game, however, tweaking graphical battles and things of the sort for pure cosmetic viewing to me is a waste of resources and mainly because of the following.

• Back in the beta/alpha process several months were spent on the combat viewer and this in short delayed or put on the back burner other things that Paul and players wanted to be in the game at release.
• For something that is just eye candy there is only so much upside to this, when the time could be spent on making AI or other feature better or even adding new features instead.
• Long games most players only watch a handful of battles in the viewer most are just quickly resolved.  In fact I'd prefer an option to toggle combat viewer off all together for games when you set it up as this was an option in Galactic Civilization II.  This is especially true in MP games.

Now I have nothing against the combat viewer I do like the space battles I just feel the time and effort could be spent better elsewhere.

That's a good point, but I don't really understand why it would necessarily be either/or in the future. If Gal Civ 3 is going to be a flagship title for Stardock, wouldn't it be fair to say that there could be enough resources to go around to lift the presentation game? I think only the GalCiv 3 team can answer this question, but I would argue that the next expansion needs to make a bit of splash. ES2, Stellaris especially have lifted the stakes in terms of presentation.

I otherwise agree that style should not come ahead of substance, but I prefer a holistic approach be taken because presentation does matter! 

I cannot remember but back in Beta when we had the combat viewer launch, beam weapons were actually a full lance that started from your 'shooting' ship and lanced all the across and one unbroken line to the enemy target. It was awesome! Unfortunately, it made a mess of the combat viewer as everyone build beam ships. Beams still are a good bang for the buck but that is another issue. 

Then they changed the beam graphic to how they are now. They also went back and redid the explosive effects and the actual viewer camera itself. I remember Paul and other engineers telling us it was the Michael Bien view for looking at the combat and was just for cinematic view. I will say it was  a good improvement (particle and explosion-wise) over how it was. 

Which bring us to this thread. I will agree with Seilore on this. I would prefer that Stardock use its resources to improve our wonderful game on bugs, mechanics and of course ai improvement. I am not sure how much nicer the game can look as I already think its head and shoulders above every other 4x space game available in looks. 

Cheers!

I strongly support eye candy.  I love the battle viewer and often zoom in to see ships on the map.  I go ooh and aah over the way moons cast shadows on planets.  The lights on the planets show growth over time. And, of course, I love seeing my crazy ship models on the map, especially when the AI uses them unexpectedly.  (They love my "cheep constructor" design and now they have taken to using a tiny hull design for early scouts.  Fantastic!)  I also like things like art work for colonization events, animated leader screens, and cut scene videos for first time events (really like those!).

This doesn't mean I want anything less than magnificent strategy interaction with endless replay value and immersion.  That is what the game is really about.  But nowadays, you do not have to choose.  Companies can effectively multi-task.  I've seen it happen!  Honest!  I want my cake, and I want to keep eating cake, and I want that cake to be of gourmet quality.  That includes the dramatic presentation with dressed up waiters and themed fanfare.  After all, this is dessert we are talking about!

At least, I want as much of that as I can realistically get with a real world budget.    It's just that I think Stardock can make this all real, given time.

Each of us tends to think we sort of represent a demographic of the customer base here on the forums.  The combined result is this schizophrenic contradictory mob of "I want".   To a certain degree, I deliberately embrace that.  There is no reason not to want it all.  There is every indication that Stardock is well aware that eye candy sells copies.  They are also well aware that legendary AI and addictive game play creates invaluable buzz for the company.  There is no need not to appreciate and clamor for more with both these factors and many more.  I also want UI polish, dedicated hunting down and elimination of typos, snarky humor, and a good helping of subtle details I would have never thought of by myself.  The difference between me and the howling greedy mob is that I try to ask nicely.  And patiently.  That's the real hard part.

So, on behalf of cake lovers everywhere, "Pretty please, real soon now?"