Unfortunately, this is generally not possible. After a certain point it becomes easier to design the new game rather than try to mold the current one into something similar. Take, for instance, the out-of-memory errors that still annoys people. The portion of the game engine responsible would basically need to be rebuild from the ground up to fix it. (See CariElf post #33 hereWWW Link).
Keep in mind, also, that an expansion pack must also be economically viable. At some point, a new game is more profitable than expanding the existing one. Stardock's aim as a company is to earn a profit by producing products in a cost-effective manner, not necessarily to provide us the absolute maximum entertainment possible - although ideally they will continue doing both!
To counter that, this game gets similar tweaking and updating as some MMORPGs. Look at EverQuest. I beleive EverQuest did have a game engine update somewhere in its history and the game still continues to be built upon to this day... As far as it's sequel, it is ‘ok’... EverQuest II is not quite the same game as EverQuest... It was a big let down for me after it was released. Vanguard (the REAL EverQuest II), I play often… and from what I understand, it has an engine that is built for indefinite tweaking and growth. They built the game so it could be expanded and graphics could be enhanced over time.
Anyway, even if you DID have to completely rebuild the game engine why not keep building off the current inception of the game? I am sure if GalCivIII is released much of the content currently in the game will be absent and then introduced in later expansions.
Look at the Sims for instance... The Sims had a pet expansion pack... And the Sims 2 also had a pet expansion pack... It's almost like we are paying for the same thing twice (of course we are not, because it's a different game... But you get my point).
In the past technology was expanding so quickly developers HAD to do major revamps as sequels to keep up with the GIANT leaps in technology over VERY short periods of time (buy a computer one day have to buy another 6 months later to keep up). SimCity, SimCity 2000, SimCity 3000, Sim City 4 etc... Each was a redesign over the other... Some were better than others. Features were added, some were dropped. Look at MOO2 and MOO3... That was a poor jump from one to the next. Other sequels were vastly superior and better than their predecesors.
I think in this day and age we are able to treat games such as these in a different manner than we have in the past. Technology is a little more amiable and fluid. The internet also plays a factor. I personally liked one person's comment/post on here of Stardock charging a small monthly fee (like MMORPGs) to get continual updates on this great game.
Despite Stardock being the Gods of Gaming... Any sequel made by anyone is a roll of the dice. There is a chance that it could be worse then it's predecessor. All sorts of scenarios can occur during development.
I am not completely opposed to a GalCivIII, but in many respects from all I have stated above, Stardock could handle the whole thing differently than the ‘standards’ of the past (much as they are already doing so).
