FAQ: Downloading vs. Retail

from Stardock Forums
At retail..
If you purchase the game at retail, when you come home and install it, you will be able to come over here to www.galciv.com and then click on the Downloads section and then either download Stardock Central which provides users with seamless access to all updates or you can choose to download just the BonusPack patch directly. You're better off using Stardock Central if you can but some people don't have internet connections on the computers that they're playing on so the patch download is available for them to get and put onto a disk or whatever to take to the machine they want to install on.

Directly..
If you purchase GalCiv directly, it's $44.95 and you will get a serial number and a link to download Stardock Central. You'll put the serial number into the "Register Software" area in Stardock Central, hit refresh and voila, there's GalCiv. It's a pretty good sized download (89MB for the base game and something like 500MB for the multimedia). I have downloaded this on both my 28.8k AOL account and cable modem. It's fairly painless either way and SDCentral has download resume and such. You can also have the OEM package (basically a CD in a nice DVD case which includes a PDF version of the user manual) sent to you for $5 (USA/Canada) or $10 (elsewhere) in shipping.



~SDC~
18,080 views 76 replies
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
No way to get a nice printed manual via mail outside USA with the Direct buy ?
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Do I understand this right? Have you recently changed your "download to install directory-only" policy to allowing customers to download BonusPaks in zipped files? If this is true, then THANK YOU! Frogboy, you already were my hero, but somehow you have topped yourself. :D
What do you mean by "You're better off using Stardock Central if you can"? Are there any remarkable downsides to downloading the BonusPak patch?
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes.
I read in another thread that via SDC you get smaller updates/bonuses more frequently.
The dowloadable patches will be available less frequently cos they will wait till there is a significant number of updates that they then pack into the DLable patch.
So basically it's something like
SDC: day2 after game release: update1, day 12: update2, day 21 update3

DL: day 21: update1+2+3

got it? ;)
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh and Frogboy: Thanks for making it possible to DL the BonusPaks after all. I see this as a major contribution to customer satisfaction of those who don't have inet access. This proves another time that you really care about ALL the people who would like to play the game.

One more thing tho: If you would like to limit DLs from people who might have a pirated copy why not let people enter their serial before they actually get to the DL page?
Just a thought. :)
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
MasterMoO: I don't know if what you wrote is true, that there'd be some "cluster patches" to download various BonusPaks at once. I can't believe that, as the first BonusPak ought to be 10 megs big. This cluster patch would be gigantic.
I believe you confuse what you read about normal code patches which were supposed to be simply downloadable from the beginning opposed to BonusPaks which weren't.
From what Frogboy wrote here it seems you can now download BonusPaks just like patches. But I could be wrong myself.

Frogboy, could you please clarify things for us? Big please with sugar on top?
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Is it possible to purchase it directly ASAP and then say 3 months down the track pay the extra $10 to get the CD shipped out? Or does it have to be done all at once?

~SDC~
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Hmmm...
Read this thread's post #78 and follow ups. Perhaps you're right.
http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GF&id=21238#bottompage
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
MasterMoO, too download the patches(or game) you have to use a serial number to activate the Galciv download in Stardock Central.
The serial is included with the Galciv CD


~SDC~
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Let me also chime in and say THANK YOU for an alternative version to the direct download/update.
:D
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
I have a question about the manual. Do we get it printed if we buy boxed retail game? I ask this because I hate to read PDFs from computer and you can't read the manual and play the game at the same time. Maybe some day tablet PCs will be cheap enogh so we could read docs from them but today it is much more convenient to have a book.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
The retail version of GalCiv is very much like any other retail game you'd purchase - it comes with a printed manual.

I am not sure I understand the query about "cluster patches".

Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
Follow my above link.
You said that instaed of having Pak 1.01, 1.02..., 1.07 dowloadable with Stardock, you will have one patch for download(1.1) that includes all of the small paks. I guess THAT'S what he meant.
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Do we have to pay to get Stardock central as well? Won't there be a normal zip file type download to download the game in one go?
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
You mentioned that Best Buy might carry it. Is that confirmed or still only a maybe??
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
StarDockCentral is part of what you buy when you buy Galciv.



~SDC~
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
Dave: SDCentral is free for anyone to use.

If you buy GalCiv directly, it works like this:

User clicks purchase button, enters in credit card / shipping info. Credit card is validated on the fly. It then emails you a serial # and a link to download the latest Stardock Central.

You then put the # into Stardock Central's "Register products" area and then hit refresh application data. GalCiv shows up and you can download it from there.

You won't be downloading some gigantic ZIP file if that's what you're thinking. SDCentral is designed with download resuming and the ability to break our software up into modules.

Now, if you've bought the game at the store or whatever, the situation is somewhat similar. You would install GalCiv, then come here and click on the "Downloads" and then either you can download SDCentral in which case you can download the incremental updates. Or you can stick with the more traditional path and just download the BonusPak and later on major updates as self-extracting EXEs.
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Frogboy: Great info. Can you expand it to include clarifications to these questions?

1) Will I by able to download it multiple times? (For example, I want to install it on my laptop as well as my desktop.)

2) Regardles of the answer to 1, will I be able to burn to CD the downloaded material so that, for example, when I upgrade my desktop I can re-install without having to download 500+MB again?

'Nuff questions. I plan to buy through downloading just because I want to show support for this method of delivery. It rocks.

Pooks
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
Phouka:

1) Yes, you can download multiple times.

2) If you're using Stardock Central, it literally comes with an archiving feature designed to let you do your own CD ROM backups.
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
With the archiving thing, does it attach the serial number to the archive or not? I want to download it and burn a CD for a friend, but I don't want to be pirating it, they'd have their own serial number.
Will it prompt for a valid serial before installing from the archive?

~SDC~
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
Mythor: I'll have to ask. I'm not that familiar with the technical aspects on SDCentral.
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
Frogboy: Sorry for the confusion caused by this "cluster patch" talk.

The question is: To me the original post seems to imply that you can now download each BonusPak patch as a separate file. Is this true?
On the other hand, MasterMoO thinks while you can download BonusPaks separately, there will only be "patch collections", like all BonusPaks from version 1.01 to 1.1 as a single file. (If I understand him correctly.)
So what's the truth? Is any one of us right?
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
They're modules. On SDCentral it's broken up into 1.01 and the BonusPak.

But usres who buy at the store can also just choose to download a single 7 meg big old file and get it all at once.