Don't care about the new factions or ships or any such things.  I want to be able to run a huge game silky smooth. If the engine has been optimized so that it is possible with a single thread and 2GB great.  Otherwise, I'm not buying until there is 64 bit and multithread.

If you have been following the beta, the 1.2 diplo patch will be a significant improvement over current lag (not including network related lag, which would be the user's fault, not the devs).  but... IT WILL NEVER BE 64BIT OR MULTITHREAD.  everyone wants it... but its never. going. to. happen.

^

Thank you Pbhead. The Devs have been extremely clear on this. Its not worth their time and effort at this moment. It would require a massive re-write and would never return on such an investment.

However, the recent 1.2 patch for Diplomacy has done wonders for lag. You will notice significant changes to the load times, FPS, and general smoothness of the entire game. It is a massive improvement. Not just a few seconds less in load times, but a serious upgrade.

Feel lucky that the game is still getting attention after all this time and that the devs are even producing another expansion. 

I just do not understand why you can not make the game use 64 bit or multithreading...

The end game still lags for me, it doesn't go and kill itself like it used to do, but does Ironclad expect me to suck it up and be happy over the lag I get?
I've bought the product and I am unable to enjoy it to the fullest. And as far as I've read, they do not plan to make that happen either. And now they plan to give out an stand alone expansion pack that will add even more items to the gameplay, chugging up the pipeline even more without doing anything to improve the flow of things.

Will Rebellion turn SoaSE into a lagfest again? Or will Ironclad do some changes in order to avoid it?

So that's really the point.  Years later and what's announced for the (distant-ish) future is a polish to a 32 bit system described as "a big expansion" and costing $40.  Someone made a decision to allocate resources to that polish, rather than to a "SOSE II", the brand spanking new 64 bit version.  For $60 or whatever.  The latter choice is something I would have purchased, what is being offered for pre-order is something that I'm not interested in.

If stardock doesn't offer a 64 bit/multithreaded "SOSE II",  in time I'm sure some publisher will offer something with similar compelling gameplay that will be able to scale to the hardware I have and thereby provide a smooth experience for even late-stage "epic" games.   Or I'll just work on angry birds some more.

One compelling reason for wanting to purchase Rebellion is simply to be able to play the game in online multiplayer against human opponents.  Presumably, Rebellion will bring hundreds of new people to Ironclad Online, and if you love the game you would want to be a part of a Sins rennaisance.  At some point in your Sins gaming career you might tire of playing against the AI (which is incapable of real strategy and has one hand tied behind its back) and wish to remove the training wheels from your Sins gaming experience.\

I'm actually perfectly happy with Sins the way it is now and don't particularly feel a need to experience what they will add in Rebellion.  My only real interest in Rebellion at this point is to be able to continue to play against human opponents (aka "the real Sins game").  I do welcome Rebellion for that reason.  The new players who join will get to experience a more polished and refined online multiplayer experience free of the problems the game suffered after its initial February 2008 release.

If there is no boxed version, I may not be able to purchase this. I have the money and I definitely want it, but my bandwidth per month is limited because I have satellite internet. I may well not have the bandwidth for a full-fledged expansion.

I hope the Stardock people can figure out a way that I (and others in my position) can continue to give them money.

Well, can you download  it somewhere else? Library or a friend? Then you can do that and save it on a usb stick and just install at home.

If I understand the way Stardock works correctly, you have to download it onto the system that your game is installed to. I don't think it allows for just downloading the file as one nice chunk saveable to disc with a self-extractor or something.

That's not quite correct. For example, using http://anywhere.impulsedriven.com you can download the full archives, save them on a disk, and then install them elsewhere. Otherwise, you can only use "Download and archive" within Impulse.. that way you will have to install Impulse on the computer you're downloading from, log in with your account, download it into the archive, and then move it over. This would be more difficult on computers where you can't install anything. The other major difference between the two, is that Anywhere was designed for offline installations - the archive you download from there is self-installing and does not require an internet connection. The archive you download from within Impulse requires you to be logged into your Impulse account to install from it.

It's tentative, but we are planning to have a boxed version of Rebellion when it's released.

yarlen a quick question,

if you do make a retail box version, will it be possible for a pre-order to be upgraded to include the retail box?

harpo

Most likely, yes; this is something we typically do once we get closer to release and know what the plan is for retail.