[HoneyBadger]

Newthought, Velusion, Nightblade, I want you to know that I have actually considered your arguments (when they didn't become inappropriate) and I do think there are some compelling reasons to have some form of save-game option. I'm not at all in favor of one-I stand fully by my original opinion, but I do see some of your points-and I actually started a thread about this, specifically concerning games which are thrown off-track by extremely bad luck on the part of the user (as opposed to choosing Misfortune scales) early in the game, if you'll notice. I would not want the Devs to add a savegame feature because of this (I still like Gandalf's suggestion about restarting random maps though), but I think that situations do unfortunately occur where it would be perfectly reasonable to want to restart a turn or a game. Not because the game itself needs the function, but because a few areas of the game could in my opinion use some recalibrating because they take away from your ability to make strategic choices and have fun, imposing and perpetuating (and I'm confident this is unintentional) a heavy-handed, pessimistic sense of reality, cheating the player of a fun experience, rather than adding to the experience of the game for a player who doesn't desire to "cheat" him or her self.

And Ramshead, ofcourse kids deserve respect, often a specific "kid" will be far more deserving of respect than a given "adult" of whatever age. I think I was going for an "it's what you do that makes you who you are" kind of feeling.

And Newthought, your line of reasoning disregards that the Devs and the so called "hardcore" players happen to be in agreement on this issue, atleast it seems a truth as far as this particular thread is concerned. Usually when the people who make a game and the people who play the game the most and are the most enthusiastic about it are in agreement, it's a good sign, not a bad one.

I like GalCiv too, and I've suggested a partnership between Stardock and Illwinter. I still feel that would be a good idea for a lot of reasons.

I think that if everyone were clamouring for a save-game feature, the Devs would look at the issue very hard, but the fact remains that not everyone, or even a large population, are. If I went to the GalCiv boards and requested that all planets be square instead of round from now on, I'd probably get the same response as you have here-that yes, I could add square planets if I wanted, but in general, people felt that round planets were a more suitable feature for a "vanilla" version of the game. That response might come with love and affection and a ring and a mortgage, but still, it boils down to the majority opinion, which is important where the "vanilla" game is concerned.