So this is some feedback just from my personal perspective, which might not be relevant to vast swathes of your potential customer base. I'm leaving it here in the hopes it helps in some way.
As a preface, I originally backed this game for only two reasons:
1. I enjoyed AI war classic - specifically, I enjoyed reaching the maximum difficulty level I could handle going for spire win condition, without min/maxing or excessive micro (i'm a macro player and hate strategies that require exploiting the game's AI "unfairly" or using the pause button often for extreme micro) - I know in the 9~10 range difficulty excessive micro was pretty much required... so I ended up beating two 9.2 AI's and considered the "game being won" at that point - the last time I played AIWC.
2. I respect the time and effort that has gone into replying to the community and the discourse between the developer(s) and players.
Originally I was going to do some modding for the game, but I got side tracked into a Stellaris project. I usually don't bother modding games until the core gameplay is fun - I guess this is the goal of your recent post about the fun-pivot.
I haven't actually played a single game of AI war 2, so I cannot really comment about the gameplay. The main blocker for me actually playing a round is the god-awful UI and, to a lesser extent, game models.
I'm going to be honest - if the visuals of a game don't meet a certain level, I just have zero interest in playing it. Personally, for me, in it's current state AIW2 hasn't reached that level yet. I know this may seem shallow, but it is what it is.
However, I am very satisfied with my purchase anyways, simply as a token of my support towards you folks and the way you develop your games.
I hope that I find a reason to actually play the game over the coming months/years, and will be cheering you guys on, silently, in any case.
I wish the best possible success for AIW2.
