Its about time they released an expansion  

I only wish that they put those 3 micro expansion packs into 1(but that's just me, I dont know about you guys) so I dont have to buys all 3 and it said that if one person has an expansion and the other dosen't the features wont be added so does that mean that if I get one kind of micro expansion and another has a different kind of micro expansion does that mean that the features for both wont be added???

I'm getteng them all. Then again, they could probably release 3 new skyboxes for $10 and I'd buy it...

Sold at : Entrenchment.

 Hah! I win again, edit button!

Unlike the prevalent kneejerk fanboy reaction here, even $10 for this (assuming the expansion contains no more content than described) is way too much, ditto for triple that described content for $30 (or even if bundled for somewhat less). As another poster noted above, this really has the un-Stardock feel of milking the popularity of this game. Even three of these micro expansions (assuming a similar level of content for each) would offer significantly less than either of the Gal Civ II expansions or, for example, the In Nomine expansion of EU III (for $20 BTW) or the fantastic Beyond the Sword expansion for Civ IV. Though for honesty's  it should be noted that the two latter expansions followed distinctly underwhelming and under-contented expansions--Napoleon's Ambition for EUIII and Warlords for Civ IV (which is a particularly bad value in retrospect since all of the (rather few) gameplay additions were included in the BTS package).

Quite nice. And a bonus is - now the vanilla races will actually get the same thing as the new ones I'm making for my mod. And to think I've been feeling guilty about leaving them "oldies" out to dry...

Oh and, downloadable content like this is likely to become the name of the game in the future. Instead of heftily priced  expansion packs, you get a relatively cheap content upgrade where you can pick and choose which features to get.

The content / cost ratio of these micro expansions sounds disproportionately low, especially when compared to what was delivered in the original game. $10 for two new orbital structures and some turret upgrades? You're joking, right?

From my point of view, this does make the "The Gamers Bill of Rights" seem a little farcical, perhaps point 3 should be altered to read:

iii) Gamers shall have the right to expect to be charged at cynically high prices for any meaningful updates after a game’s release.

Compared to Valve's model of releasing releasing new content (unlockable weapons, new maps, new gametypes) for Team Fortress 2 as free updates to their existing playerbase - which drives increased digital and retail sales of the original product to new customers - this is a little underwhelming.

Given Stardock's track record of mini-expansion packs in the form of patches for GalCiv2 and the upcomming 1.1, I think I may like the amount of content in these "micro-expansions".

However, since this is the first time I've seen SD charge for content of this nature in this matter..... and my past burns from other companies, I think I'd like to see specific details and player reviews before diving in.

as to turtleing they will still need to colonize more planets so if they do just sit there its not going to benifit them and you have a nice easy time to make a fleet which will crack them like a nut under a 10 tonne weight. im sold on it though.

Sounds good but im hopeing its going to be done through upgraded functionality, rather than existing methods (abilites) because we want to be able to mod it to our own needs. Better base functionality means better mods!

Im guessing for the price that this is going to be the case because £7 for something any modder can do would suck.

Regarding the "lack of value" comments in my opinion, given the rather low cost of admission for the product and its replay capacity coupled with the rather open file orientation for moddability as well as the free network play and the new content - code, graphics, functionality, media -etc... I find a $10 cost token at best. I look at mini x-packs as a sort of voluntary ultramicro subscription system.

Yes one could say IC is not SD. In fact it is a new company and Sins is its only product right now and IC has ongoing costs to take care of. It is not like its long tail is established yet.  On a side note, it is very responsive to the community and I think it is modeling itself well on SD as a sister company, so let's not needlessly hamper its progress with hackneyed bitchin'

For what it is worth frankly speaking, if SD offered a $120 a year "all access" plan with even a bonus say a $20 discount for advanced prepayment I would hop on it in a minute. Now if someone wants to call that being a "fanboy" then so be it. I call it supporting a great company that goes out of its way to support its customers.  

Its essientally like the 'Map Packs' for 360 games, $10 for a few new maps in a FPS game is the translation into $10 for a few new units in Sins. I know its difficult, as modders provide much much more, for free, but its understandable that companies need $$$ to stay alive. However, charging $$ for a fix to diplomacy, which was broken from the intial release, is a bit much. Hopefully we'll be able to get a full list of the features each expansion pack will provide. That said, I shall be buying the micro-expansion pack anyways.

The whole xbox thing is kinda funny to us long term PC gamers. I mean we are used to free stuff, we have never had to pay for small updates. Mass Effect gave away the DLC for free for example, CoD4 map packs also, TF2 updates cost money on console don't they? Just look at M$ "Badly ported Xbox games for Windows LIVE!ONE!!1!!1" service which scrapped the sub based part for PC but 'box players still have to pay. lol.

PC gamers don't pay for small updates which modders can do themselfs. We pay for upgrades to the actualy game feature set (which are them modded themeslfs to provide even more versions of gameplay). This is why I love PC gaming. Err... Think im going off topic, BIG TURRETS! (no 'n' btw).

Diplomacy has never been "broken". It works just fine. It's not as robust as most of us would like, but that doesn't make it "broken". As such, you can't say this is going to be a fix, but new diplomacy features.

I also think this is a rather basic "feature list", and the actual micro-expansion will contain quite a bit more than this - this is just the "major" stuff.

I don't mean to be rude, but these expansions better have more content than so far described for $10 (ships expansion possibly excluded). I don't see why I should pay to individually fix underwhelming aspects of the game from the start so that I can have what the vanilla should have been as opposed to an actual expansion. Now if these things were incorporated into a large expansion with the rest of the stuff that would be just fine, pay $40-50 for a new faction, campaign, upgraded defense options, more ships, better diplomacy, and new planets you would have a full expansion worth paying for but now it feels like components are being stripped off of the expansion and sold individually to make an extra buck.

There's always going to be a cynical point of view that looks upon something like this as just soaking the customers for more cash. Hell, I'm pretty cynical when it comes down to it. Of course this is designed to make money. That's what a business does.

However, given the fact that these micro expansions are not required and you'll still be able to play the game with others whether they or you have these micro packs or not, I see no problem with it at all. We are in no way required to buy them and it will in no way impact your game if you don't have them, so I can't see the problem. If you don't feel it's worth the bucks, then don't buy.

EXCELLENT!!!   With the developers in on the action with content upgrades, we get DEVELOPER QUALITY modifications!!!  This means our most wanted features will be fully filled out and coded in...

This means we will most likely get new Buff Types that add to the Buff System, instead of abilities that circumvent it's previous limitations...

   Expansions of our favorite things will bring all the SINS players back together under one roof...