a few questions

Welcome on board...

I'll try to answer these questions, but as the beta isn't out yet, and these things might change over time, don't shoot me...

1. Depends what you mean with 'Unit Creator', if you want to make your very own unit with it's own new model, textures, ... you'll need a external 3D program like Maya or 3DS Max. If you mean outfitting existing units with existing armor and weapons and the like, I assume that will be in game.

2. In the movie (by Daedalao) posted from PAX, there is a part where Boogiebac is showing off the tile / building creator, and it seems it will be started from the game menu.

3. I don't think anything about this is known yet. Maybe one of the visitors to PAX can answer this.

Hope this helps...

thanks, i have another questions (sorry about the annoyance) do you have to pre-order now to get into the beta, or will they be excepting later pre-orderers?

They will be excepting later pre-orders. However, if you want yours to be accepted, you should pre-order in the next couple of weeks.

If it works like the betas for the GalCiv2 expansion packs, you'll be able to get into beta 1 with a pre-order made until some unspecified but short period of time after beta 1 becomes available for download (days, maybe a week?). Pre-orders made after beta 1 enrollment closes should be able to join beta 2, which will probably also have a short post-release window where pre-orders will grant beta access.

1.  Yes, the unit designer is in-game.  The version at PAX had a "kingdom button" which had the unit designer in it.   It was pretty much the same idea as the galactic Civilization unit builder.     But as scorpia suggested, if you want to use something that is not part of of the base game, you'll have to likely create it out of game (or download it from stardock's custom content servers, which we've yet to see how works.)

2.  scorpiana covered this on well enough.  All I can contribute is "I played with it at PAX... it was accessed from "workshop" on the main menu, then you click "tile editor" "

3.  does it matter?  something as simple as a name (i.e. week, munth, year, season, etc. ) can be changed pretty easily.  Hardly a selling point.

I honestly don't think they are even 100% sure how turns are going to function at release.    By that I mean to suggest, I am willing to bet money that the way turns function now, and the way turns function at release will not be the same.  Of course we'll see.   But there are many factors such as AI and Multiplayer that could make changes on how turns function that have yet to be implemented.

It matters very much to me, at least when I'm thinking about the storytime side of playing the game.

I'm not holding much hope for a milestone innovation here, though. I've never heard of a civ-mode TBS that has a strong 'temporal transmission' to help reconcile the changes in time flow that are very easy for novels and films. I'm just hoping to see a miniumum of jarring contradictions like a turn being a 'week' and a healthy pregnancy lasting only 6 turns because the small-map players wouldn't see any offspring in their games otherwise.

In any case, I definitely agree that how turns work for beta 1 might be very different from how they'll work at RTM.

Regarding the time per turn:

According to the screenshots: a turn is a day. If you look at https://www.elementalgame.com/Screenshots/Screens_8-28-09-5.jpg or https://www.elementalgame.com/Screenshots/Screens_8-28-09-3.jpg in the bottom right, the unlock time for the tech research is measured in days.

Wow, assuming conception must take place after the start of a game, it would take about 266 turn before the first children are born. Sounds like population growth will be sloooooooow.

I'm hoping that's only some placeholder text, and a more sensible timeframe is determined later on.

so, GW Swicord (or anyone eles who feels like answering), if i pre-order now doest that mean i will be in the beta, or will i have to download the beta before the deadline hits to get in?

If you pre-order now, you can get the beta. The way Stardock usually works is that everyone who orders before the beta is released (and a bit afterwards) will get the beta. Everyone who pre-orders after a beta phase as started will have to wait until the next phase to get in.

So, if the current plans for the beta stay as they are, everyone who places a pre-order between now and sometime around September 22 (As Brad promised beta before end of summer) will probably get in. If you pre-order later, you'll have to wait until January (Plans for phase 2 to start around then I think)

Hope this answers your question...