Hi Stardockers,
I'd like to apologise to Stardock dudes for being a little short with them regarding the issue of Steam...anyway I've moved on and hope there are no hard feelings. Looks like it will be (as we could have guessed) a mighty fine game when finished.
Although I still find it incredibly ridiculous that the only way to play is through steam and that offline play is not supported. I consider this a fundamental failure and most urgently suggest that a standalone format is created for offline play ( or lan only) play.
Cheers