Maybe what people are asking for is more of a "discount" on Epic for those who purchased the base game.

The current discount of 60% doesn't seem like enough for early backers when it feels like new users are getting a better deal.

I don't really mind ... this is how the world works ... loyalty is hardly ever honoured - this is why I change utilities company and ISP every single year to take advantage of "New User Discounts"   

Yeah, I don't really understand that; if you don't like it, don't play it. I really enjoy GC4 (my current play time of 1233 hours and 16 minutes is a bit bloated since I often just leave it running in the background, but still) with just a few caveats--- and the main one (the rock/paper/scissors combat) sounds like it's addressed in Supernova. The big AI features in Supernova don't really interest me, but I'll play with it and if I don't like it I'm sure I'll still enjoy the core game without it.

What I think would be fair, equitable, and customer-focused is to offer a Steam key (to the early backers like me on Epic) for the base game so we could buy Supernova for 16 bucks on Steam. This would make me very happy as it would most reasonable people, I'd hope. I'm willing to listen to a counter rationale, but in my head that seems like the ideal solution.

Regardless, thank you for what I still think is a pretty great base game.

Again with this thing about the score. Read again. Reviews on Epic don't mean anything. I cannot post a review of I want to on that platform. Also, most people play the test version, probably not eligible for review either. 

I don't get this. It's an expansion. In all your years, you've never had to pay for an expansion?

I'm not a big fan of Epic either, but I'm not going to stomp my feet about them trying to sell an expansion.

With that being said, I certainly would have appreciated the chance to upgrade for $16 on Steam,  but I also understand Steam doesn't have a system set up to support this. 

Would I have preferred them to release on Steam from the start? Absolutely, but they made the decision, and there's nothing anyone can do about it now. At least it's on Steam now. I'm hopeful they don't do this exclusive release again in the future.

I paid $40 for GC IV in early access. Why is everyone saying the new expansion is more expensive?

Stand-alone expansions are certainly not new for Stardock games, so I must be missing something here. To me, it seems like people making a mountain out of a mole hill, but to each his own I guess.

So after we talked I met with the IT team and they think they have a way to enter in your Epic account email and it can tell if you have the game and thus let you buy a Steam version from us.

The game is worth the $40 I paid for it, I wouldn't have supported it from the get go if I didn't thoroughly enjoy GC3/2.

I would have gladly paid $40 on Steam for Super Nova, but I'm not paying $56 to have it on Epic.

GC4 owners should get GC4:SN for free on Epic. Why are there 2 GC4 games on Epic and only 1 on Steam?

I do appreciate your replies, thank your for that. 

Thanks

Thanks for that!

When I say old I mean me feeling to old to understand the social media world (I know posting on forums is not the latest social media innovation, but this is only the third or fourth time (ever) that I've been posting in forums, and I've never understood the badges, and how you get them). 

And I agree, that the CEO of Stardock usually isn't ignorant at all of what the customer perspective is, and that was why (me being confused if the badge CEO was something any random person could gain, or if it was the CEO talking as Frogboy (now you understand my wilderness in terms of this)) I was suprised at the defensiveness in his responses to the quite reasonable criticism in this thread, and reducing his reasoning to that it is about the quality of the game per se. It's quite obvious to me that most criticism is not about the quality of the game. 

With that said, I appreciate that Stardock is trying to find a fair solution. 

Quoting MSago70,

reply 40

Thanks

Quoting Jafo,

reply 39

Quoting MSago70,

reply 25

Finally, Frogboy. I'm old (53) and don't get the badge-things, but if you really are the CEO of Stardock, you should maybe listen more to your community manager (Rammastardock), because the ignorance of the customer perspective in your posts, is pissing me off even more. 

Re the 'badges' ...Just below and to the left of the 'Stardock' Logo is a badge you won't find on any other User.  It denotes 'Stardock CEO'.

Re 'I'm old (53)'  I wouldn't mind being 53 again..... like I was 15 years ago...

I really doubt Frogboy can ever be accused of "ignorance of the customer perspective" as the very existence of Stardock and all these games you like...or don't like/whatever... is down to one specific individual, namely Frogboy ...

 

Thanks for that!

When I say old I mean me feeling to old to understand the social media world (I know posting on forums is not the latest social media innovation, but this is only the third or fourth time (ever) that I've been posting in forums, and I've never understood the badges, and how you get them). 

And I agree, that the CEO of Stardock usually isn't ignorant at all of what the customer perspective is, and that was why (me being confused if the badge CEO was something any random person could gain, or if it was the CEO talking as Frogboy (now you understand my wilderness in terms of this)) I was suprised at the defensiveness in his responses to the quite reasonable criticism in this thread, and reducing his reasoning to that it is about the quality of the game per se. It's quite obvious to me that most criticism is not about the quality of the game. 

With that said, I appreciate that Stardock is trying to find a fair solution. 

I'm an engineer and I've always been very candid with people.  People are certainly candid with me.  I'm sure it has cost sales but I will exchange sales for being able to hang out in the community any day.  It's worked out for almost 30 years now.

Let's boil it down:

People who bought GalCiv IV 1.0 on Epic.  It was a finished product.  In the age of retail, that would have been what's in the box on a cartridge/disk/CD/DVD.  A finished product.  

Are you with me so far?

It was $40 which is, imo, a lot of money.  Because we live in the age of digital updates, we have supported our paying customers by listening to their feedback, suggestions and released updates that didn't just fix bugs but added new features.  Now, it's unfortunate the Epic store doesn't have a change log view but I'm sure someone can link to one here.  It's a very large changelog.  Doing these kinds of updates is really standard practice but we should not take it for granted either.   

Still with me?

A number of the updates with did on GalCiv IV Epic over the past year could easily been justified to be DLCs.  But they were instead made part of it, for free.  How many 4X games go an entire year without even a DLC?  I honestly can't think of any.  But GalCiv IV on Epic had zero DLCs because all of the updates were released for them for free.

Now, a year later, the game is coming to Steam.  We could have just released GalCiv IV on Steam and then immediately put out Supernova as a separate expansion pack but I think we can all guess how people would have reacted to that.  So instead, people who bought it on Epic are STILL the only ones who have access to the finished GalCiv IV game.  On Steam, the bundled GalCiv IV + Supernova is in early access.  Supernova is also available on Epic as a $15.99 expansion.

So let's recap: Finished product released a year ago. A year of significant free updates including updates that could easily have been charged for as DLC.  A year has passed and like every game out there, there's an expansion pack.

And people think it is "reasonable criticsm" to demand that Epic users, the ones who got the finished game + a year of meaningful updates + future free updates should also get the expansion pack for free.  That is insane.  

That is why I come across as "defensive" on this issue.  I'm working right now, on a Sunday.  I'm the same age as you.  And I have people who have the gall to call us  "greedy" while demanding free stuff that they could not possibly argue was envisioned a year ago (ChatGPT didn't even exist a year ago).  There are some types of customers you just don't want.    And as the CEO of the oldest 4X strategy game development studio I can assure you,  99% of people actually are reasonable.  

Now, for people who want to be able to switch platform versions (Steam, Epic) here's what we're working on:

GalCiv IV: Steam <-> Epic Keys » Forum Post by Frogboy (galciv4.com)

Thanks, I really appreciate you making this possible. 

As promised, just bought on Epic and got my Steam key. Thanks a ton for this again!