I think it's a fair price bearing in mind it is a standalone expansion which includes everything in Trinity plus a set of improvements across the board including AI, engine, units, planets, research, Steamworks, and more.
The price isn't far off Trinity's original selling price in the past, so I feel that it's a fair price to pay. After all, you are getting one base game and three expansion packs in one product; there will be many newcomers visiting the Sins universe because of the standalone expansion, and those who own Trinity have a discount which brings the price very close to Trinity's average selling price last year.
Concerning Steamworks integration I think that most people are familiar with how Valve operates and are thus on the most part comfortable with using Steam software to play games which in many cases, including Sins specifically, greatly helps make the gameplay experience more smooth by providing a far more stable networking backend which is hard to match when building an independent solution, as was clear with Ironclad Online which left a lot to be desired.
I'm not saying it's not a fair price, but I am saying that on the Steam store page it is as clear as mud as to what this is, exactly. It doesn't say anywhere on it that it's as Teun put it, an 'Expanquel', and is basically a huge game facelift combo plus tons of new features. It's got the bog-standard generic marketing fluff that tells me nothing.
The fact that they're using the exact same naming style as the two expansions is what really threw me off. It's not "Sins 2", it all appears to be exactly the same as Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment. Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy. Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. See what I mean?
I just suggest that they make it a little more clear. All they need to do is have it say right at the top, where it says "The next installment in the award-winning RTS", instead put, "The next standalone installment of the award-winning RTS combines the three previous titles into a brand new game and oodles of new features!"
Okay, maybe not 'oodles', but you get the idea. That should be the first thing it says. I only just noticed that buried underneath the giant wall of flavor text it only briefly says 'standalone' and that's it. I think it's important to know that it contains the last games' stuff as well, because by *ONLY* conveying 'standalone', I'm thinking of a dramatic shift in the game itself which isn't the case.
Thanks for clearing it up, but I'm not a dumb guy, and if this was enough to confuse me, it's probably confusing other people. Stardock / Ironclad should just take a few minutes to remove the ambiguity.
