i will be avaible when galaxy is released :)

That's wonderful news Judas. Thanks for letting us know.

If only. Be sure to read the later posts as it gets even better.

Well, I did read all that but it is just conjecture by the users posting with the exception of the quoted email. That email does not say they are not doing it. It notes the process is not trivial. I can believe that having worked in development even though not with this stuff. End users often assume various things appear to be minimally different thus they must be trivial to implement, distribute, etc. Well, depending on resources available in the project and priorities that arise after a release it's possible nothing is particularly trivial.

Unless Judas recants his statement I don't think there is anything to worry about. It'll just take some time hopefully. I'm sure most of us have other games to occupy us in the meantime.

I've noted a lot of talk about Galaxy and what could become of stand-alone installers, whether the client which isn't even released yet remains optional or not, etc. and this is all just illustrative of my point that people are just imagining stuff. They worry about things they have no direct knowledge of. "The troubles of the day are sufficient."

Yeah, no. That's the complete BS part of it. It is trivial. In fact the response doesn't even make sense. It certainly is possible something else is keeping the GOG versions from already being here, and their messaging is just completely FUBAR'd.

Right, that was all off-topic anyway.

Steam cloud saves
Steam Achievements
Steam trading cards
Steam workshop integration
Cross Platform Multiplayer
Co-op

The build on Steam incorporates all those features. I first posted on the relevant Steam forum for the Windows only version of the game in February of 2014 requesting a Mac release. I was joined in the thread by many others wishing for the same thing. Early on a developer responded to the request as follows:

sikbok [developer] Mar 3, 2014 @ 9:52am
Hi DirtyHarry,

We have looked into a Mac and Linux version of AoW3. For now we've chosen to do PC only and make sure that is solid and polished.

After release on PC we'll be looking into Mac and Linux versions. We'd like to cater to fans on those platforms too, but unfortunately I can't guarantee ports to those platforms right now.

If we do add support for those platform, we'll be sure to let the world know : )>

By May of 2014 the same developer acknowledged in the thread they were working on a Mac version. Anyway, the rest is history and it finally became Steamplay for Mac & Linux. It took all that time to finally deliver these versions during which it is safe to assume the entire focus was on creating a quality, tested release for Steam with the above noted features built into it.

Creating and testing new DRM-free builds for Mac & Linux with the Steam features removed and then fixing and regression testing the inevitable bugs that will occur in doing this iteratively until it is stable is not a trivial process. I am sorry but it simply is not and they are being honest when they say so.

Additional work would also be needed to modify the way the game presently links a Steam user account to their AoW account presumably for online play. This account linking is probably done via yet other software or web site software that would also need to be modified and tested.

And then there is the potential issue of making it not require an account at all for a GOG release for users not wanting online play which it may or may not already allow. I wouldn't know as I too would prefer to purchase it here.

Creating a DRM-free version off that codebase is certainly doable and yes it is of course far less work than the rest of the project entailed but make no mistake about it, most tasks in software engineering of any consequence which this easily meets the criteria for are not trivial. I know. I have done this kind of work for a long time at a senior level and that is just the way it is.

If they do not object to selling it DRM-free and the cost/benefit ratio is worthwhile I would expect them to deliver it in time. It seems unlikely to me that Judas would predict this future unless he had good reason to expect it will come to pass.

The other comment was admittedly wandering off topic if taken at face value but its purpose was to point out how people often imagine things they don't actually know a lot about.