Solly

That is ineffective symptom management. It is not individual ad hoc symptom management that he wants. He is asking for a factual and tribal warfare free debate environment.

It's pretty common across all industries for something to be sold at an extremely tempting lower price just before a new version is released: it's something I tend to look out for as an indicator that something new is on the way. Not making a judgement on the practice, but just saying that it is quite a common practice.

Since the forum is always full of people running into questions or trouble, and it's also the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, I would just like to say thanks to the developers and their company for these great applications. I would much rather have these than an Adobe subscription (especially on the iPad, but also on desktop).

Thanks for the feedback. Here is RevA of my guitar illustration, with some changes based on comments and suggestions.
First, I corrected the string shadows so they are consistent with light direction!
I also played with enhancing the wood grain in a number of ways, not sure this is the best way, but it's what came to mind. The grain was previously a bunch of parallel lines created using power duplicate and a slight warp, then blurred slightly to blend with the color of the cedar top color. First, I reduced the blur so they would stand out more. Second, I I removed the warp and selected some lines sporadically, darkened, thickened, and changed the line pressure to vary the line thickness. This left most grain lines thin, but a smaller number thicker and darker, which is more like the real wood grain. Finally, I created some long, low opacity rectangles that are slightly darker than the top, applied a gaussian blur and reduced the opacity so it was subtle. I copied this rectangle and placed a few on the top, at various widths, to show some variation on color here and there. Finally, I added a slight light-sheen on the guitar top the right side of the guitar, where the light is strongest.
One final minor tweak. The sides of the guitar show slightly below the waist of the guitar body. before, they were too dark, so I brightened them up a bit. 
I think these all helped, but I'm sure there is more I can do to make it more believable. It's been a great learning experience for me, and I thank everyone for the suggestions. 😀
Lou

I haven't used Affinity 2 stuff much yet on the iPad (Just Affinity Photo 1), but I'm just using an iPad Air 3rd Gen and Apple Pencil 1.
Affinity Photo 2 is using 1.63GB right now with no "live docs" and some of the free "extras" downloaded. A "Serif Labs" storage container (shared by all affinity apps) is taking up 663MB (I think this is where the "extras" live).
If you're going to be doing stuff with photos, documentation, ebooks, etc then you're almost certainly going to need 128GB. Mine is slightly over that limit right now and I'm glad I got the 256GB, but I've also got Pages and Numbers stuff on here, reference doc PDFs, several large games, etc.
So it basically boils down to:
64GB - You better be doing nothing but one big app and its documents or you will run out of space. Even then you might run out of space if the docs are large and numerous enough.
128GB - You might be able to get away with this if you don't have large games, ebooks, or are willing to offload more stuff "to the cloud". (Store more data on cloud drive service, "offload unused apps" etc)
256GB - If you want to just do absolutely everything (Pages, Numbers, note taking app, Affinity apps, ebook collection, technical or other reference PDFs, etc) you're going to need more than 128GB at some point or you'll be using "offload to the cloud" options and storing more of your stuff on cloud drives.
And always get the Apple Pencil. It works with everything without hassle and works well. I actually went cheap and bought mine used on eBay because initially I wasn't sure I'd use it, but it has made things possible on the iPad that would otherwise not be possible so I've used it a lot.

Yes, always buy from the developer when possible. When you buy/subscribe from the app store then apple just gets a big chunk of the money. So any time there is an alternative to buy or subscribe outside the app store(s) avoid the "app store".
The only real exception is sometimes software vendors, especially with games, will sell a bunch of license keys to a reseller who discounts them or something.

I'm afraid sir that it is you that has missinterpretted the situation when you purchased the software. There isn't an application on the planet that will keep updating a version of a program for a couple of years after it has been superceded. It is standard practice now that when you buy a software package you have access to updates for the life of that version. For when the next one comes out all development usually stops on the superceded codebase. This is why some companies offer a free upgrade to the next version when one is imminent. Not all companies do this though. In fact I think it is happening less and less these days because the communication between companies and their customers is much better these days. A lot of people are complaining about the level of communication from Affinity but it is actually much better than most. Not perfect of course but don't forget this is a small company that can't afford to have a huge communication team. 
Oh and the comments about fanboys? Man you don't know me at all. I've been a software developer for thirty plus years and am very hard on companies I use doing the wrong thing. It's just that in this case I've never seen such unfair criticism and felt the need to speak up.

We can understand you didn't understand. It does NOT change the fact that most people do understand the difference between updates and upgrades. So adding lifetime in front of that, is not confusing for everyone else as the difference was already made clear by using lifetime updates rather than lifetime upgrades***
I do agree with you that the wording is potentially misleading to people who aren't aware what they are reading. It is not fraud though, because "update" is NOT the same as "upgrade". The wording should be updated (no pun intended) if it exists any other place to make clear the difference for people who don't understand how software upgrades function. But I think most people are reasonable enough to comprehend that no software suite can receive unlimited upgrades on a $25-50 one-time payment.
The reason there are upgrades/versions is because no code base can be maintained for perpetuity. Technology and hardware changes too fast. Also if you like the software and want it to include modern features, then developers can't be hobbled by being forced to maintain old code for eternity. After a while that becomes too expensive, too frustrating and impossible. Developers need the option to be able to change platforms when there are major under the hood changes just so that they scale correctly and efficiently. Just because that timing is inconvenient to you is not a sign of fraud.
Imagine they updated to 1.11 or something w V2 feature set but dropped Windows 7 support from V1 without moving to a new version, locking those customers out entirely, just because it was cumbersome to maintain support. Now THAT would be fraud.

I think this is a clear explanation. I'd already thought the Apple relationship might be part of the reason why taking everyone to the store might cause more problems. After all you are receiving special recognition and it would be silly to think this doesn't help you with funding the program with sales.
I wish we could have received this more "in touch with customers" approach earlier on. I think most would really would benefit from more regular direct responses from Serif. Even if it's lighthearted, it's what some need to feel like the company has their back and is looking after them. That's the feeling I get from interacting with both supporters and critics (many are well-intentioned imv). This should become the norm. Many do want to see you succeed as a company, have good rapport with the staff. Even the more critical posters are just trying to be helpful. So please try to not to take it completely personally though I know easier said than done "social" media culture.

That said, I can only speak for myself. I appreciated the initial 40% offer. I never felt like I wasn't appreciated. I could see 100% why it was not feasible from the IT end, given the sheer size of the company being a postage stamp and the response here. I thought if there was a response, y'all would make it right somehow if you could. Also, the size of the response to V2 should also be telling of the important work you are doing.

Regardless, thank you for all that you do ❤️ We (our household) are grateful to this end because with every update, my job and other workflows gets easier to do. My husband does hobby-related editing. For us, every update is exciting and are rooting for a great alternative to succeed in this space.

Above all, I would like to thank you for this reply to your user base.  I am sure not all would agree with me, but you presented these issues in a timely and honest comment and I agree with all of your explanations.  Having owned/operated a small business for 53 years dealing with the public I know for a fact you cannot please everyone.  But your team has done an extraordinary job.  You all should be pleased.  Thanks.

Hi All,
Well, it’s been a pretty crazy week since the launch of V2!
This has been a real labour of love for us over the last year or so, and I can’t even begin to describe how hard the development team have worked on it. Not only getting the V2 apps launched, but also of course finally bringing Publisher to iPad. 
With this being our first paid-for upgrade there has understandably been a lot of feedback / questions around future updates and our pricing policies. I thought it was worth addressing / clarifying our position on some of these personally...
Updates to V2 moving forward
Buying V2 not only gets you all the new features you have seen, but we have various updates planned – including many more new features and improvements – which you will get for free. This will continue until such a time that V3 is released. We’re not sure exactly when V3 will be, but I can confirm we are not going to move to anything as regular as an annual upgrade cycle as has been speculated.
It’s worth saying too that V2 does include many under-the-hood changes to our underlying technology, and we have also been investing in several new areas of research recently. Some of these haven’t manifested themselves into new features yet, but overall V2 does give us a better platform to develop on moving forward and I’m sure you will be pleased with the updates V2 will receive.
Updates to V1 moving forward
While we did say on the FAQ that V1 would no longer receive any updates, I want to clarify that was about new feature updates. We will be updating V1 to fix any critical problems caused by operating system updates in the future. So if the next version of macOS breaks V1 we will endeavour to fix it. There will be a point in time when continuing to maintain V1 in this way will not be tenable, but certainly for the foreseeable future we will continue to patch. In fact, we have an update to V1 queued up for release very shortly with some fixes for Ventura and issues caused by a recent Windows security / quality update. 
We will update our FAQ shortly to make that clearer for everyone.
Offer period
In case you didn’t see, I’m pleased to confirm we have decided to run this initial launch offer until 14th December to give everyone the best chance possible to get it if they wish / have a decent amount of time to trial it. 
Upgrade pricing
It’s been really hard to see some of the comments about us not looking after our existing customers – we’re pretty devasted that anyone feels like that to be honest. But the fact is we felt our hands were tied somewhat with being able to offer upgrade pricing in a fair way. The main reason for this was App Store customers (which make up around 35% of our userbase). The problems with that are two-fold: firstly, we didn’t have a way from within V1 to validate an App Store purchase receipt to reliably ensure customers who were entitled to an upgrade could get one; and secondly, we could not find a good way for people to get that discount via the App Store. Us pushing upgrade customers to go exclusively via our own site (including customers who were previously acquired via the app stores) may also have put us in violation of App Store Ts & Cs which we were obviously concerned about.
I’m not saying that these issues were completely insurmountable, but any solutions we came up with would be messy, and most importantly could have resulted in some bona fide V1 customers struggling to get validated and claim their discount. We certainly don’t have the support resource here if we ended up needing to manually validate tens of thousands of receipts for example.
The only option we felt was safe to move forward with was a general launch offer, which would guarantee that every V1 customer could get the discount, whether they purchased directly through us or the App Stores. We knew a side effect of that would mean some new customers would end up receiving that same discount – but we felt that was a better option than V1 customers missing out. It’s also worth saying that while there has been some good press about V2, all our main marketing has been via email and through social media to our followers. In other words, we felt ok about it because we knew the vast majority of people who would find out about it or take advantage of the offer would be existing customers. I would be surprised if over the offer period customers upgrading from V1 didn’t make up more than 90% of our sales.
Overall I do believe us giving a 40% discount, along with the addition of the new Universal Licence of course, is offering fantastic value for money for those who want to upgrade. 
However, taking on board some of the feedback there is something extra we can do – we will offer a new free bundle of content exclusively for V1 customers upgrading to V2 as an extra thank you for your support. I’ve seen this suggested by a number of customers and it’s a great idea as it does remove the App Store conflict entirely. 
We’ll need a little time to put something together, but all customers who previously registered or purchased V1 and have since upgraded to V2 will receive a voucher code for this via email as soon as we can.
A comment on no subscription
I do want to say that some of the points above are exactly the reason why software companies move to subscription. Whatever you do with upgrade pricing, you still have the issue of customers who bought the previous version 3 months ago vs. those who have had it 2+ years. Offering perpetual licences also gives the additional overhead of needing to maintain the previous version longer than you would if everyone was on subscription / generally always on the latest version.
We are a small team so some of these complications are not ideal — all we really want to do is focus on developing our latest codebase, push out regular updates and continue with our mission to make great creative software accessible to everyone. 
But it does need to be funded somehow. We know you love our no-subscription model, but there also needs to be a level of appreciation that the alternative is having paid-for upgrades from time to time. That unfortunately comes with its own problems.
All of that said, I have to say we have been blown away with the response to V2 - around 3 times as many people have upgraded in the last week than we expected - and we really can't thank you enough for the support you have shown. More than anything the success of this upgrade puts us in a great place to continue investing heavily in development which is ultimately what it's all about, and we’re super excited to crack on with some great updates coming next year!
All the best,
Ash

I really like this representation of the Tree of Life motif—especially the emphasis on the hands reaching out. We all need to be reaching out to one another in support and friendship.

Thank you for sharing—this brought a smile to my face this morning! 😁

If some people are disappointed and want to provide feedback, that's what this forum is for. Fine. Especially when they highlight specific issues. And some people have gone to a lot of trouble to describe and illustrate issues. Unfortunately it seems to me that other posts have expressed a level of negativity I'd associate more with Tw*tt*r than a  forum for graphics professionals. Just my two cents.

You are right Mike and after a good sleep, deleting my existing master pages and starting again, I found/created success.
Set up and populated a group of single pages with both cover page and body/bibliography draft text.
Created two single, not facing, master pages, one blank and one with just the page number at the bottom.
Dragged blank master onto the cover page, selected all the others and dragged the page-numbered master onto them.
Section manager functioned as it should and I have the desired outcome, successfully tested with a couple of exported PDFs.
Now pondering whether I really need the blank master ...
I am now a happy person who is ready to start learning in a structured way, looking forward to working through tutorial material designed for AV2.
Many thanks,
Hakim

Similar to any shopping experience. Ever paid full price for a coat and then seen it on sale the next day?

But applications from the Mac/MS store "don't" have a product key! And that's what Serif mentions all the time - because we don't have the ability to distinguish existing users from "all" stores, we give a very generous discount to everyone. And this discount is even higher than they would give a discount knowing existing users. So your only profit would be that you would pay more than today with a 40% discount, but new users would get nothing (I'm finally satisfied). Regardless of the fact that the discount is limited in time, so it will only be used by those who find out about it in time - which is with a high probability only the existing user who received the information email, goes here to the forum, or to FB/Twitter/.. .Other/new users will most likely not find out in time, and therefore will probably not take advantage of the existing generous discount.

Too bad you didn't heed my call to back up your claims - that Serif stated in the purchase agreement (or somewhere else) that it would provide "lifetime updates" to its apps. Surely there would be a skilled lawyer here who would help you with the lawsuit.
P.S. I'm curious myself, because I've had Affinity apps for 6/3 years now, and I've never seen anything like this anywhere.

There's a Bible story about labourers in the vineyard that you might glance at. I'm pretty chuffed at getting three good Xmas presents at a very reasonable price of £90 here in blighty. Your complaint is that your discount isn't greater than a new customer's. Sounds like that old sin of Envy to me.

To counterbalance all the unjustified negativity that's going on in these forums, I'd like to say that there are people who really like the new version of the affinity suite.
It's totally amazing to have such a large toolset for a price as low as 40€ per app.
The apps are powerful and a joy to use. It brings a huge creative power to the crowds and we can't thank you enough for that. I wish more people  realize the luck they have to have such an incredible tool at an incredibly low price. When I started in the field 25 years ago the equivalent apps were 20x more expensive and didn't have a tenth of the features offered in this suite.
Ok there are some bugs and we are still waiting for some important features, but I hope that this 2.0 cycle will bring a wave of cashflow that will fuel the dev team to bring the apps to new heights.
So to all the affinity team : THANK YOU! Your suite of apps is bringing to the industry a tidal wave of fresh air. You are doing an incredible job and we can't wait for what you are preparing for the next releases.

I am flabbergasted by some of the very negative comments. It almost seems like trolls because their arguments are so inane and out of touch.
My first order was on June 3, 2019, with Affinity Designer, then quickly Affinity Photo on June 7, and Affinity Publisher on June 12. It cost me a total of €137.99. Since then, there have been many updates, each more exciting than the last. Whenever I have encountered a problem, I have always got an answer either from the technical support or from the forum. This is not always the case with other software.
As soon as I acquired the software, I noticed a prodigious acceleration in my workflow. I had done a test. A job that was undrinkable in Scribus (a good afternoon’s work) took 1 hour 15 minutes in QuarkXPress and 55 minutes in Indesign. In Affinity Publisher, which I didn’t master like the other three, it only took me a little over half an hour.
Now, the full upgrade is only €119.99. It’s really bad form to complain, especially since this update is obviously only for old users. New customers may have been informed, but by the time they decide, the price will be back to its normal €199.99.
The company has to live anyway. It is not a philanthropic work. A multitude of free updates in 3 years is exceptional. Those who think the software is too expensive for them (it’s only €120), or should be free, should be more constructive: they should switch to free software instead. Then don’t complain that they’re only getting what they pay for … which isn’t much. With the Affinity suite, the evolution of its products shows that we are in good hands.

Hyperbole. To say that Affinity despises it’s customers is beyond ridiculous and clearly untrue. 
Further to that you’re taking offence at some imagined insult and then contradicting yourself by saying V2 is a small price that you will probably pay. Since V2 only came out yesterday you can simply finish any Affinity projects you have outstanding in V1.
If you’re so offended by the 40% across platform discount price for V2 you really don’t have to buy it.  No one is twisting your arm.  You can instead use Adobe if that’s what you want to do, since if  I understand you correctly you are already paying a subscription to them even though it must be a much higher financial hit to you than what Affinity is asking at 119 euro.

And many will pay happily because it works for them.
Best regards!

I assume this refers to anyone who dares to praise a piece of software that they like, as opposed to trying to find anything they can to complain about!

Please feel free to stick with V1 until we get to a point you see as a worthwhile upgrade. There's no compulsion to pay again right away. V1 will keep working, we'll keep working, upgrade only when you see fit.
Mark