Should 1C/UBI make Steam optional?

[Thee_oddball]

Originally Posted by Heliocon

Well technically you do because steamworks is in the steam client I believe. So you will have to register or link the exe in steam in order to play MP (I think).

Also for the record steam only requires internet for registration aswell, after that you can use offline mode.

Most of the tools and functionality included in Steamworks is intended to support games by including ancillary functions like cheat detection and DRM. Obviously, those things won't help you build a great game in the first place -- Steamworks is not intended as a game creation platform. If you're a Mod team, be sure to check out the Valve Developer Community. This site includes information on how to get the Source SDK, and is full of valuable information contributed by Valve and by teams using the Source Engine.

Steamworks, it should be noted, is not part of the Steam publishing/distribution arrangement. Steamworks is a free toolkit for game developers; distribution on Steam is handled through a separate deal with Valve.

https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/mod_team

[Heliocon]

Originally Posted by Thee_oddball

https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/mod_team

Nice catch - didnt realise they seperated in this way. One thing I love about Valve is that they are so completely dedicated to PC games (except for l4d/p2 which is multi) with the source engine and all their free tools.

[Thee_oddball]

Originally Posted by Heliocon

Nice catch - didnt realise they seperated in this way. One thing I love about Valve is that they are so completely dedicated to PC games (except for l4d/p2 which is multi) with the source engine and all their free tools.

thnx hel but here is something your not going to like, it sounds great till you get to the bottom..it almost contradicts what was written above.
https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/api

Matchmaking allows users to find existing games via server listings, or to start new games with a group through a lobby. See Peer-to-Peer Matchmaking for more information on using lobby-based matchmaking.

There are both game server and game client components to matchmaking. A game server (which can be a dedicated server or any client that will accept connections to other users) can publish information about itself to a Steam server (called the Master Server). There are a set of details it can share - server name, player count, map/scenario name, IP address. This is detailed in the ISteamMasterServerUpdater interface. The game client then uses the ISteamMatchmakingServers interface to get the raw lists of these game servers and their details. It first requests a base list from the master server via one on the SteamMatchmakingServers()->Request*() functions for the source it wants.

There are a few different sets of servers that can be retrieved:

* Internet server list - game servers hosted on and accessible via the public Internet
* LAN server list - game servers found on the local class C network via UDP broadcast
* Friends server list - game servers where your friends are currently playing
* Favorites server list - game servers that the current user has explicitly marked as a favorite
* History server list - game servers that the current user has played on recently
* Spectator server list - game servers marked in a special 'spectate' mode, which means they are actually a proxy that allows the user to observe a different multi-player game via a relay.

The result is a (potentially huge) list of game servers. The game client receives a callback when the list is received. The initial result is a flat list of IP addresses to query, returned approximately in order of how close the game server is to the requesting client.

The client can then request more information on each of those servers, getting both more detailed server information and ping time to that game server. It can take a while to query the information from servers (typically 50-100 servers per second can be queried), so most games choose to start displaying the information as it arrives.

The Steam client's built-in server browser will display basic information about the game server and give the option the user to join, but the information it can show is fairly limited and should be considered a secondary means of joining games, with your own in-game server browser being the primary.

[Heliocon]

Originally Posted by Thee_oddball

thnx hel but here is something your not going to like, it sounds great till you get to the bottom..it almost contradicts what was written above.
https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/api

Contradictory to what I posted, or what you quoted steam as posting?

[JG27_brook]

Originally Posted by Biggs

flat-out biased poll...

why was this even posted?

EDIT.. ROFL nice 'edit' OP... facepalm

So Y do want me to have Stream so much ?
If i want to buy hard copy with my own cash and want to play at HL and u are wanting to stop me?

becauese u like Stream?

Hmmm

[Thee_oddball]

Originally Posted by Heliocon

Contradictory to what I posted, or what you quoted steam as posting?

not what you posted but what was written on the steam page

[Gimpymoo]

No, it should not.

The Steam integration is there to keep the community together which is EXACTLY what this will achieve.

Look at Red Orchestra, Killing floor, CSS and TF2 to name a few, they use Steam exclusively for multiplayer and work fine.

Much better than having to install 3rd party hacks with everyone scattered everywhere.

For 128 player support, perfect matchmaking/lobbys are required and Stemworks integration will go someway to achieving that.

Also, Ubisoft could have insisted on their own DRM, then you would be really upset - lol

[Blackdog_kt]

I think this is leaning closer and closer to a compromise like the one used by the ArmA series (aka, steam comes with the version sold on steam, but it's not used by the boxed versions), which i find to be good news. Steam seems to be completely optional, depending on the kind of version you choose to buy (buying via Steam or getting a boxed edition). Keeping my fingers crossed

I like this because i don't think one can keep a community together by forcing standards on them. I know i wouldn't use any of Steam's community features for example, even if it was mandatory, because i really only engage in multiplayer with people i already know in real life or in a couple of public servers.

Look at the amount of anguish generated recently, simply by lack of clear information on how steam is implemented...
Imagine now that steam was mandatory for everyone and someone had a connection issue in the middle of a sortie, you'd be getting pro/anti-Steam flames not only on the forums but also while flying in multiplayer.
People would stop flying the mission and rather split up into steamers and non-steamers, mixed bag of Luftwaffe and RAF aircraft on both teams, trying to shoot down the "infidels". Maybe that's what the "renegade pilots" in the promotional material referred to

[Les]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

...you'd be getting pro/anti-Steam flames not only on the forums but also while flying in multiplayer. People would stop flying the mission and rather split up into steamers and non-steamers, mixed bag of Luftwaffe and RAF aircraft on both teams, trying to shoot down the "infidels"...

lol, that would be funny, they could form Steam and non-Steam based squads and engage in a never-ending battle to prove...nothing really.

Maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to let them fly together after all.