NEWS: Egosoft enters the age of Steam

morts · Post by **morts** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 02:43

Oh thank GOD! At long last!

Stormsong · Post by **Stormsong** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 02:46

Tracker001 wrote:How would it hanndle any scripts/ mods ?
If X2/X3 are updated automaticlly,from steam.

It's possible that the updates for X² and X³ are not handled automatically by Steam. As far as patches, the games should (hopefully) already be up to date anyway.

Diesel309 · Post by **Diesel309** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 03:00

It's still a damn good idea, and I'm sure we all look forward to all the new "how the hell do I play this game" posts

Vic Mackey · Post by **Vic Mackey** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 05:31

AceofproZ wrote:
Diesel309 wrote:And it was answered if you read back. The answer was soon, does it matter? my DVD drive hasn't exploded yet has yours . Too much hype over a copyright program or what!
I'm still confused as to how software causes hardware failure. I'm a hardware engineer and I don't see the problem. If your hardware is so weak that it cannot be taxed a bit, then of course it will fail. If you buy cheap thats what you get.
True that, regarding the hype.

When the starforce protection system scans the DVD it only does for 2 or 3 seconds its not that long, so truly there shouldnt be a problem. What the problem is is the laziness of people to open the disc, insert and let it run. lol

By the way guys some feedback on the Steam system, im currently downloading X2 the threat on Steam and its going at about 60 Kb/s, so far a moderately slow download. Im not certain if this is normal or if its just been happening to me. Would appreciate some input for others who are downloading/have downloaded X2 or X3 on Steam.

Im downloading X3 on steam at 546KB/s. Must be your connection to steam or the servers are just slowing down. Steam is a great way to distribute games. If your system is stable, there should be no problems. Ive had Steam for a long time and never had any problems with getting the games or purchasing them. Also, you can backup your games onto a cd/dvd so you wont need to d/l them again.

OneSleepyDrinker · Post by **OneSleepyDrinker** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 05:37

Nice Vic,

Ok im not sure which side it could be, but ill be checking the troubleshoot in the Steam website to try and figure this out. its stabilized at 60-68 kb/s.

My system is showing up all green right now, so its hard to tell

Vic Mackey · Post by **Vic Mackey** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 05:47

AceofproZ wrote:Nice Vic,

Ok im not sure which side it could be, but ill be checking the troubleshoot in the Steam website to try and figure this out. its stabilized at 60-68 kb/s.

My system is showing up all green right now, so its hard to tell

Yea who knows lol, to be honest this is the fastest its ever gone. Most times its around 300KB/s. 600KB/s is my maximum speed on cable so its either lots of people downloading at the same time or something else..

Player. · Post by **Player.** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 05:48

[ external image ] + [ external image ] = [ external image ] And [ external image ]

OneSleepyDrinker · Post by **OneSleepyDrinker** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 05:51

Vic Mackey wrote:
AceofproZ wrote:Nice Vic,

Ok im not sure which side it could be, but ill be checking the troubleshoot in the Steam website to try and figure this out. its stabilized at 60-68 kb/s.

My system is showing up all green right now, so its hard to tell
Yea who knows lol, to be honest this is the fastest its ever gone. Most times its around 300KB/s. 600KB/s is my maximum speed on cable so its either lots of people downloading at the same time or something else..

0_0

My cable max is 30 Mbps, and im only getting 60 KB/s OMG.... *weep*

Syklon · Post by **Syklon** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 06:04

Player. wrote:[ external image ] + [ external image ] = [ external image ] And [ external image ]

i agree with player, very nice move guys!

anything that helps the X games succeed is great imo, because, honestly, this series needs to keep going forever! So whoever engineered this deal deserves major kudos

yoyo2k1 · Post by **yoyo2k1** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 06:44

I just bought my X3 copy on Stream:
The latest update is installed, and it only cost me 20$
It rocks !

BobTheDog · Post by **BobTheDog** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 08:03

Yeah, Steam is always slow after big releases. Later on it'll be faster after the initial push has died down.

PixelFX · Post by **PixelFX** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 08:14

thank you for releasing this on steam, I might accually be able to play it now, I bought the dvd when this went retail, but was put off by Starforce.. so again thinks for doing this ..

morts · Post by **morts** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 09:50

The wonder of STEAM is that it's actually based on the BitTorrent protocol. This actually means that when your copy of STEAM is idle, it will act as a BT node and upload files for people alongside the 100mbps Content Servers that VaLvE and other companies run. Theoretically, there's no limit to how fast your download can be because there are, at any one time roughly 100,000 users connected to the STEAM network, if not more. It's gone from being immensely laggy and shite to being a smooth, fast and hassle-free experience for gamers.

Plus I love VaLvE for developing it because they screwed Vivendi Universal in the ass with it, who took them to court and LOST. Now VaLvE's products are cheaper since they don't have to be "published" - instead they're posted on STEAM and hey presto!

The other thing is that you can "pre-load" the games that are about to be released, and then activate them as soon as it's actually "released" by buying the CD-Key off STEAM. This means no waiting in line for your game, no disappointment at it being sold out and best of all, you do this all from the comfort of your armchair!

Post by **BurnIt!** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 09:57

Just to confirm this for the concerned modding community:
The Steam-version is identical to a CD/DVD version patched up to 1.4.03 (well, apart from the copy protection

)

There should be no incompatibility issues.

Bunny · Post by **Bunny** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 10:29

Nice one

Oh I would have loved to have heard the telcons between Egosoft and their publishers on this on

Cucumber King · Post by **Cucumber King** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 10:57

Err... just a silly question:

When X4 comes out, will it follow the footsteps of HL2 and be a steam only game, or will it still be made available on DVD/CD. ( although I think half life had cd's... )

I'm asking this because many people have a very slow internet and their downloads take years to complete. A game like X3 isn't just a small file like an E-mail ( and X4 will certainly be bigger ) - it's huge! It takes time, especially with a slow internet.

jaeshaw · Post by **jaeshaw** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 11:20

Stormsong wrote:Understandable. However, I can tell you that there will be a no-DVD patch for the regular version of X³. I just don't know when that will be...

now that is good news saves me carrying loads of cd/dvd's in my laptop bag

jae

Rapier · Post by **Rapier** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 11:42

Stormsong wrote:Understandable. However, I can tell you that there will be a no-DVD patch for the regular version of X³. I just don't know when that will be...

Bernd said in another thread that it would be later this year...

andrewas · Post by **andrewas** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 12:12

morts wrote:The wonder of STEAM is that it's actually based on the BitTorrent protocol. This actually means that when your copy of STEAM is idle, it will act as a BT node and upload files for people alongside the 100mbps Content Servers that VaLvE and other companies run.

Where do you get this? Steam is direct download only. There have been suggestions of making it BT-like, and there have been suggestions about building in a P2P network for mod distribution, but at the moment Steam does direct transfers only.

Theoretically, there's no limit to how fast your download can be because there are, at any one time roughly 100,000 users connected to the STEAM network, if not more. It's gone from being immensely laggy and shite to being a smooth, fast and hassle-free experience for gamers.

This is more to do with upgrades to the content server and refining of the client.

andrewas · Post by **andrewas** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 12:22

AceofproZ wrote: By the way guys some feedback on the Steam system, im currently downloading X2 the threat on Steam and its going at about 60 Kb/s, so far a moderately slow download. Im not certain if this is normal or if its just been happening to me. Would appreciate some input for others who are downloading/have downloaded X2 or X3 on Steam.

Actualy, its 60KB/s which is most of a 512Kb/s connection, so possible its simply running as fast as it can go but reporting its speed in bytes rather than bits.

Also, certain ISPs throttle Steam, often as part of an anti-P2P thing. You would think they would differentiate between a legal, commercial, service and piracy, but many of them dont, or are running automatic filters which look for P2P applications, and Steam can look like one as it contacts multiple computers and transfers large amounts of data from some of them - exactly the same behavious as P2P will show. Check their support site, and search SteamPowered forums for previous problems with your ISP.

If you do have faster broadband, then perhaps you are on a slower content server. It happens occasioanly, and Steam does not automaticaly switch to faster ones if the current one becomes clogged. Try the clientregistry.blob fix - log out of Steam, find and delete the file, log back into Steam (you will need your password because you just deleted the blob), and it will redo the content server selection.

If that fails, go here:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... rt_Strings

and run the tests. It should point out anything which is known to cause problems with Steam.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

NEWS: Egosoft enters the age of Steam