Steam Launch of Patch...When is this going to happen? (A. Now!)

vonotto · Post by **vonotto** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 16:22

SirMerlin860 wrote:i would like to ask everyone involved who don't know what i was talking about in my private messages to moderators to please stop putting in your two cents. grow up and drop the matter. it was resolved. end of issue. if you still have the need to talk about it have the intrest of this site and those who use it in mind. pm the people or start a thread to deal with those issues they don't belong in this thread.

again this issue was resolved in pm's before all the extra comments.

quit beating a dead horse and lets return to the topic of this thread.

If you don't want people to put in there two cents then don't post on a world wide forum.

Rapier · Post by **Rapier** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 16:30

vonotto wrote:If you don't want people to put in there two cents then don't post on a world wide forum.

He didn't, he's referring to Private Messages that were exchanged.

This thread has probably had enough warnings to stick to the topic, and what will happen if it doesn't, but here's mine: Stick to the topic or this will be locked.

Silent Shark · Post by **Silent Shark** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 17:45

I'm not expecting anything, but has anyone at Ego heard anything from Steam today? Even if it's bad news, it would be nice to know something.

To be honest, I doubted the Monday target from the start. It's Easter Monday (which in the UK is a holiday, not sure about the rest of the world) and Steam usually takes a while to organise patches. If the patch 'guy' only returned from holiday today, then I think the best we can hope for is the end of the week.

Galaga · Post by **Galaga** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 17:58

Easter Monday isn't an "official" holiday in the states. And c'mon guys, its 9am Pacific (the timezone Valve works off IIRC), give it time.

acreech · Post by **acreech** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 18:32

Galaga wrote:Easter Monday isn't an "official" holiday in the states. And c'mon guys, its 9am Pacific (the timezone Valve works off IIRC), give it time.

Negatory sir, they work on Valve Time.

This wait is pretty absurd imo. I thought one of the major benefits of an online distribution system was for ease of content distribution.

goodgimp · Post by **goodgimp** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 18:56

Steam has a wrapper for the exe's distributed via the service. You'll notice this when you load the game via Steam, you'll have access to the Steam Community features, etc.

The drawback of this is that patches or updates to games need to have work done on Steam's end to incorporate it, since the new exe has to be re-wrapped.

Yes, it's frustrating. Yes, I'm a Steam customer. You have a few options:

1. Be patient, it should be done soon.

2. If you're REALLY that desperate, buy the DVD copy now that it's available in North America.

3. Encourage Egosoft and/or it's publisher to distribute the game via Impulse as well as Steam. It's, IMO, a much better (albeit newer and thus a smaller library) service for digital distribution, you don't have to deal with Steam-related packaging delays.

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 19:36

goodgimp wrote: 3. Encourage Egosoft and/or it's publisher to distribute the game via Impulse as well as Steam. It's, IMO, a much better (albeit newer and thus a smaller library) service for digital distribution, you don't have to deal with Steam-related packaging delays.

The problem wasn't Steam, there was a bug in the patch they were given, so they had to start over. Without the bug we would have had the patch a while back.

goodgimp · Post by **goodgimp** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 20:05

mrbadger wrote:
The problem wasn't Steam, there was a bug in the patch they were given, so they had to start over. Without the bug we would have had the patch a while back.

I see what you're saying, and I'm not saying Steam is bad. But the patch is fixed, it's ready to go, it's available to DVD users. The holdup since the fix is getting Steam to incorporate it into the Steam-specific version of the game.

Getting Steam to incorporate something is an additional step that doesn't have to be taken on other platforms. I'm not knocking on Steam mind you, but this isn't exactly the first time I've had issues with stuff like this. Owners of Mass Effect on Steam most likely know what I'm talking about.

heyhellowhatsnew · Post by **heyhellowhatsnew** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 20:43

Okay, so we waited for the update on Steam till Monday and we haven't heard any news and i'm getting annoyed.

You guys know it wasn't going to be ready Monday, so you could at least have said something today like "Okay, maybe later this week!" So your customers wouldn't feel ignored.

I paid my money just like those people that bought physical copies did. So at least give a sentence about it so I can feel loved or something, devs or whomever else works at egosoft. Compliments and excuses from other people won't make me feel better.

firefly28 · Post by **firefly28** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 20:47

Im thinking about buying a copy of TC for a friend as I already own TC but well since theres 20 pages of replies could someone tell me if the patch is out on the steam version?

I bought it of steam because the gamers gate price is ridiculous, I am mean that way and never pay more than £25 for a game as well I buy games every few weeks and I would be bankrupt if I paid out £40 bucks which in most cases is based on hype (TC and the other X games were never like this and Im glad to see the game on steam for a fair price for both parties i.e customer and publisher)

Silent Shark · Post by **Silent Shark** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 20:54

No patch yet firefly28.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 20:54

heyhellowhatsnew wrote: You guys know it wasn't going to be ready Monday, so you could at least have said something today like "Okay, maybe later this week!" So your customers wouldn't feel ignored.

What makes you think anyone at Egosoft knows what's happening with the Steam update? Steam is run by Valve, who presumably have their own internal procedures for this sort of thing--so long as Egosoft has given them the patch materials (and I have no reason to believe that they haven't), it's up to Valve to get the patch uploaded.

lettuceman44 · Post by **lettuceman44** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 20:59

While Impulse is nice, I don't really want to buy X3 again.
It will come when it comes.

heyhellowhatsnew · Post by **heyhellowhatsnew** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 21:07

pjknibbs wrote:
heyhellowhatsnew wrote: You guys know it wasn't going to be ready Monday, so you could at least have said something today like "Okay, maybe later this week!" So your customers wouldn't feel ignored.
What makes you think anyone at Egosoft knows what's happening with the Steam update? Steam is run by Valve, who presumably have their own internal procedures for this sort of thing--so long as Egosoft has given them the patch materials (and I have no reason to believe that they haven't), it's up to Valve to get the patch uploaded.

Well you'd think you'd get an email from Gabe saying "Oh hey, here's an update on the patch status for the game you made" after his lunch or something just to give you a heads up on whats going on, you know just in case you have to tell a large section of your customers that the patch isn't coming today.

It just feels like the "it's Valves fault guys!" excuse now is just used to make us try to contact Valve who will in turn go (when they respond 3 weeks later), "Nope ask egosoft!!" and we'll ask you guys and you'll go "nope ask valve!"

It's just a normal business practice that could be solved by emailing whomever handles the patch that you sent asking "Hey, so any updates by the way? Our customers are curious".

They'd respond to you faster because you're official dudes with a business deal, and you're not like us who are customers who have already handed over our money to them so they don't need us anymore

Seriously, i'll write the email, just give me a temporary Egosoft Title like "Grand Annoyer of the Patch" so they'll know i'm official.

I mean its a valid question to ask for some news since it's obviously not coming today and its not like its an arduous ordeal I thought would be a good idea so you don't have a bunch of angry customers. One tiny email to Valve would help with a great PR problem.

Communicating with news and updates with customers is the best practice possible.

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 21:13

heyhellowhatsnew wrote:Seriously, i'll write the email, just give me a temporary Egosoft Title like "Grand Annoyer of the Patch" so they'll know i'm official.

How about Determined Distresser of Developers?
Something with more Panaché!

Rapier · Post by **Rapier** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 21:15

Just a reminder from page 5

BurnIt! wrote:I'm sorry it wasn't possible to release the update on Steam at the same time as on the website.

We've been trying to make this happen and prepared everything but a number of circumstances led to some inevitable delays:

Everything was set to go, but we had to stop the Steam release because of the 2.0a hotfix. We're not going to deploy the "glow bug" version via Steam obviously.
So we had to make sure they can integrate the fixed version into the update which requires additional time.
This and staff availability means that the update cannot be deployed before next monday.

We realize you are unhappy about this delay and apologize for the inconvenience but we can assure you that you are not missing out on any of the features of 2.0 because of this.

(My emphasis).

I'm not sure where everyone got the idea the steam release of the patch would be at one minute past midnight today, or that it would definitely be today at all.

firefly28 · Post by **firefly28** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 21:15

Thanks for the input about the patch, its a pitty Ive just made a purchase of steam, cant believe steam hasnt got a patch out yet and if there are going to be alternate forms of distribution and in the case of steam it actually gets mentioned on this site well you would expect there to be better cordination and up to date patches. (This is all caused because of stupid protection mechanisms that dont work, Im buying X because I like the game pure and simple but just wish I hadnt got it off steam, I just wish steam could make its whole platform in such a way that the patches just worked as they would with the official game, thats the point Im getting at here and this is probably the 4th time if not more that steam have botched launches for me personally now so I feel I have the right to be a little upset, even more so when I consider that this is what people get for supporting egosoft and I dont see how trying to seperate steam is helpful after all they are selling your product so they get bad PR it is naturally going to effect egosoft thats why it would have been better to corrdinate the patch releases)

fud · Post by **fud** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 21:18

Another thing to consider, it's barely noon (local) for Valve's location.

There's plenty of business day left.

heyhellowhatsnew · Post by **heyhellowhatsnew** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 21:25

Rapier wrote: I'm not sure where everyone got the idea the steam release of the patch would be at one minute past midnight today, or that it would definitely be today at all.

Well its not 1 minute past midnight today, its actually 3:22pm EST. Hope that helps. I'm in America on the East Coast, how about you?

How do our time zones matter with regards to asking someone from egosoft to email their valve/steam contact because they'll get a quicker reply than we would since their customer support is even worse?

Another thing to consider, it's barely noon (local) for Valve's location.

There's plenty of business day left.

Valvetime dictates that if it is not here at 2pm EST its not here on that day. Do not go against Valvetime, it is unmerciful and unforgiving. Valvetime consumes us all.

Carlo the Curious · Post by **Carlo the Curious** » Mon, 13. Apr 09, 21:32

heyhellowhatsnew wrote:How do our time zones matter with regards to asking someone from egosoft to email their valve/steam contact because they'll get a quicker reply than we would since their customer support is even worse?

Your timezone doesn't matter.

Valve's does, since if they're not at work, no-one's going to answer your hypothetical email (or be working on the patch, for that matter).

So does Egosoft's, since they're in Germany and it's a public holiday, I believe - I wouldn't expect many (if any) people are in the office today.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Steam Launch of Patch...When is this going to happen? (A. Now!)