NEWS: Egosoft enters the age of Steam

[Vic Mackey]

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.]

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[OneSleepyDrinker]

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]

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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]

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

[BobTheDog]

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

[PixelFX]

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]

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!

[BurnIt!]

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]

Nice one

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

[Cucumber King]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[morts]

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.

Well, if you know for sure, then fair enough. That said, BT-like distribution is pretty nifty. The only hitch would be that they'd have to make sure STEAM ran it's BT uploading when the net connection was idle. NOT when you're in a non-STEAM game for instance. Then it would be absolutely shite.

[Augustini]

Like I said, there will be a no-CD/DVD patch eventually.

Oh goody... can't wait
That should make starting the game a whole lot faster...

[busby1968]

Well since the steam verision does not used starforce will there be a patch avilble for the DVD useds to get rid of it. Lets face it everyone who has bought a copy of X3 has done so by now and there not going to be a lot more revene made by the game from DVD sales. I relized berefore you say anything that egosoft dont have control over it it's the evil publishers (DEEP BRONZE or something equally sad) screwing up the industry again but I hope they see sence someday(fat chance). Also what the status on starforce compatability with Windows Vista? got round that problem yet?

[muppetts]

I think you Steam is a great marketing platform and the X universe will see a large number of new members.

Can Steam members still register the game here?

Steam etc is the way of the future, we may complain but is it the only way smaller companies can stay alive and make a decent profit as they can avoid packaging, printed manuals and we hope can be a force unto their own, i.e no publisher and therefore have the option to release a better product.

[esd]

This thread is to discuss the introduction of Steam as a distribution method for X² and X³. It is not for discussing Starforce.

Starforce discussions tend to stray into areas that break the forum rules, so they get locked quickly. I don't want to lock this thread, so will simply split-and-lock any more Starforce discussion.