Why reinvent the wheel... steam friends/chat?

I think he was not completely informed of how many Linux users are a part of PA and how many Linux users use steam.

To inform him, those numbers are 50% and 50%. Meaning, it is quite quite possible that 25% of PA users don't use steam. That is quite a bit of them to deny a function of comprehensive matchmaking to.

Simple. Not everyone plays Planetary Annihilation through Steam.

What I don't understand is why Steam reinvented the wheel with friends and chat functionality. They're pretty terrible at it and I can't abide achievements, the SteamCommunity (as a system or the actual community ) or the interface.

If it weren't attached to the most popular digital distribution store around...

Clearly, the best solution is to buy a second copy of PA on Steam so that Uber can afford to make PA2.

You know, it's funny.. looking at OP's statement.

I can add non-steam games to steam, for example: Supreme Commander, Minecraft, Red Alert, Need for Speed World, Diablo 3, etc, and don't even need to use the steam launcher for the steam overlay to STILL work within the games. The BL still works, it still shows you playing the game, and you don't have to connect it to steam and you're not forced to boot steam to launch PA every time you want to play. That's the reason why I absolutely refuse to turn my PA into a steam game.

I have many games in Steam, don't really have a problem with the idea of the Steam platform, but hate that I'm required to boot the platform in order to open the game at all. The way I see it is this : If Steam dies, for whatever reason, be it bankruptcy, cyber attack, act of god, zombie apocalypse, Terminator : Judgement Day, etc, you will never be able to log in and download your games. When, not if, you have to format your hard drive from shenanigans that shouldn't have happened, you will not only lose all of your currently installed games, but the ability to download them. Forever.

As has been said, not everyone uses Steam. I am one of said people.

Furthermore, we'll be able to do cool stuff with the Uber chat system that we wouldn't have been able to do with the Steam chat system.

Pretty simple answer.

Ah, already done for me, 200$ uber and 90$ Steam.

i try to avoid steam like a pest these days ...

I have steam, I was an early adopter even.
But I don't like its monopoly position current day.
What happens when Valve gets a change of leadership ...
So I try to buy the game straight from the developer where possible and usually cheaper too.
I currently do not play PA trough steam. Ofcouse if I have to I will

Since I have no friends, all that friends stuff is beyond me anyway

I would hate to buy my physical copy of PA then be forced to download and install more programs just to get the social features in the game to work.

Why can no game have it's own Social features?

exactly there should be no need for me to instal stuff like steam TS or mumble
i rather would have every comunicationfeature in the game itself ... with many options on or off turnable

Lol this has to be the most equal vote ever 33/33/33%.

Steam does not crash a lot. if it does there is a problem with your pc. try not over clocking or update driver or reinstall.

I prefer steam. i mean use the tools that steam give you as a dev, instead of trying to always make your own thing. Sometimes making your own thing is good, but not always.

Imagine if every game developer wanted their own Steam like store.

already we have.
Steam. best.
origin. crap.
uplay. crap.
Blizzard meh.

Its nice to have all games and all friends. so when people buy PA they automatically have all their friends from the steam friends list ready to go.

ye but the point is if you buy PA off steam that's 30% of the price Uber will never see.

Added to that you don't have to have a store/manager for your games.

you can always convert your PA to steam and back if you want to ...but you don't have to.


end result : some people will be in need of integrated social.

I use steam for PA and I hate it so much...It's much easier to add friends without getting confused with steam names, and dat stupid hotkey for bringing up the overlay. While the chat is faster for steam, Uber chat is much more user friendly.

I understand "not everyone plays through steam" and some people don't like it, but the benefits vastly outweight catering to those people imo. There's just so many benefits and wasted energy and time. I guess it's too late now and I know my opinion isn't going to change anything. I just wish this is the route Uber went. To those who disagree.. well, I wonder how many of you are disagreeing while waiting in a lobby or to get a game going :/ I don't know about you but it takes me a long, long time usually and this isn't something that's been improved, even with the social features. I just feel like effort could have been better allocated.

Just my opinion, I know many of you will disagree

Yeah, I totally understand the concern about wasted time. There are a lot more people than you might think that didn't buy this game through steam though (That number seems to be in the tens of thousands at least). The chat stuff is also probably not taking that much dev time. It seems to just be XMPP server-side and a javascript XMPP library on the client, with some special magic in the middle to connect to Ubernet and Steam. The simplicity and modularity of this keeps the development time short, reduces the number of bugs, and enables a lot of possibilities for mods to hook into it that we just can't do with Steam. I already know of at least a couple modders with plans to take advantage of this chat service for client automation.

I don't see how that's relevant, or even fair really.

In terms of "getting a game going" it doesn't really matter what "brand" of social features you're using because it's ENTIRELY dependent on how many friends you have, how many of them are online/available and how many of them own PA.

Mike

Yes why? why not just make it better?

A global chat in the main menu for the whole game would be nice. With tabs, the global chat next to your friends list and friends chat.

Also, as a reminder, with a new game like this, may seem disambiguous, but for a new game please please please, do NOT post total players connected to global chat. The lower the number people see, the lower the number becomes, it is a sympathetic suicide and a self fulfilling disease, like when you run out of blood and your body pulls it from your brain to fuel your torso.

Yes, however, I'd rather a general chat to be a like a tab on your internet browser (something that is fullscreen) rather than a little window in a corner. It would be also cool to look at the lobby list while you are in a lobby.