Keys, licenses, Uber, PA and Steam

I was an original kickstarter supported of PA. At the time, I bought two licenses, so I had a "beta" key and a "retail" key. I had been using the beta key during the development of PA and continue to use it with the UberLauncher and all is well. At some point, it got automatically converted to TITANS (I think).

I have only recently activated the "retail" key (my kids finally want to play), but it's PA-only, not TITANS. The "upgrade at 90% off" link takes me to steam. I see that today, Steam has a sale on the full TITANS, plus I can get the TITANS upgrade for $4. I have two kids. $25 ought to get everybody all set up.

Steam won't let me buy both TITANS and the TITANS upgrade at the same time. Okay, fine; I'll purchase them separately. So I first purchase the full TITANS version because I figure it will be slightly easier to figure out how to play it rather than trying to figure out how to upgrade an Uber license using a Steam key. So I've purchased it on Steam.

But I do not want to install Steam or anything like that. I want to just use the standard Uber launcher and be done with it. The internets (e.g. https://steamcommunity.com/app/233250/discussions/0/666826069008563510/) say that you can link your Uber account to Steam and you are all good, but that post is über old (hah) and the link to the linker doesn't work.

So how do I actually do this? In 2020, am I required to install Steam or can I just use the good 'ole Uber launcher?

For bonus points, how will I upgrade my existing retail (non-Steam) PA key?

Get the latest launcher at https://store.planetaryannihilation.net/download/pa

Other links that may help:

How do I link my Steam account to my PA account?
https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/kb/faq.php?id=63

How do I convert my game key into a Steam key?
https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/kb/faq.php?id=60

I own classic Planetary Annihilation outside of Steam. How do I upgrade to TITANS?
https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/kb/faq.php?id=237

I backed Planetary Annihilation on Kickstarter. How do I get my free copy of Planetary Annihilation: TITANS?
https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/kb/faq.php?id=148


If you need addition help, open a new ticket at https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/index.php

Thanks very much for the reply.

Check. I'm on Mac, so it's the same launcher from back in 2018. Unfortunately, one of my machines is running Catalina, so I can't use the Uber launcher on that machine. But I can run it on others to get things up and running with a particular license if necessary.

If I link to Steam, do I have to worry about having multiple licenses attached to a single Steam account? Right now, I have two PA accounts because I figured I needed two separate ones: one for the beta key (which I've had forever) and another one for the retail (non-TITANS) key. Should I login as my second ("retail") identity to PA and then link to a NEW Steam account, or can I use a single Steam account for all of this? I want to make sure that I can run PA TITANS on multiple machines simultaneously -- because that's the whole point

Looks like the upgrade path is PA -> Steam -> Upgrade with a PA->Steam link in there somewhere and everything will work; do I have that right?

For me, this last link isn't helpful because while the beta key did auto-upgrade, the second retail key I originally purchased doesn't auto-upgrade (which is unfortunate, but I'm willing to pay because these guys are doing a great job, even continuing to work on it years after the release).

@christopherschultz - For the upgrade path, that is my understanding.

I have separate retail (from 2015) and Steam (2018) accounts. I use my retail account for ranked play and tournaments etc just for continuity within the community. The Steam account I use for testing dev builds prior to release.

Re-reading your OP, do I understand that you want to run both Titans without using Steam? Hmmm... The rest of your questions in this context are beyond my experience. Please open a new ticket at https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/index.php