Frogboy

[quote who="Alstein" reply="254" id="2889441"] Quoting Frogboy, reply 251 Quoting Tridus, reply 249 Quoting Melamine, reply 248 Why do so many people fail to understand the basic premise that Steamworks is anti-competitive bundleware? It forces users to install and run a games store whenever they wish to access purchased titles. Probably for the same reason people fail to understand that Steamworks is so popular with developers because it's the best tool on the

[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="253" id="2889433"]I did that. Guilty as charged, and no regrets. I strongly object to the threat that Steam poses to the consumers. I just don't want to see something that is potentially saving pc gaming turn into its doom.[/quote] Would you still feel that way if I told you that several major publishers and developers have said straight up that if Steam ever got a monopoly they would cease making PC games? It has nothing to do with St

Also, the world of Elemental is filled with lore. The Hiergamenon has a great deal of it in it and you can also get Destiny's Embers to get a much fuller view. That a lot of that lore didn't get integrated into War of Magic is something of a pet peeve of mine that will get rectified in Fallen Enchantress.

The Empires are not evil. I'd argue that the Empires are more on the "good side" than the Kingdoms in many respects. Trying to call the Empires evil is a gross over simplification. The Kingdoms and Empires are ideologies. Not moralities.

[quote who="Tridus" reply="249" id="2889406"] Quoting Melamine, reply 248 Why do so many people fail to understand the basic premise that Steamworks is anti-competitive bundleware? It forces users to install and run a games store whenever they wish to access purchased titles. Probably for the same reason people fail to understand that Steamworks is so popular with developers because it's the best tool on the market to do the jobs they need done. Whining about h

[quote who="Tridus" reply="46" id="2889341"] Quoting coreimpulse, reply 45 And that's how monopolies are built. Im glad I got to see Steam become one, I didnt with windows. this seems like a planned move to both make people buy the console release, and to destroy the used games market. Steamworks does NOT stop illegal copying. If only one person is putting out a comparable product into the market it turns into a monopoly? Well yes. It's hardly Steam's fault that the

[quote who="Polynomial" reply="35" id="2889216"] Quoting ZehDon, reply 29After tweleve years of seemingly endless false starts, cancellations and delays, and after the single longest development in video game history, Duke Nuke Forever is now a game I can never play. Way to fuck it up at the 11th Hour, Gearbox. I've come to realize Steam as a unifying platform for PC games is a good thing Zehdon. Its basically the PC's equivalent of Xbox Live, except with all the more th

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="31" id="2889144"]Pretty much what Tridus said. You can complain about Steam as much as you like, but no other platform offers so many features in a free-to-use package. It's pretty much a no brainer for publishers to use it, especially since most of the DD services are hosting Steamworks games. The gain far outweighs the comparatively few people who refuse to use Steam on principle.[/quote] No argument here. That said, we will won't put titl

[quote who="Rebell44" reply="218" id="2888743"] Quoting Fistalis, reply 216 Quoting Alstein, reply 215 2K has gone on my boycott list these days. Along with ubisoft, EA and activision.. not to mention my refusal to buy anything steamworks integrated. I'm pretty much limited to paradox, stardock and a few other lesser known companies to buy from(the list of which gets smaller every time i read the news about another smallish gaming company goin

Steamworks forces the user to install a competitor's store. Therefore, Impulse will continue not to sell titles that use it. We have no problem with Steamworks as a technology. But the bundling of a third party store is not acceptable to us. If someone wants to buy a Steamworks title, buy it on Steam.

[quote who="Rincewind57" reply="46" id="2888506"]Using RAM is for wusses. I get an enormous blackboard and a piece of chalk. Then I just write down all the bits I want to store. When I say enormous blackboard, it's the size of California. Also, i'd tend to agree with those saying that the unit limits in Starcraft 2 are nothing to do with memory. A mixture of gameplay strategy choice and processing power i'd argue. After all, look at an 8-player game with supcom with everybody at the 1000 unit

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="201" id="2886196"] Ask an Xbox developer how many free updates they're allowed to put up. Or maybe a PS3 developer. You definitely don't want there to be only one choice in a given market. You always want an alternative to keep the other guy honest. If you're putting out a game on the 360 or PS3 you are forced to agree to MS or Sony terms of doing so. This is because the 360 and PS3 are completely closed platforms, *no

These aren't meant to be voted on. I was just showing how much difference light from even one source can make a difference.

Nice.

Thanks!

[quote who="-RAISTLIN-" reply="195" id="2882531"] Quoting Frogboy, reply 189 Right now, using Steamworks is an option. If Steam has enough market share, they could easily make it a requirement to be on Steam. Then you start charging $X per month to make use of multiplayer, chat, etc. IF Steam ever becomes dominant enough perhaps you could save this post so you can refer to it. And there's nothing stopping Impulse from doing the same thing, if it ever dominated

Well, specifically Elemental is the game world. So I assume you mean War of Magic (Elemental: War of Magic). v1.2 is in beta. The first stand alone expansion, Fallen Enchantress is in development.

I'm sure they'll announce it when it's ready. But that's what's likely going on. Something else got funded or took priority and voila. You've only got N people after all.

Staffing gets shuffled in companies all the time. Stardock is still working on Society (www.societygame.com) but it's effectively on hold because the development resources were allocated to more near term projects.

I don't mind Steam. I use it for many games. But we're not going to bundle a third party store with our store.

Just keep posting your AI reports and such. I rarely respond but I almost always read them. I wouldn't have found it without you.

Thanks! any chance you could post a debug.err too?

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="185" id="2881510"]I don't see how Xbox Live and Steam are related. It's true that you need to have Live Gold to play Multiplayer, however the vast majority of Steam's games do not use Valve matchmaking/servers, so that comparison really doesn't hold much water. And it's the only thing Steam has that's worth charging a monthly fee over, unless they slash their shop prices across the board and have membership to be able to buy (basically what warehouse stores like

I'm not saying those of you with Windows XP are bad people. But I'm not saying you aren't either. ;) Yes, 1.19a fixes the AI bug.

The Steam numbers, which I have no idea if they're correct or not, are indeed very impressive. Which, as you can imagine, also makes the argument as to why Impulse works so well for us. Sure, Impulse may onlly have a small % of the market but I think we can all see how profitable a market it is. Last year, Impulse was Stardock's #1 source of revenue, even out stripping the enterprise group (games were a distant #3). Obviously Steam has a very commanding lead in the mar