NEWS: Egosoft enters the age of Steam

IvanT · Post by **IvanT** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 15:23

I already have a copy, however I've just purchased it on Steam also. Steam is by far the most convenient and easy games system I've used. My games are available regardless of where I am, or what system I use. Fantastic

Hopefully we can work to expand on this for our future work.
-IvanT

TheBypasser · Post by **TheBypasser** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 15:24

btw will X3 still cost about 11$ here in Russia? If yes, then huh I gess I'll get another one..

edit: I mean not purchasing via Steam, but buying a Steam-protected DVD like it was with HL2Ep1..

secat187 · Post by **secat187** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 15:47

I found that the best way to download off steam is not to use the internet while trying to download from it. It seems that steam uses some intelligent bandwidth usage algorithms to make best use of it while letting you still use the connection for browsing the internet.

That might only apply on the slower 512kbs and below though. I'm forced to use dial up just now and have found that steam won't try to download anything if I and downloading something out with steam at the same time.

PixelFX · Post by **PixelFX** » Sun, 23. Jul 06, 21:16

got my new x3 steam account downloaded, the game runs beautifully

thanks for all the hard work. I can finally close a few online games, and hope family and loved ones will understand when i vanish for a few weeks ... ;P

Devistater · Post by **Devistater** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 02:06

busby1968 wrote:will there be a patch avilble for the DVD useds

First page of this thread, egosoft says yes there will be a no cd/dvd patch, but no timeline.

muppetts wrote: Can Steam members still register the game here?

As discussed in the sticky about steam registration in this forum, they are working on a solution.

As for steam and P2P, no they dont use that. Its easy enough to find out the status of their servers goto steampowered.com and pick status tab at top. A couple more clicks should get you to this page:
http://steampowered.com/status/content_servers.html
As of "5:07pm PST (01:07 GMT), July 23 2006" They are using 603 megaBYTES a second out of a total of about 3400 megaBYTES/s. You can also see on the list that the bandwidth is spread among a large number of servers, a number of which are non valve servers.
Also, its very likely that new 3rd party games are not allowed to use all that bandwidth, so if a lot of people are buying and d/ling X3, thats why its slower.

Ajy170 · Post by **Ajy170** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 02:24

This is really great news, hopefully we will see a whole heap of new players coming onto the forums. These are truly awsome games, and the more people they can reach, the better. However, I do hope you don't drop physical distribution any time soon. I will always prefer to pay a preminum for the box, the disc, a case (something better then papper next time guys

don't make us buy our own cases and all

), and a manual (no matter how out of date it was).

If any of you guys are in Australia, and don't mind having startforce, EB has a sale on now with X3 for $10AU (up here in Qld anyway), so just a heads up if you want to get it cheap

The_Mess · Post by **The_Mess** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 03:31

Nice... It's enough to make actually use steam to grab a copy-protection *cough* free version of X3

ChristensenCT · Post by **ChristensenCT** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 06:21

I normally don't check-out the new games available on Steam, but the image of on Argon Centuar caught my eye. It's strange that I haven't used Steam in months, and the first moment I load it up, there's X3 for sale.

Anyway, I heard someone say how the Steam version and the no-CD patch will "speed up" the game. Sorry if this was already asked, but is that speed just for the initial start-up, or throughout the game? Does the game access the disk each time you enter a new sector or something?

Devistater · Post by **Devistater** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 07:10

ChristensenCT wrote: Anyway, I heard someone say how the Steam version and the no-CD patch will "speed up" the game. Sorry if this was already asked, but is that speed just for the initial start-up, or throughout the game? Does the game access the disk each time you enter a new sector or something?

As far as I know, its like most other games. Installs everything to hard drive, and only uses DVD to make sure you have a legal copy.

Since steam doesn't have a dvd/cd then it starts up faster since it doesn't have to do the dvd check.

=VipeR= · Post by **=VipeR=** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 10:48

I just bought my copy over steam, too bad we cant use the one we alrady had on dvd but, aroun 17€ to get read of starforce its a bargin, so i end up with tow copys of x3, ho well... I hope Egosoft uses that money from users how rebuy x3 to make more content!

Post by **CBJ** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 12:26

For those of you with only the Steam version and therefore without a registration code, access restrictions to X³-related forums and downloads have been lifted. For downloads other than patches you will need a forum account; patches can be downloaded by anyone.

=VipeR= · Post by **=VipeR=** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 12:43

CBJ wrote:For those of you with only the Steam version and therefore without a registration code, access restrictions to X³-related forums and downloads have been lifted.

Does that mean thet people with pirated copys of X3 will also be able to access
the forums and the downloads?

cswiger · Post by **cswiger** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 15:39

Thumbs up to Egosoft making X2 & X3 available via Steam. I gave a pass on getting X2 when it came out-- was busy with other things at the time-- but I've enjoyed X3 enough that I'm curious about seeing X2 to get it right now via Steam, so the convenience of loading it via Steam represents a purchase that probably wouldn't happen if I tried to find a copy of X2 in a store today.

It's not that Steam is perfect-- at the least, I'd like to be able to roll back to earlier versions if a new update comes out which is bugged or otherwise worse than the prior version-- but Steam at least is another choice, and another chance for older versions or less-popular games that don't have to compete for limited shelf space.

Finally, I'd be overjoyed to have the "activate game on steam" system be able to process my existing CD-based install of X3. At the moment, I have to run Nero's DriveSpeed to slow down my DVD-drive or else the initial CD check takes 90-120 seconds to complete. [ Using DriveSpeed, the check takes about 15-20 seconds, which is still long enough that I want the delay to be improved or removed entirely. ]

Post by **CBJ** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 16:02

cswiger wrote:Finally, I'd be overjoyed to have the "activate game on steam" system be able to process my existing CD-based install of X3.

As has already been explained a number of times, that's not going to be possible.

cswiger · Post by **cswiger** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 16:14

CBJ wrote:
cswiger wrote:Finally, I'd be overjoyed to have the "activate game on steam" system be able to process my existing CD-based install of X3.
As has already been explained a number of times, that's not going to be possible.

Sometimes clever people manage to make things which seem not possible happen.
But if it doesn't happen, well, I'll still be fine.

fud · Post by **fud** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 19:01

I bought the CD version in January for about $45. I'll gladly cough up another $20 to be SF-free (issues which I won't go into because it's pointless to do so). Was going to reinstall the OS and everything next weekend anyway. So this would truly be a clean install.

I haven't logged into Steam in about 7 months, hopefully I remember my login details.

Thanks guys.

Data_Machine · Post by **Data_Machine** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 20:28

Since the steam version is virtualy the same as DVD/CD minus starforce, if I were to use the saved games I have from the cd version, will they be compatable?

fud · Post by **fud** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 20:43

I would think so, so long as you're not running a game with addons. If you are, you'd have to install the add-ons exactly as they are in your current X3 install.

Post by **CBJ** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 21:00

It's not virtually the same, it is the same. That means savegame compatibility, mod compatibility, script compatibility, etc.

Devistater · Post by **Devistater** » Mon, 24. Jul 06, 21:27

CBJ wrote:For those of you with only the Steam version and therefore without a registration code, access restrictions to X³-related forums and downloads have been lifted. For downloads other than patches you will need a forum account; patches can be downloaded by anyone.

CBJ wrote:It's not virtually the same, it is the same. That means savegame compatibility, mod compatibility, script compatibility, etc.

This is GREAT news! I'm off to purchase my copy now! I was only waiting until I knew I'd be able to download the X3 stuff, and the mods would work the same on steam version!

Thanks again guys!

Thanks for giving us a version without starforce!

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

NEWS: Egosoft enters the age of Steam

Lovely news :)