I thought I had it running without starting steam before… That was pre-1.4 and the windows version though, so things may have changed. I know there used to be a wrapper that would start the game outside of steam, but that was ages ago.

I don’t think this is because of multiplayer though, as you can just not use steam services for multiplayer and connect directly to IPs. In my case trying to run without steam started causing crashes with windows forms, so steam linux runtime is probably being used for at least a few things.

Copying terraria to a windows VM (which was far more work that it needed to be) results in something similar, with a TypeInitializationException, so Steam is needed for what looks to be some social API, maybe for grabbing social links? It’s quite possible that there are more things, but I don’t think Terraria requires steam multiplayer services, especially as the GOG version runs without steam.

I don’t think that counts as DRM, but the end effect is similar: steam needs to be running. If steam ever dies, I’m certain a simple wrapper will be made to run Terraria and probably many similarly integrated games, but it is not ideal.

Can you not connect by IP in Terraria? I had though I had multiplayer running without even starting steam at one point…

I don’t know about that. The whole company is set up in a very unique way, such swift enshittification would probably cause a mutiny.

How well the culture of just making good things is enshrined once Gaben is gone is a different question. I can easily see a slow dissolution of the company as the people who care and the people who can grab power fight.

I also don’t know the internal details of the structure besides that it’s very flat and self-driven. Perhaps Gaben has an apprentice? I can’t imagine him being completely blind to his unique importance, surely they won’t just sell the company or hire a random CEO.

It would be great if Steam had competition! They’re pretty good for what they are, but I’d rather not have to trust them to be so nice.

It’s party marketing, yes, but it’s also Quality of Life features. Windows either has a setting you can find by farting around in the settings or it doesn’t work. Linux can have every setting, but most of them need CLI work, research, and the wherewithal to unfuck whatever you fucked.

If CLIs could be listed, explained, and parametrized in a simple GUI, it would make learning them 10x easier. More default scripts for unfucking things would also help (like Window’s old troubleshooting wizards). More status checking and better error messages, so one can tell when something is broken without manually inspecting every module.

It’s gotten much better, and will certainly improve by necessity if more average users pick Linux up, but it’s a step that has to be taken before Linux sees a major marketshare, regardless of marketing.

Even py.game would be better at this point…

That sounds like it’s correcting too aggressively. Perhaps it should take into account the last three matches before adjusting your ranking.

Hmm, when people say “stop buying AAA games” it’s usually a sentiment similar to “stop preordering games”. A purchase long after release and at a heavy discount isn’t really economically relevant, especially after the next product has been out for several years.

When you said you let a AAA game in occassionally, it seemed like you were saying you bought something like GoT when it released on your platform, and that people will continue to do that. Saying that people need to stop buying AAA games is about forcing AAA studios to change, and to stop allowing them to clown around. If everyone stopped buying AAA games on release year, that’s already 90% as effective as ignoring the bargin bin sales too.

So maybe you were speaking for me, but I think you did that poorly. The purchases that allow AAA studios to continue being dickwads are about as far removed from my purchases as you can get without learning how to hoist a sail, and even those up for consideration are eliminated 9 times out of 10. Trying to accuse me of funding the race-to-the-bottom enshitification is missing the mark.

Dude, speak for yourself, the last AAA title I bought was MH:W at massive discout many years after the next iteration released. I’ve never even considered a AAA title that wasn’t several years old already, that have had plenty of time to show exactly how scummy they are.

I think the more proper definition is 1kspm, so not only 1 rocket per minute, but also all the other sciences to match it.

I ended up completely rebuilding my base once I unlocked trains. Hexes everywhere, each one a cell that peoduced one thing, and then I just built enough to support 500smp IIRC. My first rocket launch was from a 500smp factory with no logistics. It took me 80 hours to do that though. XD

Megafactories are those games where instead of launching one expensive rocket, you launch one or more per minute. They’re usually at least 5 times larger than an endgame factory, and usually stop growing when the FPS drops below 30.

Factory grow, yes yes, much grow yes!

I’ve seen several people do it already. Maybe not enough to scare off data harvesters, especially when they copy paste so precisely, but it’s not a bad idea and not difficult to do. Perhaps claiming copyright in your about page would be enough?

Less has been used this way for over a thousand years.

Yeah, I looked it up and the A line is pretty budget. It’s still horrifically slow though, I’m disappointed the stock OS operates that poorly.

Really? My Galaxy Tab A was slow as crap right out of the box. Even removing the bloatware didn’t help too much, and it’s new enough to get forced updates that reinstall the bloatware. It’s so bad that simply swiping between home screen panels can take several seconds.

Also, the digitiser seems to shut off if it’s not used for a few seconds, then takes a second or two to start receiving input once touched again. It also has accuracy issues at regular intervals, almost like a few of the contacts didn’t make contact.

Is the S supposed to be better than the A? Either way, very disappointed.

120 -> 240 isn’t nearly as massive as 10 -> 20. That’s why it’s diminishing returns, each frame is less improvement as the numbers get higher.

30 isn’t bad, but higher is generally better. There are diminishing returns after 120 though, and I don’t think anyone could actually use 240fps.

Why would anyone use Steam accounts for professional stuff?

Introducing the Construction Robot MK.2! A second instance of Factorio and a collection of LUA scripts controlling another player!

ᵀʰᵉ ᶠᵃᶜᵗᵒʳʸ ᵐᵘˢᵗ ᵍʳᵒʷ

Want more MK.2s? 20 instances lagging your computer? Borrow the computer lab overnight for enterprise-scale concurrent factory expanding service while you sleep! Lean into the fleet nature of multiplayer by connecting multiple labs with Clustorio!

The factory must grow

Still not enough? Try running factorio headless in the background of computers that people aren’t really using! Pro tip: you can automate the installation process for maximum reach!

THE FACTORY MUST GROW

If you dislike Honda as a company (for subscription key fobs, or crappy warranty practices, say), you can still like the cars without giving the company a single dollar, by buying used cars. I suppose this doesn’t quite work, because EG is still getting money for UE.

Perhaps an inversion: Amazon Basics are usually trash, and many consider giving Amazon money distasteful, yet the storefront is definitely quite effective and the shipping fast. Denigrating one while using the other is common.

As for the different treatment, the people behind UE seem to make decent decisions (especially in the light of Unity’s recent decisions), while the people behind EGS have done nothing but aweful anti-consumer crap. They’re both owned by the same company, but behave differently, so different treatment seems reasonable.

That being said, there’s lots of people in gaming communities who whinge just to whinge. No changing that. I don’t get much of the hate for Steam, but I do agree that having a monopoly is bad, no matter how benevolent Valve is right now. EGS should have been the silver bullet to that situation, but the silver was arsenic, the bullet was hollow point, and they tried to shoot us instead of Steam.

When Epic stops trying to kill user fteedoms and divide the market, and instead make a competitive service, they’ll get far less hate. They’ll still get hate, that’s gamers, but winning by damaging the market is always bad.

When you buy from Taco Bell, you’re also buying a product made by a farming company, but you’re not buying from that farm.

Same with EGS/UE. People are happy to buy an Epic Games product, but they won’t buy it from EG, because their store is shit.

There aren’t that many comparable situations where a company both makes a product and has a storefront, without that product being exclusive to that storefront. Perhaps buying Honda, but only used, never from a dealership?

Regulation. Take the money out of governing, both national government and private directors. If someone makes decisions that affect many people, make that person accountable, either through a competitive market or a functioning justice system.

The problem is that the fantastically efficient tool that is capitalism will try to increase it reach as much as possible. Killing competition and undermining laws will always be the end goal, so long as they are in anyway allowed.

The reason companies used to care is because not caring drove customers to the competition. But then there was no competition, and the care evaporated. As long as they are allowed, they will take. Civility can only be guaranteed if profits are on the line.

The enshitification of Mojang has begun. Ridiculous privacy policies and bans in singleplayer. And the biggest introduction under MS was the engine rewrite, which was already underway when they were acquired.

They owned Minecraft for… 4? 5? years before enshitifying it. There is no time limit for enshitification.