KubeRoot
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The steam version of trackmania is quite weird - I looked for a way to pay for it through steam for a while before resignedly going into the Ubisoft payment in the overlay… Only to be directed to steam for payment. I’m not sure if it’s even possible to pay through Ubisoft when launching it from steam.
Ah, seems you’re partially correct - steam has a command for downloading a specific depot version. You need to know the specific ID to download, and notably games can use multiple depots to form the game files, but I thought you needed to use something like SteamCMD or DepotDownloader for that.
I’m still upholding the fact that it’s not a “proper” feature, while I appreciate having those kind of utilities put in the user’s control, this isn’t something most people could figure out themselves.
It’s not like they have to create the compatibility layers from scratch; Valve did it for them.
I do just want to point out, Valve didn’t do that - Proton is mostly just pre-existing software that they packaged together into an officially supported feature. I love that they did it, and having it in the biggest PC game platform presumably did wonders for Linux gaming, but it was most certainly not made from scratch.
While it might not fit the vibe (and you might already know it), I feel like Songs of Conquest needs to be mentioned, being a Heroes spinoff. It’s an interesting twist on the formula, with lovely graphics, some things streamlined and some interesting new mechanics (like the essences for spellcasting).
I like Valve, but I will point out what’s been said before - Valve has a stake in making Linux gaming better, since it enables the Steam Deck to exist and prosper. They could’ve chosen other options that don’t help the community, but they didn’t choose this entirely selflessly, since they reap the benefits from not just their own work, but also that of the open source developers.
I generally agree, but I’m not gonna continue buying on steam just because they’re developing new tech - I happily buy games on steam because of the features steam provides.
That said, DRM-free games is something steam does not and probably will not provide - it’s a niche GOG is comfortable with, so many people who value freedom on software will choose it as their first platform of choice.
In that sense, the hardware is completely unrelated - it does nothing towards the goal of DRM-free games, and in case of the index, locks more games behind a platform.
What take even is that? I can understand some complaints about Linux support for how much people praise the deck, but why would they make their own handheld… And VR headset? I feel like hardware shouldn’t be locked to specific platforms, and I would rather blame Valve for not releasing steam-independent software for their headset.
Apple has always been about locking down the system and forcing the user to do things the way Apple wants. Not only within one device, but also in locking down inter-device protocols and removing standard ones, as well as obfuscating information about the hardware, not letting the users make an informed decision. And that’s already after the fact that you aren’t legally allowed to use the system on non-Apple hardware.
Well, some games that come to mind are Stellaris, RimWorld, Oxygen Not Included, and I think the upcoming Factorio expansion. And from those, I think it might be possible to buy RimWorld DLC off-steam and install it in a steam copy.
Fun fact, you can check - on steamdb, you can check depots for a game, and see if it has one for a DLC. If it does, then it is downloading extra files for it.
All that said, I wouldn’t say it’s 100% a developer issue. The way I see the accusation, Valve is very comfortable providing convenient libraries for various things, including working with DLC, that only work on their platform, making it hard to release the game elsewhere in the future.
I’m generally fine with that for a simple reason - Steam really does have great features that just work. However, if somebody forced Valve to make features like Steam Input available independent of Steam, it could be a great boon for gaming.
I think the DLC point is the one valid argument, although nontrivial to implement.
How do you think DLC works on DRM-free games works, like GOG? The game is just gonna check if you have the DLC installed, without any real DRM.
The main issue is, this is entirely possible right now for games to do, but it won’t be integrated with steam, and needs to be done by developers themselves. I don’t know how feasible it would be for Steam to realistically do something about it, but it’d definitely be nice if you could buy a game on steam, and later decide you want to buy DLC on another platform and install it onto your steam game.
If apple is viable for consumers, and apple uses ARM, then ARM is viable for consumers.
Windows and Linux being unfortunately behind is not an argument against ARM being viable, it shows it’s not ready - however, apple was in the same situation before they moved to ARM, so theoretically Microsoft could attempt a similar investment and push towards ARM. Apple’s control over both hardware and software certainly helped them, and went well for them.
That said, maybe it’s a disagreement on terminology. When I say that ARM is viable, I mean that it’s ready to create hardware and software that does what people need it to do. Apple clearly succeeded, now it’s a question of if/when manufacturers start making open hardware and software starts compatibility… Or if maybe another option will succeed instead.
You need to beat the level to upload it, and I suspect it’s a clear check upload - however, separately, the game tracks first clear and world record after a level is uploaded.
My understanding is that the goal is to clear every beatable level that doesn’t have a first clear (and some that have been cleared by known hackers, but I think those are all cleared legitimately already)
Don’t get me wrong, I know, I might not have been clear enough.
I do not think Palworld reflects negatively on steam deck - I was originally wrong, I didn’t check what I was talking about, and edited my comment after I read your reply.
What I meant is, in cases where proton does fail, it does reflect negatively on the steam deck. It’s not a statement of fact, and no longer relevant to the original message, but I was upholding that opinion from my original comment.
I mean, it kinda is a deck problem, in that it affects the steam deck’s capabilities as a gaming device. Apparently I misunderstood, I thought it was a proton issue where it’s just Palworld leaking memory? If you know what you’re doing you might be able to fix that issue, but for most users it ends on “this game doesn’t work on the steam deck”.
That said, I do believe valve (and all the other contributors to wine, dxvk, etc.) are doing work to make more games work on Linux, and they’ve done an amazing job so far
That seems to be incorrect, and quite possibly originating from Tim Sweeney.
The only thing I found is that steam keys, which (as a publisher/developer) you get from steam without paying, cannot be sold for cheaper off-steam. The reason for that is obvious, since steam doesn’t get their cut on keys, but they still have to provide the support and infrastructure for those users.
If you have a source on that claim though, I’d love to see it - I tried finding anything else on it once and failed.
I’m not sure which puzzles you’re referring to - do you mean stuff to reach an ending, or the obscure, very much optional, deep secrets?
It’s been a while since I played it, but I don’t remember grindy puzzles in the main content, bar the big one, but that one felt exhilarating to figure out and solve.
As for combat, it is difficult, but I remember beating the whole game without turning down the difficulty (which I remember being a thing), so it seemed fine to me… But yeah, people misrepresenting a game is always a risk.