EDF 6 on steam under fire on for epic games account requirement
(store.steampowered.com)
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I don't really blame them for using Epic Online Services. If it's something you didn't know about, Epic essentially offers a ton of free multiplayer services to game developers--matchmaking, etc. I'd say for a smaller game it's probably better to use than some sort of independent server, because it may be a lot more resilient to being shut down in a year. All of it is totally cross platform, cross-engine and can be authenticated without an Epic account. I've played around with it a bit, but the miserable little game I'm working on isn't ready for a multiplayer implementation quite yet.
I know because I'm typing words on the internet I'm supposed to have a seething fire of hate for Epic because the Steam community told me to, but they actually offer a lot of really good stuff to small game devs for nothing.
The fact that an account is required is the devs fault. They should use the Connect Interface (which lets users ID by all sorts of platform tokens) versus the Auth Interface (requires Epic account). There's tech stuff about it here https://dev.epicgames.com/docs/game-services/eos-connect-interface#differences-between-auth-interface-and-connect-interface
Except EDF 4.1 and EDF 5 were both working with P2P, never relied on anything like EOS, and they work perfectly fine even to this day. The only thing they need is a main server for the server browser, which is very light and, again, was already working anyway.
The only reason they used EOS is for cross-play. However, there is no cross-play between consoles and PC, so the only possible cross-play on Steam is with the Epic Game Store (and its 3 users). So yeah, completely useless system that will cost them quite a lot.
The thing is you are right but nobody can communicate that clearly. Not even the devs. People have spent all day arguing about if its a full on account, if you just need a dummy account, if you needed one at all, because they completely fumbled actual communication. And since apparently it was an easy fix (which is why I assume this is the first people are seeing it despite the EOS popularity) it shows how shitty of a port job it is.
Epic provides wonderful services for game devs a lot of the time, and if that was all they did they'd probably have went down in history with a great legacy and minimal hate. But Sweeney caused a huge war because he wanted more. The "Steam community" didn't tell anyone to hate Epic, Epic created hate by stealing people's games away behind forced exclusivity.
Because literally no argument Epic has ever made will tell more than what they did with Metro Exodus. That alone shows what they were after and everything else is them intentionally using propaganda and emotional words to stir up controversy for themselves. Which they openly admitted in the trial with Apple to doing intentionally, as well as admitted under oath they didn't care about principles and only wanted special treatment for themselves (aka would have stopped if Apple/Steam had given them a special bigger cut).
Yeah, I mean they totally screwed it up either way. EOS is used quite a bit you just wouldn't know it, and I've not heard a ton bad about it for offering crossplay support, and the fact of the matter is that's becoming an expectation. They were fools for setting it up in such a way to require an Epic account when that's totally unnecessary.
I guess regarding Epic vs Steam I get more irritated because it seems that criticizing Steam almost anywhere online is like criticizing trannies on Reddit--almost certain to be met with ire.
Setting it up this way and then not telling people immediately (apparently the note on the Store Page was added after things kicked off already). It makes the "Helldivers-like game EDF" joke even funnier that they even copied the exact same controversy too.
Again, it sounds more like an extremely lazy port that they didn't give a single fuck about even putting in the smallest effort to make it playable. And in doing so they pulled back the curtain to something that even small devs can usually do so easily its unnoticed.
Because its usually done extremely poorly and ignorantly. Like, if you show up using Epic talking points (that they put in a literal powerpoint about how they would get people to use them to fight their propaganda battle for them) then you should expect to be met with "that's retarded, you're retarded" when they are obviously wrong or misleading.
Like, Epic started this. They willingly paid 6 figure+ prices to companies to screw over consumers to try and force their Store/Launcher onto them by holding games hostage. And their sycophants shit up discussions for a long time trying to support them by screaming "muh monopoly" and "muh cut" on every single other Steam news (which ran just fine because people can criticize Steam without issue on any other topic).
I am not accusing you of this, to be clear. But there is a reason why it happens that way and its entirely the fault of Epic and their literal shills.
Steam allowed peoples games and rights to be taken away and could have had secret exclusive deals too. Listening to "epic bad, muh exclusives" is all so tiresome.
"Could have" is a long way away from "we have evidence of it happening."
Steam isn't perfect and its a fucker plenty of times over. That doesn't make Epic less bad in any form, but that seems to be all you pro-Epic guys can bring to the table.
I don't care about exclusives, they all seem to leave Epic anyway after it fails to provide any sales. I care about them directly stealing my money like they did with Metro to force an exclusive.
You should hate the Epic Game Store because of their practice of buying limited timed exclusives, shitty UI, shitty lefty politics and their ESG contributions.
And because its literal chinese spyware.
Sure, but they already had a great implementation in EDF 5 so this isnt their first online rodeo. I get that they wanted crossplay but they defintely should have made it optional at least, instead of forcing on everyone who doesnt want crossplay or to even play the game offline.
Any multiplayer game should offer LAN-based P2P and/or self-hosted server options as far as I'm concerned, just because that's totally future proof. That should just be a default feature for a multiplayer game.
Beyond that you have to pick something, because normies aren't going to run their own servers and using open P2P via the internet is all kinds of security holes.
I do wonder what they were using before, Steamworks I assume? There's nothing wrong with that, but it only works on Steam.
I think its just p2p which should still be the case in edf 6 unless you are using crossplay.