About the steam changes

[IamBetterThanYou]

So, have everyon forgotten about the recent notice we had regarding games bought in steam has to be played through steam server?

I know they said they going to tell us when they implement it but at this point, they are completely silent as if they don't want to make us mad before shadowbringers xD

I feel like they going to do it as soon as all the pre orders and normal versions are bought and they earned their money...

At least tell us how it is going to work? "Know bug" can be anything, we are just left in the shadow without any further information... for a lot of us whether we will continue playing ff14 depends on the changes... so yeah, if any GM reading this, can we get a REAL information instead of the tentative crap we been given.

Thanks

[Moltera]

From what I've heard, Steam is simply requiring that games use their launcher, not their servers. There will likely be a simple way to bypass that using the file directory, so it's not anything to worry about. They can't force SE to give them control of the FFXIV code to deploy their own Steam servers and that's never going to happen.

[IamBetterThanYou]

Well, steam said they have no idea about the changes and to ask about sqx... it honestly sounds like something sqx did to prevent fraudulent purchases or something.

[Vercinotrix]

I'm actually curious about this since I have to buy my expansions on steam but I use the independent launcher from square.

I don't know how they could mandate this aside from terminating the independent launcher they have, since it's MANDATORY to register the expansion codes on your mogstation account.

Like is it gonna toss me an error if the launcher doesn't detect steam open? How could it do that without analyzing my computer?

[IamBetterThanYou]

I'm actually curious about this since I have to buy my expansions on steam but I use the independent launcher from square.

I don't know how they could mandate this aside from terminating the independent launcher they have, since it's MANDATORY to register the expansion codes on your mogstation account.

Like is it gonna toss me an error if the launcher doesn't detect steam open? How could it do that without analyzing my computer?

I believe this is how it's going to work:

You wake up in the morning, wanting to do some shinryu extreme.
you put your id and password in normal launcher and excitedly wait to login.
You see an error message: "Steam account must be logged in through steam launcher"
You realize you don't even have the steam version downloaded.
You download steam version 50gigs and then press launch through steam.
You realize steam servers are down and cannot authenticate.
You go back to sleep.

[Neri]

Well, steam said they have no idea about the changes and to ask about sqx... it honestly sounds like something sqx did to prevent fraudulent purchases or something.

Didn't they do that with Elder Scroll as well? I say it really seems to be on Steam side on this one.

[Baalfrog]

Well, in case you are not aware, Elder Scrolls Online was forced into a similar thing by Steam, and there is an authentication server in between your connection and game server that maniacally checks all the time "Are you a real Steam user? Oh, you are! I'll ask again in one second!" Effectively there will be an extra node where your connection goes through, and if for ANY reason you have a problem with it, you disconnect from the game. And atleast with ES:O Steam authentication server was extremely notorious for not working for days at a time, so Steam players couldn't play at all, since the authentication server didn't work and it has to maniacally check in real time if you are a real user or not. Fun times ahead!

[worldofneil]

From what I've heard, Steam is simply requiring that games use their launcher, not their servers.

I asked Steam about it, and they replied saying they had no idea what it was about (this is my post from the main thread which you can click the blue arrow to get to):

I sent in a ticket to Steam just over a week ago asking if they were requiring this change and why now. They've just replied back that it's nothing to do with them (which matches up with the current subscriber agreement that says you "may be required to be running the Steam client", not will be).



The last part of the message is because I referenced how I've (occasionally) been playing this game via a USB drive for the last 5 years and if they had any idea as to how I could continue to do this if I have to launch the game via Steam.

Then someone else noticed a day or two later that SE had quietly changed the announcement so it was no longer a Steam requirement, but their own requirement:

it looks like they’ve updated the notice again without updating the date this time. It used to start with “In order to align even more closely with Steam policies, we plan to implement an even more rigorous login check process for Steam service ...” but now it says “As part of our fraud prevention measures, we plan to implement a restricted login check process for Steam service account users.”...

Unfortunately we've not had any news from SE about it, but what really worries me is if they push out an update to Steam, since Steam only has 2.1 on their servers it is going to make people do a really massive download. Either via making people redownload the game again since 2.1, or worse, just updating the launcher via Steam and the game downloads back to 2.1 only to have to redownload everything since then (like if you accidently do verify files in Steam right now).

[Moltera]

Thanks for the detective work worldofneil!



It'd be really great if we could get some form of response from SE to help clarify the situation and resolve any concerns that players who purchased FFXIV on Steam might have.

[Vercinotrix]

I really hope they don't go through with it. Or at least give me the option to change my service account from steam to a normal windows user.

If I had known there was a normal windows version when I bought the game, I would have.