Friday Facts #124 - Steam Status I

[jockeril]

You can buy it right now, and you'll get a steam key to add it to your steam account if you wish.
Threatening to pirate the game because you want to buy it only once it's on Steam, and only for 15 won't do any good.

Just facepalm... If I would be able to buy it in web site I would done it by now.

Why is it that you "can't" purchase it via the website?

you should have said something before - last year they fixed a problem like that for some countries, if I remember correctly

[Iphrid]

So is there going to be a Steam page before release? Wouldn't it be more sensible to have one at least for the upcoming games list?
There are games on there that don't even have a release date announced or if they do, it's months away but Factorio does not. Let's assume that, a few days before release, some prominent youtubers might be asked to cover the game to create some buzz for the release but when there is no Steam page to go to, it might hold people back, as silly as that might sound. I understand that the new and improved trailer is to be finished before the page is made but having the page at the very least could make creating the buzz so much easier, couldn't it? I'm just wondering what the reasoning is behind having the Steam page so late before release, if at all, when there is a perfectly good list for upcoming games on Steam.

[eurypterus]

Sorry if I missed this somewhere.

Is there going to be Steam cloud-sync for save games? It would be really nice if I could easily play the same map over different PCs without having to carry around a thumb-drive with the save files on it.

Also I believe this has been asked, but I didn't see an answer- Will mods be integrated onto the Steam workshop?

Thanks!

[vanatteveldt]

@eurypterus

Can't answer your question, but what I do is have two DropBox folders for mods and saves, and I created a symbolic link to the two folders from my Factorio folder. That should certainly work on Mac and linux, and I think Windows also has some sort of "folder shortcut". You could even put the whole game in DropBox, the game itself is smaller than my save and mod folder combined...

[Kalanndok]

I cannot talk for the developers but from a technical point of view I doubt that cloud-sync for saves is possible at all.
We're talking of savegame sizes of about 30-50 MB in small to medium bases.

I'm not sure if steam allows such an amount of data in their cloud.

[HanziQ]

I cannot talk for the developers but from a technical point of view I doubt that cloud-sync for saves is possible at all.
We're talking of savegame sizes of about 30-50 MB in small to medium bases.

I'm not sure if steam allows such an amount of data in their cloud.

They allow up to 1GB in total (per user per game).

[DaveKap]

So here's a thing...

I very much want to promote this game far and wide as soon as possible. However, I don't want to do that without first having access to the complete game. Are you going to be giving out Gold copies of the game to streamers prior to release? If not, that is fine, just let me know so I know how to hook you up with the streamers I am particularly fond of. Thanks!

[DaveMcW]

Factorio 0.12.22 is the gold version they submitted to Steam a couple weeks ago. If they do release a day 0 patch, I'm sure they will put it on the experimental channel first.

To get a free key, check the Press page.

[Klonan]

So here's a thing...

I very much want to promote this game far and wide as soon as possible. However, I don't want to do that without first having access to the complete game. Are you going to be giving out Gold copies of the game to streamers prior to release? If not, that is fine, just let me know so I know how to hook you up with the streamers I am particularly fond of. Thanks!

If you know any people (mostly looking for youtubers) who would be interested in the game, please send their details to me at press@factorio.com .
The steam build is currently the 0.12 stable (0.12.22)

[DaveKap]

So here's a thing...

I very much want to promote this game far and wide as soon as possible. However, I don't want to do that without first having access to the complete game. Are you going to be giving out Gold copies of the game to streamers prior to release? If not, that is fine, just let me know so I know how to hook you up with the streamers I am particularly fond of. Thanks!

If you know any people (mostly looking for youtubers) who would be interested in the game, please send their details to me at press@factorio.com .
The steam build is currently the 0.12 stable (0.12.22)

Done and done!

[jundis]

Just to make sure I have this straight, I bought this game to support the devs early on for $23 USD for the Furnace Attendant, and now it will be released on steam for $20 USD with the exact same content?

I really enjoy this game and exclusives don't matter that much to me, but the fact I am charged more for buying it early for the same content since scenario is now included, is absolutely ridiculous.

[aka13]

Absolutely agreed. I would have not bought the game in early access, hoping for additional content as a "backer" if I knew it will be out later for cheaper. Honestly, I simply would have pirated it.

[kovarex]

Just to make sure I have this straight, I bought this game to support the devs early on for $23 USD for the Furnace Attendant, and now it will be released on steam for $20 USD with the exact same content?

I really enjoy this game and exclusives don't matter that much to me, but the fact I am charged more for buying it early for the same content since scenario is now included, is absolutely ridiculous.

The furnace attendent was for 15 euro early on, and then it was raised (not so long time ago) to 20, which is the same price of the full game of steam with the scenario upgrade included.

[DethBringa]

I brought this game 4 days ago not knowing about the steam thing, brought the furnace attendant for the extras and found out yesterday that its all going to be included for less. Kinda wish I had brought 2 copies of the base game.

Dont get me wrong though, this game is great and worth every cent. It's just kinda gutting that I paid the extra for nothing. You know what would be really cool, if everyone that had the Furnace Attendant copy was sent a discount coupon for another copy (Transport Belt Repair Man though) of the game of the price difference (or maybe a little extra :p). Can you say INSTA-SALES SPIKE!

[_aD]

The game isn't released yet because it's not ready. The graphics, the mechanics, the bugs. The end game. It's not finished yet. The trailers, the marketing materials, the price, the GUI, it's not ready. These things change when the game is released. I cannot fathom why people have such a hissy fit about changeable things being changed. If you're all so about "buying to support the devs", then support their changes. This game is worth way more than we paid for it, however much you paid. You were never promised to pay the same price then as you would today, or tomorrow.

Manage your expectations like adults.

[Divran]

Hey, not sure if someone else has already mentioned this in this thread, but instead of giving a "request key" button to retrieve the steam key, could you not do what humble bundle does and simply send the game directly to the user's steam account when they press the button? I'm not sure how it's done, but I assume that you would use steam's "sign in with steam" feature to link their factorio account with their steam account, and then use another feature that I don't know of to send the game to that steam account. That way, they can't give the key away to other people.

[Originus]

"Hey I bought Total War: ROME 2 - Emperor Edition for 54,99€ and now its on sale for 13,74€. That is not fair ...."

I think its normal that prices change, especially in an early access game, i think you just have to live with it (imho i dont care about factorios price changes)

[jockeril]

Enough! _ad and originus are right. We paid to get the game and support the devs, each how much s/he thought was a right value for what was offered.

Games in early access have a tendency to become more expensive whenever more or better content is added and released games become cheaper as time goes since first release. Some games get more updates after release and some don't. Deal with it !

The situation is that now we have a very good game with a solid single player game and a working multiplayer system that will get improved as promised by the developers - and they will deliver (don't get me started on games that don't like Banished...)

While I acknowledge your right to think differently, this is what kovarex and the dev team/financial side of wube decided to do and we don't have a say about it because it's their right to make those changes as they explained and have written in the eula we all agreed to when we bought the game.

Can we change the subject now and concentrate on the fact that you can set a forest on fire and not be put in jail for it ?

watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmin5WkOuPw

[mbritb]

Absolutely agreed. I would have not bought the game in early access, hoping for additional content as a "backer" if I knew it will be out later for cheaper. Honestly, I simply would have pirated it.

That is terrible! These guys are working hard on this game. The developers are actually listening to the players of the game and taking their suggestions into consideration. This is an AMAZING game and worth every penny. I would've paid $50 for this game a year ago...even knowing I could've bought for $10 a year later on.

Factorio Devs! You guys are great and I've never had such a great experience with a game. Not only you guys...but the community itself (with the exception of people like ^^^ above). They've been such a great help and streaming the game on twitch...that community is great! Can't voice my support enough about this game!

[Supercheese]

I bought Furnace Attendant and have no regrets whatsoever. I have enjoyed the use of the scenario pack and wallpapers (I did indeed set one for my desktop background) for all this time; I would not have been able to do so if I had only purchased Transport Belt Repair Man. Factorio is awesome and completely worth the expenditure.