Can I Family Share (steam) Space Age?

[Chumfactor]

I have connected my steam account to my factorio account.

I have Family-Shared Factorio (base) with my wife (she's in my Steam-Family).

I would like to Family-Share Space Age as well. Our intent is to join a friend's multiplayer server together (each on our own computer).

Is this possible?

If so, can someone please provide a step-by-step? I'm reasonably technical (retired software engineer), but the UI -- esp for Steam -- is a bit obscure (or maybe I am obtuse! )

Thanks!
~Ted/Chumette

EDIT:
My question is about what is permissible in Wube's eyes. I am absolutely NOT asking how to hack around things and "get away with it".

EDIT:
Image of a bit of Steam-UI that makes me think it's in my shared library and my wife can get it, but she's only offered to "add to cart":

Steam-SpaceAge.png (87.27 KiB) Viewed 962 times

[TheFrizz]

You can Family Share Factorio as well as Space Age, however, a single Steam license for the game can only be played by one player simultaneously. If you want to play space age multiplayer with your family at the same time you will need two copies of Factorio and two copies of Space Age. Family sharing just means that it will work both if your primary Steam account owns both copies or if your primary account owns 1 Factorio and 1 Space Age and the other account owns 1 Factorio and 1 Space Age license. In the first situation when the second person goes to play, they will "borrow" one of the licenses from the primary account to play. I hope this helps.

The Family Sharing aspect of DLC is there exists advanced settings per game where you can tell Steam "My top preference is to borrow family member XYZ's copy of the game if it is available". By selecting the family member who owns the Space Age DLC will prioritize borrowing the copy that has the DLC over another family member who only has regular Factorio.

[Chumfactor]

You can Family Share Factorio as well as Space Age, however, a single Steam license for the game can only be played by one player simultaneously.

Hmmm, are you certain about that? It's been several years (and we were using 1.x at the time), but we used to play on this same friend's multi-player server regularly. The only difference is that now they're prepping to start a Space Age game for the same group of friends.

Honestly, Factorio + Space Age is well worth the one time fee (indeed, the lack of recurring charges is a huge bonus!) to get another copy -- I've already gifted it to several friends! -- but, unless I've gone completely bonkers (not entirely out of the question! ), I'm pretty sure 1 license + family-share would let 2 players play at the same time. So now I'm just hoping to do that on Space Age.

If you had a pointer to any sort of official (Wube / Factorio.com) info on the subject -- either way -- that'd be awesome, too!

[Jap2.0]

You can Family Share Factorio as well as Space Age, however, a single Steam license for the game can only be played by one player simultaneously.

Hmmm, are you certain about that? It's been several years (and we were using 1.x at the time), but we used to play on this same friend's multi-player server regularly. The only difference is that now they're prepping to start a Space Age game for the same group of friends.

Honestly, Factorio + Space Age is well worth the one time fee (indeed, the lack of recurring charges is a huge bonus!) to get another copy -- I've already gifted it to several friends! -- but, unless I've gone completely bonkers (not entirely out of the question! ), I'm pretty sure 1 license + family-share would let 2 players play at the same time. So now I'm just hoping to do that on Space Age.

If you had a pointer to any sort of official (Wube / Factorio.com) info on the subject -- either way -- that'd be awesome, too!

There are a couple different ways of going about this where the situation mentioned would be technically feasible... but, while Wube seems pretty laid back about it, I don't want to publicly encourage multiple people to be simultaneously playing using the same copy of the game.

[TheFrizz]

You specifically mentioned Steam in your original post. Family Sharing is not a "free extra copy of the game" as far as the Steam game store is concerned. If you both are using Steam to launch Factorio simultaneously, you will need 2 licenses. Family sharing just means that the license can be borrowed at launch time if you have an internet connection to the Steam store. If the license holder then tries to start their copy of the game it will terminate the borrower's playing.

I have purchased 4 copies of Factorio and 4 copies of Space Age for myself and my sons. I'm quite sure this is how it currently works.

[Jap2.0]

If you both are using Steam to launch Factorio simultaneously, you will need 2 licenses. Family sharing just means that the license can be borrowed at launch time if you have an internet connection to the Steam store. If the license holder then tries to start their copy of the game it will terminate the borrower's playing.

The license holder does not need an internet connection, and Steam does not/cannot terminate the borrower's playing if the license holder is offline (in actuality or via Steam's offline mode).

[Chumfactor]

There are a couple different ways of going about this where the situation mentioned would be technically feasible... but, while Wube seems pretty laid back about it, I don't want to publicly encourage multiple people to be simultaneously playing using the same copy of the game.

Oh definitely! Public or private, my question is about what is permissible in Wube's eyes. I am absolutely NOT asking how to hack around things (like playing offline, etc.)

And for Frizz: Ok, thanks. My memory may be wrong, or maybe things changed, or maybe we bought a 2nd copy way-back-when. I just didn't remember it that way.

[eugenekay]

Oh definitely! Public or private, my question is about what is permissible in Wube's eyes. I am absolutely NOT asking how to hack around things (like playing offline, etc.)

Previous Discussion, including response from multiple Wube employees.


“Basically Yes”, so long as they eventually buy their own License.

It is easiest to download the “Offline” bundle from the Factorio.com website, not through Steam. You won’t get Mod portal access etc unless you buy another Copy.

Good Luck!

[kpabsteo]

Last month, I decided to play factorio through the Family Library on Steam, but as my friend later asked me about the experience, I was already playing with the Space Age mod. That is, I didn't buy either the game itself or the Space Age mode. Then, in the same last month, I decided to play with my friend, for this I needed to buy Factorio directly on Steam, and then I noticed that on the Space Age mode page on Steam there is a postscript "In Steam Family Library", I was wondering if I could not buy the add-on and play at the same time with a friend on the server with this modification. Technically, this is not a game that is run simultaneously by two users. And yes, that's exactly how it worked, we were able to launch the server with the Space Age add-on enabled and played there until April of this year. Today we decided to return to our factory, but I received such a notification. On the add-on page on Steam, there is still a postscript "In Steam Family Library", but apparently the extreme update covered this feature. Well, or made it more difficult to play together with one copy of the add-on

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