Factorio Forums

When I tried to link my account on the Factorio website with my steam account I got the following error message:
Linking failed. Neither your Factorio account nor your Steam account have access to the game. Please buy the game either via our website or on Steam.

Actually, what it says is not true. My steam account does have access to the game, though indirectly... I share a computer with a family member who owns a copy of this game on steam and I am using it via Steam Family Sharing. (With my own steam account.) Steam Family Share gives me the ability to have separate achievement tracking and a separate cloud save, and I can technically play the game as if it was mine as long as the steam library being shared is not in use by it's owner. If linking my steam account with my Factorio account is only for use with steam specific features,

FactorioWebsite wrote:(i.e. achievements, time tracking, friends)

then what is the problem with it?

What can I do here?

Edit: I am not expecting to be able to download the game through the website. It is referred to as pirating it.

What are you expecting to do? I've used Steam family sharing in the past, and I agree that it can be useful, but you technically don't own the game, and this reflects that. Really the only reason to connect your Steam and Factorio accounts would be to download the game from one when you have access to the other. Steam gives you achievements, tracks time, etc. by itself, so it's unclear to me what you want to do. Downloading it from the website doen't give you any extra features.

Jap2.0 wrote:What are you expecting to do?

I can't log in with my Factorio account in-game because it says I do not have access to the game. (Again, not true!) What sort of "Factorio" account is it then if I can't log in inside "Factorio"? That means the creation of my Factorio account itself had no purpose because I can't use it.

Oh, multiplayer and all that stuff. You can use the Factorio account of whoever owns the game. Other than that there's not much you can do because technically you don't own the game.

Jap2.0 wrote:Oh, multiplayer and all that stuff. You can use the Factorio account of whoever owns the game. Other than that there's not much you can do because technically you don't own the game.

Thanks( for nothing), but I would pass on multiplayer mode rather than use someone else's identity. (My copy's owner told me he would let me use it by the way....)

Seriously, why can't I use my own account? Every other game that I play via steam family share that has some kind of user registry on it's servers lets me create my own account because steam takes care of the rest. (As we figured it out the hard way. Steam Family share's limitations are extremely secure. A copy of a game can only be played by one person at a time.)

Is there any sort of leakage potential or something? (Probably not, because they could limit logging in with limited membership accounts only to the steam version.)

The offer is, that if you own the game on steam you can get permanent access to the game via factorio.com as well; if you own the game via factorio.com you can get permanent access to the game via steam. You do not own the game on either platform so you will not be able to get access on the other platform.

Loewchen wrote:The offer is, that if you own the game on steam you can get permanent access to the game via factorio.com as well; if you own the game via factorio.com you can get permanent access to the game via steam. You do not own the game on either platform so you will not be able to get access on the other platform.

That tells me nothing about why can't I log in with my account in-game.

Is there any potential for unintended user behavior with being able to login in the steam version of the game with a limited membership account?
It's not the first time I ask this question about a game... it's just.... worked last time. Not everyone's the same.

tsjeva wrote:

Loewchen wrote:The offer is, that if you own the game on steam you can get permanent access to the game via factorio.com as well; if you own the game via factorio.com you can get permanent access to the game via steam. You do not own the game on either platform so you will not be able to get access on the other platform.

That tells me nothing about why can't I log in with my account in-game.

How about... because you don't own the game?

On a more serious note, there's nothing further we can do here (other than try to convince you that having acccess to a game is not the same as owning it), so you can try emailing support@factorio.com or PMing Klonan on the forums.

It doesn't seem like anyone is getting the point? Either family sharing should be disabled, or allow you full access to the game including multiplayer. Sharing the account with the original owner is obviously not a solution.

Zeblote wrote:It doesn't seem like anyone is getting the point? Either family sharing should be disabled, or allow you full access to the game including multiplayer. Sharing the account with the original owner is obviously not a solution.

You can play multiplayer just fine, what you can not do is play on a server that requires you to verify your identity because that would make any ban list useless.

Zeblote wrote:It doesn't seem like anyone is getting the point? Either family sharing should be disabled, or allow you full access to the game including multiplayer.

Maybe you're not getting the point that you're the only one here that thinks that particular "point" is valid. There's a grey zone between black and white for many things. You (the two persons on your side involved) own one license. Now steam has functionality that allows two people to use the same license as long as they don't do it at the same time. And Factorio does not have that functionality. Simple as that. And claiming that other game companies willingly hand you a free key for their online services doesn't make that fact true or in any way implies that all companies must behave like that.

Loewchen wrote:You can play multiplayer just fine, what you can not do is play on a server that requires you to verify your identity because that would make any ban list useless.

That's... actually a very good point. You could just keep making new steam accounts. I haven't thought of that. So, even if support for this was added, it would still have to use the same account...

eradicator wrote:Maybe you're not getting the point that you're the only one here that thinks that particular "point" is valid. There's a grey zone between black and white for many things. You (the two persons on your side involved) own one license.

I'm not OP, I bought my own copy of the game years ago

eradicator wrote:Now steam has functionality that allows two people to use the same license as long as they don't do it at the same time. And Factorio does not have that functionality. Simple as that.

In that case, it should probably tell you so right away and not pretend everything is fine until you try to play online, try make an account for that, and get an error message.

Zeblote wrote:I'm not OP, I bought my own copy of the game years ago

I apologize for confusing you with the OP. You did however make that invalid point on your own .

Zeblote wrote:

eradicator wrote:Now steam has functionality that allows two people to use the same license as long as they don't do it at the same time. And Factorio does not have that functionality. Simple as that.

In that case, it should probably tell you so right away and not pretend everything is fine until you try to play online, try make an account for that, and get an error message.

I can agree that the error message could be improved. Though this would require that the steam api exposes whether or not you're using family share to access a game, which imho from a privacy standpoint it should not.

If you call this "pretending it works" you clearly haven't used family sharing very often (and are also pretty rude as 99% of factorio does actually work). In my experience this is the same behavior for most shared games that have some sort of important online component, unless ofc the game has some sort of in-game shop and actively profits from two seperate accounts each paying for their own lootboxes/whatever.

Just think of it like this: the purchase cost for the game includes a one-time-payment for a life-time non-transferrable access to factorio online services. The same way you wouldn't except to get free WoW/ARK/$Monthly_Subscription_MMO account via family sharing you shouldn't be expecting to get free access to factorio online services.

Official Valve games do this on steam. Simple: You can play their MMO games through family sharing, and you have a separate inventory, separate saved game, and separate achievements. But permanent bans apply to the owner of the game copy and anyone that uses that owner's library. (And only for using modified game client.) If you want to rejoin multiplayer, you have to create a new account and buy the game again. I am that some people even go this far in "some" games that apparently haunt people's dreams and daily life "better" than Factorio. (But I don't have it.)

Console games also let you do this. You can download them, and register AND play with them as mulitple users of the same console. No strings attached.

Loewchen wrote:You can play multiplayer just fine, what you can not do is play on a server that requires you to verify your identity because that would make any ban list useless.

You do make a point here. Users should not be able to create new Factorio accounts to circumvent blacklists on servers. But there is something wrong with this method. Servers should blacklist user ids which makes much more sence. Factorio does not let you remain anonymous. Sadly. Unlike many, many many other games including Minecraft that allow changing of user names with a limitation of (I think) at least two monts per change. I only bring this up because this is the only reason for such errors.

tsjeva wrote:

Loewchen wrote:The offer is, that if you own the game on steam you can get permanent access to the game via factorio.com as well; if you own the game via factorio.com you can get permanent access to the game via steam. You do not own the game on either platform so you will not be able to get access on the other platform.

That tells me nothing about why can't I log in with my account in-game.

Is there any potential for unintended user behavior with being able to login in the steam version of the game with a limited membership account?
It's not the first time I ask this question about a game... it's just.... worked last time. Not everyone's the same.

I guess that answers this question. There is a potential for unintended user behavior: Circumventing blacklists. They prefer strict rules rather than flexibility.

Jap2.0 wrote:How about... because you don't own the game?

For real?
Why the hell can't one log in with their Factorio account in-game?! This is a bug. Seriously, no matter how I look at it, this does not make any sense without going out of my way to gather explanation. MAYBE the devs could tie registration to linking with steam account right away, or purchasing the game right away. I recon that's not a satisfying conclusion of the topic for anyone... yes? It's plain sad.

Sorry,
but as far as i know multiplayer never works with family sharing, that also states steam, as far as i know.

I think you are getting off topic. I want to log in with my account in-game. I posted this topic in the technical help session because I can't. And now there is this arguing about "you just can't" and how blacklists make this complicated. Blacklists make everything so complicated for so few reasons.

The ONLY reason I was trying to get this whole thing to work, is the following: I want my own separate name in game. That's it. I would even use that other account we have which has the sufficient membership.

In order to achieve this goal, I took the steps that my game copy's owner did. Except, just at the last step, the game itself refused. To make everything waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay moore complicated, the game refused everything at the last step. And now we are here.

If you *just* want to change your ingame name, go to options -> other -> LAN player name and change your name.
This will change the name that appears for your character in-game. This method does not grant you a name verified by factorio authentication services (this is the service you have to pay for), and as such you can not use the mod portal or join multiplayer games that require verification. You can still play multiplayer with friends if they disable verification.

eradicator wrote:If you *just* want to change your ingame name, go to options -> other -> LAN player name and change your name.
This will change the name that appears for your character in-game. This method does not grant you a name verified by factorio authentication services (this is the service you have to pay for), and as such you can not use the mod portal or join multiplayer games that require verification. You can still play multiplayer with friends if they disable verification.

That does not help me solve the problem. What about multiplayer online?

tsjeva wrote:When I tried to link my account on the Factorio website with my steam account I got the following error message:
Linking failed. Neither your Factorio account nor your Steam account have access to the game. Please buy the game either via our website or on Steam.

Actually, what it says is not true. My steam account does have access to the game, though indirectly... I share a computer with a family member who owns a copy of this game on steam and I am using it via Steam Family Sharing. (With my own steam account.) Steam Family Share gives me the ability to have separate achievement tracking and a separate cloud save, and I can technically play the game as if it was mine as long as the steam library being shared is not in use by it's owner. If linking my steam account with my Factorio account is only for use with steam specific features,

FactorioWebsite wrote:(i.e. achievements, time tracking, friends)

then what is the problem with it?

What can I do here?

Edit: I am not expecting to be able to download the game through the website. It is referred to as pirating it.

We do not support playing online, and using our services through Steam family sharing,
So things such as Multiplayer, and using the Mod portal, are not available unless you purchase the game on Steam or on our website

We think this is fair, in that you still get to play the game in SP, and over LAN with friends,
The alternative is that you would not be able to play through family sharing at all.

tsjeva wrote:

eradicator wrote:If you *just* want to change your ingame name, go to options -> other -> LAN player name and change your name.
This will change the name that appears for your character in-game. This method does not grant you a name verified by factorio authentication services (this is the service you have to pay for), and as such you can not use the mod portal or join multiplayer games that require verification. You can still play multiplayer with friends if they disable verification.

That does not help me solve the problem. What about multiplayer online?

If that does not help you then clearly neither is your problem that you only want to change your name nor did you read my answer.

tsjeva wrote:In order to achieve this goal, I took the steps that my game copy's owner did. Except, just at the last step, the game itself refused. To make everything waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay moore complicated, the game refused everything at the last step. And now we are here.

I think you're missing one crucial step that the game copy's owner did perform. You forgot to actually buy the game. Yet for some reason you seem unwilling to accept that not buying the game does not grant you the same rights as buying it does. And thus indeed "now we are here".