AI war in steam vs non steam

[Ozymandiaz]

Have anyone noticed any significant differences between the two versions? Is there any differences except the steam GUI overlay?

Just curious

[Lancefighter]

you can launch the steam version through explorer (in prog files, steam, steamapps, common, aiwar) and it is exactly the same as the other version.. Although, oddly, you cant close steam if you have it running (but it doesnt show up that you are playing aiwar on steam community)

[Frozen Critical]

Just the Auto updator

Steam Overlay? Child's Play : Add a Game -> Add a non-steam game -> AI war

[Diazo]

Functionally there is no difference.

I'm pretty sure that they program the non-steam version, then plug the steam overlay in without changing the game at all.

I have run both the steam and non-steam versions and I see no difference.

D.

[cpunch]

The Steam Overlay is not Arcen software.  It's a helper application from Valve/Steam that simply runs alongside games launched from Steam.  The only extra Steam-related stuff I can find with a very brief look is from the /Plugins/ folder, the AIWarSteam.dll is an extra library that AI War on Steam uses, and simply plugs into the steam_api.dll library.  Though, out of all the functions exposed by the Steam API, it really only uses it to sync achievements between the game and your Steam profile.

[LintMan]

I bought AI War via Steam, but Steam is getting increasingly annoying now that my kids have started wanting to play games I've bought there.  (Steam doesn't want to allow me to play, say "AI War", while my kids play an entirely different Steam game, say "Sam and Max", on their computer, unless I fuss with offline mode).  Does anyone know if it's possible to install and play the direct version of AI War, using the key from Steam?

[Lancefighter]

yes. Steam does nothing more than allow for an alternate download place and distribute keys. you can download AIwar from the arcen website and use the steam key to activate that one.

[LintMan]

Cool, thanks!

[Fox Soul]

I bought AI War via Steam, but Steam is getting increasingly annoying now that my kids have started wanting to play games I've bought there.  (Steam doesn't want to allow me to play, say "AI War", while my kids play an entirely different Steam game, say "Sam and Max", on their computer, unless I fuss with offline mode).  Does anyone know if it's possible to install and play the direct version of AI War, using the key from Steam?

If you got the game for your kids, wouldn't it be easier to create a new steam account for your kids?
If you bought the game first then your kids wanted to play then I suppose that's understandable since you didn't want to buy the same game again for them.

[soMe_RandoM]

u can still play ai war as if it wasn't on steam at all mind u if you do so and it used by some one else then you breached the thingy that says u cant do that. so eg i have steam copy with that steam copy it says its an demo in files i copy then past into my documents (so it doesn't come up on start) then i can run the betas ecter I'm also thinking of copying it to laptop once i get it.

[LintMan]

If you got the game for your kids, wouldn't it be easier to create a new steam account for your kids?
If you bought the game first then your kids wanted to play then I suppose that's understandable since you didn't want to buy the same game again for them.

I bought AI War (and virtually all my Steam games) for myself.  My kids see me playing some of them (like the Sam and Max series) and want to play them too. 

Having a kids account wouldn't really solve the Steam issue, because I have 3 kids, and will eventually have a third and possibly fourth PC in the house.  As soon as there were two games the kids wanted to play in the "kids account", I'd be back to the same problem.

Fortunately, at least with AI War, I don't have to worry about that now.

[vonduus]

Another reason Steam sucks.