Oh, where to buy

[Shrugging Khan]

So I've been fooling around with the demos for quite some time now, and I'm decided to buy the AI War game. And the Z Remnant. And the children, of course. And the Spire shouldn't be left missing either.

But I'm not sure where and how to do that. The Store from the homepage requires a credit card, which I don't own, in addition to PayPal. Steam I don't like, since I hate to have some cumbersome platform in between me and my games. I've also made some negative experiences with its updating, not to mention its constantly overloaded servers.

Any shops you might recommend? Gamersgate looks good to me, mostly, but they only offer AI War: Fleet Command in bundles with Mac Versions - which I don't need and don't want to pay extra for. I mean, sure, it's only a few €s, but come on!

So, any recommendable sources out there?

Thanks in advance.

[x4000]

Hi Khan,

Thanks for your interest in our stuff -- bear in mind that the GamersGate bundles aren't charging you extra for the Mac versions.  When you buy a license from us or anyone, you get access to both the mac and pc versions, and their "bundles" are just a way for them to make both sets of files available to you (and have both entries show up in their store) at once.

There is also Impulse which carries the base game and all of the expansions up until Light of the Spire (which isn't officially coming out until next week).  They have the PC version only, but any license key also works with the mac version that can be downloaded through our site or otherwise (not that you care, I'm just clarifying why the apparent differences in the stores, where there is none).

Hope that helps!

[keith.lamothe]

And if you bought it through steam you could just use the keys it gives you to activate a copy downloaded from anywhere (it's just the demo until activated).  So pretty much wherever should be fine

[Shrugging Khan]

Huh...I suppose I must have miscalculated when I came to the conclusion that the mac versions cost extra.

Impulse I don't really know much about - is it as annoying as steam, or just a buying platform that doesn't interfere?

But well, Gamersgate looks fine then. 35€ for the game and all expansions is definitely worth it, after all...even if I suspect an evil plot by Steve Jobs to steal my gold to be at work here. I mean, don't listen to me, but you could charge twice as much and I'd still pay. AI War just simply is the tits.

@ Keith: Seriously? In that case steam it is, for simplicity's sake.

Edit: However...if I do buy it via steam, can I still use the ingame updater?

[Red Spot]

You clearly do not know Steam, use it.
You do not have to launch Steam if you dont want to for say 98% of the games on it. You may need it for the steam-cloud which this game does not use, so you can launch it outside of steam .... as I have done about ½ the time and the updater for the game does when it relaunches the game after patching.

I personally like(read: LOVE) steam 'the store' and dislike(read: semi-hate) steam 'the app'(bloody ... ^&&$¼¤¾), but it sure does work a lot better than most other similair tools like for instance stardock (which also is pretty decent).

To get you going, if you do choose to use steam:
-Install steam
-Buy AIW (~€20,- for the full package throug steam)
-Install AIW
-Go to the location AIW has been installed
-Copy a shortcut for the .exe to your desktop
-Use the shortcut on your desktop to launch AIW (after you have closed steam, if you desire)

[Shrugging Khan]

Well, I have steam installed for TF2 and some free games, and it keeps going on my nerves.

So yeah, the only remaining question is the updating issue. I'd really prefer to be able to use the ingame updating menu instead of steam, bugger me for a luddite if it looks that way. Is it possible even if I buy it per Steam?

[Red Spot]

TF2 is one of those games that does require to be launched through steam.
And is about the best example of why constant "large" patches are nothing else but a pain. Specially if all they do is add clothing and other junk that doesnt actually improve the game.

Please do not take TF2 as a reference for using steam, you are using the worst example one can use to talk about steam.

[Shrugging Khan]

Alright, alright, I'll stop complaining.

But please...someone do tell me about the updating thingy 

[keith.lamothe]

Even the steam version of the game will let you use the normal updater, iirc.  But if you just use the steam keys to activate the copy you got from somewhere else (http://www.arcengames.com/aiwar_buy.php has a list of mirrors) then it won't even be tempted to use steam's methods of auto-updating (which would only try on new official releases), etc.

And, fwiw, I'm very fond of using steam to buy games, and honestly don't even mind the steam app itself though it bugs me when I can't run a game without it running (I find this is true of more than a few) and particularly when "offline mode" fails to start because it can't connect to the steam network.  So there's some hassle, but I find it more than worth it.

[x4000]

In terms of Impulse, it does also have an automatic updater, somewhat like Steam, but different from GamersGate or Direct2Drive for instance.

As for updating, Steam will automatically update AI War for you like any other game when it comes to the official versions, but for beta versions there's actually no choice but to use the in-game updater if that's what you want to do.  And for the official updates, if steam doesn't have them yet and you want them faster, you can always do those in-game or manually, as well.

EDIT: ninja'd.

[Shrugging Khan]

Hah, alright. Damn you all to hell if you've tricked me into something I'll be regretting, but I'm going to use the damned steam for this one.

So thanks all around. I'll let you know of the fruits to your efforts once I received my keys 

[Red Spot]

Hah, alright. Damn you all to hell if you've tricked me into something I'll be regretting, but I'm going to use the damned steam for this one.

I already am ..... perhaps I should not have said that ... 

[Shrugging Khan]

Alright...i'll have to take it back. Steam sucks ass. It won't let me buy the game because of..."internal errors". Hooray.

[BobTheJanitor]

That's odd. I use steam to buy (waaaaaaay too many) games and have never run across that sort of problem before. I know they have a support system that should be able to help, although they can take a few days to respond to issues, unfortunately.

[Red Spot]

Alright...i'll have to take it back. Steam sucks ass. It won't let me buy the game because of..."internal errors". Hooray.

Try in an hour or so. Steam updates things and often they try to stay live during that time, with all the hick-ups that come with them.
If it still doesnt work you could always log a ticket with their support, which may not always be that great when concerning games, it is pretty good when it concerns their sales (go figure .