Planetary Annihilation: Total Annihilation IN SPACE

[doctorfrog]

So, would this offline patch make PA effectively DRM-free? If so, I'm a few steps more interested.

Also, if you're a game developer, you definitely want Wingflier as a high priest fan.

[Wingflier]

Dude I grew up playing Total Annihilation. Anybody who even attempts to remake the glory of my childhood deserves all my praise

[Mánagarmr]

So, would this offline patch make PA effectively DRM-free? If so, I'm a few steps more interested.

Also, if you're a game developer, you definitely want Wingflier as a high priest fan.

That is the plan. I don't know if LAN support comes in this patch as well, but it has been promised. The promise was that you were to be able to play it completely DRM free, offline and running your own servers and basically be able to mod almost everything in the game. We're not quite there yet

[doctorfrog]

So, would this offline patch make PA effectively DRM-free? If so, I'm a few steps more interested.

Also, if you're a game developer, you definitely want Wingflier as a high priest fan.

That is the plan. I don't know if LAN support comes in this patch as well, but it has been promised. The promise was that you were to be able to play it completely DRM free, offline and running your own servers and basically be able to mod almost everything in the game. We're not quite there yet

I'm looking forward to it. It's not a guarantee, but very often games really get their best after the excitement dies down, when they become just a big lump of clay for a gaming community to roll around in its hands for half a decade. I know that it's not the most exciting thing to a developer, though, since the game by then is not nearly as profitable, but the open-as-heck approach can also sometimes result in a relatively low, but steady, income source as the game sustains continued 'cult' interest.

[eRe4s3r]

So, would this offline patch make PA effectively DRM-free? If so, I'm a few steps more interested.

I highly doubt they will remove PlayFab logins even FROM the Offline server version, i have the latest PTE and it's not magically skipping FlayFab... it simply runs the games on your own pc but you still have to be online to even get into the menu..

Maybe they have different interpretation on what playing "offline" means.

Guess we'll see

[keith.lamothe]

Maybe they have different interpretation on what playing "offline" means.

If so they'll learn the correct definition: "where the internet can't get to you".  Because they will want to be there

[eRe4s3r]

So I just checked it again and you CAN play it entirely offline.... if you install the crack ;p

So playfab gone and offline gaming is possible. But still not lan play from what I can tell. Ie no local server discovery etc. This just further proves that Playfab is just the gatekeeper to MP, it doesn't have an actual function besides that (that I could tell, anyway)

[Cyborg]

So I just checked it again and you CAN play it entirely offline.... if you install the crack ;p

So playfab gone and offline gaming is possible. But still not lan play from what I can tell. Ie no local server discovery etc. This just further proves that Playfab is just the gatekeeper to MP, it doesn't have an actual function besides that (that I could tell, anyway)

I'm sure they are just getting all of the legitimate sales that they can before opening up to potential pirate scenarios. Let's be real, if they offered local area network play, a lot of people would just steal the game and play offline.

[keith.lamothe]

Meanwhile if you want that kind of customer service you have to crack the game

Certainly not a situation unique to this game, of course.

[eRe4s3r]

So I just checked it again and you CAN play it entirely offline.... if you install the crack ;p

So playfab gone and offline gaming is possible. But still not lan play from what I can tell. Ie no local server discovery etc. This just further proves that Playfab is just the gatekeeper to MP, it doesn't have an actual function besides that (that I could tell, anyway)

I'm sure they are just getting all of the legitimate sales that they can before opening up to potential pirate scenarios. Let's be real, if they offered local area network play, a lot of people would just steal the game and play offline.

True enough.. but given the limited content of the game in terms of AI skirmish I doubt it would have much allure for pirates ,) Most people do not care for LAN gaming I guess there'd be a few pirates who'd care... but considering the development was funded before development they have literally nothing to lose from pirates.

[WingedKagouti]

So I just checked it again and you CAN play it entirely offline.... if you install the crack ;p

So playfab gone and offline gaming is possible. But still not lan play from what I can tell. Ie no local server discovery etc. This just further proves that Playfab is just the gatekeeper to MP, it doesn't have an actual function besides that (that I could tell, anyway)

I'm sure they are just getting all of the legitimate sales that they can before opening up to potential pirate scenarios. Let's be real, if they offered local area network play, a lot of people would just steal the game and play offline.

I know at least 8 people who would do just that. Granted LAN play is something they do once or twice a year, but it does happen often enough that they do use some cracked games and generally won't consider buying those games for themselves afterwards. Their thought process going something like "I can't play with the others if I buy it, since they use the cracked version. So I'll just buy something else instead, perhaps a couple of beer and some snacks."

[Cyborg]

So I just checked it again and you CAN play it entirely offline.... if you install the crack ;p

So playfab gone and offline gaming is possible. But still not lan play from what I can tell. Ie no local server discovery etc. This just further proves that Playfab is just the gatekeeper to MP, it doesn't have an actual function besides that (that I could tell, anyway)

I'm sure they are just getting all of the legitimate sales that they can before opening up to potential pirate scenarios. Let's be real, if they offered local area network play, a lot of people would just steal the game and play offline.

True enough.. but given the limited content of the game in terms of AI skirmish I doubt it would have much allure for pirates ,) Most people do not care for LAN gaming I guess there'd be a few pirates who'd care... but considering the development was funded before development they have literally nothing to lose from pirates.

Of course there is something to lose. Profit.

[chemical_art]

I finally found a potential reason for PlayFab. It is simple, and I didn't come with it because of how horrible it is.

PlayFab is the infrastructure to allow in game purchases. That is how it "cuts costs" for them.  It actually doesn't, it just boosts their income. I notice if I do not log in to the program, in game purchases are disabled.

[eRe4s3r]

in-game purchases? You mean those 10$ commander avatars that all look sort of alike and nobody cares how their own actually looks? I would think sales of those are in the "low 100's" at best... or at least I hope.. never even considered that haha

So I just checked it again and you CAN play it entirely offline.... if you install the crack ;p

So playfab gone and offline gaming is possible. But still not lan play from what I can tell. Ie no local server discovery etc. This just further proves that Playfab is just the gatekeeper to MP, it doesn't have an actual function besides that (that I could tell, anyway)

I'm sure they are just getting all of the legitimate sales that they can before opening up to potential pirate scenarios. Let's be real, if they offered local area network play, a lot of people would just steal the game and play offline.

I know at least 8 people who would do just that. Granted LAN play is something they do once or twice a year, but it does happen often enough that they do use some cracked games and generally won't consider buying those games for themselves afterwards. Their thought process going something like "I can't play with the others if I buy it, since they use the cracked version. So I'll just buy something else instead, perhaps a couple of beer and some snacks."

To be fair, for lan gaming I only ever allowed cracked games myself too..... the reason is simple. stability and version control. Everyone had the SAME VERSION, everyone had the SAME MAPS and the SAME MODS. if you ever had a LAN yourself you know coordinating this so that everyone has the exact same version of a game can be quite a challenge.

Especially when you play with mods.... more than 1 lan party was ruined because some-body had version 1.41 of some mod and someone else had version 1.5 and yet another one had version 1.46 and all 3 were mutually exclusive and copying over the folders somehow invalidated the game install unless you cracked it (yes, had it all happen)

And the download link for version 1.41, 1.46 and 1.5 had disappeared, and now you could only download version 1.52... which was 1.2gb (back when 10mbit LAN was a thing, that was huge) grml...

[WingedKagouti]

in-game purchases? You mean those 10$ commander avatars that all look sort of alike and nobody cares how their own actually looks? I would think sales of those are in the "low 100's" at best... or at least I hope.. never even considered that haha

So I just checked it again and you CAN play it entirely offline.... if you install the crack ;p

So playfab gone and offline gaming is possible. But still not lan play from what I can tell. Ie no local server discovery etc. This just further proves that Playfab is just the gatekeeper to MP, it doesn't have an actual function besides that (that I could tell, anyway)

I'm sure they are just getting all of the legitimate sales that they can before opening up to potential pirate scenarios. Let's be real, if they offered local area network play, a lot of people would just steal the game and play offline.

I know at least 8 people who would do just that. Granted LAN play is something they do once or twice a year, but it does happen often enough that they do use some cracked games and generally won't consider buying those games for themselves afterwards. Their thought process going something like "I can't play with the others if I buy it, since they use the cracked version. So I'll just buy something else instead, perhaps a couple of beer and some snacks."

To be fair, for lan gaming I only ever allowed cracked games myself too..... the reason is simple. stability and version control. Everyone had the SAME VERSION, everyone had the SAME MAPS and the SAME MODS. if you ever had a LAN yourself you know coordinating this so that everyone has the exact same version of a game can be quite a challenge.

Especially when you play with mods.... more than 1 lan party was ruined because some-body had version 1.41 of some mod and someone else had version 1.5 and yet another one had version 1.46 and all 3 were mutually exclusive and copying over the folders somehow invalidated the game install unless you cracked it (yes, had it all happen)

And the download link for version 1.41, 1.46 and 1.5 had disappeared, and now you could only download version 1.52... which was 1.2gb (back when 10mbit LAN was a thing, that was huge) grml...

To me the main thing is that these days Steam and similar services make sure that the version you have installed is up to date. And yes, I've experienced the same version mismatch you have, and it can slow down a party as everyone waits while the one CD with the install files for all the cracks/mods is passed around. But now we have Steam, the workshop, and rather massive connections available, letting everyone sync up with the latest patch (if they haven't already) in usually under half an hour (unless it's a large game and/or several people don't have it installed).

For all the things people complain about with Steam, Origin, UPlay and whatever else there is, those services at least make sure that people aren't trying to use outdated versions to play with others.

And those people I wrote about in my previous post? They'd still stick to the cracked version and never buy the game for themselves, even though they like the games and could afford to buy them several times. Which is partially why the last couple of sessions have been mostly FTP grindfest shooters, with a few other people taking breaks with some game they own.