There's no confirmation for my claim or yours, but I doubt DRM would be as up-to-date as Steam. The beta would be more stable and updates would be less frequent but you forget this is still the Progenitor stage. The very first one. There are still probably gonna be updates every other week or so adding in tiles, recipes, lore, quests, etc. P.S.: The "your grace" thing was just a little joke
I am an avid steam user, although, I don't like having to depend on steam for game playability. If I want to play a game and its a good game It shouldnt matter if its on steam or not imo. No other good game has stopped me from playing just by not being on steam or vice versa
There are barely any people here wanting the 2nd choice. As long as it doesn't bother too many people, I'm all down for 3.
If you mean up-to-date by the last second, then you're probably right. Steam is way too superior in the way it handles updating for them to ever truly equal, but once the updates slow down to an "every other week" state, the updates (across the 2 versions) would probably be withing a couple hours to a day within length of each other, which doesn't really make a huge difference, not like the difference between updates in the early stages of the #2 option. The main point I'm trying to stress to people though (not you, just in general) is that all 3 choices say that the beta test will release in both versions. @P.S. It's all good.
That kinda sucks, coz i usually give away half my humblebundles due to having the games already from previous packs or simply don't want to play them EDIT: http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/66129939468/you-spoke-we-listened sounds like quite the opposite, nevermind me then.
http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/65643651960/now-its-easier-to-add-games-to-your-steam-library To redeem keys, you'll have to link/log into a Steam account to that particular Humble Bundle or something of that nature. So whatever Steam account you logged into when redeeming the bundle, it will just add the games to your library without ever giving you an actual key. From their FAQ page though, it says that you can still send the redeem "key" (which won't give them an actual key either, just an activation button for the game) as a gift to someone else's Steam account through their page, so really I'm not sure what the change actually does... You should still be able to gift your Steam copy of Starbound to a friend, but really ethically you shouldn't since you only paid for 1 copy, and are generating 2, but meh. A discussion for another topic I guess.
I read your post a few hours ago, Molly. And after some thought, I think the people behind the game should go with the option that is easiest for them for the initial beta test. And I have reasons. 1) As you said, things are going to be frantic with the bug fixes. 2) The folks need less work after putting all this time into the game already. A chance to catch their breath and review what they have accomplished. C) The ease and simple delivery of steam updates certainly doesn't hurt player side (No I'm not pro-steam, I just know it updates often, and automatically) But ultimately, it is up to the people behind the game. And they'll use their own judgement and wisdom to figure out what will work best for everyone involved. Even if it means more/less work for them. I just want the game to be great, even if it takes longer or is a little less convenient to get.
Option 3. In fact, I'd settle with any option that developers find optimal. Just hope that my humble bundle link will have what I need to play right away from the beta start (be it steam key, or link to DRM-free version - I'm comfortable with both).
I don't use steam, and personally I wouldn't mind waiting for the second stage, so I'm up for number 3. I suppose option 2 is okay as well, and I wouldn't mind either way. After all, I probably won't want to play the first stage.
I've used Steam over 5 years.. Never had any problems with it. I say option 3 all the way.. It's probably easier to mod the drm version, but hey, we wont have any time modding it that much in the early beta stage, since we need to find the buggy bugs crawling around in the official beta-release version ;D Starbound ftw, can't wait much longerrr
Wow nearly 700 answers and now I add my piece of mind. I would appreciate option 1 or 3. Either way many people prefer one-click solutions (steam) and on the other hand there are many people who do not like steam at all or simply use it at a minimum (register a game and even play in "offlinemode"). I do use Steam every day, but I am also capable of performing a proper installation with an installer (oldschool) ;-) Also NOT providing the latest update (AT ONCE) is nothing to be ashamed off. Many alpha/beta games usually announce the latest version, when its either way uploaded to their respective servers and/or piped through to Steam, ready for one click release. There might be some screamers, but they are always there. Many of the users registered and who bought your game are patient and reasonable enough to process what is going on and won't nag you about it.
I'm curious. the DRM-free version of the game would be incompatible with the Steam version most of the time, which isn't so great. What exactly is wrong with that? DRM-free version will always concede on the progress of the Steam version? I think this is a reasonable compromise, or the newest version or convenient version, the choice of the player. Besides, no one said that the Steam version will be delayed because of this.
The feedback from an outdated client would most of the time be just that. People playing that version are in danger of reporting bugs that are already fixed, reporting bugs that only exist because of other bugs that may have been fixed, not able to give feedback on newer features and bugs, as well as not being able to test multiplayer bugs on the same scale as Steam players. An example being the outdated client having a bug that duplicates monsters sometimes when they're shot at. The updated client doesn't have this bug because it was inadvertently fixed when the way weapons display damage was fixed. Devs spend hours searching for a bug that no longer exists. Only way to alleviate this problem is to not take feedback from the outdated client, but then that gives it no reason to exist other than for people to "play" the beta test, without truly testing anything.
On the other hand, it is an opportunity to test a second time if someone missed something. For reports for this version is possible to create a separate topic. Also, I am sure that most of the "testers" just wants to play the game as soon as possible and the developers know about it.
