Why 1C like Steam

[TheGrunch]

Originally Posted by Erkki

edit: Grunch, "unique" members, not just name changes.

Mmm, I'm not so sure about that...I'm not sure anyone could be bothered to differentiate between new logins from old IPs and ones from new IPs. Anyway, pointless argument IMO.
As for your previous question, Hyperlobby is okay at what it does but it has a very poorly organised and clunky interface - even scrolling through servers is a bit of a chore. The other thing is that it's so easy for disruptive players to just login with another name or another IP and continue being irritating on servers, which making the Steam lobby compulsory would go a long, long way toward curtailing - you can only play your game on one Steam ID after all without effectively pirating the game in some way.
The chat, pager stuff and friend lists are also very clunky and awkward to use. I suppose it all depends on how much you actually want this functionality. I don't really use that sort of thing myself but I think that will change with CoD, got several of my friends looking forward to playing it, and I'd MUCH rather use Steam's overlay and chat than HL's. Certainly people seem to use HL chat and pager messages a lot, but they are really bad compared to other lobbies' offerings.

[Erkki]

Originally Posted by TheGrunch

Mmm, I'm not so sure about that...I'm not sure anyone could be bothered to differentiate between new logins from old IPs and ones from new IPs. Anyway, pointless argument IMO.
As for your previous question, Hyperlobby is okay at what it does but it has a very poorly organised and clunky interface - even scrolling through servers is a bit of a chore. The other thing is that it's so easy for disruptive players to just login with another name or another IP and continue being irritating on servers, which making the Steam lobby compulsory would go a long, long way toward curtailing - you can only play your game on one Steam ID after all without effectively pirating the game in some way.
The chat, pager stuff and friend lists are also very clunky and awkward to use. I suppose it all depends on how much you actually want this functionality. I don't really use that sort of thing myself but I think that will change with CoD, got several of my friends looking forward to playing it, and I'd MUCH rather use Steam's overlay and chat than HL's. Certainly people seem to use HL chat and pager messages a lot, but they are really bad compared to other lobbies' offerings.

Main chat which in practice is free, instant, troubleshooting 24/7. Hardware, game hints, tips and guiding, history questions, anything. In the Steam, you have to know someone, or go forums. Thats one huge advantage... I think I link the updates, help with "game loads 5% then crashes" etc. bugs with 5 people every day, and only I sit there on average maybe 2 hours a day... So almost all the log-in time there is someone to help.

HL has forums of its own, I'm sure Jiri respects feedback and suggestions!

[TheGrunch]

That's a very good point about main chat! Hadn't thought of that. I haven't used Steam for ages...I wonder if you can have chat lobbies for a whole game in that way?

[Blackdog_kt]

That would be good to know. When i initially got starcraft 2 it used a new version of battlenet that didn't have any chat channels. You could start a private conversation with other people when viewing their multiplayer profile stats or if they were in your contact list, but there was no chat channels in the traditional sense of the word for people with similar interests to hang out in.

Apart from it being nice having a chat channel for you and your buddies, this was also a problem for most organized gaming communities. It forced people who organized tournaments to invite every single person manually each time, then kick the ones who were about to play the next match before it would start (so as not to be receiving text and "spoilers" on how the others in the channel viewed their game), then invite them back in and kick the ones who would play the next match, and so on. With a standing channel however, players could join and leave on their own as they were alternating from player to spectator.

Needless to say it was one of the most complained about issues, it got acknowledged by Blizzard with a commitment to fix it within 2-3 patches and that's exactly what happened. After getting to work on some bug fixes and gameplay balance changes they sat down and implemented chat channels for the next update. I think it still took them a couple of months (don't exactly remember now, but game was released in the end of July and chat channels were implemented around early autumn), but just the fact that it was acknowledged early on prevented most of the fuss.

[BadAim]

Steam it is for me too!

[zauii]

I'd take Steam over hyperlobby any day.
It's a dated product, created out of neccessity, and the IL2 community could benefit so much more from a better, more userfriendly and more robust multiplayer integration.