9 replies to this topic

[TooDumbToQuit]

What are the pluses and drawbacks?

[Jables McBarty]

If you already use and like steam, it has all the advantages of steam.

If you don't use steam and hate it, it has all the drawbacks of steam.

The two biggest advantages are:
1. It's faster to patch. At least in my experience. People who spent longer on classic client might have different opinions--listen to them if that's the case.
2. I play most frequently with two close friends from my childhood. We are already friends on Steam. So when they log onto Steam, I get a Steam notice saying "X has come online". This makes it easier to socialize and coordinate with them (and my other friends on Steam) in comparison to MWO's built-in social platform.

Other minor advantages:
1. Built-in screencapping and storing.
2. Built-in streaming to Steam friends.
3. Several of my non-MWO friends see me playing MWO on steam, express interest, and play it.

Major disadvantages:
1. It is a third-party program and must be running in order to run Steam MWO. So if you have concerns about RAM and processor capacity, running native client might be faster. But just a little bit, as the overlay is pretty thin.
2. As a third-party program, you'll need to create a new log-in and account.
3. As a third-party program, you'll also need to install, update, and familiarize yourself with it.
4. In short, all the disadvantages are pretty much that it's another software suite to maintain, install, and figure out. If the advantages are enough for you, then you won't mind the disadvantages. And vice versa.

EDIT: Rereading this, I can't overstate the advantages of Steam as a social platform. But it's really only useful for those friends that I already have on Steam--I've never added a MWO friend to my steam friends list (so you'd be friends with them twice, once on Steam to socialize, once on MWO to play together).

Edited by Jables McBarty, 23 June 2016 - 02:32 PM.

[SnagaDance]

As someone who has played MWO for a few years, has just gotten himself a new laptop, and decided to install and play through Steam this time, I can say that there are no disadvantages I can find (I already used Steam previously for other games).

[MadMax71]

Is it possibile to play MWO standalone in a PC,
and play MWO in another PC via Steam (i mean not at the same time)?

[Elrik Stormbringer]

MadMax71, on 24 June 2016 - 03:39 AM, said:

Is it possibile to play MWO standalone in a PC,
and play MWO in another PC via Steam (i mean not at the same time)?

Yes. Your mwo account is in no way linked with steam

[TooDumbToQuit]

I used to play all the Total Wars through Steam and it simply seemed like a pain. More than a few times I'd either lose my PW or WORSE, Steam would seem to lose the fact that I owned the game. Yet, for a long time, you had to play through them.

So several times I had to take a picture of my game and the code sheet and send it to them which would take a few days.

I'm sure over the last 3-5 years they have improved but I do not have any friends there so using one problem to use another when you do not have to does not make sense to me.

Thanks so much!

[TercieI]

I only installed Steam to buy the light bundle, had both clients for awhile but when I reinstalled Windows a bit ago, went Steam only because I saw no reason not to. No major disadvantages I've found. Main advantage: It can be set to auto download patches so you don't have to wait once you're home if you're not home at patch time.

Edited by TercieI, 26 June 2016 - 03:26 PM.

[Digital_Angel]

Yep, my home machine is usually powered on during the day since there is almost always someone home. The ability to let Steam download all the patches while I'm still at work and not have to wait for them to download after I get home is really nice, especially on teh larger updates.

[Cupid and Psyche _]

I used Steam very frequently before MWO was released, and I only recently moved over to it from the standard MWO client.

I like the use of the overlay: the ability to go on the web without using alt+tab and how it tells you how long you've been playing.

No disadvantages so far

I have experience increased latency (6000+ ping in one instance), but I doubt this has anything to do with Steam.

[Koniving]

Steam has been pretty good to me.

Far as the comparison between MWO's standalone client and Steam's version...

The standalone downloads updates through peer-to-peer networks (which sometimes leads to corruption, thus the 'repair tool') and tends to keep a number of downloaded patches in a separate 'patch' folder. For me this folder doesn't remove with an uninstall so it has to be removed manually, and any deletion of its contents causes the client to redownload every. Single. Patch (for me it was since "June X 2014" for when I did it in 2015. It was a total of 6 gigabytes of patch files, in addition to the 12 something gigabytes the game was.at the time... a bit excessive.

Currently the game is 13 something gigabytes, and that's all that Steam needs. That's it. The patches it downloads are deleted soon as they are installed.
It's pretty convenient. And if there is a problem, right click the game, click "Properties' and then go through the tabs for validation. This will figure out any problem and fix it much quicker than MWO's client repair tool.