1.
On the GOG store page for this game it says that it requires the GOG Galaxy client. Any reason for forcing the Galaxy client instead of providing a Steam key? Just wondering since the Galaxy client itself is still in "early access" and still buggy, incomplete and far from done. So... if I run into problems I won't even know if it's the alpha of the game or the alpha of the client that's causing the problems!?


2.
How is multiplayer between Steam and Galaxy being handled? What if I want to join my buddy in a game and he owns the game on Steam and I own it on Galaxy?


3.
There are quite a lot of games that are getting different updates and are actually running on different versions on Steam and GOG. Latest example should be familiar to you, it's Sins of a Solar Empire. This is not only breaking the multiplayer, but also the mod community. Do you have any plans to stop this from happening with this game?

You make a lot of great points and I hope they are addressed by someone to your satisfaction.

However, the above snip just will never happen. Steam & GOG are competitors and GOG will never provide Steam keys.

Ashes requires the Galaxy client for multiplayer only. Multiplayer communities are separate between Steam and GOG. Stardock games should be the same version on GOG as elsewhere.

Concerns with Sins are being addressed by Ironclad and Stardock. I'm not up on the latest information myself so I can't be more specific.

-Adrian from Stardock

Hey Adrian, first of all thank you very much for your answer! Seeing a developer answer questions is an incentive to buy in itself :)

Regarding your answer to seperated online communities: my guess is that you mean that players won't be able to directly join a buddy in a game across Steam/Galaxy: I see my friend in the Steam friend list playing Ashes and I click join game - and that starts up the Galaxy client and I join his game. That's not going to happen, right?

OR do you mean that I can't join his game at all if he has the game on Steam and I have it on Galaxy? That would be quite terrible to seperate the community. I guess this question boils down to how Ashes handles multiplayer games itself... Are there lobbies, public games in addition to matchmaking or is it all matchmaking? I mean why shouldn't I be able to join a friend's game from within Ashes no matter where we bought the game?

To be frank, I think this is horseshit. What a stupid move on the part of GOG and Stardock. I'd like to clarify I'm not attacking Adrian here, but what the hell guys? For a DRM-Free platform, it seems awful underhanded to market Galaxy as "fully optional", then *require* it for MP on a brand-new RTS. Further, I can't even play across to my friends who buy on Steam?

Let's forget that the Galaxy client has numerous issues and I don't use it. Let's forget that EVERY OTHER CROSS-STORE RTS has their own, neutral MP. The fact that this seems like a power grab by my favorite retailer of old games, and provider for those on Unix platforms is really, *really* sad. I won't be buying it here, and if this is the direction you're headed, I probably won't buy new games from you in the future GOG. Everything else is just icing on the shit cake. /rant

Yeah, what the hell, GoG? You're supposed to be DRM-free and Galaxy is supposed to be optional. Instead you're starting to force Galaxy and you're using it to create a closed environment. So basically you are going to have all the shortcomings of Steam, but none of the benefits of its large user base?


I'm going to buy the game here, refund it and then get the game on Steam, because everyone else has it on Steam. What's the point? Where is the business sense in any of this, I don't get it.

I have to say, although I'm not interested in the specific game, I don't like the direction where we're heading. GoG promised that Galaxy will be optional for all times. So GoG, to stick with your principles, I see three possibilities:
- Make the devs provide a game store independent multiplayer
- Clearly advertise the game as singleplayer only
- Kick Ashes of Singularity out of the store

hah I knew it would happen on GOG eventually. I was just waiting for it. Hello DRM!

Ashes of the Singularity relies on the platform (GOG Galaxy for games on GOG) for multiplayer. The game essentially says "Send this data to this player ID" and GOG Galaxy handles the details. For example, IP addressing, TCP / UDP transport, and NAT traversal are all provided by GOG Galaxy and abstracted from the developers.

The game uses the friends list and achievements of the platform as well. This is similar to a game released on both Xbox One and Playstation 4. The multiplayer communities are separate, as are the achievements / trophies (respectively).

Stardock is investigating cross-platform solutions for multiplayer but nothing we're ready to announce.

-Adrian from Stardock

Well, there it is in no uncertain terms. I'm not buying this game from GOG, which I'm sure Stardock doesn't give two shits about.

GOG, you done fucked up on this one.

Where on GoG is an appropriate place to complain about this policy? I mean in general, not just in case of this one game.

I created a post in general chat here: gog.com/forum/general/gog_galaxy_is_no_longer_fully_optional

As someone who just bought the game today and considering requesting a refund due to both the issue of forcing GOG Galaxy for MP and the fact that I've now downloaded it from the site (which as far as I'm concerned is the only true way to get it DRM-free with an offline installer) and 3 times now the install has failed due to the second "big" file being supposedly corrupt. 3 times now.

I get that the idea is that the GOG Galaxy might seem to make things easier but what does GOG stand for? Good Old Games. You know what good old games used to do for multiplayer? Direct IP. It wasn't clean, it had issues and with people almost always being behind a firewall now there is port forwarding to consider. But in no circumstance ZERO circumstances is simply not including that function an appropriate option. At no point is saying "Your only avenue for multiplayer is to use our third party matchmaking system (e.g DRM). When in reality there's nothing stopping you from I don't know... including BOTH options. That way those who want the ease can use the Galaxy client and those who want to do it without DRM and third party interaction can.

At this point if your system is down, or I want to play with friends in a LAN environment I can't? No... that's not "No DRM" that's DRM. That sort of DRM to me is only acceptable in an MMO setting, and since this game is not an MMO and it is being sold on GOG I intend to see whether the game is absolutely smashing and worth the trouble, or if not. If it isn't which my guess is it won't be, I'm going to be putting in for a refund.

Multiplayer is optional guys. Always has been. Yes you need to be online to use online services. Steam for Steam, Galaxy for GOG. A game not providing online connectivity without galaxy is on the developer's end, not GOG. Besides nobody ever complains about needing to have steam installed to play multiplayer games. If you want to complain, complain to the devs who build the game around the client based multiplayer. About cross platform not working, as said above, they're investigating.