Thought on the distribution of BMS
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Yeap no need for such posts or actions.
We r just exchanging opinions and thoughts.MO took it to the next level exchanging members… :lol:
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All this moods cures fresh BMS update OK, hehe…
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+1 (on the steam, invasion of … post)
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But in the end it’s their decision, and they’re big enough and ugly enough to make it themselves.
And that is really the point. The suggestion has been made and now it’s up to the BMS Team as to what they do about it. This is after all their playground and we are just guests.
And Blu don’t take it so seriously … it was an honest suggestion and on the whole a good debate … and like others have said tis’ only 'tinternet and not life and death
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Using steam adds more time to getting the game to launch and the fun of seeing more ads.
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There is one major problem with adding extra distribution channels which require different ways of verifying that Falcon 4.0 is owned by the user; the BMS installs will contain different binaries. This makes anti cheat mechanisms much harder, and doubles the amount of work of verification and file testing for each release.
It will also add bugs from the new DRM mechanisms. DRM is evil, even when necessary, and should always be kept to a minimum. The risk of interference with legitimate users is very high. Adding more DRM is a Bad Idea and WILL lead to new, often subtle, bugs.
Also, it will add problems when updating BMS. How will the Steam updater understand what files I have changed myself and want to keep changed, such as keyfiles, and how will it know when to update those? How will the updater handle added theatres? Will they be added by hand like now, only inside the Steam directory (talk about messy!)? Or will they also have to be added to Steam as DLC? The Steam installer is pretty dumb about DLC and defaults to installing all of it. It takes manual intervention to manage it properly if you only want partial installs.
I’m not saying these problems are impossible to solve, but allowing Steam to “half manage” an install is a recipe for disaster. And adding both BMS and theatres to Steam will lead to really huge downloads for people who do not understand that they need to uncheck all the theatres they do not want before installing.
Steam is good for many things, but I don’t really see it as good for this kind of distribution. It’s not made for managing software which requires a lot of manual file management by the end user.
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I’m glad to see people bringing technical issues to the discussion, so thanks Sjuswede. Personally, the technical side is another aspect to this that I’m just going to Trust The Devs.
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I Already own F4, plus I recently purchased it from gog. just to put a little in their pocket plus have cloud version forever. What stops anybody that already has 4.33 plus the old way of installing (ie the exe) continual use of BMS 4.33. OK they may not get official updates but they may be happy flying with what they have got. Can they not add 3rd party addons/mods. I think 4.33.1 may well not be an update but an installer to satisfy the new owners, I would like to know how the new owners would like the development of BMS/FALCON 4 to go. This sim will only die when the same idea is produced using a more economical code, producing a graphical heaven with a flawless campaign engine.:p
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@sjuswede
last i checked, running a ridiculously custom modded skyrim on steam wasn’t any trouble. -
Totally different software. BMS is not a Mod of Falcon 4.0.
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Last I checked, Skyrim didn’t come with updated keyfiles and data cartridges which resided in the game directory. And ridiculous modding generally causes a lot of trouble when the game gets updated. I found that back in the Morrowind days. Updating the game would break things right and left. Skyrim seems to handle that better.
But either way, there are a lot of issues with Steam treating BMS as a mod, as DLC, or as a beta version. Especially treating it as a beta version; that will lead to it not being able to find a Falcon 4.0 install when running. I’m not saying they can’t be solved, but they are technically difficult as Steam is not intended to manage this kind of scenario. Falcon BMS is a separate game (in Steam parlance; not saying it is a game), which only relies on Falcon 4.0 to verify it is allowed to run.
In addition, people who click to download and expect BMS to work out of the box with their hardware will be sorely disappointed. Is that the kind of welcome we want to give people who try out BMS?