The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (Full Version)

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Daniele -> The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 12:40:09 PM)

The Operational Art of War IV, the new generation of operational wargames, will be released on Steam on October 15th!

Players will be pleased to know that the huge number of scenarios and content will be integrated with the Steam Workshop tool.

With an unmatched level of flexibility and with a new array of exciting features, The Operational Art of War IV will make you relive the most iconic battles from the dawn of the 20th Century to modern day, including the ones that never occurred!

To properly celebrate this important achievement, The Operational Art of War IV will have a Steam Twitch Stream on October 15th at 6PM BST on our official Twitch Channel!

Check out the Steam Page here

[img]https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/4563585/896573fcf038cf37f9dd482fbef3658ba6d00a2b.jpg[/img]



Freyr Oakenshield -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 12:56:28 PM)

yes --> https://store.steampowered.com/app/792660/The_Operational_Art_of_War_IV/ <-- [sm=tank2-39.gif]



Freyr Oakenshield -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 12:58:47 PM)

Oh, I didn't notice you'd shared the link - sorry [:(]



Tbilisi -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 4:26:00 PM)

I have a Steam account, but rarely play their games. What does Steam bring to the table regarding this game?



DonCzirr -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 4:29:04 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Tbilisi

I have a Steam account, but rarely play their games. What does Steam bring to the table regarding this game?



Playing TOAW IV on Android tablet !

My couch time is going to be enhanced with this development [;)]



erazerhead99 -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 4:54:41 PM)

Workshop integration, i.e. scenarios and mods will be available on the steam platform in an organized und easy to manage way.



Lobster -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 5:32:05 PM)

Automatic updates. No need to go looking for them.



Tbilisi -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 6:41:34 PM)

I expect that TOAW IV acquired through Steam can still be played without having a Steam connection. If the game requires an on-line session then that would be a deal breaker and instead I'd buy it directly through Matrix/Slitherine. So far, the few games I've bought from Steam need to be played within their client. I'll have to know if there are any restrictions on the game before I'm on board with this idea. Or am I reading too much into this?



76mm -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 7:49:25 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tbilisi
If the game requires an on-line session then that would be a deal breaker and instead I'd buy it directly through Matrix/Slitherine. So far, the few games I've bought from Steam need to be played within their client.

I use Steam as little as possible, but the only game I play "through" Steam actually allows me to launch the game without going through the Steam client, although I have not tried it offline.

But it is not an "either/or" situation, because you can buy through Matrix and then get a Steam key to use it there if you want.



Lobster -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 8:36:25 PM)

You can launch any game on Steam from a desktop shortcut. You can do it even if you are not connected to the internet. Using a game through Steam makes many things easier is all. I really don't get the anti Steam thing at all.



Pax25 -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/9/2018 9:56:06 PM)

Will those of us who already purchased the game be given a Steam key?



Rosseau -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/10/2018 12:29:46 AM)

Pax25, I am guessing it will be your original Matrix serial number.

Lobster, it might be a stretch to say "all" Steam games can be played offline. In fact, I have about 550 (unfortunately[;)]) and just tried two randomly and neither worked.

However, I agree: I don't get the "anti-Steam" thing either.

Every Steam game I have works and updates perfectly with the Steam Client. That in itself is a miracle. What I don't like is most games you can't go back to a previous build and that creates havoc with your mod files and others' mods in the Workshop.




gwgardner -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/10/2018 11:52:13 AM)

I googled and got this:

Is it possible to play Steam games offline?
Offline Mode allows you to play games through Steam without reconnecting to the Steam Network every time you wish to play - this is particularly useful if you do not plan on playing over the internet and would prefer not to download new updates for your single-player games.

I've only rarely done the above, but it works. Having used Steam for about 10 years, never had a problem.

Regarding a Steam key for a game purchased on Slitherine or Matrix, there's a Slitherine webpage for getting the key.



Lobster -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/10/2018 2:32:45 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Rosseau

Pax25, I am guessing it will be your original Matrix serial number.

Lobster, it might be a stretch to say "all" Steam games can be played offline. In fact, I have about 550 (unfortunately[;)]) and just tried two randomly and neither worked.

However, I agree: I don't get the "anti-Steam" thing either.

Every Steam game I have works and updates perfectly with the Steam Client. That in itself is a miracle. What I don't like is most games you can't go back to a previous build and that creates havoc with your mod files and others' mods in the Workshop.




I had just the opposite experience. I tried two dozen games and they all started in offline mode. As far as previous versions, some games allow you to roll back one version, some don't.

There are those who don't like the idea of protecting games from pirating so for that reason they don't like Steam. One guy even had the audacity to brag about buying games from GOG, copying it and then 'returning' it for a full refund. Gee, I wonder why game developers want to protect their stuff?

I like having my games all in one place. I even put non Steam games into my Steam library so I can start everything from there.



FluffyFoxy -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/10/2018 8:46:05 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: DonCzirr


quote:

ORIGINAL: Tbilisi

I have a Steam account, but rarely play their games. What does Steam bring to the table regarding this game?



Playing TOAW IV on Android tablet !

My couch time is going to be enhanced with this development [;)]


Wait, what? O_o How do you play Steam games on an Android tablet? That could be useful :)



ralphtricky -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/11/2018 3:49:03 AM)

quote:

Wait, what? O_o How do you play Steam games on an Android tablet? That could be useful :)

There's something called Steamlink that looks like it works. I've used RDP before too.

You may want to look at the TOAW options, setting the menudelay to 0 means the menus don't pop up which can be better for touch some scenarios. Then it's just left click select right click move or attack and go through the attacks and tune them when you're ready.

Ralph



ivanov -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/11/2018 11:02:58 PM)

Sure you can play the Steam games offline. The games from the Steam library are installed on your computer, so you can just create desktop shortcuts for them. By the way, out of 20 something games that I have on Steam, I have installed on my PC 4 that I actually play right now. When I'm done with them, I will uninstall them and install some new ones from the library. Still all the games are kept in one place and I can install or install them whenever I want with all the updates. How cool is that? Are there really people who have something against Steam? I'm pretty sure, most of them had never tried it.



budd -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/12/2018 12:45:19 AM)

I'll be installing the Steam version just for grabbing the extra scenarios, that should make it easy for folks to grab them. I think this is the first Slitherine/Matrix game that will use workshop, hope its the start of using workshop more with their games.



gwgardner -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/12/2018 11:59:03 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: budd

I'll be installing the Steam version just for grabbing the extra scenarios, that should make it easy for folks to grab them. I think this is the first Slitherine/Matrix game that will use workshop, hope its the start of using workshop more with their games.


Aggressors: Ancient Rome uses the Steam Workshop feature very well.



FluffyFoxy -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/12/2018 12:24:11 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: ralphtricky

There's something called Steamlink that looks like it works. I've used RDP before too.

You may want to look at the TOAW options, setting the menudelay to 0 means the menus don't pop up which can be better for touch some scenarios. Then it's just left click select right click move or attack and go through the attacks and tune them when you're ready.

Ralph


Oh, that's brilliant. I installed Steamlink right away [:)] Thanks for the heads-up, Ralph!
On a different note, you wouldn't know when Matrix/Slitherine will provide the Steam keys to existing owners of the game, would you? Will it be on the day of the Steam release?

quote:

ORIGINAL: ivanov

Sure you can play the Steam games offline. The games from the Steam library are installed on your computer, so you can just create desktop shortcuts for them. By the way, out of 20 something games that I have on Steam, I have installed on my PC 4 that I actually play right now. When I'm done with them, I will uninstall them and install some new ones from the library. Still all the games are kept in one place and I can install or install them whenever I want with all the updates. How cool is that? Are there really people who have something against Steam? I'm pretty sure, most of them had never tried it.


I totally agree. Steam is by far the most convenient way to handle your games library. And it provides a lot of potential added value to the games if the developers support it in-game, e.g. the Workshop or invitations/challenges of friends to a game.



Shadrach -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/12/2018 10:59:02 PM)

Wow, this is interesting news. Also it appears we will get Steam keys if bought from Matrix, so that's nice.

I think it's the right move of you guys - there are plenty of wargamers on Steam who I am sure will appreciate it. As long as you get good visibility in the first days after launch.
It would help if you actually made a good-looking intro movie to play instead of just having the tutorials, they are not all that inspiring [;)]

Workshop support is very cool. I assume at least scenarios will be available. But I wonder about UI/map mods and if so, how they will need to be packaged and so on to make sure they don't overwrite each others files. Workshop mods are updated automatically, so even if you do manual changes to a mod locally, once the modder updated, it will be downloaded again. I guess it remains to be seen how well it will work...

As to playing offline - depends how you define it. I would define Offline as "not having to launch the Steam client before starting the game". NOT "being able to play without an internet connection" - which really is an edge case these days. But I would appreciate having the ability to launch the game without first waiting for Steam, basically using Steam as a way to update the game. In technical terms, if steam_api.dll is loaded and required to start, it is NOT offline IMO.

And please let us launch the game without first starting the horrible "Matrix launcher". That thing is an abomination. Just add a launch parameter to allow us to enter the game directly.



demyansk -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/12/2018 11:05:55 PM)

Good move, Steam works well.



Lobster -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/12/2018 11:21:31 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Shadrach

Wow, this is interesting news. Also it appears we will get Steam keys if bought from Matrix, so that's nice.

I think it's the right move of you guys - there are plenty of wargamers on Steam who I am sure will appreciate it. As long as you get good visibility in the first days after launch.
It would help if you actually made a good-looking intro movie to play instead of just having the tutorials, they are not all that inspiring [;)]

Workshop support is very cool. I assume at least scenarios will be available. But I wonder about UI/map mods and if so, how they will need to be packaged and so on to make sure they don't overwrite each others files. Workshop mods are updated automatically, so even if you do manual changes to a mod locally, once the modder updated, it will be downloaded again. I guess it remains to be seen how well it will work...

As to playing offline - depends how you define it. I would define Offline as "not having to launch the Steam client before starting the game". NOT "being able to play without an internet connection" - which really is an edge case these days. But I would appreciate having the ability to launch the game without first waiting for Steam, basically using Steam as a way to update the game. In technical terms, if steam_api.dll is loaded and required to start, it is NOT offline IMO.

And please let us launch the game without first starting the horrible "Matrix launcher". That thing is an abomination. Just add a launch parameter to allow us to enter the game directly.



You can launch any Steam game from a desktop shortcut. And if you really don't want to see the Matrix launcher you can go to your TOAW folder and make a shortcut for the Opart executable.



Shadrach -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/12/2018 11:34:06 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lobster
You can launch any Steam game from a desktop shortcut. And if you really don't want to see the Matrix launcher you can go to your TOAW folder and make a shortcut for the Opart executable.


A Steam desktop shortcut is basically a URL of the form:
steam://rungameid/305620
Which then launches Steam before starting the game.

In many games, even if you change the shortcut to the exe, it will still launch Steam first, because of the Steam API integration.

I guess it remains to be seen how they've implemented this. For instance with Flashpoint Campaigns the game will give an error on startup if launched directly from the exe.



Joselillo -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/14/2018 4:19:15 PM)

Excelente :)



Graymane -> RE: The Operational Art of War goes on Steam this month! (10/14/2018 4:33:51 PM)

Thanks Matrix! Not being on steam is a deal breaker for me. I can finally add this game to my library.



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