Switching from Steam to Arc

hypl

I've grown tired of the game's mounting technical problems and I'm considering a complete re-install and switching to Arc, hoping to alleviate some of these problems...assuming it'll actually fix anything.

For those that have actually done this, did you notice any significant improvements? Better performance? Less technical hiccups?

annemarie30

nope. I have it on my laptop on arc and Mark has it on his on steam and they are equally buggy. the game itself is the same steam amd arc are just launchers.. and steam has less of a footprint

iconians

The early versions of ARC did not agree with my computer, but after a few months of breathing room, STO actually performs better with ARC than Steam. But as always, your mileage may vary.​​

alcyoneserene

I've done that once but without redownloading everything. I ended up with gameplay bugs that I couldn't explain, because Steam is somehow invasive to STO, unlike Arc that doesn't impact it whether using Arc or just direct launching the game.

crzymn45

the one point in favor of arc is that steam doesnt send money purchase confirmation on the spot(for zen) so you get the zen but its on probation. i.e. you cant sell keys you buy with it on the exchange until cryptic gets confirmation. this isnt cryptic's fault. its valve not getting off its TRIBBLE.

annemarie30

crzymn45 wrote: »

the one point in favor of arc is that steam doesnt send money purchase confirmation on the spot(for zen) so you get the zen but its on probation. i.e. you cant sell keys you buy with it on the exchange until cryptic gets confirmation. this isnt cryptic's fault. its valve not getting off its ****.

we have never had that issue

crzymn45

i have had it several times

pwstolemyname

I work for a credit card company. The zen probation isn't because of steam.

PW just want you using their payment processing method because their are fewer processing fees for them when you buy through their own payment provider.

All credit and debit card transactions impose a cirtain degree of risk upon the merchant due to the possibility of fraud and funds being returned to the issuing institution.

PW's PR have just used this as a way to encourage steam users to utilize their own system. There isn't actually any more risk of funds being returned when they go though steam.

As for the OP's question. I have a number of fleet mates who have had problems with arc that were not present when they switched to steam. This was back when arv was new though, and I have read that arc isn't as bad as it was. I don't know if this is true though as all my fleetmates who tried arc went back to steam a long time ago.

Personally I run steam all the time anyway to keep in contact with friends, access my games, and utilize the steam overlay, if I did run arc it would be in addition to steam, not instead of, so I don't bother with arc.

trejgon

that probation thing is for first time buying zen from the source - so first buy from the website, first buy via steam etc. I have personally had it twice - once for buying on website just after they introduced that security measure and second time after my first steam purchase....\

as for differences as I have switched - I haven't noticed any really.... apart from faster launching for not having to type that password....

leemwatson

Arc has less impact on the game than Steam does. However, I run the game from it's original launcher to give the game access to as much resource as is available, as both Steam and Arc stay resident in the computer's RAM when they are running. To be honest, I still can't see why people use Steam for STO at all, to me it's just a memory hog, and I don't like the idea of having to rely on a 3rd party when I'm happy to download the entire game (which it does with any method of launching this game)!