That's the $64,000 question, since Steam doesn't do client updates for STO. How will you get your client updates then, if Steam doesn't use Arc and the old launcher is deprecated?
Hey elessym,
That is in fact a very important question.
Our design goals are to make it so that Arc is empowered to download and patch all Perfect World games without the use of additional launchers, and to make it so that Steam users can download and patch our games without the need to download and install the full Arc platform. The specifics regarding how exactly this can be achieved are still in the brainstorming phase.
...To clarify, Arc is currently being designed with the intended user experience of remaining open after a game client is launched. Arc is meant to stay open in the background after a program is launched...
First Dezstravus thanks for taking so much time to reply to players questions.
I haven't had much of an opinion about Arc. I appreciate PW's needs and desires to unify their gaming systems, etc., etc. and generally I'm ok with that. But to put it simply...
The idea of having an "always on" launcher is a DEAL BREAKER for me.
I do not care about PWE "goals" to have the tiniest of footprints. It's not about your ideals or desires. I am the paying customer. (And yes, I do pay). When I want to play a game I will open/load that game, and when I'm done with it, it needs to close. Full stop.
It's not about your design theories or how much/little you think is an acceptable amount of resources. I have a powerful machine, I'm sure it could shrug off/ignore whatever non-bloatware you make. But that's the thing. It's my machine. I don't let random programs stack-up in the systray. I don't let Office, Acrobat, iTunes or any number of other programs keep their "helpful" loaders running when not in use, I won't let yours run either.
I consider any program that forces it's presence on me to be malware and it is removed.
...And as always, we'll be iterating on the design extensively over the next year. And, if the need to change the design becomes apparent based on requests from the players, we'll definitely change the plan as needed...
Please consider this an official vote from this player to offer an "Opt Out" option that I can check off that closes Arc when I close the game.
Thank you.
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
In conclusion, our strategy to ensure proper performance on all machines is not to design Arc with the intention of being closed after a game is launched, rather, to make it so lightweight that there is no need to close it in the first place.
Unless it uses 0 resources, this isn't good enough.
I don't know how to make this any clearer. Arc will NOT be allowed on my system as a persistent process. :mad:
Our design goals are to make it so that Arc is empowered to download and patch all Perfect World games without the use of additional launchers, and to make it so that Steam users can download and patch our games without the need to download and install the full Arc platform. The specifics regarding how exactly this can be achieved are still in the brainstorming phase.
See why can't you make this as an option for people who don't want arc? A unified lanucher is fine, heck Cryptic already uses a unified launcher. Why not make the full Arc client for those who WANT it, and have a launcher version for those who don't. I don't even mind if it's only the a text link under the Arc button.
First Dezstravus thanks for taking so much time to reply to players questions.
I haven't had much of an opinion about Arc. I appreciate PW's needs and desires to unify their gaming systems, etc., etc. and generally I'm ok with that. But to put it simply...
The idea of having an "always on" launcher is a DEAL BREAKER for me.
I do not care about PWE "goals" to have the tiniest of footprints. It's not about your ideals or desires. I am the paying customer. (And yes, I do pay). When I want to play a game I will open/load that game, and when I'm done with it, it needs to close. Full stop.
It's not about your design theories or how much/little you think is an acceptable amount of resources. I have a powerful machine, I'm sure it could shrug off/ignore whatever non-bloatware you make. But that's the thing. It's my machine. I don't let random programs stack-up in the systray. I don't let Office, Acrobat, iTunes or any number of other programs keep their "helpful" loaders running when not in use, I won't let yours run either.
I consider any program that forces it's presence on me to be malware and it is removed.
Please consider this an official vote from this player to offer an "Opt Out" option that I can check off that closes Arc when I close the game.
Thank you.
Yes, best post I've seen here thus far and I agree 100% !
EDIT: To clarify for smartasses that are gonna comment on this:
I think he means that the launcher should only launch and not continue to run in the background, and that is what I'm agreeing to.
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dezstravusMember, Cryptic DevelopersPosts: 2Arc User
First Dezstravus thanks for taking so much time to reply to players questions.
I haven't had much of an opinion about Arc. I appreciate PW's needs and desires to unify their gaming systems, etc., etc. and generally I'm ok with that. But to put it simply...
The idea of having an "always on" launcher is a DEAL BREAKER for me.
I do not care about PWE "goals" to have the tiniest of footprints. It's not about your ideals or desires. I am the paying customer. (And yes, I do pay). When I want to play a game I will open/load that game, and when I'm done with it, it needs to close. Full stop.
It's not about your design theories or how much/little you think is an acceptable amount of resources. I have a powerful machine, I'm sure it could shrug off/ignore whatever non-bloatware you make. But that's the thing. It's my machine. I don't let random programs stack-up in the systray. I don't let Office, Acrobat, iTunes or any number of other programs keep their "helpful" loaders running when not in use, I won't let yours run either.
I consider any program that forces it's presence on me to be malware and it is removed.
Please consider this an official vote from this player to offer an "Opt Out" option that I can check off that closes Arc when I close the game.
Thank you.
Hi Lord Havelock,
Thanks for taking the time to post your feedback here.
I'll make sure to pass this to the team, along with other key feedback that players have posted. Of course I'm unable to guarantee any specific changes to the design or the strategy, though I will make sure that your concerns are relayed in detail and specificity.
Our design goals are to make it so that Arc is empowered to download and patch all Perfect World games without the use of additional launchers, and to make it so that Steam users can download and patch our games without the need to download and install the full Arc platform. The specifics regarding how exactly this can be achieved are still in the brainstorming phase.
Why not just kill two birds with one stone and allow for a "Lite" version of ARC that would work solely as a launcher/patcher/downloader and nothing more? You could implement it to all PWE Steam games while at the same time allow all non-steam users dissatisfied with the perspective of having an "always on client" to download this "Lite" version that wouldn't be constantly running in the background, but would have the basic functions PWE clearly wants implemented across the board. This is in reference of what you've said earlier:
I would say that we're doing everything we can to ensure that having the client remain open has a minimal impact on game performance, if any. However, if we see a trend that players are routinely closing the client for a measurable increase in FPS, then we will definitely look into it.
Think of it. Having an alternative is always good. If players want a full client with a browser and such - that's the default ARC. If they don't - let them use a "Lite" launcher version. And quite frankly I don't think most of the playerbase would mind a new kind of launcher if it would turn off the moment you launch a game. Can't say the same about a full client...
Thanks for taking the time to post your feedback here.
I'll make sure to pass this to the team, along with other key feedback that players have posted. Of course I'm unable to guarantee any specific changes to the design or the strategy, though I will make sure that your concerns are relayed in detail and specificity.
Groovy. There are people that bag on Cryptic for not listening, but I'm one of the people who believes they've usually been very good with player feedback. I hope PW takes an example from the developers of (what I'm led to believe is) one of their most profitable games.
I can see all kinds of really cool benefits to Arc. A single location for information, patching, etc. There are/can be amazing benefits to centralization. I even like the idea of sharing performance information while I'm playing, as I grok just how useful is that kind of data.
Just please, please, please rethink that always on "feature". Keep it by default so most players (who don't care about these things) can leave Arc running... I'm fine with that, too. Just have some Option Check-box to turn it off, and we're square.
:cool:
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
I agree completely with Lord Havelock - a launcher that have to run constantly in the
background while I'm playing is a definitive deal breaker.
It doesn't matter how lightweight you make it, I don't want it running in the background
while I am playing. I don't need any of the features (chat, browser etc), I just want to
play the game! What I want is a launcher that simply does what a launcher should do -
patch the game, launch the game, provide some news. That's it.
So please reconsider this. I know that ARC will be mandatory eventually, so at least
try and make it as unobtrusive as possible. Give us the option to close ARC after the
game is launched. I don't think that is too much too ask?
Storm
Joined in March, 2011. Lifer since December, 2011.
I was in Closed Beta, then subbed for a year and then left. I was planning on returning today to play through the entire Romulan content as a paying subscriber, I almost reactivated my subscription before downloading the game but then I paused and thought I had better D/L the client first just to be sure it all goes smooth.
I am so glad I did as I can tell you now I will NOT be downloading Arc, I already have Steam, Origin and am sure as hell not adding Arc to the list. So I will say Hello everyone at STO and Good Bye again...wow that was a quick return.
I'm really only seeing people crying foul when they haven't even looked at the software yet. I'm sure some of these users saying this is Malware or even saying they will quit playing. I'm looking forward to at least seeing how it works since I already have Steam and Origin. Also, since patches occur while I am toiling away from home, being able to boot my PC and get an update without direct interaction sounds appealing.
With this in mind, reports from players regarding whether or not this goal is achieved are very important. If Arc is genuinely slowing performance, consuming system resources, or impacting your game's framerate, then we definitely want to know about that.
I can tell you right now, without ever installing it, that ARC is "consuming system resources" as long as it's running, and only stops when the program is shut down. Period. That's the nature of computer programs. They need resources to remain open. But feel free to prove me wrong and write ARC in such a way that it uses 0 RAM.
In conclusion, our strategy to ensure proper performance on all machines is not to design Arc with the intention of being closed after a game is launched, rather, to make it so lightweight that there is no need to close it in the first place.
In conclusion, your strategy is to ignore ARC's unavoidable use of system resources in favor of making it stay open as long as one of your games is running. This, sir, is the deal-breaker I predicted back when ARC was announced and y'all were pretending there was any chance it wouldn't be made mandatory later.
No to ARC spying on me in any way, shape, size or form. No to ARC sitting in the background unnecessarily eating up memory while I'm playing. No to adding yet another unneeded browser to my system.
Which means, I suppose, No to STO since PWE's set-in-stone plans to infiltrate my system runs precisely counter to my plans to keep bloatware and unnecessary nonsense off of it.
Arc will be the exclusive method of downloading, patching, and launching all Perfect World games
Ah, great feedback. Thanks for pointing that out. In retrospect, I can now see the potential confusion that the above statement could cause. To clarify, we definitely plan to continue supporting Steam.
So are you now saying that the announcement in big bolded letters was wrong? Why would the announcement (and remember, not in some little bit, but large and bolded) tell us that Arc will be the ONLY way to launch STO, if Steam will also launch STO?
And if this is the case, why has the announcement not been updated?
And as always, we'll be iterating on the design extensively over the next year. And, if the need to change the design becomes apparent based on requests from the players, we'll definitely change the plan as needed.
I am so hoping this means that I'll still be playing STO for another year before Arc becomes mandatory and not that their 'iterations' mean a much earlier deadline while the rest of you players beta test for PWE.
If PWE want's a unified launcher/patcher for all their games I'm quite content with that. Put a STO launcher skin on what they're working on. But as a purchaser of a retail copy of a CD I only want to play STO. Advertising your other games will not only annoy me but actively turn me off of PWE. (Fact: Less than 0.1% of the phone calls to my home are actually for me. I no longer answer my phone and only use it for outgoing calls since it has gotten so annoying.) And TSR or background processes?!? Buzzz! Wrong answer. Even considering they somehow made exactly what Cryptic has a working version of now, if it's TSR it ain't going on my machine.
First Dezstravus thanks for taking so much time to reply to players questions.
I haven't had much of an opinion about Arc. I appreciate PW's needs and desires to unify their gaming systems, etc., etc. and generally I'm ok with that. But to put it simply...
The idea of having an "always on" launcher is a DEAL BREAKER for me.
I do not care about PWE "goals" to have the tiniest of footprints. It's not about your ideals or desires. I am the paying customer. (And yes, I do pay). When I want to play a game I will open/load that game, and when I'm done with it, it needs to close. Full stop.
It's not about your design theories or how much/little you think is an acceptable amount of resources. I have a powerful machine, I'm sure it could shrug off/ignore whatever non-bloatware you make. But that's the thing. It's my machine. I don't let random programs stack-up in the systray. I don't let Office, Acrobat, iTunes or any number of other programs keep their "helpful" loaders running when not in use, I won't let yours run either.
I consider any program that forces it's presence on me to be malware and it is removed.
Please consider this an official vote from this player to offer an "Opt Out" option that I can check off that closes Arc when I close the game.
Why not just kill two birds with one stone and allow for a "Lite" version of ARC that would work solely as a launcher/patcher/downloader and nothing more? You could implement it to all PWE Steam games while at the same time allow all non-steam users dissatisfied with the perspective of having an "always on client" to download this "Lite" version that wouldn't be constantly running in the background, but would have the basic functions PWE clearly wants implemented across the board. This is in reference of what you've said earlier:
Think of it. Having an alternative is always good. If players want a full client with a browser and such - that's the default ARC. If they don't - let them use a "Lite" launcher version. And quite frankly I don't think most of the playerbase would mind a new kind of launcher if it would turn off the moment you launch a game. Can't say the same about a full client...
My feedback is simple. If ARC acts in a manner different at all from the current launcher I will be unhappy. It had best just be a launcher and not an extra program always running in the backround annoying me.
Thank you for taking the time to answer so many questions. I've been watching this thread closely.
You said you would look into the question of if you'd be able to run more then one STO client at a time. It is a free to play game and I have more then one account that my computer can run at one time, the ability to have multiple clients open to me at a time is very very important to me. Any info on this you can get would be appreciated and hopefully help me stop worrying.
Thanks for taking the time to post your feedback here.
I'll make sure to pass this to the team, along with other key feedback that players have posted. Of course I'm unable to guarantee any specific changes to the design or the strategy, though I will make sure that your concerns are relayed in detail and specificity.
These issues and many of the concerns of the STO community can be mitigated simply by designing ARC in such a way that it can be closed after the game has launched even if we have to use the task manager to do it. This will also prevent any possible issues people may have with limited system resources such as the game becoming unplayable. I don't know what your release cycle will be on ARC after its release but if it does in fact make the game unplayable or undesirable and that release window is say a month long that means people in that boat don't get to play for that entire length of time. Making ARC closeable gives you and us a back door to be sure there is no disruption of service and it gives the community assurances that the game will have the potential to be played in the same manner it is today.
Why not just kill two birds with one stone and allow for a "Lite" version of ARC that would work solely as a launcher/patcher/downloader and nothing more? You could implement it to all PWE Steam games while at the same time allow all non-steam users dissatisfied with the perspective of having an "always on client" to download this "Lite" version that wouldn't be constantly running in the background, but would have the basic functions PWE clearly wants implemented across the board. This is in reference of what you've said earlier:
Think of it. Having an alternative is always good. If players want a full client with a browser and such - that's the default ARC. If they don't - let them use a "Lite" launcher version. And quite frankly I don't think most of the playerbase would mind a new kind of launcher if it would turn off the moment you launch a game. Can't say the same about a full client...
Yeah, I'm fine with a launcher that does just that: launch the game (after patching it up, naturally). That's all I want and need.
As presented currently, Arc is full of 'functions' I couldn't care less about and is a constant stress on the system, no matter how 'lean' it might become. If it's a persistent process, it eats up ressources. I don't want anything to eat up my system ressources when I don't need it to run. And I can't imagine needing Arc for anything else than actually launching STO when I so choose.
TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class. Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider. Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
All this complaining about a launcher UI taking up resources and slowing a system down. If it's slowing down your PC, I'd say you have other issues at hand, like lack of RAM or CPU grunt, and need to upgrade anyway if you're that marginal on performance.
Of course the other possibility is Arc's just horribly coded.
Do the same people think STEAM is just as bad despite being the premier digital distribution platform?
I've been using STEAM since launch. I've run far more intensive games than STO and steam is the least of my worries if a game slows down on me.
I actually prefer to run STO via Steam for the UI overlay functionality it provides.
To be perfectly honest, I will never play another PWE game. The only reason I play this one is because it is Star Trek and I was already heavily invested with my LTS account.
I do not care about your goals, I only care about not letting a rogue piece of malware, hogging resources and sending my private data to PWE.
Steam does it right. I install, close it down, and can run the game without steam running if I so choose.
The only difference is, I actually don't mind steam running, because 90% of my games are in Steam.
Compare that to Arc which offers nothing I want or need....
First Dezstravus thanks for taking so much time to reply to players questions.
I haven't had much of an opinion about Arc. I appreciate PW's needs and desires to unify their gaming systems, etc., etc. and generally I'm ok with that. But to put it simply...
The idea of having an "always on" launcher is a DEAL BREAKER for me.
I do not care about PWE "goals" to have the tiniest of footprints. It's not about your ideals or desires. I am the paying customer. (And yes, I do pay). When I want to play a game I will open/load that game, and when I'm done with it, it needs to close. Full stop.
It's not about your design theories or how much/little you think is an acceptable amount of resources. I have a powerful machine, I'm sure it could shrug off/ignore whatever non-bloatware you make. But that's the thing. It's my machine. I don't let random programs stack-up in the systray. I don't let Office, Acrobat, iTunes or any number of other programs keep their "helpful" loaders running when not in use, I won't let yours run either.
I consider any program that forces it's presence on me to be malware and it is removed.
Please consider this an official vote from this player to offer an "Opt Out" option that I can check off that closes Arc when I close the game.
Thank you.
I could write a page or more, but why, when the above post pretty much says everything I have to say regarding PWE/Cryptic FORCING the usage of their new ARC 'software' (and with regard to ARC, I use that term loosely as 'bloatware'/'malware' seem a more appropriate description) on the current STO (and NW and CO) playerbase.
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Do the same people think STEAM is just as bad despite being the premier digital distribution platform?
I've been using STEAM since launch. I've run far more intensive games than STO and steam is the least of my worries if a game slows down on me.
^^^
Yes, I for one consider the Steam client a similar piece of software, and have not (nor will I ever) join/buy/use anything from Steam for that very reason. And for myself system specs have nothing to do with it. I like to have full configurational control of my personal PC, and when a vendor decides it's going to take over and run extra software as a TSR beyond my control (offering 'options' I have already decided serve no purpose for myself as a user of the software I want to run to play a game I enjoy)<--- That's where I draw the line and say to PWE/Cryptic, you can take your games and ***** them.
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Originally Posted by dezstravus
...To clarify, Arc is currently being designed with the intended user experience of remaining open after a game client is launched. Arc is meant to stay open in the background after a program is launched...
I have a great idea....why dont you take a survey of the player base and see what results you get before you force this upon everyone! Or maybe even resort to the old business mind set that the customer is always right. The players are your customer, PWE is not the players customer. Without the players PWE goes out of business. It seems like PWE is not even interested in compromise at any level! How about going ahead with ARC but giving the players the option to turn it off. Everyone wins. Enough with the PWE draconian attitude of its my way or the highway! Something else you need to think about is that will this "background" program be sending any TCP/IP packet traffic? If so, you will be putting satellite internet users at a disadvantage as they have limits on how much they can download per day. I know this is true as I just came off Hughes net. If your ARC program generates any overhead traffic via TCP/IP you will be effectively disenfanchising a small section of the player base by limiting how much they can play.
When Arc is required to play STO I am done. Until then I will not spend any additional cash on STO and probably won't even play much. Knowing that you will quit playing at some point just ruins the game.
Hell I downloaded the arc app and installed it without it even allowing me to download the sto game software. All it had listed with all the other pwe games that have download listed was play sto. Guess what it didn't work because it's a little hard to play a 12gb game without the 12 gb software it was supposed to automatically download with the arc app.
Or maybe even resort to the old business mind set that the customer is always right.
The customer is RARELY right... You do know the origin of this particular business mind set/philosophy right? It was customer service... you empathised with the customer, and told them you wish you could do it differently... but in the end, it was out of your hands. It was designed to pacify the customer or to difuse the situation (this was mainly used in retail environments). Businesses didn't change their operations based on it, or prices, or direction. Hell if that were the case, I wouldn't be paying this much for internet service... or any service for that matter.
In business, the customer and the company have TWO DIFFERENT objectives.
First Dezstravus thanks for taking so much time to reply to players questions.
I haven't had much of an opinion about Arc. I appreciate PW's needs and desires to unify their gaming systems, etc., etc. and generally I'm ok with that. But to put it simply...
The idea of having an "always on" launcher is a DEAL BREAKER for me.
I do not care about PWE "goals" to have the tiniest of footprints. It's not about your ideals or desires. I am the paying customer. (And yes, I do pay). When I want to play a game I will open/load that game, and when I'm done with it, it needs to close. Full stop.
It's not about your design theories or how much/little you think is an acceptable amount of resources. I have a powerful machine, I'm sure it could shrug off/ignore whatever non-bloatware you make. But that's the thing. It's my machine. I don't let random programs stack-up in the systray. I don't let Office, Acrobat, iTunes or any number of other programs keep their "helpful" loaders running when not in use, I won't let yours run either.
My thoughts exactly! Especially when it's confirmed that it will stay active all the time, which is unacceptable.
I don't care about the other PW games.
I don't care for the "Friend" functionality since I don't care if they got X achievement or Y loot.
I don't care for advertisements or anything that contributes to spam.
I don't care for loss of my computers performance.
And I certainly will not tolerate anything that transmits any of my personal data from my computer, unless it's within the game itself as it should be with MMOs.
Like many here, the current STO launcher is perfect as is. And we don't want that to change.
Are we going to be forced to use ARC if we only have one game? I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of everyone coming up with their own Steam knockoff and forcing us to be spammed with ads and other BS we don't want or need (Can anyone say Origin?)
If I have to download and use ARC in order to play the one title I have, I'll just uninstall and move on. I have no issues with the launcher I use now, I don't need or want bloatware that will take up more resources and try to sell me your other titles, none of which I have the least interest in.
Just being honest here. A little bit of sugar would help me decide whether or not I want to install Arc.
There's not enough sugar on the planet to convince me that I should install this. They could give me everything in the C-$tore for free on every character for life, and I still wouldn't want ARC.
Comments
Hey elessym,
That is in fact a very important question.
Our design goals are to make it so that Arc is empowered to download and patch all Perfect World games without the use of additional launchers, and to make it so that Steam users can download and patch our games without the need to download and install the full Arc platform. The specifics regarding how exactly this can be achieved are still in the brainstorming phase.
I haven't had much of an opinion about Arc. I appreciate PW's needs and desires to unify their gaming systems, etc., etc. and generally I'm ok with that. But to put it simply...
The idea of having an "always on" launcher is a DEAL BREAKER for me.
I do not care about PWE "goals" to have the tiniest of footprints. It's not about your ideals or desires. I am the paying customer. (And yes, I do pay). When I want to play a game I will open/load that game, and when I'm done with it, it needs to close. Full stop.
It's not about your design theories or how much/little you think is an acceptable amount of resources. I have a powerful machine, I'm sure it could shrug off/ignore whatever non-bloatware you make. But that's the thing. It's my machine. I don't let random programs stack-up in the systray. I don't let Office, Acrobat, iTunes or any number of other programs keep their "helpful" loaders running when not in use, I won't let yours run either.
I consider any program that forces it's presence on me to be malware and it is removed.
Please consider this an official vote from this player to offer an "Opt Out" option that I can check off that closes Arc when I close the game.
Thank you.
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
Unless it uses 0 resources, this isn't good enough.
I don't know how to make this any clearer. Arc will NOT be allowed on my system as a persistent process. :mad:
See why can't you make this as an option for people who don't want arc? A unified lanucher is fine, heck Cryptic already uses a unified launcher. Why not make the full Arc client for those who WANT it, and have a launcher version for those who don't. I don't even mind if it's only the a text link under the Arc button.
Yes, best post I've seen here thus far and I agree 100% !
EDIT: To clarify for smartasses that are gonna comment on this:
I think he means that the launcher should only launch and not continue to run in the background, and that is what I'm agreeing to.
Hi Lord Havelock,
Thanks for taking the time to post your feedback here.
I'll make sure to pass this to the team, along with other key feedback that players have posted. Of course I'm unable to guarantee any specific changes to the design or the strategy, though I will make sure that your concerns are relayed in detail and specificity.
Think of it. Having an alternative is always good. If players want a full client with a browser and such - that's the default ARC. If they don't - let them use a "Lite" launcher version. And quite frankly I don't think most of the playerbase would mind a new kind of launcher if it would turn off the moment you launch a game. Can't say the same about a full client...
I can see all kinds of really cool benefits to Arc. A single location for information, patching, etc. There are/can be amazing benefits to centralization. I even like the idea of sharing performance information while I'm playing, as I grok just how useful is that kind of data.
Just please, please, please rethink that always on "feature". Keep it by default so most players (who don't care about these things) can leave Arc running... I'm fine with that, too. Just have some Option Check-box to turn it off, and we're square.
:cool:
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
background while I'm playing is a definitive deal breaker.
It doesn't matter how lightweight you make it, I don't want it running in the background
while I am playing. I don't need any of the features (chat, browser etc), I just want to
play the game! What I want is a launcher that simply does what a launcher should do -
patch the game, launch the game, provide some news. That's it.
So please reconsider this. I know that ARC will be mandatory eventually, so at least
try and make it as unobtrusive as possible. Give us the option to close ARC after the
game is launched. I don't think that is too much too ask?
Storm
Joined in March, 2011. Lifer since December, 2011.
I am so glad I did as I can tell you now I will NOT be downloading Arc, I already have Steam, Origin and am sure as hell not adding Arc to the list. So I will say Hello everyone at STO and Good Bye again...wow that was a quick return.
I can tell you right now, without ever installing it, that ARC is "consuming system resources" as long as it's running, and only stops when the program is shut down. Period. That's the nature of computer programs. They need resources to remain open. But feel free to prove me wrong and write ARC in such a way that it uses 0 RAM.
In conclusion, your strategy is to ignore ARC's unavoidable use of system resources in favor of making it stay open as long as one of your games is running. This, sir, is the deal-breaker I predicted back when ARC was announced and y'all were pretending there was any chance it wouldn't be made mandatory later.
No to ARC spying on me in any way, shape, size or form.
No to ARC sitting in the background unnecessarily eating up memory while I'm playing.
No to adding yet another unneeded browser to my system.
Which means, I suppose, No to STO since PWE's set-in-stone plans to infiltrate my system runs precisely counter to my plans to keep bloatware and unnecessary nonsense off of it.
So are you now saying that the announcement in big bolded letters was wrong? Why would the announcement (and remember, not in some little bit, but large and bolded) tell us that Arc will be the ONLY way to launch STO, if Steam will also launch STO?
And if this is the case, why has the announcement not been updated?
I am so hoping this means that I'll still be playing STO for another year before Arc becomes mandatory and not that their 'iterations' mean a much earlier deadline while the rest of you players beta test for PWE.
If PWE want's a unified launcher/patcher for all their games I'm quite content with that. Put a STO launcher skin on what they're working on. But as a purchaser of a retail copy of a CD I only want to play STO. Advertising your other games will not only annoy me but actively turn me off of PWE. (Fact: Less than 0.1% of the phone calls to my home are actually for me. I no longer answer my phone and only use it for outgoing calls since it has gotten so annoying.) And TSR or background processes?!? Buzzz! Wrong answer. Even considering they somehow made exactly what Cryptic has a working version of now, if it's TSR it ain't going on my machine.
This.
This would be an acceptable alternative.
Thank you for taking the time to answer so many questions. I've been watching this thread closely.
You said you would look into the question of if you'd be able to run more then one STO client at a time. It is a free to play game and I have more then one account that my computer can run at one time, the ability to have multiple clients open to me at a time is very very important to me. Any info on this you can get would be appreciated and hopefully help me stop worrying.
Cryptic Account: Robert_Praetori
These issues and many of the concerns of the STO community can be mitigated simply by designing ARC in such a way that it can be closed after the game has launched even if we have to use the task manager to do it. This will also prevent any possible issues people may have with limited system resources such as the game becoming unplayable. I don't know what your release cycle will be on ARC after its release but if it does in fact make the game unplayable or undesirable and that release window is say a month long that means people in that boat don't get to play for that entire length of time. Making ARC closeable gives you and us a back door to be sure there is no disruption of service and it gives the community assurances that the game will have the potential to be played in the same manner it is today.
Yeah, I'm fine with a launcher that does just that: launch the game (after patching it up, naturally). That's all I want and need.
As presented currently, Arc is full of 'functions' I couldn't care less about and is a constant stress on the system, no matter how 'lean' it might become. If it's a persistent process, it eats up ressources. I don't want anything to eat up my system ressources when I don't need it to run. And I can't imagine needing Arc for anything else than actually launching STO when I so choose.
Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
Of course the other possibility is Arc's just horribly coded.
Do the same people think STEAM is just as bad despite being the premier digital distribution platform?
I've been using STEAM since launch. I've run far more intensive games than STO and steam is the least of my worries if a game slows down on me.
I actually prefer to run STO via Steam for the UI overlay functionality it provides.
I do not care about your goals, I only care about not letting a rogue piece of malware, hogging resources and sending my private data to PWE.
Steam does it right. I install, close it down, and can run the game without steam running if I so choose.
The only difference is, I actually don't mind steam running, because 90% of my games are in Steam.
Compare that to Arc which offers nothing I want or need....
I could write a page or more, but why, when the above post pretty much says everything I have to say regarding PWE/Cryptic FORCING the usage of their new ARC 'software' (and with regard to ARC, I use that term loosely as 'bloatware'/'malware' seem a more appropriate description) on the current STO (and NW and CO) playerbase.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Yes, I for one consider the Steam client a similar piece of software, and have not (nor will I ever) join/buy/use anything from Steam for that very reason. And for myself system specs have nothing to do with it. I like to have full configurational control of my personal PC, and when a vendor decides it's going to take over and run extra software as a TSR beyond my control (offering 'options' I have already decided serve no purpose for myself as a user of the software I want to run to play a game I enjoy)<--- That's where I draw the line and say to PWE/Cryptic, you can take your games and ***** them.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
...To clarify, Arc is currently being designed with the intended user experience of remaining open after a game client is launched. Arc is meant to stay open in the background after a program is launched...
I have a great idea....why dont you take a survey of the player base and see what results you get before you force this upon everyone! Or maybe even resort to the old business mind set that the customer is always right. The players are your customer, PWE is not the players customer. Without the players PWE goes out of business. It seems like PWE is not even interested in compromise at any level! How about going ahead with ARC but giving the players the option to turn it off. Everyone wins. Enough with the PWE draconian attitude of its my way or the highway! Something else you need to think about is that will this "background" program be sending any TCP/IP packet traffic? If so, you will be putting satellite internet users at a disadvantage as they have limits on how much they can download per day. I know this is true as I just came off Hughes net. If your ARC program generates any overhead traffic via TCP/IP you will be effectively disenfanchising a small section of the player base by limiting how much they can play.
Peace
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
The customer is RARELY right... You do know the origin of this particular business mind set/philosophy right? It was customer service... you empathised with the customer, and told them you wish you could do it differently... but in the end, it was out of your hands. It was designed to pacify the customer or to difuse the situation (this was mainly used in retail environments). Businesses didn't change their operations based on it, or prices, or direction. Hell if that were the case, I wouldn't be paying this much for internet service... or any service for that matter.
In business, the customer and the company have TWO DIFFERENT objectives.
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
My thoughts exactly! Especially when it's confirmed that it will stay active all the time, which is unacceptable.
I don't care about the other PW games.
I don't care for the "Friend" functionality since I don't care if they got X achievement or Y loot.
I don't care for advertisements or anything that contributes to spam.
I don't care for loss of my computers performance.
And I certainly will not tolerate anything that transmits any of my personal data from my computer, unless it's within the game itself as it should be with MMOs.
Like many here, the current STO launcher is perfect as is. And we don't want that to change.
If I have to download and use ARC in order to play the one title I have, I'll just uninstall and move on. I have no issues with the launcher I use now, I don't need or want bloatware that will take up more resources and try to sell me your other titles, none of which I have the least interest in.
There's not enough sugar on the planet to convince me that I should install this. They could give me everything in the C-$tore for free on every character for life, and I still wouldn't want ARC.