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The Future of Arc
sparkiesoft
Member, Cryptic Developers Posts: 47
Some of you may have missed the blog, so we've decided to create our own thread for it. Below you will find a general guideline of things you can expect to see from Arc fairly soon. Remember, not everything we have planned is listed, since they are still being worked on, but this should give you a general sense of where we're heading.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/arc-news/detail/3037713-the-future-of-arc
Feel free to ask questions or comment on anything else you'd like to see.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/arc-news/detail/3037713-the-future-of-arc
Feel free to ask questions or comment on anything else you'd like to see.
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What "word" are you looking for? They've already said it's going to happen (unless you use Steam). The only thing we don't have is a timeline.
Edit to add: No offense, Sparkiesoft (I'm sure you're a great guy who's just doing his job), but ARC is flawed down to its very concept. It's a resource hog, trips my firewalls, and has a generic "Asian MMO" look that I despise. I'd rather discard all of my hard-earned Lobi than use ARC. Again, no offense, I'm sure that you're working your butt off on this, I just can't stand ARC for personal aesthetic, game-performance and moral reasons.
They've already stated that they plan Arc to be mandatory to launch all PWE games. There will no longer be STO or Neverwinter or any other launcher. You'll have to launch Arc to launch STO.
That's why I'm concerned. I use Steam to launch every single game I play (for the Steam overlay and screenshot functions). Thus all players launching STO through Steam will have to launch Arc and loose these functions.
I hate the policy of each game company to have it's own Steam clone. So unless they provide a way to launch their games without Arc, something I really doubt, I've already planned to stop playing STO the day Arc becomes mandatory.
I'm sorry to people who I, in the past, insulted, annoyed, etc.
They do need to add a link for codes, but the old address still works
https://my.perfectworld.com/redeemkey/sto
There is also a ton of stuff available here, which should also at some point be incorporated into Arc
https://secure.crypticstudios.com/startrek/menu
I'm pretty they've said Arc will not replace steam.
Anyways, it may not break the Overlay, other games with their own launchers, like Far Cry 3 don't break the Steam Overlay IIRC.
It is absolutely not a resource hog. Right now it's sitting quietly in my tray using 0-1% CPU and consuming roughly 150 MBs of RAM. Maybe if you had a system with 1 GB or less of RAM this would be an issue, but if that's the case you're probably not playing STO.
This is to be expected because it requires access to the Internet. The first time you played STO it too would have tripped your firewall. This is not a bad thing. It just means your firewall is doing its job. It doesn't mean Arc is attempting to do something sinister.
Now I can appreciate that Arc may not appeal to you aesthetically, and that's fine, and a perfectly legitimate reason to dislike it. But please do not spread misinformation about its functionality and claim its something its not.
Sorry to say, as it's been said many times, your options will be Arc or Steam. One will be required to continuing playing STO at some point in the future.
As of now Arc doesn't have any effect on the Steam overlay. If you launch the game thru Steam you get the Steam overlay. If you launch thru Arc you get the Arc overlay.
Actually, they didn't say that.
We asked if by using Steam we'd have directly access to STO or if we'd have to use Arc in a way or another, and all we got was "we don't know, we need to ask".
And the most recent iteration of this question was several weeks ago.
Sure, it won't technically replace Steam, but I don't see the point of having Steam launching Arc launching STO, since it'd still mean you'd have to use Arc.
Please do not respond to my posts. I do not wish to get into another argument with you. I do not like you, you do not like me, I hate ARC, you like ARC, so let's just stay away from each other in the future.
And what are "forum improvements?" Are we talking about things like integrating more modern vbulletin features, a less gray-upon-gray style, or what?
Joined January 2009
It seems as though they are not willing to alienate Steam as they likely generate a fair amount of revenue from it, including the Steam Wallet function for purchases along with the Steam-only bundle.
From the FAQ:
http://www.arcgames.com/en/arc-news/detail/3028293-arc-games-frequently-asked-questions#Steam
Steam
Will it still be possible to launch my game through Steam without Arc?
The current scope of development does not involve any changes to Steam.
Will it still be possible to make purchases through Steam?
Yes!
Perhaps you can check again in 20 minutes or so. I am new to STO (just a few days in) and even I can see that the ARC related services are resource hogs. I was playing fine on day 1, then lagged out. Checked the services, and ARC was consuming the CPU. Furthermore, it wouldn't let me close ARC while the game is running. Of course I may not have a high end system like you, but surely 24GB of RAM is enough. Ludicrously, the game itself is pretty decently optimized it seems to me. The launcher ... not so much.
I like STO, I subbed even though I really don't need the benefits yet. But, this ARC thing is a pretty big irritant and definitely enough to make me look elsewhere.
Steam is a possible option, but until it is a permanent alternative I won't be making any long term plans to stay.
I have no intention of getting into an argument with you, I am merely pointing out that your claims have no basis. Arc is neither a resource hog or a virus/malware/spyware. Many such claims have been made by others and all have been debunked.
I neither like nor dislike Arc. I am completely ambivalent towards it. And as I said, I can understand if you dislike its aesthetics, the current lack of features, and the fact that either it or Steam will become mandatory, but I will not idly sit by and let you make wild and unfounded claims that only serve to misinform people.
Honestly, I don't care how you feel about me, and my feeling towards you are irrelevant, as I would respond in the exact same way to anyone else who makes the same inaccurate claims.
I've said it, I'll keep saying it, I'd say it in court while taking a polygraph test with my hand on a stack of every religious book available.
Other people might like it. I can't stand it. Again, no insult to Sparkiesoft and his guys intended, I'm sure that they are working very hard on it, but I will stick with Steam, which is tried-and-true.
So basically, it doesn't cause you problems with RAM or CPU usage, therefore it cannot be doing so for anyone else?
Would you also like to point out where these claims were debunked and how they were debunked? I admit that I haven't been paying much attention to sto lately, so I have likely missed the debunking of any claims.
My 2p on the topic is the same as ever; It is a piece of unnecessary software that I doubt will entice many players onto other PWE games.
links please, or it didn't happen. i can assure you and anybody else arc does indeed use lot's of google spyware.
you seem to be making some inaccurate claims yerslef. j\s
^ this
There are dozens of threads on the topic. It's not just me. When I first read of people making claims of it being a resource hog and/or malware I tested it on every machine I have (9 machines, each with STO installed, ranging from single core Celerons up to a modern gaming rig) and ran it thru 5 different antivirus/antimalware programs (MSE, Bitdefender, Malwarebytes, Avira, and AVG), and I found no aberrant behavior whatsoever. Now 9 machines is certainly not a significant statistical sampling, but combined with reports from others who have done similar testing I'm confident in my stance.
Now if someone is indeed having a poor experience they should probably file a ticket or start a thread about it so the developers can get your system information and hopefully be able to track down the problem, because it's not normal. This is why Arc is still considered beta, and not yet mandatory. To give them plenty of time to get out as many bugs as possible.
Additionally, 03/21/2014 what the fizzle is going on guys, i have news that both Neverwinter and STO are down, so late into the day of Friday this will be causing a mass login issue when EVERYONE logs in.
Proof or you get written of as a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist.