Game Development: Haven & Hearth on Steam

[Robben_DuMarsch]

This will happen anyways considering the brainlets playing this game, they will never be satisfied and troll til the end, just check how the forums are now thanks to them.

Forums have gone to shit and community is mostly shit unless you find the right people and avoid others, I agree. It's nothing like it used to be in the old days. So, maybe a few bad actors will actively try to undermine the game on steam for their own shits and giggles. But there are many more that would have been very hyped for steam exposure that are now extremely apathetic because of real or perceived shortcomings.

[Dawidio123]

Happy to take input on how you'd like that to work, tbh.

Okay i'm gonna be real with you here jorb, this whole "issue" is made-up by you guys. It's not a real issue. If you just allow people to connect through a normal non-steam client and accounts you instantly solve all of these:
Purchases carrying over to the steam servers, custom clients requiring a lot of extra work to be used on steam, people having to buy things twice (ig it's kindof a repeat), difficulty sharing accounts (yes, this is a common strategy in villages, what if you get a dc during a fight?, what if you need to share a miner/crafter common alt?), difficulty in making/using alts (I really don't want to run 20 steam accounts on 20 vms to do so).

The whole "we don't want to merge the ecosystems it's an experiment" seems like a very bad argument, the old server will be (already is) dead, there will not be any other ecosystem than the steam one.

Forums have gone to shit and community is mostly shit unless you find the right people and avoid others, I agree.

Disagree, the community is actually super friendly and fun when you don't act like a dipshit towards everyone. Just see the Official Haven and Hearth discord (invite in signature)

[terechgracz]

HELLO LITERALLY ASKED GPT AND HE SAID ITS DOABLE AS FUCK

To map your old MMO game accounts from your own authentication server to Steam accounts as you ship to Steam, you'll need to implement a strategy that ensures users can securely link their existing game accounts with their new Steam credentials. Here’s a step-by-step process you can follow:

1. Integrate Steamworks SDK
First, make sure you integrate Steam's authentication system using the Steamworks SDK. This SDK provides tools for user authentication and can verify that a user is logged into Steam.

- Use Steam’s SteamID as the unique identifier for a Steam account.
- This is the ID you'll be linking to your existing accounts.

2. Create an Account Linking Flow
You will need a process for players to link their existing accounts to their Steam accounts. This can be handled in several ways:

#### A. In-Game Account Linking
1. Login to Steam: When the user launches the game via Steam, you can retrieve their SteamID.
2. Prompt for Existing Account Details: If this is their first time linking, prompt the user to log into their existing account using your old authentication system (either in-game or through a web portal).
3. Link Accounts: Once the user successfully logs into their old account, store their SteamID alongside their existing account information on your server.
4. Success Notification: Notify the user that their Steam account has been successfully linked to their old game account.

#### B. External Web Portal for Linking
1. Steam Login via OpenID: Create a web portal where players can log in using their Steam account via Steam OpenID.
2. Prompt for Existing Account: After logging in with Steam, prompt the user to log into their old account.
3. Link Accounts: Once both Steam and old account credentials are verified, save the SteamID and link it with the old account.

3. Backend Changes
You’ll need to update your backend to handle both SteamIDs and your existing account identifiers. This can be done by:

- Adding a SteamID field to your user database.
- When linking accounts, store the user’s SteamID in this new field.
- When a player logs in via Steam, first check if their SteamID is already linked to an account. If yes, authenticate them using their SteamID instead of your old credentials.

4. Handle Existing Players
For existing players, you’ll need to:
- Auto-link accounts for players who register via Steam: When a player logs in via Steam, and their SteamID isn't linked yet, prompt them to log in to their old account so that you can map the SteamID.
- Offer incentives (optional): To encourage existing players to link their accounts, you could offer in-game rewards or bonuses for completing the linking process.

5. Migration Considerations
- Single Account Mapping: Ensure that a single old account can only be mapped to one SteamID to avoid account sharing issues.
- Account Duplication: Prevent users from creating multiple Steam accounts and linking them to the same in-game account unless intended.
- Data Transfer: Ensure that all important data (progress, items, purchases) from the old account is correctly accessible after linking to Steam.

6. Provide Support for Account Issues
- Implement a support process in case users have trouble linking their accounts. For example, if they forget their old credentials, provide password recovery options.

7. Test Thoroughly
Before going live with this system, extensively test both the authentication and account linking processes to ensure there are no issues with data integrity or user authentication.

Example Flow:
1. User launches the game via Steam.
2. The game fetches the user’s SteamID via the Steamworks SDK.
3. If no account is linked, prompt the user to log in with their old account credentials.
4. On successful login, link the SteamID with the old account in your database.
5. Future logins via Steam auto-authenticate based on the linked SteamID.

By following these steps, you should be able to seamlessly map old accounts to Steam ones while maintaining player progress and security.

tbh doesn't sound really complicated

YAPPING

stop projecting your insecuritioes on iothers
if youre unlikeable thats your fault not other people

[Dawidio123]

tbh doesn't sound really complicated

Tbh it sounds a lot more complicated said by chatgpt that it even needs to be. Take logins from steam and non-steam (front-end), check which it is in the back-end and based on that verify it the old fashioned way or the steam token way. Done. (Is it a simplification and there is a lot more tech mumbo-jumbo in between? Sure. But overall that's the whole thing. And it avoids a ton of other issues.)

[Robertzon]

Happy to take input on how you'd like that to work, tbh.

Okay i'm gonna be real with you here jorb, this whole "issue" is made-up by you guys. It's not a real issue. If you just allow people to connect through a normal non-steam client and accounts you instantly solve all of these:
Purchases carrying over to the steam servers, custom clients requiring a lot of extra work to be used on steam, people having to buy things twice (ig it's kindof a repeat), difficulty sharing accounts (yes, this is a common strategy in villages, what if you get a dc during a fight?, what if you need to share a miner/crafter common alt?), difficulty in making/using alts (I really don't want to run 20 steam accounts on 20 vms to do so).

The whole "we don't want to merge the ecosystems it's an experiment" seems like a very bad argument, the old server will be (already is) dead, there will not be any other ecosystem than the steam one.

Forums have gone to shit and community is mostly shit unless you find the right people and avoid others, I agree.

Disagree, the community is actually super friendly and fun when you don't act like a dipshit towards everyone. Just see the Official Haven and Hearth discord (invite in signature)

Meanwhile, half the people with that invite link in their signature are yapping like 5-year-olds in the forums.

[terechgracz]

tbh doesn't sound really complicated

Tbh it sounds a lot more complicated said by chatgpt that it even needs to be. Take logins from steam and non-steam (front-end), check which it is in the back-end and based on that verify it the old fashioned way or the steam token way. Done. (Is it a simplification and there is a lot more tech mumbo-jumbo in between? Sure. But overall that's the whole thing. And it avoids a ton of other issues.)

yes the fuking gpt always complicate things even if i give him 10's of stmts of being succint and not talking shit
essentialy you rewritten what gpt told but in 1 sentence, there is no technical mumbo-jumb, loftar is competent enough for this, they just want to release "TEST SERVER" but dressed up as "OFFICIAL STEAM LAUNCH", if they were clear about this being test server then there wouldn't be a problem with their take, that mapping can wait until real official steam release,
i see only real problem you cant make money from test server so they release it as official launch
rethink this developers
it can be your step towards death
you created community that can't be lied about technical problems

[jpjpjpppjp]

Please, even if account linking is performed, don't release on steam without a steam playtest first. 3/4 month wipe change can break on so many levels. experimentation can go wrong and shouldn't be on the table on a Steam release.

[grimling]

Maybe they should double this short worlds with one persistent world. For ones who don't like short ones. I personally totally don't like short ones.

[MightySheep]

Did you forget that this world is a 'water-bugged' world?
I really don't understand why you're rushing the Steam release, even though you haven't prepared enough for Steam release, while neglecting the 'water-bugged' world.

they did mention that on steam

this world isn't going to be the permanent world

maybe next world will be the permanent world? Idk they not giving much details...

I think splitting up the playerbase IS a good idea, since we are really hard pressed to co-exist in the same world. I am not at all interested in the shorter worlds, nor in pvp. I would really love a version of the game to exist for a very, very, very long time.

If u think permanent world will be safe and pvpers will all be on some temporary world then u delusional. Pvpers will go where the victims are, especially on a "permanent" world where ppl are more attached to their loot/character they will have insane stats and go around coordinated mrage murdering ppl, it will be glorious

[Detharon]

Launching the game on Steam is the right way to go to make it more popular, but the execution is terrible. I don't really see how it could possibly succeed.

Not linking the accounts is just wrong on so many levels. By doing that you'll anger the oldest and most dedicated part of the playerbase. Surely, many of them were just interested in killing everyone around and bug abusing, but there were also people running markets and creating various communities. Will they continue doing so if they're basically getting ripped? At least I won't, for sure.

3-4 months is too short for a world. The rapid development is usually a result of various groups grinding hard in the beginning and then burning out after 1-3 months. There's no way anyone can keep up with so frequent wipes. This game is just incredibly time-consuming, especially if you're part of a large group, or you have some long-term goals. For example, building a market takes tremendous amount of time. There's no point in spending a month to build it, only to have it wiped the month after. Hermits progress slowly on their own. Alchemy takes months to discover recipes, and so on.

I played as a hermit, as a part of a minor and major faction, and in neither playstyle I can imagine playing with so frequent wipes. Well, maybe I can just do as much PVP and then quit, that's for sure, but I doubt such environment will attract any new players.