Linking Steam

[Pikestance]

So, I wanted to take advantage of the Halloween Sale on Steam. Thus far, I have always made my purchases either IL*2 or RoF. When I attempted to purchase a Collector plane, it stopped me from doing so stating, that I needed to purchase BOS. I own BOS. I know you can link the steam accounts to here, but when I read the information, no option is given to me to link my accounts. I assume once I am linked, then I would be able to make the purchase. (I don't know, maybe IL*2 can extend the discount here; I rather give my money here than on steam). 

[RedKestrel]

Even with linked accounts you need to have BoS on steam. Steam assumes everything is DLC for BoS. 

[Utopioneer]

Would it have made sense to make the great battles client free on steam, and then every module including BoS a paid DLC? Seems like that would have helped for situations like this. Always seemed clunky that you had to own BoS first on steam.

[Pikestance]

I was under the impression if you linked the accounts, then Steam would know that you own the game (somehow). Anyway, it doesn't make sense for Steam to block the purchase anyway. A warning that you would need the game would suffice. I do not get the point of having a linking system if the link isn't a link. Jason said they are not extending the sale on the website; I hope now they would reconsider. 

[Jonttu1]

11 minutes ago, Utopioneer said:

Would it have made sense to make the great battles client free on steam, and then every module including BoS a paid DLC? Seems like that would have helped for situations like this. Always seemed clunky that you had to own BoS first on steam.

Or just make BoS free to play at this point, like Rise of Flight.

[RedKestrel]

53 minutes ago, IV./JG51-PikeStance said:

I was under the impression if you linked the accounts, then Steam would know that you own the game (somehow). Anyway, it doesn't make sense for Steam to block the purchase anyway. A warning that you would need the game would suffice. I do not get the point of having a linking system if the link isn't a link. Jason said they are not extending the sale on the website; I hope now they would reconsider. 

The linked accounts is more of a one way thing - if you link your Steam account to your Il2 store account, then you can get all your store content through Steam. But if you launch through the Store lancher, you don't see your Steam content. This is how Steam sets itself up, it doesn't want to work well with other distribution methods. The devs have had to do a lot of work behind the scenes just to let the Steam client work well with their own distribution.

 

1 hour ago, Utopioneer said:

Would it have made sense to make the great battles client free on steam, and then every module including BoS a paid DLC? Seems like that would have helped for situations like this. Always seemed clunky that you had to own BoS first on steam.

Doing this would likely screw up people who already have Battle of Stalingrad through Steam. Maybe it makes sense NOW to do it that way, but when they first launched Battle of Stalingrad and put it on Steam I can't imagine they knew this was the way it was going to go and how much of a pain it would be for them.

The current link system is what we have to work with after a lot of long, drawn out interaction between 1C and Steam around the time of Battle of Kuban's release. It was the reason why BoK wasn't on Steam for a long time, because the way Steam was set up was making it difficult. They don't want to crack open that can of worms again.

Its a pain in the ass to deal with both Steam and non-Steam purchases because Steam wants it that way. 
 

59 minutes ago, Jonttu1 said:

Or just make BoS free to play at this point, like Rise of Flight.

The devs are true artists. And what every artist wants, what every artist TRULY wants, is to be paid.

Just buy through the store, people. There will be sales on collector planes in the future.

[Utopioneer]

@RedKestrel

 

Absolutely agree, it can't be changed now, and setting it up that way would have required a lot of foresight.

[Pikestance]

It would be nice if the sales were concurrent. 

[Jonttu1]

3 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

The devs are true artists. And what every artist wants, what every artist TRULY wants, is to be paid.

Just buy through the store, people. There will be sales on collector planes in the future.

There's soon to be 6 full priced modules out, I doubt anyone is buying Stalingrad anymore on Steam or on the site outside of sales. The frequency of these sales in the first place is a great indicator of sales being down. The last sale was the most generous of any in the games history and there have been like three 50% sales in as many months. Turning standard Stalingrad free to play would allow people who have already purchased stuff through the site to link their account to Steam and might actually generate quite a few new customers who don't want to take the plunge of buying such a niche game, but could get hooked by free to play to buying the newer modules. That's the point.

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by Jonttu1

[Pikestance]

Well, further discussion would be moot given [1] the sale is over on Steam, and the [2] linkage is superficial and meaningless. 

I am still not sure why the Bf 109 G-6 is linked to BOS given it does not come with the premium addition. DLCs is for content that require a base game to use it, but you can still use the plane in multiplayer and quick missions. Anyway, patience is a virtue. I hope it isn't test too long. ?