[0.17.2] non-Steam player cannot connect to a multiplayer game hosted by a player using Steam

[db48x]

I hosted a game this evening, and one player was able to connect while the other wasn't. We tried all the usual suspects, but obviously it wasn't a problem with port forwarding (since one player was able to join). Eventually on a whim I suggested that the other player get a Steam key and try that version of the game, and it worked. We haven't tried it the other way around (with a non-Steam user hosting and a Steam user joining).

[Rseding91]

Thanks for the report however this isn't a bug. If you join through steam it uses steams networking which bypasses most home router/networking setups. If you aren't using steam it has to connect through the standard internet system and *a lot* of home routers suck or are behind multiple layers of NAT which causes it to fail to work.

[db48x]

That's a pretty big regression from 0.16. It's going to make it quite difficult or impossible to keep separate versions for different purposes, such as joining multiplayer games with different versions, different mods, and especially with development versions of mods. (Yes, there's a command-line argument to specify a different mod directory, but that's no help to Steam users, since they can only have one copy of the game at a time, unless some of them are "non-steam" games.)

[BlueTemplar]

I'm very sad about this.

When this feature was announced, I hoped that Wube wouldn't add this feature if it meant that this was going to split the community.
This goes against basic Internet principles, that any computer should be able to talk to any other computer, using a standardized protocol !

And while GoG goes out of their way with Crossplay to make Steam and GoG players to be able to play together,
(And what about those players that use neither?),
in the end, it's not Wube's / Gog's / Valve's job to fix shitty networking / Internet Service Providers - you have to tell the customer that it's not your fault - hopefully that will make them put pressure on the ISP !
Otherwise we're going to end up with crude hacks like this over a shitty Internet, making it worse for *everyone* (except the richest people) in the end...

----

So is Steam version of Factorio DRM-free or not ?
I'm specifically thinking about copy-pasting the Factorio Steam folder elsewhere, to use with different settings/mods...
(and what if then you still run it through Steam as an "external game" - would Steamworks work ?)

(Less radically, what happens if you make an "external" shortcut to a Steam game targeting its Steam folder, but with, say, that command-line argument for different mods?)

[Rseding91]

Specifically: enabling steam networking does not *disable* normal networking. You can still join a steam-networking enabled game with the non-steam version of the game if your network configuration is properly setup to allow nat-punching or is port forwarded. That did not change.

[BlueTemplar]

Oh. My bad, sorry for doubting you.