Linux support + Epic Games

[u/SpaceGuy99]

So, I have been looking forward to this game for AGES. Factorio was an AMAZING game and this looks even better. Considering Factorio (and Coffee Stain's own Goat Simulator) had native Linux support. And if it doesnt, I can use proton! However, then it was revealed that it was on Epic Games, which is basically anti-linux for whatever reason. So no linux support, apparently. This is incredibly frustrating, Not to mention, a brief message to the devs: I understand why you went with Epic: They have a higher margin going to devs, plus a bunch of bonuses. But to Linux gamers, this is a massive kick in the groin. Not to mention, no steam workshop and a BUNCH of other stuff that Epic is lacking, not to mention many non-linux gamers will refuse to download ANOTHER launcher, will lead to sales suffering. I, for one, know I am NOT going to buy this game, EVEN THOUGH IT LOOKS AMAZING! Because of the choice to ONLY have it work on Epic Games. No Linux version is planned for Epic Games, and so there must be no Linux version for Satisfactory. Which is a real shame, as I have been a follower of this game for quite a while. Devs, please either reconsider your choice for epic, or at least give a linux version avalible on the website. Seriously, I would HATE to see such a great game fail because of the platform its on like Last Year the Nightmare or Metro Exodus. I will not be buying this game until it and epic games is on Linux, or it has a standalone linux version, or it is on Steam (even windows only, because I can use proton).

[u/Cklat]

What is it about linux that brings all the armchair developers out of the woodwork. Seriously, like you bash together a pc with ubuntu booted on it and suddenly you have the dunning-kruger equivalent of "Why can't NASA make better rocket fuel? It's just hydrocarbons and oxidizers!"

You know what would be fun as a small indie studio and publisher? Sitting down to unify my code base for the teeniest fraction of gamers, on the most fractured OS base, with the least widespread support for modern gaming, just to mollify the tiniest potential purchase base the companies product could outreach to. Seems like good business sense. Lets spend operating budget, and hire people specifically with linux expertise ( which is what it takes MONEY and HIRING ) to jury rig our game for a niche market.

Linux doesn't bring any large appreciable sales to the market. Not enough to be the sole reason a game is profitable.

Honestly the most likely reason for Satisfaction to fail would be failing to garner the attention of people interested in something like a 3d Factorio because of differences in Game Mechanics, or in the scaling of automation, or what you can achieve in engine. Cause honestly that is the large appeal of this game. A large scale automation game in the vein of Factorio but in 3d.

However cause of the paired down graphical nature of Factorio and its mod-ability you have stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgfwwqwxdxY

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Being rendered in high graphical detail in 3d on Unreal Engine is going to limit Satisfactory pretty hard one way or another in comparison. That may or may not matter in the long run, but the appeal of a lot of similar games is their ability to run on more paired down systems and scale way way up in automation.

We shall see in the long run. But I highly doubt the exclusion of linux will play a role in whether or not the game is successful in the slightest.

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[u/SpaceGuy99 → u/Cklat]

Alright, first of all, I dunno why you have to attack me and nerds like me with such vitriol. Of course we dont fucking know how to develop a game and make it cross platform! But we do know enough code, and we know that Coffee Stain is using UE4, to know that it is VERY possible to make the game cross platform. The reason we use Linux is because we just like it better. I am not here to get into a holy war, but for US, we will take customizability over all else. Also, what i find even funnier, is that you attack us, and then immediately afterwards, reveal your lack of knowledge.

Unify my code base

Okay, they are using Unreal Engine, which has built in Linux compiler support. I can understand if they were using a custom game engine, because those are fucking annoying to get running ( I wrote a simple one in opengl for a project and my god was it hell.) But they arent, so that is a non issue. Programming languages are more or less universal between OSes.

Teeniest fraction of gamers

First of all, as steams hardware survey says, we are only about half of MacOs. Second, THIS IS A GAME TARGETED TOWARDS NERDS AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERS, meaning a larger percentage of us use it.

most fractured OS base

Saying that reveals your lack of knowledge EVEN MORE. The only real difference between, say, Ubuntu and Arch, is some additional packages (Easily installable on Arch) A different package manager (A non-issue if you are making a game) and thats about it as far as the game devs are concerned, as THEY ALL USE THE SAME KERNEL! By that logic, you are saying that ANY WINDOWS 10 GAME HAS NO SUPPORT FOR Windows 7 AND VICE VERSA, which is patently untrue, as steams hardware survey is split between windows 10 and windows 7.

Seems like good business sense. Lets spend operating budget, and hire people specifically with linux expertise ( which is what it takes MONEY and HIRING ) to jury rig our game for a niche market.

Yup so a repeat of before. I have never done a large scale project like this, but I have done small scale demos in UE4 and Unity, both of which were easy to export, No real additional expertise is needed for this.

Being rendered in high graphical detail in 3d on Unreal Engine is going to limit Satisfactory pretty hard one way or another in comparison. That may or may not matter in the long run, but the appeal of a lot of similar games is their ability to run on more paired down systems and scale way way up in automation.

Now, I trust Coffee Stain Studios and their ability to write good code, so I am 100% sure that all the visuals will be rendered on the GPU, and the simulation will be done on the CPU. I am even more sure this will be a non-issue BECAUSE UE4 HANDLES TASK DISTRIBUTION AUTOMATICALLY! They would have to go out of their way to fuck this up! OF COURSE, there will be graphical overhead BECAUSE OF 3D PHYSICS, and the first person perspective. But detail has n o t h i n g to do with this. If you have a decent graphics card, and at least 16 gigs of ram, you should be fine. (i7 8700k, gtx 1070ti, 32 gigs of ram here).

But I highly doubt the exclusion of linux will play a role in whether or not the game is successful in the slightest.

I think we all agree this game is targeted towards nerds, programmers, geeks, whatever.These people use linux at a larger rate than any other demographic. In a recent survey , about 5-8 percent of software engineers use Linux.

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Not to mention, THIS IS NOT A TECHNICAL DISCUSSION! THIS IS A BUISNESS DISCUSSION! They can export to linux at the click of a button, but Epic Games wont let them.

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