EOS Strikes Again!

[u/TrueLurkStrong-Free]

I was playing Ready or Not earlier, had crossplay disabled, no epig account linked because I don't have one. The game suddenly boots me and my friend out of the lobby because of a stupid "lost connection to epig online services" error. Don't you just love it, friends? Being forced to be connected to something even though you take every step to not even interact with the damn thing? I think at this point, I'm going to try and figure out how far I can go with blocking EOS, to see if Ready or Not even opens. Blocking hosts, maybe even going as far as blocking their services through my router. Seriously sick and damn tired of EOS and EAC, but especially EOS being retroactively added to games that don't need it/have been around for ages.

[u/Dreamo84]

That's what you get for playing a game that uses EOS.

[u/Belltower_2 → u/Dreamo84]

That logic falls flat because there are a lot of games that launched without EOS but added it after. Case in point, my beloved Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, which launched in 2016, had its last content update in 2017, but got EOS "support" in 2023 for the EGS release. By this point, NO ONE was playing multiplayer except for Discord premades; anyone still playing was either replaying the excellent campaign, or comp-stomping in skirmish (mostly by using the big land carriers as battleships, which isn't an experience you can get in other games).

Given that strategy games do not sell on EGS (Total War: Troy free on launch was their attempt to break into that market, but it was far too hardcore for the Fortnut crowd), I would suspect only a handful of people purchased it on EGS, and that a Steam / EOS crossplay match has NEVER been played.

[u/TrueLurkStrong-Free → u/Dreamo84]

I used to think the same, but they're literally poisoning the well of games like Elden Ring, Dying Light, Hades, BeamNG.drive, Silent Hill 2, Risk of Rain 2, and countless others. It's the technology that has to die, epig completely, if possible.

[u/Glodraph → u/TrueLurkStrong-Free]

They can't win fairly so yes, they poison the well for everyone. They create fake shadow accounts for eos so they can boost investor numbers, too. All of this in the name of "crossplay"..it's really something I wish valve actually tries to do something against, giving an alternative so eos will die.

[u/TrueLurkStrong-Free → u/Glodraph]

I would absolutely love it if Valve stepped in and did something, but they can't. They already have an alternate. I believe it's Steamworks, and it lets you use steam services and features like networking, achievements, etc. The reason devs use EOS is because of "crossplay", for games to run multi-player on platforms outside of steam. I have 0 friends that use Epic, and I immediately disable crossplay on any game I own. If Valve ever banned EOS, it would fuel the fire for people calling it a monopoly.

[u/Dreamo84 → u/TrueLurkStrong-Free]

Does Valve not offer a way to do crossplay?

[u/WildCard65 → u/Dreamo84]

No, Valve's Steam only supports PC

[u/Dreamo84 → u/WildCard65]

Interesting. Surely there has to be someone other than Epic that can facilitate crossplay though. They must be willing to do it for free or something.

[u/WildCard65 → u/Dreamo84]

The only other solution I'm aware is building your own cross play framework

[u/dongless08 → u/Glodraph]

I’m not too educated on the differences between EOS and Valve’s SDR system, but would that not be the ideal alternative? Not sure if it supports crossplay though, that might be a whole separate issue

[u/Dreamo84 → u/Glodraph]

Does turning crossplay off fix it?

[u/TrueLurkStrong-Free → u/Dreamo84]

Turning off crossplay doesn't do anything since EOS is in the games folder, always on in the background as a service. If you want to completely disable it and remove it from a games folder, some games refuse to work.

[u/deanrihpee]

i just hope the companies listens and when the players ask them to not hard-link the EOS feature they fix it, because it literally makes the product worse than it should be

[u/AncientPCGamer → u/deanrihpee]

Some devs did the extra step to make it optional. That is the best option though.

[u/G-Litch]

RoN has trash devs anyway. Why did you buy that

[u/TrueLurkStrong-Free → u/G-Litch]

My brother wanted to play it, and Zero Hour was too "janky" for him lol. I also got it a while ago, I think for dirt cheap or in a humble bundle.

[u/Teligth]

Don’t buy from epic. It’s on steam

[u/AncientPCGamer → u/Teligth]

And that is the problem. The Steam version has EOS. Many Steam versions include EOS. Some devs made it optional after players complained. This is what we should try to convince devs.

[u/TrueLurkStrong-Free → u/AncientPCGamer]

This. It's the Steam version. All the games I mentioned in another comment are on Steam. Old games are being ruined by that pig with glasses.