Steam

[Haxus]

The process of publishing Shores of Hazeron on Steam has begun. I reviewed all of their documents, found nothing objectionable, signed the documents, and paid the product registration fee. I am currently waiting for their review and approval. It will take a minimum of a month, mainly because it is my first product on Steam and there is a built-in 30 day time delay in that case.

In the mean time, I'll be working harder than ever to fix bugs and tie up loose ends to get ready. There are a few minor items on my list that must be done before publishing.

Some integration of the Steamworks SDK is also beneficial. I have made good progress there, currently waiting for things to move along with my application paperwork before I can go much further. At this point I need a valid application code, which I can't get until the paperwork is done.

There are some approval steps along the way, when Valve reviews my software product and marketing materials. That could introduce delays.

Nothing is ever as done as you would like. There's a million features and minor improvements that could be made. My to-do list still has over 1000 items on it but they are dwindling. Many are just that, new features and minor improvements.

At the bottom line, SoH is feature-complete. No essential feature of the game is missing. It is well poised to mature and grow. It is ready enough to go to the next level.

Who knows. Maybe SoH will actually make some money. I'd be most happy to just earn enough to pay my server bills every month. That would be a welcome milestone, to have this project funding itself. If that goal cannot be met on Steam, then the future of Shores of Hazeron is in serious doubt.

With a little luck, maybe we'll pull the nose up on this thing before it hits the terrain.

[Mr. Mortius]

Very exciting news. I hope a reset will accompany this.

[Ikkir Isth]

The day is finally coming.

Are you going to be putting Hazeron as a full release status or as an Early Access title?
Also fair warning: the Steam Forums are absolutely brutal, I suggest at the very least a posting code of conduct on your community page there (or at the very least point to https://support.steampowered.com/kb_arti...-USHJ-3810 and add in post guidelines, and a few subforum things) , and if and when moderation occurs (aw who am I kidding its when) you can point back to that. A little preparedness and organization goes a long way there.

[Vectorus]

I am deeply worried about this. Not because Hazeron can't be a once-in-a-lifetime gaming experience and a profitable financial concern, but because it can be and if it isn't, it would be a tragedy. I've had cold sweats before, wondering what would happen if a Steam launch not only failed to get off the ground, but also destroyed the existing game with negativity and bad behaviour. I thought we had a lot of time before we needed to worry about that...but I am not going to argue with the financial reality.

Haxus, our concern is for you as much as, and more than, for the game. You are our friend, uncle, toymaker, a hundred other things: remember that Matt and the Toucans you banned are still active on Steam. And they are probably still in the top 10% of Nice People, let's be frank. There is nothing to stop people like them from getting the review ball rolling. "I played this game five years ago and the developer blah blah blah..." Steam is a cage fight and right now, with No Man's Sky, Fallout 76, EA lockboxes and lots of other "gamer crusades" in our recent past, people are in the mood to witch-hunt developers, both personally and professionally, at the drop of a hat. Your game will be insulted, you will be insulted, Paula will be insulted, your mother and grandchildren will be insulted. That's whether Hazeron is objectively good or not, so please be prepared.

Constructive time: new player experience is what will decide this one. The berserk button for Steam players is when they buy the game and it isn't what they expect: they can't login, servers are in limbo, tutorial is unclear etc. People who stick with the game for more than a few hours will be sympathetic to what it's about, anyway: it's the friend-coders we need to win over. For a start, we need to: 

-Stop parts of the website staying down after updates. None of us care, but Steam reviewers will think it looks unprofessional.
-Update the wiki to reflect the current state, add more idiot-proof baby tutorials to the wiki. @Deantwo, assign us tasks? Ban Anr from writing such tutorials/force Anr to write all such tutorials.
-Make sure the Targoss tutorial is cast-iron.
-Have a rota of experienced players on mobile Hazeron Commander, able to answer help questions in short order, at least for the first few weeks.
-Have a concerted effort to provide a great public design list for ships and buildings, and a filter for what new players see by default.
-Perhaps create a Steam Cluster for people to spawn in, otherwise everyone's scanned EC systems are going to get rerolled in short order.
-People do not know what to do once their moonbase is done. It looks like a huge repetitive slog of scanning and colonizing ahead. Maybe add some more early-game challenge, some easy story-engine quest chains, perhaps a starting system pirate base to clear out?
-New video trailer? The Discord can discuss this.

I'll add more as I think of things. Anything we say here is not a criticism of the game as it is: it's either a miracle or black magic that you've made what you've made. But Steam reviewers care about very particular things, not all of which overlap with what Hazeron veterans care about, so we need to watch our backs. Early Access status would not be a bad idea.

I would advise against a reset any time soon. Established players provide a depth to the universe's history and a counterweight of stability which will be much needed. A Steam Cluster would achieve much the same effect without affecting the rest of us.

Good luck to Hazeron! Long may she live!

[Neils Iyssada]

I'll add to what Vectorus said on one point : blueprints.

We must have at least two good blueprints for each building (for small and high population cities imo) and for all atmospheres. That's the main reason why I wasn't well established and why I haven't played for some time.

And maybe a blueprint description system, even just a short one. That way you can define the exact use of the ship or write some lore.

[OnePercent]

i'm glad you're moving forward with these long awaited plans, Haxus, I hope this decision becomes the most beneficial to the games future.

[Trusin]

Your character's and character appearances are going to get bashed :( . The feedback I got from my few video connections was that they couldn't get past the graphics. It isn't the buildings, planets , space, the sheer scale of those make the game gorgeous. It is the populations that fill them.

To have a bunch of clones running around as your entire civilization seems off. I know there were plans to be able to make subtle differences and I think that would go a long way.

[expert700]

Very exciting news. I hope a reset will accompany this.

For me at least, a steam release would be pointless without a reset. A reset motivates old players to come back, because if everyone is starting from scratch there can be power struggles and other fun things again.

[Haxus]

I hope a reset will accompany this.

I am glad you brought this up. Here are some of the benefits to resetting the universe.

• Old style cities and spacecraft would be gone forever.
  
• All blueprints would get refinalized and republished, fixing the ones broken by software changes.
  
• System generation would be fixed so the result never changes between regens.
  
• A short list of issues could be completed that necessitate a universe reset.
  

I have considered the pros and cons to resetting the database. The current database has been alive since Feb 2015. This would be an appropriate juncture to call the game over, with Weltreich the undisputed champion. They may not agree, based on the appearance of their flag today.

[Ikkir Isth]

This is the definitely the best time to reset, while making sure you keep usable blueprints (you definitely want a good selection of things for people that don't want to have to design stuff... and you waaaay definitely need a smooth way to show people how to get those designs and use them immediately)