Some sad news to share this Friday evening, as Unknown Worlds Entertainment have announced they're calling it a day for the Linux version of Natural Selection 2. They will, however, continue their Linux server.
Posted in an official announcement on the NS2 website, they claim they're doing this as a result of it apparently being "more difficult to support and develop for the platform natively" including issues like not finding enough users with QA experience to help.
Unlike what happened with Rust, they're not offering refunds to previous buyers. They say to claim a refund from Valve if you purchased it in the last "30" days which isn't even right, it's two weeks and under two hours on Valve's refund option. Update: They adjusted the announcement to mention this is being allowed "from Valve outside the normal Steam refund policy".
Something they noted, is that they've "verified" Natural Selection 2 works in Steam Play saying it "can offer the same or in some cases even better performance on Linux than user experienced before". Sadly ProtonDB has nothing to back that up. They didn't say they would support it, just that it currently works.
The particularly stinging end to the post thanks Linux client users who "helped and gave support from over the years".
Looks like they have already purged Linux from the Steam store page too.
I'm not too happy considering NS2 was a personal purchase. I also upgraded my own copy to their deluxe edition and gifted quite a few copies of it to friends over the years to try to get more people into it.
To be blunt though, this simply sounds like a cost-cutting measure for a game that is way past its prime. For an online shooter, it has an incredibly low player-base and it regularly struggles to even hit 400 players and going by the charts on SteamDB it continues to trend downwards.
This does bring to light an issue here. While yes, we do have Steam Play, again the issue of support that I've raised before comes up. Anyone who purchased it to support them because they had a Linux version are now force to either run it unsupported or not at all. It doesn't sit right with me that games can just be taken away like that.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
Okay, so I knew this for a couple of weeks already (was told by a developer who asked me to test the game on Proton) but since it's now official then here's some more info.
Regarding SteamPlay, yes, it works pretty good on Proton but it requires a newer Wine version, 4.14. The current Proton supplies 4.11 that has a non-fixed bug that prevents the game from working properly. There are custom newer Proton builds at https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases which I personally tested. There were some bugs with the game itself. For example, when it's run in low resolution 1280x720 (my native is 2560x1440) the mouse clicks weren't going through. I had a cursor and keyboard working but I couldn't click anything in the menu. Changing the resolution via the game's config file worked around this. There also was a silent crash after applying mods. No crashes in the actual game though. The FPS is good but it doesn't feel as snappy as in the native version. Maybe it's just my perception and/or a placebo effect.
On the bright side the Steam Overlay finally works again since it's been disabled on the game's side long ago. And this game doesn't use EAC so we're good in the long run. I don't think they would use anything aside VAC as the game has server hit detection (hence so many players complaining about bad reg).
As a side note, I was not able to refund Rust. Tried to do that twice and both times they refused telling me about 14 days and so on. I provided a link to the dev's blog but it was to no avail. Probably because I haven't run it for more than year. The refund money was insignificant anyway (about $6 in roubles) so I decided to stop bothering.
Regarding SteamPlay, yes, it works pretty good on Proton but it requires a newer Wine version, 4.14. The current Proton supplies 4.11 that has a non-fixed bug that prevents the game from working properly. There are custom newer Proton builds at https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases which I personally tested. There were some bugs with the game itself. For example, when it's run in low resolution 1280x720 (my native is 2560x1440) the mouse clicks weren't going through. I had a cursor and keyboard working but I couldn't click anything in the menu. Changing the resolution via the game's config file worked around this. There also was a silent crash after applying mods. No crashes in the actual game though. The FPS is good but it doesn't feel as snappy as in the native version. Maybe it's just my perception and/or a placebo effect.
On the bright side the Steam Overlay finally works again since it's been disabled on the game's side long ago. And this game doesn't use EAC so we're good in the long run. I don't think they would use anything aside VAC as the game has server hit detection (hence so many players complaining about bad reg).
As a side note, I was not able to refund Rust. Tried to do that twice and both times they refused telling me about 14 days and so on. I provided a link to the dev's blog but it was to no avail. Probably because I haven't run it for more than year. The refund money was insignificant anyway (about $6 in roubles) so I decided to stop bothering.
5 Likes, Who?
For example, when it's run in low resolution 1280x720 (my native is 2560x1440) the mouse clicks weren't going through.
From what I remember, this can actually be a fairly common issue. Imagine, if you will, that the game is actually in a 1280x720 box in the top-left of your screen, and not actually full-screen. All the buttons are actually up over there, not down where you think they are. If you understand it like that, you can click on things. It's some kind of coordinate-translation issue or something.
0 Likes
Yeah, it might be coordinate scaling of sorts. Though it's probably the other way, my whole visible screen is translated to that small 1280x720 box and the buttons then should be right below it so I physically can't reach them. Because I tried to move the mouse everywhere and if that were true the menu items were highlighted at least once. But you can do your own experiments. I hope it will be fixed eventually as they still have at least one Linux developer (but my information might be outdated).
0 Likes
I have a feeling that as SteamPlay becomes more and more reliable this situation will become common. I wonder what Valve would do if anything at all.
2 Likes, Who?
I have a feeling that as SteamPlay becomes more and more reliable this situation will become common. I wonder what Valve would do if anything at all.If it does and Valve do nothing it's going to seriously erode some trust.
7 Likes, Who?
Sir_Diealot Sep 13, 2019
"including issues like not finding enough users with QA experience to help."
If that's their sorry excuse then I have to say: "How about you test your bloody game yourself?"
I'm a dev and gladly help other devs test their game, but this excuse just stinks to hell and back.
If that's their sorry excuse then I have to say: "How about you test your bloody game yourself?"
I'm a dev and gladly help other devs test their game, but this excuse just stinks to hell and back.
4 Likes, Who?
I have a feeling that as SteamPlay becomes more and more reliable this situation will become common. I wonder what Valve would do if anything at all.
I hardly think that they pulled the native Linux build due to SteamPlay when you need a custom build of Proton to make it work.
0 Likes
Sir_Diealot Sep 13, 2019
I have a feeling that as SteamPlay becomes more and more reliable this situation will become common. I wonder what Valve would do if anything at all.
I hardly think that they pulled the native Linux build due to SteamPlay when you need a custom build of Proton to make it work.
Eh, it *will* work through SteamPlay. Good enough for the Linux folks.
1 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir Sep 13, 2019
Online games have always been Linux's weak spot. It's seems that maintaining a build for Windows and Linux, when you constantly update the game is hardly justifiable when you fail to attract enough players (all platforms accounted).
Quite sure that they would have dropped Linux support even if Proton wasn't a thing. They just might have waited a little longer...
It's just sad that an early Steam-Linux adopter like UW is giving up on us...
Last edited by Mohandevir on 13 September 2019 at 8:16 pm UTC
Quite sure that they would have dropped Linux support even if Proton wasn't a thing. They just might have waited a little longer...
It's just sad that an early Steam-Linux adopter like UW is giving up on us...
Last edited by Mohandevir on 13 September 2019 at 8:16 pm UTC
4 Likes, Who?
I really feel reminded of the warnings people gave when we got steamplay / proton and while i want to believe that it all turns out for the better i am not sure. To be honest -> I am honestly very afraid of the current development and therefor i suggest a objective look (data) if my feeling is right:
a.) we have seen a real drop in 3rd party ports -> besides feral and ethan lee i can't remember any
b.) as for AA Games (higher founded indie games) -> we "lost" a good amount of supporting companies (paradox being just the one i remember right now but i know there are more)
c.) while in 2016 and in 2017 we had a good tendency of indie games released same day for windows / linux / mac i see less of them since around 2018 ...
I won't talk about a decline in support but i feel we had already a much better standing overall. Not to mention that epic isn't currently helping with their exclusive deals ... remember the day when borderlands pre sequel was very fast announced and ported to linux ? (Borderlands 3 -> not even any announcment)
I am totally aware that this is not because of steamplay alone, the lets say very vocal indie dev's thinking they get nothing in return by supporting linux are at least an other reason -> but it's troublesome to me.
Last edited by Glog78 on 13 September 2019 at 8:14 pm UTC
a.) we have seen a real drop in 3rd party ports -> besides feral and ethan lee i can't remember any
b.) as for AA Games (higher founded indie games) -> we "lost" a good amount of supporting companies (paradox being just the one i remember right now but i know there are more)
c.) while in 2016 and in 2017 we had a good tendency of indie games released same day for windows / linux / mac i see less of them since around 2018 ...
I won't talk about a decline in support but i feel we had already a much better standing overall. Not to mention that epic isn't currently helping with their exclusive deals ... remember the day when borderlands pre sequel was very fast announced and ported to linux ? (Borderlands 3 -> not even any announcment)
I am totally aware that this is not because of steamplay alone, the lets say very vocal indie dev's thinking they get nothing in return by supporting linux are at least an other reason -> but it's troublesome to me.
Last edited by Glog78 on 13 September 2019 at 8:14 pm UTC
5 Likes, Who?
Online games have always been Linux's weak spot. It's seems that maintaining a build for Windows and Linux, when you constantly update the game is hardly justifiable when you fail to attract enough players (all platforms accounted).Yup, as I said its a cost cutting exercise. Not as a result of Steam Play.
Quite sure that they would have dropped Linux support even if Proton wasn't a thing. They just might have waited a little longer...
It's just sad that an early Linux adopter like UW is giving up on us...
We began to lose a lot already when it became clear SteamOS/Steam Machines went nowhere. Remember our interview with Aspyr and Feral, both said they got involved due to it. We're still seeing the tail end of it.
No matter what though, thanks to the help on Steam Play we can still game on Linux more than ever before.
4 Likes, Who?
for me their linux or proton version never worked. I tried a few times to get support on the forums and got ignored. ns1 was great but i never got the loving fealing from ns2 quite sad.
0 Likes
Mohandevir Sep 13, 2019
We began to lose a lot already when it became clear SteamOS/Steam Machines went nowhere. Remember our interview with Aspyr and Feral, both said they got involved due to it. We're still seeing the tail end of it.
No matter what though, thanks to the help on Steam Play we can still game on Linux more than ever before.
Totally!
I'm still wondering what TTimo was referring to, in his last comment on SteamOS forum, when they released the 2.195 update:
"I hope we can share some news about SteamOS's future soon."
:S:
0 Likes
What did you expect from the quite good state of SteamPlay?
We will most likely see more and more devs dropping Linux support or not considering it right from the start.
Do we have reliable numbers of the fraction of games with native Linux builds released per month?
We will most likely see more and more devs dropping Linux support or not considering it right from the start.
Do we have reliable numbers of the fraction of games with native Linux builds released per month?
1 Likes, Who?
Their Linux support was quite unstable anyway, with the game executable clinging to 32bit and the game constantly crashing. It's not that I want to complain about it, it's more like a sign that they had some issues supporting Linux in the first place.
Also I think SteamPlay is mentioned as some form of damage control rather than a true justification for this decision.
SteamPlay allows playing so many games that the number of games that really don't get native ports because of its very existence just pale in comparison.
Also I think SteamPlay is mentioned as some form of damage control rather than a true justification for this decision.
SteamPlay allows playing so many games that the number of games that really don't get native ports because of its very existence just pale in comparison.
0 Likes
We will most likely see more and more devs dropping Linux support or not considering it right from the start.You mean exactly like it was before Steam Play then?
5 Likes, Who?
Online games have always been Linux's weak spot. It's seems that maintaining a build for Windows and Linux, when you constantly update the game is hardly justifiable when you fail to attract enough players (all platforms accounted).All true, and the playerbase is tiny. Considering there's 215 players playing at the same time and even if the Linux share is 3% (and that's usually A LOT) then there were only 6 Linux players tops. I know it's a peak number, not the amount of players overall but still it's pretty low. The community is very dedicated though and the game is still updated so cutting costs is a natural (heh) thing to do.
Quite sure that they would have dropped Linux support even if Proton wasn't a thing. They just might have waited a little longer...
It's just sad that an early Steam-Linux adopter like UW is giving up on us...
I just played several rounds using Proton 4.15 and it worked fine. One nasty issue is that the game doesn't like Alt-Tabbing, you might end up with a frozen window so the game has to be killed. It also spawns a Spark crash handler (their automatic report tool) that either doesn't work properly or just hangs so it should also be killed manually for the game to exit. And the game process stayed working after exit so I yet again had to kill it manually. All these issues can be considered minor and I hope they can be fixed on the UWE side.
0 Likes
I have a feeling that as SteamPlay becomes more and more reliable this situation will become common. I wonder what Valve would do if anything at all.
I hardly think that they pulled the native Linux build due to SteamPlay when you need a custom build of Proton to make it work.
Eh, it *will* work through SteamPlay. Good enough for the Linux folks.
Well if "not working properly" is what they deem good enough for Linux folks then I still don't see how they would not have played this card without SteamPlay.
0 Likes
I had a feeling the entire time that Proton was going to cause more drops in native linux support in games. I love Proton dont get me wrong, it's the best thing to happen for Linux gaming, but Native is just so much better.
2 Likes, Who?
GustyGhost Sep 14, 2019
This is a great opportunity for any embittered NS2 players to try out Unvanquished.
Last edited by GustyGhost on 14 September 2019 at 1:19 am UTC
Last edited by GustyGhost on 14 September 2019 at 1:19 am UTC
3 Likes, Who?
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me