Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
Yeah, I know where it is and I verified that the files are intact.
The issue still remains that it doesn't start with the game.
I might give it some time and try to debug it, but even if I fix it for myself, it doesn't help the fact that right now it's not "plug-and-play" right now. Steam has a ton of Linux players, and the game won't warn them when EAC fails to start so they might just all get banned. At the very least they should kick us out of the game if we start it without EAC, then this wouldn't be an issue.
I don't think it's realistic to ask for any form of Linux support at this stage, even with all the Steam players flooding in soon, but at least they could protect us from getting banned unknowingly by blocking us from running the game without EAC.
Maybe you guys can leave your thoughts / experiences too:
https://discord.com/channels/256164085366915072/1440236956398129162
You mean like guardrails to prevent false flags if EAC isn't loaded in before launch, I get you. Well for steam it runs its own runtimes native to steam which im sure steam will handle EAC layering bit better making sure it is loaded in before launching the game so a scenario like that shouldn't happen as most games on steam that uses EAC run fine but I do agree for the native Intrepid launcher. Perhaps its the native launcher does need tuning to add guardrails in.
I feel like the forums is better then discord for discussing these kinds of topics but more awareness is always better imo.
Steam users will still have to use the Intrepid Launcher to launch the game according to Steven's comment on Discord, so this problem still stands.
(But even if they were using the Steam launcher, there are probably thousands of beta testers joining for the first time this phase, and they'll be using the Intrepid Launcher regardless.)
A guardrail is a must, otherwise they'll have to deal with possibly hundreds of false positives.
How much Intrepid wants to take on this support burden is a big part of their decision. They can fully back and support it, block it, or turn a blind eye to it. Story after story in the industry has shown that disabling Linux support reducing cheating. One of the Rust devs was recently quoted as, "When we stopped support for Linux, we saw more cheat users exploiting Linux, than actual legitimate users."
The best thing we can do is stop the attacks and demands on Intrepid. Let's see what happens when the client moves to Steam and do what we can to be a positive force in this community. We know what is possible, but let's let Intrepid have the space to make a decision. We all bought this as a Windows-only game knowing that Linux support was always a question. We took on that risk, not Intrepid.
I, for one, am exciting about the potential to play through Steam and I hope Intrepid decides that the added support burden of taking on Linux is worth it for this small, but welcoming and helpful, community of players.
Well places like twitter/rusthackreports always reported hackers on windows just as much but the game still works only on supported community servers. Most game that block or use kernel anti-cheat tend to be shooter based games, kernel level cheat are still a thing so it isn't a "holy grail" solution either but ArenaNet just announced a remastered of their old GW1 game called "Guild Wars Reforged" with full proton support day one with steamdeck advertisement in the announcement. Proton/SteamOS is only gonna grow / be adopted more and more moving forward.
Just seems some folks have passion for the project I seen it time and time again over the years and I stated in last posts that I don't feel they would just ban folks, just seem its an isolated issue atm. With Steam It won't be a overnight EAC fix but support is there and how they change or improve the native launcher whether they let steam handle launching straight into the game or do something like most with native launcher+steam linking.
My guess is the blank process is the EAC loading in as the game launches but im unsure if its only me seeing this process right?
No and there likely won't be something they spend time on, I'd assume.
Also, they don't have EAC disabled intentionally, so it's not something they can just "enable".
EAC support for steamdeck/linux is a configuration option in the SDK the devs have to enable, that's what I was referring to. At any rate, I'll check again once the game is at full release.
You are 100% right.
"It is relatively easy for a developer to support Linux with Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC), as EAC has a native Linux version and can be enabled on Linux with minimal effort, often just by ticking a box. The main barrier is developer reluctance, not technical difficulty. Many developers are hesitant due to concerns about kernel-level anti-cheat on Linux or a lack of awareness that EAC support for Linux exists through the Proton compatibility layer."
AI may be wrong though, but if that's true, Intrepid can't evoke the difficulty to not turning EAC on Linux. It's seem Valve simplified it. Ashes will be on Steam. Not a true reason to not lets us in. Maybe because they plan to get their own anti-cheat solution from scratch, and then it's would be more complicated ? I wonder when we will get their personal solution. On Intrepid website, we don't see anymore the Senior Anti-cheat developer job listed. Hired one or just delisted the job ? We will see.
HUGE Moves/W from valve!!
https://youtu.be/yvu66Y2VLq8?si=N16uOX_nwzvJrdn5&t=4732
The point was likely to get to the other 97%.
And I'm saying this as a Linux user who can't play (because I still can't verify whether EAC is running or not with the game.. hopefully I'll have some time to debug it later this week.)
Also, Steven mentioned less than 1% of their player base uses Linux. Maybe we will reach the percent if some of those Linux users shown their interest in Ashes. If we do the math: 1% of their 1M potential players at launch means a potential 10k peoples on Ashes. 10k will be the max population of one realm after launch, if that only a thing. It's not negligible imo.
You’re forgetting a step.
Let’s say it’s 10K players and they’re generating USD$15/mo each. So that’s USD$150,000. Now you need to factor in the cost of supporting that population. If they want a profit margin of 30%, let’s say (pure speculation), then if that population of 10K costs them more than USD$105,000 then we’re not profitable enough for them to continue supporting.
And if enabling Linux support is making cheat development easier (something many other devs have said is why they won’t support Linux through Steam), then that’s all part of the cost as well.
Do you think it's would cost more to support than the money it's will bring ? As for cheating, I think it's that the thing that will militate in favour to not let us in. The thing is, I can play Pax Dei on a Linux machine on Steam with no issue. Actually, I think I set Steam parameters to "Proton 10.0". I didn't hear, yet there are cheaters on Pax. Anyway, I don't hold my breath too much, tbh.
I don’t know what their support costs are as I don’t work for them. But the industry has horror story after horror story of what happens on some multiplayer games when Linux is involved. Some absorb the cost for philosophical reasons, like Helldivers 2. Others won’t even crack open the door like Destiny 2.
I asked that as well on a previous post:
We should have an official answer if we are playing with fire while playing on linux, expecting a ban. They have officially stated that if EAC is running we should be ok. But how can we be sure about that?
Anyway I was kicked from PTR some weeks ago with a message that EAC was not running and I have not tried since then, being scared of a possible ban.
I am very happy that @Tskken stated that is currently playing normally, so I will try to troubleshoot my installation again, since I am getting terrible stuttering issues with this specific game on Windows and AOC is the only reason I keep this !@%! operating system installed on my 2nd nvme.
We were all playing fine and then a lot of people got banned and had to appeal it. If you try to launch the game via the launcher, you get kicked with an error that EAC isn't running. If you launch through Steam, which does launch EAC, you can play fine (which is part of what this guide does). The issue from what you've read is that many of us are unclear of what flagged our account as bypassing EAC because there was a short period of time (for some of us) where clicking 'Play' from the launcher worked.
So we don't know if it is safe or not and are, seemingly, largely erring on the side of caution and not playing but hoping for a clearer answer from Intrepid.
The issue is not that the game was not working, cause it did. We just got banned suddenly because of EAC apparently not being triggered or mismatch version
This is incorrect.
Most of us can play, but we decide not to, to avoid potentially getting banned.
Did you make sure that the EAC process runs for you when you start AoC? Because for me and many others it doesn't. Someone suggested that it might be an unnamed process or something hidden by Proton, but I'm unable to confirm this and I don't want to risk my account.
Finally I found a way to check if EAC is running. You can check in the directory below (I guess it would not be exactly the same on all cases):
/home/$USER/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/3043391873/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/EasyAntiCheat/e2ba1189d3434594b9c74679f37a5913/168840be33c24e75b90babd7fc45dfa5/
When starting the game via Steam a new anticheatlauncher.log is created. You can tail it after creation and see if EAC is running. In my case it seemsok even if it says at first that it cannot reach Easy Anti-Cheat CDN:
EDIT: keep in mind that the timestamps are at GMT +0 even though that is not my time zone.
Maybe that the important thing.
When I quit the game:
[13:39:12:349] [Windows] [EAC Bootstrapper] [Info] Waiting for game process to exit, will return exit code upon termination.
[15:59:31:405] [Windows] [EAC Bootstrapper] [Info] Terminating with: 0.
This is after ~2.5 hours of playtime.
I guess we are fine.
EDIT:
I found the same file on windows and there are some differences:
This line does not exist in linux installation:
"The game window has become visible, the bootstrapper will leave the visible state."
I hope someone from Intrepid can enlight us regarding that. Does that mean that EAC does not work as intended on linux?
I’m also one of those Linux users hoping AoC offers solid Linux support. Games like Throne and Liberty, Dune Awakening, Diablo 4, and many other great titles already run smoothly on Linux via Steam Proton/GE. 🎮
After devouring everything here, I’m considering creating a second Steam account just to test whether normal gameplay is even possible. Like everyone else, I’d fear my main account getting banned. My experiences with EAC via Steam and Proton, specifically the so-called Proton EasyAntiCheat Runtime, have been excellent across all multiplayer games so far.
Well, I no longer play kernel-level anti-cheat games like I used to back in the Windows 10 days. I’m perfectly fine doing without all that incompatible junk that simply doesn’t work.
Partly, this is down to anti-cheat developers who do nothing for the Linux niche. Of course, it’s also game developers opting for kernel-level software out of fear of cheaters. BattleEye and EAC are good choices when it comes to making Linux players happy.
Since the AoC developers have chosen EAC, I’m genuinely optimistic they’ll allow this costly game to launch and run cleanly on Linux relatively quickly. My past experiences with EAC, especially via Steam, have always been positive. ✨
I must admit, as much as I love AoC and would love to play it (I haven’t participated in any alpha), I’d still give the game a poor review if it isn’t safely playable via Proton on Steam within the first one or two months.
I wouldn’t do this to discredit the game, but to increase general pressure from the Linux community for full, comprehensive compatibility with Linux systems and gaming.
Yes, Windows compatibility and performance are truly top-tier for any gamer. But at what cost? Every virus in the world can run on my system out of the box without showing up in Task Manager? 🫣 Forgive my sarcasm… 😴
I’m just another drop aiming to wear down the stone, leaving a mark through my presence, one that future generations might take inspiration from!
I will never install Windows again, no matter how amazing the game is. My hope lies with Valve and Proton, as well as the developers of Nobara Linux. 💚
Namaste… 🙏🏼
Edit:
People, we all use free software. And Linux is free for the most part. Please donate something to the developers for the privilege of using it. Most of them are people who create Linux and Linux software tools in their free time. If we aren't willing to give something back, the Linux we know might eventually die out!
I think creating a second Steam would be a good idea. I may do that as well.
I'd like to point out that I've actually had better experiences with Proton Experimental than with Proton GE, even though I'm using Nobara, the Linux system from GE. Proton Experimental is usually better in all games—better performance, more FPS, fewer stutters, fewer crashes.
I'd like to know how it is for others? I should mention that I'm still using an older Nvidia 2080 Ti. So I can't speak for the 40-series or for AMD cards. With Proton Experimental, all games have always run significantly better for me.