SteamWorks vs TrendyNet for items and gameplay

[Swixel]

Dear TrendyNet,

I have enjoyed Dungeon Defenders for the last little while, but due to the multitude of dropouts and disconnects from Steam or TrendyNet, I've been wondering: Why are you using TrendyNet for items when the only group of players who use Ranked Items are tied to Steam?

Now, without looking into grey areas (i.e. OSW), we know that Steam has items for non-Valve games (Spiral Knights, etc.), and that the servers tend to go down around the same time as other Steam services. Wouldn't using Steam's item backend cause LESS drops?

I realise a few people will likely say "but what about <group X>" or "what about the consoles" or "what about the mobile players" ... but I have to ask this: can they play on Steam-required-ranked mode anyway? Not from what I've seen.

Maybe my assumptions are wrong, and I look forward to being corrected, but I can't help but feel that rolling your own solution to use it solely in a place with a more mature system is a little crazy.

With regards,
Swixel

P.S. As a Tower Squire from Day 1, I appreciate your fixing the harpoons with speed, so thank you for that.

[Ice]

I'm not fully sure what you're asking here...but...

On Ranked, TrendyNet servers stores your character information from character xp, levels, selections, and items. It's heavily integrated into Steam to do various things relating to stores, game matching, player authentication, and most recently, VAC. That's why if part of Steam goes down DD disconnects as the authentication or part of DD's functionality has died and needs to technically be there at this current time.

On Open,Local,consoles, mobile everything is stored locally. So no their information isn't stored anywhere on Trendy's servers.

[Swixel]

I was wondering if there's a technical reason Trendy isn't using it for Ranked. Ranked requires Steam, integrates with Steam, etc..

As both TF2 and Spiral Knights have shown, Steam has a flexible item backend which can store items, mana, and character fitouts... I was just wondering about the technical reasons.

[pmasher]

Unfortunately, the sdk for the steam item system wasn't available until way too late into Dungeon Defenders development for us to incorporate it properly into Dungeon Defenders. Which is sad, because we completely agree with you, Steam trading is just, plain awesome.

[Swixel]

Oh well, at least if there's some sort of refresh/rebuild/new mode/something (pure PVP-dom? pure-non-PVP ranked?) in the future the option is there :)

Which also begs the strange question: I assume SteamWorkshop would be a plausible thing for open if the modding community ever takes off enough to warrant the work required to beat it in at this late stage?

[Black Mamba]

Unfortunately, the sdk for the steam item system wasn't available until way too late into Dungeon Defenders development for us to incorporate it properly into Dungeon Defenders. Which is sad, because we completely agree with you, Steam trading is just, plain awesome.

Awww that's sad indeed :( It'd have been fun trading items without loading your game or your afk shop every time :3 !!!
But oh well it's a great game nonetheless !!! Hope to see it being added to the steam trading in some future release, probably DD:2 xD !!!