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Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

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Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#81

Post by bkcooper »

heyheyhey wrote: post #60
ycombinete wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do, use a guide or something to get through Hollow Knight. If you 100% Hollow Knight you’ll probably be too burnt out to pick up Silksong for a while.

The whole point of the game and genre is the exploration. A guide kinda defeats that. If you don't like the backtracking (I hated it), then the game is probably not for you.

I mostly agree, and would say you should just play it blind. If you care about getting 100% (112% after the DLC) there are probably a couple of things where looking them up would be useful. It is also a very big world, so trying to do cleanup once you have all exploration tools can be quite involved

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#82

Post by smegger001 »

egeres wrote: post #42

I'm probably being naive, but I feel surprised that in 2025, a platform like Steam (which has existed for well over 2 decades and has around 70M DAU) is having this type of issues. I don't want to downplay the complex engineering behind scale and massive surges of demand, but it's not like it's their first rodeo. What seems to be blocking users from getting the game is accepting payments, nothing computationally comp…

What I don't understand is why Steam and others don't use a torrent-like protocol on their back-end to reduce their bandwidth requirements large numbers of customers downloading the game at the same time. Back in the day WOW used used it for distributing large patches it seems to be a solved problem.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#83

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

NobodyNada wrote: post #73
jijikuya wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. That's Valve's prerogative, not the developer's. If they're not partnered with Valve they may not have had the option to enact pre-purchases. [1] 2. The game has no DRM and Steam preorders (in my experience) download the game files so people can play instantly on launch day. (They call it 'preloading'). For a game as highly anticipated as this, it'd likely just be cracked, leaked and pirated the moment preorders c…

#2 seems like a technically solvable problem: AES-encrypt the preload and distribute the key on launch day.

I thought they already did something like this. I recall some people complaining because the naive decryption process would double the required hard drive space while the bundle was unpacking on release day.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#84

Post by ahartmetz »

the_snooze wrote: post #29
i_c_b wrote: post #23

A few years ago, I was feeling dispirited about being middle-aged and had come around to the conclusion that, at least when playing games, my general dissatisfaction and "meh" response to the games I was playing was probably a function of my age rather than anything about the games themselves. I was enjoying some games to an extent, but I wasn't being really grabbed by anything, and I was having a hard time sticking…

I do most of my gaming in the single-player indie space these days. It's really where the fun is. You have a deep time-tested catalog of beautiful and complete experiences that don't try to nickel-and-dime you with drip-fed content or recurring microtransactions. They're games first and foremost, not extraction machines. It's the opposite of the BS you see in big-budget titles.

Indies as main course, occasional AAA snacks ;)

Most AAA games are over pretty quickly, so they are quite suitable for that role.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#85

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

smegger001 wrote: post #82
egeres wrote: post #42

I'm probably being naive, but I feel surprised that in 2025, a platform like Steam (which has existed for well over 2 decades and has around 70M DAU) is having this type of issues. I don't want to downplay the complex engineering behind scale and massive surges of demand, but it's not like it's their first rodeo. What seems to be blocking users from getting the game is accepting payments, nothing computationally comp…

What I don't understand is why Steam and others don't use a torrent-like protocol on their back-end to reduce their bandwidth requirements large numbers of customers downloading the game at the same time. Back in the day WOW used used it for distributing large patches it seems to be a solved problem.

In an interview, Gabe commented on his very question. Answer was that this involves a bunch of technical complexity vs just spending money on the problem. Steam also has such an enormous library now vs a single game company that you are still going to be mostly dependent on a few huge seeders.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#86

Post by skygazer »

dingnuts wrote: post #74
thor-rodrigues wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly well-deserved. I have a similar list of _art_ instead of most _entertainment_, and Hollow Kight there together with Disco Elysium

[flagged]

My understanding (without having played the game) is that you choose an ideology for your character (equivalent to fascist, communist, capitalist or centrist) and whichever of those you chose, it satirizes you for it by making you an absurd parody of whichever was your chosen ideology. So perhaps the only way to not "feel mocked" personally is to play through using an ideology you don't actually hold? Or, try not take it personally. But, I admit, your reaction makes me want to actually play it next to test my ideological sensitivity.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#87

Post by HanClinto »

bspammer wrote: post #14
dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #5

[flagged]

It's pretty sad that the people in that thread don't seem to know what a DRM-free game is. The idea of a game as an executable that just runs unconditionally is a foreign concept, so it must have been "cracked"

Yeah, for sure.

"Credit where credit is due -- l33t props to the hackzorz at Team Cherry for releasing the fastest cracked version on day one!!111"

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#88

Post by Barrin92 »

techpression wrote: post #57
medwards666 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then, if you haven't already tried it, I can heartily recommend Nine Sols as well. Not _quite_ up there with HK, but not too far behind ...

I found Nine Sols to be superior, much more engaging combat and more fluid as a whole, also with much darker story and more evil bosses. Of course taste is subjective, it’s a great recommendation none the less.

+1 for Nine Sols. Also the setting of the game which the studio dubbed "Taopunk" for its combination of Taoism and Cyberpunk is very unique artistically. Also it had a very endearing cast of characters. As good as Hollow Knight is, story and character-wise it was very hard to follow for me personally.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#89

Post by smegger001 »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #85
smegger001 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand is why Steam and others don't use a torrent-like protocol on their back-end to reduce their bandwidth requirements large numbers of customers downloading the game at the same time. Back in the day WOW used used it for distributing large patches it seems to be a solved problem.

In an interview, Gabe commented on his very question. Answer was that this involves a bunch of technical complexity vs just spending money on the problem. Steam also has such an enormous library now vs a single game company that you are still going to be mostly dependent on a few huge seeders.

i mean on the one hand yeah on the other its not that big of a technical problem. having one game vs hundreds well torrent trackers have been doing that since forever, and yeah you would need super seeders but isnt that still less load than have to run a http or upt based download server?

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#90

Post by brandon »

jijikuya wrote: post #67
a_shovel wrote: post #4

Perhaps allowing preorders for a day or two might have helped spread the load? Or at least moved it earlier so that the checkout load didn't overlap with the load from users downloading.

1. That's Valve's prerogative, not the developer's. If they're not partnered with Valve they may not have had the option to enact pre-purchases. [1] 2. The game has no DRM and Steam preorders (in my experience) download the game files so people can play instantly on launch day. (They call it 'preloading'). For a game as highly anticipated as this, it'd likely just be cracked, leaked and pirated the moment preorders c…

You don't believe Team Cherry's prior sales of Hollow Knight would reach the bar noted in the docs you linked?

Aside, your second point is incorrect. The SteamDB folks have a public write up on analysis of the preload system: https://steamdb.info/blog/steam-download-system/

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