izigame.me

"So if you play on Steam, you’ll be able to keep playing as if nothing happened, though you might notice an influx of new players."
-Starbreeze, 6/8/2023
u237 added cross-play support between EOS (Epic Online Services) and Steam, among other changes. While this is a positive change on the surface, the implementation of EOS was so mishandled it's caused irreparable damage to the Steam version. Side note, the Steam and EGS client are almost 1:1 the same, just with some features like discord rich presence removed. So if an underlying feature doesn't work on EOS, it's getting scrapped on the Steam version too.
EOS Dependency
Instead of implementing EOS in a proper way, the devs elected to simply rip out the Steam matchmaking services that the game has been using for the past ~10 years, and entirely replaced it with EOS. This was done very hastily, and has caused numerous issues. It also means that if EOS is ever down, you can not play online. So now the game is dependent on both Steam and EGS being online.
It's also allegedly causing connections to lobbies to time out, fail, or just be more unstable. This has only been reported on the steam forums, and I haven't found any connection issues yet. I should mention that the EOS switch only effects finding and joining lobbies. Once you connect to the host the lobby becomes a p2p connection based on the host's connection.
EDIT: I can confirm, connection issues have increased tenfold since the EOS switch.
Distance Filter Removal.
Previous to u237, users could adjust the maximum lobby latency limit when searching for games. This let you know what servers were closer and would have better latency. Now, all servers listed in CrimeNet have a random latency. This means you can just as easily connect to someone in Russia with 374 ping as you can with someone across the street with 5 ping.
As someone already checked in the EOS documentation, EOS does not have any way to check the latency of a host unless you connect to them first. So this feature was removed simply because EOS client couldn't support it.
Harder to Find Lobbies
Because no testing was put into finding the differences between Steam and EOS matchmaking, the CrimeNet menu is almost entirely unusable at the moment. Lobbies will appear on your screen for a maximum of 5 seconds (yes, this is the actual measured time) before being replaced with another group of lobbies. Even when this list refreshes, many of the listed lobbies are already full and can't be joined anyway. And only 10-15 lobbies are being shown at a time, despite having the maximum server filter set to 40.
EDIT: As of u237.1, lobbies only refresh every 10 seconds now. This is still a downgrade, as it still scrambles every lobby that's displayed. Old lobbies used to stay in the same spot and just update their player counts.
Invites Dead
Because the matchmaking service was switched to something other than Steam, friend invites no longer work anymore. The invite feature has now been replaced by a slower, clunkier, and overall worse interface that works with EGS players. The old "Friends Lobbies" tag in CrimeNet is also not working right now, so that method is gone as well.
EDIT: Some people are reporting that steam invites still work. Others (like me) can't get them to work. So this appears to be somewhat functional, but not as it was prior to the update.
The Social Hub
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2986912867
In place of the Steam Friends menu, the devs created a menu called the "Social Hub". This allows you to view online friends and join their games. First off, it visually unhelpful. It provides less information than the previous Steam Friends menu, is slower to navigate, and the top tabs aren't even aligned properly with the menu.
Now to explain how the new invite system works:
The host starts a lobby, and copies the "lobby tag" that's plastered to the top of their screen.
This code must then be manually sent to every friend who wants in.
These friends must then input this code into CrimeNet, which should make the lobby appear.
For reference, the old system was:
Your friends click "Join Game" on you in Steam.
This entire system was implemented just so EGS users could join the lobbies of Steam friends. In all forms, this is a pure downgrade for Steam users. There's also a bug where the lobby code box becomes stuck on your screen during gameplay, and covers up part of your screen.
Linux Support
While native Linux support was originally going to be dropped "due to features in the new heist", it instead happened with the EOS switch. While we can't assume the devs flat out lied about why Linux Support was being dropped, we all knew that there was no way a heist would simply not work on a specific OS. The Diesel engine is not as "outdated" as you think, and the updates to Raid:WW2 have proven that good developers can make anything work on it.
Otherwise, Linux players can now use Proton to continue playing the game. The problem with this is that Proton is the embodiment of "works on my machine". Some users have reported no issues. Some have massive fps drops. Some have found huge memory leaks. The problem with killing native OS support and forcing users to use a compatibility tool is that the tool itself doesn't work in a consistent way.
There's a lot more I could mention about Overkill/Starbreeze itself, but u237 itself was a mini Crimefest 2015.
EDIT:
Going to be adding stuff here as I find it/need to explain something.
Side-Jobs
I gave the devs the benefit of the doubt with this. I assumed they had just broken how the game tracks Side-Job completion, and all save data was still intact.
Well I was proven dead wrong, because u237 completely wiped Side-Job save data of every user. Anyone who happened to run the game yesterday on u237 had all Side-Job progress deleted. The patch today (u237.1) confirms this, as they had to award everyone who had launched u237 all Side-Job rewards.
Saves from the u236 version that did not load the u237 update, and instead go right to u237.1, still have all Side-Job data retained. Which proves that u237 indeed wiped all Side-Job data.
How do you, as a developer, fuck up this bad? How did you not catch this? This isn't "oops, we released a non-functional DLC weapon", this is "oops, we wiped people's save data". It's inexcusable.
Quality of Lobbies
Since u237 & the patch, connections in general have become much more unstable. EGS players frequently crash at the endscreen of heists, and have major trouble joining lobbies with Steam players. The players in said lobbies are often a bit more rude, which is probably due to the game being free on EGS right now.
I feel bad for anyone trying to play Normal-Overkill difficulty right now. It's not a good time.
Players Tab
Another feature that got removed is the "Recent Players" tab in Steam. This was the best way to see who was in your lobby, and was a great way to catch cheaters. Since Steam Matchmaking was removed, this feature no longer functions.
Mod Support
I need to explain something that people are parroting right now that is not true. Starbreeze did not intentionally kill mods. The pd2.exe needed to be updated in order to support EOS, which happens rarely. This edit broke BLT simply because it was no longer compatible with the current exe. BLT is already working again, as it simply needed to be updated. Starbreeze was not out to kill mod support, it was simply such a large update that BLT needed to update as well.