I’m not sure why you would pay attention to the Steam forums.
@Infilament I’m not disagreeing with you. Like almost anything worth doing, having actual crossolay would require effort. Either reprogramming effort or server maintanence effort. Maybe it’s not worth it and that’s fine. But even letting people name their lobby and have the name be searchable would let people actually… you know, find their friends and cross play. I think having a four digit code would be fine. But they aren’t going to do it.
Edit: @MaruMDQ, no you cant. You need to have some form of external communication with them and then set up a lobby with weird setting like first to 100 “training” and then have them search for those parameters and hope they find you. It’s possible to play with your friends but it’s like trying to find an online friend in 2003 - cumbersome and frustrating.
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Generally I don’t.
However KI is kind of my baby so of course I’m invested in the Steam release and want to keep an eye on how its doing.
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A 4-digit code is just automatically assigning a name to the lobby. Either that solution or you manually naming your lobbies are both fine (they’re pretty much equivalent), and I agree with your insinuation that it’s a pretty necessary thing if you’re going to advertise crossplay.
I want to believe that maybe the devs will see the need for this and can convince the budgeters to send a bit of money to implement it, but you’re probably right that it will never happen. Unfortunately I think it not happening (plus ranked not being cross play) basically means the title is not cross play at all.
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The obvious answer is that this wasn’t planned.
And I’m pretty sure these things are being lumped in with DE for the sake of not confusing new potential buyers. The folks that don’t follow KI news wouldn’t know that the “Definitive Edition” excludes three characters and several gold skins.
Very few people will get the reference in your name, but I do and I appreciate it 
As to the other stuff, yeah, the inability to really link up with friends in a different ecosystem is pretty unfortunate. I can only think of serious budget/scope constraints on the project being the reason for no code system, but it is what it is at this point. I’m probably more upset at the inability of the X1 fight stick to work on damn near anything for whatever reason - seriously, I have to convert it into a PS4 controller to get it to play half my games, and now it doesn’t work with the Steam version of KI either.
For what it’s worth though, the Steam release plays quite well, and the connections in all my matches were solid and the game is as fun as it’s always been. It’s also quite a bit more stable than my Win10 version, which is a welcome improvement.
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KI’s Lobby systems has always been pretty weird to say the least. There’s no lobby list so that make things way harder then they should be.
Not trolling/ranting, genuinely want to know this
it does work on windows 7 fyi … it says that on the steam page minimum requirements … im wondering about mac though …
So apparently the Steam input/big picture controller configuration works with any direct input or x input controller that works on PC. can anybody confirm this?
@rukizzel
Q: What’s included in the Steam version of Killer Instinct?
A: Killer Instinct on Steam includes all seasons of KI – all 29 characters (including the newly released Eagle, plus Kilgore and Shin-Hisako remix characters), all 20 stages, all costumes, all colors, and all modes.
dude isn’t there 21 stages ? http://killerinstinct.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Killer_Instinct_2013_Stages ? astral plane exclude ?
Astral Plane shows up in the stage select the same as in the X1 version. It’s locked (I haven’t beaten Shadow Lords on Steam), but it’s definitely there.
@iDoMusic4Media
Haven’t bought KI on Steam yet but for other games that is what it does, either by emulating the 360 controller/keyboard, or by linking buttons to actions (Steam Controller API, or SCAPI for short but I won’t get into it). With it, I can play a game called Kingdoms of Amalur with my ps4 controller, even though the game doesn’t take directinput. Same thing with Rocket League on a generic controller; it accepts d-input, but unless it’s a dualshock 4 the default button mapping is out of place. Of course there are programs that exist that can do all that. Steam’s implemtation is more about convenience IMO.
but it says “all 20 stages” also there is no gold gargos. i only play with jago cuz he was free character. i don’t know too much about shadow lords.
I haven’t read whatever descriptor blurbs are in the marketing - I’m just saying what I’ve seen in the Steam version of the game. I’ve got all the characters (no idea about Gargos colors, but from what I understand definitely no Ultimate Source bonus colors), and what I’m pretty sure are all the stages. 9 from S1, 8 from S2, and 4 from S3. Astral Plane needed you to complete Shadow Lords to unlock before, so pretty sure that’s the case here as well - the UI on Steam for it is the exact same as what it was on the X1 version.
EDIT: Shadow Lords is the rogue-like single player mode for KI’s Season 3. You take a team of characters and basically fight the war against Gargos, filled with items that modify fight parameters and the occasional “choose your adventure” pop-up. If you want more detail on it, I recommend heading over to the Shadow Lords sub-forum and poking around a bit.
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did u get to test crossnetwork play in lobby mode?
I don’t play lobbies, so no, haven’t tested that out yet. Got matched up with a lot of Xbox players (slow loading SOB’s 
) in random searches and those worked well, but haven’t tried to actually find someone to play with. I imagine the lobby search method will probably work decently ok until a lot of people start playing on Steam though - I don’t think too many players generally use the lobby search parameters much.
So hopefully it does become a problem, but only time will tell. I think we all would’ve preferred a code system, but until then we’ll just have to make do. Steam version runs well enough though that if I can get my audio stuff to work properly, I’d probably stream the game from it rather than the X1.
haha bro thats why once the pc version came out … it pains me to play on x1 lol … they say x1x loads fast like pc tho. but i literally only play ki lol. one of these days ill play something else too.
i rarely create lobbies myself. but rotendo and i jus tried … umm lets jus say it didnt work on the first attempt lol. hopefully that was a fluke and the process is all good. otherwise, i will definitely be joining the 4-digit code club!
only if you are playing on steam also.
Well this guy is totally ridiculous 
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Well, I think almost regardless of how well the ad-hoc play with friends lobby method works, a code system that works every time would be better. Just unfortunate that it’s apparently not in the cards.
Did you and Rotendo manage to find one another? How long did it take?
