Hello Killing Floor Community,
It’s been our goal from the outset that Killing Floor 2 can be played and shared with as many players across the globe. To that end, we’re happy to announce that Killing Floor 2 will be coming soon to the Epic Games Store. To ensure that we don’t divide the PC player base, we’ve worked hard to enable cross-play and cross-invite between Steam and EGS versions of the game so that the entire PC community can play together. To enable this functionality you may notice there will be updates in-game to our Invite UI and that we have migrated our VOIP systems to utilize Vivox so that voice chat is possible across platforms. Additionally, for cross-play to function, we have leveraged the power of Epic’s Online Backend Services known as EOS into the PC version of the game as part of our matchmaking and server logic. We understand that we will raise some questions so we would like to be upfront with some of the big ones.
You mentioned Epic Online Services. What’s that?
Epic Online Services or EOS is a backend service that allows you to create platform-agnostic multiplayer lobbies that can be connected with different platforms like Steam and EGS. EOS is not the same as EGS, so while EOS is necessary for cross-platform play to be possible, all existing user accounts will be kept distinct in their ecosystems.
How does this change the Steam PC experience?
The only changes are utilizing Vivox for VOIP and EOS to give you access to the pool of EGS players. There are no changes to Steam specific systems like the Workshop, Marketplace, Inventory, Achievements, etc
How does this change modding and community content Steam?
Modding and Community Content is still a vital component to the Killing Floor 2 experience and we have no intention of changing that for PC. The SDK & Workshop will still be available to Steam users the same as before. Cross-play between Steam and EGS will only be supported on un-modded official servers. Future support for modding on EGS along with cross-play on modded servers will be assessed when functionality becomes available and discussed with our partners at a later date.
How will the Cross-Platform Invite System work?
To enable ‘Steam to EGS’ invites, when loading into the main menu and attempt to create a party in-game you’ll have the option to opt-in & sign in to your EGS account. From there, the EGS friends list will be populated and you’ll be able to invite friends from EGS into your Steam party. Don’t have an EGS account? No problem, you can play with your Steam friends the same as before.
Does that mean we’ll see Console to PC Cross-Play?
Unfortunately, no. Due to deeper technical limitations with how the content is structured for PC and Console makes this not possible for the foreseeable future.
Does that mean we’ll have Cross-save and Cross-inventory for Steam & EGS?
Due to larger differences in backend services, each platform will be separate in terms of inventory and progression.
What’s the benefit to the existing community?
- By expanding to EGS, we hope to bring even more players into the mix and expand the KF2 community.
- By expanding the wider player pool of Killing Floor 2, we’re able to sustain longer-term support for the game with content updates and patches.
- With the EGS launch, we’ll be expanding the capacity of our dedicated server fleet to accommodate the rush of new players.
- Additionally, we’ll be looking at refining the match matching experience to handle the larger capacity over the coming year focusing primarily on smoothing out some of the friction points and issues, as they are understood and are actionable to our engineers.
- Finally, to celebrate the launch of this new platform we’ll be giving everyone access to the “DAR Classic Armor” set that previously only obtainable via the Spring 2018 event
How will you roll this out?
We recognize this is a huge development for all of you and we want to get this right to ensure the best possible experience for all users. To that end, we’ll be establishing an opt-in Public Steam Beta of this new experience before the launch of EGS to ensure we can vet these new systems in the live environment on a large scale than can be done internally. With the release of EGS, we will then fold this into the main live branch. Going forward to maintain cross-play functionality both platforms will need to be in parity with each other.
We’ll announce full details of the coming beta and launch soon and during the beta period we encourage you to provide any feedback or issues at our official forums located here:
https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/index.php?forums/the-bug-report-pc.173/
Your feedback is greatly appreciated and needed to make this experience the best possible for everyone.
How does this affect Preview Betas for the upcoming Content Update?
Community feedback betas for upcoming content release is essential to achieving the best possible experience for the community which it’s released to everyone playing which is something we fully intend to continue to do for Steam. For EGS we will work with our partners to investigate how to enable opt-in betas so that will be available to them as well.
We hope that helps clarify and allay any fears about our plans for the future of Killing Floor 2. As passionate creators and fans of the game ourselves, we want to be able to share this project of blood, sweat, and tears to the widest possible audience. We believe expanding to EGS will help us achieve that and create an even better experience for everyone. Your ongoing support and enthusiasm are what drives us to continue expanding the world of Killing Floor 2 and hope you share in our excitement for the future. See you all on the Killing Floor!
David Amata
Product Director of Killing Floor 2
