[zesterer]

> Why is a launcher required?

Because Veloren's update cadence for most servers is substantially more frequent than most package repositories are willing to handle (trust us, we've tried!). You can install the game without the launcher, but don't expect it to be compatible with most servers.

> Is the launcher spying on my system, sending information back to HQ?

Categorically, no. The only information we record is an incrementing counter for each architecture downloaded. You can see this data here: https://grafana.veloren.net/d/boL6rzSGk/airshipper?orgId=1

> Can't you tell me the game needs updating when I play the game and then update the game in-game?

That's exactly what the launcher is doing.

> Are you going to throw me advertisement banners when you're not making or being greedy?

Categorically, no. Veloren is open-source (GPL 3), and developed by a close-knit and dedicated community of volunteers. It's a hobby project and will always be free-as-in-liberty as well as free-as-in-beer.

> What if the update fails?

I'm not sure why it would (bar an iffy connection), but the launcher works in offline mode just fine too.

> but launchers come bloated.

Ours doesn't.

> then requiring an additional 10GB download for the actual game

I think we're up at a few hundred MB right now. Most of that is music. It's worth it :)

[alt187]

> You can install the game without the launcher, but don't expect it to be compatible with most servers.

How so? More specifically, if I compile the same version as the launcher, can I play on most servers?

[suavesito]

Yes, just that server and client are very much tied, and we have a release cadence of one new version per week. So, you would need to track the release of each week and compile it, to be able to connect to the official server.