Loading/Downloading and Language

Subject: Feedback on Game Loading Time and Feature Suggestions

Dear Sbox Team,

I hope you're doing well. I'm a player who really enjoys your work, and I'd like to share some constructive feedback regarding the current game experience.

One of the most frustrating issues I encounter is the extremely long loading time when entering the game. In many cases, if I don't use a VPN, the game may fail to load content altogether. This suggests that the built-in download system is highly sensitive to network conditions, especially for players outside the UK (e.g., in Asia or other regions).

Suggestion:
Would it be possible to integrate with Steam's own download system (e.g., using Steam Workshop or Steam's content delivery network) instead of relying on a custom in-game downloader? Steam already handles global distribution, auto-updates, and partial downloads efficiently. This would likely solve most connectivity and speed issues for international players without requiring VPNs.

Currently, the game is English-only. Adding support for additional languages (even just UI/text translation) would greatly improve accessibility and player experience for non-English speakers. For example, Chinese, Spanish, German, and French would cover a large portion of your global audience.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I truly enjoy the creative direction of Sbox, and I believe these changes would make the game more welcoming and stable for players worldwide.

Best regards

First-time loading: allow players to stay in the main menu while downloading in the background
Currently, during the first load, players are forced to stare at a loading screen until all content is downloaded. This often takes a very long time and allows no interaction.
Suggestion: Could you change the first-time loading behavior so that players enter the main menu immediately, while all necessary resources download silently in the background? The game could then notify the player or enable gameplay only after the download is complete. This way, players can at least browse the menu, adjust settings, or do something else instead of staring blankly at a progress bar.

As someone who used to struggle with bad connection, I think having a different option from looking at a blank screen for 10 minutes would be awesome. 🎉

IMHO if one downloads at 1MB per second, they can't really use S&box the intended way, because even a 300mb game takes 5 minutes to download. You're friends are already ready to move on by the time you join in.

Of course this can't really be fixed, except by upgrading the connection. Perhaps there are ways to improve the experience though. 🤔 Background downloads could be an option to aid people. Sadly I can't think of many others. 😥