The goal
I want to have a menu for listing available game sessions for users to join, and possibly a matchmaking feature in the near future. Now I’ve taken a look at the UE4 Online subsystem documentation and there isn’t much detail covered in usage examples if I were to use something like, Steam’s Online System. What possible advantages (besides using your own SteamID to join/invite friends) does the Online subsystem method have, over my own server api.
If I were to develop my own server api, I would make a REST server that allows users to POST their newly created game session (along with ip address, optional server name, optional password, array-list of current players, etc.) to the server’s current database, as well as being able to GET a list of online sessions, online users, maybe GET a list of users searching in matchmaking.
One of the only concerns I have is that, I was not able to find a Blueprint module for joining sessions via direct IP address, other than executing a Command from blueprints. See I wanted to completely develop the game in blueprints, and if needed, actually develop the codebase for the server api.
The issue
What’s easier to implement? I have years of experience with server side development with Ruby on Rails & NodeJs. I sort of already have a working prototype for this. My only issue is being able to use Blueprints to make requests to this REST server. The UE4 Online Subsystem method sounds enticing, with its potential integration with Steam, but it looks like I won’t be able to accomplish this using only Blueprints?