I downloaded Steam the first day just so I could get my account set up. That worked pretty much without a flaw except that I had to update Steam which took a nice long time. Then, I find out I have to update HL and CS, and since that's a LOT of megs, I just started downloading the new Steam exe file with the updates for CS 1.6. It's just too much work. Hopefully after I'm all updated I can get NS to run.
Aaronvroom vroom der party startahJoin Date: 2002-11-05Member: 7020Members
I find this petition and the general whining and hand wringing about Steam to be very unsportsmanlike and just sour grapes. Valve is a company that has to provide for its own future on a modern gaming platform. It has been supporting half life, a <b>6 year old game</b> and the great community behind it for years, but it is simply ungrateful and presumptuous of us to tell Valve how to conduct its business and demand it does what we want to support the status quo of a 6 year old game which it is making little if any revenue from. Steam is a great idea and instead of being a jerk and throwing rocks and kicking it in the ribs while it is down, I hope to see it work out. And if/when it does, I'll expect to see everybody claiming how they were all for it all along and wow isn't it such a great thing.
I have my NS working on it just fine, but the menus are fubared. If that person who said 'i got it to run NS perfectly' knows how to fix the menus, please share.
I personally one have two complaints about Steam:
(a) Takes too long to launch a game (for me it's 15 seconds or so, not too bad actually)
(b) Games aren't downloading correctly. This is because of the strain
The person who talked about CS1.4 is right. How many servers went down because of that patch? Or 1.5 for that matter? I remember CSNation having a page and a half of servers which either all had wait times or had been completely DOSed because of the strain of releasing it. Now, we have the same strain on <i>one</i> network. It will get better though. Look at this page:
Those are the Steam Content Servers right now. Their capacity is 950MBps. Their strain on the system is 473.66. This means a complete of things. First, the network isn't distributing load correctly. I give them a week to fix this, tops. Second, 2 or 3 servers are down and I see them and probably a lot more coming back in the future. Once they have it correctly downloading, we won't have the current problems we're having now
Also, I'd like to say that it's move the move to Steam to have the internal messanger program, the ability to change settings on the fly easily, the ability to ALT-TAB without losing sound.
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
edited September 2003
umm, the alt tab thing is actualy a SIMPLE HL patch <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
ok, it take like 4 mins for steam to BOOT up on my comp now CS is 'not available' and so is NS
look, as I have said before, I am just scard of them killing my beloved WON servers before Steam WROKS for every one.
I bought a game with the knowledge that I would beable to play it online, if they remove the WON servers my game is now broken. That's not acceptable.
Ok, to start I'm neither supporting or nay-saying Steam right now, so don't try to read either in to this. I personally am going to reserve judgment until everyone else either has it working or gives up, then I'll see about installing it if I have to.
The <u>release</u>, however, appears to have been an impressive flop. Now I have no doubt that the bugs will get worked out - eventually. Some problems though appear to be things they added in after the beta (like importing files locally, as I recall, wasn't part of the beta) that probably should have been beta tested before release (and yes, before anyone decides to comment on that, I know some people have it working - but other people apparently don't, so don't just say "well it worked for me"). But it's out now, and some online petition isn't going to really do anything about it.
There are (as far as I can see) 4 possible outcomes:
1) Valve discovers Steam to be a mistake, and pulls it (very vey unlikely) 2) Valve discovers that many of their customers don't like Steam, and they find some way to make Steam and WON work together (we can hope... but unlikely) 3) Valve gets the bugs out of Steam quickly, and converts everything over to it (most likely) 4) Valve can't debug the program for one reason or another, but converts everything to Steam (let's hope not)
Valve's choice will not be influenced by some online petition. Valve will be influenced by the studies of it's marketing department (which I'd bet is the reason why we have Steam to begin with, and why it was pushed out before it was actually really ready).
Personally, I don't believe that Steam was <u>required</u>, but only time and (many) patches will show if it will actually be useful.
On a side note: Why do so many people seem to attribute the fix for the no-sound bug (which btw I always fixed by simply tapping <ESC> twice to bail to the menu and return to the game - hardly an inconvenience) to the wonders of Steam, instead of to the multi-hundred megabyte patch to the Half-life engine that just happens to be distributed through Steam? I think Thansal is only the second person I've seen point it out (and he may have been the other guy too...)
For some reason I doubt Valve cares what 1% of the gaming community thinks....Especially if it's an online petition... <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
Well,noone really needs anything steam has to offer. Has anyone else the Suspicion that Bill secretly bought Valve ,and is trying to dominate the Game Market? (Os Ownage -> Game Ownage -> World Domination ). <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
<span style='color:white'>Regardless of whether or not you think that image is "funny," it does not belong on these forums.</span>
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
edited September 2003
^^^^^ things that I would not want in a petition if I could get it going
so yah, it was stated (a long time ago) that the next HL PATCH would fix the ageold issue of alt tab (yah 4 years to fix one friken bug gg valve <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->)
again, I would like a petition simply saying:
"Look, do what you can for steam, just make sure the Won servers stay up untill those people who have problems with steam are rare rare exeptions." <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
and no steam STILL wont wrok for me (still ike 5 min time just to start up and then I can't connect to anytihng)
<!--QuoteBegin--[p4]Samwise+Sep 13 2003, 11:46 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> ([p4]Samwise @ Sep 13 2003, 11:46 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Yeah, if you don't like Steam, don't pay for it. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Mark my words. In a month or two everyone will be saying Steam is the shiznit and acting like they don't remember that any of this foolishness took place. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Thats what is so BS about it, paying for it -_- which is complete BS.
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
GAHHHH THANSAL GOES SPAMTASTIC
if you constantly can't conect to steam REBOOT!!!!
aparently when you boot your comp it randomly chooses a steam server and sticks with it! (what a pos)
so reboot and hope for a better server <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
1) Online petitions don't work.
2) Here is the petition's cover letter, and why it's even more worthless than most online petitions: <i>Valve Software has announced that all upcomming Mods and Updates for their game "Half-Life" will use Steam technology.
This technology discriminates 56k and ISDN Users, as they have to download the complete game (~500mb), which takes way too long.</i> Steam does not download the game from the server if you have it installed locally.
<i>As well, Valve forces all users to use Steam, because they are shutting down the WON Servers, which you need to play Half-Life online without Steam.</i> Presuming that Steam will eventually iron out its wrinkles, I fail to see how a SteamID is *any* different from a WON ID.
<i>In my eyes this is complete insanity, as I paid Half Life and I don´t want to be forced to download it again....as well custom models and skins are endangered as nobody knows if it will be possible to install them again!</i> As said above, you don't have to. Valve has already said that custom material - models, sounds, etc - will be fully compatible with Steam.
<i>Sign this list, say NO! to Valves Steam Technology!</i> No. This is a worthless, pointless petition.
Comments
I personally one have two complaints about Steam:
(a) Takes too long to launch a game (for me it's 15 seconds or so, not too bad actually)
(b) Games aren't downloading correctly. This is because of the strain
The person who talked about CS1.4 is right. How many servers went down because of that patch? Or 1.5 for that matter? I remember CSNation having a page and a half of servers which either all had wait times or had been completely DOSed because of the strain of releasing it. Now, we have the same strain on <i>one</i> network. It will get better though. Look at this page:
<a href='http://www.steampowered.com/status.html' target='_blank'>http://www.steampowered.com/status.html</a>
Those are the Steam Content Servers right now. Their capacity is 950MBps. Their strain on the system is 473.66. This means a complete of things. First, the network isn't distributing load correctly. I give them a week to fix this, tops. Second, 2 or 3 servers are down and I see them and probably a lot more coming back in the future. Once they have it correctly downloading, we won't have the current problems we're having now
Also, I'd like to say that it's move the move to Steam to have the internal messanger program, the ability to change settings on the fly easily, the ability to ALT-TAB without losing sound.
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
ok, it take like 4 mins for steam to BOOT up on my comp
now CS is 'not available' and so is NS
look, as I have said before, I am just scard of them killing my beloved WON servers before Steam WROKS for every one.
I bought a game with the knowledge that I would beable to play it online, if they remove the WON servers my game is now broken. That's not acceptable.
The <u>release</u>, however, appears to have been an impressive flop. Now I have no doubt that the bugs will get worked out - eventually. Some problems though appear to be things they added in after the beta (like importing files locally, as I recall, wasn't part of the beta) that probably should have been beta tested before release (and yes, before anyone decides to comment on that, I know some people have it working - but other people apparently don't, so don't just say "well it worked for me"). But it's out now, and some online petition isn't going to really do anything about it.
There are (as far as I can see) 4 possible outcomes:
1) Valve discovers Steam to be a mistake, and pulls it (very vey unlikely)
2) Valve discovers that many of their customers don't like Steam, and they find some way to make Steam and WON work together (we can hope... but unlikely)
3) Valve gets the bugs out of Steam quickly, and converts everything over to it (most likely)
4) Valve can't debug the program for one reason or another, but converts everything to Steam (let's hope not)
Valve's choice will not be influenced by some online petition. Valve will be influenced by the studies of it's marketing department (which I'd bet is the reason why we have Steam to begin with, and why it was pushed out before it was actually really ready).
Personally, I don't believe that Steam was <u>required</u>, but only time and (many) patches will show if it will actually be useful.
On a side note: Why do so many people seem to attribute the fix for the no-sound bug (which btw I always fixed by simply tapping <ESC> twice to bail to the menu and return to the game - hardly an inconvenience) to the wonders of Steam, instead of to the multi-hundred megabyte patch to the Half-life engine that just happens to be distributed through Steam? I think Thansal is only the second person I've seen point it out (and he may have been the other guy too...)
Has anyone else the Suspicion that Bill secretly bought Valve ,and is trying to dominate the Game Market? (Os Ownage -> Game Ownage -> World Domination ).
<!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
<span style='color:white'>Regardless of whether or not you think that image is "funny," it does not belong on these forums.</span>
so yah, it was stated (a long time ago) that the next HL PATCH would fix the ageold issue of alt tab (yah 4 years to fix one friken bug gg valve <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->)
again, I would like a petition simply saying:
"Look, do what you can for steam, just make sure the Won servers stay up untill those people who have problems with steam are rare rare exeptions." <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
and no steam STILL wont wrok for me (still ike 5 min time just to start up and then I can't connect to anytihng)
Mark my words. In a month or two everyone will be saying Steam is the shiznit and acting like they don't remember that any of this foolishness took place. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thats what is so BS about it, paying for it -_- which is complete BS.
if you constantly can't conect to steam REBOOT!!!!
aparently when you boot your comp it randomly chooses a steam server and sticks with it! (what a pos)
so reboot and hope for a better server <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
2) Here is the petition's cover letter, and why it's even more worthless than most online petitions:
<i>Valve Software has announced that all upcomming Mods and Updates for their game "Half-Life" will use Steam technology.
This technology discriminates 56k and ISDN Users, as they have to download the complete game (~500mb), which takes way too long.</i>
Steam does not download the game from the server if you have it installed locally.
<i>As well, Valve forces all users to use Steam, because they are shutting down the WON Servers, which you need to play Half-Life online without Steam.</i>
Presuming that Steam will eventually iron out its wrinkles, I fail to see how a SteamID is *any* different from a WON ID.
<i>In my eyes this is complete insanity, as I paid Half Life and I don´t want to be forced to download it again....as well custom models and skins are endangered as nobody knows if it will be possible to install them again!</i>
As said above, you don't have to. Valve has already said that custom material - models, sounds, etc - will be fully compatible with Steam.
<i>Sign this list, say NO! to Valves Steam Technology!</i>
No. This is a worthless, pointless petition.
3) And therefore, this post is equally pointless.