The good for me : - No more losing sound when you accidentaly press your Windows key - Slightly better pings - 32bit is now selectable through display options for all games <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> -VAC!
The bad for me : - Popup ads <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo--> - Sometimes takes too long to connect to master Steam network - If master server == down, then all Steam useres == down - Messing up during release <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
Steam is like a double-edged sword, you get more benefit out of it, but you also cause a little bit more of harm to yourself as well.
pop up ads? There are none. It says content hosting provided by (insert content server here) But is is not a popup ad because it is part of the connecting screen.
Dod 1.1 is the only thing that hurt me. but I don't play it so I killed it.
Steam sucks... Valve's attempt to somehow "Control" our fun so they can make a buck on each enjoyable expirience. LAN games? Gone... That right there is like spitting in the face of every gamer in existance. What could possibly bring gamers together like a LAN party? Our last local LAN was bittersweet. finally we went a whole LAN without the CS Drones constantly screaming for another round... but without NS, we were broken and filled with sorrow.
Its like they thought of the greatest way to disrupt one of the largest gaming communities in the WORLD and pulled it off without a hitch. The whole conspiracy of weening gamers off of FREE... ENDLESS fun they expirienced for years seems totally viable when i think of how many of my friends just QUIT playing Half Life in every way, shape, and form... mainly because after 7-8 reinstalls they thought it was not worth the trouble. I myself got steam working one time, right before i decided to formatt my PC once more... reinstalled steam 3 more times before i decided i dont need to have steam till 2.1 comes out.
So far i've been hoping for some majik silver bullet to kill all of Steam's problems, but i haven't seen something like that yet... but i am still hoping!
<!--QuoteBegin--::esuna::+Nov 18 2003, 01:51 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (::esuna:: @ Nov 18 2003, 01:51 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Well Steam works fantastically for me.
When i first installed it it screwed up my WON install and also screwed itself up, HL was entirely unplayable. But after i got over that, it works so much better than the old system, it looks better, and the features, as much as i slated them in the past, are really great.
I think if anything Steam is a worthy improvement on WON. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Exactly the same as what he said <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
For every plus point of Steam there's at least one mirroring negative. Server lists seem to refresh faster, but actual game's take longer to connect to. Console "tweaks" and automatic hiding make it harder to see why connections failed. Constant updates... and, um, constant updates. As a 56ker I can say that I dislike being forced to grab trickle download support when it'll never benefit me, but I accept that the Steam service as a whole wasn't designed for my benefit. Of course, this will one day replace WON, so I'm trying to get used to the fact.
Hardly worthy of serious discussion, but <a href='http://rs.decksix.com/Ihatesteam.PNG' target='_blank'>this</a> sums up my feelings regarding the early, horrific release. Best to think of it as a political "cartoon", of a sort...
My god. I got a sunburn from the hate radiating from this thread.
CHILL.
Just to address a few issues brought up in this post:
You will <u>NEVER</u> have to pay to play a game you bought from valve UNLESS you choose the subscription model in which you pay a certain amount per month and you have access to ALL valve software released. This includes HL2 and it's official mods. Think Opposing Force and Blue Shift. TF2 too.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Offline/LAN play Work on offline/LAN play is now nearing completion. To play any Steam game while not connected to the Internet it will only be necessary to let Steam finish downloading all of that game’s content, at which point you’ll be able to play games without connecting to Steam. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's just a matter of time before steam can run over a LAN. Get a grip on something and wait it out.
Let me tell you the story of my installation of steam.
The Big Day arrives. The final version of Steam is available for download. I download the 500k version and install. I register an account (SteamID: 0:0:7574 Winnar!). It converts my existing install to it's cache, recognising my mods and porting them over too. All's well. I upload the 500k installer to my personal webspace for ease of distribution among NS fans. Suddenly someone says on IRC "DO NOT GET SCYTHE'S INSTALL, IT IS A BETA VERSION". At this point I was rather bemused. After a bit of discussion it turns out I had downloaded it from a bogus site. No biggie, some nice person in IRC gave me a link to the proper install file. I immediately replace the one on my webspace and proceed to install this new one over the top.
Then the porta-loo hit the wind turbine.
I ran steam, entered my username and password, it started up fine. "Woo" I said. Then when I tried to play a game of HLDM for testing I discovered that there was no entries in my games list. Bugger. It wanted to download 400 and something meg of half-life on my 56k. No chance. After a little screwing around I discovered the problem. During the install of the beta I was prompted for a custom location of my steamapps folder. I chose to have it in c:\games\steamapps\. It turns out that the full version doesn’t give you the choice of having a custom steamapps directory. So I copied over the contents of c:\games\steamapps\ to c:\program files\steam\<email>\steamapps\ and it’s being working merrily ever since. I’ve put a shortcut to the steamapps dir in my games dir so it’s easy to get to.
A few pointers with steam:
<ul> <li>HAVE PATIENCE. When it comes up with “Preparing to play Half-Life” for any length of time it’s actually downloading some content or reorganising it’s cache or something. The first time I tried to run HL it came up with this. I left it for about two hours (On my 56k) and then it started up. It’s started up instantly ever since. <li>The friends list is cool. <li>The updates are released every Wednesday, America time, and are pretty small. No more than a 15 minute wait on 56k. <li>The new console is cool. You can cut’n’paste from the log and heaps of other nifty stuff. <li>Alt-tabbing == win. <li>Steam allows mod makers to make tiny updates to their mod instantly across their entire playerbase. This would be great for playtesting. Remember all those serverside patches released for NS1.04? They could’ve all been automatic. <li>The NS skins found at <a href='http://www.readyroom.org' target='_blank'>http://www.readyroom.org</a> make it much nicer to look at. <li>Most importantly: NS2.1 works 110% on steam. </ul>
Here’s a post I made in the constellation forums on filtering custom mods:
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <ul> <li>Go into the server browser. <li>Click on the "Change filters" button. <li>Press Crtl + Alt + Shift + b <li>Click in the game filter box. <li>Change the "editable" value in the haxor thing to "1". <li>Type "nsp" in the filter box and press "Apply" then "Exit". <li>Refresh. <li>Shout "WOO" loudly. </ul>
<span style='color:red'><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>HARKEN UNTO MY WARNING:</span></span> You can screw up steam nicely if you aren't careful with the haxor thing. So be careful. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You can replace the “nsp” with any mod of your choice.
Steam DOES WORK. It’s just needs patience and a fair bit of fiddling to get right. It will improve.
--Scythe--
P.S. If you need help getting steam working. I seem to be cursed to help anyone that asks for it. Pop into #naturalselection on irc.gamesnet.net and we'll talk.
<!--QuoteBegin--Scythe+Nov 23 2003, 07:15 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Scythe @ Nov 23 2003, 07:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> You will <u>NEVER</u> have to pay to play a game you bought from valve UNLESS you choose the subscription model in which you pay a certain amount per month and you have access to ALL valve software released. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> As I have said before, the Ad already makes it pay to play. But besides that, what is the guarenty that valve won't make it pay to play someday? Any at all? You'll just keep using the non-pay version? Valve made it so steam couldn't validate if you didn't update? Oops.
And whats this about instant mod changes? I hope that the server op still gets to decide which version they want, otherwise things could get real ugly when a previously harmless plugin now causes the server to explode.
i dont like steam.. some here said that steam made theur ping better, it made mine worse, really worse.. before steam it was 20-30, but now its is 70-120... <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo--> and that makes me a sad panda.. otherwise steam is kinda cool.... i can find servers better and some other things too, but i dont have time to write about them right now,
Comments
The good for me :
- No more losing sound when you accidentaly press your Windows key
- Slightly better pings
- 32bit is now selectable through display options for all games <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
-VAC!
The bad for me :
- Popup ads <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
- Sometimes takes too long to connect to master Steam network
- If master server == down, then all Steam useres == down
- Messing up during release <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
Steam is like a double-edged sword, you get more benefit out of it, but you also cause a little bit more of harm to yourself as well.
Dod 1.1 is the only thing that hurt me. but I don't play it so I killed it.
<!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
I think when I finally have to make the jump to steam it will be rough to say the least
someone's sig on the forums describes what I think "steam is a un-needed solution to a non-existant problem"
and if steam provides alot of difficulty it may kill gaming for me, becuase I pretty much only play HL...
Its like they thought of the greatest way to disrupt one of the largest gaming communities in the WORLD and pulled it off without a hitch. The whole conspiracy of weening gamers off of FREE... ENDLESS fun they expirienced for years seems totally viable when i think of how many of my friends just QUIT playing Half Life in every way, shape, and form... mainly because after 7-8 reinstalls they thought it was not worth the trouble. I myself got steam working one time, right before i decided to formatt my PC once more... reinstalled steam 3 more times before i decided i dont need to have steam till 2.1 comes out.
So far i've been hoping for some majik silver bullet to kill all of Steam's problems, but i haven't seen something like that yet... but i am still hoping!
When i first installed it it screwed up my WON install and also screwed itself up, HL was entirely unplayable. But after i got over that, it works so much better than the old system, it looks better, and the features, as much as i slated them in the past, are really great.
I think if anything Steam is a worthy improvement on WON. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Exactly the same as what he said <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Hardly worthy of serious discussion, but <a href='http://rs.decksix.com/Ihatesteam.PNG' target='_blank'>this</a> sums up my feelings regarding the early, horrific release. Best to think of it as a political "cartoon", of a sort...
CHILL.
Just to address a few issues brought up in this post:
You will <u>NEVER</u> have to pay to play a game you bought from valve UNLESS you choose the subscription model in which you pay a certain amount per month and you have access to ALL valve software released. This includes HL2 and it's official mods. Think Opposing Force and Blue Shift. TF2 too.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Offline/LAN play
Work on offline/LAN play is now nearing completion. To play any Steam game while not connected to the Internet it will only be necessary to let Steam finish downloading all of that game’s content, at which point you’ll be able to play games without connecting to Steam.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's just a matter of time before steam can run over a LAN. Get a grip on something and wait it out.
Let me tell you the story of my installation of steam.
The Big Day arrives. The final version of Steam is available for download. I download the 500k version and install. I register an account (SteamID: 0:0:7574 Winnar!). It converts my existing install to it's cache, recognising my mods and porting them over too. All's well. I upload the 500k installer to my personal webspace for ease of distribution among NS fans. Suddenly someone says on IRC "DO NOT GET SCYTHE'S INSTALL, IT IS A BETA VERSION". At this point I was rather bemused. After a bit of discussion it turns out I had downloaded it from a bogus site. No biggie, some nice person in IRC gave me a link to the proper install file. I immediately replace the one on my webspace and proceed to install this new one over the top.
Then the porta-loo hit the wind turbine.
I ran steam, entered my username and password, it started up fine. "Woo" I said. Then when I tried to play a game of HLDM for testing I discovered that there was no entries in my games list. Bugger. It wanted to download 400 and something meg of half-life on my 56k. No chance. After a little screwing around I discovered the problem. During the install of the beta I was prompted for a custom location of my steamapps folder. I chose to have it in c:\games\steamapps\. It turns out that the full version doesn’t give you the choice of having a custom steamapps directory. So I copied over the contents of c:\games\steamapps\ to c:\program files\steam\<email>\steamapps\ and it’s being working merrily ever since. I’ve put a shortcut to the steamapps dir in my games dir so it’s easy to get to.
A few pointers with steam:
<ul>
<li>HAVE PATIENCE. When it comes up with “Preparing to play Half-Life” for any length of time it’s actually downloading some content or reorganising it’s cache or something. The first time I tried to run HL it came up with this. I left it for about two hours (On my 56k) and then it started up. It’s started up instantly ever since.
<li>The friends list is cool.
<li>The updates are released every Wednesday, America time, and are pretty small. No more than a 15 minute wait on 56k.
<li>The new console is cool. You can cut’n’paste from the log and heaps of other nifty stuff.
<li>Alt-tabbing == win.
<li>Steam allows mod makers to make tiny updates to their mod instantly across their entire playerbase. This would be great for playtesting. Remember all those serverside patches released for NS1.04? They could’ve all been automatic.
<li>The NS skins found at <a href='http://www.readyroom.org' target='_blank'>http://www.readyroom.org</a> make it much nicer to look at.
<li>Most importantly: NS2.1 works 110% on steam.
</ul>
Here’s a post I made in the constellation forums on filtering custom mods:
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
<ul>
<li>Go into the server browser.
<li>Click on the "Change filters" button.
<li>Press Crtl + Alt + Shift + b
<li>Click in the game filter box.
<li>Change the "editable" value in the haxor thing to "1".
<li>Type "nsp" in the filter box and press "Apply" then "Exit".
<li>Refresh.
<li>Shout "WOO" loudly.
</ul>
<span style='color:red'><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>HARKEN UNTO MY WARNING:</span></span> You can screw up steam nicely if you aren't careful with the haxor thing. So be careful.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You can replace the “nsp” with any mod of your choice.
Steam DOES WORK. It’s just needs patience and a fair bit of fiddling to get right. It will improve.
--Scythe--
P.S. If you need help getting steam working. I seem to be cursed to help anyone that asks for it. Pop into #naturalselection on irc.gamesnet.net and we'll talk.
As I have said before, the Ad already makes it pay to play. But besides that, what is the guarenty that valve won't make it pay to play someday? Any at all? You'll just keep using the non-pay version? Valve made it so steam couldn't validate if you didn't update? Oops.
And whats this about instant mod changes? I hope that the server op still gets to decide which version they want, otherwise things could get real ugly when a previously harmless plugin now causes the server to explode.
some here said that steam made theur ping better, it made mine worse, really worse..
before steam it was 20-30, but now its is 70-120... <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
and that makes me a sad panda..
otherwise steam is kinda cool....
i can find servers better and some other things too, but i dont have time to write about them right now,