I can understand that some people have problems with Steam, but Valve are fixing it, and they've got a lot riding on this, so they've got good motivation to make it work.
It's a really revolutionary idea when you look at it, but yes, there are problems, like lack of LAN play, but Valve are pretty committed to sorting that, it's their number 1 priority.
Personally, I really like Steam. On broadband, I can go from a standing start to being able to get into a Steam game in minutes, no hassle. It's a brilliant thing. Sure, on 56k downloading the whole thing is impractical. That's why Steam has conversion wizards, sometimes you can get cover discs with the installers, or you could get someone with broadband to burn the caches onto disc for you. I personally had a friend with 56k who installed Steam on his computer, and it worked just fine. Only problem he had was he couldn't find a HL CD-Key to use, but when I went round to his house, I just logged in with my Steam account, instantly granting me access to the games.
The updates are small, doesn't stop him playing for long either.
And incidentally, slow downloads don't corrupt the Steam caches, and they're surprisingly resiliant against damage. I have deliberatly corrupted one of my caches by opening up a text editor and going crazy in there, and Steam just patched up all the files I'd destroyed. A good proportion of the cache was still ok.
EPSI I agree with you. STEAM is good program. It is not yet finished- so many bugs will be fixed. I liked your idea about burning the cache from friends PC. But it is absolutely unavailale for us... I have 56k and all of my friends have it either... But thats ok. I am sure that WON will live as much as modem connection does... (i mean 56k or slower)... When 80-90% of users all over the world will use fast internet (broadband or some other) there will be no need in WON, and STEAM will be a good program... THis changes may happen in few years... Flaming??? Anyone?<!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif' /><!--endemo-->
People, anyone try won lan ? or steam lan ? i am having a problem, when people join game later, they have upg from some other players in co, or res from another player in ns regular ... any idea ? solution ?
<!--QuoteBegin-INT3GRAL+Jan 30 2004, 01:37 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (INT3GRAL @ Jan 30 2004, 01:37 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Well, I live in Georgia (Country situated on the south bordering with RUssia). We don't have good internet here. So we cant even use Steam (too big filesize and so on). WON is preferred. What must we do to play NS 3.0 full Online without steam? Are there nosteam servers? Steam is not good thing. Help me. So we need to play NS 3.0 online without steam. Can we play LAN wihtout this steam??? <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> NS 3.0 can work in WON, but only after you get Steam up and fully running.
Sorry Dude. I haven't seen Valve care about people like you and me, and I've looked on the forums. They just don't care. <b>Steam added some nice features, but they took away one of my favorite features.</b> Being able to play offline without ever having to authenicate.
Where ID Software is releasing source code for their old graphics engines, Valve is screwing over the mod community that gave them so much. Taking away ability to <b>play offline</b> without previous authenication was a blow to the LAN and bot-playing community.
I think I'll go play some Call of Duty, BF1942, Enemy Territory, America's Army, or Unreal Tourny now. Guys stop flaming Steam. Go try some Enemy Territory, it's great and free.
<!--QuoteBegin-JDawg+Feb 3 2004, 02:40 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (JDawg @ Feb 3 2004, 02:40 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-INT3GRAL+Jan 30 2004, 01:37 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (INT3GRAL @ Jan 30 2004, 01:37 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Well, I live in Georgia (Country situated on the south bordering with RUssia). We don't have good internet here. So we cant even use Steam (too big filesize and so on). WON is preferred. What must we do to play NS 3.0 full Online without steam? Are there nosteam servers? Steam is not good thing. Help me. So we need to play NS 3.0 online without steam. Can we play LAN wihtout this steam??? <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> NS 3.0 can work in WON, but only after you get Steam up and fully running.
Sorry Dude. I haven't seen Valve care about people like you and me, and I've looked on the forums. They just don't care. <b>Steam added some nice features, but they took away one of my favorite features.</b> Being able to play offline without ever having to authenicate.
Where ID Software is releasing source code for their old graphics engines, Valve is screwing over the mod community that gave them so much. Taking away ability to <b>play offline</b> without previous authenication was a blow to the LAN and bot-playing community.
I think I'll go play some Call of Duty, BF1942, Enemy Territory, America's Army, or Unreal Tourny now. Guys stop flaming Steam. Go try some Enemy Territory, it's great and free. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> *SIGH*
As has already been mentioned in this and many other threads, VALVe are working on LAN support for Steam, it is <b>definately</b> in the pipeline.
As to the reasons as to WON dying... WON is owned and operated by Sierra, if i remember correctly. VALVe, wanting to not have to rely on any other company or service are taking it into their own hands and making their own authentication process and software. Software takes time to develop, give them time. They will get the bugs fixed, they will clean the program up to run better. Just. give. them. time.
I've said it before, and i'll say it again.
WON has been around for 5 years now. At first it was as buggy and crap as Steam, and had frequent network outages. Steam is taking a very similar path. Look at WON now, that's what Steam will become.
Well, I agree with ESUNA about STEAM-- it is "new WON"... It is still buggy but i agree that STEAM will become good program after some time. WON is old. But NS must support it until it dies...
I say that STEAM is bit unpracticle for 56k... BUt 56k becomes old too...
VALVE is greatest development team, i have ever knew... I am sure they will realize that they KILL free modding community by current STEAM version. It is too connection-hungry. But VALVE is working on it for now--- example--- steam will not require connection for LAN playing. All you will need is just launched steam and no connection is needed... Good move. I trust VALVE... Maybe we are not just ready for STEAM...
Edit: Nevermind works for me. Steam severs load up faster for me on my 3mbit cable vs WON. Does not seem buggy at all and I like the cleaner look. There's also more options available to bind keys. I like having the option to filter out anti-cheat servers or have only anti-cheat servers. Cool! <!--emo&::nerdy::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/nerd.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='nerd.gif' /><!--endemo-->
This is coming from a former avid hater during the CS1.6 Steam days.
edit2: after reading the post below, I agree with you that steam presents a security issue. I had to disable my firewall to allow steam to do whatever it wants. For all we know, steam could be sending personal information to valve from our computer.
The only complaint I have with STEAM is that while my WON CD key works, when I try to enter it in STEAM I get the invalid/already registered error. Yet I know I am the only one that has the CD key unless some key generator generated it randomly, which I think is pretty rare. Oh well, guess its time to re-buy HL <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I have all but abandonded the NS community since NS development went over to STEAM ( I was mainly in it for the mapping & Playtesting ). However my reasons for being put off STEAM are slightly different from those already mentioned in this thread. Prehaps i'm being stupid, ignorant or just plain paranoid. If so I would be pleased to be proven wrong. My problem with steam is this. Security.
I DL'd STEAM, installed it and it started patching itself, fine. Anyway a couple of days later I hear that VaLVE have been hacked, someone snuck some spywhere into their network and stole some code. This sets me thinking about the security at the other end.
STEAM is downloading to me ananoamous binaries that I haven't asked for and serve an un-named purpose from an anonamous server somewhere using some obsure hi-tech method that allows them to get such high bandwidth. This is a lot of unknowns.
I have a nasty feeling that whatever method they're using to send this stuff it's not getting caught by my anti-virus software. If that's not bad enough, how do I know what this server is? I don't see any trust certificates being offered for my inspection (such as are used with SSL). If I don't know whose sending me these files and I can't scan them how can I trust anything they send me?
Even if it is valid server how can I be sure the content hasn't been "got at" by the afforementioned hackers? I can't get to any files in the mysterious STEAM cache to check if the binaries have been signed and certified as safe.
Combined with STEAMs other flaws that I encountered, I was pretty quickly put off ever hitting the STEAM icon ever again. When I came to re-installed my OS, STEAM never even got a look in.
I can live with HL2 being single player only, if the only alternative is STEAM.
</rant>
Now can anyone direct me to a zip of the NS 3 beta content so I can at least try it one of those 3 WON servers? I expect WON to be around for a few months yet <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> Whos knows may be a few of us fanatics might pay to keep the WON severs going?
<!--QuoteBegin-INT3GRAL+Feb 2 2004, 02:20 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (INT3GRAL @ Feb 2 2004, 02:20 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Do you guys agree that WON is going to die? WHY? Because it really became old.
<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Wow! Someone is thinking logically <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> Let me continue : internet has become old. It should die. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
WON was working good enough for a long time. I dont see any good reason to throw away such simple and well-tested solution, and replce it with something monstrous super-complex, with no easy way to fix if something goes wrong, except for total reinstall.
There is only one reason: Valve wants to have 24/7 exclusive control of your Sierra folder. And even more. The whole PC+bandwidth. Without your permission and awareness. It's like when u upgrade to the later versions of Kazaa, you get, besides so-called "enhanced search" , a whole bunch of other crap.
<!--QuoteBegin-White Kite Fauna+Feb 7 2004, 04:43 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (White Kite Fauna @ Feb 7 2004, 04:43 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-INT3GRAL+Feb 2 2004, 02:20 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (INT3GRAL @ Feb 2 2004, 02:20 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Do you guys agree that WON is going to die? WHY? Because it really became old.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Wow! Someone is thinking logically <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> Let me continue : internet has become old. It should die. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
WON was working good enough for a long time. I dont see any good reason to throw away such simple and well-tested solution, and replce it with something monstrous super-complex, with no easy way to fix if something goes wrong, except for total reinstall.
There is only one reason: Valve wants to have 24/7 exclusive control of your Sierra folder. And even more. The whole PC+bandwidth. Without your permission and awareness. It's like when u upgrade to the later versions of Kazaa, you get, besides so-called "enhanced search" , a whole bunch of other crap. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Get kazaa lite <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Just wanted to drop by and say that I heard endless horror stories about STEAM and NS before I actually tried it.
I am happy to report that <b>not one</b> bad thing has happened since I installed STEAM NS, not only that it was a dream to install and a pleasure to use. In fact, I used to have problems with no sound and corrupt graphics after I minimize HL and a whole assortment of annoying little bugs. After STEAM, no problems!
Don't be afriad of STEAM, it's just a little water vapour. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-White Kite Fauna+Feb 6 2004, 10:43 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (White Kite Fauna @ Feb 6 2004, 10:43 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-INT3GRAL+Feb 2 2004, 02:20 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (INT3GRAL @ Feb 2 2004, 02:20 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Do you guys agree that WON is going to die? WHY? Because it really became old.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Wow! Someone is thinking logically <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> Let me continue : internet has become old. It should die. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
WON was working good enough for a long time. I dont see any good reason to throw away such simple and well-tested solution, and replce it with something monstrous super-complex, with no easy way to fix if something goes wrong, except for total reinstall.
There is only one reason: Valve wants to have 24/7 exclusive control of your Sierra folder. And even more. The whole PC+bandwidth. Without your permission and awareness. It's like when u upgrade to the later versions of Kazaa, you get, besides so-called "enhanced search" , a whole bunch of other crap. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> OOOK...
I TELL YOU, that WON is old. WHY? IT IS NOT OLD IN REAL (program or protocol cant become old), but why does WON die, then? The answer--- Do you remember the fastest processor 5 years ago? Yeah. Something like P3 700-800, i don' remember. And corporation make them faster and faster to get money. WON has no future. Steam has. Dont flame me, but steam soon may become a shareware...
SECURITY and STEAM... If hackers managed to hack Valves database, they would edit STEAMs files and get access to EVERY connected steam user. I am jst imagining, but this may really happed. Stream looks like "legal" trojan... Anti-virus progs don't even block it. And if you want to run STEAM, you will have to deactivate all of your firewalls. Good way to infiltrate your PC! <!--emo&::marine::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/marine.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='marine.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-Fantasmo+Feb 8 2004, 03:57 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Fantasmo @ Feb 8 2004, 03:57 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Just wanted to drop by and say that I heard endless horror stories about STEAM and NS before I actually tried it.
I am happy to report that <b>not one</b> bad thing has happened since I installed STEAM NS, not only that it was a dream to install and a pleasure to use. In fact, I used to have problems with no sound and corrupt graphics after I minimize HL and a whole assortment of annoying little bugs. After STEAM, no problems!
Don't be afriad of STEAM, it's just a little water vapour. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> I was agressive opponet of Steam. Now i have just one worry about steam- it's security. Or, maybe MY security, when i use steam!
When HL and its mods only work on Steam, I'm uninstalling and moving over to Halo, Desert Combat, and Raven Shield. Period, no 2nd chances for the program that uninstalled my HL .exe and won't let me create a new account.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Wow! Someone is thinking logically Let me continue : internet has become old. It should die.
WON was working good enough for a long time. I dont see any good reason to throw away such simple and well-tested solution, and replce it with something monstrous super-complex, with no easy way to fix if something goes wrong, except for total reinstall.
There is only one reason: Valve wants to have 24/7 exclusive control of your Sierra folder. And even more. The whole PC+bandwidth. Without your permission and awareness. It's like when u upgrade to the later versions of Kazaa, you get, besides so-called "enhanced search" , a whole bunch of other crap.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Exactly! I might not buy Half-Life 2 simply because of Steam and the fact that I could simply use my friend's copy to play offline. Oh, and it's probably blasphemy, but Halo 2 and Stalker: Oblivion Lost look a lot better to me.
<!--QuoteBegin-TommyVercetti+Feb 10 2004, 01:07 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (TommyVercetti @ Feb 10 2004, 01:07 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> uninstalled my HL .exe and won't let me create a new account. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> No offence but you probably told it to. Steam has the option when you install it to grab files from your current install of HL and use it in it's cache files rather than having to download it all, in an effort to try and save you time.
I'm using STEAM and it's pretty nice, I liked ASE also. The only problem I encountered was when I first installed NS3.0 Beta 1. When configuring STEAM for the first time, it decidded to uninstall all of my Sierra folder (including NS 2.01). It kept me out of a PCW, I was pretty ****! :<
So, here we have three categories of people- one category plays with STEAM and is happy, seconds category uses STEAM and likes WON either, and thinrd category hates STEAM.
This happened... People talk about HL2. I will play it! But offline. I don't won't to have any biz with STEAM. If CS will go into steam, then they will lose all these thousands and thousands of Russian, Ex-USSR and some European countries GAMERS... Gamers here don't like much problems with such thing as STEAM... They won't simply migrate to new version. They will play last "nosteam" version available... Too bad. WHEN THE TIME WILL COME AND xDSL WILL BE AS CHEAP FOR EX-USSR GAMER AS DIAL-UP IS, THEN STEAM WILL NOT BE IGNORED. But this maybe won't happen...
I'm just so happy that in "Steam" I can alt+tab out of the game by accident and not lose my sound.
It is true that WON is eventually going to wither away and disappear out of existence, and some people won't like that. It is true that Steam will eventually become like WON if not better, and people will like that. It is true that something new and "improved" that will eventually replace Steam or whatever product software we are using for gaming online, and some people won't like that. It is true that that something will become better then whatever we were using for gaming, and...
Hmm... You know what? It is true that we will all die someday, and some people don't like that.
Times are changing, so excuse me while I eat some cookies.
Comments
It's a really revolutionary idea when you look at it, but yes, there are problems, like lack of LAN play, but Valve are pretty committed to sorting that, it's their number 1 priority.
Personally, I really like Steam. On broadband, I can go from a standing start to being able to get into a Steam game in minutes, no hassle. It's a brilliant thing. Sure, on 56k downloading the whole thing is impractical. That's why Steam has conversion wizards, sometimes you can get cover discs with the installers, or you could get someone with broadband to burn the caches onto disc for you. I personally had a friend with 56k who installed Steam on his computer, and it worked just fine. Only problem he had was he couldn't find a HL CD-Key to use, but when I went round to his house, I just logged in with my Steam account, instantly granting me access to the games.
The updates are small, doesn't stop him playing for long either.
And incidentally, slow downloads don't corrupt the Steam caches, and they're surprisingly resiliant against damage. I have deliberatly corrupted one of my caches by opening up a text editor and going crazy in there, and Steam just patched up all the files I'd destroyed. A good proportion of the cache was still ok.
I agree with you. STEAM is good program. It is not yet finished- so many bugs will be fixed. I liked your idea about burning the cache from friends PC. But it is absolutely unavailale for us... I have 56k and all of my friends have it either... But thats ok.
I am sure that WON will live as much as modem connection does... (i mean 56k or slower)... When 80-90% of users all over the world will use fast internet (broadband or some other) there will be no need in WON, and STEAM will be a good program... THis changes may happen in few years...
Flaming??? Anyone?<!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif' /><!--endemo-->
thanks !!!
Demian
Help me.
So we need to play NS 3.0 online without steam.
Can we play LAN wihtout this steam??? <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
NS 3.0 can work in WON, but only after you get Steam up and fully running.
Sorry Dude. I haven't seen Valve care about people like you and me, and I've looked on the forums. They just don't care. <b>Steam added some nice features, but they took away one of my favorite features.</b> Being able to play offline without ever having to authenicate.
Where ID Software is releasing source code for their old graphics engines, Valve is screwing over the mod community that gave them so much. Taking away ability to <b>play offline</b> without previous authenication was a blow to the LAN and bot-playing community.
I think I'll go play some Call of Duty, BF1942, Enemy Territory, America's Army, or Unreal Tourny now. Guys stop flaming Steam. Go try some Enemy Territory, it's great and free.
Help me.
So we need to play NS 3.0 online without steam.
Can we play LAN wihtout this steam??? <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
NS 3.0 can work in WON, but only after you get Steam up and fully running.
Sorry Dude. I haven't seen Valve care about people like you and me, and I've looked on the forums. They just don't care. <b>Steam added some nice features, but they took away one of my favorite features.</b> Being able to play offline without ever having to authenicate.
Where ID Software is releasing source code for their old graphics engines, Valve is screwing over the mod community that gave them so much. Taking away ability to <b>play offline</b> without previous authenication was a blow to the LAN and bot-playing community.
I think I'll go play some Call of Duty, BF1942, Enemy Territory, America's Army, or Unreal Tourny now. Guys stop flaming Steam. Go try some Enemy Territory, it's great and free. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
*SIGH*
As has already been mentioned in this and many other threads, VALVe are working on LAN support for Steam, it is <b>definately</b> in the pipeline.
As to the reasons as to WON dying... WON is owned and operated by Sierra, if i remember correctly. VALVe, wanting to not have to rely on any other company or service are taking it into their own hands and making their own authentication process and software. Software takes time to develop, give them time. They will get the bugs fixed, they will clean the program up to run better. Just. give. them. time.
I've said it before, and i'll say it again.
WON has been around for 5 years now. At first it was as buggy and crap as Steam, and had frequent network outages. Steam is taking a very similar path. Look at WON now, that's what Steam will become.
I say that STEAM is bit unpracticle for 56k... BUt 56k becomes old too...
VALVE is greatest development team, i have ever knew... I am sure they will realize that they KILL free modding community by current STEAM version. It is too connection-hungry. But VALVE is working on it for now--- example--- steam will not require connection for LAN playing. All you will need is just launched steam and no connection is needed... Good move. I trust VALVE... Maybe we are not just ready for STEAM...
This is coming from a former avid hater during the CS1.6 Steam days.
edit2: after reading the post below, I agree with you that steam presents a security issue. I had to disable my firewall to allow steam to do whatever it wants. For all we know, steam could be sending personal information to valve from our computer.
I DL'd STEAM, installed it and it started patching itself, fine. Anyway a couple of days later I hear that VaLVE have been hacked, someone snuck some spywhere into their network and stole some code. This sets me thinking about the security at the other end.
STEAM is downloading to me ananoamous binaries that I haven't asked for and serve an un-named purpose from an anonamous server somewhere using some obsure hi-tech method that allows them to get such high bandwidth. This is a lot of unknowns.
I have a nasty feeling that whatever method they're using to send this stuff it's not getting caught by my anti-virus software. If that's not bad enough, how do I know what this server is? I don't see any trust certificates being offered for my inspection (such as are used with SSL). If I don't know whose sending me these files and I can't scan them how can I trust anything they send me?
Even if it is valid server how can I be sure the content hasn't been "got at" by the afforementioned hackers? I can't get to any files in the mysterious STEAM cache to check if the binaries have been signed and certified as safe.
Combined with STEAMs other flaws that I encountered, I was pretty quickly put off ever hitting the STEAM icon ever again. When I came to re-installed my OS, STEAM never even got a look in.
I can live with HL2 being single player only, if the only alternative is STEAM.
</rant>
Now can anyone direct me to a zip of the NS 3 beta content so I can at least try it one of those 3 WON servers? I expect WON to be around for a few months yet <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Whos knows may be a few of us fanatics might pay to keep the WON severs going?
I will wait for WON release of NS, too.
<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Wow! Someone is thinking logically <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> Let me continue : internet has become old. It should die. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
WON was working good enough for a long time. I dont see any good reason to throw away such simple and well-tested solution, and replce it with something monstrous super-complex, with no easy way to fix if something goes wrong, except for total reinstall.
There is only one reason: Valve wants to have 24/7 exclusive control of your Sierra folder. And even more. The whole PC+bandwidth. Without your permission and awareness. It's like when u upgrade to the later versions of Kazaa, you get, besides so-called "enhanced search" , a whole bunch of other crap.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Wow! Someone is thinking logically <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> Let me continue : internet has become old. It should die. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
WON was working good enough for a long time. I dont see any good reason to throw away such simple and well-tested solution, and replce it with something monstrous super-complex, with no easy way to fix if something goes wrong, except for total reinstall.
There is only one reason: Valve wants to have 24/7 exclusive control of your Sierra folder. And even more. The whole PC+bandwidth. Without your permission and awareness. It's like when u upgrade to the later versions of Kazaa, you get, besides so-called "enhanced search" , a whole bunch of other crap. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Get kazaa lite <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I am happy to report that <b>not one</b> bad thing has happened since I installed STEAM NS, not only that it was a dream to install and a pleasure to use. In fact, I used to have problems with no sound and corrupt graphics after I minimize HL and a whole assortment of annoying little bugs. After STEAM, no problems!
Don't be afriad of STEAM, it's just a little water vapour. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Wow! Someone is thinking logically <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> Let me continue : internet has become old. It should die. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
WON was working good enough for a long time. I dont see any good reason to throw away such simple and well-tested solution, and replce it with something monstrous super-complex, with no easy way to fix if something goes wrong, except for total reinstall.
There is only one reason: Valve wants to have 24/7 exclusive control of your Sierra folder. And even more. The whole PC+bandwidth. Without your permission and awareness. It's like when u upgrade to the later versions of Kazaa, you get, besides so-called "enhanced search" , a whole bunch of other crap. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
OOOK...
I TELL YOU, that WON is old. WHY? IT IS NOT OLD IN REAL (program or protocol cant become old), but why does WON die, then? The answer--- Do you remember the fastest processor 5 years ago? Yeah. Something like P3 700-800, i don' remember. And corporation make them faster and faster to get money. WON has no future. Steam has. Dont flame me, but steam soon may become a shareware...
SECURITY and STEAM... If hackers managed to hack Valves database, they would edit STEAMs files and get access to EVERY connected steam user. I am jst imagining, but this may really happed. Stream looks like "legal" trojan... Anti-virus progs don't even block it. And if you want to run STEAM, you will have to deactivate all of your firewalls. Good way to infiltrate your PC! <!--emo&::marine::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/marine.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='marine.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I am happy to report that <b>not one</b> bad thing has happened since I installed STEAM NS, not only that it was a dream to install and a pleasure to use. In fact, I used to have problems with no sound and corrupt graphics after I minimize HL and a whole assortment of annoying little bugs. After STEAM, no problems!
Don't be afriad of STEAM, it's just a little water vapour. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I was agressive opponet of Steam. Now i have just one worry about steam- it's security. Or, maybe MY security, when i use steam!
Nothing more.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Wow! Someone is thinking logically Let me continue : internet has become old. It should die.
WON was working good enough for a long time. I dont see any good reason to throw away such simple and well-tested solution, and replce it with something monstrous super-complex, with no easy way to fix if something goes wrong, except for total reinstall.
There is only one reason: Valve wants to have 24/7 exclusive control of your Sierra folder. And even more. The whole PC+bandwidth. Without your permission and awareness. It's like when u upgrade to the later versions of Kazaa, you get, besides so-called "enhanced search" , a whole bunch of other crap.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Exactly! I might not buy Half-Life 2 simply because of Steam and the fact that I could simply use my friend's copy to play offline. Oh, and it's probably blasphemy, but Halo 2 and Stalker: Oblivion Lost look a lot better to me.
No offence but you probably told it to. Steam has the option when you install it to grab files from your current install of HL and use it in it's cache files rather than having to download it all, in an effort to try and save you time.
This happened... People talk about HL2. I will play it! But offline. I don't won't to have any biz with STEAM. If CS will go into steam, then they will lose all these thousands and thousands of Russian, Ex-USSR and some European countries GAMERS... Gamers here don't like much problems with such thing as STEAM... They won't simply migrate to new version. They will play last "nosteam" version available... Too bad.
WHEN THE TIME WILL COME AND xDSL WILL BE AS CHEAP FOR EX-USSR GAMER AS DIAL-UP IS, THEN STEAM WILL NOT BE IGNORED. But this maybe won't happen...
It is true that WON is eventually going to wither away and disappear out of existence, and some people won't like that. It is true that Steam will eventually become like WON if not better, and people will like that. It is true that something new and "improved" that will eventually replace Steam or whatever product software we are using for gaming online, and some people won't like that. It is true that that something will become better then whatever we were using for gaming, and...
Hmm... You know what? It is true that we will all die someday, and some people don't like that.
Times are changing, so excuse me while I eat some cookies.