IL-2 1946 STEAM-Version Thread

[Fritz X]

Hello and good day everyone!

As a brand new member to these forums I'd like to introduce myself briefly as this is my first post. I'm a day one fan of the IL-2 Sturmovik series and have been lurking these forums for quite some time. As most of the other people here I greatly appreciate "World's Best Flight Simulator" (for me it definitely is) and especially all the work the people of Team Daidalos are putting into it, making a great game even better. Thank you very much for sacrificing your own spare time to improve the one of others.

So far the good news, here comes the beef :-P

Even if I own retail copies of every game of the IL-2 series I still decided buy the complete 1946 package again once it came to Valve's online platform STEAM (you can call me a "masochist", but I really like this service :grin:). Unfortunately the updates for the game used to be rolled out with a major delay on there, the update from version 4.08m to 4.09m for example arrived almost 6 months later after the installer for the retail version. Now, shortly after the release of the new patches 4.10 and 4.101 I'd really like to hear from an official source if these updates will be delivered to owners of the Steam version in a reasonable time frame. I don't want to sound ungrateful since I know that programming is something that takes alot of effort and time, but I don't feel like a waiting time of half a year is a "realistic" time frame. I'm just asking myself what happend in those 6 months Steam users had to wait for the last patch. Were there complications? Or troubles / communication problems between the companies? Or did somebody simply forgot to supply Valve's Steam service with the latest updates for some months? Or did people on Valve's end screw things up by forgetting to apply the new files to their platform. Actually I don't really want to know the answer to these questions, I'd just like to see coming updates been delivered on Steam a little faster. It's not like I can't wait for a month or two, but half a year was really a little much...

Now to answer any "but you can update the Steam version with the installer as well":
Yes, yes I know. But I've heard from a few people that this wouldn't really work properly for them with the 4.10 update (international installer). The other problem is that even if this works things can get screwed up by the automatical update through Steam in case an update is released later on. According to several people on the official Steam forums their manual 1946 4.09m installs have been corrupted when the update was released after the huge delay. Ironically they even had set the "do NOT automatically update this game" option, but Steam knew better, obviously... I know, the last one is definitely a Steam problem and reserved for Valve, but with a little quicker delivery of new content Steam users like me wouldn't be lured into manual installs to begin with... You all know how hard it is to resist new content for this game! :grin:

Oh, and one more thing... I'm not too sure if this is the right place for this, but there's another tiny problem with the Steam version of the game that has been there "forever" (at least according to some people...). For some reason the installation through Steam doesn't create the folder "quicks" in the IL-2 main folder, making it impossible to safe missions in the quick mission builder (at least as long as you don't create said folder manually...). I know, not too much of a problem, but I'm sure it can turn out rather frustrating for somebody who's just new to the game.

Phew... So, big wall of text, I'm ready for the tl;dr comments :) But joke aside, I'd greatly appreciate some information by a Daidalos member with some insight about the whole update deal (in case it's even planned to deliver the new updates to Valve...). I know it's not DT's business to deliver the content to Valve (who's in charge for that afterall? 1C? Ubisoft?), but maybe somebody is close enough to the developer / publisher to know a little more about it and maybe even able to speed things up a little by giving a hint or two...

Last, I really want to apologize in case this kind of thread already exists. I tried to find something similar via the search options, but couldn't spot anything purely dedicated to the Steam issue.

So long,

~Fritz X

[Rangi]

Its easy enough to patch the steam version manually, i did it when 4.10 was released no problems. i didnt have any prolems when the 4.09 patch was realeased to steam after i had manually patched it and turned off the auto updates. even if it does corrupt you can always just redownload it. So none of these issues seam to be a problem for me.....

[Porco Rosso]

I would turn off automatic updates for this on steam, incase the steam patch corrupts it.

[Fritz X]

Thanks for the replies so far!

Its easy enough to patch the steam version manually, i did it when 4.10 was released no problems. i didnt have any prolems when the 4.09 patch was realeased to steam after i had manually patched it and turned off the auto updates. even if it does corrupt you can always just redownload it. So none of these issues seam to be a problem for me.....

Yeah, as I wrote in my original post, I know that this option exists. But as I also mentioned it doesn't seem to work properly for each and everyone who uses the Steam version of the game. The big problem is that "but it works for me" is not a real arguement. A few people aren't able to run the game under Windows Vista / 7 since it simply refuses to launch (and "simply switch to admin rights" is unfortunately not a working solution for those unlucky). I never had any problem running 1946 with Vista nor Win7, but because it works for me doesn't mean it works for everyone else. But I'm drifting off, this was just an example...

To get back to my topic, I really enjoy Steam for its' simplicity and automatic updates, which of course only works if the original developer delivers new content / updates to Valve. I'd just like to see a reply from a Team Daidalos member towards this topic, is all. In case if my main post was too long, I'd like to shorten things down one short question:

Are there any plans from Team Daidalos / 1C to deliver the new updates (4.10 / 4.101) to Steam?

Greetings,

~Fritz X

[meshuggahs]

Are there any plans from Team Daidalos / 1C to deliver the new updates (4.10 / 4.101) to Steam?

Greetings,

~Fritz X

Thinking about bying the steam version too. Would like to know also are they patching the steam client version.

Does the manual patching to 4.101 work reliably or is it a hit n miss kind of thing?

[blampars]

I'm running 4.101 since release, on the steam version, with no problems what so ever.

have also run UP and HSFX with no problems. ;)

[mjfur]

I don't understand. What is a Steam version? What does it do?

Thanks,

[JAMF]

I don't understand. What is a Steam version? What does it do?
The IL2:1946 download from Steam is (AFAIK) version 4.07. It's not different from another 1946 at the same version level, but it's linked from the Steam launcher. Still, like other IL2:1946 installs, it can be copied to another location on the hard drive as a backup and also as mod installs.

If you're wondering what Steam is? Steam is the digital distribution method/shop that Valve (from Halflife) created. You could compare it to iTunes, but for games. It might not have been the first, but managed to be the biggest in a relatively short time. It managed to generate nearly $1 Billion last year.

So one could copy their IL2:1946 Steam install to another location and try patching it there (first).

[blampars]

The steam version is currently patched to 4.09m, just fyi :)

[Fritz X]

^ Correct!

Currently the Steam download features version 4.09m, so there already is some Daidalos material in there (and therefore the Team Daidalos logo in the loading screen).

[JAMF]

The steam version is currently patched to 4.09m, just fyi :)
Big improvement that. :)