Some things that Steam COULD bring to the table

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by MikkOwl

I don't know if auto-client updates can be disabled. Games can however.

In Steam:
1. Right click title.
2. Properties.
3. UPDATES
4. "Do not automatically update this game". Text beneath changes to "Content for this game will not be automatically acquired."
5. CLOSE

The mods and other stuff that updates very frequently is a royal pain. ArmA 2 with "ACE" and "ACRE" etc is the worst I know of. IL-2 with those big packs was also annoying. This is not Steam related however. Steam is mostly the opposite - it can auto patch my stuff (I have 100mbit) and it happens very infrequently. Only once every few months for most titles.

Yup, i know that you can turn off game updates and the client pauses downloads when you go full screen, but i still wouldn't like it being hit with a 300MB update between DF server sessions. Imagine the chaos when half the people auto-update, possibly even some servers, without the ability to roll back a patch: suddenly you can't join the server because you either disabled automatic updates and the server didn't, or vice versa, resulting in a different version being used.

Also, most flight sims usually feature large update packages over longer intervals and sometimes, due to the complexity of the product unwanted "features" can creep in.

Eventually everyone switches to the most recent version, but the way it was done in IL2 allowed everyone (from offliners to server admins) some time to actually test it and gradually make the switch to the new patch. For example, most DF servers don't upgrade to a new patch without the admins first announcing something on the respective forums, eg "the server will switch to 4.101 next monday at 16:00 GMT", which gives everyone ample time to prepare for the changes.

On the other hand Steam's system is fine if you have games with frequent but smaller patches.

In the end, this is what this whole steam debate is about. It's a good platform for certain kinds of games, but the lack of information makes many question if and how much it's properly geared towards the needs of a flight sim. I don't mind automatic updates just like i don't mind any other feature, as long as there is an option to turn it on/off.