Some things that Steam COULD bring to the table

[MadBlaster]

Originally Posted by Les

The game is installed on your computer, within a folder called 'common', which is itself within your Steam installation. I'm not sure what the default path is at the start, as I chose where Steam installed itself on my own computer, but on yours it's probably - Local Disk ( C: )/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/ il-2 Sturmovik 1946.

To play offline, start up Steam itself, instead of clicking the quick-launch icon for the game you want to play. Then when Steam starts up, left click on the button in the top left corner that says 'Steam'. A drop-down menu will appear and in it will be an option 'Go Offline'. Click it and a window will pop up asking you if you want to go offline, click yes and Steam will shut down and then restart in offline mode. You will be able to tell if it's in online or offline mode as it will say so at the bottom of the Steam application window when it restarts. When you press the button to start your game now, a Steam window will pop up reminding you you're in offline mode and ask if you want to continue that way. Clicking 'Start In Offline Mode', your game will start up and you will be able to play as normal, if playing as normal means not using any of the online Steam features.

That might all sound complicated, but it's not really, it just seems that way when trying to describe the process step by step. Yes it's extra buttons to push, but that's just the way it is. You don't get the nag screens if you leave Steam running in offline mode in the background.

Edit - I write too slow, what he said.

Reading what you describe about how Steam works. Well it makes my blood boil. I don't know why. I guess it's my nature. Fq Steam. CoD is going to have to deliver in a big way for me to coexist with this piece of krap.

[Wolf_Rider]

Does Steam offer a custom install path?

[Kikuchiyo]

Originally Posted by Wolf_Rider

Does Steam offer a custom install path?

It will install a game in a folder that is a sub folder of STEAM. You can install STEAM wherever you want though, and then you can move that folder around. Whether or not it works once in a non-steam folder seems to be dependent on the game. I assume this is more or less a developer choice.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Cobra8472

Or, you know, we actually trust the developers for once that a patch is good?

Simply letting Steam patch your game is infinitely more useful than having to google for patches, getting the correct patch order, and finally installing the damn thing.
The patch actually being terrible and breaking the game is the fault of the developer, not the content distribution method.

..and there is no such game on Steam that requires 40-50mb patches between each round of gaming, or whatever some other poster was referring to.

Even the buggiest games do not get more than one patch per week, and that is for about a month after release, then it dies down.
Stop spewing redicilous accusations.

@Skoshi Tiger;
You simply aquire two seperate Steam accounts and buy it on both. Alternatively, you buy two copies on your main account, and then send one of them as a gift to the other account (Easy to do.)

I'm not spewing anything, you make up accusations so you can have something to rattle yourself about. I said something which to my knowledge is accurate: you can't roll back a patch.

It's not steam's fault if the patch is bad, it's their fault completely if you can't do it manually to stop patching at a previous version. And since i don't want to make assumptions just so you can have something to complain about, i'm going to ask you, obviously a steam user, about it:

1) Let's say i want to rollback a patch, so i reinstall the game and start patching. Can i tell steam to stop at a certain patch/version or does it automatically apply the latest one?
2) If i have the patch package files already on my disk, can i point steam to them or will it ignore their existence and download the whole thing again?

Very valid questions imho and i expect an honest answer. Anyone?

[Kikuchiyo]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

I'm not spewing anything, you make up accusations so you can have something to rattle yourself about. I said something which to my knowledge is accurate: you can't roll back a patch.

It's not steam's fault if the patch is bad, it's their fault completely if you can't do it manually to stop patching at a previous version. And since i don't want to make assumptions just so you can have something to complain about, i'm going to ask you, obviously a steam user, about it:

1) Let's say i want to rollback a patch, so i reinstall the game and start patching. Can i tell steam to stop at a certain patch/version or does it automatically apply the latest one?
2) If i have the patch package files already on my disk, can i point steam to them or will it ignore their existence and download the whole thing again?

Very valid questions imho and i expect an honest answer. Anyone?

How many times across how many threads will you ask these questions?

I have explained that the only way to not eventually end up with the latest patches is to a) back up the game (just copy it to another location from the steam location), or b) go into offline mode and stay there.

It, as I have admitted, the biggest short fall of the STEAM platform, but all in all it generally makes for a smoother MP experience with games that use Steamworks as it ensures that everyone (even the server) is up to date.

[Les]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

1) Let's say i want to rollback a patch, so i reinstall the game and start patching. Can i tell steam to stop at a certain patch/version or does it automatically apply the latest one?
2) If i have the patch package files already on my disk, can i point steam to them or will it ignore their existence and download the whole thing again?

1. When you re-install it will patch you up to the latest version in one hit, so you won't be able to stop it at a certain patch version. It may be adding the patches one by one but you won't know where it's up to at any given point during the process and it won't let you interrupt the process anyway.

And when I say re-install, I mean one of three things - a) re-installing off a retail disk. b) re-installing a prior version of the game that you have previously copied elsewhere using Steams built-in back-up facility. c) re-installing by re-downloading the game directly from Steam. As a side point, Steam has an automated procedure for installing using a copy of the game you've saved using it's game back-up feature, you don't have to manually re-insert the files you've copied back into the Steam program's folder structure.

2. Yes, if you've backed up a previous version of the game (it's not a separate patch package as such but a complete version of the game), you can uninstall the current version and re-install the previous version, and no it won't get automatically updated if you don't want it to.

You make sure it doesn't get updated by selecting 'Do not automatically update' in one of the drop down menus in the 'Properties' section of your game. If you always run Steam in off-line mode, you don't have to (and can't) select 'Do not automatically update' as it's not going to do it anyway.

[Catseye]

2. Yes, if you've backed up a previous version of the game (it's not a separate patch package as such but a complete version of the game), you can uninstall the current version and re-install the previous version, and no it won't get automatically updated if you don't want it to.

Les, thanks for the above info. I'm beginning to understand STEAM more fully now. Particularly that I can create a backup copy of each "version" if I want to. This helps to counter the "big brother" initial thoughts I had. Also, it seems prudent to me to always keep a copy of versions on hand if you want to play offline with a previous version for example - particularly if you don't like one of the upgrade features or should STEAM go T*ts up for example.

Cheers,

[Les]

Originally Posted by Catseye

Les, thanks for the above info. I'm beginning to understand STEAM more fully now. Particularly that I can create a backup copy of each "version" if I want to. This helps to counter the "big brother" initial thoughts I had. Also, it seems prudent to me to always keep a copy of versions on hand if you want to play offline with a previous version for example - particularly if you don't like one of the upgrade features or should STEAM go T*ts up for example.

Cheers,

Yeah, it's a good idea to back up your Steam games at least once, just to save yourself having to download them again should you have to for any reason. The only downside is the size of the file you can end up with. Some games are getting up around 16GB nowadays, that's about four DVD's worth. Depending on how often a game gets patched and it's overall size, if you're backing up every version you could easily end up with 50+GB worth of backups that you have to store on a hard-drive or other media somewhere. At least it's an option.

[Cobra8472]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

I'm not spewing anything, you make up accusations so you can have something to rattle yourself about. I said something which to my knowledge is accurate: you can't roll back a patch.

It's not steam's fault if the patch is bad, it's their fault completely if you can't do it manually to stop patching at a previous version. And since i don't want to make assumptions just so you can have something to complain about, i'm going to ask you, obviously a steam user, about it:

1) Let's say i want to rollback a patch, so i reinstall the game and start patching. Can i tell steam to stop at a certain patch/version or does it automatically apply the latest one?
2) If i have the patch package files already on my disk, can i point steam to them or will it ignore their existence and download the whole thing again?

Very valid questions imho and i expect an honest answer. Anyone?

I apologize, the spewing comment was about another poster, not you.

Failed to quote properly.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Les

1. When you re-install it will patch you up to the latest version in one hit, so you won't be able to stop it at a certain patch version. It may be adding the patches one by one but you won't know where it's up to at any given point during the process and it won't let you interrupt the process anyway.

And when I say re-install, I mean one of three things - a) re-installing off a retail disk. b) re-installing a prior version of the game that you have previously copied elsewhere using Steams built-in back-up facility. c) re-installing by re-downloading the game directly from Steam. As a side point, Steam has an automated procedure for installing using a copy of the game you've saved using it's game back-up feature, you don't have to manually re-insert the files you've copied back into the Steam program's folder structure.

2. Yes, if you've backed up a previous version of the game (it's not a separate patch package as such but a complete version of the game), you can uninstall the current version and re-install the previous version, and no it won't get automatically updated if you don't want it to.

You make sure it doesn't get updated by selecting 'Do not automatically update' in one of the drop down menus in the 'Properties' section of your game. If you always run Steam in off-line mode, you don't have to (and can't) select 'Do not automatically update' as it's not going to do it anyway.

Thanks, that explains it in just the amount of detail i was looking for

Originally Posted by Cobra8472

I apologize, the spewing comment was about another poster, not you.

Failed to quote properly.

Happens to all of us. Don't worry, no offence taken