Sneaky

[Scouse]

So, was without internet all morning (moved my PC over from the old house to the new). Couldn't switch Steam into "offline mode".

Never had a problem with this before on the small number of occasions I've used it, but couldn't get it to go offline at all.

Just been checking - it seems that Steam now requires you to set to offline mode before you disconnect from the internet.

What a fucking gip! I used to work away from home a lot and quite often wanted to play games when I had no connection. I also want to play my non-online games when I want to - and if I lose my internet connection I shouldn't be prevented from doing so.


It looks like they've introduced this as a DRM "feature". And in doing so have lost the loyalty that they previously had from me.

I (almost) exclusively bought from Steam. Now that's out of the window.

 

[old.Tohtori]

I'm sure they're rushing to fix this after hearing they've lost you

 

[- English -]

hasn't this been a problem since .. forever?
I always thought you had to connect to steam to play the games, and if you didn't have internet, tuff.

 

[Moriath]

think its been like that for ages .. admittedly its not great for unexpected outages but personally i dont get many of them. a little pre planning and it isnt an issue and for me the ability to install / remove when i like without having to keep track of cd keys and all and on demand delivery out weighs this.

 

[Moriath]

no

hasn't this been a problem since .. forever?
I always thought you had to connect to steam to play the games, and if you didn't have internet, tuff.

you can play offline if you put steam into offline mode

 

[PLightstar]

Have come across this before. Actually it was when I moved house. Managed to get around it by making sure no Ethernet cable or wireless adapter was connected the PC. Was able to play all my Steam games offline without fuss. For some reason if Steam can sniff a network of somekind it needs a net connection before going offline.

Edit
It will come up saying can't find connection 'retry' 'start in offline mode'

 

[Scouse]

hasn't this been a problem since .. forever?
I always thought you had to connect to steam to play the games, and if you didn't have internet, tuff.

Nah - it's never been like that - the offline mode was always part of the attraction of Steam for me. It may be a long-time (couple of years) thing but it's been a while since I worked away - so it's a new one for me. Never had the problem (using multiple PC's) before.

It's DRM by stealth tbfh. And it's shite.


Edit:

It will come up saying can't find connection 'retry' 'start in offline mode'

It does that - but no longer works.

When I got back online I found out that they want you to connect to the internet to set offline mode.

It's a fucking joke.

 

[Ch3tan]

Sorry Scouse, this isn't true.

My router just went into a spazz and I had no network when starting Steam.

Steam offered to start in offline mode and it worked just fine.

 

[Raven]

Yeah tested mine too, worked fine.

noob

 

[Scouse]

Sorry Scouse, this isn't true.

noob

Just tested on two of my PC's. Nada.

/investigates...

 

[old.Tohtori]

Scouse in no proof kneejerk reaction shocker?

 

[PLightstar]

Have you tried starting Steam after you have disabled your network adapters?

 

[Scouse]

OK. Seems the problem is this:

I'd reinstalled Steam after my SSD had packed up and I'd never used offline mode before on that particular install. You have to go into offline mode from online-connected mode at least once (and they say try every game in offline mode). Once you've done that Steam caches your credentials and allows offline mode to be enabled without the connection to the internet.

The other installs I tried to go into offline mode were both new installs too (both new laptops). Once I'd been online and set offline mode on them, gone back online, then disconnected from the internet, then reset offline mode they worked too.


So the moral of the story is that Valve are actually still OK, but they could make the fact that you need to go into offline mode from online mode at least once before offline mode becomes available a bit clearer, and I could not throw my toys out of the pram quite so quickly

 

[Scouse]

/mini-necro

Just tried to set offline mode on one of those laptops that I'd previously succesfully tested.

Steam told me to go fuck a duck.


So, I've moaned about it in two places now. Time to go a-camping

 

[throdgrain]

Thats not true you spazza

 

[Raven]

I still say user error.

 

[Scouse]

Thats not true you spazza

Well, it didn't actually say "fuck a duck".

I had to logon and "go offline" 3 times. It's now working fine.

How can it be that inconsistent?

 

[old.Tohtori]

 

[Sar]

LOL