Steam and stuff.

R

Rubber Bullets

Guest
OK, so far I have successfully ignored Steam, and its implications, cos I haven't needed to know anything about it.

It would appear that that time is over. As of 11am PDT tomorrow the first full release comes out. This incidentaly means that at 6 o'clock tomorrow evening we can d/l it and get ourselves a nice low easy to remember steamID, as all beta IDs will be reset.

This thread from the Steam forums goes some way to explaining what is going to happen. The main problem is that there seems to be very little input from anyone who really knows anything, and too many peoople saying "I haven't read the rest of the thread but..." then asking questions that have been asked over and over.

It seems that WonID's will go completely, to be replaced with SteamIDs, when will this happen?

So to Adz and Chet and those who know, what are the most important things we need to know about Steam and how will it affect us playing CS, TFC, DoD etc?

Thanks

RB
 
C

Ch3tan

Guest
Firstly you dont have to move to steam if you don't want to. The only reason would be to continue playing 1.6 beta, or if you prefer steam to the current system for HL (ie, the poor ingame browser or 3rd party browsers). I personally prefer the steam system, but it does use a lot of bandwidth when its updating, so avoid it on slow connections.

The other advantage of moving to steam is that 1.6 will probably be released via it first when it moves out of beta.
 
1

1tchy trigger

Guest
Tuesday this week will see the lengthy beta test period for Valve Software's Steam project finally draw to a close. On Wednesday, the developer will release the first full version of its broadband content delivery system.
Users on the Steam beta have been enjoying free access to the likes of Half-Life and Counter-Strike (and of course the Half-Life 2 footage) for some time, but this will cease with the arrival of the first full version.

With the release of the full version, the Steam account database will be reset and from that point on a valid/genuine CD-key (or WonID) will be required to register for the service. Thankfully, Steam's Friends database will remain intact, existing users recreating accounts freed up from the daunting task of re-acquiring buddies' details.

In the near future, the developer will release an update for Half-Life that will convert WonIDs into SteamIDs, and according to Valve Software's Erik Johnson, players will have to have Steam installed in order to play the most current version of Half-Life online.
 
R

Rubber Bullets

Guest
So very soon Steam will be compulsory to play CS, presumably with the introduction of v1.6.

RB
 
C

Ch3tan

Guest
No they will give it longer than that, they don't want to alienate everyone who isnt on broadband.
 
A

-adz-

Guest
I was under the impression that only a steam version would be available. SteamID's will replace WonID's and no-one will be excepted from the rule. If they were to release a narrowband version of it i'd imagine the downloadable content would be provided on cover discs or something.

As far as i can see the gui that 1.6 will use will require Steam in order to function so you would need it.
 
C

Ch3tan

Guest
Nope. Even hl2 will not be steam only for online gaming, Valve said in an interview they did not want to isolate the many gamers without high bandwidth connections.
 
D

Dr_Weasel

Guest
But if they are removing WON in favour of SteamIDs then surely everyone is going to have to have it?

There was talk of Steam picking up on existing installs and not downloading those files (although this is a couple of weeks away yet). Perhaps thats what their workaround is for modemers?
 
P

Pro]v[etheus

Guest
An email i received yesterday......

We will be releasing the dedicated server binaries later today.
Tomorrow we will be releasing the client.
In a couple of weeks we will make this update mandatory.

What is it:
This release is converting all users to Steam. When you install the client you will need to have a valid HL or CStrike CD-Key. Dedicated servers will need to create accounts but will NOT need to enter a cd-key. At no point will anyone have to enter credit card details. In the future there will be the option to purchase the "Platinum Pack" via Steam if you don't currently own a copy.

This release consists of: Counter-Strike 1.6, Half-Life, TeamFortress Classic, DMC, Ricochet and Day-of-Defeat 1.0.


What changed:

http://www.steampowered.com/platfor.... Serv
er.html
http://www.steampowered.com/platfor....er.html

http://www.steampowered.com/platfor....0Classi
c.html
http://www.steampowered.com/platfor....ke.html

Steam Issues:
Q: Can I use Steam with a modem?
A: Yes, steam will work for modem users.

Q: Is WON going away?
A: Yes, once we have completed the rollover we will slowly remove parts of the WON system as they become obsolete.

Q: Has the net code been changed since the beta?
A: No, apart from small bug fixes.

Q: Will my existing 3rd party programs work (i.e Admin Mod, CDeath, ...).
A: In general yes, all existing 3rd party programs can still work under Steam. The individual authors of each program will need to inform their users of any install directory or configuration changes.

Q: Do I need to alter my firewall setup?
A: Steam requires some extra ports to be opened for outgoing access, read this page for details:

http://www.steampowered.com/index.p....,105091
5726,98098300

Q: What happens to my current banlist?
A: Everyone will be getting assigned a new Steam ID and it will not be possible to convert old banlists.
 
R

Rubber Bullets

Guest
Well the whole steam site is down now :) needs some more coal apparently.

RB
 
S

Summo

Guest
I'm a little confused about this and the Steam FAQ and forums are down.

Does Steam reinstall HL and mods into new directories? If so, presumable I shall have to set up all my game configurations again? Should I be uninstalling HL first? This sounds crazy. It wants to download a gig of information that's already on my hard drive? Surely that's not right.
 
C

Ch3tan

Guest
New version of the steam installer out, wheighs in at 388mb and includes the CS 1.6 files. Should solve a lot of peoples install problems. Big download though.

/me apologises for cross posting this info.
 
B

Brass Monkeys

Guest
I am having many problems with Steam ...

The first time I run it .. it installed and updated fine, created an account and got to the part of moving game files .. this hung and after several tens of minutes it hadnt moved a millimetre ... it then crashed.

So .. I rebooted re-run Steam only to go through the same process but onlu as far as the bit below where its trying to update. I uninstalled & rebooted.

So I re-downloaded and installed Steam ... when I run it all I get for hours is ....

========================
Steam - Updating

Updating Steam Platform ....
========================

Nothing else happens .. wtf

Ive rebooted, uninstalled/reinstalled, disabled firewall etc to rule out anything but oh no .. same thing wtf.

Task Manager reports "running"

Anyone got any ideas? I would be real grateful :)


OS:WinXP
AMD Athlon 750Mhz
Memory: 768M
power cables and a mouse . blah blah.
 
M

Moving Target

Guest
I've let it download CS and all (so that it's stopped downloading after a while), and I try and run CS and it just stays on "Preparing to play..." for infinity.

Steam = teh ghey
 
D

Deady

Guest
tahts quite clever exxxie did you make that yourself?
 
E

exxxie

Guest
noe

[20:55] «exxxie» Deady said "tahts quite clever exxxie did you make that yourself?"
[20:55] «exxxie» you know quite well that I didnt
 
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