Steam HL2 won't need online connection for singleplayer or LAN
noman
quote:
Over at the Steam forums (Valve's official website), it says Steam
won't require online connection for singleplayer or LAN gaming.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q19C533F5
-------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Chris_D
Just recieved confirmation from Gabe that Steam will NOT require an
internet connection for LAN or single play. All you LAN partiers out
there and guys in Australia with broadband where you pay for the
bandwidth that you use or where your bandwidth is capped will not need
to worry.
I'd just like to say before I post the e-mail that this is once again
a fine example that Valve are NOT idiots like some of you seem to
think.
And all you conspiracy theorists can all rest with your "omg teh Vaelv
hav a deel wiv meh ISP so tha tehy get moor munnie from meh!!"
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Deeming [mailto:chri...@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 4:16 PM
To: ga...@valvesoftware.com
Subject: Will it never cease?
I'm not sure if it will ever cease or not. The constant nagging
question
that people are asking - Will Steam be required to have an internet
connection active when starting up a singleplayer game or a LAN game?
It's giving me a headache ;)
Seen the petition yet?
Chris_D
[BOLD]No, it won't.
There will be a brief transition (like two weeks) when it is
necessary, but
then it will go away. It's a temporary issue. [/BOLD]
EDIT: If you all want a screenie to prove authenticity, then let me
know and I'll post one up
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
here is an email which was sent to gabe and gabes response has been
bolded. thanks to Chris_D over at HL2.net for emailing this to gabe.
----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
--
Noman
Pluvious
>
>
>quote:
>Over at the Steam forums (Valve's official website), it says Steam
>won't require online connection for singleplayer or LAN gaming.
>
>http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q19C533F5
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
Geeze..you posted Gabes email address?.. That wasn't nice.
Pluvious
Steve...@rightbehindyou.com
And apparently, he uses Newsreader, just like me. That's just scary.
Steve Tilson
--
I was at this casino minding my own business, and this guy came up to me
and said, "You're gonna have to move, you're blocking a fire exit." As
though if there was a fire, I wasn't gonna run. If you're flammable and
have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit.
- Mitch Hedberg
Tim O
wrote:
>I'd just like to say before I post the e-mail that this is once again
>a fine example that Valve are NOT idiots like some of you seem to
>think.
>And all you conspiracy theorists can all rest with your "omg teh Vaelv
>hav a deel wiv meh ISP so tha tehy get moor munnie from meh!!"
[snip]
The new comment does contradict what the rather convoluted FAQ said
(gotta love a FAQ that doesn't answer questions).
I think they read the opinions on their own forums, and realized it
was a horrible and unpopular idea.
In any event, thanks for sharing the good news.
chainbreaker
> quote:
> Over at the Steam forums (Valve's official website), it says Steam
> won't require online connection for singleplayer or LAN gaming.
>
> http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q19C533F5
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> necessary, but
> then it will go away. It's a temporary issue. [/BOLD]
>
Wonder what this necessary "brief transition" deal's all about? And this
doesn't mean that there isn't or wasn't a plan on the table to require these
SP or LAN connections, either. Could just mean that after sticking their
toes in the stream that Valve decided not to take a chance getting their
dicks frozen off by jumping on in.
--
chainbreaker
If you need to email, then chainbreaker (naturally) at comcast dot
net--that's "net" not "com"--should do it.
Jamie_Manic
"noman" <ZZZYYno_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3f6b4bd9....@News.CIS.DFN.DE...
>
>
> quote:
> Over at the Steam forums (Valve's official website), it says Steam
> won't require online connection for singleplayer or LAN gaming.
>
> http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q19C533F5
lol....thankyou. After some of the flaming I got I hope everyone who has
been ranting their heads off about the evil, dictatorial, disgrace that is
Valve/Steam feels a bit silly.
Steve...@rightbehindyou.com
I read this days ago; I have yet to see anything about there being
standalone, transportable, archivable patches.
Jonah Falcon
"Tim O" <Tim...@REMOVE.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:fpkmmvglvbag82gi0...@4ax.com...
Not unpopular - just unfeasible. Believe it or not, internet connections are
STILL a minority - they brag that low-end computers will be able to play
Half-Life 2 (with all the options turned off, of course, and low res), but
low-end users sometimes DON'T have online connections.
Jonah Falcon
Jonah Falcon
Raptor
> Over at the Steam forums (Valve's official website), it says Steam
> won't require online connection for singleplayer or LAN gaming.
>
> http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q19C533F5
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> Originally posted by Chris_D
> Just recieved confirmation from Gabe that Steam will NOT require an
> internet connection for LAN or single play. All you LAN partiers out
> there and guys in Australia with broadband where you pay for the
> bandwidth that you use or where your bandwidth is capped will not need
> to worry.
>
> I'd just like to say before I post the e-mail that this is once again
> a fine example that Valve are NOT idiots like some of you seem to
> think.
> And all you conspiracy theorists can all rest with your "omg teh Vaelv
> hav a deel wiv meh ISP so tha tehy get moor munnie from meh!!"
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Deeming [mailto:chri...@hotmail.com]
Whew, had me worried. Thank you Gabe/Valve/Gordon :)
Tim O
<jonah...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>Not unpopular - just unfeasible. Believe it or not, internet connections are
>STILL a minority - they brag that low-end computers will be able to play
>Half-Life 2 (with all the options turned off, of course, and low res), but
>low-end users sometimes DON'T have online connections.
Yes unpopular.
Read the Steam forums and them come back and tell me it's popular.
People have been using it for the newest version of Counterstrike, and
it's a mess. They took something that worked fine for the last 4
years, and broke it. Imagine what entangling a blockbuster like Half
Life 2 in that would have done. That's where unfeasible comes in.
Jamie_Manic
<Steve...@rightbehindyou.com> wrote in message
news:20030919152659.436$q...@newsreader.com...
> "Jamie_Manic" <a...@ass.com> wrote:
> > "noman" <ZZZYYno_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> > news:3f6b4bd9....@News.CIS.DFN.DE...
> > >
> > >
> > > quote:
> > > Over at the Steam forums (Valve's official website), it says Steam
> > > won't require online connection for singleplayer or LAN gaming.
> > >
> > > http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q19C533F5
> >
> > lol....thankyou. After some of the flaming I got I hope everyone who has
> > been ranting their heads off about the evil, dictatorial, disgrace that
> > is Valve/Steam feels a bit silly.
>
> I read this days ago; I have yet to see anything about there being
> standalone, transportable, archivable patches.
And I have yet to see anything about there not being any standalone,
transportable, archivable patches. Auto-updating has existed for a long
time, Steam brings nothing new on this front. God, even Half Life 1 did it.
old_dog
realize there's oomph and there's OOmph. They tried the idea to see if it
would float.
Well it didn't.
It sank.
Big time.
Common, some of you guys are scaring me when you try to make this look like
a big misunderstanding. Valve are not some kind of cult with Gabe at the top
like some benevolent Buddah. They are a software company trying to maximize
profit. What they now realize is that going ahead with this idea would not
maximize their profit, at least not in the long run.
"noman" <ZZZYYno_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3f6b4bd9....@News.CIS.DFN.DE...
>
>
Tyf
wrote:
>noman wrote:
>> quote:
>> Over at the Steam forums (Valve's official website), it says Steam
>> won't require online connection for singleplayer or LAN gaming.
>>
>> http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q19C533F5
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> There will be a brief transition (like two weeks) when it is necessary, but
>> then it will go away. It's a temporary issue. [/BOLD]
>
>Wonder what this necessary "brief transition" deal's all about? And this
>doesn't mean that there isn't or wasn't a plan on the table to require these
>SP or LAN connections, either.
Given that by the above it's already set up to require a net connection as
people have been saying, my guess would be that it's a "brief transition
while we rewrite Steam to allow this".
b p
wrote:
>
>
There FAQ says otherwise
How can I have a LAN party or similar event using Steam?
Any Steam game, when played on a LAN or otherwise, requires that each
individual client be able to authenticate via the Internet.
At a LAN party, this means that Internet access must be available to
every machine on which Steam games are being played.
If desireable, the network administrator of such an event can limit
internet access to only the TCP/IP ports which Steam needs. These are:
UDP 1200
UDP 27000 to 27015 inclusive
TCP 27030 to 27039 inclusive
At large events, it will be necessary for each attendee to let their
games fully update before attending to avoid taxing the shared
internet connection with too much content delivery.
top
noman
> On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 18:37:32 GMT, ZZZYYno_...@yahoo.com (noman)
> wrote:
>
>
> There FAQ says otherwise
>
> How can I have a LAN party or similar event using Steam?
>
> Any Steam game, when played on a LAN or otherwise, requires that each
> individual client be able to authenticate via the Internet.
Maybe the FAQ is about the steam version of HL2. If you download it over
the net, they 'll obviously need to authenticate it somehow, everytime
you run the game.
--
Noman
mr bernard langham
"chainbreaker" <no...@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:bkfj8...@enews1.newsguy.com...
> noman wrote:
> > quote:
> > Over at the Steam forums (Valve's official website), it says Steam
> > won't require online connection for singleplayer or LAN gaming.
> >
> > http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q19C533F5
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> > There will be a brief transition (like two weeks) when it is
> > necessary, but
> > then it will go away. It's a temporary issue. [/BOLD]
> >
>
> Wonder what this necessary "brief transition" deal's all about? And this
> doesn't mean that there isn't or wasn't a plan on the table to require
these
> SP or LAN connections, either. Could just mean that after sticking their
> toes in the stream that Valve decided not to take a chance getting their
> dicks frozen off by jumping on in.
The brief transition is due to the fact that where hell bent on implementing
single player online authentication, but everyone has screamed blue murder,
so they're rewriting Steam to not require it.
If we hadn't bitched and moaned, they wouldn't have changed it. Simple as
that. Power to the people, right on.
--
>^..^<
Bernard
www.cs.uwa.edu.au/~langhb01
"You may lose me on the east face/You may lose me on the west/I may be
covered over in the night/Bury me deep in your love." RIP Harry, 1965-2003
John Lewis
Errr, if I use auto-updating, then how do I archive the patch ?
Sorry, I don't have enough disk space to keep every game that I play
installed for ever............
Currently, to preserve a Steam auto-updated patch of any length, AFAIK
the complete Steam install/update has to be archived and that can
easily be more than 650MBytes ( CD-R max).
Maybe, Gabe's friends can ask him whether BOTH standalone-archivable
full patch files AND stand-alone incremental updates ( for those who
have 56K modems or do not want to waste broadband ) will be available
for all Steam-enabled games, plus an intelligent installer which does
not have to go-online for any information at all during the
installation process.
John Lewis
>
>
John Lewis
Excuse me, but what happens if the next update to the game
happens as the LAN-party members are travelling to the venue ?
Remember, as Steam is currently configured, all Valve-worshippers
( err... customers ) cannot refuse an update download when they
log-on for Steam authentication . Should make for a very exciting
LAN-party.
However, according to another message in this thread, Gabe apparently
has just announced that local-LAN or SP will not need on-line
validation. ( Bowing to pressure ?? ) Which actually poses an inverse
problem, if true :-
.
How do all the members at the LAN-party guarantee that they have
exactly the same patch-version loaded on all their machines? In the
pre-Steam days of separate downloaded patches, that was
trivially easy to implement. However, with Steam, one or more
LAN-party participant might have logged-on just before the party
and accidentally got a brand-new <<un-refuseable>> auto update.
AFAIK Steam has no way at present for the users to either
lock-in the game-version that they wish to use, or back any
updates out.
John Lewis
John Lewis
wrote:
Yes. And exactly how that will be done is not clear in the FAQ.
However, from the public information on Steam that it is intended
to maximize developer's revenue, then you can bet that
you will not be easily able to give away or sell your
Steam-purchased downloaded version of the game. I suspect
that your user-key will be hashed with your e-mail address or
some other piece of information not easily transferrable to a third
party. Helps avoid theft, I suppose......... Since the downloaded
game does not use copy-protected physical media, theft-
security cannot be provided by checking for the physical
presence of a valid game-CD.
Also I would be very interested in knowing exactly how
a Steam-purchased, downloaded game will be locally
archived, <especially after patching >. Nobody has
enough hard-disk space to keep all their games
permanently installed. And nobody has enough
broadband capacity or patience to wait while the
whole game+patches is downloaded again if the user
wishes to re-install the game.
John Lewis
spamtrap@localhost
wrote:
>Nobody has
>enough hard-disk space to keep all their games
>permanently installed.
Maybe you haven't bought a hard disk for a while, they are friggin'
big and dirt cheap these days. You are really turning into a major
scaremonger.
--
Andrew. To email unscramble n...@gurjevgrzrboivbhf.pbz & remove spamtrap.
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim messages to quote only relevent text.
Check groups.google.com before asking a question.
Walter Mitty
wit when in news:3f6b4bd9....@News.CIS.DFN.DE he conjectured that:
>
>
> quote:
> Over at the Steam forums (Valve's official website), it says Steam
> won't require online connection for singleplayer or LAN gaming.
>
> http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q19C533F5
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------- Originally posted by Chris_D
LOL.
Read previous "its not possible" post.
--
Walter Mitty.
spamtrap@localhost
wrote:
>Good. But then, they can only blame themselves for lying in their
>Steam FAQ, like claiming outright that in LAN parties EVERYONE has to
>be connected to the Internet. Now they seem to have decided otherwise.
>
Jesus, the game hasn't been released yet. They are allowed to fine
tune the details before it is released without being accused of lying.
b p
wrote:
>So either they were lying in the Steam FAQ, or they have changed their
>minds
Or Gabe is lying
> about how it will work, due to the public outcry. So no need for
>anyone (except the apogolists) to feel silly.
b p
wrote:
>BTW, what the heck is that "two weeks transition period"??? So it WILL
>require the online connection for two weeks? Why? Why can't I just
>install HL2 from the CD-ROM, install the latest patches from my CD-R,
>and play away, without any net connection?
>
>So some questions still remain...
because once they have your money they may change their minds again
and make you log on to play SP ?
chainbreaker
> The brief transition is due to the fact that where hell bent on
> implementing single player online authentication, but everyone has
> screamed blue murder, so they're rewriting Steam to not require it.
>
> If we hadn't bitched and moaned, they wouldn't have changed it.
> Simple as that. Power to the people, right on.
That's sort of what it sounds like to me . . . :-D
--
chainbreaker
chainbreaker
>> Nobody has
>> enough hard-disk space to keep all their games
>> permanently installed.
>
> Maybe you haven't bought a hard disk for a while, they are friggin'
> big and dirt cheap these days. You are really turning into a major
> scaremonger.
With good reason, looks like to me. Of course, that probably still won't
keep all the Valve fanbois from baa-aaa-relling each other over to grab
their "very own" copies of HL2 the day its released.
--
chainbreaker
spamtrap@localhost
wrote:
>Sorry, you silly apologist, they have already lied. Or why are they
>saying opposite things in their mails and FAQs?
They have changed their policy about a future game release moron.
Crash7
wrote:
>[BOLD]No, it won't.
>
>There will be a brief transition (like two weeks) when it is
>necessary, but
>then it will go away. It's a temporary issue. [/BOLD]
Well, then after that "brief transition", I'll buy the game. Not
before.
Crash7
remove x's from address to email
John Lewis
>On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 16:24:05 +0300, juha <ju...@invalid.none.com>
>wrote:
>
>>Sorry, you silly apologist, they have already lied. Or why are they
>>saying opposite things in their mails and FAQs?
>
>They have changed their policy about a future game release moron.
>--
More than policy. Valve will have to execute a major restructure of
the Steam authentication scheme if they have had a real change of
heart amd the original FAQ was correct. On-line authentication of SP
and local-LAN users would have employed exactly the same
validation mechanism as Internet play.
However, ( again assuming that the original FAQ was correct,
and Valve has indeed had a real change of heart) they must
now be scrambling to put in CD-Key, copy-protected-disk
validation for the non-Internet play scenarios.
John Lewis
J.S.
> On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 07:30:27 GMT, john...@verizon.net (John Lewis)
> wrote:
>
>> Nobody has
>> enough hard-disk space to keep all their games
>> permanently installed.
>
> Maybe you haven't bought a hard disk for a while, they are friggin'
> big and dirt cheap these days. You are really turning into a major
> scaremonger.
Yeah. I went from a 40gb that lasted me two years of near full use to a
160GB drive. I'd say with about 10 games installed at any one time its close
to 30gb of storage space..thats not counting patch files, game mod files
etc. I have a ton of downloaded crap for nwn, bg2, counterstrike/dod. Then
of course theres..video files if you cap tv eps or download them as well as
video editing. That space goes by quickly.
But hey, what happens when said uber drive takes a dive? You be a downloadin
it again kemosabe.
J.S.
Mark
> Maybe you haven't bought a hard disk for a while, they are friggin'
> big and dirt cheap these days.
Of course game size is increasing rapidly too: most games today take a
gigabyte or two, and the day when the average game takes 10GB of disk
space isn't far off.
Mark
Hotdog
Ill tell you what all thats going to happen is no one will end up
playing Valve games at Lans and and a lot less players will play valve
games online because of steam, they will move on to other LAN games
and shove CS, DOD out to graze, all Valve have done is shot them selfs
in the foot in the long term, prior to Steam valve games and mods were
easy to play on the net and at a LAN, if updates were needed then the
LAN admins would host them on a file server so everyone there could
come up to the same version to play HL, CS, DOD or what ever mod was
being played, it was simple effective and easy to do, now every lan
player is going to have to get his Valve games patched and up to
scratch via the Steam client which just wont happen and at a LAN party
it will be chaos in the end, LAN party organisers will just forget
Valve games for good untill patches for Valve games can once again be
downloaded and stored on file servers at Lans and updated as and when
needed just like prior to steam.
I have run LAN partys for over 6 years in Christchurch New Zealand and
if its not simple for the people comeing along to get there games up
to speed patch wise then the game aint being played, all it needs now
is for some kick ass mod team to come up with a game as popular as CS
and well Valve's online hopes are dead (CS made HL the most popular
online game of choice) BF1942 has some kick ass mods comeing out for
it and if Valve doesnt watch it then there Steam way of doing things
might just run out of Steam :).
BTW my own opinion of Steam and the way Valve has handled this is
What a bunch of tossers, they have no idea what gamers want for online
play, if they did they would have just kept things as they were as
there easy of playing Valve HL mods is what has fosterd the massive
FREE online gaming community. And with Steam they just nearly killed
that with a simple piece of computer sofwear. DICKS
Hotdognz
Hotdog
John Lewis
I know one today that takes 7.2Gbytes after installation.
The PC conversion of Metal Gear Solid2:Substance from the
PS2 (available ONLY on DVD)
Remember that if a game is translated from a console to the PC,
then up to 9 Gbytes (uncompressed) is potentially possible
( 2-layer DVD)
Also, many future graphically-intensive PC games will use DVD as the
distribution medium. Nowfar more convenient and cheaper than multiple
CD-ROMS, also much easier to accomplish in mastering for games
intended for multiple-platform release on both consoles and PCs,
since the major consoles all use DVD-ROMS.
For smooth performance, especially with high-resolution cut-scenes
available on PCs ( low-res on consoles) installation of the complete
game to hard-disk may be desirable or even necessary, to overcome
any speed limitations in the DVD-drive. Drive speed is spec'd
for the consoles. A PC user might have DVD-drive speeds ranging
from x4 to x16 or higher.............
John Lewis
> Mark