Some things that Steam COULD bring to the table

[Tacoma74]

Originally Posted by Erkki

This is also a problem for those with not that high connection speeds. My squad plays both Il-2 and Red Orchestra/Darkest Hour, and the updates to maps and other stuff are downloaded when you join a server. Great, except the moment I've redownloaded the 40-50mb map and possibly another 20mb of textures the round is over, and I have to do this again until theres a map with no updates for the current week. Approx 60mb of updates a week... Not that much of a problem, but if CoD will, as Oleg has said, allow limited modification, I can imagine it to become one, when servers start having custom mods of their own to maps and aircraft. As it is, I dont have the time nor will to download an Ultrapack's worth of stuff a month in small pieces before I'm let in a server. I would imagine many people to be in the same situation. 1mb in is little enough to ruin a good evening if your game happens to have some updates you hadnt had the time to download.

Steam's autoupdates that cant be stopped are another thing. It doesnt even tell about them. If you exit Steam, it runs in the background until the download is finished, or I terminate the process.

If you have such poor connection speeds then I don't see why it would be enjoyable to play online in the first place. And seeing as CoD will be much more complex, I would imagine that it will require more bandwidth than 1946 does (but don't quote me on this). Surely it won't take up much more (awesome programming ) but might not let some people enjoy the online aspects of the game. Thankfully decent quality internet is available most places in the world now so I doubt it will be a bad problem.

As for Steam and it's constant updating, I have absolutely no problem with it. Windows is always updating, so why should it be such a nuisance for Steam to do the same. And I don't really care if it doesn't tell me, that's just less crap that pops up on my desktop. If i have to wait 5 minutes, or even 15 minutes for an update to install it's not going to ruin my game experience. No, I'll simply get up, make a cup of coffee or something, come back and it'll be done. Besides... a match on CoD is going to last MUCH MUCH longer than any other game matches do, so joining a match in time shouldn't be a problem. And, it's not like it'll do it every time you get online... Surely they're not going to load us up with big updates all the time. But this is all speculation, much like everything else at this stage. Can't wait to finally see it all in action.

[Erkki]

Originally Posted by Tacoma74

If you have such poor connection speeds then I don't see why it would be enjoyable to play online in the first place. And seeing as CoD will be much more complex, I would imagine that it will require more bandwidth than 1946 does (but don't quote me on this). Surely it won't take up much more (awesome programming ) but might not let some people enjoy the online aspects of the game. Thankfully decent quality internet is available most places in the world now so I doubt it will be a bad problem.

As for Steam and it's constant updating, I have absolutely no problem with it. Windows is always updating, so why should it be such a nuisance for Steam to do the same. And I don't really care if it doesn't tell me, that's just less crap that pops up on my desktop. If i have to wait 5 minutes, or even 15 minutes for an update to install it's not going to ruin my game experience. No, I'll simply get up, make a cup of coffee or something, come back and it'll be done. Besides... a match on CoD is going to last MUCH MUCH longer than any other game matches do, so joining a match in time shouldn't be a problem. And, it's not like it'll do it every time you get online... Surely they're not going to load us up with big updates all the time. But this is all speculation, much like everything else at this stage. Can't wait to finally see it all in action.

Perfectly fine connection, 1mb in and max 80-ish ms latencies to everywhere in Europe. Just the actual bitrates are a tad low.

Windows updates I can choose to download whenever I want.

I have it preordered and we'll see like you said.

[Skoshi Tiger]

Hi, I've got a question for those more knowlegable about steam.

How does steam handle it when you plan to buy multiple copies of the sim.

I want to buy and play CoD on my lan, I want to have it installed on two computers and running in multiplayer at the same time.

Does this operate through a single steam account or do you need 2 accounts, one for each copy?

Anyone had experience of a similar setup in other games?

Cheers!

[Erkki]

Originally Posted by Skoshi Tiger

Hi, I've got a question for those more knowlegable about steam.

How does steam handle it when you plan to buy multiple copies of the sim.

I want to play CoD on my lan and have it installed on two computers and running in multiplayer at the same time.

Does this operate through a single steam account or do you need 2 accounts, one for each copy?

Anyone had experience of a similar setup in other games?

Cheers!

Offline mode... Il2:COD will most likely still have the ability to search for LAN games or join directly an IP.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Cobra8472

Seriously? Really?

Steam brings a ton of features and advantages that have nothing to do with challenges, including- but not limited to the Cloud Service, the fact that you are not dependant on your disc (IF you loose it you simply download the game through Steam), ease of patching and version compatibility, Steam infrastructure & Support, and much much more.

You don't actually have any counterpoints in your post, just a lot of "Steam doesn't need to do this for us because we could already do it ourselves.."

-which is actually a load of nonsense, seeing as some of the things you're listing are about 100x bigger nuisance than doing it via Steam. Manually patching? It's 2011 for fucks sake.

The level of ignorance in your post seriously boggles the mind.

I think it's the level of expecting everyone to conform to your personal standards that boggles the mind. You want auto updates and a cloud service? Go ahead and use it, no problem. Just tell me why i am forced to use something that serves your needs instead of mine

Granted, fearfactor didn't provide any choice in the matter (he seemed to imply that there shouldn't even be a steam version) so i can't agree with him either.

What i want is the title to have a steam version and the exposure that brings, i just don't want it to be the only version because i prefer not to use one and i can provide no benefits to the title through word of mouth advertising (i don't have or plan to get any other steam games, don't have buddylists or join groups, etc). There should be two versions, or at least a choice during the installation. But since we're so close to release now the best we can hope for is a patch at a later date or a community work-around to provide the mission options.

It seems this board is full of people who expect to tell others how to use their software and what they should be liking, instead of focusing their energy on providing options to satisfy as many people as possible.

Originally Posted by Erkki

This is also a problem for those with not that high connection speeds. My squad plays both Il-2 and Red Orchestra/Darkest Hour, and the updates to maps and other stuff are downloaded when you join a server. Great, except the moment I've redownloaded the 40-50mb map and possibly another 20mb of textures the round is over, and I have to do this again until theres a map with no updates for the current week. Approx 60mb of updates a week... Not that much of a problem, but if CoD will, as Oleg has said, allow limited modification, I can imagine it to become one, when servers start having custom mods of their own to maps and aircraft. As it is, I dont have the time nor will to download an Ultrapack's worth of stuff a month in small pieces before I'm let in a server. I would imagine many people to be in the same situation. 1mb in is little enough to ruin a good evening if your game happens to have some updates you hadnt had the time to download.

Steam's autoupdates that cant be stopped are another thing. It doesnt even tell about them. If you exit Steam, it runs in the background until the download is finished, or I terminate the process.

This is a perfect case of why manual updating can be a better choice under certain circumstances. If i have a couple of hours to spare i don't want to spend them downloading an update right friggin' now neither do i want some client updating, i want to spend them flying the sim and update when it's convenient. Like you know, set it to download the patch when i go to bed instead of wasting two perfectly good hours of gaming time.

[MikkOwl]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

This is a perfect case of why manual updating can be a better choice under certain circumstances. If i have a couple of hours to spare i don't want to spend them downloading an update right friggin' now neither do i want some client updating, i want to spend them flying the sim and update when it's convenient. Like you know, set it to download the patch when i go to bed instead of wasting two perfectly good hours of gaming time.

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.

[Skoshi Tiger]

Originally Posted by Erkki

Offline mode... Il2:COD will most likely still have the ability to search for LAN games or join directly an IP.

I'm asking if it's like ROF was where you could only register one copy of the game to an email address.

Does anyone know how does Steam handles this?

Cheers!

[Erkki]

Originally Posted by Skoshi Tiger

I'm asking if it's like ROF was where you could only register one copy of the game to an email address.

Does anyone know how does Steam handles this?

Cheers!

Just like that. However nothing stops you from opening Steam on the other comp, downloading and installing the game, and running it in offline mode. i suppose.

[Skoshi Tiger]

I just went on to the Steam FAQ and found this Q/A

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...767#onemachine

Can multiple users play simultaneously on one Steam account?
Steam does not support multiple players using one Steam account simultaneously - games associated with a Steam account are licensed for the sole use of the account holder.

If multiple users attempt to log in and play simultaneously with one Steam account, the user who logged in first will eventually receive an "Invalid Steam UserID Ticket" error message and be forced to log back in to continue playing (if the first user logs back in, the second user will receive this error message).

According to the wording it is against the policy to allow anyone other than the account holder to play the game!

"Sorry I got this great game but I'ld be violating the conditions of use If I let you have a go!"

Now that is disturbing!

I've got a Collectors edition on order through EBGames, with no devivery date, If I couldn't hold out any longer I was going to get the download version, but it looks like theres going to be issues!

Cheers!

[JG52Krupi]

Originally Posted by Skoshi Tiger

I just went on to the Steam FAQ and found this Q/A



According to the wording it is against the policy to allow anyone other than the account holder to play the game!

"Sorry I got this great game but I'ld be violating the conditions of use If I let you have a go!"

Now that is disturbing!


Cheers!

WTF of course they have to have a one person login limit otherwise one person could buy the game and 50 people could play it....

Clearly you have misunderstood what they are saying, a friend can try the game by logging in with your account if you trust them but only one person can use the account at any one time.... I'm pretty sure no developer would use steam if they didn't have this limit lol