StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Most people have been having problems with games not showing through the filter settings and hundreds of other errors

For the entire day I get a Steam.dll error and can't even load it up, and no one has found a fix that works (the chkdsk trick fails)

Can't play ANY mods thanks to one unnecessary program that Valve obviously hasn't made progress on, despite a beta that lasted for months

Steam should have gone the way of Powerplay

Well no duh, you got the prerelease HL2. Of course it wouldn't work as expected.

Shinova wrote:Well no duh, you got the prerelease HL2. Of course it wouldn't work as expected.

I think he's just talking about normal STEAM for Half-Life 1. I doubt he actually has the leaked HL2 beta.

He's saying he can't get the mods working, how many released HL2 mods are there?

Shinova wrote:Well no duh, you got the prerelease HL2. Of course it wouldn't work as expected.

I think someone needs a new visor for his space cadet suit

I [y2j]never, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever[/y2j] touched that stuff

Shogoki wrote:He's saying he can't get the mods working, how many released HL2 mods are there?

Well I skimmed that post. By "mods" I thought he meant something else at first.

I'm not Steam's biggest fan, but I haven't had any real problems with it yet.

Well the other day the stupid thing updated itself... And the text became all screwed. I had to resort to trying the unofficial work-around (which, fortunately, worked). And I'm not very happy either about the fact that downloading Steam full chewed up almost 1/3 of my monthly download limit, and it's 23MB bigger than even 80min CD are suppose to contain.


Not. Happy. Valve.

You may want to try reinstalling Steam. Your DLL may have become corrupted (and chkdsk/scandisk wouldn't neccessarily detect that). You could also ask around for the steam.dll library file if needed.

Steam's a pile of shit either way.

As someone who is thinking about getting HL2 just what the hell IS Steam?

Stravo wrote:As someone who is thinking about getting HL2 just what the hell IS Steam?

A fucked up system that valve wants to use to check to see if you own a legal copy of HL2 and as an anti-cheat guard.

For fucks sake if cheating is that important, just stick to your own TRUSTED
servers run with passwords to keep the fucking scum out.

I mean fuck, that's simple, and will keep 95% of the script kiddies who cheat
out of your server, and doesn't require an anal intensive assraping by Valve
upon you.

MKSheppard wrote:

Stravo wrote:As someone who is thinking about getting HL2 just what the hell IS Steam?

A fucked up system that valve wants to use to check to see if you own a legal copy of HL2 and as an anti-cheat guard.

For fucks sake if cheating is that important, just stick to your own TRUSTED
servers run with passwords to keep the fucking scum out.

So....you get a copy protection program that is larger than a 80 minute CD of data and it fucks with game play??? And we're expected to PAY for this?

Stravo wrote: So....you get a copy protection program that is larger than a 80 minute CD of data and it fucks with game play??? And we're expected to PAY for this?

Yes.

Apparently adding more features to HL2 servers to allow them to be more
secure (passwording and etc) was too simple for Valve, and they had
to fill up another CD

Essentially, Steam replaces WON as the old system. This allows a mechanism for them to check your HL2 to see if it's been tampered with and allow/deny online. This, in theory, will defeat cheating as add-ons would be detected (probably via public-key encryption and hashing).

The 'closed server' method only works if you have enough admins to monitor the servers and Valve won't be operating the most of those servers (if any) anyways. Presumably they'd want to reduce the workload on most server admins rather than automatically trusting everyone to do a competent job.

In addition, it serves as a mechanism to distribute for-pay mods, possibly closed betatest groups of mods and soforth.

If I were still on dialup, I'd probably be spewing vitriolic hatred for Steam. As it is, on this university internet connection, I'm actually pretty happy with it. It is convenient, and the server browser is much much better (faster, better interface) than the old in-game browser.

Of course, I still think it's a load of horseshit that they'll expect you to be online when playing LAN games (or was that changed?).

FYI, part of the intent behind Steam is to create a way for people to access and download the updated information in order to play the games.

One problem. This was to much of a sever load on Valve. They were forced to release Steam installers with the games attached. This created large files.

One other problem. Because of how Steam works, it automaticaly updates your games. This is actualy a bad thing. It means that you can not download any exe game files or patches. You must wait for Steam to update you. After a reformat it will take days before some people can get Steam running up to date again.

One solution for this is to release periodic patches for Steam games. You install this and when Steam logs on, it needs much less time to auto update. Just store these patches on 80min CDRs and your all set.

phongn wrote: The 'closed server' method only works if you have enough admins to monitor the servers

Why not have a bunch of guys get together and put up the money
for their own damn server and password it so that only THEY and
other trusted people can get in? That's more reliable than Valve's
Steam system.

Alyeska wrote:Just store these patches on 80min CDRs and your all set.

A game patch should only be 50 MB, not 700 MB

I don't do much multiplayer, will this effect the Single player campaigns which would be the sole reason I'm buying this game?

Stravo wrote:I don't do much multiplayer, will this effect the Single player campaigns which would be the sole reason I'm buying this game?

YES

If Steam bugs up, you won't be able to play anything, even SP

Steam is meant to be the file system, the portal, the GUI, and otherwise the interface for your Valve games

There is also confusion over HL2's requirement to be connected to the internet to play single player~ On Steam's FAQ page:

some Steam-enabled single-player games (such as Half-Life 2) purchased at a retail store will allow offline play until the user decides to play online or enable other Steam functionality. From that point on, an Internet connection will be required.

Perhaps this will all just make DOOM III a bigger success.

phongn wrote:You may want to try reinstalling Steam. Your DLL may have become corrupted (and chkdsk/scandisk wouldn't neccessarily detect that). You could also ask around for the steam.dll library file if needed.

Well, it seems that an actual vanilla Steam installation doesn't exist
I've not seen anything other than Steam installation + cache for whatever mod
I don't want to download some POS Richochet or install over CS or TFC just to reinstall Steam

I don't do much multiplayer, will this effect the Single player campaigns which would be the sole reason I'm buying this game?

Valve later noted that Steam would not be required for SP play after a few weeks of release. This is probably to stop the "0-day" warez kiddies.

Why not have a bunch of guys get together and put up the money
for their own damn server and password it so that only THEY and
other trusted people can get in? That's more reliable than Valve's
Steam system.

Because Valve wants HL2 to go as far as possible and not require a small set of trusted servers. If, say, you bought HL2 and were a newbie and wanted to head online, could you easily find one of the "trusted" servers? Probably not; now all you'd have to do is fire up Steam and head on one of the 'public servers.

Hamel wrote:

phongn wrote:You may want to try reinstalling Steam. Your DLL may have become corrupted (and chkdsk/scandisk wouldn't neccessarily detect that). You could also ask around for the steam.dll library file if needed.

Well, it seems that an actual vanilla Steam installation doesn't exist
I've not seen anything other than Steam installation + cache for whatever mod
I don't want to download some POS Richochet or install over CS or TFC just to reinstall Steam

Can't you do a file search for STEAM.DLL ?