Halflife 2/Steam questions

Ripstar · Post by **Ripstar** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 1:45 pm

I have the retail version of Halflife 2.
I want to play off-line. I have made a Steam account.
The 2 scenarios they list in order to do this in their "help" area do not help at all, or match with the directions on the quick reference card included with the game.
This card indicated that you simply check the "remember password on the log-in screen" and then you can play off -line.
Where is this box and what log-in screen are they referring to?
I followed the on-line instructions for setting up an account and installing the game, but was cut off right at the end with the message that there were authentication delays.
I was later advised that the account was validated,however, I still have to go on-line to play.
Can any one shed a beam of light through this cloud of frustration?

One more thing, they sent me a copy of my confirmation code,my steam account name,product name,e-mail address, and password. My first attempt to contact Steam for these answers they ask for an User ID. What the hell is this?

Noman · Post by **Noman** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:32 pm

User ID is your account name.

If you see Steam icon in the system try, right click it. You 'll see a menu.

Select "Settings" from this menu to set various things, like whether you want Steam to run automatically on windows restart or not, or whether you want to see pop-up ads from Valve, or whether you want to save your password

From the menu, clicking on 'Monitor" will let you see which game Steam is updating and what's the bandwidth usage.

Now, in the main games list, you can right click on each game name to get another menu. You can create backups and desktop shortcuts per game. You can also select properties to see another menu. Here you can control whether you want the game to be automatically updated or not. You'll see how much of the game is downloaded.

For offline mode to work, you need two things

1) Password should be saved .... through Steam-Settings

2) The game needs to be 100% downloaed or updated.... you can check from game properties page

For some HL2 retail buyers, the offline mode isn't kicking in even when the game is 100% updated. That's because their game key is not validated and Steam is letting them play the game in the meantime. When the key gets fully validated, the offline mode will be enabled. The game properties menu will also show "Offline mode is enabled" for that game.

Hope that helps.

Steam has really worked very smoothly for past few months, the current registration/authentication issues notwithstanding. These can be accounted for the release day rush however. Hope things improve soon so the new buyers will have better installation experience.

Ripstar · Post by **Ripstar** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:02 pm

Thanx Noman, its seems a much clearer path to me now.
I will attempt your suggestions.

Ripstar · Post by **Ripstar** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:54 am

Well, I am not seeing any where to save the password.
Under properties I see Homepage:www.steampowered.com
Developer: Valve
Disk Usage: 940mb
Status: Ready to Play
Amount Acquired:100%
Offline Mode:Ready
Launch Options
Automatic updates
delete local game content
back up game files

That is it. No place to save a password. Also checked all other screens with negative results.
Have tried to play off-line but still must conect to internet.
So I don't know what is wrong.

If off-line is indicated as ready, why will it not work?

dangerballs · Post by **dangerballs** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:22 am

The save password thing is when you sign in. If you never sign out then you don't have to worry about it.

You cannot play offline if you have an active internet connection. You must disable your internet connection by pulling the plug or disabling the connection under network settings. Steam will then try to connect and then timeout and let you play offline.

Incendiary Lemon · Post by **Incendiary Lemon** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:26 am

Guesswork but perhaps this will help

Right Click on Steam in the Tool Tray (Taskbar down near your clock)

Click "Settings"

Make sure "Do not save account information..." is unchecked.

Click "login as a different user" and re-enter your ID and passcode.

my steam account name

Its your user id, at least I think it is.

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:15 am

I figured this was the best thread to ask...

I have a dial-up connection, and a horrible one at that, which always disconnects. I really don't have the option to get broadband.

I have heard that if I buy the retail version of HL2, a patch is still needed to download. Is that true? If so, anyone know how large it is? And if it can be paused and resumed?

dangerballs · Post by **dangerballs** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:29 am

Kyosho wrote:I figured this was the best thread to ask...

I have a dial-up connection, and a horrible one at that, which always disconnects. I really don't have the option to get broadband.

I have heard that if I buy the retail version of HL2, a patch is still needed to download. Is that true? If so, anyone know how large it is? And if it can be paused and resumed?

You will have to connect to Steam to authorize your copy and I think that there is a ~15mb patch to download. Steam will allow for you to resume your download should the connection drop.

Zanthia_s · Post by **Zanthia_s** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:45 am

dangerballs wrote:The save password thing is when you sign in. If you never sign out then you don't have to worry about it.

You cannot play offline if you have an active internet connection. You must disable your internet connection by pulling the plug or disabling the connection under network settings. Steam will then try to connect and then timeout and let you play offline.

will there be any way around this in the near future. i really wanted to get this at some point in time like for xmas but pulling plugs is impossible and i have no idea how to disable the connnection. besides this is the type of game i would only play for short sessions and i am not about to go through hoops just to play for a half hour to an hour session. Eventually there will have to be some way around this --doesn't there?

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 7:37 am

Steam is a peer to peer file distribution network. Basically besides supplying games, they use your own bandwidth to send files to others.

This, I'm okay with. But, I'm not okay with them not giving the user any controlls over how this is handled, and many people don't even know that steam uses their upstream bandwidth.

Anyway, because they benefit from having to buy less bandwidth on their end, and everyone gets their file faster if more people have it and have steam currently active, they make it a point to make the user have steam active on a user's computer.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 8:30 am

Turtle wrote:Steam is a peer to peer file distribution network. Basically besides supplying games, they use your own bandwidth to send files to others.

Link?

galaril · Post by **galaril** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:42 am

The peer-to peer distribution thing is news to me, first time hearing this.Anyways, I got a question I am working overseas here in Korea and would like to buy it on steam. But I will be relocating back to the States in about seven months? Will I be able to reload it on a new computer back in the US.I know with some games downloaded online they have e-license s you could unlicense and relicense it on a new machine.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:52 am

Steam licenses are tied to a user's Steam account, not to any particular computer. I could go over to my in-laws' house, install Steam there, put in my password, and download HL2 straight to their machine with no problem. Once I signed out there, I could come straight back home and launch HL2 here, so long as I am only signed on to Steam on one system at a time.

To disable a network connection: If it is dialup, just disconnect. If it is broadband, just open the control panel, double-click "Network Connections", right click your connection and select 'disable'.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but if you have a configurable firewall, like the WindowsXP SP2 firewall or ZoneAlarm, you should be able to just tell it to deny Steam.exe internet access instead of disabling your entire connection. Doing it that way would only take a minute or so, would only have to be done once, and wouldn't affect any other programs.

Ripstar · Post by **Ripstar** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 4:37 pm

Thanx to all, I finally got it working.

And no thanx to Steam for giving me the run around on questions.

msurby · Post by **msurby** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 5:26 pm

For some odd reason, my perfectly functioning HL2 install has stopped working. It's probably my own fault, since I tried to get too fancy...

Following Blackhawk's very reasonable advice, I told McAffee Personal Firewall to deny Steam access to the internet and play HL2 offline. However, ever since I did that, HL2 will not boot up. Steam starts up, fails to see the net, asks if I want to play in offline mode, my DVD drive starts to spin up (retail version) and then...nothing. I then reallowed Steam to access the net, but things were still not working. I have also restarted my computer, reallowed Steam to load at startup, and any other simple method to just get back to where I was, but all to no avail.

Any thoughts on how to fix this problem would be appreciated.

(...and I am damn glad that I kept my mouth shut regarding whether Steam is crap or not. I thought it was fine, but now...not so much

)

msurby · Post by **msurby** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 8:10 pm

Now things are fine. Guess it just had to sit awhile...

Bizarre

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:47 pm

Ok, so I buckled. With all my Steam angst, I still knew I'd have to ply HL2 eventually (that and UPS didn't deliver Bloodlines today). I picked up the Gold pack online. Steam installed 3.29GB of game files and when I clicked on "Play game" it said I had 180+ minutes to wait. I added only HL2 to "My Games."

Does it just install placeholder files during install and then downloads? If so, what was all that crap it was downloading before? It that's the case, I'm looking at 1Gb an hour or so from their servers.

And they charged me $10 for shipping. I know they're shipping some crap, but geez.

Screenshot

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:57 pm

Here's your final picture:

[/img]

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:57 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote:And they charged me $10 for shipping. I know they're shipping some crap, but geez.

Did they surprise you with the shipping costs after you bought the Gold Package? That would be pretty tainto.

If not - and you knew that sending you three posters and a baseball cap was going to cost $40 + $10 shipping - why did you buy the Gold Package? That's just the Silver package plus the posters/hat/stratguide - right?

What don't you complain about?

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:12 pm

Thanks, Zaxxon, but I'm only d/ling and installing HL2. Not OpFor, CS, DoD, etc. Not yet. I unchecked them from the "My Games" thing. It's what, 45 minutes later and the same 6 files are there, nothing else. The status bar has moved to about 1/3 of the way across and my total HDD usage hasn't changed (ruling out files going somewhere else). Oh well, off to grab a beer anyway.

RM9, they don't mention the shipping until you get to the last screen, but it's not like they snuck it in. It's right there before you confirm you order. I went with the gold because it has all the back catalog and I want to try out CS:CZ. Oh, and the posters, if they're any good, will complete my command center.

What don't you complain about?

If there's something I've never heard of, chances are I haven't complained about it. 8)

$iljanus · Post by **$iljanus** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:28 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote:Ok, so I buckled. With all my Steam angst, I still knew I'd have to ply HL2 eventually (that and UPS didn't deliver Bloodlines today). I picked up the Gold pack online. Steam installed 3.29GB of game files and when I clicked on "Play game" it said I had 180+ minutes to wait. I added only HL2 to "My Games."

Does it just install placeholder files during install and then downloads? If so, what was all that crap it was downloading before? It that's the case, I'm looking at 1Gb an hour or so from their servers.

Hmm. I think I'll wait till next week and try the Steam route. I don't think Valve is going out of business yet and perhaps things will progress a bit quicker by then.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:47 pm

Actually LawBeef, Steam reserves the entire needed amount of space immediately. As soon as Steam starts dling HL2, you would have seen the full X GB taken. The file sizes won't change barring a patch or something.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:50 pm

Zaxxon wrote:Actually LawBeef, Steam reserves the entire needed amount of space immediately. As soon as Steam starts dling HL2, you would have seen the full X GB taken. The file sizes won't change barring a patch or something.

Does it just install placeholder files during install and then downloads?

I figured that.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 11:59 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote:I went with the gold because it has all the back catalog and I want to try out CS:CZ. Oh, and the posters, if they're any good, will complete my command center.

Those come with the Silver pack as well. I just upgraded to the Silver Pack today for that very reason.

The Gold gets you all the stuffz that costs $10 to ship. The software package is identical.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:31 am

Alright, alright, I admit it, I want the hat.

Got everything downloaded and start the game up and it's stuck on a loading screen (blurry city view with "Loading..." in the bottom right, after the Valve splash screen with the dude with a valve in his eye). Can't alt-tab, can't ctrl-alt-del. Modem, router lights, and HDD are blinking like crazy but nothing is happening. This f'ing sucks.

I tried to lock Steam out with Zone Alarm and it just hung on the "preparing to play..." Drivers are all up to date, my rig can hack it.

I just restarted and the Steam is transferring like crazy as soon as XP boots up. I guess I'll let it do it's thing for a bit and try again.

Can I get no HL2 love???

EDIT: Ok, I checked the Steam Monitor and now it says I've only acquired 60% of the game. I'm getting 1.2Mb/s right now.

Why have this:

When I really have another hour? WTF? Why let me click on "play" and take me into the game when I don't have the damn game? Godammit.

Asharak · Post by **Asharak** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 5:12 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote:Why have this:

When I really have another hour? WTF? Why let me click on "play" and take me into the game when I don't have the damn game? Godammit.

I agree that the 1 second thing appears to be misleading, but I'm confused about your comment that it let you click "play", since that button is most definitely still greyed (or greened, in this case) out in that image.

Of course, by now I'm assuming you've got it working, so this is probably irrelevant.

- Ash

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:28 am

Ash,

I took that shot right before it let me play (1 second before

). But when I clicked on play, it went into the game and hung on a loading screen. After the runaround I mentioned above, I checked the steam monitor and it said I still had like 40% of the game to download. So a few seconds after that screenshot, it allowed me to click "play" but I couldn't play.

When I finally did get everything downloaded, it turns out it was corrupted (see my other thread). I could play, but textures were dropping and many in-game objects and models were invisible.

All well worth it for the game once I finally got it going, but they really need to sort out some of the Steam crap.

farley2k · Post by **farley2k** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 12:08 pm

Thought I would post here since this question is related.

How can I stop Steam from re-authenticating after I have played off-line? I played off line yesterday (unplugged the network cable) and played fine. Then I plugged it back in and started HL2 again - Steam went out and connected again!

I want it to stay off-line until I tell it that it can connect, but I don't see how to do this. Any ideas?

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 12:12 pm

From what I've read -- to stay offline, disable your network connection, either physically or in device manager.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 12:15 pm

All I can think of is Zone Alarm or some other firewall to stop it from connecting.

I don't remember any option to tell Steam not to attempt to connect.

farley2k · Post by **farley2k** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 12:24 pm

That is annoying, but I guess not unexpected.

I love HL2 and I respect Valve for creating it but Steam.....it just drives me nuts.

When everyone starts talking about how this is the way of the future for PC gaming I shudder. One company doing this is annoying but when about when every one of the 20 games you have installed all want to act the same way?