For those who use Valve's Steam Service...

Mattroid

Thread Manager, Moderator: Console Section

Donor 3 years: 2011, 2013-2014
Joined
Feb 25, 2004
Messages
17,111
Reaction score
161
Location
Austin, Texas
Because some of the games on there are cheap as hell, I'm thinking about downloading some stuff from there even though I probably won't be playing it much. I know plenty of people who play Team Fortress 2, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, etc on PC and I might like to join them sometime, so it's not a bad idea.

Anyway, I want to download it all to my desktop, but also know that there's a chance I may be putting a new hard drive in this computer soon. Just wondering if that will cause any problems if I download and install them now? I did see this enty on their site, so it sounds like as long as I backup my stuff, it shouldn't be a problem. I just wanted to see if it was going to be a "I'll have to get a new key" type thing or what?

EDIT: I also just saw this, so it looks like they've got everything covered
smile.gif
 
You can always just redownload everything you've purchased through Steam. It's one of the biggest selling points (and potential downfalls) IMO. No matter where I am, I can install Steam, log in and download whatever games I own to that computer. The potential downfall is that in 20 years, who knows if Steam will still be around? Of course, your game discs are just as likely to rot in that amount of time too
wink.gif


You don't need to bother backing the games up to disc (although you can certainly do that if you're weary of the digital distribution thing). The only thing you will lose from reinstalling Steam on a new drive is settings (like window colors, which screen opens by default, etc.)


Also, Left4Dead is 50% off this weekend, I finally went for it at $25.
 
Thanks for the info. I'm really impressed with the service so far. Too bad I don't spend a lot of time playing PC games
tongue.gif


What about running them from multiple computers? I'd like to install them on my laptop as well. I assume that maybe I just can't be running steam from two places at the same time as that would make sharing the games far too easy. Although it seems like you could still share them easily anyway and maybe just not log into steam from any but the original location...in other words, just running them offline.

Not sure how all that works...

Also, Left4Dead is 50% off this weekend, I finally went for it at $25.
Yeah, that's what prompted me to finally sign up. Then they got me with the complete pack, though. I figured I'd end up getting L4D and The Orange Box anyway, so I just said to hell with it and got the $99.99 package for all their games since I've also been wanting to check out the Source versions of the original Half-Life, etc. Not a bad deal at all, if you ask me.

I need to get some practice at Team Fortress. I've only played it a couple of times on 360 and wasn't very good at it, but really liked the concept and characters.
 
I used to play alot of Day of Defeat .. but not since I lost my high speed at home..

so I have it still on the computer.. taking valuable space on the very full HD.. but can't bring myself to delete...
although it prob wont work anymore...
 
I used to play alot of Day of Defeat .. but not since I lost my high speed at home..

so I have it still on the computer.. taking valuable space on the very full HD.. but can't bring myself to delete...
although it prob wont work anymore...

If you have the game disc and didn't purchase it through Steam, you can put in the CD key to have it added to your account. That way you can always log in and redownload it.
 
Thanks for the info. I'm really impressed with the service so far. Too bad I don't spend a lot of time playing PC games
tongue.gif


What about running them from multiple computers? I'd like to install them on my laptop as well. I assume that maybe I just can't be running steam from two places at the same time as that would make sharing the games far too easy. Although it seems like you could still share them easily anyway and maybe just not log into steam from any but the original location...in other words, just running them offline.

Not sure how all that works...

Also, Left4Dead is 50% off this weekend, I finally went for it at $25.
Yeah, that's what prompted me to finally sign up. Then they got me with the complete pack, though. I figured I'd end up getting L4D and The Orange Box anyway, so I just said to hell with it and got the $99.99 package for all their games since I've also been wanting to check out the Source versions of the original Half-Life, etc. Not a bad deal at all, if you ask me.

I need to get some practice at Team Fortress. I've only played it a couple of times on 360 and wasn't very good at it, but really liked the concept and characters.

TF2 is much better on PC, what's your Steam id? I'll add you to my friends list.
 
Thanks for the info. I'm really impressed with the service so far. Too bad I don't spend a lot of time playing PC games
tongue.gif


What about running them from multiple computers? I'd like to install them on my laptop as well. I assume that maybe I just can't be running steam from two places at the same time as that would make sharing the games far too easy. Although it seems like you could still share them easily anyway and maybe just not log into steam from any but the original location...in other words, just running them offline.

Not sure how all that works...

Also, Left4Dead is 50% off this weekend, I finally went for it at $25.
Yeah, that's what prompted me to finally sign up. Then they got me with the complete pack, though. I figured I'd end up getting L4D and The Orange Box anyway, so I just said to hell with it and got the $99.99 package for all their games since I've also been wanting to check out the Source versions of the original Half-Life, etc. Not a bad deal at all, if you ask me.

I need to get some practice at Team Fortress. I've only played it a couple of times on 360 and wasn't very good at it, but really liked the concept and characters.

Sorry, forgot to answer your first questions....
crazy.gif


You can install and play your games on as many computers as you want, but you can't be logged into more than one at once. If you want, I think you can log in and set Steam to 'offline mode' and then unplug the internet. You could theoretically have as many machines as you want set up that way, but you couldn't play online games like that, which is one of the biggest appeals to the whole thing. I can set you up with some good TF2 and L4D servers. You might be interested in joining one of the groups I'm in, there's a good group of people who play regularly and aren't retards about it. Sometimes we have 'goofy' nights, like spies vs. engineers, or story night, where someone reads novels over the mic while we play. But usually, it's just a good group of people who like to play, but don't take it so seriously that the game becomes no fun.

Edit: we've also got a couple of guys who collaborate on some of the best custom maps I've ever played in any game. I wouldn't be surprised if one in particular was picked up for official release along with a class upgrade pack. pl_swift is the one I'm thinking of, but we've also got cp_circlejerk and cp_garbage_day, which are awesome maps.
 
TF2 is much better on PC, what's your Steam id? I'll add you to my friends list.
Well, nt sure which you need...even though steam kept saying "mattroid" was available, it would always error in the end and not let me sign up. I finally tried "mattroidprime" and it allowed me to finish the sign up process, so that's my steam ID, I guess. But then my 'community' name is simply "mattroid." So whichever you need, there you go
tongue.gif


You can install and play your games on as many computers as you want, but you can't be logged into more than one at once. If you want, I think you can log in and set Steam to 'offline mode' and then unplug the internet.
So is Steam technically required when playing these, then? Like even if I have Steam closed down and just double click, say, the L4D icon, does it still launch Steam while launching the game? Regardless, I figured that's how this would be setup.

I can set you up with some good TF2 and L4D servers. You might be interested in joining one of the groups I'm in, there's a good group of people who play regularly and aren't retards about it. Sometimes we have 'goofy' nights, like spies vs. engineers, or story night, where someone reads novels over the mic while we play. But usually, it's just a good group of people who like to play, but don't take it so seriously that the game becomes no fun.
Sounds great. Part of the biggest turn off for me and online games like this is the extreme competitiveness and BS that gets in the way. One reason I didn't get into TF2 on 360 too much was because none of my friends pay on there (some do on PC, I think) and there's no way to practice offline to get used to the character classes, and maps before getting your ass handed to you online.

So yeah, I'm totally down with that. I'll need to get everything installed on my laptop, though, as I'm rarely around my desktop since it's still at my parents' place.
 
Looks like I got you, the Steam ID should be whatever your login is, you can change your screen name at any time. It found "mattroidprime" using the name "mattroid" so I'm going to assume that's you. You have to approve friend requests through your user control panel (which you can use either through Steam or on the website).

Yes, Steam is required to be running. The good news is that no matter what game you're playing through Steam, you can hit Tab+Shift to pull up your friends list, server browser, etc. (doesn't work on the windows desktop). I use Steam to manage all my games, so I don't crap up my desktop with a dozen more icons. For example, I bought Fallout 3 from a different website, but I put the shortcut in Steam. When I load it, all my online friends see "FMonk is playing non-Steam game: Fallout 3". If I had bought it through Steam, it would just leave out the "non-Steam game" part.

One of the best parts of Valve games is that the source engine will run on pretty old hardware, in addition to being some of the best multi-player experiences out there
smile.gif
 
So can you link pretty much any game through Steam? Even if it's something not offered through them at all? If so, that's pretty cool. Regardless, this whole things seems pretty awesome. I can see why it's come as far as it has.

And yeah, while Source is showing its age these days, at least I think my laptop can probably handle it
smile.gif
I'll have to drag my laptop up to work tomorrow to download the games, though. Our connection at the apartment is total ass.

EDIT: lulz..."FMonk playing: Mozilla Firefox [Safe Mode]" Guess that answers my question
tongue.gif
 
Can you only search the community by name? I know my friends' steamIDs, but not their community names...any way to search specifically by steamID? Apparently they're too dumb (or don't use it enough) to know what their name is specified as in the community
tongue.gif
 
You should be able to, I searched for your name by the SteamID and it showed me both when I added you. My SteamID is very different from my community name, (email address vs. FMonk), and there is an account out there named 'FMonk' that isn't mine
wink.gif
 
hmm, where is it that your seach by steamID, then? I only saw where to search in the community, and mattroidprime brings no results there, what mattroid brings up two (the other one must die).
 
Damn, looks like these won't play well on my laptop
frown.gif
Everything looks and runs like total ass in L4D. While this doesn't surprise me too much, I was hoping I could get it to run decently if I gave up some graphic abilities. I'm going through the console commands now...I wonder if there's an command to really dumb down the graphics like I used to do when playing Quake online way back in the day? I forget what that command was called now, but it made everything blocky as hell, which in turn increased network performance when playing over dial up
tongue.gif


EDIT: In quake, it may have been a combo of d_mipcap and d_mipscale...still looking...
 
I just opened the friends window, and hit the 'add friends' button at the bottom. I typed in mattroidprime and it worked. I haven't had much luck 'searching' for people honestly. Most of the people on my friends list were added by going to the "View list of users recently played with". That combined with joining the groups I'm in has given me a healthy list of 80-some people, probably half of them play regularly.
 
The potential downfall is that in 20 years, who knows if Steam will still be around?

There's a hack that tricks the game into working without steam. Of course, I doubt you'll have multiplayer with it. Also, as long as you have logged in once, you can disconnect your internet and run in offline mode.
 
Okay, yeah that worked. Makes more sense to do it that way anyway, but I somehow totally missed the Add Friend button down there
tongue.gif
 
Back
Top Bottom