BWX

Just found this - though tit was kinda funny.

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@/2ct!<

Its funny cause its true

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Mazuko

It was true at release, not any more.


Error: The last random error that steam has at this particular moment (and that is being reported by the community) is a cache flushing problem, that requires disabling compatability mode for the application under windows XP, flushing the cache and redownloading the cache for the game causing the problem, the error gets fixed. VALVe is working to solve this error now.

Download: It should take about 8 hours to download the full gigabyte of data for the entier steam cache system on a 56k.

Freeze: This is system specific and typically happens to impatient people at system boot. Disable all of those "startup programs" via msconfig and it does not freeze. That "freeze" most people are talking about is the application waiting to hear back from the Steam servers. If you have 50 programs starting up at the same time, or you are having networing problems preventing you from connecting to the Steam network, it "looks" like it is frozen.

Game: Always caused by a videocard or directX error associated with your system. Once again, this is system speicific.

Crash: Yet another system specific situation as this typically happens due to videocard and directX errors that happen for a plethora of reasons. This also occurs to a drop of the Steam file system when an individuals computer loses the connection to the server.

Format: This does not occur any more. It was done on Steam's official release date to help cut down the load on the Steam file system servers. Unfortunately alot of people had problems with this one. You can not blame the software for that however as the USER clicked on the option to convert their Half-Life directory to Steam. After so many complaints from users, this particular option was removed from the Steam installation system and you must download the cached files directly.

All cached files are available from www.steampowered.com .

Finally an update was just released last night:

» Fixed "Cache read error" some user are experiencing
» Steam now checks for invalid CD keys immediately on game launch
» Optimized content server load balancing
» Change banner to always show the most recently connected content server
» Fixed "No config servers online" state error
» Steam now handles simultaneously logging in to multiple machines better
» Fixed forced disconnections happening too often - this will now only happen if Steam's filesystem is lost
» Fixed several cases where the 'ticket has expired' error could occur without displaying the refresh login dialog
» Fixed all cases of the #Steam_Roo missing string problem
» Added support for ATI "Rebate" product keys



P.S.: No I am not disgruntled, just wanted to set the record straight.

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BWX

WOW, well since you put it like THAT.. It really is true!

Man, a whole GIGABYTE!!?!!??!!? WTF does steam need a whole GIGABYTE for? I know nothing about steam YET.. But after reading all this, maybe I don't need HL2 that bad.. Steam really is a steaming pile..

So when are the next batch of problems coming? With a history like that, I'm sure that isn't the end of it.. Man, I better go read up on this before I buy any game that requires steam to play single player!


edit-- went to look at steam's site- I see this:

---------Latest News-----------
====================
Steam Update Released
------------------------------------
A new Steam update has been released.
See the news page for details.

Steam Update Released
-----------------------------------
A Steam update has just been released.
It is a fixed version of last week's
update, so the list of what's included
is the same.


LOL- a patch to fix the patch to fix the patch to fix the patch to fix the patch? I hope they get it together before they release HL2-- If they ever release HL2.

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Mazuko

You misunderstood what the gigabyte of data contains.

You can download each game individuallly. Heck here is the actual file size information. These are the exact same file sizes as if you were to buy the games in the store as they are FULL VERSIONS. If you don't download the 724.3MB file which contains EVERY game, you can just download whatever one you want to play...you don't HAVE to download every single one. I mentioned the Full Steam Installer as that is what people that use steam typically download as they want to play every game.



Full Steam Installer (includes caches for all games): (723.4 MB)

Counter-Strike Steam Installer: (379.4 MB)

Half-Life Steam Installer: (211.6 MB)

Opposing Force Steam Installer: (289.8 MB)

Day of Defeat Steam Installer: (396.2 MB)

Team Fortress Classic Steam Installer: (272.3 MB)

Deathmatch Classic Steam Installer: (23.7 MB)

Ricochet Steam Installer: (15.5 MB)

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BWX

I have never and will never play counter strike, so I'm safe there-

but I was just snooping around and saw this- And this is all from Sep 30th!?!?! WOW- major bugs- huge bugs , massive bugs.. I'd be giving up if I wanted to use steam..

I'm just hoping they get there s***t together before I have to install this big gob of code on my PC to play HL2. WOW.. I am scared.

color=steaming pile [color=996633]STEAM NEWS
LATEST STEAM NEWS




Steam Update Released
October 31, 2003, 5:16 pm · Greg Coomer

A new Steam update has been released. Restarting Steam will cause your Steam client to automatically update. Here are the changes:
Fixed "Cache read error" some user are experiencing
Steam now checks for invalid CD keys immediately on game launch
Optimized content server load balancing
Change banner to always show the most recently connected content server
Fixed "No config servers online" state error
Steam now handles siultaneously logging in to multiple machines better
Fixed forced disconnections happening too often - this will now only happen if Steam's filesystem is lost
Fixed several cases where the 'ticket has expired' error could occur without displaying the refresh login dialog
Fixed all cases of the #Steam_Roo missing string problem
Added support for ATI "Rebate" product keys






Steam Update Released
October 28, 2003, 3:53 pm · Greg Coomer

A Steam update has just been released. It is a fixed version of last week's update, so the list of what's included is the same:
Added support for "trickle update", which will allow updates to games to be delivered over time before they are activated.
Optimizations in Steam targeted at reducing CPU and memory load on some systems.
Progress dialog always shows now during startup.
Fixed handling of cache fingerprint mismatch on reconnect
Fixed case which would cause the preloader ignoring errors to send extra messages to the Steam servers.
Fixed bug in Steam that would cause cache to be validated too often when Steam started. This would cause hard drive thrashing.
Fixed a potential lockup case and access violation case in Steam.
We've also added support for ATI bundle product keys. So it is now possible for purchasers of new ATI video cards to use their product keys for subscriptions to the Valve Premier Pack. (Half-Life 2 will be added to the subscription when it comes out.)





Condition Zero, and Other Steam News
October 23, 2003, 12:32 pm · Greg Coomer

Several exciting things are happening in the coming weeks.

Changes to the Steam Network
Things have stabilized quite a bit since the Steam release last month. Over the weekend the number of simultaneous Steam users in-game reached an all time high. We are, however, definitely still stamping out bugs.

We are about to make some significant additions and changes to the Steam network in order to guarantee quality of service during the Counter-Strike: Condition Zero rollout. We’ll be adding lots of new content servers and plenty of bandwidth to handle the load in the next couple of weeks.

Before we release CS:CZ, we will need to test these changes to see how they hold up under lots of stress. Stay tuned for details of how you can help us test the network (and get some free stuff in the process).

Offline/LAN play
Work on offline/LAN play is now nearing completion. To play any Steam game while not connected to the Internet it will only be necessary to let Steam finish downloading all of that game’s content, at which point you’ll be able to play games without connecting to Steam.

WON
Roughly 50% of the community has migrated to using Steam as the way to play our games. The WON authentication system won’t go away until Steam is ready for the entire user base. We don’t yet have an exact date when this will happen.

Banning, Cheaters, etc.
The process of banning Steam accounts with bad (or duplicate) CD keys was behind for a while, but the servers which handle these transactions have caught up with the backlog. This means that many of the people currently using cheats in CS are dissappearing.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Valve is about to ship Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and the game will soon be available through Steam. The in-store date and the Steam release date will be the same day. Watch this space (or your Steam Games list) for details.





Update Recalled
October 21, 2003, 4:05 pm · Greg Coomer

We have identified a bug in the recent update which was causing Steam users to download much more content than was necessary. This was overloading the network and not allowing people to play games, so we have reverted back to the previous version for now. There will probably be some network congestion due to all this for the next couple of hours or so.





Steam Client Update Released
October 21, 2003, 12:08 pm · Greg Coomer

A Steam update has just been released. The next time you restart Steam, the update will take effect. Here are the details on what is included:
Added support for "trickle update", which will allow updates to games to be delivered over time before they are activated.
Optimizations in Steam targeted at reducing CPU and memory load on some systems.
Progress dialog always shows now during startup.
Fixed handling of cache fingerprint mismatch on reconnect
Fixed case which would cause the preloader ignoring errors to send extra messages to the Steam servers.
Fixed bug in Steam that would cause cache to be validated too often when Steam started. This would cause hard drive thrashing.
Fixed a potential lockup case and access violation case in Steam.






HLTV Update Released
October 14, 2003, 7:21 pm · Greg Coomer

An update has just been released which fixes HLTV. (HLTV is the proxy server which enables server admins to let large numbers of people spectate games in progress.) When admins restart their dedicated servers, this update will take effect automatically.

In the server browser, try using the "Spectate" tab to find HLTV servers.





Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic Updates Released
October 10, 2003, 3:01 pm · Greg Coomer

Updates for Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic have just been released through Steam. These are server updates, so once admins have restarted their servers the update will take effect. Here is what's included:

Team Fortress Classic

fixed teleporter crash
fixed spectator crash
Counter-Strike

fixed shield not resetting player max speed when dropped
fixed being able to throw shield through walls if close enough
fixed dropping shield while reloading pistol causing the reload to happen faster
fixed case where shield could become invisible to other users
fixed typos in de_aztec and de_airstrip map descriptions






Steam Update Released
October 7, 2003, 2:49 pm · Greg Coomer

A Steam update was released yesterday. When you exit and restart Steam, the following changes will take effect.
update news for games is now always shown when first launching the new version
fixed case where connecting to third-party mods via the server browser would launch cstrike instead
fixed login dialog items staying disabled after login attempt failed with a network connection error
fixed user interface #strings being displayed instead of the intended text






New Steam Update Released
October 1, 2003, 6:37 pm · Greg Coomer

A Steam update has just been released -- it will take effect automatically when you exit and restart Steam. Here's what's new:

fixed bug where favorite servers would not get saved to disk if filtered out
increased max servers listed from 10,000 to 20,000
fixed 'add friends' and 'game info' dialogs showing up over gameplay in game
fixed problem with not always being able to re-add friends after removing them
fixed case where authorization request dialog could appear multiple times from the same user
fixed chat messages & authorization requests stealing focus and not starting minimized
fixed auto-away not working
removed 'about' dialog
fixed add-on (checkers, etc) invites when in game appearing over the top of the game, instead of just in the gameUI area
removed unnecessary bind() calls for client UDP sockets
chat dialogs now add a message into the text whenever the other user changes status
fixed spurious character in Game Info dialog
change 'time' info in game info player list to be in hours:minutes:seconds instead of just seconds
changed game info player list to default to sorting by score, then time






Day of Defeat Update Released
September 30, 2003, 5:28 pm · Greg Coomer

An update for Day of Defeat has just been released. This release contains two updated maps and several bug fixes. Here's a list of exactly what's included:

Updated dod_escape
Updated dod_flugplatz
Fixed linux server
Fixed mp_clan_restartround - enter 'mp_clan_restartround 1' while in clan mode to restart
Added mp_clan_readyrestart - enter 'mp_clan_readyrestart 1' - when someone from each team has said 'ready', the round will restart
Fixed cl_lw recoil exploit
Minor work to lessen server cpu usage in AddToFullPack
Fixed speed bug with zooming, sprint and stamina
Ducking in mid air no longer recovers stamina
Don't force any help messages if the user has '_ah 0'
Slowed sniper zoom speed from 70 to 42[/color] /color steaming pile

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Mazuko

When you release a file delivery system not used anywhere in the world before for this particular form of application you are going to have bugs.

Steam encomapses numerous games, a pay to play system, a game purchasing system, the STEAM/VALVE/WONID system, a file delivery system, an anti-cheating system, an instant-messenger system, a server browser, a authentication system, an update system, parlor games like chess, HLTV which allows you to connect to a server to watch a game without playing or using up the games resources/player slots, and numerous other application specific functions.

Steam was, and has been desgigned as a game delivery/distribution system for future developers to distribute their applications over. Do some research into Steam and you will understand, you are just not catching on to the actual application of the Steam platform. With so many games and applications supported under one platform you are guaranteed to have gobs of updates for each individual application. If you don't have the application on your harddrive you don't have to download that update...


-edited for spelling and added another application

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BWX

Wait a second, we already have that- it is called the internet. Can't all those things be done without stream? Steam is just going to get hacked exactly the same way everything else does. Maybe they shouldn't have tried to put so much extra crap in what just needs to be an anti-cheat, anti-game theft- program. That;s all it needs to be-- all that other stuff is ridiculous.. Why do I need STEAM to download file? Why do I need STEAM for an IM client? Why do I need STEAM for updates? Why do I need STEAM for chess and all that other stuff? Why do I need STEAM for server browsing? Other games have authentication systems, you don't need steam for that...

Especially if it doesn't work.. Damn... Why should I have to be limited to steam's bandwidth for downloading updates and files.. That is ridiculous.. After hearing this, I know why people hate steam, and I know now that it will never work right..


No wonder HL2 is delayed..

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BWX

I just looked at download screen--


How much does it cost? It says everywhere "download, download download!!" not once does it mention price--

So all the games are free?

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Mazuko

The Steam platform PROVIDES an IM client to use in game without having to hit the annoying alt-tab and frankly it works quite well to communicate with users connected via Steam. You need Steam for updates as they are not being released for VALVE's games in any other format. You do not need Steam for server browsing but, server browsing has been included in every single first person shooter product that has servers for online play. You can either A) use the server browser that comes with steam or B) go download some third party server browser so you can find a multi-player game to play on. Your right other games have authentication systems, but those are for those other games. Steam has authentication systems for all of the games THEY DISTRIBUTE.....your not going to find Raven software providing authentication for Half-Life based games. Steams bandwidth is phenomenal. Did you bother to take a look at the number of content servers available? I never spend more than 2 minutes downloading an update. Hell it took me 2 hours to download the 734MB full steam installer from their content servers. Sure you don't need steam for Chess and other parlor games, but they are there already no point in taking them out.

Why release a file to the masses via 3rd party websites, than have problems of people not applying the patch so than not being able to play games on your network? That would be stupid, so they make sure anyone who connects to the Steam network for online multiplayer play has the most up-to-date version so that they can play. It is phenomenally intelligent.

-edit Just saw your last post

It is free as long as you have a valid CDKEY from a previous VALVe release as far as I know. I also believe the entire thing is free right now as they are continually testing their load limits. It would be ridiculous if VALVe decided to charge people to play their games online that they already purchased at the store haha. Hopefully that doesn't occur.

-edit 2
God my spelling is atrocious, I apologize.

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BWX

Well I hope it works out- And they don't start charging for things that would otherwise be free- And take advantage of the monopoly they will automatically have when everyone signs up when they buy HL2..

It would be great if it works, and be a complete failure if it doesn't.

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One Big Ass Mistake America

@/2ct!<

THey should definately include steam in retail version of HL2 so you wont need to waste time downloadin all of it.

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BetrayerX

""Download: It should take about 8 hours to download the full gigabyte of data for the entier steam cache system on a 56k."" RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG HT!

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BWX

Yeah, I can download 700mb in about 20 min.. But if stream is that slow- them I'll break my HL2 CD into a million pieces.

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Vehicon

Hummm, i have never had any problems with Steam.You guys just must be unlucky or something 8)~

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