running out of Steam

[deltasquire]

I do not have a fast Internet connection, so have never been an on-line player. Civ has been good for me because the challenge the AI offers. Was really looking forward to Civ5, but was somewhat distressed to discover Steam was required. On first install from DVD (which took about 3-4 hours), managed to play 2 full games and had about 15-20 freeze-ups. All playing was done off-line. Went on-line to read support discussions and Steam took over my machine and d/l'd a "fix". After that, was unable to play anything - on or off line. So I uninstalled and tried a new install. It took me from 8:39am to 4:20pm to d/l the program. Was unable to play anything now, so went back to Steam - which took another 45 minutes to d/l the "fix." After that, things just got worse - sound problems, screen jumps, resolution changes. Reached the point only way to escape was to do a hard stop - could not access Task Manager. BTW, my machine is a new Alienware M17x, drivers current, etc., etc. I think I will go back to Civ4 and wait awhile to try Civ5 again. Give you tech guys some time to sort things out. I really would like a way to play off-line, however. Do not care for the Steam paradigm. Thanks for letting me vent

[Kornstalx]

Steam isn't 'doing' anything malicious to your machine. It is not bloat-ware.

Steam is a 3rd party distribution system that the developers of Civ5 (Firaxis) chose to use. The game itself is designed with the Steamworks SDK as part of it, and you cannot play Civ5 without Steam installed, regardless of whether if it's a retail boxed copy.

Firaxis chose to use Steam for a lot of reasons. Most importantly is that Steam allows the game devs to easily release patches. When a problem is found and fixed, instead of simply putting a patch somewhere on a website and hoping the owners notice/hear about it, the developers can immediately 'push' the patch to every single owner of the game (via Steam). Using Steam also helps curb piracy, as it is effectively another form of DRM.

All those downloads you were experiencing are a direct result of 2K/Firaxis releasing hotfix patches; it's not Steam's fault. You can turn off the auto-updates if it really is that much of a hassle, you know... Right click on the game in Steam Library --> properties. Second tab, turn off automatic updates.

Instead of freaking out and venting here over something that is not Steam's fault, you could Google a bit and try to learn more about it. This is no different than Microsoft nagging you once a month with Windows updates, so chill.

[Teoulas]

Firaxis chose to use Steam for a lot of reasons. Most importantly is that Steam allows the game devs to easily release patches. When a problem is found and fixed, instead of simply putting a patch somewhere on a website and hoping the owners notice/hear about it, the developers can immediately 'push' the patch to every single owner of the game (via Steam). Using Steam also helps curb piracy, as it is effectively another form of DRM.

Thats exactly the reason why steam is crap. Cause as u can see from the various post in this forum a patch made many ppl not able to play the game anymore. So if I had the option to download myself the patches that shouldnt have happened. Also if u try to defend this I should say that if I turn off the autoupdates and do a clean install then the executables must be downloaded from steam. What I do then ? I turn autoupdates on and voilla I got the game patched and not able to run it. Well u can defend this with that also: Its not steams fault 2k releases bad patches. To that I agree.

[Kornstalx]

Its not steams fault 2k releases bad patches. To that I agree.

Aye, that's the main point I was trying to convey.

Also if u try to defend this I should say that if I turn off the autoupdates and do a clean install then the executables must be downloaded from steam.

I haven't actually disabled the auto-update for civ5 (only used it occasionally on other games). Are you saying that when you turn it off, the game refuses to start unless you turn updates back on?

[Teoulas]

Aye, that's the main point I was trying to convey.

I haven't actually disabled the auto-update for civ5 (only used it occasionally on other games). Are you saying that when you turn it off, the game refuses to start unless you turn updates back on?

With a clean install of the game yes.