Topic: Valve announces Steam Cloud

[idolminds]

Story

Basically, Steam will store your keyboard configs and save games server side. If you reinstall or log in on someone elses PC, you can play from where you left off with your controls all set up.

Interesting feature, though I hope you can disable it. Keyboard config, yay! But game saves can be large-ish and I don't want to deal with uploading them.

[gpw11]

That's actually pretty sweet.

[MysterD]

That's pretty cool to me!

As much as I'm not a big fan of Steam (b/c SP games need activation), I do like some of the features such as Steam Community....and now, add this to the list of cool things Steam got goin' on. Sweet.

[Ghandi]

Cool. I can't think of anytime that I have ever needed to use something like this, but I like the idea.

[Quemaqua]

Sounds completely stupid and useless to me, and that isn't even my anti-Steam side talking.  I guess that's just me.

[ren]

stupid and useless? This is awesome. Reformatting or switching computers theirs always some gave saves I forget to back up. Or I think I backed them up but their was some random other file I also had to back up and didn't know about.

It's also great if you use more than one computer. I use my own laptop and a family computer that's better at playing games. Now instead of having to transport save files between computers, Steam will just do it for me.

[scottws]

Here's an anti-Steam thing:

I wanted to play Sam & Max Episode 4 yesterday.  Our internet was out.  It always goes out when there is a big rainstorm.  Not a problem right?  Sam & Max isn't an online game.

So I try to open Steam.  It says "Updating Steam" for like three minutes, with no progress.  Eventually it takes me to the login box.  I put my stuff in there and log in.  It says it can't contact the Steam servers and I have the option to Retry or Offline Mode.  Of course I select Offline Mode.

It then gives me some stupid response like "Cannot perform that function in offline mode."  What?  I can't... you know... play my offline games?  WTF?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wow I hate Steam.

[gpw11]

Here's an anti-Steam thing:

I wanted to play Sam & Max Episode 4 yesterday.  Our internet was out.  It always goes out when there is a big rainstorm.  Not a problem right?  Sam & Max isn't an online game.

So I try to open Steam.  It says "Updating Steam" for like three minutes, with no progress.  Eventually it takes me to the login box.  I put my stuff in there and log in.  It says it can't contact the Steam servers and I have the option to Retry or Offline Mode.  Of course I select Offline Mode.

It then gives me some stupid response like "Cannot perform that function in offline mode."  What?  I can't... you know... play my offline games?  WTF?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wow I hate Steam.

Yeah, that's the number one unnaceptable problem with STEAM and basically why I'll never be buying readily available retail games off of it.  I mean, I see why they do it, but that doesn't make it any less of a bullshit system.

[Ghandi]

Here's an anti-Steam thing:

I wanted to play Sam & Max Episode 4 yesterday.  Our internet was out.  It always goes out when there is a big rainstorm.  Not a problem right?  Sam & Max isn't an online game.

So I try to open Steam.  It says "Updating Steam" for like three minutes, with no progress.  Eventually it takes me to the login box.  I put my stuff in there and log in.  It says it can't contact the Steam servers and I have the option to Retry or Offline Mode.  Of course I select Offline Mode.

It then gives me some stupid response like "Cannot perform that function in offline mode."  What?  I can't... you know... play my offline games?  WTF?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wow I hate Steam.

I'm pretty sure that there's a much lengthier, more profane version of that post somewhere else on the boards.

[idolminds]

I think offline mode has never worked like it should.

[Quemaqua]

Never.  People claim the program is so much better now, but I'm sorry, it's a buggy piece of shit.  It just plain doesn't work the way it should consistently.  Enjoy the program all you want, that doesn't make it anything less a buggy piece of shit.

[scottws]

It turns out the Steam client software has to be fully updated and you have to have previously saved your password while logging in online for offline mode to work.

The first part I don't get.  How would Steam know it's not fully updated if there is no network connection?

[Ghandi]

Another fun thing I just learned about Steam: If you want to uninstall one of their games, you have to do it through the client. Meaning, if the client isn't updated and you don't have access to the internet you can't uninstall. I just had to update Steam to uninstall a freaking game. @!#$

[Quemaqua]

Haha... oh the comedy.  That just made my day.

[gpw11]

Another fun thing I just learned about Steam: If you want to uninstall one of their games, you have to do it through the client. Meaning, if the client isn't updated and you don't have access to the internet you can't uninstall. I just had to update Steam to uninstall a freaking game. @!#$

Is this first hand?  I only ask because I've definitly uninstalled Steam based games through add/remove progams.

[Ghandi]

Yes, first hand. I used CCleaner, but it doesn't do anything special, it just forgoes the need to go through the control panel and use the Windows add/remove. The end result is the same.

It's interesting that you had different results. You didn't have to go through Steam to uninstall them?

[gpw11]

No, I just went through add/remove programs, although I guess it could be program specific and some games have to be removed through STEAM.  I also can't remember if going through add/remove programs started the STEAM launcher and that took over from there so that could be the case.

[Ghandi]

Well, at the very least Quake 2 and some demos have to be removed through Steam. I guess independent verification might be helpful if anyone else wants to uninstall a game.

In any case....fuck Steam....and so forth.

[idolminds]

Well, if you know what to look for you can uninstall Steam stuff without running Steam. Valves own games are in gfc files that are named for whatever game. Team Fortress 2.gfc, for example. Deleting the file is the same as uninstalling it.

In the steamapps\common directory, each non-Valve game has its own directory. You can delete that directory and the game is essentially uninstalled.

[Ghandi]

Ah, ok. Good to know.

Even still, it's fucking ridiculous that you should have to do that. You shouldn't have to update a client to uninstall a game.

[idolminds]

Thats Steam for you. How about the nearly useless "Do not auto-update this game" option? Unless you're in offline mode (which, hey, is still a broken mess) it will still force you to update a game to play it. That singleplayer game that you have been playing for weeks just fine? Uh oh, theres an update and you have no choice if you update or not. Not so bad until you see some games where previous save games arent compatable with new patches. It could really fuck you over.

[gpw11]

Ah, ok. Good to know.

Even still, it's fucking ridiculous that you should have to do that. You shouldn't have to update a client to uninstall a game.

Yeah, thinking about it more I'm fairly certain I've had to launch STEAM in order to uninstall some shitty mod.  I/ don't know if it's a base STEAM problem or just shitty developers though.  Either way, it shouldn't even really be an option for them.