Or create Steam support ticket (which is much more likely way to get reply).
Civilization 5 Steamworks questions/concerns for inclusion in the FAQ
- Thread starter 2K Greg
- Start date
Or create Steam support ticket (which is much more likely way to get reply).
2K Greg
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I think you're looking at different answers in the before and after versions. This is the corrected answer of note:
Dennis Shirk: We are going to have basic multiplayer options at release, and then are going to be adding a number of new modes in the weeks thereafter. We haven't hammered down exactly what will release when, but when everything is finalized, we'll be making a big announcement, because we're really excited about all the options Civ players are going to have.
The question about matchmaking is a different question entirely. Hope that clears it up!
Commander Bello
Say No 2 Net Validations
Greg, I have another question.
Civ3 had a hardcoded limit for number of cities and (this I only assume) for units.
Luckily, Civ4 has got rid of those limitations.
I may take it as granted that no such limit has been coded into Civ5?
Civ3 had a hardcoded limit for number of cities and (this I only assume) for units.
Luckily, Civ4 has got rid of those limitations.
I may take it as granted that no such limit has been coded into Civ5?
mjs0
The 4th X
In addition, the initial vanilla Civ4 had a limit on the number of Civs hard-coded in the EXE (I believe an array was allocated there and then made available to the DLL so it couldn't be easily changed.)
The allocation was later moved to the DLL in Warlords or BTS, I forget which.
It would be good to confirm Civ5 has not regressed in this area either.
CanuckSoldier
Emperor
That is not a true statement, you are not required to install Gamespy Arcade, but the Gamespy code is embedded in the game and powers the lobby( and the p2p NAT system), so infact you are installing Gamespy's code. The fact that Steam uses an external program instead of embedding the system in every game is just a design decsision and doesn't inherently make Steam any worse than what GS does.
Of course steam is also a DRM platform which GS is not, but that is another issue.
CS
Rusty Edge
Deity
My concern is that additional questions appear to be delaying answers.
Ok didn't know that but could at least block gamespy and the game from the internet and still worked, downloading the patches then installing, so never need to have gamespy send you details.
Steam will not be like that.
kozzer
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Why not? You can install Steam/Civ5, do your one-time activation, and then just put Steam into offline mode and go into your firewall settings to block both apps (assuming you're only doing single player). If you want to do multiplayer, then what you say is correct, though.
tom2050
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The limit of 512 cities for Conquests has been removed by a member of the modding community from a Russian Civ site (IIRC) and is available via a patch
Unfortunately the unit limit remains (8,192 units in some cases is not enough 
).I agree, I hope Civ 5 doesn't have hardcoded limits as such.
kozzer
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My understanding is that it only does that if it's able to connect to the internet. So if you're in offline mode, and it does its weekly check or whatever, but can't connect, then it just stops trying until the next time you fire Steam up. And if you always keep it blocked (since they said specifically that you can still install mods the Civ4 way, you don't need to use their mod browser) then this scenario will just repeat ad infinitum.
Though I do concede that I'm not 100% sure about that, so if anyone has seen anything definitive that this isn't the case, I'd be interested to see it.
tom2050
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There were some reports that some members that were offline (no internet) had Steam completely block the playing of the game until they connect; which either was said to happen every 6 weeks or something ? Not sure if this was ever verified or if it is just a rumor though.
kozzer
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Yeah, if that is how Steam works, that'd be ridiculously crappy. I mean, if you're required to do the one-time Steam activation before playing, then that should really be it. I've never heard of such a situation personally, and considering how strong peoples' opinions are regarding the Steam/Civ5 integration, I'm taking any hearsay stuff like that with a grain of salt.
Perhaps, that issue will be addressed and we'll know for sure once we see the FAQ in the year 2025.
AFAIK that only happen when either Steam or game files become corrupted - when that happen you just have to get online and have Steam redownload them.
tom2050
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Yes, you are probably right.. that must be the case, because there are not many reports of the other thing happening that I know of or have found, and there are alot of users that have gone on playing offline for a very long time with no probs.
Sam_Yeager
Another Original Geezer
A couple of queries:
- What do you mean by "fire Steam up"? I got the impression that the Steam software starts every time the PC is rebooted.
- What happens if you want to take advantage of the latest patch for new games but not an existing game that uses a mod that you need to use e.g. HOF mod for (S)GOTM games? To date I don't recall hearing that it's possible to run multiple versions of Steam games at different patch levels.
- What happens if you own another Steam game? ISTR someone saying that offline mode is game (product) specific but has this been officially confirmed?
mjs0
The 4th X
You can configure Steam so it does not run on reboot.
This is one of my main outstanding questions.
Tom2050 had the clever idea of installing Steam under multiple windows user accounts so you could keep each at a different patch level.
I have not tested this, but given many families share one computer among users with separate user accounts it would make sense that it would be supported.
It would fail if you need to reinstall, and be somewhat cumbersome to use/manage, but it is the best idea I have seen so far if there is no official solution.
From research, my understanding (but there is some contention around the details and no official statement on this) is that:
- Steam's offline mode is global, not game specific.
- When you are connected to the internet and the Steam client is running in online mode it will check for and try to download patches for all installed games.
- You can override the automatic download of patches with an option, on a game by game basis. This does not disable patching but makes the process manual; be aware though that running the game when online is taken as a manual request to patch
kozzer
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As mjs0 said, you can easily change a setting in Steam so that it does not load automatically when you boot into Windows. Then it behaves like any other app - doesn't load until you launch it.
I have no idea. I would hope that they have some way of handling patch/mod compatibility, but don't have any knowledge on the topic.
I'm not in front of my own PC with steam on it, but as far as I can recall, the "Offline Mode" is a steam-wide setting, not a game-specific one. But I changed the setting back when I installed my only Steam game (HL2), so I don't know for sure.
Sam_Yeager
Another Original Geezer
So all these posts saying that Steam has to run all the time for DRM purposes are wrong? Or does something else Steam related, but not Steam, run instead? 
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