Civ5 - shipping with Steamworks * plus Digital Deluxe Edition

I use steam daily and am loving this news. Steam achievements? Yes please.

joasoze said:

I had Empire TW in my hand at Gamestop. On the back of the box it said Steam account required..

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So, you're proving my point? Steam did not sell you that game, it's just required to activate it. You could install steam, install your game, set steam to offline mode and play without steam ever doing anything.

Also, steam supports the 'little guys' far more than any one person ever could. By selling games from smaller developers on steam, they sell tons more copies than they would sitting on the $10 shelf at Wal Mart.

I never would have bought a game like Osmos normally, but because of steam I noticed it and bought it

AbsintheRed said:

I was thinking exactly the same

I was going to buy Civ V as soon as it somes out.
Now I will download a pirate version instead to try it out, otherwise will stick to Civ IV BtS
Great move Firaxis, you just lost half of your core civ players for Civ V

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Isn't it bannable to admit to piracy on this forum? Zero tolerance policy and all that?

Since I was going to use Steam to buy the game anyway, this changes nothing. Sure, I hate preorder DLC like the plague but that's alright.

People will buy new civilizations provided it ain't expensive. Preorders are usually what? Five bucks? For one Civ, meh usually but given what else comes with the Digital Deluxe Edition, I can't blame them.

deanej said:

There are two types of computer users. Those who simply use the computer and are happy if they can do what they want, and those who OWN and MANAGE the computer and actually like doing this. Steam is great for the former. Not so great for the latter.

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Really? we have a proper word in my language for those who OWN and MANAGE the computer and actually like doing this. Elitism at its best.
Anyway I have 150 programs on my pc (not including the ubuntu partition) and I consider it pretty "clean" (or sanitized if that suits you more ). Steam is like a feather in front of other programs: 85 mb ram usage. Mozilla with 6 tabs open: 125 mb. It also has the option not to autostart with windows if you haven't noticed. It also has the option not to auto sign in to the messenger service if you again haven't noticed, so your "privacy" can be safe.

AbsintheRed said:

I was thinking exactly the same
Steam is for stupid people, who can't manage their own computer and the games on it
WTF is this about?
Forced steam for everyone?? Go to hell

I was going to buy Civ V as soon as it somes out.
Now I will download a pirate version instead to try it out, otherwise will stick to Civ IV BtS
Great move Firaxis, you just lost half of your core civ players for Civ V

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I hope it is an ironic comment..If not I have nothing to say because talking to you is a waste of time.

Mathalamus said:

i am one of the latter. i will not have steam keeping control of MY games and MY saves and MY mods. and i would NEVER get anyone control what i do with my game. remove all DRM everywhere. sure some will still pirate it, but you'd have a lot more people buying it.

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You must feel pretty good about yourself with your STRICT standards. You are the epitome of The Whiner btw .

I know I'm being a troll but how else can you reply to these people? Why do you act like your computer is an extension of yourselves and putting software there (that's not even bad) hurts you?

It's completely absurd and ironic to say "I wont buy Civ V because of steam" on a fan forum called Civilization FANATICS Center. I mean who are you kidding? Are you a fan of civ or not? And we are talking about Valve who is one of the most consumer friendly companies out there. 120 team fortress 2 updates since release say it all.

phoinix said:

Really? we have a proper word in my language for those who OWN and MANAGE the computer and actually like doing this. Elitism at its best.
Anyway I have 150 programs on my pc (not including the ubuntu partition) and I consider it pretty "clean" (or sanitized if that suits you more ). Steam is like a feather in front of other programs: 85 mb ram usage. Mozilla with 6 tabs open: 125 mb. It also has the option not to autostart with windows if you haven't noticed. It also has the option not to auto sign in to the messenger service if you again haven't noticed, so your "privacy" can be safe.

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85 megabyte usage for a game platform is unacceptable. period. no one can code it that badly.

You must feel pretty good about yourself with your STRICT standards. You are the epitome of The Whiner btw .

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my strict standards keep MY computer nice and clean and fast and junk free. it also saves MY bandwith. and it gives me greater control over MY games MY applications, etc. handing that right over to steam is suicide.

FML, I already killed my last computer installing steam for HL2 and now they want me to kill this one. Steam eats all of your computer resources, even more then Norton! Thanks a lot firaxis

Mathalamus said:

85 megabyte usage for a game platform is unacceptable. period. no one can code it that badly.



my strict standards keep MY computer nice and clean and fast and junk free. it also saves MY bandwith. and it gives me greater control over MY games MY applications, etc. handing that right over to steam is suicide.

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My steam runs at 13MB, less than a browser window, half of what skype is running at completely idle.

That's nothing

TCMIV said:

So, you're proving my point? Steam did not sell you that game, it's just required to activate it. You could install steam, install your game, set steam to offline mode and play without steam ever doing anything.

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You won't have access to community and multiplayer or any online features, and you will need to be online in order to go offline. If a Steamworks title also provides cloud support, you will not have access to some of those features (depends upon what they're tracking). Achievements may or may not be affected by offline status. Also, until you actually use offline mode for a while, you won't really know what you're talking about. Since you make it sounds easy and painless, I'm going with "you have never once used offline mode". You are welcome to reject my statement. You will run into issues/problems that ultimately require you to go back online. This is one reason why you (very often) see Steam client patch notes that have line items specifically about offline mode for this or that title.

A digest of recent Steam client patch notes affecting offline mode:

April 29: Fix reconnect attempts while Friends/VAC is offline causing stuttering in the client and potentially in Steamworks games

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March 2: Really fixed offline mode not always working

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February 23: Fixed offline mode not working

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January 18: Fixed cloud games attempting to sync when the client is in offline mode

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What isn't stated clearly, is that in each of the above cases, games wouldn't work in offline mode. Not partially, not almost work, they just don't work because in those instances the client can't handle the exception. And it happens frequently enough to make it so that Steam says this about offline mode:

Please note that you must connect to the Steam Network and test each of the games you would like to use in Offline Mode at least once to set up your account and configure Offline Mode on your machine.

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I for one will continue to play Civ IV. It's served me well enough over the years and it will hardly commit suicide now that Civ V is being released.

TCMIV said:

My steam runs at 13MB, less than a browser window, half of what skype is running at completely idle.

That's nothing

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its still completely unnecessary. civilization 5 shouldn't require steam anyway. nearly all fo the games don't NEED steam.

AbsintheRed said:

I was thinking exactly the same
Steam is for stupid people, who can't manage their own computer and the games on it
WTF is this about?
Forced steam for everyone?? Go to hell

I was going to buy Civ V as soon as it somes out.
Now I will download a pirate version instead to try it out, otherwise will stick to Civ IV BtS
Great move Firaxis, you just lost half of your core civ players for Civ V

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Steam is also for people who want to buy games that just don't exist on shelves where they live (Wal-Mart's PC games section is sorely lacking of anything that isn't an MMO or new and Gamestop doesn't have a PC game section near where I live).

Which leaves me to either A.) Slog around store to store finding a game I want like EUIII or CivIV or B.) Get both straight to my computer using a free service.

Also, your post must be trolling because you say "you just lost half your core civ players" right after saying "I'm going to get a pirated version instead".

The people on here complaining about Steam is just strange and some just ignorant. Steam doesn't control your save games, mods, or even games. Take EUIII for example, it's fully possible for me to play without even looking at Steam. I can throw mods into the mod folder as easily as I could otherwise (the folder is a bit deeper but if I have to get in often, I make a shortcut) and start up the game throw the game's default loader by dragging the shortcut to my desktop.

So, unless Civilization V doesn't have that extra possible entrance into the game like HoI3 or EUIII do, then that's on their face, not Steam's.

However, on the flip side, I can totally see why having to download a middle man to play a game is stupid.

Sonereal said:

Steam is also for people who want to buy games that just don't exist on shelves where they live (Wal-Mart's PC games section is sorely lacking of anything that isn't an MMO or new and Gamestop doesn't have a PC game section near where I live).

Which leaves me to either A.) Slog around store to store finding a game I want like EUIII or CivIV or B.) Get both straight to my computer using a free service.

Also, your post must be trolling because you say "you just lost half your core civ players" right after saying "I'm going to get a pirated version instead".

The people on here complaining about Steam is just strange and some just ignorant. Steam doesn't control your save games, mods, or even games. Take EUIII for example, it's fully possible for me to play without even looking at Steam. I can throw mods into the mod folder as easily as I could otherwise (the folder is a bit deeper but if I have to get in often, I make a shortcut) and start up the game throw the game's default loader by dragging the shortcut to my desktop.

So, unless Civilization V doesn't have that extra possible entrance into the game like HoI3 or EUIII do, then that's on their face, not Steam's.

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it does control your saved games.

Mathalamus said:

its still completely unnecessary. civilization 5 shouldn't require steam anyway. nearly all fo the games don't NEED steam.

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Why does civ2 require more than a megabyte of hard drive space? It's totally unnecessary.

Why does civ4 not run on my 486? These extra graphics are totally unnecessary!

Jarvi said:

Why does civ2 require more than a megabyte of hard drive space? It's totally unnecessary.

Why does civ4 not run on my 486? These extra graphics are totally unnecessary!

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their necessary cause its part of the game. steam is not part of the game.

Mathalamus said:

their necessary cause its part of the game. steam is not part of the game.

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Steamworks is an integrated part of the game now so I think your information is wrong!

Jarvi, if you're going to quote a post, actually address the post rather than simply posting drivel.

I have bought countless games on Steam and I do like it, but for an "open platform" I don't like this kind of deals, be it on Steam, Direct2Drive or Impulse.

still, Football Manager 2010 has a different version on Steam, where achivements are enabled (don't know about other features though). it seems that the biggest benefit for 2K/Firaxis is regarding multiplayer, but other games, such as King Arthur got "gimped" versions on other systems. for example, you can buy it on Impulse too, but that version doesn't have multiplayer. and there are other examples too.

if they thought sales would decrease too much with Steam, I believe they'd go that route, but clearly that's not the case here.

also, Steam is occupying 11mb minimized here, and if you don't want it consuming your bandwidth, you can disable every notification and even stopping it from auto-updating your games. if you don't even wanna see the Store page, you can also set it to show your Games tab whenever you open Steam.

What exactly about my posts do you have a problem with, Arakhor? I'm addressing the topics that I quote. Steam is a part of Civ5 and it's integrated with it's friends list, overlay, and auto patching system therefore it's not unnecessary at all.

Being necessary to playing the game does not remove the fact that the game could have functioned very easily without it. That is what makes Steam exclusivity unnecessary. Besides which, your argument is circular.

Your "point" about Civ IV not running on a 486 was complete drivel as no one was talking about Civ IV or 486 compatibility.