Steam Q&A and FAQ

[.Shane.]

Originally Posted by Greek Stud

Can someone from Steam please contact me? I pre-ordered Civ 5 on September 17 and I still haven't received it and now the Steam webpage doesn't recognize my password or secret question answer. I called the phone number on my bill but no one has called me back.

The OP has links to steam support.

Here is a link to the steam support login. Create an account and log a ticket and you will receive the help you are looking for.

[Greek Stud]

My bad! Someone emailed me today. Thanks for the help Shane. Peace

[Thoughtful Thug]

Originally Posted by CanuckSoldier

1. Can you clarify what ports does Steam/Civ5 use? I'm assuming that as a Steamworks matchmaking game, that it is Steam that is dictating this and not Firaxis's code. And I have had several MP players not able to host games and ask me what ports to forward. Data that seems to be hard to find.

2. Can you clarify how the regional servers effect game data transmission? I have recommended that all Civplayers members use a single server, the NY one in particular, but some european players are stating this causes even more lag in game. I would not think that in a p2p game that Steam would route data threw game list servers, but it seems like it does.

It would really be best if Steam would give Civ5 a global server as we are not that large of an MP community and regional servers serve to fragment what we do have.

Thanks for volunteering to help the community too.

CS

We all in the multiplayer community know that you have been around for quite a while since Civ 3 days, and thank you for your advice and help on regarding issues with multiplayer.

I took your advice on changing my Steam settings (Downloads+Cloud) to New York region, and was not surprised to see more listing of hosted games in progress. But the problem with me, me being from Ohio, is that I have a hard time still on getting games started with the New York region. So, to my avail, I went back to the Columbus one and gotten better connection with players from there (which aren't many btw), but still experience lag and such with players far away from my region. Also I like to add that from questioning people in the Columbus download region, is that most of them are either in Canada or far away as the West Coast, and other places that has their own regional servers.

It's quite chaotic. Too many people still don't know about the NY suggestion you have made, as well as some of them not knowing about what their own download region setting are.

Edit:I have no problem with connecting with other players as far as Russia and other places from games I bought from Steam, as well as other PvP multiplayer games from other ones like GFWL. This is the one that I am quite taken back on wtf is going on here.

[docnessuno]

Hi
Today, for no reason i'm aware of, my steam account has been suspended.
I'm currently unable to play Civ5 (and that's quite frustrating). I didn't recive any warning or anithing stating the reason of the suspension.

I did open a ticket, but from previous experiences with Steam support i fear it is goinf to take a week or so

Since i have the game installed, and already authenticated throught Steam (i did play it quite a lot tbh), is there any legal way to start it in offline mode? trying to run the executables in the game folder doesn't work (nothing starts up).

Also is there ANY way to contact steam apart from support tickets? I'd really like to know why my account has been suspended.

Edit:
I logged on another steam account just to try and run the game in offline mode. I can log in the other account, set steam in oggline mode, but when i try to start Civ5 a steam popup appears "this game cannot be used in offline mode".
This is kinda weird since the first autentication of the game has already been done and for what i ama aware of the game CAN be used in offline mode.
Any hints?

[mrhell]

Originally Posted by jihe

How do I get a refund of civ 5?

You read the Steam user "agreement" before you take the plastic off. One more advantage to having the physical copy instead of downloading off of Steam. Once I found out about the Steam requirement, I took the game back for a refund.

[Fistalis]

Originally Posted by docnessuno

Hi
Today, for no reason i'm aware of, my steam account has been suspended.
I'm currently unable to play Civ5 (and that's quite frustrating). I didn't recive any warning or anithing stating the reason of the suspension.

I did open a ticket, but from previous experiences with Steam support i fear it is goinf to take a week or so

Since i have the game installed, and already authenticated throught Steam (i did play it quite a lot tbh), is there any legal way to start it in offline mode? trying to run the executables in the game folder doesn't work (nothing starts up).

Also is there ANY way to contact steam apart from support tickets? I'd really like to know why my account has been suspended.

Edit:
I logged on another steam account just to try and run the game in offline mode. I can log in the other account, set steam in oggline mode, but when i try to start Civ5 a steam popup appears "this game cannot be used in offline mode".
This is kinda weird since the first autentication of the game has already been done and for what i ama aware of the game CAN be used in offline mode.
Any hints?

Unfortunately for you you need a valid steam account that actually has Civ V linked to it to play it. This is why i personally think the "one time online activation" is rather misleading but thats another subject entirely. Only thing you can do is contact steam and if they don't help you your out the money. Although you may find some assistance via 2k games support but thats certainly not garunteed.

[CanuckSoldier]

Originally Posted by Thoughtful Thug

We all in the multiplayer community know that you have been around for quite a while since Civ 3 days, and thank you for your advice and help on regarding issues with multiplayer.

I took your advice on changing my Steam settings (Downloads+Cloud) to New York region, and was not surprised to see more listing of hosted games in progress. But the problem with me, me being from Ohio, is that I have a hard time still on getting games started with the New York region. So, to my avail, I went back to the Columbus one and gotten better connection with players from there (which aren't many btw), but still experience lag and such with players far away from my region. Also I like to add that from questioning people in the Columbus download region, is that most of them are either in Canada or far away as the West Coast, and other places that has their own regional servers.

It's quite chaotic. Too many people still don't know about the NY suggestion you have made, as well as some of them not knowing about what their own download region setting are.

Edit:I have no problem with connecting with other players as far as Russia and other places from games I bought from Steam, as well as other PvP multiplayer games from other ones like GFWL. This is the one that I am quite taken back on wtf is going on here.

Well in order to get a critical mass of players in one place we have resorted to just trying to gather as many players in the Civplayers Steam Chat room.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/civplayers

steam://friends/joinchat/103582791431089902

Not having a global chat lobby to network MP players together is a major issue for us all. Even though I've been advertising in all the major and minor fan sites, it is no replacement for what we have used in the past....The Lobby.

I hope Firaxis realizes that there "solution" to the spam in the Civ4 lobby is crippling the MP communities ability to communicate and network.

But please for everyone feel free to join us in some fun MP games in our chat room, the more we get the fast the word will spread that there is a place for all MP players to congregate.

CS

[docnessuno]

I will post here my open ticket with steam to both let other people know the [sacrasm]GREAT[/sarcasm] service i am reciving and, if possible, to recieve hints on how to proceed with this issue.

Originally Posted by 1 « Message by you on Thu, 7th Oct 2010 4:13 am »

Today my steam account has been disabled, i didn't recieve any e-mail stating the reason.
Since i'm unable to play the games i have payed for i'd like at least to know why.

Originally Posted by 2 « Message by ####### on Fri, 8th Oct 2010 8:55 am »

Hello ######,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

The purchase of Civilization V has been disputed by Paypal.

The Paypal account holder will need to close the dispute and have the funds returned to Steam. If the account holder is unable or unwilling to drop the dispute and let the PayPal know that the purchase is valid, and in turn have the funds returned to Steam, we will not be able to reactivate the account.

All games on your account are locked to the account and can not be transferred to a different account.

A different payment method can not be used for this game; the money must be returned by the PayPal account that made the original purchase.

If the dispute is closed and the funds are released back to Steam, the account will be reactivated. However if PayPal closes the dispute by “Reversing the Payment”, meaning they send the funds for the purchase back to you, the Steam account will remain locked and you will lose access to all of the games on the account.

There are no options to resolve a dispute once PayPal has closed the case, so we suggest that you contact them immediately.

PayPal Help Center
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext

Please let us know if you have any further questions.


We are not able to do anything further with your account while a PayPal dispute is still pending, please remedy this issue with PayPal before asking for the account to be reactivated.

Originally Posted by 3 « Message by you on Fri, 8th Oct 2010 1:27 pm »

1) On the 24th of september i purchased Civ5 trought the steam store
2) My paypal account was billed for the game
3) My steam account was showing the purchase as "pending". A few hours later it changed to "failed"
4) I did open a support ticket on steam, stating the problem
5) On the 25th of september i recived a first answer to my ticket.
6) On the same day i posted more informations.
7) Since i was still waiting for an answer on the 29th of October i sent a mail to paypalsupport@valvesoftware.com, listing again my problem with all the relative data.
8) Later on, the same day i recieved the following answer from Steam:

Hello Mattia,
It appears due to an error in the purchasing process, the transaction was failed.
The funds for this purchase will be returned to your account within 5-10 business days.
We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.
I would suggest making another purchase for this title as the funds from the original purchase will be returned to you.
Our records indicate the error is due to a reporting issue from PayPal, I reccommend trying your purchase with a Credit Card directly.
Additionally, you could try completing your purchase through a web browser instead of through the Steam application.

9) Considering the problems i had with Steam, the same day i purchased a copy of civilization 5 from a different reseller (got there from the 2k games italian site)
10) I registered the copy and started playing
11) Still on the 29th of september i recieved an e-mail from paypal regarding a 49.99 euro refund froms team games.
12) on the 7th of Ocrober my account was disabled

Note that the refund was given by STEAM, after YOUR support recognized there was a mistake in the transaction. My paypal account shows NO dispute, neither open or pending, so i'm obviously not able to remedy it.

This whole thing started with a problem in either paypal or in your billing procedure. I have been unable to use the game i purchased for 5 days due tho this. On top of that my account is now closed since 7/10.

PLEASE resolve this issue.

Originally Posted by Attachments:

* Paypal - Original purchase from steam.txt (File Size : 2 KB)
* Steam support - Final answer to my original ticket.txt (File Size : 1.7 KB)
* Paypal - Purchase from 2kgames (Metaboli SA).txt (File Size : 1.8 KB)
* Paypal - Refund from steam.txt (File Size : 1.7 KB)
Note: those are Txt copyes of e-mails.

[Maniacal]

Paypal seems to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people (not just Steam).

EDIT: Just so people are aware, and this shouldn't affect Civilization 5, most of Steam's onling services will be down for maintenance from 4 AM to 8 AM PST on Monday, October the 11th.
http://kotaku.com/5659611/steam-down...-on-provisions

[Khagan]

Steam boycott guys.
Moreover, at the end of your message always leave: "Boycott Steam"


Boycotting Steam for Life

[jeffreyac]

Um. No, Khagan.

OK, moving on to constructive questions...


I've never had a problem previously, but recently was unable to connect offline. It was similar to:

Originally Posted by Moss

The only time you have to be connected to Steam is when you first install/download the game. Otherwise, all you have to do is click on the game, and even if you don't have an internet connection, Steam will recognize this and ask if you want to play in offline mode, then you should be able to play.

Basically, Steam asked me if I wanted to play in offline mode, then promptly had an error code (connection unavailable) and would not proceed, leaving me unable to play. Is there a fix for this?
(It seemed like it didn't register that I wanted it to be offline, and still looked for a connection. As far as I could determine, the game was fully up to date.

[Maniacal]

Steam will check for an online connection when you start Steam regardless of whether or not the computer is connected to the net, and will of course (if the computer is not connected) give an error message but should also give the option to start Steam offline.

Could you take a screenshot of the error?

[Gillis]

Hi I bought a copy of civ V and love it so far the only prob I have is that When I reach modern era,and I conquer some cities I reach a point where the game just stop working and closes on me. I went to the store to change copy of the DVD and same thing happen with the new copy. Do you know if its a bug within the game? It's starting to get really annoying any come back would be really appreciated

[Senethro]

Originally Posted by Gillis

Hi I bought a copy of civ V and love it so far the only prob I have is that When I reach modern era,and I conquer some cities I reach a point where the game just stop working and closes on me. I went to the store to change copy of the DVD and same thing happen with the new copy. Do you know if its a bug within the game? It's starting to get really annoying any come back would be really appreciated

Hi mate, you want the tech support forum. You should make a thread there and include your computer specs and a save file shortly before the crash if possible.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumd...ysprune=&f=409

[Maniacal]

You also do not need to use the DVD to play the game as tis tied to your Steam account.

[billb]

I just updated my norton anti-virus to the 2011 version. While checking the performance of my computer, I ran the cursor over the cpu use record to see which programs were taking up the most of the cpu's performance. I found Steam had been the one item requiring the greatest amount of processor power for a brief period. I had only logged onto the internet to check my email and to find a couple of items for my daughter's school project. At no time had I attempted to run civ v or steam. Norton reported no unusual behavior while Steam was running, but why would Steam even be active if I am not using it?

[jtb3566]

https://forums.steampowered.com/
or maybe https://support.steampowered.com/

I believe that's where you meant to go, since this post has absolutely nothing to do with Civ V.

[SuperJay]

Open Steam, choose Steam > Settings, and unmark the Launch Steam when Windows starts checkbox.

[protocol7]

Originally Posted by jtb3566

https://forums.steampowered.com/
or maybe https://support.steampowered.com/

I believe that's where you meant to go, since this post has absolutely nothing to do with Civ V.

Are you sure? I'm almost positive I have a Steam icon in my tray since I installed CiV.

[jtb3566]

Originally Posted by protocol7

Are you sure? I'm almost positive I have a Steam icon in my tray since I installed CiV.

You may have downloaded the 2 at the same time, but issues relating to steam have nothing to do with Civ V and as such should not be discussed on the general discussion board for Civ V.