Steam Q&A and FAQ

[Maniacal]

Originally Posted by whipsilk

Steam mod/reps - please, PLEASE make the CiV updates voluntary, not mandatory. For one thing (as others have noted), a player may want to finish their current game before updating (as a significant patch will render saved games unplayable). Even worse, though, a new patch can make the game completely unplayable, as it is now for me, since 'the steam servers are busy' but the game won't run since the patch already started. This is rather like GM issuing a recall but making cars unusable unless they are going direct to the dealer for the recall adjustment, where you have to wait for days while others in the same position are queued up ahead of them.

I'm not one of the steam naysayers - I appreciate many of the advantages it gives me with the game, but I find ANY setup that prevents me from playing a game I paid $60 for, even temporarily, highly consumer unfriendly, to say the least!

Right click on Civ5 in your list of Steam games and select properties. There's an option to disable auto updating for each game individually.

Originally Posted by cugel

When I installed the game it automatically attached itself to the steam account it found on my computer which happened to be my son's account. Now sometimes, if I play civ5, my son may be logged in in his own house 3 miles away playing Counter Strike. If I log out from civ5 I can't log in again, as the account is in use elsewhere. Even though I legally bought my game boxed in a local shop, I can't play it when my son is doing counter strike? Or can I make a separate steam account and transfer civ5 to that? Or is it now unalterable linked to my son's steam account?

I have to do something else now, but tomorrow I'll be back here to see if anybody has a solution. Thank you for your time anyway.

Also, I tried to play civ5 against my youngest son who still lives at home and has his own computer in his room. I installed the game also on his computer and tried to log into the same multiplayer game but it didn't seem to work. Formerly you could play hotseat games, but that doesn't seem possible now?

There is no hotseat mode, you can however have it installed on one computer and put it into offline mode and have it on another and LAN them. (I haven't tested this as I don't have Civ5 but I know it works with other games).

And sorry, but the game is now unalterably linked to your son's Steam account. You can only have the account online on one computer at a time (but you can log on, go offline, then go online on another computer). Happy birthday to him eh? You could get him to buy the game for you and make sure you're logged into your own or no account when you install it next time.

Kind of crappy but I wouldn't blame Steam for assuming the account that was logged in was the one you wanted to install the game too.

[Senethro]

Originally Posted by PrinceScamp

And sorry, but the game is now unalterably linked to your son's Steam account. You can only have the account online on one computer at a time (but you can log on, go offline, then go online on another computer). Happy birthday to him eh? You could get him to buy the game for you and make sure you're logged into your own or no account when you install it next time.

Kind of crappy but I wouldn't blame Steam for assuming the account that was logged in was the one you wanted to install the game too.

Naw, I reckon its still worth an email to Steam support. They're slow and may take up to 5 days to respond but they're often helpful. Are you a new customer? They'll be keen to get repeat custom.

Some people have been able to get a refund of sorts where they lose the game they accidentally bought but get one of equal value. If your son isn't interested in Civ5, try to change the game for one he wants and get him to pay half the price back to you, then you buy Civ5 for yourself.

[negelborsch]

Hello,

Civ 5 is my first game I have to use with steam.

Bought 2 weeks ago, installed and all worked fine. (Steam, too).

Since yesterday, when I connected to steam again, before I played offline modus, its not starting anymore.

Steam is tries to download a new patch itseems, but it stucks and do not continue.

As far the update is not complete, I cannot play.
Neither offline or online.

Why is the steam download not going on? All my internet connections are working fine.
Only steam does not worked. Even more strange, that it worked before.

Only me get this problem

Im very thankful for help and suggestions.

Sorry for my bad english.

[lampshade]

princescamp, belated thanks for your help. much appreciated.

[cugel]

PrinceScamp @ Oct 22, 2010, 11:54 PM #101
Thank you very much for your explanation.
and Senethro @Oct 23, 2010, 12:13 AM #102
too!
I'll just keep it the way it is. When my son logs in to play Counter Strike I'll just have to accept that I can't play Civ5. Though the people from Civilization perhaps should have made it in such a way that you can play the game if you own the box that you bought in the shop irrespective of this damned Steam setup. And my youngest son may be a bit too old to play Civ against his father so we won't bother with trying to set up a LAN which sounds a bit too complex anyway.
Thanks for the helpfull comments!

[Chibiabos]

Originally Posted by PrinceScamp

You can't. I'm sorry but the big publishers (of which 2K is amongst) do NOT like the used games market. It is against the ToS of Steam and the End User License Agreemnt for Civ5 or probably any game to sell your account/license (you do not own software, you own a license to use it, and yes this was held up by a US court recently) too.

Not what jihe asked. Jihe asked about getting a refund. And yeah, its obvious they don't like giving refunds, either, even when their software provably fails to live up to the ad descriptions. There is no longer any accountability by software companies to actually make quality software, as they are not obligated for granting refunds if their software fails to meet basic quality standards, causes damage to an OS or computer or simply fails to live up to the written ad promises.

Software ToSes are extremely anti-consumer and have gotten way, way out of hand.

[PieceOfMind]

Originally Posted by cugel

When I installed the game it automatically attached itself to the steam account it found on my computer which happened to be my son's account. Now sometimes, if I play civ5, my son may be logged in in his own house 3 miles away playing Counter Strike. If I log out from civ5 I can't log in again, as the account is in use elsewhere. Even though I legally bought my game boxed in a local shop, I can't play it when my son is doing counter strike? Or can I make a separate steam account and transfer civ5 to that? Or is it now unalterable linked to my son's steam account?

I have to do something else now, but tomorrow I'll be back here to see if anybody has a solution. Thank you for your time anyway.

Also, I tried to play civ5 against my youngest son who still lives at home and has his own computer in his room. I installed the game also on his computer and tried to log into the same multiplayer game but it didn't seem to work. Formerly you could play hotseat games, but that doesn't seem possible now?

You know, I actually noticed this when I was installing the game. As I went through the install process I noticed it never asked me to login to my steam account or put in the password. By the time I had put the serial number and the game had started installing, I had a moment of panic when I thought I may have been logged in to my other account. Luckily I was in the right one.

I would have spoke about it earlier, but I assumed this would be a problem that would not come up for anyone, but clearly it did.

I second Senethro's suggestion. If you contact Valve and explain to them that during the install process of the game it didn't ask you which account to log in to, it is unfair that it is now permanently linked to your son's account. I think if you are reasonable with your request they won't have a problem with transferring it to the correct account.

[yanner39]

Here's my question: I purchased Civ 5 at the store. Say I pay $5 to get Babylon or I download a new civ or scenario from Steam, how to I keep these if/when I change computers? Are these downloaded in a special folder?

Thx

[TheNoodle]

HOw can I get rid of the patch to getr back to trade/ building civ ?

any dev frequents thispage ? it s Awful i WANNA MONEY BACK lol patches should be announced clearly and optional not automatic and moronic tx Normand

[The_J]

Originally Posted by yanner39

Here's my question: I purchased Civ 5 at the store. Say I pay $5 to get Babylon or I download a new civ or scenario from Steam, how to I keep these if/when I change computers? Are these downloaded in a special folder?

Thx

All the things are bound to your account.
If you change the computer, you can just redownload them

Originally Posted by TheNoodle

HOw can I get rid of the patch

With Steam you can't .

Note: No ranting in here. Every pointless rant will get deleted and infracted. If you want to rant about this problem, use one of the other steam threads and pay attention that you don't violate any other CFC rules.

[Piksou]

Originally Posted by cugel

I'll just keep it the way it is. When my son logs in to play Counter Strike I'll just have to accept that I can't play Civ5. Though the people from Civilization perhaps should have made it in such a way that you can play the game if you own the box that you bought in the shop irrespective of this damned Steam setup. And my youngest son may be a bit too old to play Civ against his father so we won't bother with trying to set up a LAN which sounds a bit too complex anyway.
Thanks for the helpfull comments!

If you don't want to take the time, I understand, but about the first topic: if I understand correctly, this is your computer you installed Steam on, right ? Then you should just go to offine mode, it takes 2 min and you play Civ5 all the time. You would just have to go back online once in a while to update if a patch is out.

Also, I believe hotseat mode is in the list of features that should come with a later patch.

[Maniacal]

For those having an issue where Steam is stuck updating itself despite there being no internet connection (ie your internet went down) and can't get into Offline mode, try unplugging the ethernet cord from your computer and then starting Steam.

[rspeer]

Automatic updates are clearly the wrong answer. Why are they the default?

A couple of days ago I lost a saved game that won't load in the new version of Civ5. (I even e-mailed it to the 2k Games guy who asked for broken saves, to no effect of course.) Today I can't play Civ5 at all because Steam is overloaded.

I suppose I'll disable auto-updating from now on, but it strikes me as completely absurd that this is the default. Manually unchecking that option every time I want an update doesn't seem great either. Why can't they come up with a simple dialog box:

"An update to Civilization 5 is available! You will not be able to load your previous saved games after this update, and you will lose the ability to play Civ until it succeeds. Do you want to update?"

[winthrowe]

Originally Posted by rspeer

Automatic updates are clearly the wrong answer. Why are they the default?

They're the default because one of the problems steam was originally designed to solve was pushing out updates so server based multiplayer games could have everyone in sync. Might not be the best for Civ, but Firaxis did intend savegame compatibility with the last patch, and issued a hotfix earlier today so old games could be loaded.

[Mundungu]

@ PrinceScamp Thank that helped....

Problem is, Steam starts to update without asking. If the update dowload is started, you are stuck without being able to play until the update download is finished.

Could be a trivial thing to ask " do you want to install update" Y/N ....

Facit so far ... I dont like Steam ... why cant I play offline when I want and install which update when and wether I want ???

[Maniacal]

Right click on the game's name in your list go games on the left and select properties, you can change it to prompt you and not download automatically there.

I do agree it would be nice if it asked first, but then again for me I leave Steam on all the time anyways so the patches are always downloaded long before I even notice there was a patch

If you really want Steam to ask first write VALVe a letter so they know people really want it changed (especially as more (primarily) singleplayer games use Steamworks).

[Zarthushtr]

Sorry to say, but the whole steam saga has made CivV one of the most user unfriendly games I know, and I'm sure all the ruckus is attracting a lot of negative publicity.
Although I am supposed to be using it offline, I can't.
I refuse cookies for security reasons. I refuse my password to be remembered as I have enough ofr a brain left to remember my passwords.
I want to be able to play offline, with no conditions or strings attached. Period.
If I'm not getting satisfaction on this, I'm going to make sure that the game's negative publicity will increase by orders of magnitude, so I hope someone, somewhere is listening.
Thanks.

[The_J]

Would be nice if someone could look into here.

[Rebel44]

Originally Posted by Zarthushtr

I refuse cookies for security reasons. I refuse my password to be remembered as I have enough ofr a brain left to remember my passwords.
I want to be able to play offline, with no conditions or strings attached. Period.
If I'm not getting satisfaction on this, I'm going to make sure that the game's negative publicity will increase by orders of magnitude, so I hope someone, somewhere is listening.
Thanks.

You can either make compromise (as long as your computer is secured, I see no reason not to save passwords (when you save Steam password it is encrypted).

Btw: I want new Ferarri!!! /sarcasm

[gazzahk]

Is there any Steam support at the weekend?

I have been trying to reverify my Steam account because I can not log in and have had no reply for 2 days. I live in Asia and this maybe a time difference problem but I would expect such a minor problem to be sorted so easily and I would not expect to be unable to use the game for such a long time.

I have had no reply from the Support Team and can find now way to break through to a real person.