Civilization 5 and Steam(works)

[PieceOfMind]

Yes, please make it a high priority to include all the artwork and "big stuff" in the initial release of the game. Downloading a ~1GB patch at a pathetic 30KB/s or so (which seems to be about the best I can hope for most of the time and I have tried many different steam servers) obviously takes a while and while it downloads you can't play any other Steam game. I prefer not to leave my computer on overnight as well.

So can we please have the option of standalone patches? I imagine it would also help a lot with the patch compatibility problem people might have with mods too.

Standalone patches would also put us less at the mercy of installation or patch downloads for other games. I did buy a game on Steam recently and it needs to download around about 10GB at a rate of around 30KB/s . That is going to take ages (perhaps the irony is obvious but I would have gotten the game much faster if I waited til Monday, drove to the store, bought it and then installed it from disc) and if I happened to be playing civ5 most of the time I have Steam running it would probably take me about a month before I finish downloading that game (because it would not be able to download while civ5 was running).

If anyone knows a way to drastically improve download speeds on steam, please let me know. I know for a fact my connection can support download speeds of more than 300KB/s (and yes, I'm talking in bytes not bits FYI).

 

[MaxCiv]

... if I happened to be playing civ5 most of the time I have Steam running it would probably take me about a month before I finish downloading that game (because it would not be able to download while civ5 was running).

Downloads from Steam won't interfere with you playing Civ5 or any other single player game for that matter. I was downloading 4 different games from Steam yesterday while playing another Steam game without problems.

For your download speed issue, I can only suggest to try different Steam servers near your location.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Downloads from Steam won't interfere with you playing Civ5 or any other single player game for that matter. I was downloading 4 different games from Steam yesterday while playing another Steam game without problems.

For your download speed issue, I can only suggest to try different Steam servers near your location.

Why is it that whenever I launch a game from Steam it automatically pauses all downloads? Also, does your comment change if it's a steamworks game, which civ5 of course is?

I would guess it's possible to have steam downloads running if it's one of the games where Steam doesn't actually need to be running to play the game (If I understand correctly, civ4 from steam is one such game).

As for steam servers, I've already tried every one near my location and several from further away like LA in the US. The download speeds for games seems to depend on which game it is. For some downloads I've got up to around 200KB/s after power cycling the router, but for other games the download struggles to get over 10KB/s let alone near 30KB/s.

 

[BobDole]

As for steam servers, I've already tried every one near my location and several from further away like LA in the US. The download speeds for games seems to depend on which game it is. For some downloads I've got up to around 200KB/s after power cycling the router, but for other games the download struggles to get over 10KB/s let alone near 30KB/s

I don't know if it depends on the game, but it's the only somewhat annoying that (for me) about Steam. Sometimes the server is too busy, sometimes your DL speed slows to a crawl, and then all of a sudden jumps to like 2 MB/sec.

As for the DL thing, found this (since I've never DLed/played myself)
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=897609
Apparently it starts up again after the game loads.

 

[PieceOfMind]

The weird thing is, you can have several downloads going simultaneously and their speed doesn't go any slower than individually. So if you have several downloads to do, better to do them all at once rather than sequentially.

As for whether the DL pauses or not, from what I've seen it looks like the DLs are paused for steamworks games and games that use the internet connection for multiplayer (which makes sense). Games that are offline seem to let the DLs resume.

 

[12agnar0k]

@Piece of mind

Downloads.

You should download while playing games, I'm sure there used to be an option to turn this on and off, I just looked but didnt see one.
What broadband do you have because I always get over 700kb's download speeds from Steam servers and I have a 8mb Internet connection (it's more like 2-5 really ;p) But anyway, so if your getting low speeds it may be because of your ISP, and if it varies from time to time from 200 to 10 kb's this could be due to increased traffic at peak times, I know my internet suffers a lot even on normal web pages like this with speed on peak times.

From my experience, downloading still happens in the background when you play games, I'm sure there was an option to turn this off, say if you didnt want Steam's updating or downloading to affect internet gameplay. Perhaps this query could be raised on the Steams forums.

From my experience I get good download speeds and including download whilst playing a game.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Please pay attention to bits and bytes. I assume you meant 700kB/s instead of 700kb/s.

Anyway, my connection is technically 10Mbit ADSL2+ but due to being a long way from the exchange the maximum is a bit under half of the full 10. Based on that my bandwidth cap should be around about 500kB/s (bytes not bits) and I've seen a torrent reach over 400KB/s before but not 500kB/s I don't think.

After some more fiddling I'm becoming convinced that power cycling the router does a lot and that while I've been able to improve the download speeds a bit, they're still maxing out at about 130 to 150 kB/s for each individual game. While still fairly slow, it's obviously a lot better than the 30 I was getting used to.

 

[MaxCiv]

Why is it that whenever I launch a game from Steam it automatically pauses all downloads? Also, does your comment change if it's a steamworks game, which civ5 of course is?

I would guess it's possible to have steam downloads running if it's one of the games where Steam doesn't actually need to be running to play the game (If I understand correctly, civ4 from steam is one such game).

As for steam servers, I've already tried every one near my location and several from further away like LA in the US. The download speeds for games seems to depend on which game it is. For some downloads I've got up to around 200KB/s after power cycling the router, but for other games the download struggles to get over 10KB/s let alone near 30KB/s.

In the past week or so the Steam servers have been pretty busy because of the increased traffic generated by the massive summer sale (it ends tomorrow). I had to try multiple times during the day to get my downloads going, but after that it was fine.

 

[Myth5]

I will probably not buy the game, and steam does have a factor in that decision.

I agree with everyone here who says that you should never have to download 3rd party software on top of a purchase you have made unless you want to. If you want an iPod, you need iTunes or some other digital media distributor, but there are other media players that can play ripped mp3's from CD's, requiring only Windows to sync them. The buyer should always be given a choice.

Now, I really started loving Civ back at #4. I actually bought it for my dad, but he still plays Civ 3 while I am thoroughly addicted to Civ 4. However, the major reason I will not buy Civ 5 any time in the near future is because the best computer in our household will almost certainly not be able to run it (it has a good graphics card-for a laptop-but a slow processor). I am not over distrustful of using Steam if it were my choice, but seeing as it's not I am even less inclined to buy Civ 5 (even if we happen to get a much better computer sometime soon...unlikely.)

 

[Rebel44]

I will probably not buy the game, and steam does have a factor in that decision.

I agree with everyone here who says that you should never have to download 3rd party software on top of a purchase you have made unless you want to. If you want an iPod, you need iTunes or some other digital media distributor, but there are other media players that can play ripped mp3's from CD's, requiring only Windows to sync them. The buyer should always be given a choice.

Now, I really started loving Civ back at #4. I actually bought it for my dad, but he still plays Civ 3 while I am thoroughly addicted to Civ 4. However, the major reason I will not buy Civ 5 any time in the near future is because the best computer in our household will almost certainly not be able to run it (it has a good graphics card-for a laptop-but a slow processor). I am not over distrustful of using Steam if it were my choice, but seeing as it's not I am even less inclined to buy Civ 5 (even if we happen to get a much better computer sometime soon...unlikely.)

Decent gaming PC can be build for less than 500$ (not counting monitor etc.)

 

[Drakarska]

Well, if I just happened to have $500 laying around to put towards a new pc, that would be just spiffy. Lots of peeps can't spare that kind of money for a new toy bro, and Civ is going to be a bit pricey as it is.

 

[scratchthepitch]

I never got into Civ1, liked Civ2 & 3, liked Alpha Centauri, was disgusted with Civ4. Never bothered with the others. Civ5 looked possible, but then I read up on Steam and saw how they were browbeating people on games forums to accept Steam's monopoly aspirations.

That killed any and all notions I had been entertaining of giving the Civ folks another chance.

I voted "I will definitely NOT buy the game, because of Steam."

 

[Acronym2]

Well, if I just happened to have $500 laying around to put towards a new pc, that would be just spiffy. Lots of peeps can't spare that kind of money for a new toy bro, and Civ is going to be a bit pricey as it is.

Not to start a feud, but I agree and always find it a bit presumptuous that some people think everyone is willing or able to change a pc like underwear whenever a new game title is released.

 

[Jester Fool]

I just finished reading all 72 pages from Civ5 Steamworks...FAQ as well as most of the links amongst all those posts. I can now say that I will ABSOLUTELY NOT buy Civ5 and THE ONLY REASON IS BECAUSE OF STEAM! Why in the world would I want to pay any amount of money to install spyware/malware on my computer? Never gonna happen. 2K made a big mistake.

 

[Brownsfan02]

n00b question here, but what is steam?

 

[ori]

n00b question here, but what is steam?

The DRM scheme used for Civilzation 5.

 

[Brownsfan02]

i know double post, but what will it do? will it distribute mods for the game or something?

 

[Thyrwyn]

Or the in-game community browser API used for Civilization 5, depending on how you choose to view it.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Isn't that closer to describing what steamworks is, Thyrwyn?

Steam is many things, and difficult to pin down with a concise description IMO. I'm sure wikipedia does a reasonable job though.

Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute games and related media online, from small independent efforts to larger releases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(content_delivery)

 

[ori]

Which is why I linked to it