Installing without internet: heeelp!
- Thread starter jlvfr
- Start date
I have had similar problems, using a wireless connection from a service provider who had very patchy ADSL service. Whenever the signal was unusable, steam would attempt for exactly 2 minutes to connect to steam (completely unresponsive while doing so) and after that ask for going into offline mode or retrying the connectiong, at which point selecting offline mode didn't work either because of some problem related to how it couldn't connect.
In the end, the only work-around I found was to disable my wireless network adapter, similar to what you have discovered. It's a known problem with steam, and has been mentioned to them before, but for some reason they don't fix it, probably because there is some hidden agenda there.
These are the threads in the steam forums that I posted in at the time of my problem:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1251836
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1283710
When I contacted them directly, the response was:
Which didn't change the problem. But I'll post here in case it helps anyone else with the same problem.
This comforts me, actually... at least I'm not crazy.
Take note - first and only time I'll defend Steam - I doubt it's a hidden agenda... A lot of the tools I use for work run via a Citrix cloud - and I have almost the exact same difficulties with it (some of the apps have offline versions)... it's gets awfully cranky when there's a hint of a connection available and fights like hell to force me online.
If I could really go on a rant here -- I absolutely hate the way the US handles broadband infrastructure. I've been to Europe and Japan for business -- and it's like the whole continent/nation are just big hotspots. They seem to treat broadband more like a public utility. We, on the other hand, worship the golden calf of letting the market dictate -- which inevitably means that excess capacity and redundancy are considered wasteful, so ISPs increasingly overload their individual gateways while at the same time, are always finding new and interesting ways to stick it to users. In effect, they wait until they reach a tipping point of complaints or lost subscribers before they'll divide up the network further or take other steps to broaden the lanes.
In my specific case - I highly suspect there's simply a defect in the cable - I can see the line noise spikes if I log on to the modem itself and monitor, not to mention, an overloaded network wouldn't veer from superfast to a crawl so rapidly - and I just need to convince a service tech to take the time to actually trace the whole line/if not re-run it... but that's another complaint - the heavy reliance on individual contractors means that most of the 'techs' they send out have a simple checklist of things to do - and if the problem cannot be fixed via the checklist, you're out of luck (or worse - they ARE able to temporarily alleviate the problem... operative word "temporarily").
The sad thing is that my current ISP - comcast - is the best available.... AT&T's DSL is just too slow. I tried RCN, but they were actually 10 times worse. The one thing I'll say for Comcast -- they're quite willing to credit accounts. I've already had a month and a half worth of credits.
I am positive it makes it worst, as you don´t even require steam or the internet to install & play ciV pirated I red. This together with the low profile of a game it is, with so many bugs and crushing issues, makes for the perfect excuse to pirate. It is regrettable actually but people who naively purchased the game are and will continue to endure more trouble with it.
Valve, to my knowledge, have not publicly acknowledged the problem though. In my email to them I was quite clear in stating that this was obviously bugged behaviour because I gave them the steps I used to repdroduce it and my workaround, and I wasn't even asking for help as such, but rather providing feedback to them in the hope they could use it to fix the problem. Instead they offer me troubleshooting advice that fixes a different problem. I can accept the program being fickle about not being able to establish an internet connection, but to have a window with an x in the corner (IIRC) and a cancel button, both of which don't work for a whole 2 minutes, is not acceptable for any UI for any software. I mean, they may as well not even put the cancel button there if it serves zero function.
Hi all, any help/ wisdom would be appreciated.
I bought the box version of Civ 5. All I could get the disc to do was install steam; there doesn't seem to be ANY components, not even a base version, of Civ 5 on the disc at all! I am now dowloading a huge chunk of code from the internet... (yep, I saw that internet connection was necessary on the box).
My query: I seem to have bought the box version only to have to download it from the internet. Is this really the case? Maybe something went wrong with the install somewhere?
Thanks...
I bought the box version of Civ 5. All I could get the disc to do was install steam; there doesn't seem to be ANY components, not even a base version, of Civ 5 on the disc at all! I am now dowloading a huge chunk of code from the internet... (yep, I saw that internet connection was necessary on the box).
My query: I seem to have bought the box version only to have to download it from the internet. Is this really the case? Maybe something went wrong with the install somewhere?
Thanks...
flyingbunnys
Warlord
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2006
- Messages
- 141
I had the same problem. I tried my best to install w/o having the 2GB game download on steam. I installed steam from the disk, then went to look for the Civilization install file on the disk.
When you click the install file it pulls up steam and begins the download. I could find no way around having to do a 2GB download of the game over steam.
I personally hate steam and valve. I have been boycotting for the last 8 years until Civilization 5 came out and I had to use steam. The game was good but not worth dealing with steam. I'll continue my boycott.
Also I have tried messaging their support and customer service for help, don't bother they are useless. I asked a question and their responce was, that it should be working.
Form what I have experianced you HAVE to download the game through steam, even if you have a disk for them game like I did.
When you click the install file it pulls up steam and begins the download. I could find no way around having to do a 2GB download of the game over steam.
I personally hate steam and valve. I have been boycotting for the last 8 years until Civilization 5 came out and I had to use steam. The game was good but not worth dealing with steam. I'll continue my boycott.
Also I have tried messaging their support and customer service for help, don't bother they are useless. I asked a question and their responce was, that it should be working.
Form what I have experianced you HAVE to download the game through steam, even if you have a disk for them game like I did.
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