Steam Install Q

[joe80x86]

While I really hate the concept of Steam having never used it I have 2 questions I have not seen answers too in any threads:

1) I tend to reinstall my OS every few months and when MS comes out with a new one I usually test out the Beta/RC candidates. Is there a limit to the number of times I can reinstall a game off of Steam?

2) Will I be able to install the game on my gaming PC and my laptop at the same time? And no I don't use both at the same exact time!

 

[Samus_au]

1) I tend to reinstall my OS every few months and when MS comes out with a new one I usually test out the Beta/RC candidates. Is there a limit to the number of times I can reinstall a game off of Steam?

Steam itself doesn't have a limit. Some games do via the extra DRM added onto those (in addition to the steam DRM) but most don't. I've reinstalled my OS several times and have never had an issue with this.

2) Will I be able to install the game on my gaming PC and my laptop at the same time? And no I don't use both at the same exact time!

Yes you can.

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

As long as you remember your account. Like your password and email. You can always reinstall your games from Steam in your new and different OS.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Does it default the install, needed files, etc., to the C Drive? I intentionally partioned my C Drive small with the intention of installing any programs or whatever onto D. I've had issues with applications that insist on using the C Drive for hidden files and such.

 

[Samus_au]

Does it default the install, needed files, etc., to the C Drive? I intentionally partioned my C Drive small with the intention of installing any programs or whatever onto D. I've had issues with applications that insist on using the C Drive for hidden files and such.

It does place a small amount of data into c, but all the big things end up wherever you install steam itself to. So if you install steam to d:\steam - that's the folder that will get huge.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

It does place a small amount of data into c, but all the big things end up wherever you install steam itself to. So if you install steam to d:\steam - that's the folder that will get huge.

Gotcha, thanks. I know Spore, for example had some hidden unmarked file that put itself on the C drive. I had hours of Google searching until I found out how to get rid of it (only one of many problems with Spore, I know).

 

[joe80x86]

Well maybe it won't be all that bad then... But I think I shall wait until at least a week after release.

 

[slowtarget]

Well maybe it won't be all that bad then... But I think I shall wait until at least a week after release.

I know people always want to play as soon as they can, and I don't have any major problems with games on Steam, but I'll be honest and say that if you want to avoid 90% of the problems associated with Steam, just wait about 3 days after release to download the game. That will get you past all the overloaded servers and will give Valve some time to fix the installation process if there are any problems.

 

[treinacles]

I posted this question in a different thread earlier, but never got an answer...

Will Steam require me to buy two copies of the game if I want to install it on my wife and I's two laptops to play a LAN game? I'm not going to spend over $100 on the game just to have mult-player LAN functionality.

 

[Sub]

I posted this question in a different thread earlier, but never got an answer...

Will Steam require me to buy two copies of the game if I want to install it on my wife and I's two laptops to play a LAN game? I'm not going to spend over $100 on the game just to have mult-player LAN functionality.

I'm not positive, but I think you'll have to buy two copies of the game.

 

[need my speed]

Another negative point for Steam...

 

[treinacles]

I'm not positive, but I think you'll have to buy two copies of the game.

I hope not...I've heard that you can play steam games in 'offline' mode, but does 'offline' mean no LAN play? If it does, I'll just play civ 4 BTS and wait to purchase civ5 until somebody creates a 'LAN play mod'.

 

[Samus_au]

I posted this question in a different thread earlier, but never got an answer...

Will Steam require me to buy two copies of the game if I want to install it on my wife and I's two laptops to play a LAN game? I'm not going to spend over $100 on the game just to have mult-player LAN functionality.

Yes it will. You can only be signed into your steam account on one device at a time. So if you are logged in on your computer, and then log into steam of your wife's, it will log you out of yours.

As for using offline mode as someone suggested, well, that depends on how their server system works. I doubt it though.

To be fair though, you should have been buying two copies all along. Just like I totally did for titans quest when my wife and I played that together.

 

[Iceciro]

Indeed - on the two copies front, you're playing it with two people, thus you need two user liscences, which is really what you're buying - so you have needed two copies, just like you really technically needed two copies of BTS also. Just because BTS didn't enforce that doesn't mean that you were technically correct...

 

[civ_king]

I posted this question in a different thread earlier, but never got an answer...

Will Steam require me to buy two copies of the game if I want to install it on my wife and I's two laptops to play a LAN game? I'm not going to spend over $100 on the game just to have mult-player LAN functionality.

morally, you should buy two copies, but IIRC if you put steam in Offline mode you can LAN party with one copy

 

[Avs]

Agree, you should be buying two copies. 1 for your wife. 1 for yourself. LAN or not, that isn't the point at all. Its the fact that two people are playing the game. If you don't want to spend $100, just wait until the game is on sale. Otherwise, if both of you enjoy something like this and will spend a ton of time on it, $100 should be the afterthought.

 

[kiwitt]

Will I still be able select a custom install folder, e.g. C:\GAMES\CIV5, to avoid the security settings Windows now has for C:\Program Files, or will Steam force me to have it in there.

 

[Trias]

morally, you should buy two copies, but IIRC if you put steam in Offline mode you can LAN party with one copy

Legally yes. Morally, no way.

 

[Samus_au]

Will I still be able select a custom install folder, e.g. C:\GAMES\CIV5, to avoid the security settings Windows now has for C:\Program Files, or will Steam force me to have it in there.

It will install into a sub-folder in steam. So if you install steam to c:\games\steam, that's where your game files end up.

 

[Macadami]

Here's how steam games work....say you install Steam itself on your C:, default settings. The steam folder will be inside program files, so you'll have C:\Program Files\steam\ Then inside this subdirectory you will have steamapps and another subdirectory called common (if you install the game to be played on all windows profiles). Inside this common folder is where your games actual directory will be stored. So...

C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\Common\CIV5\

Will more than likely be the end result. They could have it install in it's own directory and just use steam for in-game profiles and settings, but -most- steam games are done in the above fashion.

As a long time Steam user, I've never had a single problem out of it. The steam friend interface is nicely done, can pop up in games if you want it to, can join tons of groups, and has it's own voice chat and lots of other features. Right now Steam.exe is using 60mbs of my ram, 0% processor usage.

It -will- require you to log in to steam to play online, and is set by default to auto start when your computer comes on. It's never intrusive, never 'hogs' resources, and has always provided extremely fast downloads for patches, re installs of games, and auto updates on game start if there is a patch available.