Steam Q&A and FAQ

[The_J]

We have a technical problem, probably related to steam, here. It would be nice if someone who has a clue of that would look into this thread.

 

[kowalski37]

If I buy and install a retail DVD copy of CIV V which I then activate on Steam, does anyone know approximately how much data is downloaded when I activate it? Are we talking a few Mb or a few hundred Mb - I have a fairly slow Internet connection...

 

[Fernaske]

If I buy and install a retail DVD copy of CIV V which I then activate on Steam, does anyone know approximately how much data is downloaded when I activate it? Are we talking a few Mb or a few hundred Mb - I have a fairly slow Internet connection...

If you install it from a DVD itself, after installation it will only download the latest patches. As of this time, the patches shouldn't be bigger than 50mb.

 

[vmxa]

What are the colors I see when I start Steam? Sometimes it is red, some blue and others green. I figure green is A-ok, red maybe I have an issue, no idea about blue.

 

[CanuckSoldier]

Not to steal the guy's thunder, but since I don't have anything better to do now may as well answer the questions out right now



Here's the list of ports needed for both the Steam client and Steam servers.

For question number 2, it'd be advisable for players to stick to their own regions, as data transfer is better for players who are geographically near the servers. So it will be natural for European players to have some problems with American servers. This is pretty much true for any multiplayer game on steam, dedicated servers or not.



Sadly no. The only games that allow you to keep multiple copies for gifting are the Half Life 2 games (Half Life 2, Episode 1 and Episode 2) and the friend bundles (Borderlands 4 pack, L4D and L4D 2 four pack).




It depends. Sometimes it may be on the end of the game developers themselves. Sometimes it's just a problem on the Steam server's end. All people can really do is hope for the achievements to be fixed though an update.

Anyway, I hope I don't earn the wrath of the topic creator for this. I went out of lurking because it seems many people here need help with Steam. If the topic creator permits it, then I'd also try to help with answering the questions that I can answer.

Thanks for the port info. As to the region issue I'm afraid sticking to your own region would be the death of MP, we are not CS or WoW, we need every Civ5 MP player to be in the same lobby/game list. Having a global game list would certainly help us.

Steam doesn't need to filter games based on latency, they just need to provide ping data like Civ4 did in the interface, and we are quit capable of deciding who we want to play with ourselves.

CS

 

[Senethro]

What are the colors I see when I start Steam? Sometimes it is red, some blue and others green. I figure green is A-ok, red maybe I have an issue, no idea about blue.

This is an interesting question but you're going to have to explain a bit more. Where are you seeing these colours? In the taskbar icon?

 

[vmxa]

Where is list the game civ5 is in blue today. The word Links and Category are in blue. Achievements and Recent News are also in blue. Some days these are red, some they are green.

The last two dasys they are in blue. It is the interface I get when I open up Steam from my program menu.

 

[777]

What should I do if I try to install civ 5 from disc and Steam tries to install it via internet. Steam gives error about having busy servers?

 

[Maniacal]

Thanks for the port info. As to the region issue I'm afraid sticking to your own region would be the death of MP, we are not CS or WoW, we need every Civ5 MP player to be in the same lobby/game list. Having a global game list would certainly help us.

Steam doesn't need to filter games based on latency, they just need to provide ping data like Civ4 did in the interface, and we are quit capable of deciding who we want to play with ourselves.

CS

Steam itself shouldn't prevent you from joining any server anywhere in the world (though it would be unplayable for a European player to play on an east-asian server or with an east-asian player due to the high ping, but europeans should be able to play with north americans and vice versa). If there is any region locking of the multiplayer then that is the developer (in this case Firaxis)'s doing.

Where is list the game civ5 is in blue today. The word Links and Category are in blue. Achievements and Recent News are also in blue. Some days these are red, some they are green.

The last two dasys they are in blue. It is the interface I get when I open up Steam from my program menu.

At first I wondered if you were smoking something good or having graphical problems with your computer, but then i remembered you are using that default list view for your games. Its normal, Steam uses a few different colours for the headings and each game is automatically given one colour by Steam when it starts I guess. If you're interested, there are two other different views available by clicking their icons in the upper right corner, I use the middle one as it is close to how Steam sued to look.

What should I do if I try to install civ 5 from disc and Steam tries to install it via internet. Steam gives error about having busy servers?

Hopefully this helps,
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5357-FSQM-0382
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1333-PHZV-8231 (its for Empire: Total War but may help too)

Steam will try to download the game instead sometimes, make sure none of the game's content remains and then exit steam and put the disc in and try to install it.

 

[vmxa]

Cool, thanks for the scoop.

 

[emril]

I am having problems with the civ5 mod screen. when i browse mods the entire list will just disappear and i have to restart the game in order to get it back, any suggestions would be very helpful.

 

[CanuckSoldier]

I am having problems with the civ5 mod screen. when i browse mods the entire list will just disappear and i have to restart the game in order to get it back, any suggestions would be very helpful.

Unfortunately the Mod centre has nothing to do with Steam so I doubt that our friend can help you. The mod centre is hosted by Gamespy, and good luck getting anything from their tech support other than automated emails....

CS

 

[emril]

so should i just reinstall?

 

[CanuckSoldier]

Steam itself shouldn't prevent you from joining any server anywhere in the world (though it would be unplayable for a European player to play on an east-asian server or with an east-asian player due to the high ping, but europeans should be able to play with north americans and vice versa). If there is any region locking of the multiplayer then that is the developer (in this case Firaxis)'s doing.

Hopefully this helps,
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5357-FSQM-0382
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1333-PHZV-8231 (its for Empire: Total War but may help too)

Steam will try to download the game instead sometimes, make sure none of the game's content remains and then exit steam and put the disc in and try to install it.

Yes we very well know we can change the Download/cloud server in the settings, but that is not a real solution as it has been explained to me elsewere the "regional games list" are not so much tied to the settings in that area but are filtered by steam to keep it so that only low latency games are displayed.

We all realize that Civ is a p2p system and lag kills our games data transmission. But don't give us artificial limitations, give us a global games list and put a ping display by each host like we have in Civ4. Let the players decide what games they want to join not Steam.

Yes if this is partially Firaxis's decision I can ensure they recieve this request as well.

CS

 

[CanuckSoldier]

so should i just reinstall?

That might work if the reason is a file issue, yoy can also have Steam verify your files in the steam app screen.

I'm not sure if GS is using any port for the Mod centre other than the standard http port, but it might be worth looking at the list of ports they have here.

http://www.gamespyarcade.com/support/firewalls.shtml

For any firewalls or routers you have.

CS

 

[Watiggi]

Ok, I got an error in the database log file and couldn't get rid of it. So I decided to troubleshoot it by removing the game and then reinstalling it.... BIG MISTAKE.

How the hell do you truely uninstall the game and then reinstall it properly?

Out of pure frustration (after 'uninstalling' it only to find it still in the Steam folder grr) I just deleted the Civilization V folder, Civilization V demo folder and the Civilization V SDK folder. Now nothing works. It wont reinstall and Steam (in all its infinite glory) tells me that 'the game is unavailable, please try again later'.

I can see why you guys choose 'Steam' for the name of the software... meaning: It drives people Steaming mad....

Sorry for the rant, I just HATE software programs that arent civil and know how to uninstall themselves properly....

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(I'm gonna try deleting Steam alltogether now and see if that works.)

Oh great... I unstalled Steam and then put the DVD back in and followed the instructions... NOW it wants me to install Civ V by downloading it off the net! I get absolutely NO option to install it off the disk... This is absurd.

Any help would be great.

edit: wonderful.... I managed to reinstall it from the disk (I had to open and close the disk drive to fire it up again once Steam was installed...

The problem now is that DirectX 10 / 11 option isnt available (it was last time) and the option looks corrupted. On top of that the install has all the old options... basically meaning it DIDNT uninstall it at all.

I hate Steam.

Ok, tried again, I got rid of all the save games and what not aswell.

It installed everything but now the option to play in DirectX10/11 is corrupted and isnt actually an option. It wont let me press it. I have a DX10 card, so I should be able to play it and was able to play it when I first installed it.

Any ideas?

edit: nevermind... it turns out that Steam is set by default to be in compatibility mode when it's installed to Win 7 64 bit. After I changed it to not run in compatibility mode, the DX10/11 option became uncorrupted and seems to work.

 

[Maniacal]

Watiggi please use the edit button instead of making new posts thanks.

To uninstall a game from Steam right click on it in the list and click "Delete Local Content", that will remove it. Also try updating your graphic card drivers?

 

[777]

Hopefully this helps,
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5357-FSQM-0382
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1333-PHZV-8231 (its for Empire: Total War but may help too)

Steam will try to download the game instead sometimes, make sure none of the game's content remains and then exit steam and put the disc in and try to install it.

Thanks for the link. Though that's not user friendly way to install it. Pc gaming should get easier, not more difficult.

 

[Watiggi]

Watiggi please use the edit button instead of making new posts thanks.

To uninstall a game from Steam right click on it in the list and click "Delete Local Content", that will remove it. Also try updating your graphic card drivers?

I was using the edit.

I've managed to uninstall it completely and reinstall it, but thanks for that info... will use it next time.

 

[emril]

i tried reinstalling civ v, but i am srill having problems with the mod list disappearing. does that leave gamespy as my only recourse?