Steam - Don't bother to read this Thread

:biggrin: I would like to withdraw many of the comments made below due to actually getting steam working myself and Reno's helpful directions. I kinda freaked out a bit but everything is now ok. Now all I need is a broadband connection to be able to get the mods .

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Well, after months of trying to live without using steam it would appear that it is not possible. None of the mods that have gone retail come with free versions anymore, meaning I am stuck on DOD 1.0 and CS 1.5. What the f**k is wrong with Valve, making gamers pay for mods. They don't even give people a choice in the matter.

Not only that, but the f**king program is so confusing to use that I don't even know where to begin, not to mention it ain't very friendly to custom mappers, modelers, modders, etc. I know I'm probably way behind in the whole outrage thing about valve's new totalitarian regime, but I've just got to shout it out.

I also have a question about adding new games (how?), and is it possible to install the free versions of the retail mods (see above) and use them instead of having to buy copies of them.

Valve don't make you pay for mods mate, you can still download them for
free via Steam. I believe you need one retail HL product (just like you
would with WON) but if you have HL retail or whatever then you get
access to their entire retail list (or at least I seem to!).

Its really a pretty simple piece of software to get to grips with -
once you have it installed you need to download the games you want to
play, or if you have them installed elsewhere then Steam should give
you the option to copy them across while you are installing. Once thats
done (admittedly it can take quite a while if downloading them - just
leave it on while you do something else) you just launch the games via
the "play games" option, or find browsers with the server browser. Oh
and ignore the friends service, its a joke :rolleyes:

Its also no more unfriendly to modders than the old system - all you
need to do is unpack the GCF files like you used to need to unpack the
PAK files. There is a tutorial on the site about how to get mapping
using Steam if you need an explanation.

ReNo said:
Valve don't make you pay for mods mate, you can still download them for free via Steam. I believe you need one retail HL product (just like you would with WON) but if you have HL retail or whatever then you get access to their entire retail list (or at least I seem to!).

Its really a pretty simple piece of software to get to grips with - once you have it installed you need to download the games you want to play, or if you have them installed elsewhere then Steam should give you the option to copy them across while you are installing. Once thats done (admittedly it can take quite a while if downloading them - just leave it on while you do something else) you just launch the games via the "play games" option, or find browsers with the server browser. Oh and ignore the friends service, its a joke :rolleyes:

Its also no more unfriendly to modders than the old system - all you need to do is unpack the GCF files like you used to need to unpack the PAK files. There is a tutorial on the site about how to get mapping using Steam if you need an explanation.

CS:CZ has access to only CS, CZ and CS:S (and their respective dedicated servers) while HL and any other retail mod (including retail CS) should be acceptable to receive HL and it's 'regular' mods for the most part. Although I think one or two end up being exclusive for this and that reason.

If you own HL you get everything except for whatever came with CZ. You can even play DMC, Codename Gordon, and Ricochet if you're insane. You can also download a few 3rd party mods that work with steam, so that's cool

I got Steam. It's not bad.

(it sucks c**k I have to play CZ because it claims my HL CD key is 'stolen' when I had just bought it. oh well at least I can play CS)

Cassius said:
I got Steam. It's not bad.

(it sucks c**k I have to play CZ because it claims my HL CD key is 'stolen' when I had just bought it. oh well at least I can play CS)

Valve can actually solve this, just e-mail the support part of steam, and I think theyll have you send your cd key into them, then they'll get you a new one, but I have to agree, that does suck bad....

If you own HL you get everything except for whatever came with
CZ. You can even play DMC, Codename Gordon, and Ricochet if you're
insane. You can also download a few 3rd party mods that work with
steam, so that's cool

only change is that you can't get CS by buying HL through steam, you
have to get cs:sz or but it single... but if you buy HL in a store you
still get CS so I'm kinda confused with that... but whatever

oh, whatever. i've got an HL cd from 1997 so i'm not going to worry about it :biggrin:

They still need to put Gunman and Blue Shift on there. Bastards.

I want to play Blue Shift.

Bwahahahaha, Gunman Chronicles. It would have been quite the kickass mod if they released it for free, but it should have never gone retail. Hopefully it's utter failure will remind all those modmakers out there that just because Steam will allow you to charge people for your mod does't mean you should do it. You aren't professional and your game will not be worth it.

the way that sven-coop gets funded/paid for seems like a decent deal.

if someone wants to send them some money along with their steam id, they get to have their id written into some database. it means when they go online, they get to have a shiney golden crowbar that sparks when it does damage, and golden uzis that are slightly more powerful than normal uzis.

from what i've seen on sven servers, they must have made a few quid from it.

though not from me :razz:

any sad people here with a golden crowbar?

:biggrin:

I want to play Blue Shift.

No you don't.
A two hour game where the most challenging things are the marines. I was severely pissed off at Blue Shift (as was everyone else I've talked to that played it).
The only things that make it semi-worth playing are the references to HL and OP4 (there aren't many though).

Speaking of Gunman, Is it a mod, or did they purchase engine rights? (The way they speak of it, its as if they purchased rights to the HL engine and developed the game from there)

Speaking of Gunman, Is it a mod, or did they purchase engine rights? (The way they speak of it, its as if they purchased rights to the HL engine and developed the game from there)

It started out as a very ambitious mod, and then Valve decided to take the team on board and help them develop it into something that resembled a retail product.

I'm very tempted to get Counter-Strike: Condition Zero myself. Not only will I get into the CS:S beta, but I'll get the HL2 video stress test, and all of those nifty additions Valve released as patches for CZ. And it's only ?17 on Steam, which is a damn good deal from where I'm standing.

What extras be these? Also, what tech does CS:CZ add to HL - it wasn't
ONLY detail textures (which were actually added secretly to the entire
engine) was it?

What extras be these? Also, what tech does CS:CZ add to HL - it wasn't
ONLY detail textures (which were actually added secretly to the entire
engine) was it?

1.1 Release included:

- Buy Package system for buying favourite equipment quickly
- CS:CZ Custom Mission Creation Kit
- New player and weapon models
- new audio content

1.2 Release included:

- High-definition hostage models with all new AI, showing emotions such as fear, attemtp to escape on their own if ignored, even talk to the player to give cluse on what they've seen.
- Brand new maps
- New player models

Also, I think one of these updates included more of those deleted scenes missions.

fishy said:
the way that sven-coop gets funded/paid for seems like a decent deal.

if someone wants to send them some money along with their steam id, they get to have their id written into some database. it means when they go online, they get to have a shiney golden crowbar that sparks when it does damage, and golden uzis that are slightly more powerful than normal uzis.

from what i've seen on sven servers, they must have made a few quid from it.

though not from me :razz:

any sad people here with a golden crowbar?

:biggrin:

desert crisis used a similar system: special heads. as you maybe know there are a lot of heads to choose from in DC, but if you saw someone with a very special head you knew he had sent money to the dev team. Now the really interesting thing is that when you paid a certain (high :rolleyes: ) amount, you could sent in a photo of yourself and they would actually model/skin your head and include it in the next patch, so you exclusivly can walk around in servers, with people admiring your very own face :smile:

Bwahahahaha, Gunman Chronicles. It would have been quite the
kickass mod if they released it for free, but it should have never gone
retail. Hopefully it's utter failure will remind all those modmakers
out there that just because Steam will allow you to charge people for
your mod does't mean you should do it. You aren't professional and your game will not be worth it.

You aren't professionally and your game may not be worth it

:razz:

You aren't professional and your game may not be worth it.

:razz:

donno why I keep adding the odd -ly or whatever when I'm
typing... I don't even think about it and I don't see anything
wrong with it until someone points it out :/

Crono said:

I want to play Blue Shift.

Now I've heard everything.

Blue Shift is my favorite, actually. The old retro-labs, trainyard,
scripted sequences and other stuff is top-notch. The sequence with the
barney crashing and all the boxes flying in the air... Ahh, good times.
Some of the puzzles were pretty good too. Plus it came with OpFor and
the Hi-Def pack, so I think purchase would have been justified anyway
(well, at around $30).

Gorbachev said:
I want to play Blue Shift.

Got WON? :biggrin:

Got WON? :biggrin:

It has nothing to do with WON. Blue Shift doesn't even have a multi-player campaign.

I understand that everyone is saying "Steam or WON versions of HL" But that only applies to online portions of HL.

If you want to play B-S, buy it. You can still buy it for like 20 bucks new. Or find it at some used game store used, because the key means nothing (when compared with the HL key).

I don't know what CJ's talking about. I mean, sure B-S had some good stuff ... but, it wasn't enough to justify its purchase.

As for CZ, I played it over at a friends ... man ... what a hunk of crap. Sorry to all the CZ lovers around, but this thing is terrible. I mean, the deleted scenes portion is OKAY. The rest of it, sadly, should have been called "Counter-Strike Tournament". Because thats what it is. I suppose if you love CS and UT, then you'll be in heaven. But, I found it poor. I'd actually invest some time playing the deleted scenes part though, it was semi-fun (except the sneaking, because that aspect just doesn't work in HL).

As for CZ, I played it over at a friends ... man ... what a hunk of crap. Sorry to all the CZ lovers around, but this thing is terrible. I mean, the deleted scenes portion is OKAY. The rest of it, sadly, should have been called "Counter-Strike Tournament". Because thats what it is. I suppose if you love CS and UT, then you'll be in heaven. But, I found it poor. I'd actually invest some time playing the deleted scenes part though, it was semi-fun (except the sneaking, because that aspect just doesn't work in HL).

I finally caved in and actually bought CZ, and I was pleasantly surprised by how fun it actually was. The deleted scenes are occasionally fun, and I found the single-player challenges to be great, especially with those brilliant bots in play. Of course, if you don't like CS in the first place, you're not going to like CZ, and if you expected more from ?20, then you're gonna be dissapointed. Meh, I enjoy playing it. :smile:

And the Counter-Strike: Source beta is great fun.

I also liked Blue Shift. It was short, but it was still great fun, and the game was cheap anyway. Not as good as Opposing Force (undoubtedly the best chapter in the Half-Life series so far), but still fun while it lasted.

Well I actually won a copy of CS: CZ from PC Power Play magazine (those in Australia will know what I'm talking about). That was about 5-6 months ago, Vivendi have been screwing around and still haven't sent out the free copies of the game. My hopes of playing CS source have been dashed .

Oh and thanks for the replies everyone. The reason I changed the post title to try and stop people from replying is that shortly after posting I actually figured it all out and felt like a bit of a prat . I have an original copy of HL game of the year edition, so I registered and now its all sweet. Now all I need is broadband.