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Steam offline mode

F

FearTheCow

Supreme [H]ardness
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Joined
May 2, 2006
Messages
7,803
What good is having 100+ games if I can't play them because of Steams shitty implementation of offline mode. Ironic that my Origin games work fine, but not steam. Gabe needs to choke on a turkey the fat ****.
 
The offline mode is a mythical creature that only appears under special and magical circumstances.
 
omg dont say anything bad about steam EVER !

Funny i don't use steam for anything but sp games I get on sale for real cheap. I still have to have it on to play them though even if i am using offline mode...
I can play crysis 2 and any other game besides BF3 with origin off however...
 
did steam change its offline mode? i went offline mode just fine at my last lan and played games. you can even play games like l4d with only 1 copy of the game.
 
Yeah, the problem with offline mode is you can't get into if you're actually offline. You have to switch into it when you're online, which is only useful if you know you're going to be offline. It sucks ass, and they deserve all of the negative attention we can give them for it. It's a broken feature they seem to have no intention of fixing.

It does work on occasion, but most of the time when you can't connect to the internet and you tell it to start in offline mode it hangs for a few minutes then tells you it can't reach the steam servers and offers to go into offline mode again, which goes on forever.
 
Oldie said:
Yeah, the problem with offline mode is you can't get into if you're actually offline. You have to switch into it when you're online, which is only useful if you know you're going to be offline. It sucks ass, and they deserve all of the negative attention we can give them for it. It's a broken feature they seem to have no intention of fixing.

It does work on occasion, but most of the time when you can't connect to the internet and you tell it to start in offline mode it hangs for a few minutes then tells you it can't reach the steam servers and offers to go into offline mode again, which goes on forever.
Click to expand...

Nothing like surviving a hurricane with your electricity still on but no internet. So you're really bored and you decide to fire up Steam for some single player action. Instead of some fun playing a game you get the infinite loop you detailed. So frustrating!
 
cageymaru said:
Nothing like surviving a hurricane with your electricity still on but no internet. So you're really bored and you decide to fire up Steam for some single player action. Instead of some fun playing a game you get the infinite loop you detailed. So frustrating!
Click to expand...

Exactly what happened to me after that derecho went through.
 
IMO the placid acceptance of the PC gaming community to DRM is the reason we still have it.

Instead we get Steam DRM - less annoying but still remote-server-authentication-DRM. Just because people love the program and the storefront, they put up with the DRM. In fact, sometimes embrace it despite the DRM over non-DRM'd options.

I only have 2 Steam games - and one of them is free now (TF2). Only place I buy digital-DL games is GOG. Your dollar is your vote.
 
Try this one:

Open Steam and go offline.
Then make a backup of winui.gcf (Steam\steamapps)

Next time you need offline mode just replace the current winui.gcf file with the backup.
 
The only reason I use Steam is because of the awesome sales they have. I will never buy a Steam game full price.
 
Offline mode only works if you tell Steam to save your password.

It works absolutely fine for me if I disable my internet connection before opening steam.
 
Raudulfr said:
Wrong.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected.

For me, steam will start in offline mode when I ask it to when I have no internet connection. Disabled ethernet adapter, rebooted, steam offered offline mode.. was able to play any game I tried without being online.. even one I installed but hadn't run online before.
 
This is a problem Valve needs to address. Steam is frequently updated with features and patches yet this issue is still ongoing. The community should harass them with this.
 
Raudulfr said:
More than they already have? Valve just doesn't care enough to fix it.
Click to expand...
Maybe we should get together and protest in front of Valve headquarters. I heard that at worst we'll be in for a tour of the offices and some free pizza.
 
So my neighbors decided that they wanted to steal Cable Television and the fuckers SPLICED into my wire instead of buying a splitter at the Dollar Store. I didn't have a chance to enable Offline mode in Steam naturally and for the past 2 days I was unable to play a damn thing.

Luckily I was able to use Origin, but Mass Effect 3 requires authentication it seems every time you play for the DLC. I own the Collector's Edition so you'd think that would have been good enough but alas no. I was able to play other games but Bioware has the DLC for their titles on lock down. Stupid ass DRM. If I had downloaded the torrent I wouldn't have an issue playing the DLC Mr. Publisher! I give you money and I get spit on in return!

So then I tried UPLAY and I was able to play Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. Had a bunch of fun and ran into a bunch of bugs also (game related; not DRM issues). And I was able to put it into Offline Mode without a problem! Now if they can fix the crap where it downloads all games and extracts them to C: drive, which is a 120GB SSD instead of F: drive a 3TB HD, I would recommend them to others. That issue is too annoying right now though. Small time fix that would fix a major issue!

Then I remembered that I bought some games off Amazon like Witcher 2. No problems and absolute love! Now a few games from Amazon require authentication, Kalypso in particular, but overall I could access most of my purchases. Was very happy!

I wish Steam could fix their Offline Mode though. I would use them more for game purchases. Right now due to the location that I live in where my internet is subject to d/c due to ice dropping tree branches onto power lines, hurricanes, tornadoes, high heat melting the wiring, flooding, high winds, forest fires, swamp fires, drunk SOB's driving into poles, jackasses splicing into wiring to steal Cable TV, etc. Because of this it's been in my best interest not to use Steam. Glad to hear the new XBOX is ditching always online authentication also. Would hate to see those gamers left out in the cold with useless purchases also.

Didn't think my comments warranted a new thread so I necro'd this one. :)
 
The weird Steam issue I've been having recently is giant text in chats... :confused: (haven't changed the theme or settings, though it is the beta client...) :D

Offline mode does suck ass though, also when you get a game on DVD (it's usually much much cheaper than Steam sales :D) and put the disk in, most the time, without using a special command line it will just try and download the game... Though the most recent game didn't do that, so maybe, maybe they fixed it? :eek:
 
Im confused at what is so hard to understand about Offline mode? Ive never had a problem with it.

If you bitch about things on hardforums you cant expect it to get fixed. You should report bugs straight to them.
 
DeathPrincess said:
No. Most the time it just seems to say nonsense crap (while the client still has the same years old issues).

Why the hell did they do that, it's not like it was tiny before, at least make it easily optional (without making a whole new theme). :p
Click to expand...

Big Picture Mode, I imagine.

As for offline mode, I have never had any issues with it. Works just fine for me.
 
I've never understood why people have trouble with offline mode..

You need to play a game once in normal mode, then you can play it in offline mode.

I've had my internet cut in and out quite frequently lately, so I can assure you, it swaps to offline perfectly fine when you're offline, and rebooting, quitting steam, etc, works fine to get back into offline mode. The ONLY time I have issues is if I try to open a game I just downloaded but didn't open to finish setup when steam was online.

I've had it do this on several (3+) different PCs, on several different ISPs, In several different parts of the country (This doesn't matter, but I figured I would add that in as well..).

If I had ever had trouble with offline mode not working, I guess I could understand it... but seeing as many of my friends and myself have all had the EXACT same experience with offline mode... I'm left with one possible solution for people who cant get it to work...

PEBKAC
 
FighterAce124 said:
I've never understood why people have trouble with offline mode..

You need to play a game once in normal mode, then you can play it in offline mode.

If I had ever had trouble with offline mode not working, I guess I could understand it... but seeing as many of my friends and myself have all had the EXACT same experience with offline mode... I'm left with one possible solution for people who cant get it to work...

PEBKAC
Click to expand...

I said the same thing myself. I took an entire week off from work to play some games on Steam and beat them. That Friday, they made upgrade to the fiber lines. Steam loaded up in offline mode for 2 to 3 days. After that, it gave me a BIG FU** U, and it wont load at all. As soon as it open, it will close. I manually loaded up a game from the Steam directory and it will close as soon as Steam tried to load.

After that experience, I now buy my games from all the vendors, last time Steam FU**S me over again. I took a screen shoot, of the error that would load up as soon as Steam loaded up. Remember it worked fine for the first couple of days in offline mode.

 
Oldie said:
Yeah, the problem with offline mode is you can't get into if you're actually offline. You have to switch into it when you're online, which is only useful if you know you're going to be offline. It sucks ass, and they deserve all of the negative attention we can give them for it. It's a broken feature they seem to have no intention of fixing.

It does work on occasion, but most of the time when you can't connect to the internet and you tell it to start in offline mode it hangs for a few minutes then tells you it can't reach the steam servers and offers to go into offline mode again, which goes on forever.
Click to expand...

lol...I've never used offline mode but that's a totally crappy implementation...you need to first be online and then switch offline in order for it to work?...sort of defeats the whole purpose
 
Andrmgic said:
I stand corrected.

For me, steam will start in offline mode when I ask it to when I have no internet connection. Disabled ethernet adapter, rebooted, steam offered offline mode.. was able to play any game I tried without being online.. even one I installed but hadn't run online before.
Click to expand...

Works like this for me as well. Have never had a problem with steam's offline mode.
 
German Muscle said:
If you bitch about things on hardforums you cant expect it to get fixed. You should report bugs straight to them.
Click to expand...

Yes, in their support section, apparently run by one guy (part time) who gives (usually nonsense) copy/paste replies 1 week later. :p

Steam is one of the buggiest pieces of software people commonly run. But the problem is Valve gets so much ass kissing and so vehemently defended over every tiny thing that any criticism is downplayed so it seems like they have no issues (so why do anything about them). Which is probably why their games are such mediocre crapjunk now and Steam continues to be a buggy mess missing lots of common sense features.

Smythe said:
Big Picture Mode, I imagine.
Click to expand...

Which is another buggy element. Every time it closes it throw up a bunch of errors in the console. Plus they still haven't changed the shortcut key (or made it configurable) so it doesn't turn on in some games when you press alt+enter! :D
 
DeathPrincess said:
Yes, in their support section, apparently run by one guy (part time) who gives (usually nonsense) copy/paste replies 1 week later. :p

Steam is one of the buggiest pieces of software people commonly run. But the problem is Valve gets so much ass kissing and so vehemently defended over every tiny thing that any criticism is downplayed so it seems like they have no issues (so why do anything about them). Which is probably why their games are such mediocre crapjunk now and Steam continues to be a buggy mess missing lots of common sense features.
Click to expand...

Thats because you are talking to support, Not the devs. I have beta tested numerous games on steam and never used Support to report bugs. In fact ive only used support twice when my account got hijacked.

You should try posting to steam forums in the Steam client section.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15

That way you can link it here and get people on here on board as well as the people on that forum and actually make progress to getting something done. I would have your ducks in a line though and not just post complaining but have a solution(s) as well.
 
German Muscle said:
Thats because you are talking to support, Not the devs. I have beta tested numerous games on steam and never used Support to report bugs. In fact ive only used support twice when my account got hijacked.

You should try posting to steam forums in the Steam client section.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15

That way you can link it here and get people on here on board as well as the people on that forum and actually make progress to getting something done. I would have your ducks in a line though and not just post complaining but have a solution(s) as well.
Click to expand...

Reading through that forum there are lots of issues and suggestions and next to no action/solved issues. Even obvious stuff dating back to 2009+, so it doesn't seem like they read that at all/care about that much either.

Haven't they moved over to the forums in the Steam client now?

There needs to be something they pay attention to. Not sure who or what that is (journalist?), but these channels are apparently next to useless.
 
DeathPrincess said:
Reading through that forum there are lots of issues and suggestions and next to no action/solved issues. Even obvious stuff dating back to 2009+, so it doesn't seem like they read that at all/care about that much either.

Haven't they moved over to the forums in the Steam client now?

There needs to be something they pay attention to. Not sure who or what that is (journalist?), but these channels are apparently next to useless.
Click to expand...

If you have 4 people bitching in a thread then yeah they will ignore it. If you get it going for pages then they will pay attention to it. Also dont let the mods try and say different. There are mods who volunteer to police the forums but try to portray themselves as more. You all need help with this?
 
Thanks for the link German_Muscle. I'll report the issue over there also. What happens with me goes like this so that people can stop saying that I'm doing something wrong. :)

Steam starts.
Signing into account Cageymaru
You are offline and you need to sign into an account while connected to the internet to enable offline mode. Or have your account information saved on this PC.

I have my account, credit card, paypal, steam guard enabled, and Steam Wallet saved on my PC. I don't have to type in a password to sign into Steam after my internet comes back up because it is already saved. So it obviously knows my account information. What do you have saved that I don't to start in Offline Mode?
 
For me at least there is no way to easily start a steam game if I didn't put it into offline mode before I went offline. My solution: leave it offline by default unless I need to get into the store. Then i take it back offline after i'm done using the online features. Most of my steam games are single player though, so I see how this could be a pain in the ass for some. I have a big enough backlog at this point that I don't need anymore impulse buys. If enough people keep steam in offline mode valve will notice and maybe re-think forcing people to think ahead and plan to be offline.
 
Raudulfr said:
Try this one:

Open Steam and go offline.
Then make a backup of winui.gcf (Steam\steamapps)

Next time you need offline mode just replace the current winui.gcf file with the backup.
Click to expand...

This is why steam offline mode is fail. You have to Online.. Before offline.
 
Dion said:
This is why steam offline mode is fail. You have to Online.. Before offline.
Click to expand...

Not if it works properly, once you have logged in online once and saved your password offline mode should work automatically if steam is unable to connect to the internet thereafter.

Origin isn't any different except for older EA games, you need to have logged in online at least once to save your account details before offline mode will work.
 
cageymaru said:
Thanks for the link German_Muscle. I'll report the issue over there also. What happens with me goes like this so that people can stop saying that I'm doing something wrong. :)

Steam starts.
Signing into account Cageymaru
You are offline and you need to sign into an account while connected to the internet to enable offline mode. Or have your account information saved on this PC.

I have my account, credit card, paypal, steam guard enabled, and Steam Wallet saved on my PC. I don't have to type in a password to sign into Steam after my internet comes back up because it is already saved. So it obviously knows my account information. What do you have saved that I don't to start in Offline Mode?
Click to expand...

Im on many valve mailing lists with direct contact paths to the developers as well. If i have to ill push the issue there.
 
Blade-Runner said:
Not if it works properly, once you have logged in online once and saved your password offline mode should work automatically if steam is unable to connect to the internet thereafter.

Origin isn't any different except for older EA games, you need to have logged in online at least once to save your account details before offline mode will work.
Click to expand...

Ya they both suck. Could do without both of them.
 
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