<div class="IPBDescription">Will ns be a product of steam?</div>Will it? And if so, do the beta testers who signed up get to test it? I sure do hope so!
Well, it would be nice if NS was tested through Steam, but as it is, who knows? I do think that there are some people here that Flayra would want in the NS Beta test that aren't in Steam Beta, and vice versa. And depending on schedules going on here and there, Steam might be public before NS is ready for beat tests (though I'm not sure if whatever and now I'm just trailing off because its soo late, soo tired and sleep. Sorry).
i think that steam is valves answer to cheaters. The steam program downloads the software ingame, and if it is altered (the steam cache has been damaged), it will repair it and remove the cheats (but im not sure). if it is this way, ns surely will be included in steam. Although i do not know if beta testing will be part of this...
They're already betatesting now, aren't they? So why should they have more betatesters? But if they do need some, i'm there man, i've been palying fps for wwhole my life, so me very 1337 <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->. About the steam thing, dunno if NS will use it, what's steam anywayz? Do you have o downlaod cs/ns(if it uses it) every time you play, or just the system-files from that game, or does it just check if something has been altered?
Steam - Basically the remote server for Steam sends you what is needed to play each game. Your system caches the stuff and your on your way. Kind of like those online pc game rental sites. <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
won't that make the game unplayable for 56k modem users? I mean i have cable so it wouldn't take very long, but i can immagine 56k users having to wait like 15 minutes.
Well I have read around the net that it will render 56k users useless, but I don't know personally. Its likely they won't be able to play or to the point that it is unplayable. So Steam could be the death of all 56k players, I don't know for <i>sure</i> though. <!--emo&???--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'><!--endemo-->
I don't know personally, several people @ FragHaus got to beta test but none of them have 56k connections. Its a valid question, I will see who I can ask and try and get a actual answer back. But as with online pc game rental services, like Ebgames, you need broadband so it could be the same situation but again I don't know for sure.
I find it very unlikely that Valve would prevent several million 56k Half-Life owners from playing their game. Nevermind that the CounterStrike purchasers (over 1 million units sold) would have a decent lawsuit on their hands, as the game was sold with the assurance that it was playable on 33.6k modem, and is online-only.
More than that though, I've never seen Gabe Newell do anything except increase player counts. The 56k netcode comes to mind. I wouldn't worry about it too much, fellas.
Well, I still think they should try to reduce cheating as much as possible. Just throwing up your hands and saying 'we surrender' isn't going to do anything to stop them. Making an effective anti-cheat system requires good forethought, flexibility, and and a way to inflict punative damage. From what little I've gleaned from Eric Johnson's interviews, they have thought of all those things. I guess all we can do is wait.
And making things anti-cheat for users was easy in the past, back when HL MP was designed as a server-side app. There are tradeoffs in order to get better performance.
I am all for no cheating, PunkBuster came and went, Paladin is basically gone, CsGuard is good but can't effectively recognize the new OGC cheats so really the only other thing I can think of is www.cheating-death.com . Until Valve releases their anti-cheat measure I and many other admins on the net have to just deal with the current state of online gaming.
You have to download the entire game every time you connect to a server? What's next, a system where every frame is rendered on the server and gets sent to you over your broadband connection?
Heh. I don't think that you download everything every time. It caches it, then runs a CRC check. If the CRC check passes, it doesn't need to redownload. Though... how this would make it different from the CRC checking that HL does -now- is beyond me...
I would hope it was more sophisticated than a CRC (stop saying CRC check, you redundant thing you <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo--> ), since you can usually trim out excess code from a few offset points, insert your own cheaty strings, then pad any left over space, in order to keep a binary at the exact same size.
That would be your connection Silver Fox (unless there's a bizarre bug that I don't know about). I used to do it -all- the time on a 56K. You're lossy. Find a closer connection, a better ISP, a better connection, or a closer server (one with fewer hops/routers between you and it).
My ping is always a steady 100 if not lower. You see, if you type developer 2 into the console, when your game "lags" look into your console or uper left corner, you'll see its loading models.
dont have that problem, DoD 2 runs great with me. but anywayz whith steam you just download the game the first time you connect, the second time you connect to a server having a different map it only downloads the map.
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i do not know so much about coding, although im on the 4th day of my 'learn-c++-in-21-days' book, but cant valve develop some sort of new winzip, that can only be unzipped by the game itself (a sort of pak-like). When you download the game, it is only decompressable when you play the game, otherwise you can't acces the files... (there then would be some 'adder' program, when a developer of a mod has completed its mod, downloads the program and makes it a .(pakzip) file.. this should stop cheaters for a while, until they find out how the coding is done, then valve develops a new one in the new release and the cheaters must start all over again...
Steam-less rizzuh @ 00:52 - cstrike - 18 comments An eagle-eyed CS-Nation reader informed me that Leon Hartwig, CS' Linux guy and a Valve drone, posted some interesting info about Steam and 1.4 on the Steam beta forums. You won't see the CS dev team as active here because we really have no need to be. CS is well established. The current high-maintenence (sic) support issues are mostly for Steam (which, by the way, will not be going live with CS 1.4; the public releases of HL 1109 and CS 1.4 will be totally non-Steam). Steam is a content delivery system, in case you're wondering. It basically downloads the game to your hard drive in a few minutes and is only really useful for broadband users. This probably hints that Valve will focus on Steam as a way to make cash, completely bypassing their publisher.
Personally, I think this is great. I like the game being on my hard drive.
So is Steam being used for the actual game when it's released? I thought it was just Valve's way of having beta testing... I haven't played much with my copy of it yet <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
Comments
if it is this way, ns surely will be included in steam. Although i do not know if beta testing will be part of this...
More than that though, I've never seen Gabe Newell do anything except increase player counts. The 56k netcode comes to mind. I wouldn't worry about it too much, fellas.
<!--EDIT|MonsieurEvil|Feb. 02 2002,12:52-->
And nothing is cheat-free anymore, and I doubt Steam would make it anyway. Sooner or later hackers find ways around things, they always do.
And making things anti-cheat for users was easy in the past, back when HL MP was designed as a server-side app. There are tradeoffs in order to get better performance.
<!--EDIT|MonsieurEvil|Feb. 02 2002,13:02-->
What's next, a system where every frame is rendered on the server and gets sent to you over your broadband connection?
<!--EDIT|MonsieurEvil|Feb. 02 2002,15:28-->
>_<
I have DSL.
My ping is always a steady 100 if not lower. You see, if you type developer 2 into the console, when your game "lags" look into your console or uper left corner, you'll see its loading models.
Do you beta test DOD 2.0 Moleculor?
and trust me, my computer isnt dying ..
<!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
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i do not know so much about coding, although im on the 4th day of my 'learn-c++-in-21-days' book, but cant valve develop some sort of new winzip, that can only be unzipped by the game itself (a sort of pak-like). When you download the game, it is only decompressable when you play the game, otherwise you can't acces the files... (there then would be some 'adder' program, when a developer of a mod has completed its mod, downloads the program and makes it a .(pakzip) file.. this should stop cheaters for a while, until they find out how the coding is done, then valve develops a new one in the new release and the cheaters must start all over again...
Steam-less
rizzuh @ 00:52 - cstrike - 18 comments
An eagle-eyed CS-Nation reader informed me that Leon Hartwig, CS' Linux guy and a Valve drone, posted some interesting info about Steam and 1.4 on the Steam beta forums.
You won't see the CS dev team as active here because we really have no need to be. CS is well established. The current high-maintenence (sic) support issues are mostly for Steam (which, by the way, will not be going live with CS 1.4; the public releases of HL 1109 and CS 1.4 will be totally non-Steam).
Steam is a content delivery system, in case you're wondering. It basically downloads the game to your hard drive in a few minutes and is only really useful for broadband users. This probably hints that Valve will focus on Steam as a way to make cash, completely bypassing their publisher.
Personally, I think this is great. I like the game being on my hard drive.
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