What to do about Steam

[botmeister]

STEAM NEWS

STEAM NEWS

http://www.steampowered.com/img/Graphic_box.jpg



Steam Update Released (http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=107352299667004800)

January 7, 2004, 4:49 pm · Erik Johnson (Erik@valvesoftware.com) There has been a small update to Steam this evening. This release mainly affects the server browser.

SERVER BROWSER:

Fixed bug where "no LAN servers on network" message wouldn't appear in server list if no servers responded to LAN ping
Fixed bug where servers weren't being sorted by ping by default
Added region to filter info string
Added installed MODS to game filter dropdown
Change game filter to display full game name instead of short name

This "small" update has left me with a busted Steam once again. Before this small update, there were no bugs that I could not live with, but after this small update, I have one BIG GIANT HUGE MONSTER bug I cannot live with - the game does NOT work anymore PERIOD!

I just don't get what the mind set is. You CANNOT willy-nilly release untested beta code into the production steam like this. These frequently released "small updates" ARE not helpfull - PLEASE STOP IT! There was nothing wrong with the beta/production release cycle. Steam is NOT really the problem here, the implementation of Steam is the problem. We need a beta release and a production release. Those who use the beta version, do so at their own risk, and those who use the production release, do so knowing how to work around all the bugs. There was nothing wrong with this tried and true method of software deployment - it worked about as well as it can. The continuous beta stream concept is silly, unhelpfull, and it PISSES people off. These people are supposed to be your CUSTOMERS. Now don't take my word for it - what do I know anyway - instead read your own support forums, it speaks volumes about what is going wrong with Steam. Oh, and don't tell me that "everything is fine, it's just that the network is down" because no one cares if the bugs are on their side or on your side, it makes little difference either way. Here take a look ...

http://steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=17 (http://steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=17)

Sorry for the rant, but I'm at the end of my rope with these NEEDLESS hassles.

aaaah! That made me feel better, now that I can't waste anymore time playing silly computer games, I can get something useful done ... :)

[Dis Guy Here]

yesterday, steam went down due to ddos attacks. just thought i would say it here.

[Austin]

There was nothing wrong with the beta/production release cycle.
Yes, it is amazing isn't it!
A professional company doing professional software development??

The problem is as you say, everyone is running beta code. It is amazing to think they don' thave a way to handle beta versions and release versions.

It is too painful to go through unless you have made the choice to participate.
LOL.

[botmeister]

yesterday, steam went down due to ddos attacks. just thought i would say it here.
Yes that's what they claim, and it's worth mentioning here.

I do find it strange that no one could get in. One would think that not all the "content servers" would of been attacked at the same time. Also, one person said he was in the middle of a clan match and he got booted out. Why boot someone who has already been authenticated?

No matter the reason why Steam went down over the last two days (or so), previous "minor" release updates have messed me up before, and they still have no beta/production cycle which guarantees we'll be seeing a lot more of these clitches.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Steam was a brilliant idea. They ruined it with their naughty implementation. If Half-Life 2 ever comes out, it makes me VERY AFRAID of the quality of the code these Valve guys are capable of.

BTW I'll reply to your email soon, botmeister ;)

[botmeister]

Steam was a brilliant idea. They ruined it with their naughty implementation. If Half-Life 2 ever comes out, it makes me VERY AFRAID of the quality of the code these Valve guys are capable of.

BTW I'll reply to your email soon, botmeister ;)
I agree that the Steam concept is NOT the problem, instead it is the implementation of the concept that is flawed.

[stefanhendriks]

most concepts are brilliant in theory but fail in practice. Even when you change the way how to distribute your software you will always have people complaining. I do think that Valve really needs to consider this beta or non beta environment. Its insane to buy HL now, you will first need to get Steammed, then you need every wednesday a new patch, its a darn horror to get it working.

I don't use steam, ONLY if i HAVE TO :) (testing bots), i only test bots in CS 1.6 when i have tested it 100 times with CS 1.5 though :)

[Jester5867]

I agree steam was and is a great IDEA but it seams to me it’s just become one reckless circle they are fixing one bug and creating another. Its not helping anyone, except to hook new users with steams attractive platform and on the box steam looks great with a long list of features, only problem they don't work. I have seen quite few moders be really pissed off because the code changes so abruptly without notice that they have to update on steams schedule which obviously is convenient for no one. One suggestion I would make to valve is test your product before you release it, make sure your not fixing one bug and creating 3, get beta testers to test it and then release it, not use your final product as the test. All I can really say is that I'm going to hold on because its going to get better eventually, granted they are doing things ass backwards I think it will end ok in the end

By the way Stefan what do you think http://home.comcast.net/~n.siakotos/index.html

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Not sure they ever take the time to "test" what they release... most steam updates are about fixing vulnerability holes and/or potential or avered hacks, and in this last case it's always an absolute emergency.

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

this new update hosed me but there is a simple solution to fixing it.

go to your steam folder and delete the file that looked like this.
cientregistry.blobb and restart steam

[Fiber_Optic]

Another update will come tonight... The main thing I think is the new money system! It Sounds great! But our friends bot authors will have to correct their buy tables... eheh

[botmeister]

yesterday, steam went down due to ddos attacks. just thought i would say it here.
FYI: They now claim this is what happened:
Thursday Night's Service Interruption (http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=107368166784116300)

January 9, 2004, 12:54 pm · Greg Coomer (greg@valvesoftware.com) For about 4 hours Thursday night, Steam service was interrupted. After that time, service continued to be slow until about 11:00 am PST today (Friday). These problems were caused by device failure on our network following a power outage. We apologize for the inconvenience -- we're currently increasing redundancy in these areas to prevent this from happening in the future.

[botmeister]

Another update will come tonight... The main thing I think is the new money system! It Sounds great! But our friends bot authors will have to correct their buy tables... eheh
I got a good chuckle reading about this fix:

"Fixed bug where shield would be invisible if a player picked the shield up immediately after throwing a grenade."

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

sounds just like

- fixed a bug where bomb would blow immediately on the back of the terrorist carrying it if he did three steps on the left, two on the right, one behind and four ahead after typing 'I like smurfs' twice in the game chat area

Same level.

How the hell do these guys write code for such bugs to even happen ??? o_O

[Fiber_Optic]

I agree... I really don't understand! They have correct so many bug for this shield... it would be funny to read the whole fixed bugs for it! :)

---edit---
Here's an extract from the official steam website:

A Counter-Strike update and a game engine update were originally scheduled for tonight, but have been postponed until tomorrow morning. Here's a list of the changes included in the update.

Don't you think they have found another main bug just before release it?

[stefanhendriks]

there was indeed a possibility to throw a grenade in spawning or something , and then you could quickly buy a shield, but then it would not be visible. I have heard this before, so its not that weird. (Well it is... but what the heck..)

[botmeister]

I figure the never ending list of oddities with the "magic" shield is due to the original code being totally incompatible with the concept.

The programmers must of been under some pressure to hack the original code to "make it work". There's no consistency in how the shield is managed relative to all the other weapons and equipment which is an indication that the thing was "forced" into the existing code.

In the physical world, it is common knowledge that when your infrastructure does not support what you are adding on to it, it tends to rattle, sway, buckle, make lots of noises, and eventually collapse.

It's a damn good thing programmers do not build bridges :)

[Onno Kreuzinger]

In the physical world, it is common knowledge that when your infrastructure does not support what you are adding on to it, it tends to rattle, sway, buckle, make lots of noises, and eventually collapse.

It's a damn good thing programmers do not build bridges :)
Nice to hear, beeing a system guard (or called crash master), i have build servers for developers. :-)

i think steam is ok, they do much better than one might think, at least i would trust them more that i would trust ibm europe to develop a billing system.

for me (dsl) steam was no big deal, i nuked the cache stuff 3 times by killing cs via the task manager while loading or saving.
each time it took around 30 mins until i could play againe.
i use a 380 mb steam installer which has the hl/cs cache included, so after installing this over my broken steam (mostly the steam app itself gets broken), i need 3-4 minor (1-4 mb) updates for steam engine and cs engine. after that it repairs the cache files and launches againe. (i never have more that 25 kb download speed)

if any developer needs a cdr with that file, n.p. i could spend some €'s to snail mail it within europe, oh and i will have my very own test server next monday, so that would make 3 game server waiting for new bots to come.

Regards MeMeD

[botmeister]

I think there's really only a few main dislikes with Steam.

1. Lack of a beta release cycle
2. The DSL requirement (complaint for modem users only)
3. Slow time to connect even with DSL
4. Authentication problems for LAN servers and servers which need both LAN and internet access.

Other than those problems, it's not so bad, and in some ways it does make life easier with managing updates.

[sPlOrYgOn]

your forgetting lack of customer support
i need to change my email address that i signed up with them because they shut down and i no longer have access to it