View Full Version : Latest news on new patches.
Smallfoot
16-01-2003, 22:20
Counter-Strike 1.6 BETA / Steam 2.0 Today [02:27 pm]
123 Comments - Steve Gibson
Well, everyone can chill out on the refreshing like mad for a little bit. We've got an official release time now for the Counter-Strike 1.6 BETA / Steam2.0 release. Here's the word from Valve Software:
Steam Beta 2.0 begins today at 3 pm Pacific. The beta is open to the public, anyone can join by downloading and running the 4MB install applet.
For the first few days, this beta will include the coming versions of Counter-Strike (1.6) and Team Fortress Classic. Further updates to these games, as well as additional content, will be made available to participants throughout the beta. Steam is a broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content. More information on Steam and this beta can be found at www.steampowered.com.
We'll have the install application on Fileshack.com at release time. That will be 5pm CST (Shack time)
5pm CST is about 3.26pm atm so about 1 hour and half to go people! Im excited :D
Remember this is just the beta release for Steam and not a full TFC/Half Life/CS patch.
think its bigger than smegabites, a few cumabites at least :/
Smallfoot
16-01-2003, 22:41
I think its steam yeah and then u use it to download new things.
Rex_Omar
16-01-2003, 23:15
WTF is Steam anyway?
Should it be treated like a completely different game or saaing?
Steam lets you stream (Gameplay buzzword) games over the internet; thus allowing you never to have to download a game to play it - or buy one.
Rex_Omar
16-01-2003, 23:39
I take it that when the full release comes out there will be some sort of subscription?
Lt. Sex Machine
16-01-2003, 23:44
So it's just another executive concocted load of poop?
By the time you have downloaded a game you could have gone to a shop and bought it like a normal person, a dozen or so times.
I don't even like to use that method to install patches, after all if you need to reinstall windows you can spend a week downloading the necessary patches etc to get your computer back to where it was, which is absolutely barmy :z
LSM, you've missed it. You don't actually download the game. In this case I think you only need to download the Steam client and when you're wanting to play a game it only sends you the necessary info to play it. There might be a cache of some sort but you don't download a file then run it or anything, it's kinda like running a version of Half Life off a pc in america then running a very long moniter cable to your pc. But then that might be a poor example :E
Rex, yeah it'll be subs. It's stupid not to charge for it ;)
http://home.t-online.de/home/cscentral/SteamInstall.exe
Shimsham
17-01-2003, 00:03
nice one stevep where you get that?
Shimsham
17-01-2003, 00:05
well its just starting to update itself :)
Lt. Sex Machine
17-01-2003, 00:10
If it's cached locally (which it would have to be to run at any kind of speed) then you are still effectively downloading it are you not?
One way or the other the data has to get to your machine whether it is via the traditional CD method or via a network connection.
And yeah I think that is a poor example, it will be nothing like having a very long monitor cable, it will be just like having a hard drive that runs at the speed of a floppy.
Won't work in a million years :)
It's an official link :)
From what I’d interpreted steam as is a content delivery system. Yes, you can actually purchase software over it in the future rather than buying it from retail outlets. However, as for games you purchase (retail or via steam), steam will keep them up-to-date and download the necessary files. Hence, goodbye to the traditional half-life patches and valve directly inflict their updates whenever they feel like. Means their VAC system can be kept up-to-date easily, and bugs removed. This also cuts the middle men, known as Sierra out of the equation, which valves current patches have to be channeled through. I probably made all the above up, so don't take my word for it though :P
Mercutio
17-01-2003, 00:17
Steam isn't working for anyone atm because of all the people trying to get onto it :|
Lt. Sex Machine
17-01-2003, 00:19
So it doesn't solve a single problem then, just creates a bunch of new ones.
I still prefer to have patches for keeps, download them once and maintain control.
Hands up who turned off Microsoft's automatic Windows update, bet you did it for the same reasons I did ;)
Defragmentor
17-01-2003, 00:31
Steve is right. When it's up and running and they are selling games via steam, it cuts out the middlemen (publishers, packaging, shipping, retailers) meaning the profits go direct to Valve, quite an ambitious and innovative approach if you ask me. Consdering you can get broadband just about anywhere in the US it's an interesting scheme.
You can still go to the shop and buy the game too, but I would imagine the steam purchase is cheaper.
There will be no charge for using HL with steam, HL is just being used to test steam out and check everything works ok afaik. Eventually everyone will be shifted over to steam, it shouldn't be a problem for 56k/ISDN because everything you DL is kept on the disk (except in the beta it's not, you have to DL everything again every time you close HL for some reason) and updates are streamed automatically. It makes keeping games up to date etc is easy compared to traditional patching.
It's the gaming version of HDTV.
In other words - stillborn technology which investors pitch a tent over, and developers avoid like the plague.
Shimsham
17-01-2003, 00:40
Well I have 145 mins left to wait until i can play TFC :/
I am on 1 Mb broadband as well
Lt. Sex Machine
18-01-2003, 11:29
That was my appraisal too Defrag, purchasing software and downloading it as opposed to getting it through traditional methods is nothing new, in fact it has it's roots back in public domain spinoffs.
However, when a new game, patch or whatever is released it's inevitable that everybody will be scrabbling to get them at once, which is going to prove to be a very frustrating and drawn out affair.
At least with traditional updates people can mirror them and you can use download managers to maintain a decent speed. If they give people a choice to avoid this new fangled stuff then I am more than happy but the whole concept is just too far advanced of what the internet can handle and is going to be a huge white elephant.
Then there is the methods of curbing piracy now they don't have copy protection on CD, that's an interesting problem...
I think we'd still find there'd still be traditional ways of updating for now LSM. I think Valve have in mind that they would be small patches generally, rather than getting the full thing at once as we do now. Obviously what they've just tried with a big patch has failed on first attempt, because they obviosuly didn't realise how made it all goes when i new version of LH is mirrored around various ftps around the world, the test was to see how it would sope under load mind.
Stozmann
18-01-2003, 14:25
im confused. can i download just the 1.6 patch, and play as normal, without having to install steam? i just want to update like i always have :/
Originally posted by Razz
Remember this is just the beta release for Steam and not a full TFC/Half Life/CS patch.
Stozmann
18-01-2003, 14:36
i dont get it still :| does this mean non steam users like me are going to install 1.6 anytime soon? r u saying that without steam we cant use new patch? D; (im probly being thick but technology isnt my strong point:/)
This is a BETA patch (i.e. unfinished) and it's simply released on Steam right now for testing. The full patch (which is the one you will installed) will be released at a later date when the testing it done, clear?
Stozmann
18-01-2003, 14:46
n1
Originally posted by Razz
Rex, yeah it'll be subs. It's stupid not to charge for it ;) I was under the impression this would be use to get new patches / updates rather than downloading a 20mb patch every 6 months.
So if they found out that if you were a spy you could have an AC, they would make a small klobyte style patch auto download.
or have i missed something? You cant really charge people for downloading things to get rid of bugs :O
Of course you can. A lot of companies charge people yearly subs in order for you to get the latest updates, Nortons for example have subs for their updates for virus defenitions/anti virus updates/etc.
I just got steam to work, so for those of you who haven't yet I took some pics :)
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/newpatch01.jpg
This shows the teleport entrance and exit. They have a nice team-coloured effect, and a green fizz that marks the entrance (as they're only one way).
Teleporting takes no longer than a second. You can't take the flag with you.
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/newpatch02.jpg
This shows the teleport build menu. Just an extension of the normal menu. You can still detonate/dismantle. Not tried detonating whilst someone is teleporting yet, but I will :)
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/newpatch03.jpg
This is mid teleport. The screen fades in/out quickly to your team colour. It's a really nice effect. A lot better than what I thought it would look like.
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/newpatch04.jpg
After you teleport, your weapon glows the colour of your team, which is really cool. Not sure if it means you're weaker or anything yet. Still got lots to try :D
I'm gonna try get an avi up asap. :)
Oh and they've ruined dustbowl :P
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/newpatch05.jpg
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/newpatch06.jpg
A new entrance on the second part.
Oh...and some VERY interesting news for you...interp has been locked between 50ms and 100ms. You can change it to anything between that, but nothing outside those caps.
aye but razz thats different..... norton charge for a service - they update their product to cope with latest virus'.....kinda different to patching out a spy feign bug which was in there for the original release :P
and in the updates they also supply updates to the anti virus program. i.e. bug fixes.
aye but at least they disguise it better - and they can say it isnt bug fixes, but they changing it so virus' dont disable it first etc :P
Defragmentor
18-01-2003, 18:08
Valve won't be charging us for using steam for TFC/CS solely because we're their guinea pigs. If they can't use their existing products as a test bed for future programs, then they can't perfect them and work out the bugs... it's a I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine kinda situation. Without the future products we wouldn't get the updates, and without the updates they wouldn't get bug fixes and experience in making steam work better.
Originally posted by Defragmentor
then they can't perfect them and work out the bugslike they give a sh*t :P
More pics :D
These show one of the new maps - reverse ctf, Ravelin.
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/ravelin0000.jpg
- Outside the Resup.
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/ravelin0001.jpg
- The FR.
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/ravelin0002.jpg
- Roof FR Entrance, with lasers.
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/ravelin0003.jpg
- From Atop the Battlements.
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/ravelin0005.jpg
- The detpackable comp that turns the lights / lasers off.
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/ravelin0006.jpg
- The base with lights on.
http://www.eric.dsl.pipex.com/ravelin0007.jpg
- And off.
I made an avi of the teleporter in action last night.
http://www.bytfc.co.uk/zip/steam-avi.zip 16megs, I like standing still :D
The dusty changes should be balanced out really, since a good defence will have teleporters set up at their spawn to quickly transport them to the front line, so the attackers do really need another pit to come from. And its not exactly a seperate pit either, the spam hitting the original will still hurt those wanting to get to the other one :)
Cant wait to see 8 teleporters all going to random locations outside of the 2fort respawns on the 32 player publics. Will make traveling interesting. Especially since you can build a dispenser/sg on the top of the exit pad, wait for it to sink in, then the next peep to land will be telefragged.... :/
lol -would have thought valve would do one of the 'you cant build sgun here' jobbies :/
ravelin looks nice though :O
Ravelin looks ace, something out of MoH:AA ;)
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