Questions about Steam

[Mystrelia 57]

 

Alright, so I got some solid answers for you. Steam is required to validate and play the game, even if you purchase a physical copy. You can run Steam in offline mode, but it is still required to be running in order to play Cities: Skylines.

 

I realize that someone trying to avoid all DRM certainly wouldn't like those answers =( but this is the way that Paradox and CO have opted to go at this time.

 

Let me know if I can answer any other Steam or DRM related questions, I'd be happy to help.

 

I know nothing about Steam other than the occasional comment here and there so could you help me understand your response? You say one can run Steam in offline mode but required to be running in order to play the game. Will Steam "run" without an internet connection? Can I play without an internet connection once installed and validated?

Also, how much CPU useage and RAM does Steam require?

 

Sorry, but I'm old school. Give me a DVD a password and perhaps require a phone call or something if you must, (all of us do not have unlimited download data allowance). Patches have never been a problem since they started to be posted online. Players simply download read instructions and install. Simple. To say Steam is needed for updates and patches is simply an excuse and I doubt I would like the reasons by Paradox or any other company for being connected.

 

I have quite a game collection (I paid for them all) but have stopped buying games for about two years now because of how they are delivered. I did purchase Banished but don't have to have Steam or anything else. I will always support such developers.

 

It's okay, I'm old school too and I'd much rather just have the game on a disc and be done with it. Yeah, it's a pain sometimes having to switch out discs but not a huge deal. After all, I always end up restarting my computer anyway between games (which is why I usually play one game for several days at a time).

 

Anyway, what you need Steam for with Cities: Skyline is to download the Steam client and to either download the game or activate it if you buy it on physical format. Granted, I don't know where a person could get a physical disc of this game but I've heard it's available. At any rate, I did download it (took quite a few hours).

 

I agree, there's no reason to require Steam, patches and such can be downloaded and applied manually. Goodness knows we did it for years on end. Shoot, when it came to Sims 3 I could never get that launcher thing to install the patches right so I always had to download and install manually anyway. I do have to say with Steam it has worked both times and I have to admit I do like the Workshop and being able to just click the subscribe button and have it automatically download to my game. However, the automation also has a down side when it comes to updates and such. I think automatic updates can be turned off but I'm not sure how to do it.

[Azurespecter 506]

 

Alright, so I got some solid answers for you. Steam is required to validate and play the game, even if you purchase a physical copy. You can run Steam in offline mode, but it is still required to be running in order to play Cities: Skylines.

 

I realize that someone trying to avoid all DRM certainly wouldn't like those answers =( but this is the way that Paradox and CO have opted to go at this time.

 

Let me know if I can answer any other Steam or DRM related questions, I'd be happy to help.

 

I know nothing about Steam other than the occasional comment here and there so could you help me understand your response? You say one can run Steam in offline mode but required to be running in order to play the game. Will Steam "run" without an internet connection? Can I play without an internet connection once installed and validated?

Also, how much CPU useage and RAM does Steam require?

 

Sorry, but I'm old school. Give me a DVD a password and perhaps require a phone call or something if you must, (all of us do not have unlimited download data allowance). Patches have never been a problem since they started to be posted online. Players simply download read instructions and install. Simple. To say Steam is needed for updates and patches is simply an excuse and I doubt I would like the reasons by Paradox or any other company for being connected.

 

I have quite a game collection (I paid for them all) but have stopped buying games for about two years now because of how they are delivered. I did purchase Banished but don't have to have Steam or anything else. I will always support such developers.

 

 

No worries! I think it took everybody a bit of time to figure out Steam on their first game.

 

So Cities: Skylines needs to be installed and verified through Steam. After that, you still need to open up Steam on your computer in order to run Cities: Skylines, but Steam does not require you to be online to play. That's what offline mode is, you're still using Steam, but not online.

 

Hope that helps!

[Turjan 1,048]

Just to add: you cannot run Steam in offline mode indefinitely. It needs to connect to the server sometimes. It depends on the game, but I think it's at least once every 6 months or so.

[Jim14409 448]

Thanks for the responses guys. As much as I'd like to try Cities:Skylines I probably won't be getting it any time soon as my system does not meet all of the minimum requirements. At some point one has to ask if it is worth discarding perfectly good computers that are tens of times more powerful than anything used to put a man on the moon just to play the latest game, most of which turn out to be highly over-rated. I still enjoy SC4, Banished, Sid Meiers Railroads, Tropico 4 (haven't bought 5), Dawn of Discovery, and Europa Universalis 3, and a few older ones. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I've learned that even the best of new games is not going to paint the real world pink with marshmallow clouds and world peace.

 

Thanks again for the responses.

[DavidG 0]

I purchased Cities: Skylines through Steam, what an ordeal trying to get it to work.  Download took forever, then the icon on my desktop did nothing.  I asked for a refund, and they obliged.  I think this whole system of online purchases is ridiculous.  I notice gamers aren't being tortured so in Australia or the UK and can purchase the hard disk copy.  Online so-called "ownership" is complex, difficult, confusing and a rip-off.,

[OwiHH 240]

Thrust steam thrust valve - have fun and enjoy all the features - get over your head and play!

Befor Steam gets bankrott and deletes your copys we will have a worldwar3 that blows up theyre servers - otherway its pretty safe moneymaking machine they wont give up on!

Buy new decent PC - get new provider / dsl 50mb download and you love this platform.

Get Online! ;-)

All i can say - i have almost no cds/dvds anymore - throw em all into trash!

[DavidG 0]

Steam may be fine, but maybe they need to be more accessible for beginners and offer easy help, rather than having to comb through thousands of threads to try to resolve your issue.

[OwiHH 240]

The big community also can help on open forums to resolve issues - there is lot help for each game (sure alot crap info to) - since each game gets automaticly a forum for it. You mostly get answers in the forum for a popular game within minutes - no wonder steamaccounts are something over 12 Million - another reason to join - 12 million gamers cant be wrong using steam.

 

Some statistics:

Active users (2 weeks): 34,825,117 ± 138,163
Active users (total): 181,044,836 ± 221,799
Playtime (2 weeks): 21:34 (average)
85,754 years, 4 months, 8 days (total)
Playtime (total): 317:07 (average)
6,554,003 years, 11 months, 9 days (total)
Total games owned: 1,973,024,275
Average games per user: 10.9
Profiles queried in the last 3 days: 2,019,520
Games in the database: 10,432
Countries in the database: 0

 

im not working for steam but im happy user over 10 years now - allways recommend steam :-)

[DavidG 0]

Well, I'll give it another shot.  The game does look pretty cool.  Right now just looking at youtube demos