Offline Mode=LIE!!!!!

[Gossoon]

WTF??? This is goddamn ridiculous. Activated and played last night and now when I go to play HL2 it makes me log into Steam. ONly I can't! It hangs on the login dialogue.

I want to play the goddamn game I paid for Valve!

There is NO reason that I should have to connect to Steam once it's activated.

This is really ruining it for me. Get it together jackasses.

 

[sKuNx]

Yes, this sucks, but you always had to login to Steam first to use the offline mode.

 

[Aknot]

Yes, this sucks, but you always had to login to Steam first to use the offline mode.

Thats not what we were told. We were told a ONE TIME and then for updates. THATS IT.

 

[iParasite]

Its right. You only have to login one time, but be sure to exit in OFFLINE MODE.

 

[pappy_dag]

ok wait.... how exactly do you play in offline mode once youve activated half-life 2?

 

[zul]

I think you can tell steam to start in offline mode the next time it is started or something, or maybe it just boots up into offline mode if you're disconnected from the net.

 

[Ar.Pi]

its still sucks, they should have made something not to run steam every time, y did they made it work only with steam platform - there is no MP to this game pffff

annoying!

 

[SilentWraith]

Because they are ****ing twits and think that using steam in order to play will prevent warezing.

 

[SAJ]

Just dont let steam access your net connection when starting it.
Big `ol "stop" button on zonealarm works for me.

 

[ChareltonHest]

They have been trying to force Steam down our throats for a while now. They do not want us to play their game unless we are part of their community, with an account logged on with them.

When it comes to playing a single-player game, personaly I don't wish to be 'part of the community'; I like to buy what I payed for: A game non-online game. If I want an online-game, I'll join-up.

HL2 is an online game. Unfortunate.

Just my humble opion.


C.H.

 

[garciadag]

IT IS POSSIBLE TO PLAY OFFLINE, what really happened is that none of us were informed on how to do this (at least the ones that preloaded the game instead of buying the retail version) ALL you need to do is save your password when you login to steam and that's it, if you want to play offline just try it after (obviously with no connection to the internet) and steam (yes it will still run) will ask you if you want to play offline just left click on "yes" and voila OFFLINE HALF LIFE 2 IT IS HOPE IT HELPS, (itdid help me a lot when i read it in another forum)

 

[NiteX]

Actually once you unlock HL2 you will find a HL2 icon in the \Valve\Steam\SteamApps\(your login name)\half-life 2 DIR. I think just double click the HL2 icon in there and bam no steam and HL2 should work.

 

[rhk0327]

I agree

Yeah, shoving steam down our throats is pretty lame. I got the game with my videocard and now I can't get the boxed version unless I pay extra which also sucks.
Especially considering that whenever their servers are down or they are having problems (like today), we can't play the game we rightfully payed for. The offline mode is pretty $hitty, you still have to log on to "steam off-line". After their servers went down, I tried unpluggin my connection and logging steam; I got a rather audaciously rude message about me not being able to play until I logged on again because my "information" was not stored on my computer. It was stored. If steam picks up any net connection at all, it'll demand you to log-on before you play.
On a maybe related note, my loading is excessively long, I want to find if that's normal. It takes as along as 1min10sec sometimes to load up sections of the level (sometimes 25seconds). I thought it maybe related to steam, any insight is appreciated.

amd 64 1800+
1gb of 2700 ram (kingston value and cheapo)
BfG 6800 GT
Regular HD.

 

[Derag]

How do you even log on to Steam "Offline?" The only mention of it I see is on My HL2, HL1 Source and CS:Source listings on Steam, where it of course just says it's not ready. I just created a Steam account today, so I don't know wtf is going on with it.
I and another person thought maybe it had something to do with the message a lot of people were getting about incomplete authentication...

 

[Woggy]

I got into offline mode but the ****ing icon for HL2 is ****ing greyed out.

 

[arsenalfc]

fix

Okay, everyone that is unable to play hl2 using the offline mode has probably not got their cd-key validated through steam. This happened to me, and I was still able to play hl2 and cs:s, and although both games said 100% in the properties...they also said "not available for offline play" and "needs update".

I fixed this problem by renaming or deleting C:\Program Files\Steam\ClientRegistry.blob

Once you do this, restart steam...and you will have to download an update (presumably creating a new ClientRegistry.blob file. Once this is done and you log in to steam, you should get a notification stating your CD-Key has been verified. At this point offline play becomes available for HL2.

Anyway..goodluck, hope that helps. :cheers:

 

[rhk0327]

How do you even log on to Steam "Offline?" The only mention of it I see is on My HL2, HL1 Source and CS:Source listings on Steam, where it of course just says it's not ready. I just created a Steam account today, so I don't know wtf is going on with it.
I and another person thought maybe it had something to do with the message a lot of people were getting about incomplete authentication...

Unplug your internet connection or block it's access through a program like zone alarm (if you're using it). Steam will try to get online if it can, only when it can't will it allow you to use "offline" mode.

 

[Kommie]

Okay, everyone that is unable to play hl2 using the offline mode has probably not got their cd-key validated through steam. This happened to me, and I was still able to play hl2 and cs:s, and although both games said 100% in the properties...they also said "not available for offline play" and "needs update".

I fixed this problem by renaming or deleting C:\Program Files\Steam\ClientRegistry.blob

Once you do this, restart steam...and you will have to download an update (presumably creating a new ClientRegistry.blob file. Once this is done and you log in to steam, you should get a notification stating your CD-Key has been verified. At this point offline play becomes available for HL2.

Anyway..goodluck, hope that helps. :cheers:

Its the update that is causing this problem You NEED the update not the cd-key validation once you have the update it should be smooth sailin'

 

[ÜberJumper]

Arsenal, thanks but that didn't work. I think the authentication queue is backed up for steam, so it's not putting it into "Ready for Offline" mode.

 

[flupke]

i've sent an email to rick... Let's see

Anyone, maybe some good news, but on this pc (not hl2 / internet pc) i connected to steam once more, and there was a popup like : you're account settings have been fully registered now and you can now play your retail product" Maybe there was an update?

I'll check later this afternoon with my HL2 pc.. Fingers crossed !

 

[Derag]

Well I ended up actually reinstalling the entirety of the program, but since that gets rid of that blob file, that would work. Ok, so, even though it's "ready," I have to make it so Steam cannot access the net at all, before it offers me the option? Surely not?

 

[ÜberJumper]

Yeah, you've apparently got to have it completely offline for it to become an option to play offline.

It seems this will only happen if your computer has no net connection at all (Windows Firewall doesn't appear to block it).

 

[Derag]

Yes I just tested it, I just disabled the ethernet adapter through network places. What a giant load...it isn't quite a lie but it certainly is a deception! Even worse, the fine print was left out! Going to see if blocking it with a Sygate will work...then I don't have to disable my net connection every time I want to play HL2.

 

[Deangelo]

This is just a preview of things to come, for trying to prevent it being distrubutd in the warez scene. Its waaaay to easy to get hold of games these days.. couse and effect. hooray for bt and dc
:thumbs: I have no worries this wont be cracked either but things are going to get messy.

btw, i bought it, preloaded it and activated it, and it works perfectly.

 

[ÜberJumper]

I store bought it, and activated it, and it's not working very well for me at all

 

[Antic2]

I store bought it, and activated it, and it's not working very well for me at all

I'm about to store-buy it - what's not working for you?

 

[Sticktron]

You can't stop games from being pirated. It was possible to unlock and play HL2 for free minutes after the game officially launched.

 

[Antic2]

You can't stop games from being pirated. It was possible to unlock and play HL2 for free minutes after the game officially launched.

Dunno about that - you have to pay to download it in the first place, so how is that free? But a crack to get around having to be online all the time is a great idea IMO.

 

[Xaxly24]

Simple actually.....unplug modem launch HL2 steam trys to connect....no connection...select start steam in offline mode.Plug connection back in.Play,whats so difficult about that?When you are done playing internet works and the steam icon is still in offline mode.It will keep in offline mode until re-boot,or you close steam and re-open it with internet plugged in.Noobs

 

[The Dark Elf]

Thats right, just goes to offline mode if it can't find a connection to the net.

 

[boothegoo]

I'm made a much more elegant way to force Steam into Offline mode than unplugging your network cable ever damn time.

It's switchable so you can turn the force offline mode option on and off easily. Here is a link to it.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CKKN0SF6

For those curious how it works this all it does. To force offline mode it copies a steam.cfg file into the steam install folder.

To undo this it just deletes the steam.cfg file.

You can enable it and disable it by to separate desktop icons. It's incredibly basic and I went to effort of packaging it into a MSI to make it easy for other to benefit from it.

For those interested in the code here it is.

The steam.cfg files contains;​

BootStrapperInhibitAll=enable
MinFootprintAutoRefresh = disable
ForceOfflineMode=enable
BootStrapperForceSelfUpdate = disable
FullMemoryMinidumps = disable
BootStrapperForceClientBootstrap = disable
EngineInSameProcessAsClient = disable
CachePreLoaderMode = disable
ActivityLogFile=Steam.log
ActivityLogEnable = disable
ActivityLogConsoleOutput = disable
ActivityLogCreateMode = append
ActivityLogFlushMode = flush
ActivityLogGroup = disable
ActivityLogContext = disable
ActivityLogDate = disable
ActivityLogTimestamp = disable
ActivityLogElapsedTime = disable
ActivityLogThreadId = disable
#ActivityLogGroupNameWidth = disable
ActivityLogGroupNameWidth = 12
#ActivityLogContextNameWidth = disable
ActivityLogContextNameWidth = 20​

The BAT to put steam into offline mode contains this;

C:
For %%I In (C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z) Do If Exist "%%I:\Program Files\Steam" Copy "C:\Program Files\Steam Offline Forced\steam.cfg" "%%I:\Program Files\Steam\steam.cfg"​

The BAT to return steam to normal and stop it forcing offline mode contains this;

C:
For %%I In (C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z) Do If Exist "%%I:\Program Files\Steam" DEL "%%I:\Program Files\Steam\steam.cfg"​

So for those who understand it they can see the code is increadbly basic and pretty premative. The thing I've really done is put it into an easy to use package for the average steam user to be able to make use of without having learn coding.

So far I can find no other example of this being done so hopefully people find it useful.

 

[Ennui]

Well, it's bad form to revive threads that haven't been posted in for six years, but since this is actually a quite useful post that will probably help a lot of people looking for offline help via google (as I assume this is how you got here yourself). It'd really have been more appropriate to make a new thread for this though

 

[boothegoo]

Yeah I should post it on a new thread, but this thread is like the 3rd hit on google when you search for forcing steam offline so I thought it was a good start.

But yeah i hope people find it useful. I just made it for myself and some mates who needed something to do this but if others can use it too then great.

 

[boothegoo]

Here is the link to the new thread I started about my little tool. http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?175406-Force-Steam-to-go-offline-with-a-very-basic-script&p=3244419#post3244419