Steam questions...

[tjc]

Guys...

Being a bit of a noob when it comes to steam usage, please bare with me as far as the noob questions go. :E I`ve browsed through the forum but not come across any of the questions/answers I`m looking for.

When I download a demo or a game, where do they get downloaded to?

Can`t seem to find them on the pc anywhere so do they get downloaded elsewhere? Steam account or somewhere?

Plus when I`m playing hl2 or any other game am I always online?

Can I play "off line"? Ifso, how do I do that?

Also how do I stop steam from auto downloading updates etc as I read somewhere that it`s best to do that when actually playing a game... (although I was happily playing hl2 the other night and when I stopped I had an update waiting for me and I never noticed any lag in game or anything...)

One last thing... I like to do a fresh OS quite regularly so how will doing that affect steam? (if atall)

Cheers...

 

[PimpinPenguin]

All your Steam games and demos are downloaded into your Steamapps folder. C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps. In your Steamapps folders you will find the game files and all settings and saves. Note that some 3rd party games may have the save games and settings in another location.

By default Steam will always connect online if it finds an active internet connection. If you wish to play offline open the main Steam window, go to File and select Go Offline. Steam will restart in offline mode and will remain in offline mode till you tell it to go online. You'll lose some Steam features by being in offline mode.

The Steam client will auto-update and you can't stop it. Steam updates are usually very small and tend to download when your not playing. If you don't want Steam to update your game then right click on the game in your games menu, click on the update tab and select 'Do not automatically update this game'

You can reinstall your OS as many times as you want. Just download the Steam client off the Steam website sign in and off you go. If you wish to keep your saves games files and settings then you may wish to backup your Steamapps folder.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Wow you won't find a better answer than Penguin's anywhere. Nail on head for everything. Ask him something else tjc!

On a side note, regarding Steam being 'online'. When you are playing a singleplayer game you are still playing locally, so you will never experience any lag (slow downs will only be due to your PC specs). Steam uses the online connection while playing singleplayer games for SteamWorks (which means you can get achievements) or SteamCloud (which syncs your game setting, like keyboard controls / mouse sensitivity etc) to your Steam account so its consistence.

From memory I don't think HL2 has either of this features as they were developed later on so you're not missing out on much. L4D / L4D2 / TF2 / EP3 take advantage of these things though.

So there isn't much need to use offline mode, Steam client updates occur every fortnight or so, HL2 updates these days are rare. Also staying online means you can use SteamCommunity (friends / chat etc) - and you can join our group & chat room here - http://steamcommunity.com/groups/halflife2

 

[tjc]

Wow indeed Glenn...

A very concise answer from Penguin.

Erm... can`t think of anything else to ask him atm lol... :E

Thanks to you both for the replies/info.

As soon as I started to read the replies I remembered I installed Steam to my Sims/Games drive and I`ve been looking for it in C: (although I install very little to my C: so why I was looking for it in there is beyond me :rolling: )

Anyway... I`m sorted now and it`s good to know that doing a fresh OS won`t hurt anything.

I`ll be checking out that link that you provided too Glenn...

Cheers both. :thumbs: