Steam Info From Valve

[Feath]

1. Content Servers

There are simply not enough of them. There should have been far more of them setup to support the initial public release to the entire net-enabled userbase. The last number I saw was over 200,000 accounts created. The solution? Add more. We are. We will be. You can count on it. 1Gbps of bandwidth is not enough. We know this.

2. UI Response / Feedback

The server problems seem to compound, or at least expose, the problem the UI has, resulting in apparent freezes (of up to 15 minutes!). This wasn't apparent in the beta, with its limited userbase. In fact, as far as I know, the beta ended up being pretty good and pretty stable. By the end of it, it was running pretty damn well. So, UI problem, but it also goes back to the first problem.

3. Information

I'm the first to admit, we've done a poor job of communicating. We're attempting to alleviate this. The SteamPowered.com site couldn't handle its own popularity, which is unfortunate. It being down cut off the most important sources of information - the News (which I reproduce here), the FAQ, and the forums. It's up again, mainly because we've converted it to high-usage-friendly flat HTML pages for the time being. The FAQ will be up shortly as well.

EDIT: From here: http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?news=1063423065-55637000

(Scroll down, it's in the comments).
He also addresses the petition.

 

[Blair]

Where is this from?

 

[Feath]

Originally posted by G·Man
Where is this from?

I've edited the post with the link.

Chris 'autolycus' Bokitch works for Valve.

 

[Gunner]

The valve ERC collective... didn't you read the post?

Edit: oh he posted before you edited and I posted after you edited... lol

 

[Komb.at]

1. Content Servers

There are simply not enough of them. There should have been far more of them setup to support the initial public release to the entire net-enabled userbase. The last number I saw was over 200,000 accounts created. The solution? Add more. We are. We will be. You can count on it. 1Gbps of bandwidth is not enough. We know this.

Well i guess it was f*cking obvious how many people would jump on steam once it's released... duh

 

[crabcakes66]

Word....


Now they've pinpointed the problem. The next step is fixing it.

 

[Blair]

The link wasn't there before. Thank you.

 

[Feath]

Originally posted by Komb.at
Well i guess it was f*cking obvious how many people would jump on steam once it's released... duh

They've said that there shoud've been more, but Bandwidth isn't cheap you know. Valve were always looking for more content servers.

 

[Komb.at]

Steam is such a huge project, they shouldn't even had tried to release this version without enough servers/bandwidth. It's not like Steam is slow... it's pretty much dead. Noone could realisticly underestimate the demand in bandwidth THAT much.

 

[TripleDES]

They expected everyone to convert their existing installation, but apparently most people chose to redownload all.

 

[Komb.at]

I think that most people were forced to download everything, because the conversion is bugged (didn't work for me the 4 times i tried..). I even heard that some people lost their whole HL directory..

 

[Gunner]

Originally posted by Komb.at
I think that most people were forced to download everything, because the conversion is bugged (didn't work for me the 4 times i tried..). I even heard that some people lost their whole HL directory..

I lost not only HL but everything in my games folder where I had installed steam 6 GB poof vanished!

 

[Xtasy0]

Originally posted by )[eVo]( Para
I lost not only HL but everything in my games folder where I had installed steam 6 GB poof vanished!

thats probably because you chose to delete your hl folder after the conversion, steam gave you the option of doing that, so you might have blindly clicked ok and away it went.....

 

[FoxHunter]

Does someone know how I can contact Valve regarding bugs in Steam? My Steam keeps crashing after Startup. I'd like to inform Valve about the problem, just in case they are not aware of this specific problem.

regards

 

[Scudded]

The problem is there's not enough bandwidth. The solution is to add a swarming p2p system like bittorrent, you could make using the p2p optional.. those who use it just get files faster.

 

[sayam]

I like that idea Scudded

 

[Gunner]

Originally posted by Xtasy0
thats probably because you chose to delete your hl folder after the conversion, steam gave you the option of doing that, so you might have blindly clicked ok and away it went.....

That may be, but how do you account for the other missing games? I had Vietcong and BF installed, they're not related to Valve or Steam. They just magically vanished, only traces left were in the add/remove programs panel and in the registry of course.

 

[Nuclear_Gerber]

Finally valve said something.

I guess that all the people that have problems just need to wait a few days and all will be good

 

[PseudoKnight]

For those who think Valve should have waited to get more bandwidth first before release, they needed to get Steam out in preperation for Half-Life2.

 

[Typhon]

i chose to remove original content, but when my converter crashed my old half-life was ok...

of course, now when i run CS 1.6 through steam it crashes when "validating game resources..." ....so maybe i'm f*cked. i dunno.

 

[Gunner]

Not that it matters to anyone, nor do you care but I found out why games tend to disappear... when uninstalling Sierra Utilities it seems it also deletes every other thing that's in the same root dir of HL, interesting huh?

 

[nerdkiller]

whiiiiiii

let steam works or i kill my pc

 

[Boogymanx]

Look at the ****ing dates! Also, I don't like your nick and the fact that this is your first post.

 

[Sam]

How do people find these threads?