Still many things to be clarified about the steam authentication system for HL2

[PlayingMantis]

By now it must be common knowledge, that an Internet connection and steam is required for the activation of Half-life 2 (singleplayer).

But what isn't clear is if:

1 the game is PC or IP bound: (install the game on one computer but activate using your steam account from ANOTHER computer)

2 after activation one can uninstall Steam and still is able to play the game.

3 after activation one can DISCONNECT ones PC and still is able to play the game.

4 Half-life 2 will be having it's own .exe files or will only be accessible via the Steam application (Play My Games).

Perhaps there is someone out there who can enlighten us on these matters.

Feel free to ellaborate.

Thank you.

P.S.: Does someone (positively) know if Valve/VU is going to make it available separately? Retail and/or Steam? You see, all I want is a hard-copy (DVD disc) of Half-life 2, CSS and HLS. I don't want T-shirts, books or whatever they are trying to use to justify absurdly disproportional prices (Steam Silver vs HL2 CE).

 

[KagePrototype]

1 the game is PC or IP bound: (install the game on one computer but activate using your steam account from ANOTHER computer)

I would assume it's simply tied to an account, and that account can only be legally used on one computer at a time i.e. you can't share accounts. They probably monitor IPs and account activity, and if you'r using the computer from more than one at a time, the account is locked or something.

2 after activation one can uninstall Steam and still is able to play the game.

I don't think you can do this, you can't do it with any other game as far as I know.

3 after activation one can DISCONNECT ones PC and still is able to play the game.

There's an offline mode where you can still play registered singleplayer games.

4 Half-life 2 will be having it's own .exe files or will only be accessible via the Steam application (Play My Games).

There IS a hl2.exe, but it's stuffed in the cache files, so I assume you still need Steam to do anything with it (it might even open Steam once you double-click it, as well as loading HL2).

you could always ask Valve, they may have more time on their hands nowadays to answer e-mail.

 

[pixartist]

By now it must be common knowledge, that an Internet connection and steam is required for the activation of Half-life 2 (singleplayer).

But what isn't clear is if:

1 the game is PC or IP bound: (install the game on one computer but activate using your steam account from ANOTHER computer)

2 after activation one can uninstall Steam and still is able to play the game.

3 after activation one can DISCONNECT ones PC and still is able to play the game.

4 Half-life 2 will be having it's own .exe files or will only be accessible via the Steam application (Play My Games).

Perhaps there is someone out there who can enlighten us on these matters.

Feel free to ellaborate.

Thank you.

P.S.: Does someone (positively) know if Valve/VU is going to make it available separately? Retail and/or Steam? You see, all I want is a hard-copy (DVD disc) of Half-life 2, CSS and HLS. I don't want T-shirts, books or whatever they are trying to use to justify absurdly disproportional prices (Steam Silver vs HL2 CE).

LOL you don't have a clue how steam works don't you?

1. BAHAHH how can it be ip bound? did you ever hear of dynamic ip's? lol it was said 1000000 times that it's bound to your account
2.No Hl2 requires Steam, it is part of it
3. ever heard "offline-mode"?
4. it has an exe, but it will still need to be run through steam

 

[KagePrototype]

LOL you don't have a clue how steam works don't you?

No he didn't, that's why he asked. No need to be an arse about it.

 

[FthrJACK]

*edit, misread sorry.

ive emailed valve with some questions, when i get a reply ill post the answers - hopefully some of them will be of interest to you.

 

[Edcrab]

Final confirmation will probably come in the form of several e-mails in the Valve Info thread, trying to explain matters a little more clearly.

 

[PlayingMantis]

LOL you don't have a clue how steam works don't you?

1. BAHAHH how can it be ip bound? did you ever hear of dynamic ip's? lol it was said 1000000 times that it's bound to your account

...

3. ever heard "offline-mode"?

You act as if I am making statements, but since you seem to be utterly ignorant, I shall break it down for you: THOSE WERE QUESTIONS BEING POSED. THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT MOTHERFU*KER.

Don't try to be a smartass. It only makes you look dumb.

 

[PlayingMantis]

Please keep this thread alive until we are provided with some answers.

Clarity on these matters will be instrumental for the decisionmaking concerning the purchase of Half-life 2 packages.

 

[PlasmaBurnz]

I simply don't understand all this commotion over retail versions of hl2 needing steam and the internet activation thing.

I saw it coming a mile off. It was obvious that steam and retail versions of the game would both be tied to steam. Otherwise patches and updates would have to go through far more testing before being released. Having the retail copies act exactly like steam copies when installed was the only logical way of doing it.

I foresaw (not sure if thats a word, but hey) on another forum that a retail copy would have to be integrated into steam exactly like all the other games on valve's roster, but got shot down. And you should have heard the abuse I got when I said I bet you'll need to initially authenticate the single player stuff online.

Who turned out to be right??

Anyway, rant over.

All steam games are bound to your steam account not your IP, for reasons previously mentioned.

Since the retail install process will probably be as follows:

1. Install steam client and hl2 gcf files from retail CD\DVD.
2. Create steam account.
3. Go online to unlock HL2.
4. Play HL2

I'd take a educated guess that you will definitely need steam installed at all times to play HL2. But you can probably go into offline mode only once you've unlocked the game initially (like the way opforce and hl work at the moment).

All the steam games have their own exes if you look in the steamapps folder (or a subfolder in there). It's just there initially compressed in the gcf files.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Crash Happy]

It's definately bound to an account rather than PC or IP.

 

[Beazil]

(like the way opforce and hl work at the moment).

Hmm.. I have not been able to play hl or op4 without steam activated. I can go to my old sierra dir, but if I try to run the games it starts up steam. Now maybe this is because I'm on cable, and I'm "online" all the time, but I have never seen an "offline" mode for steam.

Edit: I can turn steam off, and run the exe's, but it still re loads steam (just for clarification) /end edit.

I was playing op4 last night, and every time it loaded another section my modem would send and recieve info, kind of like it was checking the valve servers every time. Anyone else notice this? Oddly enough, I did not notice this when playing hl. Of course, hl also still validates through steam every time I play it, but only on startup.

Thoughts?

 

[KagePrototype]

Hmm.. I have not been able to play hl or op4 without steam activated. I can go to my old sierra dir, but if I try to run the games it starts up steam. Now maybe this is because I'm on cable, and I'm "online" all the time, but I have never seen an "offline" mode for steam.

They used to have a "exit and logout" option so you could start up again in offline if you wanted, but they got rid of it. Now the only way to get into offline mode is to disconnect from the internet. When Steam realises it can't connect to any servers, it will give the optino to go into offline mode.

 

[Fliko]

You can play on 2 accounts at once, me and my friend would also play cs on 1 account, but on different servers, if they do care, it would probably be for a computer that is across the world or something, not right beside you.

 

[PlasmaBurnz]

Hmm.. I have not been able to play hl or op4 without steam activated. I can go to my old sierra dir, but if I try to run the games it starts up steam. Now maybe this is because I'm on cable, and I'm "online" all the time, but I have never seen an "offline" mode for steam.

Edit: I can turn steam off, and run the exe's, but it still re loads steam (just for clarification) /end edit.

I was playing op4 last night, and every time it loaded another section my modem would send and recieve info, kind of like it was checking the valve servers every time. Anyone else notice this? Oddly enough, I did not notice this when playing hl. Of course, hl also still validates through steam every time I play it, but only on startup.

Thoughts?

I've tested this. If you disconnect from the net and restart steam, after a while it asks you if you would like to start the offline mode. Just hit yes (or whatever). Poof you have offline mode.

EDIT: Bugger. Didn't read KagePrototype's reply.....what he said.

 

[PlayingMantis]

*edit, misread sorry.

ive emailed valve with some questions, when i get a reply ill post the answers - hopefully some of them will be of interest to you.

Do you have anything yet?

 

[DeViouS]

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=869160&postcount=771
here this might help alittle bit.

 

[pixartist]

Still many things to be clarified about the steam authentication system for HL2

this suggests, that valve did not clarify that

 

[aedi]

Personally, I would love to see a system which makes it impossible to pirate the game. I don't think it is possible, but I would love to see Valve get every dollar they deserve for this game.

Having said that, my concern is if I decide to upgrade my PC.

If it is tied to an account, then offline mode doesn't make sense. What is to stop every Tom Dick and Harry from sharing their install disks and playing offline? They would just have to share the account name/password the first time, then play offline. Obviously if the account has been "activated" more than a few times, then it could potentially be a "shared" CD, but then activation seems worse in terms of pirating than using a CD check system (unless they are using both --which I don't know the answer to).

If it is tied to my PC (like Windows XP activation), when I upgrade my PC (probably 2 days after I realize that it won't run on my 1.6), then it looks like I have shared my CD with someone else and they are trying to run it too. Is it just going to allow this? Doesn't make sense if you are trying to stop someone from pirating your game.

I am not going to lose any sleep over this. I'm sure Valve has thought about these questions already, but it would be nice to know how it will work

 

[DarkSonic]

Just a question, but what's to stop a person who has bought the game through Steam, then that person goes to a friends house and downloads the game through Steam from his own account and reactivates the game?

 

[aedi]

DarkSonic

I'm not sure, but I think I read something about Steam users being able to play on any PC, as long as only one account at a time is playing the game...

However, that won't work if you can play offline if you obtained the game via Steam. After all, you can't check that the same account is being used to play in more than one location if you can just play offline.

Just more questions that we will find the answers to in 3 weeks Can't wait!

 

[Mountain Man]

1 the game is PC or IP bound: (install the game on one computer but activate using your steam account from ANOTHER computer)

Actually, it's bound to your account. Install Steam on any computer and log in with your user name and password and you'll be able to download and play any of the games you have purchased from Valve.

2 after activation one can uninstall Steam and still is able to play the game.

I don't think so. Steam is an integral part of all Valve products.

3 after activation one can DISCONNECT ones PC and still is able to play the game.

Yes you can. If you start Steam and an internet connection is not available, you will be prompted to enter "offline mode". Incidentally, this also seems to work with games purchased over Steam (I tested it with Condition Zero and Opposing Force without incident).

4 Half-life 2 will be having it's own .exe files or will only be accessible via the Steam application (Play My Games).

There are seperate Half-Life 2 executables (you can find them if you go digging through your Steam directory) but I don't know if they'll work seperate from Steam. I suspect they won't.