One way to keep Steam from breaking all your mods

[Degasai]

As we've all seen before, Steam likes to shove game updates down our throats. In most cases, this breaks your mods and may prevent you from even starting the game until you disable some or all of them. At one point, Steam had an option in the Properties menu for your games that supposedly prevented forced updating. That's what the choice in the drop-down menu actually said: "Do not automatically install updates". Well, that was always a falsehood. Now, the choice says "Only update this game when I launch it". And that is ALWAYS what "Do not automatically install updates" actually meant. Steam finally got so much grief about this BS that they had to go in and change the description to something approaching the truth.

 

Fallout 4 has an opt-in beta running that pretty much breaks your mods. Actually, what it does is go into your AppData folder (hidden) and wipes your plugins.txt file and changes that wiped file to Read-Only. This is what happened in the last Steam mini-patch that had everyone scrambling...and is still causing problems. OK, look...I get it. Bethsoft wants Beta input on the VANILLA game, and that's why they go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that beta testers can ONLY play the game without mods.

 

Well, I don't plan on beta-testing. But, there is no obvious way to keep Steam from shoving the patch down my throat the second it's released. I think the patch is going to be worthwhile, but I want to patch Fallout 4 when *I* decide, not when *Steam* decides. If I get to choose when I patch the game, I can wait until I'm sure that my favorite mods have been tweaked to work with the new version of FO4.

 

So here's how I'm going to do it. Since Bethsoft will force-patch any day now, I am NOT going to allow the Steam Client to run in anything other than offline mode on my PC. I don't know if this will actually work. When I go to my Steam Library, click on Steam/Go Offline..., it says "Only games that are fully up-to-date will be available". If that's the case, then I'm hosed, and I will just choose NOT to play the game until my mods work again.

 

There's only one other way to do it, but it's drastic. Disable your internet connection before you launch FO4 and leave it disabled until you log out of the game. If that's the way I have to do it, then that's the way I'll do it. I will also choose the option in the Steam client to NOT start automatically when I crank up my computer.

 

Some people will totally get where I'm coming from on this, others will think "What's the big deal?". My answer: It's all about CHOICE. It's my computer. It's my game. I want to choose how I play it, and that includes which version I play. I want to play it with mods, because I don't think FO4 is all that great without those mods.

 

tl;dr- Steam sucks :tongue:

[Fonger]

guess just telling steam to not update this particular game is simply out of the question

[Degasai]

guess just telling steam to not update this particular game is simply out of the question

That's apparently not possible. If that option exists, please point me to it. All of the searching I have done yields a single result: you can't do it. If you look in the Windows Task Manager, you will see a process running called "Steam Client Service". By default, this service starts when you turn your computer on. In Steam, the option to "Start in offline mode" sets this Service to "Manual".

 

That is the solution I am using currently. The only down-side that I can see, so far, is a nag that comes up every time you start the computer or start up a game that resides in the Steam apps folder.

 

I can live with that, if it keeps my modded games working properly.

[Deleted3507349User]

If you open up Big Picture Mode and go into your Library, highlight a game and go to Manage Game, and then go into Set Update Options there is an option for Never Automatically Update. It works, too.

[trold]

If you open up Big Picture Mode and go into your Library, highlight a game and go to Manage Game, and then go into Set Update Options there is an option for Never Automatically Update. It works, too.

Thanks.

It's really weird that the option only is available in the god-awful big picture mode, though

Edited January 20, 2016 by trold

[Degasai]

Thanks for the tip :) Yeah, Steam makes ignoring their service difficult on purpose.

 

That's why I wear a tinfoil hat!

[Puddycat]

If you open up Big Picture Mode and go into your Library, highlight a game and go to Manage Game, and then go into Set Update Options there is an option for Never Automatically Update. It works, too.

 

Thankyou!!

Didn't even know Steam had that big picture mode as an option till you said ha

 

OP, I'd been trying to do this also cause i know at least one of my mods that's gonna break when the game updates.

And totally agree with you! The day Steam buys my computer is the day they can act like they own it, it's the principle of it! :D

[tomomi1922]

What big picture mode?

[Puddycat]

What big picture mode?

 

top right of steam, looks like a console controller ;)

[Deleted3507349User]

I never messed with BPM either, until I got my Steam Controller. Now i can't game without the SC and if you try to take it away I will hop into my maxed-out X01 armor and fatman you until you give it back.