Skyrim and Steam? Noob questions incoming...

[moho25]

Flame wars aren't needed, folks. Please stay on topic. Remember Bambi? Remember what Thumper's mother said? Why is it that nobody seems to have a filter these days?

 

Anyway...

 

1. Ok, so, no playing Skyrim without Steam running. Damn. What sorts of information is it collecting and sending? Can it collect and send anything if it's blocked by Windows Firewall? Shouldn't seem so...

 

2. Save Locations. From people's examples, it looks like the actual saved game is better to have on the C: drive. Does the game itself also need to be installed there? If so, that's the type of crap that really irks me. Not only do I have to use a secondary program to play the game, but I can't even have my computer organized the way that I want, and have the game work appropriately? Or, is it mostly an issue with mods?

[tylitalo]

1. I just bought a brand new gaming/work laptop and am trying very hard to keep it as uncluttered as possible. Having to deal with Steam was not in my plan. What are the common problems that you have had and that I might experience?

2. How invasive is it on your system -- like iTunes10Kregistryentries invasive?

3. How much does it slow down your machine? RAM usage?

4. Does wired/wireless network make a difference?

5. Does it need to authenticate every time you start up the game? Or...

6. Can I actually play with the service never running, once I activate the game for the first time (short of downloading a patch, etc)?

7. I will likely mod the game and have read about previous problems. Do people expect this to happen again?

8. If Steam's service goes down, does that mean I won't be able to play the game, even though I bought my own physical copy?

9. Are there any other important pieces of info that I might want to take into consideration?

10. Besides a console version, do I have any other options?

 

1 - Most common problem (albeit a rare problem as it stands) would be the occasional connection issues.

2- In my experience, it's pretty minimal.

3- None that I've noticed. With a brand new PC, it shouldn't be much of a concern IMHO.

4-No.

5-It needs to authenticate every time you start Steam in ONLINE mode. If you start steam in OFFLINE mode, it needs to authintacet once every two weeks real-time, iirc.

6-No. Steam will need to be running, in either online or offline mode, in order to play.

7-No.

8-No. Play offline.

9-none that I can think of atm.

10-no.

 

ps. As much as it might sound here, I am not a fan of Steam. But given the choice of needing to ensure my disc is in the drive every time I want to play, running another DRM (EA's anyone?), maybe SecuROM (eww.), I'll take Steam. Any day of the week. DRM is a reality, and Steam, in my experience, is the least of the evils that abound.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

In other words you might as well be playing an MMO because single player games are not even safe from online drm

[sesom]

@moho25

 

1. I didn't traced the traffic of steam so I can't give you informations about what it tracks other then game specific data. I am the guy which see no need that they know my hardware specifications. Bethesda in a support case surely, but steam (valve)????

I am not sure about the windows firewall. It is only a basic firewall protection, you should use better ones if you want to keep your home phoning applications under control.

 

2. Program location and safe location are different in New Vegas. So no worry I am pretty sure Skyrim will do the same. But they are pretty fixed (example: safes(win7): C:\Users\XXXX\Documents\My Games\FalloutNV, program standard installation (Win7) : C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\fallout new vegas\) . You can get troubles with mod managers if you use unusual paths. As I had to support with the port of Breezes Body I made.

 

Btw. I don't play flamewars no worry. I take New Vegas as example because it is the first game published by Bethesda which used steam and we can be pretty sure that Skyrim as second one will work similar.

Edited November 2, 2011 by sesom

[anandus]

Offtopic:

@anandus

4 Gb patch maybe? One of them isn't a steam version of the game.... Can't say anything about Oblivion because I have a official nonsteam version here.

Very strange, I'm using FOMM+NVSE+4GB and never had that issue. (also sometimes the Fake Fullscreen no difference).

You really shouldn't see the launcher if you start the game like that? Maybe you don't have Steam running and the game then first starts Steam and that then defaults to the launcher instead of the game itself?

/Offtopic

Flame wars aren't needed, folks. Please stay on topic.

didn't try a flamewar, just trying to help :)

What sorts of information is it collecting and sending? Can it collect and send anything if it's blocked by Windows Firewall? Shouldn't seem so...

Don't know about the info it's supposedly collecting, but if it's blocked by a firewall it can't send anything. Mind you, you do need to activate the game through Steam, so you make a connection at least once.

2. Save Locations. From people's examples, it looks like the actual saved game is better to have on the C: drive. Does the game itself also need to be installed there? If so, that's the type of crap that really irks me. Not only do I have to use a secondary program to play the game, but I can't even have my computer organized the way that I want, and have the game work appropriately? Or, is it mostly an issue with mods?

I'm not certain if I understand the question.

The save game location is as yet unknown, but problably, like Fallout it'll be in \My Documents\My Games.

 

The install-location of the game is by default in the Steam directory, and where that is depends on the location you chose when installing Steam.

So if you install Steam in, say D:\Bananas\, then the game will install in there (actually two directories deeper).

 

Although you can change the location where the game installs through a tool called 'Steam tool'. (Techmode on: It creates an ntfs-junction (in linux: symlink) to a chosen directory)

[Arredamaal]

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey Think that is everything it gathers, but not sure.

 

Edit: Never-mind apparently that is an optional side survey/data gathering thing... I think. Not sure really.

 

http://www.valvesoftware.com/privacy.html - Legalese description.

Edited November 2, 2011 by Arredamaal

[moho25]

Let me clarify how I have my computer set up, and that might help in answering my question.

 

I have 3 HDDs:

1. 2 partitions. Win7 & Programs (including all of my games)

2. 2 partitions: Win7 swap/temp directories & Linux (the latter, once I get more time)

3. 1 partition: all data, including MS default libraries that I never use (My Docs, My Music, etc). Note that the <User\AppData> Folder is still on the C drive.

 

I haven't had any problems modding Oblivion with this file structure, but would I with Steam? Or, as long as I install Steam + Skyrim to the directory of my choosing, I shouldn't have any problems?

 

A bit difficult to verbalize. Hope that helps!

 

Thanks again to everyone.

[sesom]

Sorry a short offtopic answer:

@anandus

My configuration: steam is running in offline mode, FOMM, NVSE + NVSE 4 GB Patch (the steam friendly one), NV in real windowed mode

 

ontopic again:

 

@moho25

Updates are exclusively managed by steam (no more down-loadable updates from Bethsoft). So if you want to update your game you have to give steam internet access again.

 

ninja'd ;)

If you mean using mods in your game: I don't think you will have any troubles.

 

Making mods got more annoying with steam. That was my point.

Edited November 2, 2011 by sesom

[marabunta5]

As far as im aware you only need to be online to activate your game... Wich will suck if there are people without an internet connection who sadly cant play the game then... :/ I never really had problems with steam myself... The Auto-update is annoying though... Cant play the game if its updating... Wich TBH isnt always that nice but it saves you the problem if doing it yourself. And the steam community allows me to talk to my friends without having to alt tab every time to get on msn. (or atleast the ones that have steam :P ) And as anandus said... it really grows on you... I hated steam then i started using it for Empire Total War, after a while i didnt hate it but neither did i like it. Now i like steam but im still no fan of it... Just keep your pre-order man Steam may be a bit bad but you can live with it... and it really doesnt use much RAM.. my firefox uses more than Steam... 120,00KB for me and Firefox over one million KB... so that does say something ^^ (About the number of tabs i keep open yeah.... )

[babis8142]

It's annoying when a game asks you to install a third party software to play it. I was annoyed when orange box needed steam (first game I bought).

That being said I got used to it. I have steam running all times, starts with windows, logs in on it own (you can save username and password) and about the question how much memory it uses I'll say: why, do you need it? Say that it takes 100mb memory. If you have, say 2 gigs you still get plenty left and those 100mb won't make a difference. But right now (minimized to tray) it takes 13k memory. Firefox uses 224k + 211k (plugin container whatever that is). I'm tired of people complaining about steam; it's one of the best tools that helps with anti-piracy imo anyway. If that means, say, 15% unsatisfied customers I'll take it. Good move on Bethesda's part. Because that means 15% less piracy (probably).