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Nothing · 2nd June 2010, 13:30

This seems to be the thread for discussing Steam, please excuse the length of the post, if you're interested read it, if you're not then stop complaining, I'm not forcing you to read it. So I sent this in to steam:

I live in New Zealand, and I'm not sure if it's true that most of the rest of the world has no data-caps on their internet connections (ISP's charge). The problem I have is that in the last month steam has downloaded 3gb worth of data in updates for games which I have already played through. I may play them again at some point, but I don't play them often enough to worry about whether they are up to date or not. My monthly traffic allowance is about 11gb per month, after that I have to start paying extra per GB of data. As far as I am aware there are no ISP's in NZ that provide unlimited data plans at present. As you can imagine I find it quite frustrating when in 2 days Steam eats 1 quarter of my monthly allowance for 'updates' without providing any warning that it's about to happen or opportunity to delay or stop it.

I do realise that it is possible to simply cancel the download and to set each application to not apply updates, that's fine, but those things are not exactly what I'm talking about. I'd really like to be able to set steam so that it would tell me when an update is available for the game, and then if I choose to install the update steam initiates the download. Sometimes towards the end of the month we're running out of traffic, so it really helps to not have stuff just automatically start downloading with no warning or control over when the update is released, it would be quite useful if the program offered the option of setting a date/time for an update to download and install. In this way if I have none of my free traffic allowance left I can schedule the download to start after the date that my monthly traffic allowance rolls over.

This is pretty basic stuff, and I think that most New Zealand residents who have steam on their computers would probably be quite pleased to have those features available. I'm sure not everyone would use them all the time, I just think that having the option there would be nice.

They replied:

Hello, Thank you for contacting Steam Support. Steam game updates are optimized for a high-speed internet connection. Disabling automatic updates may increase compatibility with your dial-up connection. Please allow downloads that have already started to finish before doing so. To disable future updates, please do the following: Right click on the game, choose Properties. Click on the Updates tab. Choose "Do not automatically update this game" Click close. Exit Steam. Relaunch Steam and attempt to play the game. Disabling updates may have adverse effects on some games. Therefore it is recommended to download these updates before playing. You may need to install all existing updates prior to disabling future updates. If you wish, you can move your computer to a location with high speed internet to download available updates.

I sent them another message:

Way to completely miss the point of what I asked. First off, I'm not on a dial up connection, I'm on broadband, I have 10Mbits of bandwidth. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being completely unsatisfied, and 10 being completely satisfied, your response to my question rates a 0.5. Please have someone who has superior english comprehension re-read my original question and address the actual problem I raised, your response below tells me nothing I did not already know.

They replied again:

Hello, We do not currently have an option such as you have described where you can be warned of updates and opt in or out. I will pass this information on to our devolopers so that they can consider your feedback.

My final reply:

Awesome! That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Please also mention to the developers that this is something that would most likely be a useful feature for anyone who uses Steam from New Zealand.

Now, my question is this - do you think the features that I've requested here for steam would be useful to you? I guess I've been a bit cheeky by suggesting that anyone who uses steam in NZ is probably going to be keen on these features, I could easily be wrong about that - I don't know for sure. So that's why I'm asking here now, call it curiosity. So what do you think? Is it something you would like to see or not? Amirite?

2nd June 2010, 13:30	#8
Nothing	This seems to be the thread for discussing Steam, please excuse the length of the post, if you're interested read it, if you're not then stop complaining, I'm not forcing you to read it. So I sent this in to steam: I live in New Zealand, and I'm not sure if it's true that most of the rest of the world has no data-caps on their internet connections (ISP's charge). The problem I have is that in the last month steam has downloaded 3gb worth of data in updates for games which I have already played through. I may play them again at some point, but I don't play them often enough to worry about whether they are up to date or not. My monthly traffic allowance is about 11gb per month, after that I have to start paying extra per GB of data. As far as I am aware there are no ISP's in NZ that provide unlimited data plans at present. As you can imagine I find it quite frustrating when in 2 days Steam eats 1 quarter of my monthly allowance for 'updates' without providing any warning that it's about to happen or opportunity to delay or stop it. I do realise that it is possible to simply cancel the download and to set each application to not apply updates, that's fine, but those things are not exactly what I'm talking about. I'd really like to be able to set steam so that it would tell me when an update is available for the game, and then if I choose to install the update steam initiates the download. Sometimes towards the end of the month we're running out of traffic, so it really helps to not have stuff just automatically start downloading with no warning or control over when the update is released, it would be quite useful if the program offered the option of setting a date/time for an update to download and install. In this way if I have none of my free traffic allowance left I can schedule the download to start after the date that my monthly traffic allowance rolls over. This is pretty basic stuff, and I think that most New Zealand residents who have steam on their computers would probably be quite pleased to have those features available. I'm sure not everyone would use them all the time, I just think that having the option there would be nice. They replied: Hello, Thank you for contacting Steam Support. Steam game updates are optimized for a high-speed internet connection. Disabling automatic updates may increase compatibility with your dial-up connection. Please allow downloads that have already started to finish before doing so. To disable future updates, please do the following: Right click on the game, choose Properties. Click on the Updates tab. Choose "Do not automatically update this game" Click close. Exit Steam. Relaunch Steam and attempt to play the game. Disabling updates may have adverse effects on some games. Therefore it is recommended to download these updates before playing. You may need to install all existing updates prior to disabling future updates. If you wish, you can move your computer to a location with high speed internet to download available updates. I sent them another message: Way to completely miss the point of what I asked. First off, I'm not on a dial up connection, I'm on broadband, I have 10Mbits of bandwidth. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being completely unsatisfied, and 10 being completely satisfied, your response to my question rates a 0.5. Please have someone who has superior english comprehension re-read my original question and address the actual problem I raised, your response below tells me nothing I did not already know. They replied again: Hello, We do not currently have an option such as you have described where you can be warned of updates and opt in or out. I will pass this information on to our devolopers so that they can consider your feedback. My final reply: Awesome! That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Please also mention to the developers that this is something that would most likely be a useful feature for anyone who uses Steam from New Zealand. Now, my question is this - do you think the features that I've requested here for steam would be useful to you? I guess I've been a bit cheeky by suggesting that anyone who uses steam in NZ is probably going to be keen on these features, I could easily be wrong about that - I don't know for sure. So that's why I'm asking here now, call it curiosity. So what do you think? Is it something you would like to see or not? Amirite?