Empire Steam FAQ

[ilikeicehockey]

thing about steam is that Im worried that it'll be overloaded with all the people downloading from it. It might take hours for me to fully download the game or does that preloading thing have anything to do with it? Does that mean you can download it before but won't be able to play it until the 4th?

If steam is down will you still be able to play ETW or does steam have to be online as well.

[touchmaster]

I assume there will be like a code to activate ETW on steam. After I activate it is the activation code no good?

[ilikeicehockey]

just thought i would repost cause it seems to have been overlooked., you may delete my old one

thing about steam is that Im worried that it'll be overloaded with all the people downloading from it. It might take hours for me to fully download the game or does that preloading thing have anything to do with it? Does that mean you can download it before but won't be able to play it until the 4th?

If steam is down will you still be able to play ETW or does steam have to be online as well.

[HordeOfDoom]

just thought i would repost cause it seems to have been overlooked., you may delete my old one

thing about steam is that Im worried that it'll be overloaded with all the people downloading from it.

It won't be. The release is staggered around the world, there is pre-loading, and Steam's servers are entirely up to the task. E:TW is hardly the most popular game around -- if Steam can handle much larger FPS etc releases, the numbers drawn by an RTS should be fine.

It might take hours for me to fully download the game or does that preloading thing have anything to do with it? Does that mean you can download it before but won't be able to play it until the 4th?

Yes. I believe pre-loading begins two days in advance, that should be ample time to download the game (unless you're using Dial Up )

Since the minimum specs say 15 gigs of space required, we'll assume E:TW is that size although it will in reality be a bit lower. After doing some rudimentary calculations, the slowest average download speed with which you'll be able to preload E:TW in 48 hours is ~ 90 kilobytes/second. I think almost all connections (other than dialup) can manage that. A 500 kb/s average download speed should take about 9 hours.

If steam is down will you still be able to play ETW or does steam have to be online as well.

Once you have activated the game online, Steam can be set to offline mode, and you can play with no internet connection whatsoever. Steam being down has no effect on offline play.

[atraps]

Short and simple answer is: sucks for them.

...and for CA for missing out on the sales, and also for being forced to turn a single player based game into a multiplayer one to satisfy SEGA's outrageous copyright protection demands.

[Thanatos]

...and for CA for missing out on the sales, and also for being forced to turn a single player based game into a multiplayer one to satisfy SEGA's outrageous copyright protection demands.

Other TW games have had multiplayer as well. I have no idea what you're talking about.

And as for a greater dedication to MP for a TW game, what, that's a bad thing? To make it easier for people around the globe to enter battles together? That's a bad thing?

Please, give me a break.

[Danigol of South America]

Quick question if i am in South America and I buy trough steam at what time will I be able to download the game?

Sorry just don't know where to ask

[Thanatos]

STEAM is helpful in the sense that they give out news updates whenever something big happens. You can bet that when E:TW is available for pre-load downloading/installing, they'll let you know.

Even if they didn't, just look at the little E:TW icon in your "My Games" section, and eventually it'll give you the option to pre-load the game, normally about 48 hours prior to when the game hits the shelves in retail stores.

[Semperfi122]

sounds like I will be making a purchase on Steam soon.

[Akira121]

If we download with Steam would it be possible to utilize mods for ETW?

[Danigol of South America]

I am new to steam started today but im not sure but of what i am sure it will download patches automatically maybe you choose the mod and steam will do all the work?

[HordeOfDoom]

If we download with Steam would it be possible to utilize mods for ETW?

Yes. Both the DVD and Steam versions of E:TW are identical. Mods, and all support for mods, will be the same for both.

[ilikeicehockey]

Since the minimum specs say 15 gigs of space required, we'll assume E:TW is that size although it will in reality be a bit lower. After doing some rudimentary calculations, the slowest average download speed with which you'll be able to preload E:TW in 48 hours is ~ 90 kilobytes/second. I think almost all connections (other than dialup) can manage that. A 500 kb/s average download speed should take about 9 hours.

Thanks for answering my questions.
So with the 15GB you're saying that they won't compress it? It basically rules out steam for me because I have a 1GB bandwidth limit per day at my residence so there's no way for me to download it without getting banned. Guess I'll have to go for the hardcopy.

[atraps]

Other TW games have had multiplayer as well. I have no idea what you're talking about.

And as for a greater dedication to MP for a TW game, what, that's a bad thing? To make it easier for people around the globe to enter battles together? That's a bad thing?

TW games are not famous for their multiplayer. The multiplayer for the previous TW games was a joke as the devs did not see a need for it. The only reason why they're putting more emphasis on it now is to cover up the internet requirement forced by SEGA. Imagine how pathetic an internet connection requirement would be if ETW's multiplayer would be the same as RTW's.

Now you might say this is a good thing as now we get a more developed multiplayer, but I say it's not as the TW games are popular amongst people who do not want to be reliant on internet (Ex. people without internet, people who do want to connect to the internet, etc.). Changing this would cause a loss in sales. How many? We don't know.

SEGA's just playing the guessing game and hoping for the best, if the TW series manages to succeed then they made themselves another cash cow, but if it doesn't it's not like they will care too much. They have lots of other games to make their profit off of. This will continue until every PC game is ridden with malicious evasive DRM and mandatory internet activations or until the PC game industry crashes all together.

[Juggernaut]

I say it's not as the TW games are popular amongst people who do not want to be reliant on internet (Ex. people without internet, people who do want to connect to the internet, etc.).

Do you have any source or statistics to prove it? Or is it just that you hope so?

This will continue until every PC game is ridden with malicious evasive DRM

Steam is in no way "malicious" or "evasive". Frankly, as far as I see most people who are whining about Steam on this forums were either
:Against it because of some weird, bizzare "principle"
or
:Having a paranoid delusion about how their PC is going to be infected with viruses the moment they connect to the internet.

[GroupofSpearmen]

TW games are not famous for their multiplayer. The multiplayer for the previous TW games was a joke as the devs did not see a need for it. The only reason why they're putting more emphasis on it now is to cover up the internet requirement forced by SEGA. Imagine how pathetic an internet connection requirement would be if ETW's multiplayer would be the same as RTW's.

Now you might say this is a good thing as now we get a more developed multiplayer, but I say it's not as the TW games are popular amongst people who do not want to be reliant on internet (Ex. people without internet, people who do want to connect to the internet, etc.). Changing this would cause a loss in sales. How many? We don't know.

SEGA's just playing the guessing game and hoping for the best, if the TW series manages to succeed then they made themselves another cash cow, but if it doesn't it's not like they will care too much. They have lots of other games to make their profit off of. This will continue until every PC game is ridden with malicious evasive DRM and mandatory internet activations or until the PC game industry crashes all together.

Steam IS NOT malicious or evasive.

[Thanatos]

TW games are not famous for their multiplayer. The multiplayer for the previous TW games was a joke as the devs did not see a need for it. The only reason why they're putting more emphasis on it now is to cover up the internet requirement forced by SEGA. Imagine how pathetic an internet connection requirement would be if ETW's multiplayer would be the same as RTW's.

That's a pretty big if, and one you have no substantial basis for. All I see is somebody who's used to having TW being mostly singleplayer, and who can't change at all.

Now you might say this is a good thing as now we get a more developed multiplayer, but I say it's not as the TW games are popular amongst people who do not want to be reliant on internet (Ex. people without internet, people who do want to connect to the internet, etc.). Changing this would cause a loss in sales. How many? We don't know.

And all it requires is internet access one time. Just. One. Time. If they can't even manage that, then again, sucks for them. This is simply the way gaming is going, and nothing is going to change that.

SEGA's just playing the guessing game and hoping for the best, if the TW series manages to succeed then they made themselves another cash cow, but if it doesn't it's not like they will care too much. They have lots of other games to make their profit off of. This will continue until every PC game is ridden with malicious evasive DRM and mandatory internet activations or until the PC game industry crashes all together.

STEAM is not invasive, nor is it malicious. You're spouting things you know literally nothing about.

[Sargsaft]

That's a pretty big if, and one you have no substantial basis for. All I see is somebody who's used to having TW being mostly singleplayer, and who can't change at all.

And all it requires is internet access one time. Just. One. Time. If they can't even manage that, then again, sucks for them. This is simply the way gaming is going, and nothing is going to change that.

STEAM is not evasive, nor is it malicious. You're spouting things you know literally nothing about.

well said, i for one love steam......if only the prize policy would be fair...

[Roman Knight]

Steam is fantastic in every way apart from its lack of a good download manager. The inability to program times for download can be a real nuisance.

[Aradan]

I have cleaned the thread a bit. PLEASE do bother to read the opening post before asking questions that are answered in there or by making assumptions that are also confirmed/refuted there.

This thread is not about discussing CA policy or the percentile chances of a person having access to the internet or for spamming, it's about answering specific technical steam-related questions. Please respect that.