VadaVaka

Condition Zero, and Other Steam News
October 23, 2003, 12:32 pm · Greg Coomer

Several exciting things are happening in the coming weeks.

Changes to the Steam Network
Things have stabilized quite a bit since the Steam release last month. Our player numbers are at an all-time high -- over the weekend the number of simultaneous Steam users in-game reached an all time high. We are, however, definitely still stamping out bugs.

We are about to make some significant additions and changes to the Steam network in order to guarantee quality of service during the Counter-Strike: Condition Zero rollout. We’ll be adding lots of new content servers and plenty of bandwidth to handle the load in the next couple of weeks.

Before we release CS:CZ, we will need to test these changes to see how they hold up under lots of stress. Stay tuned for details of how you can help us test the network (and get some free stuff in the process).

Offline/LAN play
Work on offline/LAN play is now nearing completion. To play any Steam game while not connected to the Internet it will only be necessary to let Steam finish downloading all of that game’s content, at which point you’ll be able to play games without connecting to Steam.

WON
Roughly 50% of the community has migrated to using Steam as the way to play our games. The WON authentication system won’t go away until Steam is ready for the entire user base. We don’t yet have an exact date when this will happen.

Banning, Cheaters, etc.
The process of banning Steam accounts with bad (or duplicate) CD keys was behind for a while, but the servers which handle these transactions have caught up with the backlog. This means that many of the people currently using cheats in CS are dissappearing.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Valve is about to ship Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and the game will soon be available through Steam. The in-store date and the Steam release date will be the same day. Watch this space (or your Steam Games list) for details.

I just seen that and was coming here to post about it.



Ok hands up those who think everything is gonna come to a crawl or just out and out crash. :D


* Gwarsbane raises hand


You can see how much faith I have in steam. :D:thumb:

So we CZ for free?
Badass:D

yeah, i can't wait to play CZ. i'm pumped.

i wouldn't buy CZ, but if it's free...i'm there if steam delivers the goods.

Guys CS:CZ is a stand alone game it is not free. It has single player missions along with multiplayer. What they are trying to say is that you will be able to buy it through Steam and d/l it the same day it is in stores. They have been making CS:CZ for over a year and a half I think.

they make it sound, as if by magic, we should wake up one morning and see it as an option under 'games'. i interpreted that to mean that we could install and play right away. since cz is based on the hl engine, it really is just a glorified mod isn't it? as people are getting opposing forces for free now, why not get this too? anyways, as some have already pointed out, steam may not be able to deliver cz as a pay-to-play product. so, it may be awhile before we can get this product that way.

i read that if you buy cz, you will get cs as well...and vice versa because they stated that the two communities would be united. if the two communities are to be united and we all have access to cs1.6, then wouldn't that mean that we get cz as well? if p&g is right, then when we click on cz under the games menu, a credit card request may pop up.

well, i'm back to being dissapointed...lol.

CS can be downloaded as a free mod, or you can buy it in the store. I don't think there is a difference.



Either way I won't be downloading either as I can't stand the idea of having to buy my weapons each time and only having a little bit to do that.

I like just goin into a game and start killing. :D

I thought the different was in the single player. Often the downloaded mods from the internet don't have the single player attributes.

No idea, I don't play CS at all. All I know is that you can play on the same servers if you download the mod or buy the game.

well i couldnt imagine what cs would be like single player, except haveing more plot holes then a reality tv series.