Control Over Game Updates

[Rhashadric]

Games that are modded such as Fallout 4 can be broken by auto updates. I have to continuously wait for mods to update in order to play my game. If there was a "Manual Update Only" option available or even better, available per game, I could wait to update my game until the mods are updated and never be stuck in update limbo.

I'm not sure why updates are pushed so forcefully but this should definitely be reconsidered. Is it because there is fear of people getting on a "free weekend" and never letting it update basically getting the game for free? If the option was based per game instead of global, manual updates could be disabled on games that are having a free weekend.

[Satoru]

Devs can provide previous versions of a game via beta channels so users can play a particular version if they want. Feel free to talk to the dev to allow this featuer for their game

[Rhashadric]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Devs can provide previous versions of a game via beta channels so users can play a particular version if they want. Feel free to talk to the dev to allow this featuer for their game

I don't see an option like that in Fallout 4 and I doubt Bethesda could be bothered with something like that. They are too busy planning something horrible like a "Fallout Online" to even fix bugs properly.
The chances of them adding an update control feature to their games at my request would be about the same as me asking Donald Trump to please stop saying the word "incredible" every time he talks.
I think the option would be a great feature to have on steam in general so that I don't have to speak to every developer about adding that feature when needed.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Vesidious:

Originally posted by Satoru:

Devs can provide previous versions of a game via beta channels so users can play a particular version if they want. Feel free to talk to the dev to allow this featuer for their game

I don't see an option like that in Fallout 4 and I doubt Bethesda could be bothered with something like that. They are too busy planning something horrible like a "Fallout Online" to even fix bugs properly.
The chances of them adding an update control feature to their games at my request would be about the same as me asking Donald Trump to please stop saying the word "incredible" every time he talks.
I think the option would be a great feature to have on steam in general so that I don't have to speak to every developer about adding that feature when needed.

It functionally isnt a good solution to do it purely client side

Because it means that only if you happen to have the game installed before can you run a specific version

This means that if you reinstall the game, or if someone want to play with specific mods, or you install on another computer, etc, they cant because that version isnt available anywhere. And mod creators are not incentivised to fix things either

The system allows for devs to provide previous verisons of a game to all users. If a dev doesnt want to provide this, they aren't. And a client side hack is a poor solution to this problem.

[Faedrill]

Set your Fallout 4 to only update when you launch the game, and use F4SE to start the game.

[Rhashadric]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by Vesidious:

I don't see an option like that in Fallout 4 and I doubt Bethesda could be bothered with something like that. They are too busy planning something horrible like a "Fallout Online" to even fix bugs properly.
The chances of them adding an update control feature to their games at my request would be about the same as me asking Donald Trump to please stop saying the word "incredible" every time he talks.
I think the option would be a great feature to have on steam in general so that I don't have to speak to every developer about adding that feature when needed.

It functionally isnt a good solution to do it purely client side

Because it means that only if you happen to have the game installed before can you run a specific version

This means that if you reinstall the game, or if someone want to play with specific mods, they cant because that version isnt available anywhere. And mod creators are not incentivised to fix things either

The system allows for devs to provide previous verisons of a game to all users. If a dev doesnt want to provide this, they aren't. And a client side hack is a poor solution to this problem.

If you are saying that multi-player would be affected because people can't join the same game running different versions, I don't see the problem there- they can just update if they want to play together. I'm not sure you get what I'm asking for.

Basically I'm saying that when you right click a game in your steam library and go to the "Updates" tab, I would like a check box that says "Manual Update Only" . If you don't check it then the game would auto-update normally. All other games of course would update via whatever settings you have for them.

Incentive to modders? Their incentive is to have a mod work the way they intended without bugs for the current version. If that's not what they want then they wouldn't have to update their mod anyway. They usually work on request or donations anyway. Most of them would update their mods happily if people wanted them to.

[Rhashadric]

Originally posted by Faedrill:

Set your Fallout 4 to only update when you launch the game, and use F4SE to start the game.

I didn't think that would work because I still launch the game regardless. Thanks for the info, I'll set it up and see if it does the job.

Would be nice if there was a CESE for Conan Exiles, the mods on that game are broken nearly every time I launch it.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Vesidious:

If you are saying that multi-player would be affected because people can't join the same game running different versions, I don't see the problem there- they can just update if they want to play together. I'm not sure you get what I'm asking for.

Basically I'm saying that when you right click a game in your steam library and go to the "Updates" tab, I would like a check box that says "Manual Update Only" . If you don't check it then the game would auto-update normally. All other games of course would update via whatever settings you have for them.

Incentive to modders? Their incentive is to have a mod work the way they intended without bugs for the current version. If that's not what they want then they wouldn't have to update their mod anyway. They usually work on request or donations anyway. Most of them would update their mods happily if people wanted them to.

I get what you're asking for. But again its a poor solution to the problem. client side control effectively means that only you have access to a particular build. Which means that if you lose your installation, there's no way to get back to that build. It also means no one else can use that build either since it functionally doesnt exist except on your computer

Your primary problem is incompatiblity. The solution to that is for devs to provide previous versions in beta channels which is a feature on steam. This is the maximally flexible and the correct solution to the incompatiblity problem. If a developer doesn't want to do this, then to them this isn't a problem.

[Rhashadric]

"Satoru: client side control effectively means that only you have access to a particular build" Doesn't sound bad to me for single player games. If I lost my installation I could just reinstall the game or verify integrity of files. It would basically just mean that I'm forced to update if I somehow messed up my files.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Vesidious:

"Satoru: client side control effectively means that only you have access to a particular build" Doesn't sound bad to me for single player games.

Again this means that the solution is not universal and creates more problems than it actually solves.

If I lost my installation I could just reinstall the game or verify integrity of files. It would basically just mean that I'm forced to update if I somehow messed up my files.

Which functionally means everything is 'broken' since you're reliant on a specific build of the game which you can no longer get since it doesn't exist.

Paradox games have like a dozen versions of all their games for backwards compatibility with mods. This is a feature that exist in Steam and is utilized by developers. If a developer doesn't want to use it, they must not deem backwards compatibility as a priority and instead prioritize having everyone on the same version

[Rhashadric]

"Again this means that the solution is not universal and creates more problems than it actually solves."
Okay this is what I'm not seeing. I don't see a downside to it. I can't think of any problems that it might cause with the game I would use it on and I personally don't know of any game that would be affected adversly by it since it just an option that can be checked or unchecked.

With non steam multi-player games like minecraft. You simply couldn't join a server unless you were running the same version as the server and the same mods if any that the server was running.

"Which functionally means everything is 'broken' since you're reliant on a specific build of the game which you can no longer get since it doesn't exist."

Nothing is reliant on the build when I delete it and reinstall. I'm not sure what you mean. The main purpose of this option for me would simply be so that I can still play the game with my favorite mods until the mod authors get a chance to update.

Its not like I would run that version of the game for life, but if I did for whatever reason decide to do that, mods usually have the game version that they are compatable with listed on the page. If I wanted to run a mod for a newer version of the game, I would simply have to update my files.

[Rhashadric]

Are you saying that It isn't a good replacement for the option to have previous versions avalable? If so, I wasn't suggesting that this replace that feature. Yes that feature would be better if you want to consistantly stick with an older build. Not all games are going to offer that however and for the ones that don't, I want some control over the updates that are forced on me.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Please,

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1378625514

And note that it is not going to happen. The developers already have a system in place to allow this if theey choose to.

[Rhashadric]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Please,

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1378625514

And note that it is not going to happen. The developers already have a system in place to allow this if theey choose to.

:qr:

If so I haven't seen it. It looks more steam side that handles update scheduling and developers that control available versions. I'm not sure what you are wanting me to look at with the link but if you are implying that someone already suggested a "Manual Update Only" checkbox, I didn't see find with a search.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

They can make a beta bracnh if they choose to.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/branches

One reason Steam was created was to keep games up to date before you play them. If the developers choose not to use the beta branch, you are SOL. It is up to them.

[melficarum]

I figured they already had something like that, kind of a common sense thing. I was a bit surprised that they don't. Of course we should control our own updates, there is no argument. We own our copy of the game and our computers...