Stop forcing updates, let us play offline without updating if we want to

[david.alexanderus]

I have this experience often, and it is so frustrating. You go play a game, and Steam forces an update on you without your permission. So you have to sit there for an hour waiting for the stupid thing to update before you can play it.

Updating makes sense for multiplayer, but it is idiotic to force it on you when you want to just play single-player. I was only going to go into GTA V for like a half hour quick game. By the time the update is finished, I was planning to not even be here. So apparently playing a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game is something Steam thinks we want to schedule in advance.

I really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate Steam. Updates should be optional when playing offline. I have it set now so that it never updates (by the way, there's no explicit option for this, I just set the time in which updates can occur as "6am - 6am"). But it still wont let me even launch GTA V without waiting for the update to finish.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

1. Blame the pubs/devs for wanting to update the game.... If you got a problem with them updating their game, take it up with them.

2. Steam is a platform that delivers what Pubs/Devs wanted to push out ASAP. Also it's in the terms when you sign up, to be expected to get updates.

[Crazy Tiger]

You can schedule updates, yes. But games will always update when you launch a game. It's the core of Steam.

If you don't want that, you need to find a different gaming platform.

[david.alexanderus]

Oh right if things are in the terms then it's not worth complaining and asking for something to be changed, I forgot about that unwritten rule. Thanks Dr.Shadowds, you really have something useful to add.

And thanks patje.lol, for the great suggestion that we all shop around different gaming platforms to find the exact one that has no flaws, really realistic and helpful suggestions once again. Thank you both for the time you took to compose your messages.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by david.alexanderus:

I was only going to go into GTA V for like a half hour quick game. By the time the update is finished, I was planning to not even be here.

GTAV has multiplayer.
Some devs do have the MP and SP portions of their game separate so a MP update won't make the SP portion to update. I don't recall it being the case of GTAV.

[aiusepsi]

You could put Steam into offline mode (it's an option in one of the menus in the main Steam library window) and it should allow you to skip any pending updates.

[david.alexanderus]

aiusepsi I have tried, but it doesnt seem to be possible to force Steam to start in offline mode every time - you can start it up, then put it into offline mode once it has started - but if the update has begun, you wont be able to play the game until it has completed. Although I suppose I could make a note to disconnect my wifi whenever I want to play GTA V.

It's not really ideal though, I think it would be better if Steam gave you a warning/option ("there is an update available, do you want to update yes/no?") instead of forcing updates as soon as the game is started.

Tito Shivan I seem to have to download every single update for GTA V even though I never use MP :(

[Supafly]

@david
You can force offline mode bwhen loading Steam.Unplug network cable/turn off wifi load steam. It'll fail to connect to Steam servers and you can say start in Offline mode. Haven't had network issues for several months so it's been awhile since I've actually tested the no connection when loading Steam. Doubt it will have changed though.

If Steam knew or was in process of updating a game then as already mentioned a game will need to complete the process before you can play it.

[aiusepsi]

Originally posted by david.alexanderus:

aiusepsi I have tried, but it doesnt seem to be possible to force Steam to start in offline mode every time - you can start it up, then put it into offline mode once it has started - but if the update has begun, you wont be able to play the game until it has completed.

Odd; once I've put Steam into offline mode, it asks me every start-up if I want to stay in offline mode. And I checked, I started a Dota 2 update with the bandwidth limit cranked all the way down (so that it didn't finish too fast), paused the update, and Dota 2 still starts up without complaint once I put Steam into offline mode.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is what I'm doing:

Turning on offline mode:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2476304868561990097/E3E20362B7953DFB3439CA9EF4BE1AC36D5ACBD2/

What I see on each subsequent start-up:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2476304868561994783/C1E179977FF4626AF6E4BBC6E9EDF4E78AB5A7E7/

It's not really ideal though, I think it would be better if Steam gave you a warning/option ("there is an update available, do you want to update yes/no?") instead of forcing updates as soon as the game is started.

Yeah, agreed.