Left 4 Dead 2 Forum

This recent Dec 4th update fiasco really sucked. There needs to be something we can do to make sure we can at least play L4D2 in single-player mode, even when Valve releases a game-breaking patch the next time.

My strategy, after L4D2 works for us again:
0) Disable automatic patching of L4D2 in Steam.
1) Exit Steam in Offline Mode every time you finish an online game session. Without doing this, Steam will refuse to work even when there's no Internet connection.
2) Before heading online for a gaming session, check the forums beforehand to see if a game-breaking patch has been released. If something broke, don't play online!

With this strategy, even if a game-breaking patch has been released, at the very least, we can still play offline in single-player mode.

OTOH, a big problem with this strategy is: how do we know if a game-breaking patch has been released, if no one gets online to play it? Someone has to be a "scapegoat" and try it.

Maybe CodeWeavers can have a sub-section of the site dedicated to notifying us about potentially game-breaking patches?

The 'scapegoat' can archive his bottle each time before trying the update - so that if someone goes wrong, they can restore the backup.

In reality - if you followed this strategy you could be your own scapegoat. :)

I would already strongly suggest anybody that uses any VALVe product via Steam to do this as a precautionary. I honestly haven't played a game through Steam and CXG (not that it's been many), that hasn't had this sort of outcome. On a positive note, in the end, we've been able to play!

Lakin Wecker wrote:

The 'scapegoat' can archive his bottle each time before trying the
update - so that if someone goes wrong, they can restore the backup.

That's exactly what I have, and even restoring from backup won't let you play offline in single-player if Steam wasn't exited in Offline Mode before. So I guess you're right in a way, I could be my own 'scapegoat' and restore from backup, but I still have to follow The Strategy!

Josh wrote:

I would already strongly suggest anybody that uses any VALVe product
via Steam to do this as a precautionary. I honestly haven't played
a game through Steam and CXG (not that it's been many), that hasn't
had this sort of outcome. On a positive note, in the end, we've
been able to play!

That's a good point. The only reason why L4D2 is a good example now is because it's 'bleeding edge', and the other games have stabilized.

Joe Goh wrote:

Lakin Wecker wrote:

The 'scapegoat' can archive his bottle each time
before trying the update - so that if someone goes wrong, they can
restore the backup.

That's exactly what I have, and even restoring from backup won't let
you play offline in single-player if Steam wasn't exited in Offline
Mode before. So I guess you're right in a way, I could be my own
'scapegoat' and restore from backup, but I still have to follow The
Strategy!

Yup - you'd still have to follow your process for ensuring your game was not updated. But every week or so if you wanted to see if there are updates that are not broken you would archive your bottle (while steam is in offline mode), then update steam and L4D2 - and try it out. If it's still working you can exit steam in offline mode and continue using this current versino - if it busts, you can restore your bottle archive (which still has steam in offline mode) and continue playing.

I have to believe there is a setting in a file somewhere that can be toggled to set steam to offline mode without exiting it that way.

Lakin Wecker wrote:

Yup - you'd still have to follow your process for ensuring your game
was not updated. But every week or so if you wanted to see if there
are updates that are not broken you would archive your bottle (while
steam is in offline mode), then update steam and L4D2 - and try it
out. If it's still working you can exit steam in offline mode and
continue using this current versino - if it busts, you can restore
your bottle archive (which still has steam in offline mode) and
continue playing.

Fortunately, Time Machine on the Mac reduces all the complexity of backing up for me.

Lakin Wecker wrote:

I have to believe there is a setting in a file somewhere that can be
toggled to set steam to offline mode without exiting it that way.

There definitely is. I wonder though, if this can be modified without tripping Valve's validation crap. If I had more time/energy to devote to this, i'll fire up hex editors and whatnot to find out, but I don't. That's what i'm paying CodeWeavers to take care of for me - so I can code all day and come home to a relaxing game at night.

Agreed - your solution is too much work for me. I'll wait patiently until all of this settles down.

Lakin Wecker wrote:

The 'scapegoat' can archive his bottle each time before trying the
update - so that if someone goes wrong, they can restore the backup.

In reality - if you followed this strategy you could be your own
scapegoat. :)

Yes, but if you're on laptop with a small hard-drive and you do video editing, making bottles is not exactly an option.

The bottles are at most, 10GB large? You only need one - the latest working backup. You can manage that reasonably easily. You could buy a 10GB USB drive for pretty cheap these days, you probably have one kicking around.

But it is a good point.