How can I stop Steam updates to R2TW ?

[Ars Moriendi]

A few days before patch 8 went live I disabled Steam updates for R2 - or so I thought - I checked "Do not automatically update".
I did it because I had a few mods installed which might not get updated soon (or ever) and I just wanted to finish my campaign as it was before updating anything.

However, the next day after patch 8, the game failed to start - it just froze on the copyrights screen. So something must have been downloaded by Steam, despite me explicitly telling it not to. I tried "Verify integrity ..." thinking it will fix whatever was broken - but instead of doing what it says on the label, it merrily proceeded downloading the entire patch - although the "Do not update.." option was still set (see screenshot).



Now, my campaign is forfeit half way. This may not seem such a big deal ("just start a new one") - but my gaming time is very limited so it might take me 1-2 months to finish a campaign. If I re-start now, the same thing will probably happen again when patch 9 is released, and I really don't like getting forcefully rebooted each time CA/SEGA/Steam put out a new patch/DLC (which I may not want/need anyway).

So, the question again : is there any way of stopping the updates - completely and reliably ?

Anger venting :
I am actually much more annoyed with wasting time than I am with wasting money on an unfinished game. Spending ~50EUR and not really getting what I paid for - I can live with that. Spending two weeks trying to get beyond the halfpoint in a campaign, then having it reset on a whim - plus an entire evening adding/removing mods and trying to make it work again ... that, I don't take easily.
It's MY TIME, goddamit, and I have very little to spare.

[Hooahguy]

Maybe it was the steam cloud? I really have no clue. Have you posted this on the CA support forum? They actually check those forums and since many more people view those forums you might find a real answer.

[Ars Moriendi]

Thanks. I just copy pasted this post on the support forum (at forums.totalwar.com - I hope it`s the right place).

I don't think Steam cloud is the culprit - as I understand that feature is just an online backup for my game settings / saves.

[Sp4]

Block Steam in your firewall and tell it there is no internet the next time it asks.

On a sidenote, I find it really annoying that Steam automatically assumed you want your stuff updated to the latest possible version all the time. It would be nice if it would just let you select one.

[Ars Moriendi]

I will try blocking Steam from internet as soon as I get home. The thought occured to me briefly when I found out about the upcoming patch, but I dismissed because I assumed the game just won't run without a connection - doesn't Steam also do license checking besides updates and advertising ?

[Sp4]

I will try blocking Steam from internet as soon as I get home. The thought occured to me briefly when I found out about the upcoming patch, but I dismissed because I assumed the game just won't run without a connection - doesn't Steam also do license checking besides updates and advertising ?

Once you played it once with a connection, it should let you play even without one.

[Ars Moriendi]

Tested - the game appears indeed to be working fine with Steam blocked. Thanks.

I just wish I asked for advice here BEFORE yesterday.

[Lord of the Isles]

Blast - I've tried searching for all my posts but cannot find the one(s) from a few years ago that I was looking for. Perhaps they were on ... that other TW site. So I'll try to summarize but I won't have detailed test results that I posted back then.

The quick summary is: to be 100% sure you will need to do more than block Steam in your firewall. I did that and it worked fine until one day Steam refused to let me play because there was an update (can't remember if it was the Steam client or the game). I had a number of Steam programs (everything with Valve as a publisher in the firewall's list of programs - this was ZoneAlarm btw) blocked and yet Steam was still able to 'phone home' and discover there was an update to be applied. The only conclusion was that Steam is written to get around my firewall. I posted that a few years ago and no one from CA or Valve turned up to deny it.

Anyway, after that I set Steam not to run on startup. Then, before starting it manually, I always used the Network & Sharing Centre -> Change Adaptor Settings and Disabled my ethernet hardware. Then, after finishing a game playing session, I shut down Steam and only then reenabled the network. For the first few weeks I'd sometimes forget, but then it became a habit. My record was playing an old version of Shogun II that I liked, with mods that I liked, for 10 months or so without ever having to be forced by Steam to apply an update.

And how I wish I'd stayed with patch 5 for Rome II. I decided to try patch 7 and regretted it. Have gone back to Shogun II for the last few days until things settle down or until some mod appears with the changes I'm looking for.

I know all that above seems a little paranoid. And it is possible that your firewall is better at blocking Steam than mine was, but if you want to be sure....

[Ars Moriendi]

"Nuke it from orbit--it’s the only way to be sure...”

So, Steam is sneaky and misleading with a behaviour that would make most malware blush... and requires the user to go to great lengths to keep it chained. Honestly, I'm not surprised.

I simply used the default Windows firewall. Upon restart Steam failed to connect and offered to "run offline" then everything proceeded as usual, except all online content was unavailable.

If that's not enough... well maybe it's high time for a concerted boycott or a formal complaint against Valve.

And thanks for sharing, Lord of the Isles, it makes me feel a little better knowing that I'm not the only one annoyed by "software says X and then does NOT-X".

[Lord of the Isles]

I almost blushed to re-read my post above. I forgot to mention perhaps the biggest drawback of my method: I couldn't update any other Steam game for that 10 months nor could I buy any new ones. It did get annoying when the much-missed Stardock game client transferred over to Steam, and I couldn't buy the newest version of Sins of a Solar Empire. But I was enjoying the out-of-date Shogun II so much that I just lived with it.

Maybe that's the way to start a campaign to get Valve to change the way they do things: if people stick with old versions to the detriment of buying new games, the game publishers will be losing money.

Mind you, Valve might come to a different conclusion. There was a time about six months ago when off-line mode sometimes failed to work; Steam complaining that 'login information was not saved on this computer' and I'd have to go online before I could play any Steam games. I began to get worried that this was their way of making offline mode too much of a hassle for users. Hasn't happened since then though ... *crosses fingers*

[Sp4]

Our internet broke some time ago and at first everything was fine and Steam let me play in offline mode and then suddenly it started complaining, so I had to get it online somehow for it to continue working.