I looked into setting up an NZ content server and emailed Valve, providing 100Mbit+ of NZ bandwidth was absolutely no problem, having to provide 100Mbit+ to the world at New Zealand's prices? You've either gotta have a big cash cow somewhere or somehow be earning a profit from doing it.
If Valve will let it be available to NZ users only then I'm all for providing a dedicated content server. When I had a go on the Steam beta, it's actually faster than you might expect to download over 128kbit, sure it thrashed my cap but it only took me around 2-3 hours to have a playable game. I personally enjoyed 1.6 and found the server CPU usage to be rather efficient. There seems to be a lot of complaining about what 1.6 is like but how many of you have actually tried running a 1.6 beta server on Linux? I thought it was great. I also have friends on 56k who had no whims about it, as for spreading it across multiple computers at home, I just tarred up my steam cache folder and shared it. When you look at it realistically, getting the updates via Steam is still just as much downloading as if you were downloading the patch itself. Compare it to the size of a BF1942 or Desert Combat update and it's nothing really. Before you slag off 1.6, talk to people who have actually tried it, I thought it was a great idea and Steam ran fine for me, the later updates of it didn't crash at all although I will say the early Steam releases were shocking. Pay per play, I think the idea Valve has is more so that you can buy the game online in a "download version" which perhaps might be cheaper than the boxed set. I'd rather buy it and download it right there and then rather than wait for it to be couriered. Give it some thought. Cheers, Scott ___________________ Scott Pettit [EMAIL PROTECTED] (+64) 0274 926 665 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Simon Garner Sent: Tuesday, 9 September 2003 10:28 a.m. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] 1.6 Net Code? On Tuesday, September 09, 2003 9:13 AM [GMT+1200=NZT], Daniel Stroven <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I said in another email..netcode designed to make it close to fair > between HPB and LPB..if steam kills all modem users...then what to do > with the current netcode? > The vast majority of players in this country have 128k DSL or 56k modem. If 56k is no longer practical for playing then 128k probably isn't going to be much better - particularly as international traffic is charged by the MB, so if Steam is downloading lots of files from Speakeasy/wherever it's going to cost people a bomb. Though admittedly the NZ broadband market is remarkably crap, I imagine we're not alone in this. However I have faith *cough* that Valve will have considered all the possibilities and everyone will still be able to play in harmony with Steam... ;) -Simon _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
