A new update for Steam has been
released, adding in support to specify what region you're for the content downloads. This is a huge deal and a feature that we've been pretty vocal about not being in the client, especially in Australia where downloading gigabytes of data can not only take a long time but also have big effects on your monthly download limits. Here's the full list of changes:
Steam Client
* Added ability to specify content download region (in Settings->downloads)
* Fixed a condition that would prevent Steam from automatically applying game updates until game launch
* Fixed a bug preventing in-game status for 3rd party games
* Fixed running a non-Steam shortcut not changing user status to in-game
* Updated processor detection for "System Information" window and hardware survey
* Detect Windows 7 correctly in the hardware survey/system info dialog
* Fixed a bug affecting Dawn of War II beta participants in certain languages
* Fixed a bug in the game overlay affecting some Dawn of War II beta participants who have the game overlay disabled
* Fixed a rare case where Steam could prevent games from launching
* Fix crash when right-clicking a text edit control with an input locale that is new with Vista
* Updated German localization
* Fixed some potential string truncation in non-English locales
* Repaired layout of controls in Event announcement popup window
* Additional network API warnings for Steamworks partners
Midda points out in the comments you can even select certain ISPs so you can set your Content Server selection manually, at least if you're with Telstra/BigPond. Everyone else will just have to set 'Australia' and hope for the best - see
this screenshot for a look at the new option.
Posted 01:20pm 04/2/09
Posted 01:21pm 04/2/09
Posted 01:21pm 04/2/09
theres an Australia (Telstra) option for those with bigpond. :)
Posted 01:28pm 04/2/09
Posted 01:36pm 04/2/09
Posted 02:07pm 04/2/09
Posted 02:29pm 04/2/09
Would anyone but Valve be able to confirm that? Given that they are the only ones who get a say as to what's on what content server based on available resources (disk space, bandwidth, memory, etc). The providers don't have any control.
Posted 02:39pm 04/2/09
Posted 02:45pm 04/2/09
Just wondering why they would have telstra and not 'Australia (internode)' or 'Australia (3FL)'.
Posted 03:00pm 04/2/09
Posted 03:04pm 04/2/09
Posted 03:09pm 04/2/09
Posted 03:15pm 04/2/09
the ability to ignore people's text & voice commands, not just their +voicerecord
Posted 03:16pm 04/2/09
At this very moment the bigpond steam content servers do not have all the content, but the rest of the content is being transferred by valve as of last night. So hopefully within the next few days the bigpond servers _will_ have the entire steam content set.
Posted 03:17pm 04/2/09
Posted 03:22pm 04/2/09
Posted 03:28pm 04/2/09
Posted 03:45pm 04/2/09
Posted 03:52pm 04/2/09
Posted 04:23pm 04/2/09
This isn't whirlpool, no need for that rhetoric.
Posted 04:25pm 04/2/09
Telstra dedicate a sizable amount of resources to steam, not just for Bigpond users but for all users. Also, the current repo is in the order of 1.6TB, maybe the others can't handle it.
Posted 04:29pm 04/2/09
If it weren't for the tiny download quotas, I'd be with Telstra. They're reliable, have really good customer service (in my recent experience), and heaps of unmetered content.
Posted 04:39pm 04/2/09
Posted 04:43pm 04/2/09
Posted 04:54pm 04/2/09
Is that a joke?
Only like Game Arena for CSS cause of the map choices and i know most of the idiots but play all other games on Internode..
last edited by TiT at 16:54:35 04/Feb/09
Posted 05:29pm 04/2/09
No. How often is Bigpond down? I was with them for 2 years while studying, and I don't remember ever having the connection go down, except for when my modem died. Never had any retarded lag spikes either.
As for customer service, the last time I called Telstra, I didn't talk to a stupid robot, I didn't have to press any buttons, and I wasn't put in a queue. I was put straight through to an Australian customer service rep who was incredibly easy to deal with.
So if I could actually get a 100GB+ download quota without paying through the nose for it, yeah, Telstra would be a great option.
Posted 05:29pm 04/2/09
Posted 06:10pm 04/2/09
Had that problem alot >.<
Posted 06:15pm 04/2/09
Internode wins again.
Posted 06:15pm 04/2/09
maybe your problem is that all the gamers you know still live at home with their parents.
Posted 06:23pm 04/2/09
Posted 06:25pm 04/2/09
its full of robots just test it!
Posted 06:33pm 04/2/09
Or you have people who can get nothing but telsta. And the people that try just ended up with 3 bills from 3 different ISP's after attempting to connect and then being told it can't be connected to their home.
Posted 06:36pm 04/2/09
Posted 07:22pm 04/2/09
the cable was rock solid for 5+ years and i had a 100 day connection uptime at some point. doesnt really get any more reliable than that.
i also used to get an awesome connection to any game server in australia i played on
pretty cool new feature to have on steam. it is a shame there arent other major isps listed though
Posted 07:25pm 04/2/09
Posted 07:28pm 04/2/09
Posted 07:30pm 04/2/09
Posted 07:38pm 04/2/09
Posted 07:52pm 04/2/09
Text is ignored when you mute people. Don't know about voice commands.
Only downside is when people change their names, they can't be muted until you rejoin the server and the client picks up the current names. Plus weird-charactered nicknames can't still be muted afaik.
Posted 10:46pm 04/2/09
Posted 11:36pm 04/2/09
Posted 12:13am 05/2/09
Huh? You mute a player as usual, then you can't hear them talk nor see anything they type. In TF2 that is.
I only noticed it like a couple of months ago. Not sure when they actually implemented it.
Posted 12:29am 05/2/09
I think last week counts as recent. It's quite possible that they just hate you. Can you blame them?
Posted 01:55am 05/2/09
This is in CSS. Its voice only unfortunately. An admin will need to mute with admins powers to stop text >.<
Posted 05:29am 05/2/09