The other day I was talking to Josh about a way to use preupdate versions of source games (i.e. such that emulate a running Steam process) and still use Steam regularly at the same time. He suggested that one reason that running Ep2 is so boring is that you can’t communicate with others while running, unless they’re using IRC which most don’t seem to do since they prefer Steam.
In this context I just found out that it’s possible to start Steam when a preupdate version of a game is already running. Frankly, it’s beyond me why I or noone else didn’t think of this sooner. Anyway, as long a you don’t close the game you’re running it’s possible to still log on to Steam. Once you close the game you’ll have to close Steam as well to re-launch the game. It’s just a workaround, obviously, but it works. I might try to figure out later what the real issue is when trying to launch a preupdate version while Steam is running, but for now this should do. Maybe this will help increase activity a bit One can only hope.
I’m still working on a mod that’ll play the game on Engine 14 instead of 15. I got it working last night, along with a working demo record system, but I’m having a lot of problems with the UI and font. I’m working with the NH2 dll files, since they were all I could find. For now, it works, but it’s not even close to stable. I’ll release the files as soon as everything’s working.
That’d be more than epic and awesome and kewl! Seriously, since I couldn’t get the pre update working I’ve been waiting for this kind of miracle. Now it’s finally around the corner!
I finally found a solution for this. I had no idea that Steam has a mobile version of Steam. So, I get Steam messages just like text messages. It works great, actually. I leave it always logged in on my phone, and I’ll turn Steam off when I need to work on Portal/Portal 2 routes. It is a great workaround if you have a smartphone.
One can only hope.
