Greetings,

before everyone flames me for missing `obvious' threads on this subject: I hereby confess I am an utter n00b with regard to both Half-Life and NS, so please bear with me here :-)

I haven't played any FPSs in a serious fashion up to now, but I have been enjoying StarCraft tremendously. Thus, I'm extremely interested in getting my feet (and that of my fellow StarCraft players ) wet in NS. To this end, I bought four HL retail boxes for starters. I installed the game and updated it to 1.1.1.0 using the stand-alone updates available from various web sites. Also, I managed to successfully install NS 2.0.

However, when I attempt to install NS3a1, it requires Steam to be present. From the discussions I have observed, having that piece of software installed on our machines does not seem advisable. Apart from reliability and privacy concerns (which have been seconded by friends that have been serious CS players), it appears that all games installed under Steam control require active WAN connections for authentication.

This is simply unacceptable for us, as many of our gaming locations (e.g., a cottage by the sea during a vacation) do not have the required Internet connectivity). Is there any way to install NS3x in a non-Steam environment only supporting LAN play or are our FPS excursions doomed before they even start? In that context, a secondary operating mode called WON is mentioned, would that help in this scenario? If yes, how can NS3 been installed in that fashion?

Links to existing threads on the subject or appropriate search keywords would also be appreciated.

Any help (and patience) is appreciated ...

Grendel

Steam only requires a single authentication to work forever with LAN games. I think the offical specs are something like a 56k to authencate 20 machines. I could be wrong tho.

Once Steam has its authentication you can choose to simply play it offline, this feature was added a few versions back and lasts forever, unless you choose to logoff your account then it needs to be done again.

As for installing it on Won, you could download steam the basic one, convert you HL over and install Ns, once NS is installed copy the NSP folder into the Won HL installtion and it should work. Someone did also post a zipped up file a while back of Ns version 3 for Won, not sure where it has gotten to tho.

As for steam i would take a read of thier FAQ and general questions at Steam and see what you think.

Or you can play 2.01 via lan if you realy don't want to try steam and don't wana mess around with the beta installers.

However, I suggest getting steam working and playing the 3.0beta.

It will work, I realy doubt there is anything to wory about for privacy (As some one would have found out and done sometihng about it by now)

Guide to install 3.0beta4a:

http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...topic=72641&hl=

http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...topic=71293&hl=

http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...topic=72624&hl=

http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...topic=71118&hl=

enjoy

In any case get NS 2.01 (yes, get also the 2.0 to 2.01 patch) cos this has not been tested and your game may crash or work weird (I think it will work perfect, but who knows). You can have both NS2 y NS3 installed and working (they use different folders).

P.S: I dont like steam too

I would like to add that Steam is _NOW_ very reliable, and that the Privacy / spyware concerns were cast aside ages ago.

Many thanks for all of the quick answers, comments and links. I hope to actually try the various methods in the next few days.

Grendel

hehe

I just relaized your name

Grendel was one of the old (well known) PTs