Posted March 14, 2021
Timboli
Sharpest Tool On Shelf
Registered: May 2017
From Australia
B1tF1ghter
Execute order $rep_string
Registered: Jun 2015
From Other
Posted March 18, 2021
Yeah, exactly. There are periodic maintenance tasks on Steam backend, usually weekly on tuesday-wednesday (tho sometimes on a different day) night. Usually lasts below 2-3 hours.
Keep in mind tho that the extend of what will not work for you and for how long depends on few factors:
- what exact Steam CM you are connected to at the time
- what kind of account restrictions do you have (I do not mean the usual stuff, I mean some stuff that is nowhere publicly stated, more of types of Valve internal account flags)
- and few other things
Personally for me it usually lasts between few minutes to 30-40. Almost never above 1 h.
But my account is unusual and I know for a fact that for most people it takes longer.
In any case
Zimerius: And the worst part is, somehow this ' event ' removed the option of starting off line!
Only some games will start of course ( mentioned on the drm free steam game list )
Imagine this ' status ' will remain for weeks ? Would valve release a way to enable playing your games without the steam launcher ? your concern is invalid.
I am 99% sure it was maitanance as usual.
As I saw your post late I cannot directly check it now.
But the last one was on 16 march 22:00 UTC and lasted for 2 hours.
https://steamstat.us/
Actually hold on, I reminded myself that the above website keeps track for historical purposes, so on 11 march that might have been a minor downtime instead of maintenance.
https://twitter.com/SteamStatus/status/1370096275283189761
Nontheless this happens periodically to various Steam CMs to various degrees due to various reasons (say CM upstream issues, that may happen in country Z while not in country Q, etc).
Nothing to be concerned about.
And that's certainly not the first time.
I used to keep a close watch on the status of Steam CMs and can confirm this just happens all the time to some degree.
There is almost never a time when ALL worldwide Steam CMs have 100% availability (it usually floats at 90-something on each, some regions have history of instability and highly unpredictable loads).
PhaseAngle: Someone hopefully will make a fake authorisation server by then or more likely soon after You can use Goldberg for your legally obtained games. Or other Steam emulator.
I won't go into technical details but Steam API is very modular (it means Valve designed it for "unlikely apocalypse" and they likely have official drop-in file that overrides the entire Steam dependency designed long ago already) and so replacing steamapi dll file with emulator-type one can make a lot of difference.
Themken: I tend to keep Steam shut down unless using it actively and even I can remember twice when the service went offline before, over many years for sure. It does so like every week for maintanance. It's bizzare that many people don't notice at all (but then again, timing picked by Valve is a factor in that) and others seem down right OUTRAGED and suprised. LOL. (I'm not saying YOU are, just saying SOME people are, including some in this very thread)
Timboli: Even if it was a planned event, probably too difficult to switch all users (could be millions) to Offline if they weren't already, before going ahead. My account for certain switches to offline (or at least it used to. Didn't test this in a while).
But then again, my Steam account is a bit unusual, plus I messed with Steam cvars to change some things beyond what is otherwise visible in settings.
Lifthrasil: Independently of that merger, the sun will run out of fuel, enter red giant state (in about 5 billion years) and finally explode. 
GamezRanker: Nitpick: it is currently theorized/calculated/etc that the sun will actually become a red giant. Of course, the life currently on the planet then (if any) is screwed either way**, so it's mainly an academic distinction. It's not going to happen in the next few dozen years.
And if this civilisation would fail to colonize ANYTHING before the theoreticized event then they to a degree deserve to get blasted due to stupidity, negligence and lack of contingency planning based on lack of foresight /s
Truth007: It makes zero sense to compare electricity to internet, laughable actually. You are comparing a necessity to a non necessary thing. 
Orkhepaj: how is internet not necessary? Really depends on what you want to do and what is your attitude for information storage.
Some people do plan and act in a way to be least dependent on frequent global net connections possible.
You CAN make your life not depend on internet at ALL TIMES. But you need to be prepared. And it may be rather painful to do on Windows systems.
Also requires change of attitude, and major amount of people cannot afford that due to fragile egos and general inability to get out of thy self comfort zones.
Lifthrasil: You are dependent on the power companies? Pathetic! I have my DRM-free fusion reactor in my basement! Orkhepaj: i have a personal rift to parallel universes if things stop to work here i just jump to a place where it still works Anything interesting in there?
Any solutions for "time issues" perhaps in there?
Lifthrasil: unless we manage to destroy ourselves or an extinction level meteorite hits the earth. The Yellowstone supervolcano will also make life a bit difficult globally, once it erupts. But in the short term we and the changes we caused in our own biosphere are the biggest danger to ourselves. There is sadly a lot of wrong with this planet. But it's a drop in an ocean of what is wrong with attitude of this civilisation and how seemingly 99% don't care about the consequences of their actions beyond their lifespan.
And so we live in a world where one is screwed by consequences of actions of long dead people.
Dio? Is it you? /s
*confused ZA WARUDO heard in the distance*
Keep in mind tho that the extend of what will not work for you and for how long depends on few factors:
- what exact Steam CM you are connected to at the time
- what kind of account restrictions do you have (I do not mean the usual stuff, I mean some stuff that is nowhere publicly stated, more of types of Valve internal account flags)
- and few other things
Personally for me it usually lasts between few minutes to 30-40. Almost never above 1 h.
But my account is unusual and I know for a fact that for most people it takes longer.
In any case
Only some games will start of course ( mentioned on the drm free steam game list )
Imagine this ' status ' will remain for weeks ? Would valve release a way to enable playing your games without the steam launcher ?
I am 99% sure it was maitanance as usual.
As I saw your post late I cannot directly check it now.
But the last one was on 16 march 22:00 UTC and lasted for 2 hours.
https://steamstat.us/
Actually hold on, I reminded myself that the above website keeps track for historical purposes, so on 11 march that might have been a minor downtime instead of maintenance.
https://twitter.com/SteamStatus/status/1370096275283189761
Nontheless this happens periodically to various Steam CMs to various degrees due to various reasons (say CM upstream issues, that may happen in country Z while not in country Q, etc).
Nothing to be concerned about.
And that's certainly not the first time.
I used to keep a close watch on the status of Steam CMs and can confirm this just happens all the time to some degree.
There is almost never a time when ALL worldwide Steam CMs have 100% availability (it usually floats at 90-something on each, some regions have history of instability and highly unpredictable loads).
I won't go into technical details but Steam API is very modular (it means Valve designed it for "unlikely apocalypse" and they likely have official drop-in file that overrides the entire Steam dependency designed long ago already) and so replacing steamapi dll file with emulator-type one can make a lot of difference.
But then again, my Steam account is a bit unusual, plus I messed with Steam cvars to change some things beyond what is otherwise visible in settings.
And if this civilisation would fail to colonize ANYTHING before the theoreticized event then they to a degree deserve to get blasted due to stupidity, negligence and lack of contingency planning based on lack of foresight /s
Some people do plan and act in a way to be least dependent on frequent global net connections possible.
You CAN make your life not depend on internet at ALL TIMES. But you need to be prepared. And it may be rather painful to do on Windows systems.
Also requires change of attitude, and major amount of people cannot afford that due to fragile egos and general inability to get out of thy self comfort zones.
Any solutions for "time issues" perhaps in there?
And so we live in a world where one is screwed by consequences of actions of long dead people.
Dio? Is it you? /s
*confused ZA WARUDO heard in the distance*