Please make sure you own the base game before entering the giveaway!
Mm. To the best of my knowledge, what you're describing should be an impossible occurance.
The site won't allow anyone to enter for a DLC giveaway if it can't detect that they own the associated base game, so there shouldn't be any instance where someone can enter as you've described. On the other hand, since the Steam API doesn't send out ownership data for DLCs (meaning that SG can't detect DLC ownership), it's rather easy to enter for DLCs you already own, so that's usually what GA creators make a point of posting a reminder on.
In my last round of DLC giveaways, I had to reroll one of them three times because people didn't have the base game. I have no idea if that was a glitch/odd case, I just figured I'd put up the warning to hopefully prevent that kind of thing from happening again.
You do make a good point about it not knowing about DLC ownership (I also had to reroll for a DLC somebody already had), so I'll add that to the warning.
Do you happen to recall which DLC that was?
I'd hate to be giving out incorrect information, and maybe I can figure out what the basis for exception is.
Though, yeah, there's quite a variety of known misconfigurations that can affect giveaways, so that's not necessarily unlikely.
It's just that all the ones I'm already familiar with block entry, rather than permit it where it shouldn't be allowed.
Well, other than a glitch where you've got a package of all base games, but none of the base games are properly linked to the package listing, and thus SG can't detect ownership of any of the content, meaning you can still enter for the package, much as you can with packages with at least one DLC. That doesn't seem to be what you're referencing, however.
Well there are few games (hi Greygoo) and dlc giveaways that can be enter even if you actually own them... and in the opposite there are also dlc giveaways you can't enter even with the base game (like the ultramarine pack for DOW2)...
You can enter every DLC if you own them, unless you've won them through the site, in which case the site can check against its own internal data [as a substitute for the information that Steam isn't sending to begin with].
Likewise, the reason you can't enter DLC giveaways is almost exclusively due to the site being able to detect the associated base game ( because it's misconfigured, the DLC in question is nested within another DLC, the base game is removed from steam, or so forth). There's a few instances where the DLC being misconfigured is to blame (eg, by being configured as a package and then having the base game linked to that package rather than the DLC), but that seems to be an extremely rare minority.
There's a couple dozen Steam API bugs I've seen on this site since I joined it, so there's no doubt that issues do occasionally happen as far as giveaway entries. The consideration here is just that the specific issue ruteqube noted, of the site allowing you to enter for a DLC to which you're missing the associated base game, should be impossible. Rather, that'd potentially be a site bug rather than a Steam bug. The site should strictly limit entry based on whether it can detect you owning the base game or not. Unless the DLC is misconfigured to be something other than a DLC, entry shouldn't be possible if Steam can't detect you owning the base game.
Well, the likliest explanation is that it's a related to free weekends, during which you temporarily own a base game.
That'd neatly explain the matter, even though it'd kinda raise an eyebrow in regards to the perspectives of those users who activated a free weekend game and then immediately entered a DLC for it without any real consideration as to whether they'd still be able to activate it once they won.
It does make me curious, however, if you could activate a DLC for a game that you currently have on free weekend. In theory the license type should block it, but you never know with Steam. And it's not like DLCs can't be activated with base games, you see developers direct-activate DLCs every so often, notably SEGA during their Make War Not Love events.
/
By the way, do you mean Dawn of War 2: Retribution? Because Ultramarines isn't a DLC for the base DoW2 game. Presumably you do mean Retribution but, y'know, if you don't, then that's pretty easily explain why Ultramarines isn't activating for you. :P
If no DLCs are allowing entry for Retribution, then the issue is probably in Retribution being configured to the old Standalone Expansion configuration, which seems to reliably screws up dependency linking.
At a glance, I'm not seeing any thing specific about the Ultramarines DLC that'd indicate it wouldn't work, unless the site is misassociating to a certain sub for it, which could cause issues if the sub is misconfigured (which it seems to be, as it's giving the wrong pricing).
Grey Goo's current listing is for the Definitive Edition, which includes a DLC. As noted, Steam won't send ownership data out in any circumstance where at least one DLC is involved, so that's an easy explanation for why the site can't determine ownership data. Moreover, the base game is most likely unlisted at the moment [which also means Steam won't send out ownership data] so even if it is possible to just post a giveaway for the base game alone, there'd still be no way for the site to recognize ownership and restrict access to entrants by such a basis.
Ah, I'd forgotten that the DLCs I was thinking of WERE edge cases. They were both for Quake/Quake II mission packs, which theoretically should be standalone.
Standalone Expansions are [by my understanding, and matching to the reliable trend of issues for such configurations] an older additional category for Steam products that only saw usage within the service's earlier years [though it appears to have disabled for use in newer listings since; I think the most recent additions to Steam under that configuration were from like 2014, but it may have actually been a few years before that. Looking through the ones I can recall by name, the most recent I can find is from 2011] and had all sorts of wonky elements.
Like, if DLCs are configured to act as lead to be added directly into a mechanical pencil, then Standalone expansions are lead sticks you have to awkwardly attempt to tape to the outside of your pencil. Same purpose in adding functionality, but much clunkier [albeit less restricted] implementation. :P
Well, regardless of the terminology used to describe it, there's definitely a number of uncommonly seen listings with a consistent configuration and distinctive effects. Putting that another way, there's a distinct format involved in such listings, and it's one which can usually be readily distinguished from other Steam configurations (by way of having dependencies which don't show through the default DLC dependency section, instead being detailed in a notification message at the top of the page's information section).
But yeah, if the DLCs aren't clearly nested underneath a base game, and instead have a [Requires Game] message in their description, then you can rely on them acting a bit odd. The ones that are Standalone as far as their listings but not as far as their dependencies (that is to say, you can't activate them without owning an associated base game) are the real issues, as those do seem to reliably allow for entry without activation.
So, definitely see where you're coming from now.
Of course, there's the consideration that the listings with such problems should all be easy to figure out just by quickly looking at each game's store page; Moreover, the problem should only be with certain games which aren't at all recent on their release, and thus shouldn't actually be all that common an issue to bump into to begin with. So with that in mind, you should be safe just saving the reminder message for that specific sort of listing. Of course, it's not in any way hurting anything, and I'm not one to argue with saving on stress; So if you find it easier to just keep doing it as a general message, that seems fine enough as well, by my perspectives. ^.^
So far, I think I've only seen the Quake 1 and Quake 2 Mission packs allowing someone to enter without the base game. I found out the hard way, as I had won a Quake 2 mission pack. Rather than make it a hassle for the giveaway creator, I just bought Quake 2. :) Then I could activate the Mission pack. :)
Mm. To the best of my knowledge, what you're describing should be an impossible occurance.
The site won't allow anyone to enter for a DLC giveaway if it can't detect that they own the associated base game, so there shouldn't be any instance where someone can enter as you've described. On the other hand, since the Steam API doesn't send out ownership data for DLCs (meaning that SG can't detect DLC ownership), it's rather easy to enter for DLCs you already own, so that's usually what GA creators make a point of posting a reminder on.
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In my last round of DLC giveaways, I had to reroll one of them three times because people didn't have the base game. I have no idea if that was a glitch/odd case, I just figured I'd put up the warning to hopefully prevent that kind of thing from happening again.
You do make a good point about it not knowing about DLC ownership (I also had to reroll for a DLC somebody already had), so I'll add that to the warning.
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Do you happen to recall which DLC that was?
I'd hate to be giving out incorrect information, and maybe I can figure out what the basis for exception is.
Though, yeah, there's quite a variety of known misconfigurations that can affect giveaways, so that's not necessarily unlikely.
It's just that all the ones I'm already familiar with block entry, rather than permit it where it shouldn't be allowed.
Well, other than a glitch where you've got a package of all base games, but none of the base games are properly linked to the package listing, and thus SG can't detect ownership of any of the content, meaning you can still enter for the package, much as you can with packages with at least one DLC. That doesn't seem to be what you're referencing, however.
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Well there are few games (hi Greygoo) and dlc giveaways that can be enter even if you actually own them... and in the opposite there are also dlc giveaways you can't enter even with the base game (like the ultramarine pack for DOW2)...
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You can enter every DLC if you own them, unless you've won them through the site, in which case the site can check against its own internal data [as a substitute for the information that Steam isn't sending to begin with].
Likewise, the reason you can't enter DLC giveaways is almost exclusively due to the site being able to detect the associated base game ( because it's misconfigured, the DLC in question is nested within another DLC, the base game is removed from steam, or so forth). There's a few instances where the DLC being misconfigured is to blame (eg, by being configured as a package and then having the base game linked to that package rather than the DLC), but that seems to be an extremely rare minority.
There's a couple dozen Steam API bugs I've seen on this site since I joined it, so there's no doubt that issues do occasionally happen as far as giveaway entries. The consideration here is just that the specific issue ruteqube noted, of the site allowing you to enter for a DLC to which you're missing the associated base game, should be impossible. Rather, that'd potentially be a site bug rather than a Steam bug. The site should strictly limit entry based on whether it can detect you owning the base game or not. Unless the DLC is misconfigured to be something other than a DLC, entry shouldn't be possible if Steam can't detect you owning the base game.
Well, the likliest explanation is that it's a related to free weekends, during which you temporarily own a base game.
That'd neatly explain the matter, even though it'd kinda raise an eyebrow in regards to the perspectives of those users who activated a free weekend game and then immediately entered a DLC for it without any real consideration as to whether they'd still be able to activate it once they won.
It does make me curious, however, if you could activate a DLC for a game that you currently have on free weekend. In theory the license type should block it, but you never know with Steam. And it's not like DLCs can't be activated with base games, you see developers direct-activate DLCs every so often, notably SEGA during their Make War Not Love events.
/
By the way, do you mean Dawn of War 2: Retribution? Because Ultramarines isn't a DLC for the base DoW2 game. Presumably you do mean Retribution but, y'know, if you don't, then that's pretty easily explain why Ultramarines isn't activating for you. :P
If no DLCs are allowing entry for Retribution, then the issue is probably in Retribution being configured to the old Standalone Expansion configuration, which seems to reliably screws up dependency linking.
At a glance, I'm not seeing any thing specific about the Ultramarines DLC that'd indicate it wouldn't work, unless the site is misassociating to a certain sub for it, which could cause issues if the sub is misconfigured (which it seems to be, as it's giving the wrong pricing).
Grey Goo's current listing is for the Definitive Edition, which includes a DLC. As noted, Steam won't send ownership data out in any circumstance where at least one DLC is involved, so that's an easy explanation for why the site can't determine ownership data. Moreover, the base game is most likely unlisted at the moment [which also means Steam won't send out ownership data] so even if it is possible to just post a giveaway for the base game alone, there'd still be no way for the site to recognize ownership and restrict access to entrants by such a basis.
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Ultramarines one. Nobody was able to enter this giveaway :o)
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/zvtR8/warhammer-40000-dawn-of-war-ii-ultramarines-pack
But to be honest even if thoses are website issues it's not bothering at all. Probably less than 0.001% giveaways are affected by such things.
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Looking into it, it does seem to be an issue with all DLCs for Retribution, as expected.
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Ah, I'd forgotten that the DLCs I was thinking of WERE edge cases. They were both for Quake/Quake II mission packs, which theoretically should be standalone.
You can see my discussion with the original winner of one of them here.
The same thing happened with this one though I didn't confirm whether the user tried to activate the key or not.
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Standalone Expansions are [by my understanding, and matching to the reliable trend of issues for such configurations] an older additional category for Steam products that only saw usage within the service's earlier years [though it appears to have disabled for use in newer listings since; I think the most recent additions to Steam under that configuration were from like 2014, but it may have actually been a few years before that. Looking through the ones I can recall by name, the most recent I can find is from 2011] and had all sorts of wonky elements.
Like, if DLCs are configured to act as lead to be added directly into a mechanical pencil, then Standalone expansions are lead sticks you have to awkwardly attempt to tape to the outside of your pencil. Same purpose in adding functionality, but much clunkier [albeit less restricted] implementation. :P
Well, regardless of the terminology used to describe it, there's definitely a number of uncommonly seen listings with a consistent configuration and distinctive effects. Putting that another way, there's a distinct format involved in such listings, and it's one which can usually be readily distinguished from other Steam configurations (by way of having dependencies which don't show through the default DLC dependency section, instead being detailed in a notification message at the top of the page's information section).
But yeah, if the DLCs aren't clearly nested underneath a base game, and instead have a [Requires Game] message in their description, then you can rely on them acting a bit odd. The ones that are Standalone as far as their listings but not as far as their dependencies (that is to say, you can't activate them without owning an associated base game) are the real issues, as those do seem to reliably allow for entry without activation.
So, definitely see where you're coming from now.
Of course, there's the consideration that the listings with such problems should all be easy to figure out just by quickly looking at each game's store page; Moreover, the problem should only be with certain games which aren't at all recent on their release, and thus shouldn't actually be all that common an issue to bump into to begin with. So with that in mind, you should be safe just saving the reminder message for that specific sort of listing. Of course, it's not in any way hurting anything, and I'm not one to argue with saving on stress; So if you find it easier to just keep doing it as a general message, that seems fine enough as well, by my perspectives. ^.^
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So far, I think I've only seen the Quake 1 and Quake 2 Mission packs allowing someone to enter without the base game. I found out the hard way, as I had won a Quake 2 mission pack. Rather than make it a hassle for the giveaway creator, I just bought Quake 2. :) Then I could activate the Mission pack. :)
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thanks
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