Disabling certain DLC

[Fengshen]

Based on a support ticket that was resolved successfully yesterday, I decided to make this topic as a reminder of the suggestion I made.

Long story short, I think users should be able to select which of the DLC that they have available for a certain game, they actually want to use. This can be done very easily by adding checkboxes to the "View Downloadable Content" window of games. DLC isn't added there before you actually own it (or, in any other way, eligible to use it) and in our current situation, when that is the case, you -must- have the DLC installed in order to run the game, even when you're not going to use it. If the developers would provide checkboxes that are ticked by default (meaning, this DLC is active and should be on your PC before you start playing) that can be unticked by users when they want to disable some of the DLC temporarily. When this box is unticked, the Steam executable will no longer check if that DLC is on your computer before launching the game and the game executable itself will not use the DLC.

As a programmer myself, I think this doesn't require very much work and, seeing how there's a lot of topics about this subject, the userbase will like it a lot.

Any feedback is welcome in this topic, why would such an option be welcome/not welcome/hard to implement/whatever other feedback you can have.

The rest of this post is the e-mail conversation I had with Steam Support:

First e-mail to them:

Dear Mr./Ms.,

Today, I bought myself a copy of Dungeon Defenders. After playing with it a bit, I decided I wanted to download 
myself some of the DLC that was available. When doing this, I accidentally clicked the "Install Game" 
option next to the Dungeon Defenders Development Kit (Free DLC) and it instantly added it, without giving 
me the chance to validate my choice.
Now, whenever I want to start Dungeon Defenders, it says it will perform a 4 hour (!) update, before I'll even 
be able to launch the game, when earlier, it ran without the need to update. I also noticed that the DLC in this 
case is about 3GB in size, which would explain the insanely long updating time needed to be able 
to play the game.

I've looked around and tried everything, but I can't find any way to remove the DLC from the game. As such, 
I'd like to ask from you to remove the DLC from my account. I don't want the Developers Kit, since I 
don't even know how to develop games and I just want to play Dungeon Defenders as soon as possible.
Many thanks in advance!

Kind regards,

Their reply:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

I have removed this DLC from your account.

If you have any further questions, please let us know - we will be happy to assist you.

My reply:

Hello,

Thank you very much! Just a suggestion, why isn't a user able to
enable/disable the DLC he/she is 
entitled to? It's really rather easy, if you provide a checkbox in the "View Downloadable Content" 
option that is checked by default (meaning the DLC is active and needs to be installed in
order to launch the game) and can be unchecked in order for the game to
skip checking whether the DLC is currently downloaded a lot wouldn't be too
much of programming work and makes Steam Support's and Community's lives a
bit easier (there was countless topics on this subject on the forums when I
checked for it).

Either way, thanks for removing it!

Kind regards,

And their last reply:

Hello,

I am glad that the issue is resolved.

Thank you for your comments, we value feedback from the Steam community. I will forward your 
comments onto the appropriate department.

Additionally, if you wish to share an opinion, suggestion, or idea with the community as well, 
please visit the Suggestions/Ideas section of the Steam Forums, found here:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15

This forum is regularly read by Valve's development team.

Please let us know if you encounter any further difficulty - we will be happy to assist you.

[PrettyMuch]

This sounds like a good idea and it already exists in some games (like Oblivion and Skyrim) where you can select the datafiles that you want to load. If that option would exist in everygame that would be awesome.

[Fengshen]

I would like to point out that that is -not- the DLC you disable, but Steam Workshop files. The DLC for Skyrim, in fact, can not be disabled once you've added it to your account. More info on that can be found here: http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=2529307
The package managers from Oblivion and Skyrim (just as with Morrowind, by the way), are an example Steam should follow in this case, you can't expect every game developer to make such an overview for their games, so that's why Steam should make it, in my opinion.

[real4xor]

Originally Posted by PrettyMuch

This sounds like a good idea and it already exists in some games (like Oblivion and Skyrim) where you can select the datafiles that you want to load. If that option would exist in everygame that would be awesome.

yeah, but if you got the Skyrim HD DLC, you`d still have to download that with the whole game, even if you disable it.

Same with railworks DLC, or any other kind; it`ll download the full game with all DLC`s you own. Just so you can play with your favorite 2 trains... =p

I guess that`s the whole point of this thread:
To get DLC`s that are mainly optional in the game, as optional downloads by disabling them in the DLC tab within Steam.


I know some games have their content integrated with the base game, and simply can`t become optional, but meh, can`t have everything the way you want it.

[Dr.Nuts]

Users should be able to enable/disable their DLC.

It doesn't make sense that as soon as you click on (or buy) a DLC you're stuck with it forever (Unless you open a ticket to steam support then wait 3-4-5 days for them to help you out.)

I recently experienced this problem with Skyrim's DLC "High Def. Texture Pack". I clicked on it then I realized that this DLC was 3GB+ and that I couldn't play my game until I downloaded and installed the DLC...

I tried in vain to find a way to disable/uninstall. I then realized that a basic/primitive feature was missing from steam... You can't manage your DLCs. What The !!?

I wrote to support on tuesday night and didn't get any answer yet. Will have to wait untill monday... 5 days wait (if I get my answer on Monday)...

FACT: People that didn't pay for the game (Illegal download) can play without being stuck with dumb problems like that...

C'mon... That's ridiculous...

[poster519]

They really need to implement an option to disable DLC. My friend bought me Borderlands on one of their sales and it came with all the DLC. I learned that 2 of the DLC's cause securom to be installed on my system, so I have yet to install/play Borderlands.

I didn't know you could send steam a ticket and they would remove DLC from your account. I'm definitely going to try that, but this should be a feature of steam.

[KaguyaH]

Sleeping Dogs free texture DLC gets re-downloaded here everyday :S. I agree this topic.

[AshyProcyon]

Yeah, it'd be nice if I could disable the Dungeon Defenders Developer Kit, and the Skyrim HD textures.
If I ever have to redownload those games, having to wait the extra time for those will be a pain, as it turns out I am never going to use either one. As it is, they are simply taking up space for me.

I wonder how many people live with these things as they don't want to have to trouble support (especially in case they ever change their minds and want the DLC again...) It should be a user option, for sure.