A House Divided on Steam? (You do not need to patch Steam Version)

[degen83]

I don't think you can buy an expansion to a non Steam game on Steam and have it work. I know for certain games you cannot do that, and I've never heard of someone having a non steam game and buying a steam expansion and having it work. I haven't heard of that working, but that doesn't mean its not possible.

Regarding your other critiques, I hear ya, I grew up in the age where to get a PC game you had to go to a store and buy one, then you had to forever keep your cd and the cd key safe, because if you ever lost your cd key you could not reinstall your game.

I personally prefer Gamers Gate over Steam, but I do use Steam for some games.

If you can get your non steam game to accept and run an expansion from Steam let us know if that works.

[andersonm]

I use Steam for pretty much everything... the biggest cause of headaches with Steam can be avoided if you use something other than "Program Files" to host your Steamapps directory... if you do that you will have few issues with using beta patches, mods, etc.

[Wookie1]

I have never got people's problems with Steam tbh. I use it to launch absoloutely everything and it is massively handy for most stuff. Dont like GG as much tbh, they arent bad though.

[Tolstak]

Just copy-pasta the game files to your C:/. I use steam, I bought the game on steam, and I play Vicki II almost aevery day. but I haven't played Victoria II on steam in months.

It doesn't work that way with the expansions. Paradox expansions are treated as DLC by Steam.

[kingsword]

I've been a PC gamer now for over 20 years and my greatest pleasure has been strategy games. When I discovered Paradox some years ago I thought I'd hit the motherlode. However, I refuse to buy any more games that are infected with Steam.
Call me old fashioned but when I've paid good money for a game which I intend playing on my PC - not multiplayer, I do not want to have to connect to a third party to determine whether I can play it.
Sadly it seems like PC gaming is coming to an end and it's the publishers who are intent on destroying it. Just look at the Total War series -ruined by the connection with Steam (just look at user reviews). I've still got Empire Total War unplayed on my shelf after paying £25 on release as Steam wouldn't let me play it and as I'd already registered it I couldn't even sell it.
Sorry to be so negative but it's sad to see another of my favourite stretagy games producers going down the same route. I for one will not be buying any more PC games that have any connection with Steam.

Steam's troubles ended like 2-3 years ago, there's practically no downside to having a game on Steam nowadays. Why would you not be able to play Total War? I have the whole series on it and had no problem at all.

[Ciccillo Rre]

Some stuff:

AFAIK AHD will be on Steam.

Steam is not required for AHD, in fact none of our internally made games require Steam. CK2 comes closest with the boxed version needing Steam activation, but there is still a non-Steam downloadable version on GG.

If you bought V2 somewhere besides Steam I don't think you can buy AHD on Steam as it will tell you you need Base V2 to play it. Steam does have a feature which allows you to add non-Steam games to your Steam libary, but I have not tried doing this and then buying addons via Steam. It's possible that it might work, but I cannot promise that it will.

I'm sorry to say this as I was even considering pre-ordering AHD if this is possible (I'll most likely do it for CK2) but does this post mean that people at Paradox are not sure yet whether their customers - like me - with just a CD-rom boxed version of Victoria 2 will be able to play on AHD on the day of the release?

[RedRalphWiggum]

I'm sorry to say this as I was even considering pre-ordering AHD if this is possible (I'll most likely do it for CK2) but does this post mean that people at Paradox are not sure yet whether their customers - like me - with just a CD-rom boxed version of Victoria 2 will be able to play on AHD on the day of the release?

Can't say for sure but I assume a GamersGate version would be fine.

[Ciccillo Rre]

Can't say for sure but I assume a GamersGate version would be fine.

I really hope so, Darkrenown's post is not at all clear about this!!!

[RedRalphWiggum]

I really hope so, Darkrenown's post is not at all clear about this!!!

I can say fo0r sure that my boxed copy of vanilla EU3 was compatable with all of its expansions and I got them on GG, so I'm pretty sure this will be the same for Victoria.

[Soulstrider]

Why would you not be able to play Total War? I have the whole series on it and had no problem at all.

The only problem I had with Steam was with the Total War games, though it was because it made the installation of some mods a complete mess.

[Fishmalk]

The only problem I had with Steam was with the Total War games, though it was because it made the installation of some mods a complete mess.

This is only an issue with Rome, really. M2 on steam handles mods just fine. The later games don't play so nice with mods, but that is because CA jumped on the dlc train and is intentionally making their games harder to mod.

[Maginor]

Can't say for sure but I assume a GamersGate version would be fine.

It has worked like that for every other paradox game so far.

[nimrod123]

...
since a PC gamer who isn't connected to the Internet these days is clearly insane (or suffering from a temporary setback).
...

or not living in a major western country like the USA or west europe

i for example live in New Zealand and a 20GB broadband limit @ 1mbs would cost at least $70 local a month, hence a low number of steam games. my cap is the reason i find the Canadians complaining about there caps being low funny as hell

[Amur_Tiger]

I've been a PC gamer now for over 20 years and my greatest pleasure has been strategy games. When I discovered Paradox some years ago I thought I'd hit the motherlode. However, I refuse to buy any more games that are infected with Steam.
Call me old fashioned but when I've paid good money for a game which I intend playing on my PC - not multiplayer, I do not want to have to connect to a third party to determine whether I can play it.
Sadly it seems like PC gaming is coming to an end and it's the publishers who are intent on destroying it. Just look at the Total War series -ruined by the connection with Steam (just look at user reviews). I've still got Empire Total War unplayed on my shelf after paying £25 on release as Steam wouldn't let me play it and as I'd already registered it I couldn't even sell it.
Sorry to be so negative but it's sad to see another of my favourite stretagy games producers going down the same route. I for one will not be buying any more PC games that have any connection with Steam.

You are old fashioned, and that's fine but that means you should reconsider before posting broad generalizations about what's been ruined by this and that. Firstly digital distribution is the best thing to happen to PC gaming in a very very long time, the easy availability of older PC games for 5-10-20$ has helped re-energize older games. I'm on this forum because of a steam sale for EU3 and now looking at Vicky 2 pretty seriously. The other thing that Steam has done for the market as a whole is leveled the playing field between the bigger publishers/developers and the smaller ones allowing a lot of smaller indie games to see the light of day that they'd never see in your local Gamestop. Steam is good for PC gaming, you may not like it and that's fine but don't kid yourself on the overall effects.

Furthermore using the Total War series as an example of something ruined by Steam is incredibly misguided, while E:TW had issues it was also massively ambitious given the previous scope that Total War games operated in and it still had some really nice aspects to it. Also Steam does allow you to play all these games offline, although you have to set steam up to do so while online.

[Darkrenown]

I really hope so, Darkrenown's post is not at all clear about this!!!

I didn't mention it as no one asked and it's the same as all our expansions, but yes, you'd use the GG version or whichever other retailers are selling it on the box version. The only one I do not recommend using for the box version is Steam as they require you to have the Steam V2.

[Ciccillo Rre]

I didn't mention it as no one asked and it's the same as all our expansions, but yes, you'd use the GG version or whichever other retailers are selling it on the box version. The only one I do not recommend using for the box version is Steam as they require you to have the Steam V2.

Thanks!!!

Admittedly, Victoria 2 is the second Paradox game I'm playing (after Rome Vae Victis, which was bought by a friend of mine) thus I have no big experience of all this process, and I'm quite an old-fashioned person as well, so I prefer boxed games.

But since I am planning to buy quite a few Paradox games (Crusader Kings 2, Magna Mundi, Sengoku...) I think I have to adapt somewhat!

[Sam L]

So now I have to keep buying of Gamersgate? This is pathetic.

All games should be boxed copies. I'm so sick of this dependence of downloading.

Gamersgate is a crap website. It has more security features to pay than the White House. It's almost like they don't want your money.

I would be willing to pay a premium price to get boxed copies of every game and expansion.

[Sam L]

Also what happens if Gamersgate goes bankrupt? What happens to all the expansions I bought on it?

[Sam L]

This is the one area where the Civilization games are fantastic in. You can buy the base game on hard copy as well as ALL expansions on hard copy. You don't need the internet for anything at all except patches.

That's the way it should be.

[RedRalphWiggum]

Please edit one post to include more content in future, don't post three times in a row.