Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

Game stopped launching (Steam Runtime Communication Error)

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Cities: Skylines 6529 Support & Bug Reports 355 Suggestions & feedback 3216 Modding & Resources 1939 Official Information & Announcements 151 City Journals and Let's Plays 500 Cities: Skylines Console & Windows 10 Edition 1093
Please try a **clean** reinstall:

- Remove the game from Steam (uninstall)
- Manually delete all these files and folders, if still there:

...\Steam\steamapps\common\Cities_Skylines\
...\Steam\SteamApps\workshop\content\255710\
...\AppData\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines
(first move the /saves/ folder elsewhere to keep your save games)
(To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer)

- Install the game again and see if it runs now.

Good luck with that!
 
On my end, there is no need to reinstall the game. That is very heavy-handed. Are you shooting in the dark?

A simple reboot allows the game to run exactly once. After closing the game, starting again is impossible until I reboot my computer again. AndrewT, what information do you require to do some actual troubleshooting? And before you request, no I will not try running the game with extra privileges or administrator rights, per the many help articles I've combed through on the paradox website.

Edit: The problem is obviously with the launcher, not the game itself. I attempted to link to the relevant paradox help page where I followed instructions, but your dumb system thinks the link is some sort of spam. Amazing.

The launcher is still broken. Attached are the logs I found in the launcher folder.
 

Attachments

  • logs.zip
    11,2 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
taivaansusi said:
As of 17/07/2020, Cities: Skylines stopped launching. It gives "Steam runtime communication error", though Steam is running fine in the background. Additional error: "Steam API is not initialized". Tried to launch Steam as an administrator but it had no effect.

https://imgur.com/acwrNvS
Click to expand...
Try it again now. On Friday there was a major CloudFlare outage that took down DNS across the internet. That may have caused the error.
 
At this point, there is no telling what the problem was, as it resolved itself, and support seems perfectly content to regurgitate shots in the dark instead of actually investigating. The problem is no longer reproducible on my end, and just to be clear, no reinstallation or deletion of files coincided with the disappearance of the problem. I never reinstalled the game, and I never will attempt such inanity, as I will never be that desperate to play a video game.

In the future, I just hope that support will be honest with us when they don't understand or don't care to understand a particular issue. Complete reinstallation should always be a last resort. It's very wasteful and presumtive.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
SpookyDisco said:
I'm getting this same issue. It has been three days, and it isn't resolving itself. Is there anything other than re-install?
Click to expand...
The reinstall in post #2 above is just the launcher, so is quite quick and easy.

If that doesn't help we may need to do the game too, but let's see.

You are getting the identical errors quoted in the OP?
 
AndrewT said:
The reinstall in post #2 above is just the launcher, so is quite quick and easy.

If that doesn't help we may need to do the game too, but let's see.

You are getting the identical errors quoted in the OP?
Click to expand...

I am getting the same screen laftur gave a link to, however a reboot is not giving me the option to play. If I click the ignore option, I am presented with a "resume" or "Play" option - both of which give me "steam reported an unknown error. additional information: couldn't get appid, steam api is not initialized"
 
SpookyDisco said:
I am getting the same screen laftur gave a link to, however a reboot is not giving me the option to play. If I click the ignore option, I am presented with a "resume" or "Play" option - both of which give me "steam reported an unknown error. additional information: couldn't get appid, steam api is not initialized"
Click to expand...
Please gather both these two informational files, and attach them here:

...\Steam\steamapps\common\Cities_Skylines\Cities_Data\output_log.txt

DXDIAG is a program you run from a command prompt or the Windows start menu 'run' dialog box (or 'search programs' in Windows 7 or later). After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.
 
Bit of a hitch at this juncture: I don't run windows, but Linus Minut 19. I have tried DXDIAG in the terminal and it is not a known command on this system...
Furthertheless, Steam/Steamapps/Common does not have a Cities_Skylines folder, only Battletech. And I am guessing that is big part of the problem right there.
Suggestion how to proceed?
 
SpookyDisco said:
Bit of a hitch at this juncture: I don't run windows, but Linus Minut 19. I have tried DXDIAG in the terminal and it is not a known command on this system...
Furthertheless, Steam/Steamapps/Common does not have a Cities_Skylines folder, only Battletech. And I am guessing that is big part of the problem right there.
Suggestion how to proceed?
Click to expand...
Please attach this log file here:
~/.config/unity3d/Colossal Order/Cities_ Skylines/player.log

Also in Steam please click on Steam-Help-System Info, and paste everything there into a text file and attach that here.
 
That player.log does not match your problem report, I wonder if it is old ... if you delete it then run the game again, does it make a new one?

The only issue i see in there is the nVidia driver is old but that's not going to cause that Steam ID issue. You are running the game from the Steam PLAY button? Not a desktop shortcut or command line?
 
btw, thank you for looking into this
AndrewT said:
That player.log does not match your problem report, I wonder if it is old ... if you delete it then run the game again, does it make a new one?

The only issue i see in there is the nVidia driver is old but that's not going to cause that Steam ID issue. You are running the game from the Steam PLAY button? Not a desktop shortcut or command line?
Click to expand...


I deleted that log. Opened steam, and from the Library tried to run the game from the play button. I have never used a desktop shortcut or command line. There is no new file for PlayerLog created.
I'm a logless man on a Halifax pier...
 
What happens if you run the game's executable manually in a terminal command line? What output do you see there?
 
AndrewT said:
What happens if you run the game's executable manually in a terminal command line? What output do you see there?
Click to expand...
same thing happens.
It is beginning to look like an uninstall is the most likely option, eh? Never had to do that before, so it may seem naive to ask, but I can re-download the game from Steam without having to pay for it again, right?
 
Of course, yes.


- Remove the game from Steam (uninstall)
- Manually delete all these files and folders, if still there:

/home/user/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Cities:Skylines
~/.config/unity3d/Colossal Order/Cities_ Skylines/
~/.local/share/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines/
(first move the /saves/ folder elsewhere to keep your save games)

- Install the game again and see if it runs now.
 
AndrewT said:
Of course, yes.


- Remove the game from Steam (uninstall)
- Manually delete all these files and folders, if still there:

/home/user/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Cities:Skylines
~/.config/unity3d/Colossal Order/Cities_ Skylines/
~/.local/share/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines/
(first move the /saves/ folder elsewhere to keep your save games)

- Install the game again and see if it runs now.
Click to expand...

Hahhhh, crap. Tried re-install twice, erasing all files you mentioned. Getting the same problem. Kind of unfortunate....
if you have any other ideas, it would be much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to go through this with me. I guess I might just need to ask for a refund
 
Can we see the actual output when the game is run form a command line please?

And do the Linux logs record anything about that?
 
AndrewT said:
Can we see the actual output when the game is run form a command line please?

And do the Linux logs record anything about that?
Click to expand...

I must have done something wrong previously, trying to run from command line has started the game! The cursor is misaligned by nearly an inch, but I will try to sort that by myself, before being any more of a pain in the arse.
Thanks for your help
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back