Playing Offline on Steam

[Beryllinthranox]

This is going to be initially a literal a copy paste of my thread post here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...laying-offline-on-steam.880377/#post-19891607

It was suggested that I try this part of the forums.



I have searched the threads and some that had answers were as old as 2012/2013 and I've even tried those methods and found them lacking.

See what happened is that yesterday a telephone pole near my place went down and along with it my internet connection. Thinking I could play the game I paid for I went on Steam Offline mode and couldn't run CK2 because it kept searching for the key store. I then went into the CK2 folder in Steam to find the exe only to see that it didn't detect the DLCs and basically had me run the vanilla version of the game.

Edit: I've also tried running the game online via Steam, where it detects the DLC, then closing. Still online, I then opened it using the .exe in the CK2 Steam folder and I was back to where I started with only the vanilla game.

Edit: I'm running version 2.4.4

So my question is this: Is there a way I could play CK2 with the DLCs I own offline? Or is CK2 basically ubisoft "always online"?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

My 2cents
- Is your checksum correct for the current version 2.4.4 FUYZ, first in the launcher and afterwards in the main menu ?
If not, make a complete reinstall (including the CK2 folder in Documents).
Take care that every file and folder refering to CK2 got deleteted before installing again (except the major game folder itself).

- Do you have several game versions of the game ? If so you will need different folders for each version to be save.

I'd advise to create a userdir.txt file in your game folder and have both folders outside ProgramFiles or Documents or such. Something like c:\CK2 and c.\CK2_Docs or such.
How-to userdir.txt: see here https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...rmance-boost-file-locations-DLC-names-numbers at "Different location for save files and screenshots"

 

[Beryllinthranox]

My 2cents
- Is your checksum correct for the current version 2.4.4 FUYZ, first in the launcher and afterwards in the main menu ?
If not, make a complete reinstall (including the CK2 folder in Documents).
Take care that every file and folder refering to CK2 got deleteted before installing again (except the major game folder itself).

- Do you have several game versions of the game ? If so you will need different folders for each version to be save.

I'd advise to create a userdir.txt file in your game folder and have both folders outside ProgramFiles or Documents or such. Something like c:\CK2 and c.\CK2_Docs or such.
How-to userdir.txt: see here https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...rmance-boost-file-locations-DLC-names-numbers at "Different location for save files and screenshots"

1st point, yes it is 2.4.4 FUYZ for both so I didn't do a reinstall

2nd I don't have several versions. Just the one I have on steam

I made the userdir.txt but it still didn't detect the DLCs when I copied the folder and placed it another folder and pinned the .exe and ran it off that.

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

....
I made the userdir.txt but it still didn't detect the DLCs when I copied the folder and placed it another folder and pinned the .exe and ran it off that.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Err...best not to copy the old Documents folder, as the dlc_signature file could be corrupted, but let it be created on start.
Though you should run the game once online through Steam for that.

wait..."placed it on another folder....pinned the exe"..i don't understand...

 

[Beryllinthranox]

Err...best not to copy the old Documents folder, as the dlc_signature file could be corrupted, but let it be created on start.
Though you should run the game once online through Steam for that.

wait..."placed it on another folder....pinned the exe"..i don't understand...

I didn't copy the documents folder, I deleted it and let it create a new one of the path I put in userdir.txt. What I meant is copied the CK2 folder in the Steam folder, moved it to another location, then got the .exe file in that copy and pinned .exe on the taskbar to run it instead of just double clicking it because some of the other suggestions told me to do that.

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

I didn't copy the documents folder, I deleted it and let it create a new one of the path I put in userdir.txt. What I meant is copied the CK2 folder in the Steam folder, moved it to another location, then got the .exe file in that copy and pinned .exe on the taskbar to run it instead of just double clicking it because some of the other suggestions told me to do that.

Ah okay, never read of that toolbar tip.
IF you start from the exe, then you don't start from within Steam, which you have to (once), to get the DLCs registered in the dlc_signature file properly.
With "from within Steam" i mean from the Library in the Steam app.

So first, run the game in Steam (online), then copy the dlc_signature file from the CK2 folder in Documents into the new Ck2 doc folder and then run the new ck2game.exe.

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

Sorry, we had a misunderstanding. edited above post.
Oops.

Copying the game folder shouldnt' be necessary, but sometimes Steam is installed in "Program Files" which might cause issues and that's why i mentioned creating a new game folder or having it installed seperately, which could only be confusing at this point.
Sorry again.

 

[Beryllinthranox]

Sorry, we had a misunderstanding. edited above post.
Oops.

Copying the game folder shouldnt' be necessary, but sometimes Steam is installed in "Program Files" which might cause issues and that's why i mentioned creating a new game folder or having it installed seperately, which could only be confusing at this point.
Sorry again.

Oh I have my steam installed in my 2nd HDD and under a custom folder (Games)

 

[gladders1980]

Why does it not work in steam offline mode for you?

It works fine in steam offline mode for me.

 

[Beryllinthranox]

Why does it not work in steam offline mode for you?

It works fine in steam offline mode for me.

...that's what I'm trying to figure out by asking for technical support.

 

[gladders1980]

sorry, didn't mean it like that.

Was just trying to understand why the advice seems to be to copy the game files to another folder and run from there, rather than just running from within the steam library whilst in offline mode, after you have run it once in online mode first.

 

[Beryllinthranox]

sorry, didn't mean it like that.

Was just trying to understand why the advice seems to be to copy the game files to another folder and run from there, rather than just running from within the steam library whilst in offline mode, after you have run it once in online mode first.

Oh that I'm quite unsure with.

Oddly enough, I just went on Steam Offline mode right now and clicked play on CK2.. viola, it didn't show the cannot find key store thing and detected all my DLCs. One of the things I've done must've worked on it. lol

To clarify, all my previous attempts have been to run CK2 directly through the .exe in the Steam CK2 folder and not through Steam Offline mode. Of all the actions I did, only in the deletion of a component folder did Steam download something and I'm guessing initiated a change in Steam.