Launch and running issues

from GalCiv3 Forums

Alright this is a big puzzle so let me get to it.  First let me state that I have the base game, 3 DLC's and the Merc expansion. I have GC3 installed on 2 PC's and a laptop which have all played it in the past and had existing game directories.  I fired up the game  2 or 3 weeks ago on my HTPC. I updated to ver 4.2 and I had no issues whatsoever but noticed I wasn't getting credit towards Honorary Stardockian achievement and after perusing the forums decided to roll back to ver 2.8 .  This worked as intended and I got the achievement.  In the course of so doing I switched to my main PC for the higher resolution display.  After reaching the milestone and a few others I realized I'd need to return to 4.2 to enable some other achievements that were added to the game later.  My main PC was busy running some other stuff so I went back to the HTPC and updated the game to 4.2 again.  It will launch but immediately goes into offline mode and thinks I'm not connected to steam which is running just fine.  Uninstalled and reinstalled 3 times using the listed procedure including renaming the MyGames and appdata files and/or just deleting them as well. No luck.  Uninstalled and reinstalled Steam which had no effect either.   My main PC which still has ver 2.8 on it works fine but I'm hesitant to upgrade it for fear of it going the way of the HTPC.  SoaSE Rebellion works just fine from the launcher on all machines.  I'll try again but this has been a huge PITA for hours now. 

- Offline issue persists with HTPC.  I see others posting with the offline problem. Is there another location for an obscure file? I saw some old tachyon files in another directory but I think they're orphans from original install as they're all dated 2017. Maybe a registry edit is req'd?  

galactic civilizations iii
50,206 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

If you rename the install directory:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Galactic Civilizations III - OLD  (<-example game and path, use what you have and where)

Then do a file verify, does it work then?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Thx for the reply. No it does not. All files failed to validate so it basically redownloaded and installed the game but still doesn't stay connected to Steam.  Retry login fails and trying to sync mods will just hang at the syncing screen and never progress.  I even did an uninstall and then a registry edit and removed all GalCiv3 references from the HKLM, Users and CurrentUsers branches and then a fresh install. Version 2.8 still runs fine on my other PC but I would like to explore the new features in 4.21 but with access to the workshop which is not possible without it staying connected to Steam. Sins of a Solar Empire works fine from the launcher so it's definitely something to do with the interaction with GalCiv3. 

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

If you create a new Windows Admin account on this PC and run under it, does it still happen?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-a-local-user-or-administrator-account-in-windows-20de74e0-ac7f-3502-a866-32915af2a34d

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

 

 

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Alright I created a test account and the game no longer logs out of steam and appears to be working normally again.  This is promising but I'm not going to delete my accounts especially on my main PC and have to recreate links, profiles, etc. just to play this game and switching users is a bit inconvenient.  This has not happened with any other title including SoaSE.  Your suggestion implies this is an issue which while maybe uncommon, has popped up before. Is there a user specific setting or file somewhere which has to be changed or deleted? As I mentioned in an earlier post I edited the registry so I'm very comfortable with 'poking around the innards' if necessary.  This only happened after reverting to 2.80 then back to 4.21.  My laptop which I tested and was not reverted still works as expected but I only use it when I travel and is much less capable/enjoyable to play on.  Thx for your help so far.