Empire Steam FAQ

[Astaroth]

Threads merged.

[leonn]

dont think hes crusading,steam does not work for a lot of people through no fault of there own.read some of the previous posts.

[GaMMwl]

I just deactivated my internet connection to run Steam in offline mode. When launching the program the response I got was:

Could not connect to steam network. This could be due to a problem with your internet connection, or with the steam network. Please visit steampowered.com for more info.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha omgomgomgomg roflroflroflrofl
I <3 Steam!!!!

[CrayonVonCaesar]

I finally bought Empire. Seems like its as patched as its likely to get (unless NTW retro patches it).
Put in the disc yesterday evening and its been updating ever since. What the hell?

Pre-steam you simply bought the game, downloaded the patches, installed and you were off. Now it seems, we have to wait for a day and a half.

Not currently liking steam.
Though I'm sure once its done updating dislike will turn back into indifference.

[LemuelG]

Hi, read the first post thoroughly, doesn't help. (and if you have the patience to read through 50-odd pages of hysteria, then you are a better person than I)

I need to know specifically what happens when the game is on-sold... I am bidding on one at the moment, can I even use it??

Hmm, this should have been simple - buy game, play game...

[Running With Scissors]

Hi, read the first post thoroughly, doesn't help. (and if you have the patience to read through 50-odd pages of hysteria, then you are a better person than I)

I need to know specifically what happens when the game is on-sold... I am bidding on one at the moment, can I even use it??

Hmm, this should have been simple - buy game, play game...

If the game has been registered on Steam then it can only be played on that account. Buying pre-loved steam games is a scam.. you will not be able to use them.

[leonn]

i think if its been used ie the owner has registered it with a steam account,you may have problems.your better off buying it brand new and sealed.'buy game,play game'...yep those were the days,things are so much better with steam eh?

[♔Mandelus♔]

Ok, now I ....

Question 1:
Is it possible to have 2 Steam Accounts with one IP?
Reason: I was asked by a guy who plays ETW and where his brother wants to play too over Steam ETW and an other shooter game with own account. Both using different PC's in different chambers with one Internet connection. Allways no problem until now as they told me, but they are afraid to make a 2. registration at Steam in term of "double account" as they had earlier in some forums a problem with it and waiting since weeks of an answer by Steam Support!

Question 2:
Sometimes people report a download made by Steam for something but there is no information given what there was running (nothing reported as Steam update or ETW update or in any other game).
What could this thing be, anyone knows?

Question 3:
Why are suddenly some games desync and will be auto ended by this term?
There were in 2 examples never ever any mods at both installed or any changes made! The Internet connection ist still good, also 1 game runs, the rematch (made by the button after the battle) crashed because desync and and a colplete rehosted game runs again well without problems.
The only difference bettween both is, that one has SF Edition + DLC etc. and the the one not.

[Lord of the Isles]

I'd like this thread, if possible, to just be technical info about how Steam offline mode works. If you want to rant or eulogise about Steam another thread would be good (and I'll probably join in!).

I read about a month ago (in a thread that I can no longer find) someone claiming that Steam insisted on 'calling home' regularly to report information to Valve, even when it was supposedly put into offline mode. If you prevented it doing this, after a certain time (measured in a few weeks IIRC) it would stop you running E:TW.

I couldn't find authoritative info about this by googling, so I decided to try my own experiment. I've always run Steam in offline mode, just occasionally changing that when I wanted an update. At the moment, for example, I'm still on version 1.4, since I don't like the sound of some of the 1.5 'inprovements'. So I left it that way, and in addition, I blocked all the Steam programs I could see using my ZoneAlarm firewall:

Steam
Steam Autorun Setup
Steam Client Service (from disk)
Steam Client Service (from DVD)
Steam Game Overlay

This is now 5 weeks later, and my copy of Empire is still playable. However, 3 or 4 times during this period I have been informed that there is an update to the Steam Client that I can install if I go into online mode. How does Steam on my PC know that since, as far as I can see, it does not have access to the Internet zone to check? I've been through all the other programs that have Internet zone access via ZoneAlarm and none seem Steam related (though it is possible that I have missed one).

Can anyone shed light on this apparent contradiction?

[Humble Warrior]

Guess it must have been me who made the claims. I still stand by them. It is simply from using Steam in ETW a lot. i have always had a system of disconnecting from the net EVERY time I play a game or run a program simply to prevent unnescesarry resources being used, later it was also to prevent these `phoning home` sessions, but usually not from games because I never thought games did this.

1. When in Offline mode, you are not in Offline mode. Steam`s Offline mode is a` pretend to be Offline mode`. My utility always tells me that Steam is trying to `call home`. I complained to Steam about this, but got nothing back, yet.

2. If you do decide, even for a moment to go `Online` with Steam, it WILL update ETW to the latest. So basically, don`t.

3. Now you say you are still able to play ETW 5 weeks later. But there`s an important caveat here. have you tried simply disconnecting from the net PHYSICALLY? I mean pulling out your ethernet cable every time you play ETW? And it must be every time. If you play ETW while connected to the net, even with steam in `Offline` mode you won`t see the problem because Steam will secretly connect you to the server anyway. Sooner or later, you`ll be told you that Steam can`t run cos you`re not connected to the net and you won`t be able to until you do. Now the time limit might be different for you 9i`m from the UK), but it usually takes 2-3 weeks or so before this kicks in. I do not know if this is just with ETW or every game, but I never played any other Steam game this long before to notice it. Fear 2 was the last one and I finished that in 8 hours, so no way would I be able to tell from that.

[DARTH VADER]

I confirm. It happened to me also. I had no internet for 4 weeks because I moved to a new house and physically as well I had a disconnected Ethernet. After about 3 weeks, Steam decided to stop me playing ETW offline. And it was patched to 1.5 version.

[Humble Warrior]

I confirm. It happened to me also. I had no internet for 4 weeks because I moved to a new house and physically as well I had a disconnected Ethernet. After about 3 weeks, Steam decided to stop me playing ETW offline. And it was patched to 1.5 version.

Thankyou, Darth Vader. It`s the first time i`ve heard someone with your reputation confirm what I saw was going on.

[Henry707]

MMMmm,

I'm really not very technical but it does seem that when offline mode, Steam is constantly trying to re-connect. It does seem that its technical infrastruture is set assuming ongoing internet connectivity for things like updates, upsellling etc. I have used off-line mode but only for few days.

I get the impression they were rather everyone was online & hence no need for an offline mode.

No need to thank me for my opinion

Henri

[daniu]

I can see it from their perspective. Rather than a passive user/player, they want a dynamic link they can use to sell etc.

Well, I can see it from their perspective as well, but

It [...] shouldn`t need to [periodically go online] if in` Offline mode.`

This.
I'm not against Steam as such, and I think that if it's a known fact that ETW needs to go online once for it to be playable, people who don't want that just shouldn't buy it.

However,

there is no reference to the monthly or so re-activation.

This.
It's hard to be an informed customer if you're not being informed.

I must say I'm with Humble on this one (although, for the record, it doesn't effect me since I'm continuously online).

[Henry707]

I must say I'm with Humble on this one (although, for the record, it doesn't effect me since I'm continuously online).

Me too Daniu, I agree the Grumble Humble's general point that we should not have to update things if we are happy as we are, we all know what happens with crappy windows updates as a guide to what can go wrong with this system!

Henri

[BigB]

I confirm. It happened to me also. I had no internet for 4 weeks because I moved to a new house and physically as well I had a disconnected Ethernet. After about 3 weeks, Steam decided to stop me playing ETW offline. And it was patched to 1.5 version.

This is horrible, and I wonder if its even legal.

If you bought the game and installed and registered it online with Steam exactly like you are supposed to, I dont see how they can legally stop you from playing. Isnt that stated somewhere? Something about only needing an internet connection for install?

Sometimes I wish I was just insanely wealthy because I would love to hire lawyers just for laughs to see if things like this stand up in court. Lots of companies do things that arent legal because they know nobody has the time or money to take them on in court.

I dont like the entire concept of Steam. I am doing my best to protest it and im not buying any more games that require Steam. It sucks because I wanted to play Left4Dead2 and would have liked to try the Napoleon Empire game but im gonna make my stand and not support Steam. I know they wont miss my money but its about the principle.

Kind of sad reading that other post from the guy wanting to buy the preowned Empire game. I hope you didnt spend the money. You cant install/play an Empire game that someone has used. Another sucky feature of Steam. I wonder how many people have been scammed that way?

[LemuelG]

Kind of sad reading that other post from the guy wanting to buy the preowned Empire game. I hope you didnt spend the money. You cant install/play an Empire game that someone has used. Another sucky feature of Steam. I wonder how many people have been scammed that way?

I had not even heard of ETW until I came here (for M2TW mods) a month or two ago - I was pretty excited - I started bidding on a 2nd copy on a local auction site... then I read some more (this thread and some others), and gradually realized it would be useless to me - I won the auction, but didn't pay; I considered it a hustle, and the site's admin agreed.

I haven't played the game. Steam-'only' is banned from my house for being an unethical marketing tool. Sega was banned - I made an exception for M2TW (loved Rome, wanted to play), but haven't had any time for them since the 'Saturn-day' debacle; unless Steam is ditched, I will not buy any more TW games.

Thank goodness for all the complainers and curmudgeons out there who tipped me off in time. (keep up the good work)

[Humble Warrior]

I had not even heard of ETW until I came here (for M2TW mods) a month or two ago - I was pretty excited - I started bidding on a 2nd copy on a local auction site... then I read some more (this thread and some others), and gradually realized it would be useless to me - I won the auction, but didn't pay; I considered it a hustle, and the site's admin agreed.

Well done, you would`ve been ripped off indeed. Good spotting and stopping.

I haven't played the game. Steam-'only' is banned from my house for being an unethical marketing tool. Sega was banned - I made an exception for M2TW (loved Rome, wanted to play), but haven't had any time for them since the 'Saturn-day' debacle; unless Steam is ditched, I will not buy any more TW games.

My hats off to you, Sir. If only more were as smart and disciplined.

Thank goodness for all the complainers and curmudgeons out there who tipped me off in time. (keep up the good work)

Thankyou.

[Darkpriest667]

I'd like this thread, if possible, to just be technical info about how Steam offline mode works. If you want to rant or eulogise about Steam another thread would be good (and I'll probably join in!).

I read about a month ago (in a thread that I can no longer find) someone claiming that Steam insisted on 'calling home' regularly to report information to Valve, even when it was supposedly put into offline mode. If you prevented it doing this, after a certain time (measured in a few weeks IIRC) it would stop you running E:TW.

I couldn't find authoritative info about this by googling, so I decided to try my own experiment. I've always run Steam in offline mode, just occasionally changing that when I wanted an update. At the moment, for example, I'm still on version 1.4, since I don't like the sound of some of the 1.5 'inprovements'. So I left it that way, and in addition, I blocked all the Steam programs I could see using my ZoneAlarm firewall:

Steam
Steam Autorun Setup
Steam Client Service (from disk)
Steam Client Service (from DVD)
Steam Game Overlay

This is now 5 weeks later, and my copy of Empire is still playable. However, 3 or 4 times during this period I have been informed that there is an update to the Steam Client that I can install if I go into online mode. How does Steam on my PC know that since, as far as I can see, it does not have access to the Internet zone to check? I've been through all the other programs that have Internet zone access via ZoneAlarm and none seem Steam related (though it is possible that I have missed one).

Can anyone shed light on this apparent contradiction?

a more fair test would be to totally disconnect the internet.. obviously there is still a process that is connecting to steam..... and by that i mean unplug the ethernet cable on testing computer and then tell me how well it goes :-)

[MortenJessen]

Hi there
E.T. Phone Home...
Here is a link to steams support. I have had this problem my self, so I decided to find out what was wrong. I do not know if this knowledge has already ended up in the support section since I can not find it. But from experience I can tell, that this is not a guarantee.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...3160-AGCB-2555
A short sum up: It appears that Empire needs not be updated, but Steam it self has to be kept up to date to get the game going.
Y.S.
M. Jessen