Any Way to Get Patches Without Steam?

[VOP2288]

Title says it all, is there any way to get and apply the patches without having to update the game via Steam?

As some of you may or may not know my network at my college does not allow connection to Steam. Thus to install the game I had to go to a friends house off campus (dragging my tower, keyboard, mouse, cables, and 22" TV that I use as a monitor) to even get the game on here.

I REALLY don't want to have to do that again...is there any way or any word of another way to update the game with the patches that doesn't have to be through Steam?

[Groove74]

If I am not mistaken I do think you have to update with steam as it needs to validate that you have a valid copy of ETW and not a illeagal one.

[anandus]

I think to only way, so far, is through not-so-legal channels to get patches without Steam.

Maybe it's better to ask the network manager at your college to let Steam through?

[Hermes33]

Thus to install the game I had to go to a friends house off campus (dragging my tower, keyboard, mouse, cables, and 22" TV that I use as a monitor) to even get the game on here.

I REALLY don't want to have to do that again...

I feel your pain, mon ami. But wait... you don't have to do that again. Just remove the hard drive from your PC. Then when you get to your friend's, switch yours for their boot HDD. Reboot. Connect to Steam. Install. Remove drive. Doesn't seem to be any reason to be lugging all of that heavy metal around, especially the mouse, keyboard and 22" monitor? I suppose though, your friend would have to be cool enough to actually let you switch hard drives. If not, you may as well get a set of weights/gym membership to build your strength up in anticipation of the next steaming patch...

[juniroxors]

Just remove the hard drive from your PC. Then when you get to your friend's, switch yours for their boot HDD. Reboot. Connect to Steam. Install. Remove drive.

- Are you kidding? His friend would have to have, at the very least, exactly the same motherboard and if the "visiting" OS is Vista I doubt that would be enough.... Otherwise you'd be lucky it would even boot and - if it did - stay up without blue screening.

[Hermes33]

Why? HDD's are pretty generic these days. I was assuming he didn't have a RAID setup and even then, swopping a drive over is child's play. It's not as if he's going to be actually playing the game at his friend's; simply getting to the desktop, getting online and downloading the patch is all he wants to do. As for the internet connection, he would've already setup his own PC to his friends ISP account as he did before. And why is his OS relevant? Even if he has multiple OS's on different partitions it makes no difference. The only real issue would be if his friend didn't have enough RAM to run Vista - I believe it will run on 1GB (good enough to get to the desktop - which is all he wants), so that's pretty likely too. Most BIOS's are self-configuring and I doubt he'd even have to go into it to change anything - just swop hard drives over and boot. What exactly would cause the bluescreen you suggest?

Of course, I'm assuming he's intelligent and already knows all the ins and outs of hard drives, master, slaves, that sort of thing. All I was doing was throwing a helpful idea out there to save him some time and effort that can do no harm in trying it (besides the blindingly obvious, like dropping the drive in a puddle).

I say try it. Might actually save time, compared to lugging all those cables and monitors around. Of course... his friend might just have a laptop...

[Selenolycus]

Why? HDD's are pretty generic these days. I was assuming he didn't have a RAID setup and even then, swopping a drive over is child's play. It's not as if he's going to be actually playing the game at his friend's; simply getting to the desktop, getting online and downloading the patch is all he wants to do. As for the internet connection, he would've already setup his own PC to his friends ISP account as he did before. And why is his OS relevant? Even if he has multiple OS's on different partitions it makes no difference. The only real issue would be if his friend didn't have enough RAM to run Vista - I believe it will run on 1GB (good enough to get to the desktop - which is all he wants), so that's pretty likely too. Most BIOS's are self-configuring and I doubt he'd even have to go into it to change anything - just swop hard drives over and boot. What exactly would cause the bluescreen you suggest?

Of course, I'm assuming he's intelligent and already knows all the ins and outs of hard drives, master, slaves, that sort of thing. All I was doing was throwing a helpful idea out there to save him some time and effort that can do no harm in trying it (besides the blindingly obvious, like dropping the drive in a puddle).

I say try it. Might actually save time, compared to lugging all those cables and monitors around. Of course... his friend might just have a laptop...

Um, have you ever actually tried doing that? I most certainly have in the days of yore, and I'll confirm, it did not work. I've never known anyone who's tried doing something similar with any success.

For one thing, all the incorrect drivers are installed--and if you're using Windows XP and newer hardware, you need to install those drivers. On some new hardware I find that XP doesn't even recognize the network card.

What he could do, and I don't know if it'd work, is to make a "Live" copy of XP, using either a thumb-drive or an external hard drive, and using that to play rather than his primary HDD. thing to have to deal with, but if there's no other recourse it's a more efficient option to a certain degree, esp. if you're using an external HDD rather than an internal for this.

[mandalore9]

Try buying the game and stop pirating it.

[Brusilov]

How did you get the game on your desktop in the first place? I presume when it was installed you had to validate the installation then.

[Teodosio]

As some of you may or may not know my network at my college does not allow connection to Steam. Thus to install the game I had to go to a friends house off campus (dragging my tower, keyboard, mouse, cables, and 22" TV that I use as a monitor) to even get the game on here.

This is quite unfortunate and sad, another bad effect of having a steam-only release.
The only way to legally update your game is to use an Internet connection to Steam... if you want to do that the only advice I can give is to bring to your friends only the tower: you could use their computer`s keyboard mouse and monitor.

Moving just the hdd probably requires more work (open the case, unmount the hdd, mount it on another pc, ...), it is simpler and quicker to move the entire tower.

[Scorpius_Brutii]

Um, why not just keep the boot drive where it is and just plug the new harddrive in and run it as a secondary? That's what I'm doing right now, I got a new HD with Vista and am booting off that, my old HD with STEAM and the stuff are in D:

[juniroxors]

Oh and the opening poster hasn't yet replied but the most obvious thing would be to ask his friend if he can install the game on his PC, get it updated, copy the directory to an external drive - take it back. Back up the existing install and copy over the new one. I've manipulated steam installs like this in the past and it has worked - but who knows?

Actually Steam allows you to back up your game files to DVD as well and I've also tried that in the past. You just backup and you can reinstall to ANY computer.

[Brusilov]

The OP obviously got the game onto their desktop and validated by Steam in the first place (even of they have the game on disc). So, it shouldn't be that hard to get the patch.

[Tassen]

The OP obviously got the game onto their desktop and validated by Steam in the first place (even of they have the game on disc). So, it shouldn't be that hard to get the patch.

Just bringing the hard drive to the friend and hook it up to his computer for a quickie update should work if the game/Steam is installed on another partition than C:?
Therefore is should not matter what other hardware they are running, or XP or Vista.

[TSD]

Title says it all, is there any way to get and apply the patches without having to update the game via Steam?

As some of you may or may not know my network at my college does not allow connection to Steam. Thus to install the game I had to go to a friends house off campus (dragging my tower, keyboard, mouse, cables, and 22" TV that I use as a monitor) to even get the game on here.

I REALLY don't want to have to do that again...is there any way or any word of another way to update the game with the patches that doesn't have to be through Steam?

I even had to mention this again because it baffles me. Really, you cant just tote your box to his house and use his peripherals? Can he not be without his computer for the total of ten minutes it would take to switch boxes and update the game? Second of all when I was in college, they will unblock ports for you, for a time window if you need to. Not trying to call you out but this thread is wreaking of piracy.

[morecowbell]

Get an external hard drive enclosure, the one you put an internal hd in but it connects to a SATA port and then is switched to a USB connection all within the device itself, from there it should pretty much function like a big thumbdrive.

Don't boot from it on your friends pc, just use the usb connection and use it as a plug and play device instead of an internal bootable hard drive, you should be able to run Steam off it and update.

When I say external hard drive enclosure. I mean this - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145133

[JuggernautX15]

Damn your situation is rough :/, but since it's such an extreme abberation there's not much you can do cept haul your tower to your friends place.


I feel for you mate. Not just about the patch but the fact you bought this game at the stage its at . So many things need to be fixed about this game at the moment, it's like ordering a steak at a restaurant and having the waitress bring it straight from the friggin' freezer.

EDIT: Not insinuating piracy here, but my friend took the bullet for both of us to test the game out. As of right now I'm not touching it with a 10-foot-pole, which is kinda sad because I love the game in theory :/.

[D.B. Cooper]

Damn your situation is rough :/, but since it's such an extreme abberation there's not much you can do cept haul your tower to your friends place.

Indeed that's what this is, an extreme aberration. It does suck though.

[roy34543]

Wouldnt using a proxy be much easier? Failing that you can try hacking into your universitys servers..
But i guess thats not a good idea.

[PubliusKhannus]

i dont know of any single way to receive patches without steam..maybe if someone posted the patch pack files on rapidshare or someplace then yea