steam support ends jan 1 , 2024 for windows 8.1 :no:

[Valiant Champion]

Is there anyway i will be able to play empire after that date for my 8.1 OS?

Will keeping the PC offline prevent Steam from updating and thus not register the cut off date?

Is there a no steam patch/mod for the executable?

are there stand alone mods that use a separate executable that allows a separate version of the game where all the files are independent from Steam?

[alhoon]

Steam support ends. That doesn't mean steam will stop working, but eventually some update will break your games. So, I would think that indeed keeping steam offline would prevent a new version of steam with updates that don't work for 8.1
However, I doubt it would be immediately.

Never the less... with steam offline, you would not be able to download games not already installed.

[Dismounted Feudal Knight]

A lot of ground is covered by the similar windows 7 version of this thread, although discontinuing 8.1 probably won't make steam unrunnable as expected for 7. But in terms of what to plan for the future you can use that thread as a guide for your expectations. Bottom line is the sooner you don't use steam or other locked down marketplaces for your older games on older OSes and hardware the better, or you abandon obsolete windows systems and find alternatives. Windows 10 is not the end-all of operating systems especially if you're accustomed to what are now niche options like 7 or the more obscure 8 series. Either way there will come a time when Steam and anything more recent is going to be an extreme pita or fail to run entirely on operating systems which are beginning to count their lives in decades rather than individual years.

With time I expect the determined obsolete windows holdouts will provide workarounds and if I come across any fit for TWC I'll keep this thread in mind but I haven't seen any yet.

[Valiant Champion]

well in my experience every time you move up to newer OS you cant play your older games.

windows compatability tool has always been broken. very rarely has it ever worked to help me play older games.

If I had my choice I would still be using XP or Vista.

Basically I have to lock up my steam from updating off the internet.

But it would seem that CA should bear some responsibility considering that on the packaging it lists the OS that will work with the game. People who bought the game bought it with the belief that the game would always work with the OS their computer uses. If I am not mistaken every operating system listed on the box will no longer work after jan 2024.

[Dismounted Feudal Knight]

There are interesting legal precedents around DRM which makes games unplayable but I'm not sure if they apply in cases where users willfully do not upgrade their OS and the games are in fact playable on more recent systems. In my experience older games are always playable with different degrees of hassle, especially older games in the TW series, admittedly getting a bit shady when you're as far back as Shogun. At some resource cost it is typically possible to have an older machine, a virtual machine or some form of emulation when games just don't play right anymore and in some cases linux via Wine does this better than windows with particularly aged windows software that has been left behind.

I know this discussion of leaving operating systems behind has happened before elsewhere but we'd probably have something to work with by now if that resulted in anything truly concrete. The win 7 thread is again the frontrunner in this thinking. And I doubt anyone here is racing to be the rep in the courtroom to challenge the 'claim on the box' line of thought with Valve or CA. Truthfully it was always naive for people to expect their software arrangements to be 'immortal' if their computer has anything to do with things that are updated, and there have been countless updates and steps up since the release of 8 and older. Sometimes those upgrades are a bit silly (the clog of the internet for example is absolutely shameful) but overall that's the march of technology and it was always going to happen sooner or later especially with how platforms like steam work.

A good answer is to get all games through mediums that are more flexible and pressure and/or abandon the ones that try to lock you in. But there's not nearly enough market strength for that and that precludes you from a whole lot of games. The other answer is to set up your arrangement knowing it's not going to last forever and having a plan to upgrade even if it means going off the usual windows train if you don't like how Microsoft runs things. Staying in the sand dunes is going to be hard work either way. 2009-2024, 15 years straight is a very long time in software for things to stay the same and as that time grows so do the disadvantages and the stresses of building around something that is relatively ancient. Like it or not this is how things go...

[Valiant Champion]

well for one windows compatibility does not work as advertised and almost never does. claims by microsoft that it does simply tricks users into upgrading OSs or buying a new computer with higher OS. in other words let lose of hard earned money only to find your older game wont play with those new operating systems.

If creative assembly would actually make some worthwhile games , last one was medieval 2 total war , players would not want to hang on to older pc games.