Freshly installed, can not start / launch the game

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Horned Reaper
  • updated
  • Completed - Resolved

I just want to play and build maps, but since the map editor update, I can not launch my game.

When I try to play, the game starts loading, shows the ingame loading screen... Loads a bit and then returns to desktop and tries to re-launch automatically in a loop...

I tried validating the cache integrity from steam proporties, I even deleted the game and redownloaded and installed, but still have this dissapointing problem.

I just want to play the game, I paid for, when I get back home from work.


Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1
BIOS: BIOS Date: 11/07/12 17:28:55 Ver: 04.06.05
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 16306MB RAM
Page File: 7236MB used, 27422MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 11


output_log.txt

Game Version:
Steam Public
Platform:
Windows

Kā jūs novērtētu klientu apkalpošanu?

Satisfaction mark by Horned Reaper 7 years ago

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Duplicates 1
Fail to launch, possible DRM issue (continuation)

(Continuation from this link: http://brightrockgames.userecho.com/topics/335-freshly-installed-can-not-start-launch-the-game/#)

Hello, after months of communicating steam's support team, they decided that this is their final answer;



23 Message by Support Tech Jared on Wed, Aug 10 2016 13:49
Correct implementation of Steam DRM is up to the developer of this game. A game that has implemented this feature correctly should not automatically close when a problem is encountered.



Unfortunately, we can't work on a game that our teams didn't develop here at Valve. The only path to resolution is through the game's support team, and, with all likelihood from what you've described, their development team.



Replies 46
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Lee "Noontide" Moon

Hi Erke,


There's certainly something unique happening here as you appear to be the only player who's been affected by this issue.

I've just had a quick chat with V0id about your issue and It's certainly the Steamworks DRM service that's at fault as opposed to our code so there's not much more we can do on our side. Which is extremely infuriating on both ends.

Essentially our game is successfully calling the Steamworks DRM service but not receiving an appropriate response from it. When it calls the service it's no longer in our code but in Valve's.

At this point I have a few suggestions for you to try that might get you in the game:

Offline Mode
Firstly you could try launching the game while Steam is in offline mode, this might bypass the DRM check, though if it's never launched properly it may still need to verify at least once in which case this won't work.

Manual Steam Reinstall (Full clean steam install)
Secondly, I know you've already removed steam but I'd suggest going a step further and manually removing all Steam files from your system so that it's a definitely clean install. Backup and remove these files:

  • Your Steam Folder (In program files)
  • Your Steam Registry entries (Via regedit)
  • Your Steam App Data (Windows Drive/users/username/appdata/local/steam

Leave nothing in there and then install Steam from Scratch and download a fresh copy of War for the Overworld.

You can find instructions for removing steam manually here


Winsock Reset
This one comes from V0id and is an extremely rare issue that we encountered once in the past. If you've installed software that somehow corrupted Winsock it may be causing unusual issues to occur.

So you can give the reset a try

Contact Steam Support
You'll need a support account to do this, you'll have to submit a new question. Covering everything we've discussed here, taking them through what we've done with you and how we've come to the conclusion that Steamworks is at fault. If this fails then request a refund as below.

DRM-Free copy
If all of the above fails then the only suggestion we have beyond that is to refund your steam copy and buy a copy of WFTO from the Humble store this will get you a Steam Key and a DRM-Free copy.

There are caveats associated with the DRM-Free copy though. We update it less often, so it's currently sitting on Patch 1.2.3. We'll be updating it again after Patch 1.4. However Heart of Gold will not be available on DRM-Free (DLC is managed via Steamworks)

I apologise that we're unable to help you further in this regard. I understand how frustrating this must be for you. It's also frustrating for us as we don't want anyone to be left out of playing the game but at this stage it truly is out of our hands.

Avatar
0
Horned Reaper
Quote from Lee "Noontide" Moon

Hi Erke,


There's certainly something unique happening here as you appear to be the only player who's been affected by this issue.

I've just had a quick chat with V0id about your issue and It's certainly the Steamworks DRM service that's at fault as opposed to our code so there's not much more we can do on our side. Which is extremely infuriating on both ends.

Essentially our game is successfully calling the Steamworks DRM service but not receiving an appropriate response from it. When it calls the service it's no longer in our code but in Valve's.

At this point I have a few suggestions for you to try that might get you in the game:

Offline Mode
Firstly you could try launching the game while Steam is in offline mode, this might bypass the DRM check, though if it's never launched properly it may still need to verify at least once in which case this won't work.

Manual Steam Reinstall (Full clean steam install)
Secondly, I know you've already removed steam but I'd suggest going a step further and manually removing all Steam files from your system so that it's a definitely clean install. Backup and remove these files:

  • Your Steam Folder (In program files)
  • Your Steam Registry entries (Via regedit)
  • Your Steam App Data (Windows Drive/users/username/appdata/local/steam

Leave nothing in there and then install Steam from Scratch and download a fresh copy of War for the Overworld.

You can find instructions for removing steam manually here


Winsock Reset
This one comes from V0id and is an extremely rare issue that we encountered once in the past. If you've installed software that somehow corrupted Winsock it may be causing unusual issues to occur.

So you can give the reset a try

Contact Steam Support
You'll need a support account to do this, you'll have to submit a new question. Covering everything we've discussed here, taking them through what we've done with you and how we've come to the conclusion that Steamworks is at fault. If this fails then request a refund as below.

DRM-Free copy
If all of the above fails then the only suggestion we have beyond that is to refund your steam copy and buy a copy of WFTO from the Humble store this will get you a Steam Key and a DRM-Free copy.

There are caveats associated with the DRM-Free copy though. We update it less often, so it's currently sitting on Patch 1.2.3. We'll be updating it again after Patch 1.4. However Heart of Gold will not be available on DRM-Free (DLC is managed via Steamworks)

I apologise that we're unable to help you further in this regard. I understand how frustrating this must be for you. It's also frustrating for us as we don't want anyone to be left out of playing the game but at this stage it truly is out of our hands.

Thank you so much for sparing time to write to me.
I will look into the suggestions you just gave me. Afterwards I will write an update here.

I also contacted steam about this, waiting for an answer.

Could you also please officially contact Steam about this issue too? If it's true that this is their fault, they need to take it seriously.

I might not be the only one with this issue. I had this happening months ago and I finally can spare time to this. I can almost imagine other people who have daily jobs and just gave up on the issue.

Avatar
0
Lee "Noontide" Moon
Quote from Horned Reaper

Thank you so much for sparing time to write to me.
I will look into the suggestions you just gave me. Afterwards I will write an update here.

I also contacted steam about this, waiting for an answer.

Could you also please officially contact Steam about this issue too? If it's true that this is their fault, they need to take it seriously.

I might not be the only one with this issue. I had this happening months ago and I finally can spare time to this. I can almost imagine other people who have daily jobs and just gave up on the issue.

When I came to addressing your ticket I talked to the team about reporting this directly to Steam.


Unfortunately as surprising as it may seem there are very few avenues we can take to report bugs in Steamworks ourselves. In the past there used to be a system in place for Developer contact but this has gradually been shut down. One of the more frustrating elements of this issue :/

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Horned Reaper
Quote from Lee "Noontide" Moon

When I came to addressing your ticket I talked to the team about reporting this directly to Steam.


Unfortunately as surprising as it may seem there are very few avenues we can take to report bugs in Steamworks ourselves. In the past there used to be a system in place for Developer contact but this has gradually been shut down. One of the more frustrating elements of this issue :/

This is just sad.
This started to seem like malevolence from Steam's side, as if they purposely sabotage your growing fan base, I don't know why.


At first I wanted to buy the Humble store version, so you guys could earn more money. But the possibility of the things you just described prevented me (lack of updates etc).


But I want you and your team to know that I will continue to support your project no matter what obstacles lies ahead... I realize and appreciate your efforts for reviving a long dead legend and carrying it this far. And boy, Richard Ridings was the best move!


Anyways as I said, I'll be trying your suggestions tonight. Ty again.

Avatar
0
Lee "Noontide" Moon
Quote from Horned Reaper

This is just sad.
This started to seem like malevolence from Steam's side, as if they purposely sabotage your growing fan base, I don't know why.


At first I wanted to buy the Humble store version, so you guys could earn more money. But the possibility of the things you just described prevented me (lack of updates etc).


But I want you and your team to know that I will continue to support your project no matter what obstacles lies ahead... I realize and appreciate your efforts for reviving a long dead legend and carrying it this far. And boy, Richard Ridings was the best move!


Anyways as I said, I'll be trying your suggestions tonight. Ty again.

Thanks for your support! We truly appreciate it and honestly wish we could do more to help you.

As for the Humble Version, at the very least it will get your a Steam Key as well as the DRM-Free build, if you do go down that route perhaps you could use that key on a different account just in case?

Avatar
0
Horned Reaper
Quote from Lee "Noontide" Moon

Thanks for your support! We truly appreciate it and honestly wish we could do more to help you.

As for the Humble Version, at the very least it will get your a Steam Key as well as the DRM-Free build, if you do go down that route perhaps you could use that key on a different account just in case?

Worst-case scenario I try my chances when the code hits market shelves as in a physical box, with all the artwork surrounding it, distributed evenly, I don't know may be 5, 7 years from now?

...At the very least, it'll make my day, the moment I learn about it...

My kindest regards to the whole team,

E.T.

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Horned Reaper
The War for the Overworld official support team will have the best solutions for technical issues related to their title.

This is what the steam support told me.

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Stefan Furcht Programmer

Hello Merket,
first of all, sorry for not answering again after my last post, but I was in the middle of moving into another country to work directly at the studio making War for the Overworld. But now I am almost settled.

The answer you got from Valve sounds pretty much like a generic standard response.
But in this case their answer does not apply, because it is clearly an issue between Valves Steamworks framework we use in our game and Valves Steam Client you use to install and keep track of your games.
More specifically Steams DRM check is quitting and starting the game again with Steam, when it (falsely) detects Steam is not running.
(Which seems to fail in a loop)

Please try to insist on a non generic answer from Valve, because their generic answer is not appropriate.
But in case they are not willing to help, there is not much else left then asking them for a refund, which they normally give.
I am sorry for this inconvennience and hope the problem can be sorted in an adequate way.

Thanks a lot for your patience and understanding.


Kind regards,
Stefan

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Lee "Noontide" Moon
Quote from Horned Reaper
The War for the Overworld official support team will have the best solutions for technical issues related to their title.

This is what the steam support told me.

Extremely disappointing. I can only echo what Stefan has said, try to insist on further assistance. Assure them that you've been in touch with us for over a week and have tried all our suggested solutions, we can find no issue with our code and that consistently the only thing failing is the Steamworks DRM check.

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Horned Reaper

I was so excited when I saw Steam downloading a patch for the game 1.4, it installed but unfortunately I still have the issue. But what I noticed is that the game loading screen still says that it's 1.3


Also, is it normal for the game to ask for administrative permissions every time I try to launch? Hence the exe is already set to " always run as administrator".


By the way Steam Support finally asked for my msinfo 32 file... sent them 3 days ago, still waiting for an answer.