Ludeon Forums

RimWorld => Support => Topic started by: linkfanpc on August 18, 2016, 10:22:03 AM

Title: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: linkfanpc on August 18, 2016, 10:22:03 AM
Steam mods don't work and simply say "Downloading..." in the mods list when Steam goes offline.

[attachment deleted by admin - too old]
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: milon on August 18, 2016, 12:24:23 PM
Thanks for the report, but this is very incomplete.  Please see my signature for how to report a bug.

Were you expecting to download mods when Steam is offline?  Or are you expecting Steam to not go offline?  Or are you experiencing a different problem?
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: linkfanpc on August 18, 2016, 12:47:04 PM
Quote from: milon on August 18, 2016, 12:24:23 PM
Thanks for the report, but this is very incomplete.  Please see my signature for how to report a bug.

Were you expecting to download mods when Steam is offline?  Or are you expecting Steam to not go offline?  Or are you experiencing a different problem?

Oh, sorry. Anyway, no, these mods are all downloaded and up-to-date. I manually put Steam in offline mode, but that causes this to happen. All these mods previously worked in Offline Mode perfectly, now they won't even work at all.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: milon on August 18, 2016, 01:01:23 PM
Thanks for the update.

This seems to be related:
https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/4y5g7o/my_workshop_mods_no_longer_working_in_steam/

Maybe it's a Steam issue?  I'm not sure how RimWorld itself would affect that (but I know very little about Steam...)
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: MuffaloSoldier on August 18, 2016, 02:24:02 PM
I have the same problem in Win7 64bit. Steam did update before, so it may be Steam related, but it would be good if Ludeon would report the error to Valve.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: MuffaloSoldier on August 19, 2016, 04:44:03 AM
Seems to be a steam problem, as it exists in other games as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/4yhiq1/help_with_mods_in_offline_mode/

Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: MuffaloSoldier on August 22, 2016, 03:58:02 PM
I contacted Steam support about this, they answered I should go fuck myself that they don't support mods.

I insisted this is not a problem with mods, but with the steam client since it happens in at least two games in Windows and Linux, and asked them to forward the bug to the steam client devs.

We'll see.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: milon on August 22, 2016, 05:01:29 PM
Thanks for the update.  Keep us posted.  I hope they do realize it's a Steam issue...
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: Telarin on August 22, 2016, 06:47:05 PM
Since this weekend, I have been having the same problem. Rimworld has always played with Steam offline just fine, up until now. Now I get the same dreaded "Downloading" screen that you posted in the first screenshot. Please let me know if you find a solution, or if Steam comes back with anything more useful.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: MuffaloSoldier on August 23, 2016, 02:25:40 AM
Telarin (and others with the same problem): if you have the time it might be helpful if you contacted Steam support, too. I guess the more people give feedback on this and insist that its a problem of the steam client, the earlier Valve will move on this.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: Telarin on August 23, 2016, 07:34:02 AM
Yep, I put in a support request to Steam. Haven't heard anything back from them yet, but hopefully enough reports will get them to actually look into it.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: MuffaloSoldier on August 24, 2016, 01:38:45 AM
No luck with the steam support. Although I described that this problem cannot be related to the games or mods, but must instead be client-related, they answered again that the "mods are obviously not compatible anymore. Please talk to the developers of the mods" (Translation by me).

So, I could again insist that the steam support didn't even understand the problem, but I don't think that they will cooperate on this. There is a reason why their support has such a bad reputation...  :-\

Could Ludeon (Tynan?) look into this? I will try to contact the Colossal Order support, too, since I also own Cities:Skylines and it has the same problem. Perhaps the game developers have a better chance to get Valve moving. Mods should work offline.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: milon on August 24, 2016, 11:03:34 AM
I'll ask Tynan to look into this.  I'm going to guess, though, that his priority right now is prepping the A15 build, so we may not hear back for a while.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: Tynan on August 24, 2016, 02:13:38 PM
I can mention it to my contact at Valve. Thanks for reporting.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: Telarin on August 26, 2016, 08:00:33 PM
Reply from Steam support (paraphrased): Contact Rimworld support.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: Tynan on August 26, 2016, 08:08:02 PM
Yeah, they don't know anything about tech issues like this.

This won't be solved soon but as I said I will contact Steam people.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: Telarin on December 27, 2016, 09:09:06 AM
Any progress on this issue? It is terribly annoying not being able to play the Steam version offline. I can certainly play the stand alone version, but I tend to play with a bunch of mods, and keeping them up-to-date manually can become quite time consuming.
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: Tynan on December 27, 2016, 01:27:25 PM
It is possible to play the Steam version offline by moving the mod folders from your Steam workshop folder to the RimWorldWin/Mods folder. But unfortunately this underlying issue likely won't be fixed soon; I think it's part of Steam...
Title: Re: Broken Steam Mods
Post by: nccvoyager on December 27, 2016, 05:14:18 PM
(Based upon my observations of the Steam client over the last four years or so.)
It seems that the Steam client will sometimes, even in offline mode, attempt to randomly check the "integrity" of some game files before launch, such as the core executable, synchronized files, and mods.
In offline mode, this can result in the game becoming unplayable until the game is launched in online mode again.
This often seems to be triggered when one of the files that are checked has a "modified" date that is different that that of the last synchronization, update, download, launch, or close.
Though, sometimes it does seem to randomly do this, or, (as mentioned,) often does this when put into offline mode.

Why the client does this, I do not know, though I can make a guess.
When talking about core files, this could be intended to stop malicious code from being uploaded to cloud by only allowing modifications by the Steam client, or the game itself.
Otherwise, this could be intended to prevent cheating by way of modifying game files.
Or it could just be to piss off people with crappy/no internet.
Really, it could just be an oversight; something missed during testing.