How do I avoid the next update?

[Topper]

I'm worried that when A15 releases its going to ruin my saves by killing all the mods I'm using. Is there a way to prevent steam from updating?

[asanbr]

If you buy the game off steam you have to update manually, so then it won't be forced on you. Probably not the answer you want though.

Is is possible to play offline with steam? I know I have played some other steam games offline. In that case, just don't connect before playing Rimworld.

[RemingtonRyder]

You can copy the game directory and run it as a separate installation. You just need to have Steam running for it to work. However, this would probably prevent some Steam Workshop features from working.

[ThiIsMe007]

The future of DRMs is the past = no DRM at all.

Nowadays, I avoid buying games on Steam, at least the ones that I know that I'm going to mod with, to avoid such issues.

There used to be a time where I disabled auto-update on all my games, and for some reason they would still update sooner or later. Here are two fairly recent examples of users who seem to have the same issue (neither of which are me by the way).

Since Steam didn't care about my repeated questions and requests, I am not going to worry about Steam anymore either each time I can.

You can buy the game without any DRM from Ludeon's site directly. For other games (and maybe one day Rimworld too), there's also the GOG option. Otherwise, like others here before advised you, you probably should disable updates on your Steam game : it may... or may not work as you want it to.

[Topper]

I own the regular version but I like the steam workshop updating my mods..but that benefit is a detriment if updates are forced and all the mods get invalidated. Please tell me the release on steam was more than a money grab and practicalities like this issue will be supported and addressed>? I have a setting button relating to the update with every option but to opt out of updates..why is this?

[Mikhail Reign]

By passing Steams DRM is so simple I don't consider it a problem.

[FalconBR]

Steam version should not have a DRM, but the DRM is so easy to bypass that it doesn´t even count as DRM.

[Topper]

I'm not really interested in starting a drm debate. The workshop's really handy for mod management but a forced update will irreversibly kill current saves because of mod conflicts. There doesnt seem to be an option to turn off updates even though there is a drop down menu for setting update orders. Can this menu hae an option to block updates or is there something I'm not getting? Do we have to wait till the outcry of upset customers after the first update before we start talking about how to fix this?

[Gadg3t]

the only way todo it is to turn off the auto update in the game preference and run steam in offline mode everytime you want to play rimworld

[Tynan]

You'll be able to go back to an "alpha14" beta branch.

In fact, I'll set it up now.

[Jaxxa]

While you do have the A14 Branch on steam, remember as mods get updated to A15 (and steam automatically updates them) they will also breake your games if you are staying on A14.

[Tynan]

While you do have the A14 Branch on steam, remember as mods get updated to A15 (and steam automatically updates them) they will also breake your games if you are staying on A14.

Yep. Not much I can do about that besides suggest people put up versioned copies of their mods.

I wish Steam handled this better but... it doesn't

[Topper]

Thanks Tynan that sounds like a great solution. Good point with the mod being updated..didnt think of that..maybe there will be incentive to produce a15 versions rather than writing over the a14s

[DariusWolfe]

Steam's system actually incentivizes the opposite; Versioned mods on Steam will have to be uploaded as separate files, meaning that the download counts and endorsements will not stack. As these are the way that Steam's workshop knows what to recommend, it'd be against a mod author's best interests to create different versions of their mods (though the bigger, more experienced modders may do so anyway).

This is why I'm a big fan of the Nexus for mod hosting and management (aside from using it for years, ever since Oblivion was the new hotness) as it is designed for versioned mods, in-depth details and change files, and the Nexus Mod Manager is constantly in development, and currently works with dozens of games. Given how simple mod installation is for Rimworld, it could easily add Rimworld as a supported mod, if it became popular enough on the Nexus.

Ideally, Steam would improve its systems, but as people have been clamoring for that without answer since they first introduced the Skyrim workshop, I'm not holding my breath.

[Jaxxa]

After the release of the next version I am planning to just update my existing mods on the Workshop tot he next version.

If someone is going to change to using a previous build, they should ether back up their workshop mods or can go get the non steam version.

While you do have the A14 Branch on steam, remember as mods get updated to A15 (and steam automatically updates them) they will also breake your games if you are staying on A14.

Yep. Not much I can do about that besides suggest people put up versioned copies of their mods.

I wish Steam handled this better but... it doesn't

Not without a full rework of how mods are handled.
I did see a suggestion that the workshop could allow users to manually allow mod updated by moving the mods from the workshop to another location that Rimworld would actually load from. Then when when the workshop updated a mod it would just be flagged as Update available and the user could choose to copy it over to where the rest of the mods are located, or ignore it and continue using the older version.

But that then adds complexity in both using it and developing it.