Steam cripples CoH

Mr. Bigglesworth · April 07, 2013, 05:14:18 PM

I have played CoH for years as part of the Steam Relic bundle. Every once in a while Steam forces you out of offline mode by lying, claiming your computer no longer has your account info. BS. As soon as you restart online mode it automatically remembers my acount then logs me in. Fine, it wants you to see their latest games from time to time. Sometimes it starts auto-updating your games. It did this recently with CoH that was working perfectly. The 'news' info box says that Relic is moving its CoH server to steam servers.

Suddenly it is asking for a Relic login. Your game is dead without filling out their BS form. Now Offline is dead, you can only play logged into a Relic Steam account. WTF? THAT WAS NEVER A CONDITION WHEN I BOUGHT THE ******* THING. YOU CANT RETROACTIVELY CHANGE THE TERMS OF THE PURCHASE.

There have been a few occasions like this where you are held hostage for things you have already bought. I stopped buying steam games perferring to have the game find the DVD in the drive. At least it will always run. Recently some games like the last C&C title refuse to play even if the DVD is in the drive. You have to be logged into their server. I refuse to buy any such title.

Longdan · April 07, 2013, 05:24:01 PM

Isn't this from the Microsoft school of business practices? Get on board or **** off and die alone.
They figure you will come around or if not they don't care about your custom.
Ea is the same as far as I am concerned. I have a fatwah against them.

Nefaro · April 07, 2013, 07:29:10 PM

Quote from: Mr. Bigglesworth on April 07, 2013, 05:14:18 PM

Suddenly it is asking for a Relic login. Your game is dead without filling out their BS form. Now Offline is dead, you can only play logged into a Relic Steam account. WTF? THAT WAS NEVER A CONDITION WHEN I BOUGHT THE ******* THING. YOU CANT RETROACTIVELY CHANGE THE TERMS OF THE PURCHASE.

There have been a few occasions like this where you are held hostage for things you have already bought. I stopped buying steam games perferring to have the game find the DVD in the drive. At least it will always run. Recently some games like the last C&C title refuse to play even if the DVD is in the drive. You have to be logged into their server. I refuse to buy any such title.

I've also had at least one DVD title in which a future update required changing the DRM scheme on me for the worse. Wasn't happy, and still sour.

Mr. Bigglesworth · April 07, 2013, 11:54:31 PM

CoH II is in beta for release in a couple of months. This will be a big title that makes or sinks Relic. I would like to get it based on the quality of the last series. If it is requiring a a connection to their server while it is played I am not going to buy it. Playing online is great when you are in control. You know the security risks of open ports to your computer for that time. Having it dictated by young programmer, potential hackers is out of the question.

Bison · April 08, 2013, 12:27:28 AM

Yeah if you update CoH from the disc you still reach the point of the patching process where you have to accept the online registration to proceed. I gave up on CoH a few years back because of the painful patching process. But I didn't realize they shut down the servers which seems odd I always thought the game had a strong fan base.

Arctic Blast · April 08, 2013, 12:35:18 AM

Quote from: Bison on April 08, 2013, 12:27:28 AM
Yeah if you update CoH from the disc you still reach the point of the patching process where you have to accept the online registration to proceed. I gave up on CoH a few years back because of the painful patching process. But I didn't realize they shut down the servers which seems odd I always thought the game had a strong fan base.

They didn't shut down the servers by choice. THQ was footing the bill, and they ceased to exist. Thus, Relic switched over to Steamworks (which they were already doing for the sequel, anyway).

Bison · April 08, 2013, 12:39:31 AM

So the game isn't using Steam servers?

Arctic Blast · April 08, 2013, 12:43:02 AM

Quote from: Bison on April 08, 2013, 12:39:31 AM
So the game isn't using Steam servers?

It is. Hence the Steamworks.

Edit : Good grief. It seems that along with THQ going down, so did the company who actually maintained the game's original servers. So it was either port the original series to Steamworks or start from scratch all over again.

Bison · April 08, 2013, 12:47:42 AM

I mean CoH not CoH2. I guess the issue is authorizing the game key. I didn't see anything in the Steam forums talking about this issue.

Arctic Blast · April 08, 2013, 03:17:48 AM

Quote from: Bison on April 08, 2013, 12:47:42 AM
I mean CoH not CoH2. I guess the issue is authorizing the game key. I didn't see anything in the Steam forums talking about this issue.

So do I. With THQ going down, as well as the company who ran the COH servers, they were about to go bye bye. So Relic switched COH over to Steamworks for server integration. You log in to the Steam servers with the same key you used previously for the Relic servers.

Greybriar · April 08, 2013, 08:32:28 AM

I bought the retail boxed vanilla version of Company of Heroes quite some time ago. While researching the patch process, I learned that as long as I didn't patch past v.1.71.0 I wouldn't have to create and log onto a Relic/THQ/whatever account. The downside is that the expansions are not playable.

Someday I may buy all the games in the Company of Heroes series. But I will wait until all the kinks are hammered out of the recent changes to its online DRM.

JasonPratt · April 08, 2013, 02:52:09 PM

It occurs to me that this may explain some weirdness I had in trying to install DoW:Soulstorm. I thought I had patched the game already, but it flat refused to let me create a player account. After a night or two I gave up, made a note that I should pick up the titles on Steam or Gamersgate (preferably the latter) the next time they were on sale, and moved along. But now I'm worried I'm going to be shut out of playing DoW again ever... :-\

Mr. Bigglesworth · April 08, 2013, 04:08:53 PM

Quote from: JasonPratt on April 08, 2013, 02:52:09 PM
It occurs to me that this may explain some weirdness I had in trying to install DoW:Soulstorm. I thought I had patched the game already, but it flat refused to let me create a player account. After a night or two I gave up, made a note that I should pick up the titles on Steam or Gamersgate (preferably the latter) the next time they were on sale, and moved along. But now I'm worried I'm going to be shut out of playing DoW again ever... :-\

DOW 1 including the expansions has always worked without DRM AFAIN. I have never had a problem playing offline.

eyebiter · April 08, 2013, 05:46:27 PM

If you go into your firewall and block the ip address of their authentication server you can still play offline single player without a relic account on steam.

Mr. Bigglesworth · April 08, 2013, 09:52:14 PM

I did. in fact all incoming connections are blocked. The router was unplugged. Beat that firewall.

The game still boots to the login screen with the only option of filling it out or exit to windows.