1. Steam is required for installing Fallout New Vegas.

2. Steam has to be online to be able to play Fallout New Vegas

3. Steam, even when told not to, forces the 1.2 update onto Fallout New Vegas

4. The 1.2 makes Fallout New Vegas not start or open a saved game. It always CTD.


5. When I am on the road and not have internet I cannot even play a single player game.



This is a fine job gamesas made! Very professional, very competent.

I hear you!!! Bethesda get rid of steam

1: So it is.

2: No it's not.

3: See above for a fix.

4: Did you implement the ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated re-fix?

5: See #3.

or at least make it optional.

MadCat

I cannot start Fallout New Vegas offline.

I installed it while Steam was set to offline.
When starting the game (and thus preventing the update) Steam tells me I have to be online.

Once I go online, even when telling Steam not to update it updates Fallout New Vegas.
They you can play if offline but the patch is installed and the game cannot start a new game or load a saved game.

What is this: ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated

The validade game cache which tells you that Steam failed to validate one file and while re-acquire it while it never does?

"What is this: ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated "


that makes the game search for textures outside of the archives first so any new textures show up in game. not sure how that would help you though.

Edit: Board misquoted

That is what I thought since ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated does not pop-up with any 1.2 patch google searches.

well they mention this here

will try it out

http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/255381-fallout-new-vegas-archiveinvalidation-invalidated-endorsemants/page__st__140

this is a link for it just in case -> http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37004

When I buy a DVD game, I don't expect to invite a site like Steam onto my PC and to regulate how and when I play the game. And to PREVENT me from playing what I paid for, whenever and wherever I choose, is an invasion of privacy. They should pay ME. Never again.

Halcyon

amen to that.

I second that "amen"

Beth next time please think of everyone, not just the the "Steamers"

Cannot install offline
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=6942

Cannot start game after DVD install
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=6943

When started a new game after patch 1.2
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=6944


gamesas success story of professional code monkeys.

Of course you can't install in Offline mode, or play without going online at least once. That's the DRM part of Steam. Your game has to be validated as authentic, something many, many other games are also doing now.

You also say it installs the 1.2 patch automatically? Even with the "Do not keep this game up to date" option chosen? It will have to do some work when validating the game, but have you confirmed that you got the 1.2.0.285 version after it's done?

If so, have you considered installing the game and then trying to back up the FalloutNV.exe file, allow the game to authorize itself and whatever else it has to do and then copy back the saved FalloutNV.exe? That EXE is the only thing that was altered in the latest patch.

I know Steam is inconvenient compared to not having any DRM, but it is more convenient than a lot of other DRM.

This posted on a different forum but did not work for me.

I'm going to copy paste the solution I posted on GameFAQs

It seems that for me and some others, the new patch .exe doesn't like the way archive invalidation loads the .bsa.
What you have to do is go to your fallout_default.ini in the game directory and look for something like this:

[Archive]
SInvalidationFile=ArchiveInvalidation.txt
iRetainFilenameOffsetTable=1
iRetainFilenameStringTable=1
iRetainDirectoryStringTable=1
bCheckRuntimeCollisions=0
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
bUseArchives=1
SArchiveList=AII-FNV!.bsa, Fallout - Textures.bsa, Fallout - Textures2.bsa, Meshes.bsa, Fallout - Voices1.bsa, Fallout - Sound.bsa, Fallout - Misc.bsa

AII-FNV!.bsa is the archive invalidation .bsa. For some reason the game doesn't like it being loaded first, so you have to change it to:

SArchiveList=Meshes.bsa, Fallout - Voices1.bsa, Fallout - Sound.bsa, Fallout - Misc.bsa, AII-FNV!.bsa, Fallout - Textures.bsa, Fallout - Textures2.bsa

Basically just copy paste the AI .bsa along with both texture .bsa entries and put them at the end after misc.bsa.
I'm not sure if it needs to be at the end or just not be the first, either way the above worked for me. The texture .bsa entries have to be after the archive invalidation one.

- Hope this helps.

showler

yes Steam updates Fallout no matter what option I select for not updating automatically.
As I said I cannot even start it offline after having installed it from the DVD.

I get the DRM thing but honestly this whole situation is just BS.

I hardly use Steam and have no idea what you are talking about in regards to the backup function
since it only allows me to backup the whole game 6.8 GB.


But I should not even have to do this.

I don't think that feature has ever worked correctly with a non-valve title, or at least it's never been consistent.

When you install the game off the disc, before Steam goes online, make a copy of that one file FalloutNV.exe before it gets updated. Then copy it back over the updated one.

Have you ever had it installed and working on this particular computer? Archive Invalidation should have nothing to do with you since you apparently never installed that mod.

Before the patch it worked - while heavily CTD.

So I am pretty sure it is not my computer.


I will try the exe swap as you suggested - lets see
have to wait another 35 minute for another installation.

It isn't that it's inconvenient, it's that it seems to be causing problems for many users. It's also making debugging the crashing problems many of us are having more problematic.

To say that steam does anything in a DRM capacity isn't correct. Most torrent sites already have methods that bypass steam. So, at the moment, from a user perspective all steam is doing is getting in the way of those of us who did purchase the game. Pirates ignore steam, and have been for years. They don't have the steam related issues the rest of us are having. This in no way makes it beneficial to anybody. You can't even say the auto-update feature of steam is a benefit at this point as many of us are trying to avoid it so we can play the game with fewer crashes.

Showler

so this is interesting. There is no exe once the DVD finished installing.

So that swap exe trick does not work thanks to Steam.

It looks like the exe are created while doing the forced update but those exes are v1.2.


1. Install DVD

2. While close to finish installing cut internet line to prevent Steam auto update (while being deselected, nice Steam)

3. No FalloutNV.exe or FalloutNVLauncher.exe visible.

4. Start FalloutNV while update is disabled game cannot be started and Steam goes into update mode.

5. While doing the update the exes appear.

6. Property check and version reveals they are all 1.2 versions.





I had a similar issue with Operation Flashpoint. The game was so buggy and online servers
so useless the game was dead 3 month after release and they do not spend any time on it
fixing it more.

I am not risking this again.


So thats it then for me. No other option. Bestbuy I come.
No matter what legal right they claim I do not have.

This is not right either. We are customers not cash cows.
If they wanna run an update make sure it works. Or there is at least a way to use this product with
having the update forced on you.

I have to do the same for work.

Yes, steam stinks, its low grade spyware and adware. But in truth, Steam just like Microsoft live was chosen because of Money and Politics.

It makes it very hard to use any mod or utility that relies on the .exe as Fallout New Vegas can not be run directly from the .exe in its current state.

Of course if you would like to hear the official excuse (Which by the way is bull - again refer to Money & Politics):

" A few weeks back Bethesda and Obsidian started taking questions for the next Fallout title. A staff member on Bethesda's forum posted answers to a dozen of those questions yesterday, revealing that Fallout: New Vegas will rely on Steam for DRM. After looking at other options, the developers decided that Steam is the "best, least intrusive experience for PC gamers." The use of Valve's platform is great news, considering the recent string of less-than-cherished always-connected mechanisms from folks like Ubisoft.

Offering his take on Steam, senior producer Jason Bergman said the platform is tightly integrated with New Vegas. Steamworks is implemented in "as light and unobtrusive away possible," and it will be mandatory to play the upcoming Fallout. That said, you can install the game on as many systems as you want, and besides the initial activation, an Internet connection isn't required. " - TECHSPOT June 9, 2010




Would anyone just perfer the old fashion DRM on disk with the entire working program? Needless to say, those without internet access can not play the game ( O' yes - I was in the military too ).

:banghead:

Theft and software piracy is a pretty big issue.

But this steam thing only turned out to me feeling that gamesas stole my money.

What they accuse Ubisoft and other publishers of they now somewhat do on their own.

If intended or not it does not matter. If you pay money for a product and they force you
to use Steam then they also have to make sure the product runs and not leave you alone
for days with a non working product.

Pretty sad.

Sorry I couldn't help. The lack of an EXE from the DVD is probably part of the encryption/activation routine. Since Steam now only has the 1.2 version on their servers, I guess that's the only version they can activate/install for you.

Curious: Where are you getting "ads" from Steam? Unless you mean the Store itself, which honestly you never have to see if you don't want to.

i love these anti steam threads, are you people aware most of the PC gaming community love steam ? As a digital store and a place where i can launch all my games with a few mouse clicks its awesome, and you sometimes get great deals on games.. wait till the annual steam christmas sale when a lot of games will be going for cheap if your a gamer it will be like christmas literally or something like that

As for the auto patching are you people aware that generally auto patching is a good thing ? Generally it saves us gamers from having to hunt around game sites or support forums to find the latest patch. Its not steams fault that Bethesda and obsidian cant program for peanuts and screw up everything they touch and don't test what they make. If your going to blame anyone blame the source, blame Bethesda they are the ones who are screwing things up and making your games unplayable, not steam or valve...

Ohh and steam has an offline mode that works fairly well..

Yea, I rage when people just don't seem to get why Steam is a GREAT thing for PC gaming....


SIGH


I have found that most people that complain are not hardcoe PC gamers. They may be computer people all right,they may be SUPER tech savy; but these are not people that have grown up playing computer games.Ask them if they remember validating a game by replying to questions asked by an NPC with answers from a printed out manual. They won't. Anyone that has been playing computer games that long loves Steam because of all the benefits and ease of use it brings to PC gaming. We may HATE it when it's buggy, but we still love it. I think we as longtime PC gamers need to realize this, and try to help them out.