Issue with MP and Steam

[Raxyk]

Good evening,

I'm quite sure this issue is probably something related to the Steam client but it could also be something about Imperator's or PDX files, so I'm pasting the post I just put on Steam support to see if anyone can help with it.

Firstly I'd like to thank in advance anyone taking the time to read through this. I'm experiencing a particular situation regarding the Steam Cloud that I think isn't very common. I'll explain further.

I bought Imperator Rome like 2 days ago, added the game to my library, downloaded it but didn't launch it at the moment because I had to do some other things around. So when I came back to try it out, I just noticed that my internet connection wasn't working at that specific time, due to some company reason that was leaving me temporarily without internet. Anyway, I decided to launch the game, since I just wanted to see the map and whatever.

After pressing launch, I was greeted by the 'Steam was unable to sync your files' pop-up. I thought it wouldn't mind launching it without internet because I wasn't going to start any serious gaming so I decided to run the game. I took a look here and there and closed it without spending more than a couple minuts.

My surprise came when I launched the game again. I wasn't able to access the Steam Overlay thing while gaming and I wasn't able to join multiplayer games, showing a tooltip stating "please bind your account to Steam". My Paradox account (the game's developer) is sure bound to Steam and the game itself appears as owned on their website, so that clearly wasn't the problem.

I started looking around for some possible reasons but couldn't find someone that had a similar problem. Most probable reason that comes to my mind is that some config file got written (since it was my first time launching the game) stating that it shouldn't be using Steam Cloud, but I had no luck trying to erase that config file. I think I may be missing some cache data hidden somewhere else but I'll list the things I've tried so far:

- Cleaning the AppData from both Steam and Paradox's folders.
- Reinstalling the game (after clearing up the folders mentioned above).
- Verifying (or cleaning?) install setup cache from Steam.
- Verifying files' integrity.
- Trying some configs from the library itself regarding Steam Cloud and the Overlay thing, specific to the game and to Steam globally.
- Reinstalling Steam after clearing it's AppData folders.
- And possibly something else that I forgot.

Nothing of the above worked. Although I was checking for some extra info at the logs file regarding the cloud, to detect any specific issue or configuration, and could find this lines referring to the game's ID since my Steam reinstall:

[AppID 859580] Starting sync (eval) and some lines below [AppID 859580] Eval complete.

And somewhere below, referring to the same ID:
Starting sync job
[AppID 859580] Starting sync (eval)
[AppID 859580] Eval complete
[AppID 859580] Running AutoCloud on launch. Looking for existing files to watch:
[AppID 859580] AutoCloud done. Watching 0 files
[AppID 859580] Running AutoCloud on exit. Looking for new and updated files
[AppID 859580] AutoCloud complete

I honestly don't know how to interpret those lines but I'm hoping for someone to come up with a possible solution to the issue using some of the information I've shared.

Thanks again for your time and help!

 

[AndrewT]

FYI the game's config is held in:
Documents/Paradox/Imperator/pdx_settings.txt
which you don't mention; that whole Documents/Paradox/Imperator/ folder should be deleted as part of your clean install process.

That said there's no setting in that file that says "don't talk to Steam" of course!

 

[Raxyk]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your answer. As I've added on the ticket I submitted yesterday, I was wondering if there was any way I could "log" into steam from the launcher or the game itself? I've seen some screenshots of Imperator's Menu where it states "unbind account from steam" or something like that. I am not given any option there, I'll attach one screenshot for you to see, and maybe this can help ironing the issue. Obviously not being available to multiplayer or achievements is kind of a lackluster for me . Another thing that came to my mind is that when I tried to launch the game without internet the launcher didn't even load and had to shut it down from the task manager because it wasn't even closing. When I launched it again with internet just logged into my PDX account and everything was going fine except the not connected to Steam issue.

By the way, just to add every bit of information I can, I've noticed that in the PDX launcher the FPS counter from Steam (an option you can set to see the FPS of the game while playing) is on, but when I launch the game itself it doesn't appear. So it might be that while the launcher does recognize Steam the game itself does not? Furthermore, I tried installing a mod from Steam, and it was being detected by the launcher, and I can enable/disable it, don't know if this can help you in any way to figure things out.

Regarding the settings.txt I suppose this should be erased when I uninstall the game, and couldn't find any line referring to the Steam or whatsoever, so I'm kinda lost with all of it.

If you need more info, ask me out. Thanks again!

Edit: adding a launcher screenshot too for you to see how it's showing the FPS counter and the mod enabled.

 

[AndrewT]

Regarding the settings.txt I suppose this should be erased when I uninstall the game

Not at all, no. That whole folder is created by the game, not Steam - Steam does not know that folder exists so does not touch it when you uninstall the game. Luckily, otherwise uninstalling the game would delete all your save files too!

For a clean reinstall you do need to manually make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam Imperator or Documents Imperator locations, before installing again.


As far as your problem goes, something is stopping the game from contacting Steam as it runs, so you see that "can't do MP" message in the main game menu.

Add steam.exe and imperator.exe to the exceptions lists in your antivirus app and in all firewalls you might have running.

Run the game from the PLAY button in Steam, not from a desktop short cut, imperator.exe, or any other way.

 

[Raxyk]

Okay so I've tried yet again another clean installation of Imperator, making sure I deleted every folder I could find containing some of it's files, and also containing some PDX launcher files, in the AppData folder and the Documents folder, aswell as Steam's folder, but I think I'm missing some, because when I reinstalled the game, and launch it (from Steam), I'm already logged in in the PDX launcher. I remember that when I first launched the game I had to manually log in. Sadly the issue persists. What keeps bugging me is the thing that the launcher is showing the FPS counter, so it's recognizing it's being launched from Steam, but then the game itself does not.

Don't know if I can get a complete list of the folders where some data is created/stored when you install Imperator:Rome, not only from the game itself but also from PDX launcher, so I can try an absolutely clean installation of it.

Anyway I'm very grateful for the help you've been giving. Cheers!

 

[AndrewT]

The game only has files in the two locations I described.

The launcher can have files elsewhere though, often under C:/program files (86)/Paradox Interactive/ for instance. But I highly doubt they have anything to do with this problem, which as I say is almost certainly to do with something blocking communications in the game/Steam area.

Did you Add steam.exe and imperator.exe to the exceptions lists in your antivirus app and in all firewalls you might have running ?

We might try a clean reinstall of Steam too, if the above doesn't help.

 

[Raxyk]

Hey Andrew,

I'm willing to try another clean installation of both Imperator and Steam, but I'd like to make sure every stored file relating Imperator and Steam are deleted before doing so. Sadly, the Steam support has been kinda vague on their answers to my demands and have not given me any kind of list regarding Steam cloud files, but I'll look around the web to try and get everything gone. However I'd still need the launcher files, because as I told you before, I think there's some files I'm missing because of the already logged in thing that I told you. If you could get a bit more accurate on that topic, I'd be very thankful. Currently I've located the Launcher folder on the AppData, the launcher-main on AppData too, and the files on Imperator's folder.

 

[AndrewT]

The complication is whether you also have the standalone Paradox launcher installed, I haven't completely been able to nail down which of the two very similar launchers puts what files where.

I guess we could try removing them all. AFAIK none of these apps leave records in the registry.


However I see you haven't addressed my question about firewalls, which IMO is far more likely to be the issue than any file problem. Make sure Imperator.exe is allowed through all firewalls you might have (Windows own one, one you may have installed there, any in your internet router/modem). All traffic to and from api.paradoxplaza.com must get through. You could try a tracert to that URL and see how far it gets.

 

[Raxyk]

I don't have the standalone PDX launcher installed, and by the way yeah I forgot to tell you that I looked for the firewall exceptions: both Imperator and Steam are allowed to go through, at least from Windows' one, don't know if my router has any but I think it shouldn't, how could I check that? Anyway, I don't know how to do a tracert, but I'm running CK2 with the same config with no problems. If you could give me some insight on how to do it, I'll try it as soon as I can.

 

[AndrewT]

don't know if my router has any but I think it shouldn't, how could I check that?

You'd need to find that out from the router maker I guess.

I don't know how to do a tracert,

https://kb.intermedia.net/article/682

 

[Raxyk]

Allright so here are the results, it seems some ports (or routes?) are not getting through. Note that the timer out notifications are in spanish because I live in Barcelona, basically 1 and 11-15 are not working properly.

1 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
2 4 ms 5 ms 3 ms 100.101.0.1
3 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms 10.15.3.57
4 2 ms 1 ms 2 ms 10.15.3.14
5 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms lag-151.ear1.Madrid2.Level3.net [213.242.109.89]
6 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms ae-1-3101.bar1.Madrid2.Level3.net [4.69.210.222]
7 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms ae-1-3101.bar1.Madrid2.Level3.net [4.69.210.222]
8 11 ms 10 ms 11 ms 213.242.113.114
9 15 ms 20 ms 20 ms 52.93.17.100
10 17 ms 17 ms 18 ms 52.93.17.229
11 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
12 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
13 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
14 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
15 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
16 17 ms 17 ms 17 ms server-13-224-114-9.mad50.r.cloudfront.net [13.224.114.9]

So I guess this means something is blocking the connections right? How could I know what's causing it?

 

[AndrewT]

So I guess this means something is blocking the connections right? How could I know what's causing it?

Well, that is the trick! There are many links between you and our servers, any one may be the problem. This is getting well beyond our scope here! It is a little weird that you get timeouts THEN more results.

Have you checked with your router provider? Talked to your ISP? Send them the above output, hopefully they can help diagnose where the issues is, what is in the way.

 

[Raxyk]

Okay so I tried another tracert from another internet connection (phone tethering) and got this result:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.42.129
2 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
3 26 ms 17 ms 27 ms 10.203.9.1
4 36 ms 17 ms 35 ms 10.187.8.4
5 41 ms 18 ms 34 ms 10.203.8.129
6 29 ms 17 ms 27 ms 10.34.66.17
7 46 ms 48 ms 47 ms 10.34.66.2
8 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
9 60 ms 48 ms 48 ms 10.34.34.49
10 44 ms 40 ms 37 ms 99.82.176.154
11 64 ms 62 ms 65 ms 52.93.17.90
12 65 ms 51 ms 49 ms 52.93.17.227
13 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
14 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
15 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
16 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
17 * * * Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
18 38 ms 37 ms 38 ms server-13-224-114-9.mad50.r.cloudfront.net [13.224.114.9]

Anyway I was wondering that, if I'm able to play CK2 on multiplayer and it has no problem with Steam, is this really the matter of the issue? I've had no problem like this never before. I would like to try the full clean installation, so if you could look for the PDS launcher files for me I'd be trying it asap and report what happened.

 

[Raxyk]

Allright so I don't know how but I managed to get it working. I'm gonna write down the steps in case it can help someone in the future:

- Uninstalled I:R and every folder on AppData and on Users/Documents/ relating to it.
- Did the same with every file related to Steam.
- Unbound PDX & Steam accounts.
- Deleted every entry on Windows registry related to Imperator.
- Erased the Temp folder on AppData.
- Restarted the pc.
- Linked Steam & PDX accounts.
- Downloaded Steam & I:R.

And it was working. I don't know what specific step solved it but anyways, I'm really happy now

Thanks Andrew for all your help!!

 

[AndrewT]

Thanks for the update, although I can't account for why that helped. I'll pass that on to my other case of this.