Launcher Solution!

[ageust2]

After many months a solution to the significant problems of your new launcher has been discovered!

A user, awoken eyes, on the steam forums discovered that...

In your Steam\steamapps\common\Hearts of Iron IV folder, there should be a .JSON file called 'launcher-settings'. Open that file with notepad or something similar. For some reason there is the following line: "gameDataPath": "%USER_DOCUMENTS%/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron IV",

I have no idea what a %USER_DOCUMENTS% is, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist. But if you replace '%USER_DOCUMENTS%' with 'Documents', the mod problem should be fixed. No idea if this fix will work for anyone else, but it did for me at least.

Mods selected, not loading properly :: Hearts of Iron IV General Discussions

As the title states. I select my mods (Old worlds blues, Enclave and more division icons) click play but it just loads vanilla HOI4. I've noticed more people have this issue and I hope there is a fix.

steamcommunity.com

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This did indeed work! although it removed the launchers ability to detect local mods for some reason. I replaced documents with the full file path (c:/users/Steve/DOCUMENTS/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron IV in my case) and full functionality was restored. No error messages. No absurd delays.

I'm guessing %user_documents% is supposed to be dynamic to the local username, but for whatever reason its clearly not working in this case. Hopefully with this knowledge you will be able to implement an actual fix to this problem that has dogged us for the better part of a year now.

I have no idea why this would be the issue, why it would work sometimes but not others is a continuing mystery but if its going to work consistently I'm not going to question it.

 

[Idhrendur]

Amazing discovery!

 

[ageust2]

not as fool proof as I'd first hoped, there's still errors once in a while. but its a vast improvement! maybe 1/3 launches fail now instead of like 4/5 before

 

[AndrewT]

Of course %USER_DOCUMENTS% exists, if it didn't then the launcher would never work for anyone with any game. It's a standard Windows variable that points to the current location of the Windows User Documents folder.

If replacing it with literal "Documents" helps you, that means your variable is pointing somewhere else; no wonder you have problems! To see that right click on Documents in the left column of Windows Explorer, just under This PC. Go to properties, location - that's where that variable points.

 

[ageust2]

The path of my documents folder found on the left of the explorer window is the same as the one I entered manually.

Everything I'm reading online suggests the proper way to write that would be c:/users/%userprofile%/documents or c:/users/%USERNAME%/... which brings you to the correct folder when entered into explorer. not %user_documents% (i cant find any trace of this variable online), which returns an error when typed as an address into windows explorer.

c:/users/%USERNAME%/documents/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron IV seems to be working relatively consistently.

Is %user_documents% a windows 10 thing perhaps? I'm running windows 8.1 because I'm not masochistic enough to run windows 10, but too masochistic for windows 7. (although i can't find any evidence of %user_documents% in microsoft's documentation. my faith its a real thing is fading fast)

 

[AndrewT]

As i say, that variable must exist or the launcher would not work on anyone's machine. It works on Win 7, 8.1 and 10 at least, we know!

 

[ageust2]

That is a compelling case, but there is clearly an issue here.
If changing this fixes the problem, this must be the culprit no?

This is perhaps a better question for Microsoft than you, but if %user_documents% is a valid variable why does this get returned when entering it as an address? Other environment variables like %username% correctly dumps us in the C:/users/steve likes its supposed to. Your variable gives this.

There is very clearly an issue here and it is not just me its effecting.

 

[ageust2]

just tested it on some other computers. This variable does not work on windows 7, 8 or 10. I really think you should investigate this further, your prespective is not being borne out by reality. Perhaps it has some niche application in which it would work, but its failure to function and its total absence from microsoft's documentation are not confidence inducing.

launcher would not work on anyone's machine

I'm not convinced it does. Everyone I know who plays paradox games has had trouble with the launcher.

 

[Idhrendur]

For what it's worth, I can echo the results of these experiments on Windows 10. %userprofile% goes to one above my documents folder, %user_documents% can't be found.

And my mod files in all games using the launcher have the paths written out as fully-qualified, not using a variable at all. This is true for workshop mods, locally installed mods, and mods created on my machine.

 

[AndrewT]

I'm not convinced it does. Everyone I know who plays paradox games has had trouble with the launcher.

Really, so it does not work for any user at all, including for me or the launcher developer? And when I say "does not work" I mean it would not do anything at all, not just put up mod errors or something.

Look I'm not a developer so I can't speak to the particulars of that variable, but it cannot be that it does not exist or no installation of the launcher would have worked since the day it was released in 2019. Try changing it to %GIBBERISH% or whatever. Any different?

 

[Mousetick]

Yeah, this 'solution' is no solution at all... it's a placebo.

It's true that USER_DOCUMENTS is not a Windows variable, but who cares? It definitely does exist - in the Launcher - which is all that matters. The Launcher interprets this variable to mean "the user's Documents folder".

Keep in mind the Launcher and the games support multiple platforms. So the Launcher developers invented a variable to abstract the location of the user's Documents folder. This allows the game's launcher-settings.json (like all other game data files) to be common to all platforms. The Launcher then resolves the variable to the actual path depending on which platform it's running on:
- %USERPROFILE%\Documents on Windows
- $HOME/Documents on macOS
- $HOME/SomewhereIDon'tKnowExactly on Linux

They named the variable USER_DOCUMENTS but they could have named it POO_POO_PEE_DOO, or something else. USER_DOCUMENTS is easier to understand however.

As was pointed out, if USER_DOCUMENTS had been wrong all along, the Launcher would have never ever worked for anybody...

There are some serious issues with the Launcher, but that variable definitely is not an issue.

 

[ageust2]

You make a far more compelling case than Andrew did and clearly have a better grasp of whats happening here than either of us, but the question of why this seemingly resolves the problem remains. You say its a placebo, but the fact I and other who have implemented this fix no longer suffer from constant errors suggests its more than that.

I agree it doesn't make a lot of sense, but i can't deny what my eyes tell me.

adding the %gibberish% variable predictably resulted in an access error. However this seems to have truncated the various time wasting functions of the launcher, loads almost instantly and will successfully launch the gane with the last selected playset. I will absolutely be running it this way next time i don't need to adjust playsets to save a substantial amount of time.

 

[Mousetick]

The question of why this seemingly resolves the problem remains. You say its a placebo, but the fact I and other who have implemented this fix no longer suffer from constant errors suggests its more than that.

I agree it doesn't make a lot of sense, but i can't deny what my eyes tell me.

There's no denying that your observations are real, not made up, and that your conclusion based on these observations is made in good faith. But that conclusion is in most likelihood largely influenced by confirmation bias.

You even acknowledged that it's "not as fool proof as I'd first hoped", the errors still happening but seemingly less often, based on anecdotal evidence of a limited numbers of runs. An actual solution would have completely eliminated whatever issue is causing the errors. Since the errors occur intermittently with or without the 'solution', you need to run a large number of A/B tests with a large number of users in order to statistically determine if the 'solution' provides any significant improvement over the unmodified configuration. I'm fairly certain that such tests would find no difference.

adding the %gibberish% variable predictably resulted in an access error. However this seems to have truncated the various time wasting functions of the launcher, loads almost instantly and will successfully launch the gane with the last selected playset. I will absolutely be running it this way next time i don't need to adjust playsets to save a substantial amount of time.

I'd like to suggest the following workaround, which I use, to help ease your pain. It doesn't require touching any configuration file and assumes you're using Steam. It doesn't address the issues and errors you've been experiencing, it merely skips the Launcher when it's not needed.

This involves a one-time setup of creating a shortcut to the Paradox game in Steam that bypasses the Launcher entirely. So you then have 2 shortcuts: 1) the standard Steam shortcut, which starts the Launcher, that you need to use only when you want to change DLCs or mods or playsets; 2) the other shortcut that you have created, which starts the game directly, that you can use anytime you just want to play with the current DLC/mod/playset settings.

Step by step guide:

Pull-down the Games menu in the Steam client and choose the last option. In the 'Add a Game' window that appears, click the 'Browse' button at the bottom, and navigate to the game folder. For example with HOI 4 on Windows, the game folder would be by default C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Hearts of Iron IV. In the game folder, select the game executable file and click 'Open'. For example with HOI 4 on Windows, you would select hoi4.exe (it helps if Windows is configured to display file extensions).

You get back to the 'Add a Game' window with your selected game at the top of the list:

Click the 'Add Selected Programs' at the bottom of the window. This will close the window and return to the Steam client's main window.

The added game will have been put by default in the 'Uncategorized' section of your library. It may be difficult to locate, you can search for it:

Now right-click on it and select 'Properties...' in the drop-down menu. In the 'Shortcut' window that appears, you can edit the name, and change the icon if you like:

You have created your Launcher-bypassing shortcut. You can categorize and organize it any way you like, like any other game in your Steam library.

Even though Steam's feature is called 'Add a Non-Steam game to my Library', it's perfectly ok to add an already installed Steam game in this case. Which means that when you use your own shortcut, all the Steam features still work (in-game browser, screenshots, achievement, playing time etc).

 

[ageust2]

Imagine how great things would be if Paradox's actual staff were half as knowledgeable or helpful as you. the launcher probably wouldn't be a trainwreck. thank you.

 

[dalbert909]

I've tried this and still cannot run my save.

 

[AndrewT]

I've tried this and still cannot run my save.

Please make a new thread in the Tech Support forum of whichever game you are having this trouble with, and describe in detail there your problem and its history. Thanks!

 

[Oltred]

Hi everyone! I little speak english, please use translator! I'm from Hungary!
Sziasztok! Az lenne a kérdésem, hogy a leírtak szerint használom a konvertert, de a viktória2 lokalizáció olvasásánál leragad, 15% és nem csinál semmit. Már próbáltam egy teljes éjszakára úgy hagyni, hát ha befejezi, de semmi. Modot használok, a mentésem EU4-ből lett viktória2-be átalakítva, azt szeretném tovább vinni. Tudna benne valaki segíteni?

Köszönöm előre is!

Oltred

 

[AndrewT]

Hi everyone! I little speak english, please use translator! I'm from Hungary!
Sziasztok! Az lenne a kérdésem, hogy a leírtak szerint használom a konvertert, de a viktória2 lokalizáció olvasásánál leragad, 15% és nem csinál semmit. Már próbáltam egy teljes éjszakára úgy hagyni, hát ha befejezi, de semmi. Modot használok, a mentésem EU4-ből lett viktória2-be átalakítva, azt szeretném tovább vinni. Tudna benne valaki segíteni?

Köszönöm előre is!

Oltred

You have posted in a thread on a completely unrelated topic.

Please post your problem in the Victoria 2 User Mods forum. And you MUST post there in English, no other language. Use Google Translate if you need to.

Thanks.