Launcher weirdness - where to post bug report or ask for tech support?

[Penta2]

The reason I'm posting in this forum and not a game-specific forum: It happens with the launchers for CK3, Stellaris, and HOI4. Mods, if there's a better place to put this, please advise me (and feel free to move the thread if that's a thing you can do).

Now, the actual problem: Every time I load the launcher it wants me to agree to the EULA. Every. Single. Time. I have over 467 hours in CK3, played it since release, and every time it asks me to agree to the EULA again. (I don't recall offhand if this happened before I got CK3.) It happens the exact same way in Stellaris and CK3, this is despite uninstalling and reinstalling all three games at least once (given the sizes of the Steam installs, I hope never to do that again, let's just say that) and (for unrelated reasons) doing a clean reinstall of Windows 11 in the meantime.

What gives, and how can I stop the pop-up from appearing every single time?

 

[AndrewT]

It happens with the launchers for CK3, Stellaris, and HOI4.

That's because it is 'launcher' not 'launchers' - all those games use the same installation of the same launcher; if one has a problem with it they all will.

Here is fine for launcher-specific problems, OR the tech support forum of any affected game.


As to your issue, that sounds like an inability for the launcher to make changes to config files. What antivirus app do you use? You need to make sure all these apps are in its exceptions lists:

C:/users/{username}/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2023.6/paradox launcher.exe
C:/users/{username}/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/bootstrapper-v2.exe
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.

IF that doesn't help, also set each of those .exe files to run as the Windows Admin user.

Does thathelp?

 

[Penta2]

That's because it is 'launcher' not 'launchers' - all those games use the same installation of the same launcher; if one has a problem with it they all will.

Here is fine for launcher-specific problems, OR the tech support forum of any affected game.


As to your issue, that sounds like an inability for the launcher to make changes to config files. What antivirus app do you use? You need to make sure all these apps are in its exceptions lists:

C:/users/{username}/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2023.6/paradox launcher.exe
C:/users/{username}/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/bootstrapper-v2.exe
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.

IF that doesn't help, also set each of those .exe files to run as the Windows Admin user.

Does thathelp?

For the record, the antivirus I'm using is Windows Defender on Windows 11 22H2. Did the exclusions, will test tomorrow. However, oddly, it looks like I have two versions of the launcher installed?

 

[AndrewT]

It is normal for a game to install an older launcher version, then the launcher updates itself to a newer version. You can delete the older version's files if you wish.

 

[Penta2]

It is normal for a game to install an older launcher version, then the launcher updates itself to a newer version. You can delete the older version's files if you wish.

Got it. For the record, adding those files to the exclusion list for Defender seems to have helped the EULA issue. (although now I have to pray nobody manages to hack you all and spread malware via the launcher, since Defender is no longer watching it I suppose...eh, that's a problem for future me. )

 

[Penta2]

Update: Reoccurred with 2023.7 launcher. Exclusion fixed it, but just for reference.

 

[Penta2]

Just to update this: 2.2023.8.1 launcher, it reappears even after I added that version to the exclusions in Defender.

 

[AndrewT]

The EULA status is held in game_data.json in each game's Documents folder. Try deleting that file, does it get created when you next Okay the EULA?

 

[Penta2]

It does, but the only data in it is:

{"documents":["eula-2016-11-08"]}

 

[AndrewT]

That's all that is in mine too, so that's not your problem with CK3 apparently.

How about for Stellaris? Mine includes:

"isEulaAccepted":true,"documents":["eula-2016-11-08"

 

[Penta2]

The copy paste was from Stellaris's copy, not CK3's.

 

[AndrewT]

Ah well, try pasting in that line then!

 

[Penta2]

A problem with that idea: The EULA I'm being told to agree to every time is from 1 March 2023.

The only one showing up is from 2016.

 

[AndrewT]

Hmm, maybe this whole thing has changed and it's recorded elsewhere.

@Deuterium Oxide can you shed any light on this for us please?

 

[AndrewT]

We've tested this with other games:

{“isEulaAccepted”:true,"documents":["eula-2016-11-08"]}

Despite the date is seems to work.

 

[TinyWiking]

The launcher team has been informed and have opened an internal ticket to get this addressed but as Andrew mentioned, for now, you can try pasting in the above string to get past it and allow you to play as normal.

 

[Penta2]

Good to know, thanks @TinyWiking !

 

[Penta2]

We've tested this with other games:

Despite the date is seems to work.

I hate to thread necro this, but running into an issue with the launcher again, now on v2.2024.3. Namely, this is what my game_data,json looks like with Stellaris:

Spoiler: contents of game_data.json

{"isEulaAccepted":false,"modsOrder":["b4fb0d2f-2dbe-4aac-b290-1aae0923bf6c","c042da5d-8d07-42de-8471-861896f6dd1b","0caafefb-1c48-4665-b3c1-a7ed02dbe08d","8c16fc5c-b58f-4c69-96a9-71dfba5bfd72","a3369077-3459-4ed2-b25e-0429ec820d95","4ceb2763-91ac-41c5-9146-585a713a79aa","38e2d343-13a8-4549-8f94-ec5c7959545f","65795a3a-37c9-484e-a6a5-540222d8f600","f74a631f-9fc5-4e0a-96ad-b0ab46d6f0f5","4f45b24a-0d25-4649-9a96-faa04ca92f94","151a8d48-5786-4801-bb82-1435c1e15b89","d42ac30e-ac18-4be0-a4c9-0c7612891674","18be0629-68f0-4788-834d-6acb5202e047","766cadf4-75c9-4df0-81d0-4b64d20aac9b","994e98ca-22ac-4945-a7d1-5f446e3a96e1","54675ea0-701f-482e-9354-f719feebaac6","c9859835-7c9e-4e92-9e29-3930eb7d0206","1cb4ffcc-1b2d-405f-9f18-50af8388aeae","3ffb8cee-9c2c-4308-8279-f5467e9abbc8","65805dc2-7d91-49a8-8ff7-a6f3c418ce51","cd8669f5-ddd8-4f09-8986-be48cbdacdb0","8dc4d6f1-6409-4d5b-bff8-2e12137e96b6","5fb01ea8-b3bc-46f7-b3ec-ef5de7def9c6","24efeafc-69ea-4a80-9e85-27c67e7a3eaa","005705b5-8dce-40a6-bc15-5b0b894c2552","c4f98834-7c26-4ada-b19a-4ef3ac6c8efa","ff8fbc62-5c56-4846-ad14-a976c54a1dd5","a476b811-3975-47d5-a726-95694d9c9d8e","b476cdbe-ac41-4a87-adbf-14a7c4b8ba8b","fb54be32-5836-4760-b5b7-7006346259a0"]}

As you can see, the bit about the EULA followed by a mods order bit. Uh, how do I format what I'm supposed to copy-paste into that?

 

[AndrewT]

FYI we haven't seen other reports of this since yours, so this issue appears to be confined to your machine. Are you sure you don't have an old antivirus app still hanging around, perhaps?

If you just change false to true, does that work?

FYI mine for Stellaris still only says this:

{"documents":["eula-2016-11-08"]}

If you have access to any other machine, you could install and run Stellaris there then just move that file across.

 

[Penta2]

That's the thing. It's a new machine entirely in the meantime. (I thought I had mentioned that, looks like I had forgotten.) No AV apps installed aside from Defender as comes with Win 11 Home. I'll try your recommendation next time I'm at that machine, though - posting from my phone at the moment - and tell what happens.