They change arbitrarily, trying to match them up is often an exercise in futility, and for those of us who have Steam versions of the game, multiplayer is basically impossible. You can have the same version of a game as someone else, but have a completely different checksum. What is the purpose of these monstrosities?
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They are just supposed to show if you have the "correct" version of the game. If you have a different checksum than someone else it means that something is different in your games installation. It changes if you flip around in the menu I think too. If you have a different one each time you restart the game it's better to reinstall in that case.
They don't change arbitrarily. They change one letter when you resign without exiting the game. Aside from that they are static unless you change your game's files. The reason it changes when you resign a game is to force you to restart the game before engaging in multiplayer to ensure all games are in the same state. The reason it changes when your files change is to make sure everyone is playing the same version and to prevent cheating.
If I may, why is that? From my experience, that has always been a source of frustration
If your checksums don't match you do NOT have exactly the same version. One is corrupt, has files missing, they are in fact different versions, or one person has been cheating. They do not change arbitrarily, an incorrect checksum is always an indication of something wrong in your installation (MP dropouts excepted, see below). That's why they exist, to ensure that game data is identical for all players, without them cheating would be easy.
Why does the existence of checksums mean "for those of us who have Steam versions of the game, multiplayer is basically impossible"? Proper installations of Steam and non-Steam versions of both CK2 and DW have the same checksum as each other, so I simply don't follow you here - Steam shouldn't have anything to do with it. Steam players have been playing both EU3 and CK2 for years, so it is by no means impossible.
If you cannot get the correct checksum in your installation, please post in the Tech Support forum of the affected game and we will fix you up, I promise.
That deliberate single-digit checksum change when you resign (or drop out) from an MP game is to force you to exit the whole game and restart it before you try to rejoin the MP game. This reinitialises the MP code and aids future stability. Yes it does mean it takes a bit longer to rejoin, but without it rejoining would likely fail anyway. I'm sorry you find it frustrating in some way - it doesn't actually stop you doing anything, just delays it a little - but I assure you it's for a good reason and for your own benefit. Paradox would not have bothered doing it otherwise.
Two things. First, I dispute the words "a little" near the end of the above post. It takes 5 mins for some of us to fire up EU III
Second, and more importantly, AFAIK checksums are somehow the additions of all the whatevers in the program. There can be up to, apx, half a million checksums. There, however, can be more than half a million states the game can be put in to. Thus my question is what happens if you've cheated in such a way to provide an identical checksum but with radically different files?
Second, and more importantly, AFAIK checksums are somehow the additions of all the whatevers in the program. There can be up to, apx, half a million checksums. There, however, can be more than half a million states the game can be put in to. Thus my question is what happens if you've cheated in such a way to provide an identical checksum but with radically different files?
You would cheat the system but the game would go out of sync shortly after the MP game has started.
So what have we learned from this thread? The players would like a more stable Multiplayer experience (pretty please :happy
Is this related to bugs like Catholicism becoming a permanent heresy if you resign from a game where the schism has been ended (the specific bug could be fixed, am talking about the general problem)? If so some kind of trusted snapshot of the game state should be the proper solution. (This is obviously one of the things which are easier said than done. The snapshot must not be allowed to use up too much RAM.)
Brute forcing a million combinations is generally trivial to do. If I were you I would have a way longer checksum (maybe 160 bits like SHA-1) and then in the UI do like git and display only the first 6 or 7 letters. I assume it is not much of an issue though since 1) there are probably other ways to cheat and 2) OOS will probably kill this specific cheating attempt.
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What I fail to understand is that Pds games are not competitive by any means (unless there is a secret goal down the road to hold Europa Universalis competitions lol). So Cheating does not bring anything to a player nor is even an issue. You can't win, and most of the time players even agree to respect self-imposed rules to keep a multiplayer session fun and engaging.
So i don't get why the game rely on such a complex (and frustrating) system to fix an issue that never existed (namely player cheating to get somehow, an edge in a multiplayer game they can't possibly "win")
I'm not sure how you know that cheating wouldn't have happened without checksums. Rest assured people cheated in older EU games before checksums existed.
And it's not only to prevent cheating, it's to ensure you don't have corrupt files, or even a whole different version.
I acknowledge you may find the checksum system complex and frustrating and may have had some bad experiences with it. However that is not the general experience, it works as designed pretty much all the time and does not cause 99% of the user population any complexity or frustration.
Paradox are not in the business of annoying their customers unnecessarily; clearly they believe it is necessary and desirable, and as the Tech Support guy I happen to agree with them. It's an extremely valuable tool and I ask for it first thing in almost every case.
"The reason it changes when your files change is to make sure everyone is playing the same version and to prevent cheating."
The first part of what I said is also important, not playing the same version = super fast out of sync. It's not really a complex system either: Restart game before rehosting MP, if you have the wrong checksum after that your install is broken or modded so reinstall or remove your changes.
The first part of what I said is also important, not playing the same version = super fast out of sync. It's not really a complex system either: Restart game before rehosting MP, if you have the wrong checksum after that your install is broken or modded so reinstall or remove your changes.
But how come games go out of sync a lot in general even when you do have the same version/
I guess then it comes down to how the engine and netcode are built. PDS games are the only ones where i have such trouble playing in multiplayer. The last 2 time i tried to organize a EU3 game with fellow french people, we spent more time rebooting the game after OOS than playing. Victoria 2 and HOI3 are much more stable though.
Having wrong checksums guarantees you'll go out of sync, but that doesn't mean all out of sync errors are due to mismatched checksums. If A then B != If B then A.
There are numerous other possible reasons, from slow PCs, networks, bad lan cards or drivers, various settings on routers - its endless.
Sure, and that's being addressed in EU4. But those issues have nothing to do with the existence of checksums, removing them would make the situation worse still.