Playing without STEAM

GC3 uses Steamworks.

While the game does need Steam, as kryo noted, one can still play it in Offline Mode.  You might need to initially authorize it (it's been ages, so I don't recall).  But I believe you could play GC III offline from now till Doomsday if you really wanted to.  

Mind, one might want to update GC III as the betas roll out/when the game goes gold.

Yeah unfortunately its something Brad caved on around the time of the War of Magic failed launch.  I can understand, as Stardock has grown it probably became difficult to manage the business aspects largely tied to the Impulse digital retail portion and the creative studio actually making games at the same time, which I think is more where Brad's heart is, and per his message he posted back in the day of the WoM failed launch, he realized he needed to re-focus on making games while the DRM-free Impulse (which, unlike Steam, didn't need to run to play a game you bought on it, so all of your system and Internet resources could go to making the game as high-FPS and lag-free as possible, and did not add another layer of DRM as Steam does) was sold to Gamestop, which some developers were less than thrilled with, and sadly Gamestop seems to have no interest in maintaining it, dropping the Impulse name entirely and calling it simply the 'Gamestop App.'  They made the app hard to find, and finally essentially froze it -- as per a message that displays on the title bar, you can no longer purchase games through the app though they still allow you to maintain your existing games with it.

That's how I imagine the decision to sell on Steam came about.  Its a gorilla that's gone beyond 800 lbs and just can't be avoided for a studio that wants to grow and have access to a lot of customers.  I'm still not happy about it, though.  If I can find a game on Gog that won't require Steam activation, I definitely prefer that route.

So, I can only play this game with Steam ????

Yes, that's what reply #1 means.

You also can only get it via Steam, so.... Yes.

Here is an article from Brad expressing why Steam is a good thing. 

https://forums.galciv3.com/426351/page/1/

Yes you need steam to down load and play the game 'initially'. 

After you verify your game you can play offline all you like.

What u mean with "verify"? What I have to do? Thanks

I could be misremembering, but I think all you need to do is DL the game and run it once while you are online with Steam.   Then disconnect from the internet, click the Steam heading on the Steam main page and click "go offline".  (or vice versa, not sure any more)  Essentially what is happening is that the steam client knows the game was run legally, so it allows it to run offline.

I know I did try it when I was first working with Steam and it did work (as long as the game doesn't require online access, like MMOs or multiplayer, of course).

I can't help mentioning that I was a big skeptic about Steam for a long time.   Then there was a game that I wanted to play but had no choice, so I gave it a try.   Now I have 60 games in my library.    I have a number of games that I picked up for which I have the disks and boxes on the shelf, just for the convenience of not messing with the disks.  And I am now almost of a mind that if I have to buy a disk to play a game...it's a downside.    I have had in a few years once or twice that Steam didn't work right for a bit, but compared to the hassle of finding a disk that for some idiot reason (probably copy protection) just decided not to work, hey, my humble opinion is I am better off.  Or trying to find an update, etc.

And so far I have been able to get all 60 games working.  Maybe just lucky.  Of course I am connected to FIOS 24/7 so "having to be online" is not an issue.  I think FIOS went down for a couple hours once last year..but I don't remember for sure.

Hey, it's not perfect.  And people are welcome to their opinion.   But copy protected disks aren't exactly perfect, either.

Not only can you go to the Steam App and then select the "Go Offline" field, if your internet is off, Steam/GC III will AUTOMATICALLY load in "offline mode". I know this because sometimes my WiFi isn't fully loaded up and/or is having an occasional hiccup when I load GC III and it still loads as normal (though Steam will let me know that I am in Offline Mode).

Mind you, the Steam App(s) will be running in the background no matter what you do, offline or online. So if you care about your processor cycles THAT much, there ain't much that can be done. But if your concern is about GC III going online for whatever reason and/or Steam connecting online for whatever reason, just make sure you are in Offline Mode as described by Bamdorf.

One other thing that will happen when you first load up GC III upon a reboot or quiting Steam is that Steam will ask you if you are sure you want to be in Offline Mode (if there is an internet connection present).  Just say, "Start in Offline Mode" and away you go.  

Naturally if you do this, you won't get any updates and whatnot. So I wouldn't suggest it whilst the beta is going on. Or when there is new content availaible for that matter.

But, yes, if your concern is being connected to the Steam servers for whatever reason, you don't need to be if you don't want to once the game is installed.

Hello,

Once I download and verify GC III, can I uninstall Steam?  This assumes I don't need or want updates.

Regards.

No you cannot; Steam must be open in the background either in online or offline mode in order to play GC3.

Sigh, I dislike Steam because it made purchase of Gal Civ III next to impossible!!

First it rejected my 16 character and number password.  BUT all it said was a password had to be at least 8 characters.  Thus I created a simple 8 character password, which IMHO is not as safe as a 16 character and number password.  They need to improve their password error message.  Maybe they only support say 8 to 15 characters and if so they should say there is a maximum.  NOTE:  My password creation program suggested a 136 character long password (it will also keep the password for me.)

Before I went with the (IMHO) unsafe password, I tried to open a ticket.  I created a support account and GUESS WHAT I was able to use the 16 character password I wanted to use for my Steam account for my support account.  Why is it OK here, but not on my game account?  Anyway, again before going with the "unsafe" password, I tried to open a ticket, BUT it asks for your Steam account name.  When I tired to submit the ticket, I'm told the Steam account name is not valid.  Yeah, it doesn't yet it exist.  The type of ticket is problem creating Steam account. . . .

OK, now I have my "unsafe" steam account.  I want to pay using PayPal.  I get to the point where I'm told to continue to PayPal.  I click Continue and when I get there I'm told I have to enable cookies.  I'm on Firefox 40.0.3 and my cookie are on!  In fact, I'm signed into my Paypal account in another tab!!  As the URL and everything on the page looks to be PayPal, I call PayPal and reach them.  Yeah, why can't we call Steam??????

Anyway, PayPal, says the page -- while it says PayPal everywhere -- is under the control of Steam's coding of PayPal APIs.  They have a bug in their code that might only come to light with Firefox 40.0.3 or some other version of Firefox.  I ask PayPal to consider an enhancement to their merchant's term and conditions to require the merchant provide PayPal with a 24x7 phone contact number to report and fix problems with the merchant - PayPal interface.  As I put it the merchant is making PayPal (not the merchant look bad).  This request for me to call/contact Steam looks to be PING PONG support response.  Thus what would be better would be for PayPal to have a way to call the merchant on the customer's behalf and get them (through the terms and condition) to fix it ASAP.  Well the PayPal employee loved the idea!!  Time will tell what comes of the phone call.  I also wrote the same basic thing on the PayPal site feedback link.

Why does Steam make buying a product so difficult?

I went back and used my credit card directly and made the purchase.  Thing is . . . if I have had this many issues to this point . . . How many more will I have with Steam?  Steam is not an user friendly company either in support, account creation, or buying a product, period, end of story.

I'm sorry Brad, as someone who has been supporting Stardock in one for or another since well, the OS/2 Warp days . . . Steam was a bad decision.  Honestly, I didn't even use Steam till today.  OK, I'll admit I didn't want to use Steam because it is yet another company to depend upon.

My "fear" is there is a bubble of companies supporting people using the Internet and some of these are going to go away.  I already saw this twice.  One was with my mail, website, and backup ?ISP," a Russian firm bought them out and about 10 days later closed the company.  The phones, email, etc all stopped working.  I wasn't able to reach anyone to get access to my file . . after all who thinks to backup your backup or email.

It would be like if GMail, Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Live, etc mail all went offline and you never were able to access them again.  While Gal Civ III is just a game, IMHO, we're becoming too dependent upon too many other companies.  Some time its going to pop and it will the customers holding the bag.

Sigh, yeah, sorry for the doom and gloom.  But ... hey ... it could make for PART of an end of world scenario (game, story, etc).

Anyway, that was my trouble with Steam ... account creation and using PayPal.

P.S. I apologize for not proof reading and finding my grammar / spelling errors.  I'm just frustrated and would (I guess) want to become more so (OR LESS SO) as I try to install and play GalCiv III!

Hey,

Maybe someone will be able to tell me .... How do I (with Windows 10) place GalCiv III into the start menu?????  It looks to be an Internet Shortcut, which doesn't have the option for start menu or task bar.

I EVEN found the EXE file, but for some reason the pop up menu ONLY gives "Pin to the Task Bar" as an option (Pin to Start Menu isn't there).

Anyway, I'd love to talk to others with GalCiv III running on Windows 10.

Also I'm coming from the GalCiv II (base) world and ah, how does one get the ships to move?  I click on them and then the location I'd like them to move to and, well, nothing happens.

Thank.

Use the left mouse button to select your ships, the right mouse button to select where you want them to move.  If the ship has no move points left on this turn, it will move at the end of the next turn.

Hi,

I thought I tried this already, but guess not as it didn't work.  OH!  Can I use the left mouse button to select the ship, and then go the upper right hand map to move the map viewer, and then return to the main viewer, and right mouse click the location?  Otherwise how to you move the main viewer to a "far off" location?

Oh, another GalCiv II to III question . . . Where is the planet list?  I miss the ability to have a list of all the known planets owned and not owned.  It helped with colonization.

Not there yet. Some filters are in but that is one many have wanted for a long time.

Look under All Apps and scroll down to Steam (a folder).

You should see GaL Civ 3 display with its own icon.

You should be able to drag the icon over and pin it to the Start panel or anywhere else you want.

The game ran beautifully prior to the last update but now it pukes on the splash screen.

Sent in a ticket but not response with a solution.

Sad - uber machine that can't run the game and I hope someone at Stardock gives enough of a shuck to give me an answer.

Runs fine on my Win 10 Asus ROG laptop...

When you say open a ticket, but with whom?  Steam or Stardock.  How do you know whose issue it is?  BTW, does Steam use / play "ping pong support" with customers?

As for my shortcut / start menu, before reading the reply in the thread, I found the EXE and built my own.  It is working.

Not sure whose issue it is... :'(

Ticket is with Stardock.