Thanks for screwing up my COH install, Steam.

I opened Steam today and COH suddenly didn't seem to be installed anymore. I clicked Install and it started downloading the whole game again, 4GB. I canceled and ran the NCsoft Launcher manually; game would not start. I selected "Repair/Consistency check"... and it started downloading the 4GB again.

The good news is that the version on Live is the same as the version on Test, so I just copied the Test folder contents on top of the Live folder and it worked just fine.

So... be careful if you have COH on Steam. Make a backup before you let it update.

Something else:

I moved my COH install to another directory while I let Steam download the whole thing again. This is the same as a completely clean install for someone who just bought COH on Steam.

The game would not run afterwards.

Turns out Steam does not install several required DLL files in the COH folder. New COH installs via Steam must use the repair function or the game will not launch.

*adds to the list*

ive been using the steam version of the game for awhile now, just been launching the game through the ncsoft updater so it never registered anything on steam

i did notice the redownload, and the only thing it screwed up was my game graphics options (still kept all my keybinds and other options, i just had to change game from running full screen at 1024x768)

other than that i didnt really have any problems with it except now the other ncsoft updater i originally installed wont detect the steam install since it has its own nclauncher program now

(maybe my sister is telling the truth when tech stuff just decides to work for me mostly problem free lol)

Fun neat trick, not sure if it'll apply with CoH on Steam specifically, but it's still neat. Junctions. [Believe it's Vista + Win7 only, that said, I'm not positive]

They are awesome.

Say you have already installed a game. You later obtain on steam [say you buy another copy, it goes f2p, whatever]. Assuming the game uses the same launcher/drm [like say, most MMOs], you can stop the download in steam and prolly good idea to close steam while you do this next few parts.

Goto your steamapps/common. Make a note of the directory name that the game is installed under. Now ahead and delete the directory that it made there for the game, then goto the command prompt [runas admin] goto the steamapps common directory and use the happy fun MKLINK /J

First parameter is going to be the directory name that you just deleted.
Second will be the directory it is currently installed to.

So, let's say "MKLINK /J Cityofheroes C:\Cryptic\City of Heroes"

One of the happier discoveries I made in Windows 7, I so missed symlinks.

I normally like Steam a lot, but that's just one more reason I don't want to use City of Heroes through it. Steam does incredibly well with what can be called Steam games, i.e. games developed to be released over Steam. It does not do nearly as well with games developed as standalones that just happen to be launched and updated through Steam. City of Heroes would not be the first time I've had problems with Steam not installing things correctly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Thanks for the heads up on this.

We've passed it along to the appropriate folks.

You can disable updating via steam in the steam coh preferences page.