Installed it and activated it just fine hating every minute of the whole 'steam' experience. Can NEVER play it in 'offline' mode. Steam just errors out when I click on 'offline' saying something to the effect "cannot reach Steam servers", pukes and closes the software, and I don't get to play on airplanes, etc. which is the kind of time I bought the game to play in the first place. Yeah.. there is a tiny little disclaimer on the front of a very 'busy' box telling you that oh.. by the way... did we forget to tell you that purchasing this game means you HAVE to sign up for our advertisement laden social media outlet disguised as a patch download manager? Also, that you MUST have Internet access to play unless you go through hoops each time you load the game? Honestly, after this nightmare and Civ 5 I will never buy a game again that requires STEAM, IMPULSE, or any other software than the game itself. Does that mean I never buy a PC game again and only buy for my various console systems... I guess it might.
How to play Civilization V without internet
- Thread starter rayres2007
- Start date
FeiLing
Deity
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2012
- Messages
- 2,087
You have to set up offline mode (for every game) once while being online. You'll never have to be online to play again after that. Of course there actually might be another problem at the moment, but usually ragers simple fail to do the easy well written out instructions and therefore fail.
Steam's offline mode is notorious for being problematic, especially for those new to or relatively unfamiliar with Steam. Supposedly there are ways to make sure offline will work (making sure credentials are saved correctly, shutting down Steam correctly and making sure the game is run at least once online before running it offline) but I can't say I have much experience with it myself.
Anyway, this support article from Steam lists the things you need to do to get offline mode working.
GrandAdmiral
Deity
Hmm, I set up offline mode, and it usually works. But, sometimes it just gives me connection error messages. There's been known issues with this as far back as I can remember.
Yep, has happened to me a few times as well. I did activate and i did make steam go offline and it did play offline but there has been the rare occasion when it gave me an error message. Had to go online and re go offline. My God this steam is a pain!!
Right now my pc is crapping itself and i need a rebuild but i have run out of internet allowance for the next two weeks. I know if i rebuild my pc , steam will want to download updates and stuff before allowing me to play and this sucks big time!!! I bought this game on DVD so as to be free to install and play anytime. Big was my surprise when i realised everything required steam and internet to play.
But i like Civ V waaay to much to turn my back
No internet, no gaming these days ....
What I wanna know is how the game knows an update is needed when I play exclusively offline. As soon as a patch comes out, the game will say something along the lines of "game not ready to be played in offline mode". Once I update it, then it plays again and I can go offline.
THis almost reeks of predetermined patch date/intervals...
Does anyone know for sure what's up with this?
THis almost reeks of predetermined patch date/intervals...
Does anyone know for sure what's up with this?
lol - Good question. A lot of American companies seems to be closing shop for good these days due to their oncoming depression.
RonMar
Warlord
In Windows, even programs which are not running can have a small program which check whether an update is available. Windows itself, Adobe, are examples. Other, check every time you run them whether normally use the Internet or not.
If STEAM was such a fantastic value and a great service, it wouldn't have to be mandatory.
This isn't about providing a service, or protecting intellectual proerty rights. It's about taking any sense of ownership rights away from game purchasers, and transferring them to a single third party corporate entity. If you don't like it, that's too bad for you - and I definitely don't like it.
This isn't about providing a service, or protecting intellectual proerty rights. It's about taking any sense of ownership rights away from game purchasers, and transferring them to a single third party corporate entity. If you don't like it, that's too bad for you - and I definitely don't like it.
no internet connection, no problem...
If CiV is already installed on your system all you have to do is right click on exe file (9 or 11) and run as administrator. Two prompts will come up, one for steam and one for CiV. Cancel prompt for steam when it tries to load... allow ciV prompt to go through. There may be some delay and you may have to try several times but you will be able to load CiV without steam (even offline mode is not necessary).
However, you will not be able to load any DLC content... only vanilla civs...
There is nothing illegal about this, it is just a way to play without any internet connection
If CiV is already installed on your system all you have to do is right click on exe file (9 or 11) and run as administrator. Two prompts will come up, one for steam and one for CiV. Cancel prompt for steam when it tries to load... allow ciV prompt to go through. There may be some delay and you may have to try several times but you will be able to load CiV without steam (even offline mode is not necessary).
However, you will not be able to load any DLC content... only vanilla civs...
There is nothing illegal about this, it is just a way to play without any internet connection
dilettante
Governor
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2011
- Messages
- 71
I think a good compromise here is some suggestions already batted around. One is a one-and-done confirmation through steam and then maybe a periodic check everytime there's a patch.
Maybe they could have a non-intrusive web browser window that could be running in the background while you play. The only time it will interrupt (actually minimize your game screen) is when you have to update (with core code check included) or when you set your alarm so you can actually go to sleep and go to work the next morning.
So like they do with Adobe Flash, it tells you that:
1) there's an update
2) would you like to update now?
3) while patching, run the cd/core code check
i dunno... there's no good way to keep the pirates out (yes even the Mugiwara Pirates
- pls. no spoilers) and to have our old no-DRM system like in Civ4 Complete.
Maybe they could have a non-intrusive web browser window that could be running in the background while you play. The only time it will interrupt (actually minimize your game screen) is when you have to update (with core code check included) or when you set your alarm so you can actually go to sleep and go to work the next morning.
So like they do with Adobe Flash, it tells you that:
1) there's an update
2) would you like to update now?
3) while patching, run the cd/core code check
i dunno... there's no good way to keep the pirates out (yes even the Mugiwara Pirates
- pls. no spoilers) and to have our old no-DRM system like in Civ4 Complete.Carl5872
Prince
This seems so silly. If I paid for a game I should be able to play it whenever. I am fine with a 1 time need to access the internet to activate it, but If I want to play in a internetless zone I should be able to. It really reflects poorly on them.
I just explained to you how to play in an internetless zone
Michael484
Chieftain
I got Civ V today, but my PC's wifi is out (using Mac) so I have no way of installing using Steam, and I hate Steam it's f***ed me before and I was hoping never to see it again, well I own all the Civs and not one of them required Inter-webs to install, so I was thinking that Civ V would be the same, but I guess not, and without Internet I'm screwed, I really don't want my hard earned $50 wasted.
At the end of the day, Fireaxis don't want you to play Civ. They want you to pay for Civ. Of course, people are more likely to pay for it if they think they can play it so the two generally go hand in hand, but if they had to choose between the two they'd far rather people pay for a game they can't play than visa-versa.
This is nothing new and doesn't mean Fireaxis are uniquely evil. For the twenty years I've been gaming companies have goen out of their way to make it difficult for consumers to play the games they've bought. Steam is simply one more link in a chain of opression.
Haha, I admire your restraint
This is nothing new and doesn't mean Fireaxis are uniquely evil. For the twenty years I've been gaming companies have goen out of their way to make it difficult for consumers to play the games they've bought. Steam is simply one more link in a chain of opression.
Haha, I admire your restraint
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