Want to play PAYDAY 2 as it was before Crimefest? Read this!

[Tangle]

Introduction:

Greetings to all community members, both disgruntled and not! As you all undoubtedly know, there is a fairly large controversy surrounding the first Crimefest "reward", as well as the lack of communication between Overkill, Starbreeze and the community as a whole. Avoiding too much explanation, I am particularly unhappy with the way that this whole business has been conducted, and I feel personally slighted at the broken promises and bold lack of explanation from anyone in any actual power.

That being said, I did enjoy PAYDAY 2 quite a lot; I may not have as many hours in it as some, but I have played it on and off since launch, and have bought every single DLC up to this point. I had trust in Overkill, as shaky as it was, but now it has finally been broken. At the same time, Overkill trusts the community to take every single update as it comes, for better or worse. I shall break that trust right now, myself. I have refused to update my game purely on the hunch that it may be playable in its beloved no-microtransactions state at some point in the future. Only just tonight did I realize that starting up the EXE directly actually works!

For those who legitimately own the game:

I have packaged all the game files as of Update 78 (just before Crimefest), and only the ones required to run the game. No soundtracks, no mods, no files changed about to unlock extra content - simply the game in its state just before all this madness. This is not piracy; for all of us who have bought this game (and possibly those playing during the free period as well), ANY version of the game should be perfectly fine to play, as long as it is unmodified. If for any reason you don't like the new update, whether that be the skins, the weapon "rebalancing", or simply the breach of trust, you will soon be able to enjoy the game without any of it. The trade-off is that you will set yourself apart from the undoubted masses that will see you playing the game and assume you have the latest version. You will be hanging on to something that will go no further, and it is a sad fact to accept. Personally, I'd much rather have this than the two remaining options: shove it, and play as OVK says, or don't play at all.

Instructions to downgrade:

1. First off, download the archive from one of the following links:
   Mediafire: {LINK REMOVED}http://www.mediafire.com/download/c97q321lb7ci9g9/PAYDAY_2.rar
   MEGA: https://mega.nz/#!OtU0kRYJ!34oVgGuhdjdNcwnezyxMxjsd752dqLtVzODCGIA85Lc
   Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9s3qzUnfCUNdWtjQ1BPbEhtaTA/view?usp=sharing
   Click here for file hashes![dl.dropboxusercontent.com] (VirusTotal will not take files larger than 128MB, so feel free to pass up if you want.)
   
2. Make sure you have PAYDAY 2 installed on Steam. This is the ONLY WAY to play this properly, as the game is completely legitimate and unmodified.
   
3. Navigate to your "steamapps" folder, then "common", then "PAYDAY 2".
   
4. Delete any loose files sitting here (careful of any mods you might have), as well as the "assets" folder. (You might be able to get away with just deleting the exe, but I wouldn't chance it.)
   
5. Extract the contents of "PAYDAY 2.rar" directly into this folder! Do not make another folder in there. When done, you should see some loose files, and the "assets" folder back in place.

That's it! Now you can enjoy PAYDAY 2 the way we remember it. Simply run "payday2_win32_release.exe", and the game shall hook into Steam and run! You may want to choose "Add a Non-Steam Game" within Steam to make this easier. Name it as you want; the game will always show as PAYDAY 2 when playing. Of course, as soon as you exit, the game will attempt to update itself. Below are further instructions to prevent that from happening.

Instructions to prevent ANY updates to the game:

If you want to be able to launch the game any time, without worrying about cancelling the update, follow these instructions:

1. First, navigate to PAYDAY 2 in your Steam Library. Right click it, and choose Properties.
   
2. Select the "Updates" tab, and set Automatic Updates to "Only update this game when I launch it". Of course, that's not going to stop it from updating on exit. For that, you'll need to go a bit deeper.
   
3. Navigate to your "steamapps" folder again, then "downloading".
   
4. If you see a folder in there labeled "218620", enter it and delete everything from it. If it's not there, create the folder.
   
5. If you had the folder "218620" there as asked in step 4, you may also see a file named "state_218620_218621.patch", or similar next to it. Delete that file, so long as it starts with "state_218620".
   
6. Right click the folder labeled "218620" and select "Properties", then navigate to the "Security" tab. Click "Edit" under the first list.
   
7. Choose "Users" from the upper list, and then check the first box under "Deny" in the second list, to the right of "Full control".
   (If you do not see "Users" listed in the security box, I apologize. I cannot go into enough detail in this post to cover every single thing that might not work perfectly during this process.)
   
8. Select "OK" at the bottom, and then "OK" again. Congratulations. PAYDAY 2 will forever fail to update through Steam.

Caveats:

• DISK WRITE ERROR: If you receive this message, it means one of two things. First, you may have forgotten to delete the "state_218620_218621.patch" file! Go back and delete that as explained in steps 4-5 of update prevention! Second, you may have tried to launch PAYDAY 2 through Steam the normal way! For this to work, you must launch "payday2_win32_release.exe" either directly, through a shortcut, or by adding it as a non-Steam game! Don't worry, Steam will still know you're playing PAYDAY 2, so label the launch shortcut whatever you want.
  
• Multiplayer works! As I assumed, the matchmaking system isn't version-limited, but the client does only display games using the same version as you. You should have no problem seeing games pop up on Crimenet (or fast.net) if there are others playing. Just be sure to widen your search filter settings!
  
• Save games from newer versions of the game DO WORK! Any masks added to the game during Crimefest will disappear from your inventory, and I cannot be sure what happens to any specially-skinned weapons. I would like more feedback on that.
  
• Again, this is NOT a modified, cracked or pirated copy, this will ONLY work if you are able to launch PAYDAY 2 on Steam! It may work for everyone during Crimefest, but it will not work after unless you own the game.
  
• I am a busy individual, and as such, I may not be around to answer any questions pertaining to this post immediately, or at all. Please be kind to each other, and help each other as necessary. I am not responsible for any of the bigotry or harassment that this fine community has shown some of over the past couple days. I am simply a gentleman who enjoys heisting with other gentlemen.
  
• As a side note, if anyone does have access to VirusTotal's large file scanning API call, please let me know. I would love to have that extra level of comfort listed here for all concerned.
  
• PLEASE help keep this thread visible! There are many, many people who I'm sure would love to play the game again WITHOUT all the things that have been added since update 79!

There is now a group for those who want PAYDAY 2 to stay the way it was! Please see below if you are at all interested in this effort.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/pd2update78

[Lemushki]

THX MAN would love that

[Tangle]

Originally posted by Western Sensei:

If this is all on the up-and-up and legit, could become it's own thing with it's own community. I certainly wouldn't mind having a way to play the game in a worthwhile state, since I doubt I will be playing it in it's current one.

Indeed! Unfortunately, as far as I know, MEGA is the only place to upload a file this big (11.68GB), and it's limiting me to a 1MB/s upload rate. This could take a few hours.

[Sup3rNo7a]

Anywhere else you plan to post this other than this group's forum, since I can't possibly see this thread (and possibly your own ability to post in it) surviving.

[Tangle]

Originally posted by Sup3rNo7a:

Anywhere else you plan to post this other than this group's forum, since I can't possibly see this thread (and possibly your own ability to post in it) surviving.

I may end up posting it as a guide instead, since it might have more luck there. I'm also a bit worried at the fact that the second reply has been deleted so soon.

[Pancakes11]

I have the entire post screengrabbed (in 6 seperate images) just in case

[Tangle]

Originally posted by Pancakes11:

I have the entire post screengrabbed (in 6 seperate images) just in case

Thank you so much! I assure you I will not let this simply die if opposition comes to it. If that happens, then I will have no hope remaining for the game at all, and I will have to find something else to do.

[IrishHellbringer]

this is awesomeness. THANK YOU! YES! #SkinKickEngaged

[Red]

Post it here as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/paydaytheheist

[=Ender=]

Excellent. I was already thinking the same thing a few hours ago. If this is how Overkill wants to play things, then we may as well rollback and maintain the game ourselves (as a community). It might take more work to get it working right, but it's probably the only option left.

[Tangle]

Originally posted by "PAYDAY 2 will have no MTs":

Post it here as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/paydaytheheist

Unfortunately, I don't have a Reddit account, but if someone else wants to do so with a link to this post, I would not mind at all!

[Brasten]

Very interesting. Sadly I will not be partaking as I'm not inclined to let Steam see any PayDay active on my account at this point. Although maybe in Offline Mode for kicks.

If there was a way to track which versions were being played, it would make a very powerful demonstration to get far more people playing the Pre-Crimefest version than the Crimefest one.

[Erika H.]

very nice.

[Tangle]

Originally posted by Brasten:

Very interesting. Sadly I will not be partaking as I'm not inclined to let Steam see any PayDay active on my account at this point. Although maybe in Offline Mode for kicks.

If there was a way to track which versions were being played, it would make a very powerful demonstration to get far more people playing the Pre-Crimefest version than the Crimefest one.

Indeed it would. I do believe OVK can see the versions - I'd be surprised if they couldn't! Even still, I doubt such a thing would force them to change their minds. I simply want to keep having fun as I always have with the game.

[Fino]

This sounds very nice,but there i would still like to be sure the multiplayer works with this solution before downloading.

[Tangle]

Originally posted by Fino:

This sounds very nice,but there i would still like to be sure the multiplayer works with this solution before downloading.

It's just as well - I'd be glad to do a stream testing that once it's uploaded. If anyone else hasn't finished updating since Crimefest, I'd be glad to test that even now.