CD Key won't remember

[Slimurgical (Stormy)]

Why won't the game remember my CD Key? I haven't altered the files ever. I've entered it for the 5th time now.

[Bubbaxm2]

That issue is generally a network issue. Are you using tunngle or any other LAN emulators? Possibly changing your network adapter for any reason?

[ForTeaTwo]

Hello, I just wanted to share a quick tip for those of you who have to retype your cd-key sometimes for UT3. (I often encounter this due to network config changes, and other subtle changes to my system such as sound and video.) If you are tired of searching for your key when this occurs, a good place to store it is in one of the .int files of the game. The .int to be edited is \"(install directory such as Program Files)\\Unreal Tournament 3/UTGame/Localization/INT/UTGameUI.int/"

Open the UTGameUI.int file with any text editor; add to or replace the text following \"CdKey_Description=\" with your cd key. Pretending my cd key is 5555-5555-5555-5555 I edit the line to read: CdKey_Description=5555-5555-5555-5555
then save the file. Next time the bug happens your cd key will be shown on the same page of the user interface in which you must type it.

[Slimurgical (Stormy)]

Oh my god KEO, thank you so much :D

Also I just have Hamachi, but why would it be a network issue? It's a thing concerning the game's files in how they rewrite themselves to undo the CD-key input, or am I seriously, totally wrong? xD

[ForTeaTwo]

It really is usually triggered by a hardware or network change. When the game does not have write permissions to you user directory you would probably have to run with -nohomedir or always have to type your profile name/password or get some crashing. I am in an Epic supported area and have not had to use Hamachi or such, so I would not know if that is triggering a network change, but if it is, you may be able to work around it with batch scripts or network bridging somehow. (like if Hamachi may be set to be always on somehow to not set a flag to your os, or making sure it is set before launching the game or something.) If it keeps happening all the time, AHK scripting may be a good idea. In AHK you can do a script with Winwait and timer and/or screen watching (watches a section of screen and compares a BMP file), or even a one button hotkey; to do all the typing for you and shut itself down. The AHK script could be run at game start with a bat file or could just run all the time after startup.

[ochtinlea]

The CD Key is loaded from UTEngine.ini. (CD Key not saved issue)
The Saved password is loaded from UTGame.ini. ("The password you have entered has an invalid length. A valid user name and password must be entered to login" error issue)

These are normally loaded from \UTGame\Config (this will differ if -nohomedir was used). If another directory contains these files, say in \UTGame\Published\CookedPC\Config, they will be loaded after, and the settings from those configuration files will be used. Hence, where these issues are seen.

I can only hope there is a reason the developers allow the loading of, what should be unique, configuration files. And, honestly, they should have ONLY loaded the first one, not the last one. But I digress...

As we only want one to exist for configuration purposes, delete any that are not in expected directory.

On my system, \UTGame\Published\CookedPC\Config had many of the *unique* configuration files (UTEngine.ini, UTGame.ini, etc.). After removing them, I was able to save both the CD Key and the password without being prompted again after closing/opening the game several times.

As others have seen this issue, I can only assume we all used the same process to cause this. For example, there may be a tool we all used to perform maintenance in UT3.

It was a pain to discover/deal with so I hope this helps someone.

Additionally, keep in-mind that the UT3 generates and stores a unique encrypted key based on multiple factors (I don't know all of the factors). For example, the unique encrypted key is partially based on CD Key + Network Interface Card (NIC) Media Access Controller (MAC) address. This means that any time there is a network interface change (like adding a NIC or a VPN), there is a potential for the unique encrypted key to be regenerated and the CD Key will need to be entered again (but only once per factor change).