Astraeos DLC requires you to be "on-line"? Why

[LokitheWeaver]

Bought the Astraeos DLC when it came out. 35% finished did not bother me. Being unable to play the map does bother me. I am only able to start a game, using that map, when I am "on-line". Since I do not have dependable internet at home, all of my gaming is done off-line. I come to local library to update games, etc.

Several weeks trying to resolve the issue with Steam (who sell the DLC and primarily provide a "anti-piracy" service for software developers.) But they can't resolve the issue (that when "off-line" it does not recognize I own the DLC and demands that I repurchase it.)

I know the release was rocky and that the community was not happy about "pay to win" or all but forcing players (who owned the early access version) to buy the DLC. I suspect this is just another "business decision" which breaks the game DLC.

Is my only option to demand a refund? Or is there some super secret method of dealing with this nonsense?

(Note all my other Ark content seems to work fine in "off-line" mod. Although I have not tried out Bob's content, since I purchased that specifically to use during Astraeos.)

[Sirok]

I have the same situation. I can't log into Astraeos DLC for 2 weeks. It says buy it! But in fact I've already played it for 100 hours. It says on Steam that it's bought, but it's not in the game!

[LokitheWeaver]

Well Steam has been no help. I wasted a lot of time following the steps they outlined, but nothing worked. I suspect it is something the developers did to "promote" the DLC, by blocking anyone from simply playing the EA version by giving you a "you really really need to buy the dlc message". Unfortunately no one bothered to ensure it could check to see if you already bought it.

[Datawarlock]

They can't run their bitcoin mining in the background if you're offline. duh