Read this if your game is stuck at 'syncing'

[cliffski]

Hi, if the game does not launch *at all* if there is no big black window, or window with the D3 logo, and instead, it just sticks at a black steam message window that says 'syncing', this is likely a steam issue, not specific to the game.

Things to try:
1) Log out of steam, exit steam, then restart and log back in
2) right click the games icon or name and select properties, then go to the 'updates' tab, and unclick 'enable steam cloud synchronization for democracy 3'.

If that fixes it, please post here, and if that does not fix it, also please post here too!

[BorecT]

Hi!
I posted one topic about it a few days ago, reporting the problem. My driver is NTFS, I dont even have the folder in "my games" for Democracy 3, so it doesn't "recreate". I try to do this, but doesnt worked. In fact, just happen the exactly same thing, but with "running" instead of "syncing". I try to start, appears "running" in the steam, but nothing open, and the "running" disapear. But if I open task manager, it is open in second plan, only the time the "running" message in steam is on.

Thanx,
Alex.

[Mediocre Pleb]

It's still not working. I've uninstalled and reinstalled this game several times and it's still not launching. I've tried deleting the game files. I demand a fix or I'm refunding the game.

[Gorilla Don]

It's still not working.

[TheDuke]

same problem here. Fix above does not work.

[cliffski]

Does the other post about non-english characters in your 'mydocuments' path apply? if so, we are just testing a fix for this, and will be uploading it soon.

[sporadicsmiles]

Is there no new information on this? It seems that everything is quiet and almost no answers are given.
I have this problem (although I clearly did not at some point in the past, since I have some game time logged; I came back to it after a while, and now I cannot get the game to run. The specs of my machine are more than adequate to run the game. My drivers are all up to date (I installed a new geforce driver today, if that could be of interest).

I have tried:
reinstalling after deleting all game files from the PC.
verified the game files
running the "original" beta.
Turning off the sync to cloud option as described above.
Closed by Malware software to make sure it is not running.
Disabled windows defender.
Enabled windows defender and chekced that the game as an exception logged.
Checked I have no non ascii text in mydocuments path (I am running on a machine set in French, if this is of any use for you.
Crossing my fingers and toes.

Regardless, I see the game "running", "syncing" and stopping. I get the little "loading" wheel next to my mouse, so it is trying to do something. With the sync with cloud disabled, it just says "running" before stopping.

This is the only game in my library that does this (or has ever done this). Hence, I suspect that there is a launch problem somewhere. I am running windows 10.

Any advice, comments, fixes for this yet? If none are forthcoming, I will just demand a refund for the game.

[cliffski]

have you tried running the game direct from windows explorer in the steamapps\common\democracy 3 folder? that should bypass steam entirely.

[sporadicsmiles]

Indeed I did (I forgot to mention that, sorry). I also tried to run as admin, and also to run the compatibility wizard incase there was some issues with the version of windows I was running.

I am guessing there is either a missing file, a dodgy path or some incompatible setting somewhere, but since I do not get any error message of crash log, it is almost impossible to track it down.

[cliffski]

is the game actually creating any files inside
\my documents\my games\democracy 3\debug?

[sporadicsmiles]

Well damn it, indeed it is, somehow I missed this. D'oh. The worst thing is that this directly pointed me to the problem. Cannot believe I missed this.

and the following text in "debug.txt"

[22:41:42:934]- ----DEBUG FILE----
[22:41:42:934]- Windows 7 or later detected
[22:41:42:934]- Game version: 1.34
[22:41:42:934]- Command Line: "E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Democracy 3\Democracy3.exe"
[22:41:42:934]- Command Line argument:[]
[22:41:42:935]- Desktop resolution is 1920 x 1080
[22:41:42:945]- Initialising Sound Engine

This suggested the problem was the audio. All the drivers were up to date, but I do not have any sound device connected by default since I use bluetooth headphones when I play a game with sound.

The upshot is when I attach the headphones, the game now works. It would be nice if there was a way to make it work without a sound connection, but it is hardly the end of the world. Thanks for the help!

[cliffski]

awesome, glad it runs!

[mickeyminime]

Mine doesn't work, tried everything i can think of and it simply sync's, then stops.