Serial Number Already In Use command and conquer tiberium wars

[Goldstinger]

Hey guy, i have the problem, that i cant join MP match in command and conquer tiberium wars with a friend, because the serial number is already in use??
why the heck sells steam games with the same number? i cant even watch my product key of the game
i hope you cant help me out

[Jin-]

cncnet

[Cat]

Official servers for MP was shut down. Were you trying to join a LAN game or the community online platform cnc-online?

Originally posted by Jin-:

cncnet

Cncnet is a place to play old c&c games. What the heck does it has anything to do with the OP's issue?

[Nyerguds]

Originally posted by Cat:

Cncnet is a place to play old c&c games. What the heck does it has anything to do with the OP's issue?

To be fair, they're all pretty old by now.
But yea, CnCNet only deals with the pre-3D generation.

[Kirova]

The reason why is your key and your friend's key coincidentally the same key.
because Steam uses the same default key name "%CDKEY%" as the CD key. Normally, you could edit it yourself in "Windows Registry" to differ your key and others like CC General.

They will be on the exactly the same path regardless how and where you install the game,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Electronic Arts\Electronic Arts\Command and Conquer 3 (This is windows registry path not a folder path)

and looking for the entry "ergc", you will find a value call (default) and the default key "%CDKEY%".

However, you will find that how many times you edit and after you launch the game the key will revert back to %CDKEY% every single time.

This likely uniquely happens only in Steam version because the executable (.exe) that comes with the game, likely to be the modified version that call another script every time
the game launches. the file is "installscript.vdf"

The file "installscript.vdf" is in your game folder. if you have Notepad++ you can edit them, you have to looking for,

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_WOW64_32\\Software\\Electronic Arts\\Electronic Arts\\Command and Conquer 3\\ergc"
{
"string"
{
"(Default)" "%CDKEY%"
}
}

just change the %CDKEY% to be something else. it can be any length and the % is not apart of syntax you can override them to be "11111111" and it still works. However, the "" is a syntax make sure that you wrap them properly.

Don't worry about your key, none of us has it because it doesn't exist anymore. just make them differ to others it will work. I hope this helps you.