Trouble running Pirates! without internet connection, please help.

[RedBeard]

I am having an odd occurrence where I am unable to start Pirates! without being connected to the internet.

I am on a Dell machine running Windows 7 Professional
The problem occurs when steam is in offline mode as well as online mode.

The problem goes as follows:
(1)Go to steam library (wifi turned off, like it will be on my flight to China soon)
(2)Select Pirates! from the menu to play it
(3)Get a pop-up telling me that Pirates! is incompatible with certain Windows themes (nothing critical and not explaining the issue)
(4)NOTHING. Steam says Pirates! is running, but it does not show up in the windows task menu
(5)Enable wifi
(6)IMMEDIATELY after gaining a connection, Pirates! starts up no problem.
(7)Turn wifi back off
(8)Pirates! continues to run (presumably with no problems)

I am trying to figure out why this is the only game (that I know of) that will not start up on my laptop without a connection to internet. As it currently stands, I could start the game prior to boarding and leave it running... but if anything were to happen (computer shutsdown, battery dies, etc.) then I will be on a 14 hour flight with no Pirates! <- Tragic...

Aside from the reason stated, it really just bothers me that I dont understand why Pirates! wont start without internet. Does anyone have any ideas? (Or solutions, preferably solutions) :)

Thanks!

[chrisben1]

Well, I would say it's something on the Steam side of things. I still have a dvd version that works without internet. You can find it online pretty cheap, course that requires internet.

[RedBeard]

Yeah...and I did JUST buy it for Steam... not that it was all that expensive.

[conjurerdragon]

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-AGCB-2555

[sololeif]

Same problem help pls anyone have a fix?

[sololeif]

Originally posted by conjurerdragon:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-AGCB-2555

This doesn't help at all, I have experienced these kinds of problem in many games. The only way to fix it is that the developers on this game will make a quickfix update for offline game.

[RealPeterM]

I can play it offline no problem. It just takes a bit to start

[RedBeard]

Sorry for not getting back to this.... I have discovered that if I navigate to where Steam installed the game (...\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Pirates!\) and run the exe directly (not through the steam app) it will start up fine on line or offline.

[RedBeard]

For anyone who is experiencing these problems, I would try starting games with internet connection the very first time (so Steam can do whatever intial licensing that is has to) and then if you have problems starting the game through the steam library when offline, just go to the exe in the steamapps/common folder and run it directly.

I am guessing that when run from Steam Library, there is a licensing check thread that runs prior to starting some games. Since we licensed the game when we ran it with internet connection the first time (as mentioned above), there is no need to run this thread every time, and because we are tying to run the game offline the thread will never complete as it cannot connect therfore our game will never start. This is why I am suggesting starting the exe manually.

Notably, I have no idea if this is actually what it happening, but when you start this game from Steam Library there is definitely some process which Steam is trying to run before starting the game's exe and that process is stalling because it can't connect to something. I say this because the game starts instantly when I run it from the exe directly.