Saint Row The Third/IV(Legacy) Starter & Fixes Guide

A collection of things to take care of, if this is your first time playing the Steam version of Saints Row The Third(or Saints Row IV), if you're returning after a long time without playing, or you're simply having issues playing the games, this guide is right here for you!

Before we Begin

A reminder that everything in this guide can also affect/be applied towards Saints Row IV!

I won't be covering the Remaster/Epic version of this game.(And likely never will since it won't be held out to owners of this version, so there's no way I'll be able to test for issues myself and cover them here.)

If something on this guide doesn't work for you, check the PCGamingWiki page: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Saints_Row:_The_Third

I'll add more to the guide if more issues come out from this game.

Freezing Issues(Necessary for MySteelport Emulator)

Ever since MySteelport was shutdown, people have been experiencing issues where the game randomly freezes, locks up, or crashes more often than not, and this will guide you to fix these issues.

PS: The game will still crash on random, but very, very rarely, at maximum estimate of one to three times per playthrough.

Instructions

1. Go towards the following folder:
   C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
   
   
2. Open the "hosts" file with Notepad or Notepad++ as Administrator
   
   
3. Make a new line at the end of the file's text, and type the following:

127.0.0.1 sr3.hydra.agoragames.com
127.0.0.1 sr4.hydra.agoragames.com

And thus, the freezing issues should be fixed!

If in the end, this does not seem to be enough to fix the freezes somehow, try adding another line, and the following(DO NOT ADD UNLESS ^ DIDN'T WORK):

208.67.222.222 sr3.hydra.agoragames.com

MySteelport Emulator

Original Source: https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/my-steelport-emulator.17361/

PS: This also works in the Saints Row The Third Initiation Station and Saints Row IV Inauguration Station apps!

If you're looking to start your game with a proper custom character with clothes of your picking even with MySteelport down or just want to get the achievement related to this, this part of the guide is for you!

Do not skip the Freezing Issues section, it's necessary for the emulator to work!

Firstly, download the following 7z file, and extract it's folder somewhere. Anywhere you want! Preferably somewhere easy to access.
https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/attachments/mysteelportemulator-1-1-7z.22109/
Mirror Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fay4zm3hedo8qee/MySteelportEmulator-1.1.7z?dl=0

After this is done, open MySteelportEmulator.exe, and then, open your game, be it Saints Row The Third or Saints Row IV.

If everything went right, the ticker at the main menu should look like this:

Feel free to create your character in any way you like, and while MySteelportEmulator is on, try uploading it in-game, you should get the achievement if you don't already have it! Your characters will be stored in the characters folders where you put MySteelportEmulator.

Renaming Characters

If you try to download them in-game, their names will probably be something like "CharacterName", making it hard to identify a character only by text if you have more than one. But that's easily fixable!

Open CharacterRenamer.exe on your MySteelportEmulator folder.

Press the "Load" button, and pick the .sr_character file that corresponds to the one you want to rename!
(If you don't know the filename that corresponds to your character, use the .jpg as a reference!)


After the character is loaded, it's current name will be shown, and you can freely type whatever you want over it, and press "Save", and that name will show up next time you browse the character list.

[AkiraJkr]

If you're trying to use this in Remastered, it's not supported because...MySteelport doesn't exist in that version.
Anyways, if this isn't working, I don't know what to suggest other than checking the mod's page on saintsrowmods.

[piss]

i did the freezing issues step and opened the emulator before the game, still nothing

[AkiraJkr]

You need to open the emulator BEFORE the game, and have done the Freezing Issues step.

[piss]

the emulator doesn't seem to work, my ticker stays the same and i can't upload characters

[GSRiley]

hmm yeah my freezing issue was fixed thanks to you!

[Genokrad]

for some reason the freezing fix did not work at all, i think it even made it worse because the main menu screen started freezing much more after i tried to fix it