no solo play

[slimeball9999 6]

I just got home from work, popped in my Cities XL preorder disk and installed it.  I launched the shortcut and there I am at a logon screen with a bunch of links that say "go register!".  I've been reading the posts on the forum throughout the day and they said that as long as the computer was offline (my gaming computer is), there'd be a box or link at the bottom to click for solo/offline play.  I do not see that.

I closed the 'launcher' program and run the other executible file in the folder, CitiesXL_Game.exe.  That opened the game to a certain extent, but it took me to a different logon screen and had text to the effect that it lost connection to the server (it could never have had any), and text indicating that it was a beta?

I'd really like to play my game I preordered a while ago.  A little help here?

[JakeMD 107]

You must register your copy of CXL online. I think you can use this to register.

[slimeball9999 6]

I'm just ever going to play the single player mode of the game.  Why do need to register for the online component?  Like I said, my gaming computer isn't even online.

[slimeball9999 6]

So I just registered. There's no "download update for solo play" or anything like that.

[moaku 74]

1) Install the game on a connected machine, even if it's not the one you're playing with

2) Run the launcher, login with your account, and get the updates, once your game is updated (and also just before clicking "Install"), the patches will be in your hard drive...

Stored in: C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Monte Cristo\Cities XL\download in windows 7 / vista, and shall be in C:\Documents and settings\\Local Settings\Application Datas\Monte Cristo\Cities XL\download in WinXP.

3) Burn your patches on a cd or any usb storage device

4) Bring the burned cd / storage device to your unconnected machine you use to play

5) Install ALL patches from the smaller version number to the lastest, take care of not forgetting one during procedure.

6) Run the launcher, try to login without connection, and click on "Offline play" when it appears

7) Have fun

( Send me one million dollars as a "Thanks" for this wonderfull tip)

[gingechilla 0]

Originally posted by: moaku

3) Burn your patches on a cd or any usb storage device

4) Bring the burned cd / storage device to your unconnected machine you use to play

quote>

You have to burn patches on CDs?!?!

[moaku 74]

Yes, Or on an usb storage, but this is just for people wanting to play on pcs without internet connection, if you have one on your game machine, just ignore my post, it's exclusively for connection-less gamers.

[slimeball9999 6]

Partial story. I could copy my installation (excluding the huge PAK folder) to the other computer -- it's about 200-250 megs -- and download the patches that way. To install the patches, I had to move them to the actual Cities XL folder for them to run. However, I still can't play. I still don't get the "play offline" link. It says still "you must activate your account."

[moaku 74]

@slimeball: Well, as stated before, you MUST activate your account with an internet connection first, and you must do it with the machine you intend to play with, because the first time you register your account or login if you already have an account, it will activate your game, just like the Windows activation system, but on cxl, you have no way to "activate by phone" (shame)

So, short answer, you must use an internet connection at least once to activate your copy, once the game is activated, you'll be able to play offline...

If you can't connect this machine to the Internet, then you can't do anything yet, and since the back of the game box has a white-on-red label with "Internet Connection required for activation", I guess you can't even get a refund.

[slimeball9999 6]

moaku: I guess I need to call my bank for a chargeback then, since Monte Cristo's not willing to do a refund.  There was no indication at all back in September when I preordered that I couldn't play the @#(%*@#() game.  (And, BTW, Windows XP doesn't do activation.)

[moaku 74]

well, good luck on your refunding journey then

(winxp do activation, only corporate versions do not require it, any non-corporate legal version will need it)

[rsd6000 8]

slimeball9999 - if you bought from store - you best is return to them and explain - if from MC - best is complain them and ask for be returned to them but if not - just put game in bin to be disposed or sell off in ebay

[Mr.Mao 0]

Just take your gamecomputer to a place with internet connection (ask your neighbours if necessary) and activate the game. Just plug in a network cable in your pc and do the online activation.

Do NOT transfer the files to another computer and try to activate it on that! The activation probably unlocks some files on that particular pc to allow you to play on it.

Seriously though, in this day and age, you will need an internet connection on your gaming comp. Either for game activations or online multiplayer of games. I love having Steam to download my games and have it autopatch all my games automatically. Any particular reason why you haven't hooked up your gaming pc to the net?

[moaku 74]

@Mao:

Just to clarify, The transfer files trick mentioned above is NOT intended to try to bypass the online activation or whatever (that wouldn't work anyway)... slimeball mentionned the post just before mine with the 8 steps trick that he already activated his account, he was just wanting a way to update his "offline client" after having activated it... So the file transfers trick I gave is only about getting and installing the official updates patches that an "online" client downloaded... the same way you bring windows updates to offline pcs with individual updates .exe

Btw, even if internet is available everywhere on these days, there can be many reasons for deliberately keeping a machine offline, the obvioustest (humm, does that word even exists ?) one I can see is that it's the best method if you want to keep an unvirused pc without having to install a software that would sure protect your machine from mosts malwares but at the cost of system performances... Not all gamers want to add load on their cpu to protect themselves or reinstall their OS each 3 weeks, for these people, an offline gaming machine is ideal for offline / lan-friendly games... Just as the best contraceptive is abstinence, even if it's not the one that most of us choose to use

[rhenry 1]

All I had to do was lug my computer into the other room where the internet computer is at and plug it up during the install. It was a pain in the rear but it's a one time thing so why not? You must have internet access someplace if you're posting here. Once you activate you will never need the internet again.

[cdilla 0]

I can see some advantages to having the game check for patches etc, but I would like to play offline.

I've done some playing around.

If you disconnect or disable your internet link it will, eventually, enable a play offine button which you can use to launch the game.  You can click on the little ? button in the bottom right to have a log pop up showing connection attempts.  It tries so many times then gives up and offers you the offline option.  This should always be available.

I have watched the traffic that the game sends out prior to starting the game and see it sends a bunch of stuff to google - why I wonder.

Anyway, I have also found that you can skip the initial blue logon splash and go straight to the full-screen game intro by passing a commandline parameter to the game exe, like this

CitiesXL_Game.exe -devdisconnected

I use the -devdisconnected parameter as other investigations suggest that is a parameter, however, anything will do, -help or -crap for examples.

This doesn't achieve offline startup, but it does skip one stage and does stop whattever traffic the launcher is sending to google.

So, come on MC, patch the game so we can chose to play offline if we please.