NAM HSR Reinstallation Issues

[IainScot74 3]

To cut a long story short I've had to reinstall everything from a backup due to a hard drive failure.

I've reinstalled SC4 and Rush Hour which I've done on a Windows XP dual boot as I have the CD Rom versions which won't run on Windows 10.

I had NAM version 34 installed previously since 2015 however could not find the installation file on my USB drive. What I did manage to do was install NAM v30 which I still have backed up and copy the later version created folders directly - as I had backed up the plugins as installed to an external drive just by copying the entire SimCity 4 folder from My Documents.

That seemed to work fine as now no assets are missing from my cities (before copying the extra folders as I just described I did notice some highway tiles were missing including the 7.5m and 15m elevated but that is now rectified). Though what I have noticed that I did not experience before was that the monorails have been replaced by draggable HSR - previously I had to use the starter pieces. I am also finding the cost per segment to lay these is $1000, not $100 as it should be.

I've managed rectify this by removing the "HSRP Beta1" folder from the plugins folder so all is good with that. Though I would like to replace the monorails with this if I can sort out the cost issue.

I also find this cost problem is still there when installing the Bullet Train Mod, plus if I install this alongside HSRP Beta1 - diagonal stretches and junctions look completely distorted.

Am I also correct in understanding with the Bullet Train Mod rails there is no way to join ground level with this (and that can only be done with the HSR?)

Excuse my ignorance but it's been a while since I've had to do any installation other than plugins.

[rsc204 21,815]

Sorry to tell you, but since you are using an ancient version of NAM (30), we in the NAM Team are unable to offer you any support officially to resolve your problems. We only support the latest version of NAM, which is currently NAM 37, almost certainly issues like you describe would have been fixed in subsequent releases. If not, perhaps you've conflicting files hanging around, for example 2 sets of NAM files = big and weird problems.

Note that HSR is not a Monorail Replacement, it's an additional Override of it. HSR includes Ground and Elevated variants, which can connect together. Whereas BTM is a Monorail Reskin (or replacement), it doesn't add any new functionality, just alters how Monorails look. As such, neither Monorail or BTM can support ground-based rails, they are L2 only.

[Tarkus 6,932]

Reiterating @rsc204, NAM 30 is no longer supported.  Nor is NAM 34, or even NAM 36.

We can, however, provide support with getting up and running with NAM 37, which is the current version.  If you're still running Windows XP (and almost certainly a 32-bit flavor of it), that might cause some issues with trying to get NAM 37 to work, unless you were to compile a smaller NAM Controller with fewer features.  However, there are free and inexpensive options to get a digital version of SC4 that will work with Windows 10.  Origin Support has a CD Key redemption program, wherein providing your original CD Key from your disc copy may entitle you to a free digital copy (which, unlike the version they sell on the Origin Store, is properly pre-patched), and Steam and GOG (which also sell properly pre-patched versions) routinely have sales.  Someone on /r/simcity4 recently pointed out a Fanatical deal for the Steam version, at US$1.99, which should be going for a few more days.  (Officially, it says it's the Mac version, but it's a SteamPlay game, so that entitles you to access to Windows version.)

The "HSRP Beta 1" file you described sounds like the pre-NAM version of HSRP from 14 years ago, which is a Monorail re-skin, unlike the NAM Team's version of HSRP (introduced in 2008), which is a Monorail-based override network.  The various versions of the Bullet Train Mod that are out there are also all Monorail re-skins, so it and the 2006 version of HSRP are 100% incompatible with one another.  Both (AFAIK) also alter network costs.  Again, however, they're ancient files and not really supported (and the NAM Team pulled support for the newer Bullet Train Mod that was packaged with NAM 31 through NAM 36).

-Tarkus

[IainScot74 3]

Thanks for the feedback on this. Sorry for delay in getting back, been a busy few months and just picked up the game again now.

Well I managed to install the SC4 Deluxe Edition from a Steam key on Windows 10 Pro and successfully installed NAM 38. So far so good.

However I'd initially run into issues since reinstalling a lot of the lot plugins I've downloaded from the STEX over the years so rather than copying and pasting wholesale into the plugins folder I've gone through them individually and left out e.g. the HSR plugins / monorail reskins and GLR lots.

The problem I'm finding is when I load a city it is often just crashing the game. At first I thought this was a file conflict issue because Onedrive was syncing the folders in Documents though I've now stopped Onedrive syncing these folders. Still the problem persisted.

I tried removing all the plugins except NAM and that seemed to solve the problem. I then seemed to be having the problem with adding all of the plugins at once and so just adding say 5-10 at a time seemed to work. However when I come back and load the game again the next day it's still crashing when loading a City.

This is happening with the tutorial region as well, not just ones I've previously created.  But it doesn't do it all the time and only happens if there are plugin lots installed. Could it be a Steam connectivity issue as it seems to be intermittent (last night I got the game to work but crashed again today without me making any changes)?

The NAM runs no problem when I actually get a city to load up so I've ruled out any patching issues. The game also functions without any display problems or other functionality issues

and the graphics display better than I'm used to. I can even now place the airport billboards that used to crash the game when placing them with an older NAM.

Once I get a city to actually load then I can exit and open cities and switch regions with no issues. It just seems to be getting that first loading of a city when running the game.

So I'm at a loss. Any ideas? Here is the exception report below:

Quote

 

Exception time: 11/17/2020, at 21:41:05.
Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.
Current thread ID: 3404 (0x00000d4c).
Version information:
Application/module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe
Application/module version name: SimCity 4
Application/module version: 1.1.641.0
System version: Windows NT 6.2
System memory: 2048 Megabytes total, 2048 Megabytes free.

Exception module:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe.
Exception address: 0x005b9feb. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x001b2feb.

Registers
   EAX: 00000000
   EBX: 0019f9c8
   ECX: 00000000
   EDX: 00000000
   ESI: 00000009
   EDI: 94000004
   CS:EIP: 0023:005b9feb
   SS:ESP: 002b:0019f904  EBP:0019f94c
   DS:002b  ES:002b  FS:0053  GS:002b
   Flags: 00210202

Loaded Modules
   Address          Size Module             Path
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   0x00400000    8511488 SimCity 4.exe      C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe
   0x77c00000    1716224 ntdll.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
   0x77070000     983040 KERNEL32.DLL       C:\Windows\System32\KERNEL32.DLL
   0x777d0000    2179072 KERNELBASE.dll     C:\Windows\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
   0x6f8c0000     651264 apphelp.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\apphelp.dll
   0x75ac0000     499712 ADVAPI32.dll       C:\Windows\System32\ADVAPI32.dll
   0x76480000     782336 msvcrt.dll         C:\Windows\System32\msvcrt.dll
   0x774f0000     479232 sechost.dll        C:\Windows\System32\sechost.dll
   0x76f50000     761856 RPCRT4.dll         C:\Windows\System32\RPCRT4.dll
   0x77160000    1662976 USER32.dll         C:\Windows\System32\USER32.dll
   0x77a60000      98304 win32u.dll         C:\Windows\System32\win32u.dll
   0x76f20000     143360 GDI32.dll          C:\Windows\System32\GDI32.dll
   0x76640000     892928 gdi32full.dll      C:\Windows\System32\gdi32full.dll
   0x776f0000     503808 msvcp_win.dll      C:\Windows\System32\msvcp_win.dll
   0x75550000    4554752 WININET.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WININET.dll
   0x76890000    1179648 ucrtbase.dll       C:\Windows\System32\ucrtbase.dll
   0x75e60000    5976064 SHELL32.dll        C:\Windows\System32\SHELL32.dll
   0x6e9f0000      32768 WSOCK32.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WSOCK32.dll
   0x77420000     405504 WS2_32.dll         C:\Windows\System32\WS2_32.dll
   0x76850000     151552 IMM32.dll          C:\Windows\System32\IMM32.dll
   0x60e50000     520192 DSOUND.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\DSOUND.dll
   0x728e0000     163840 WINMM.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WINMM.dll
   0x75bd0000    2625536 combase.dll        C:\Windows\System32\combase.dll
   0x6cb00000    1060864 OPENGL32.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\OPENGL32.dll
   0x5fec0000     139264 MSVFW32.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\MSVFW32.dll
   0x70730000     278528 powrprof.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\powrprof.dll
   0x61230000     118784 winmmbase.dll      C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\winmmbase.dll
   0x5fd30000     577536 COMCTL32.dll       C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_5.82.19041.488_none_89e6152f0b32762e\COMCTL32.dll
   0x6c120000     258048 GLU32.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\GLU32.dll
   0x759b0000      32768 VERSION.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\VERSION.dll
   0x70720000      53248 UMPDC.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\UMPDC.dll
   0x5fba0000    1622016 gameoverlayrendere C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\gameoverlayrenderer.dll
   0x77570000     929792 ole32.dll          C:\Windows\System32\ole32.dll
   0x77a50000      24576 PSAPI.DLL          C:\Windows\System32\PSAPI.DLL
   0x75b40000     102400 bcrypt.dll         C:\Windows\System32\bcrypt.dll
   0x70300000     335872 MSWSOCK.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\MSWSOCK.dll
   0x77660000     552960 shcore.dll         C:\Windows\System32\shcore.dll
   0x759d0000      40960 CRYPTBASE.DLL      C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CRYPTBASE.DLL
   0x77010000     376832 bcryptPrimitives.d C:\Windows\System32\bcryptPrimitives.dll
   0x72230000    6332416 windows.storage.dl C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\windows.storage.dll
   0x72200000     147456 Wldp.dll           C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\Wldp.dll
   0x77780000     282624 shlwapi.dll        C:\Windows\System32\shlwapi.dll
   0x759c0000      61440 kernel.appcore.dll C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\kernel.appcore.dll
   0x75a30000     475136 uxtheme.dll        C:\Windows\system32\uxtheme.dll
   0x767b0000     614400 OLEAUT32.dll       C:\Windows\System32\OLEAUT32.dll
   0x76df0000     516096 clbcatq.dll        C:\Windows\System32\clbcatq.dll
   0x729b0000     798720 PROPSYS.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\PROPSYS.dll
   0x5fac0000     897024 rasapi32.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\rasapi32.dll
   0x5fe90000     176128 rasman.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\rasman.dll
   0x5fef0000     180224 dxcore.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\dxcore.dll
   0x773e0000     241664 cfgmgr32.dll       C:\Windows\System32\cfgmgr32.dll
   0x77300000     864256 MSCTF.dll          C:\Windows\System32\MSCTF.dll
   0x6e880000     761856 textinputframework C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\textinputframework.dll
   0x6e560000     634880 CoreMessaging.dll  C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CoreMessaging.dll
   0x6e600000    2613248 CoreUIComponents.d C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CoreUIComponents.dll
   0x70640000     909312 wintypes.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\wintypes.dll
   0x70ee0000     167936 ntmarta.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntmarta.dll
   0x5f9d0000     954368 DDRAW.DLL          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\DDRAW.DLL
   0x5fe80000      28672 DCIMAN32.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\DCIMAN32.dll
   0x72030000     794624 dxgi.dll           C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\dxgi.dll
   0x62b80000   11128832 igdumd32.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\igdumd32.dll
   0x5f960000     405504 D3DIM700.DLL       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\D3DIM700.DLL
   0x62a40000     434176 MMDevApi.dll       C:\Windows\System32\MMDevApi.dll
   0x6bfb0000     147456 DEVOBJ.dll         C:\Windows\System32\DEVOBJ.dll
   0x60f30000    1265664 AUDIOSES.DLL       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\AUDIOSES.DLL
   0x72c70000     155648 dwmapi.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\dwmapi.dll
   0x5fe70000      61440 resourcepolicyclie C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\resourcepolicyclient.dll
   0x09e80000    2273280 iertutil.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\iertutil.dll
   0x72840000     163840 SspiCli.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\SspiCli.dll
   0x75330000     118784 profapi.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\profapi.dll
   0x70360000      73728 ondemandconnrouteh C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ondemandconnroutehelper.dll
   0x737d0000     794624 winhttp.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\winhttp.dll
   0x751a0000     204800 IPHLPAPI.DLL       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\IPHLPAPI.DLL
   0x702f0000      32768 WINNSI.DLL         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WINNSI.DLL
   0x76880000      28672 NSI.dll            C:\Windows\System32\NSI.dll
   0x62940000     995328 Windows.UI.dll     C:\Windows\System32\Windows.UI.dll
   0x628c0000     471040 WindowManagementAP C:\Windows\System32\WindowManagementAPI.dll
   0x6bff0000     970752 InputHost.dll      C:\Windows\System32\InputHost.dll
   0x6fea0000    1642496 twinapi.appcore.dl C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\twinapi.appcore.dll
   0x611e0000      32768 avrt.dll           C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\avrt.dll
   0x6d510000     507904 DbgHelp.dll        C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\DbgHelp.dll

Call stack:
(Debug information (.pdb files) appears to be absent).
0x0001:0x001b2feb C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe.
GZDllGetGZCOMDirector() + 62310

GZDllGetGZCOMDirector() + 64640

Stack data: (ESP is 0x0019f904)
0x0019f784   40010000 d0011f00 64000000 eb9f5b00 00000000 209a0308 00000000 00000000 
0x0019f7a4   08e0b03c 00f91900 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000e000 20000000 00000000 
0x0019f7c4   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 
0x0019f7e4   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 
0x0019f804   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 
0x0019f824   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 
0x0019f844   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 
0x0019f864   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 
0x0019f884   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 
0x0019f8a4   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 
0x0019f8c4   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 
0x0019f8e4   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 04000014 
0x0019f904   00008000 9826b600 c6555e00 00000014 00008000 c0f91900 62cf9000 00000014 
0x0019f924   4b359b00 00000014 a9d09100 00008000 00000000 1008a800 c0f91900 00000000 
0x0019f944   c0f91900 00004000 6cf91900 63d19100 2430b547 84f91900 77f91900 01000000 
0x0019f964   01000000 8cfa1900 08fa1900 7dda9100 84f91900 00000000 1008a800 00000000 
0x0019f984   1008a800 54809437 71809437 72809437 00000000 1008a800 94809437 b1809437 
0x0019f9a4   b2809437 00000000 1008a800 54809437 71809437 72809437 00000000 2430b53d 
0x0019f9c4   2430b547 2430b547 1008a800 94e0f600 b1e0f600 cfe0f600 00000000 1008a800 
0x0019f9e4   b493b31b c193b31b c293b31b 00000000 1008a800 9447ac1e b147ac1e da47ac1e 
0x0019fa04   00000000 00000000 40d46300 86000000 e0d16300 d066b400 00000000 3484fa03 
0x0019fa24   1008a800 d418e41f e118e41f e218e41f 00000000 1b556200 8cfa1900 f086aa00 
0x0019fa44   1498fa15 98d6971a 00000000 c571598a b993598a 4e170000 cd1f0000 4b1f0000 
0x0019fa64   c7170000 00000000 00000000 0f1f0000 0a000000 4f1e0000 4f1d0000 4f130000 

Instruction data: (EIP is 0x005b9feb)
0x005b9f6b   b6 02 00 83 c4 04 8b c6 5e c2 04 00 cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc 56 57 8b f1 8b 7e 10 6a 0c e8 c6 
0x005b9f8b   2f 35 00 8d 48 08 83 c4 04 85 c9 74 06 8b 54 24 0c 89 11 8b 4f 04 89 38 89 48 04 89 01 89 47 04 
0x005b9fab   8b 46 14 40 5f 89 46 14 5e c2 04 00 cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc 56 57 8b 7c 24 0c 83 c7 04 33 f6 
0x005b9fcb   b8 08 00 00 00 3b f8 76 21 46 03 c0 83 fe 09 72 f4 57 e8 8c 66 43 00 81 cf 00 00 00 80 83 c4 04 
0x005b9feb   89 38 5f 83 c0 04 5e c2 04 00 8b 4c b1 6c 8b 01 ff 10 c1 e6 18 0b f7 89 30 5f 83 c0 04 5e c2 04 
0x005ba00b   00 cc cc cc cc 83 ec 08 8b 44 24 14 8b 54 24 10 56 8b c8 8b f2 81 e1 00 00 ff ff 81 e6 00 00 ff 
0x005ba02b   ff 25 ff ff 00 00 81 e2 ff ff 00 00 89 4c 24 18 3b f1 89 74 24 14 89 44 24 04 89 54 24 08 8d 4c 
0x005ba04b   24 18 72 04 8d 4c 24 14 3b d0 8d 44 24 04 72 04 8d 44 24 08 8b 31 8b 00 8b 54 24 10 03 c6 33 c9 

 

[rsc204 21,815]

1 hour ago, IainScot74 said:

System memory: 2048 Megabytes total, 2048 Megabytes free.

Is this correct that your PC has only 2GB RAM? That could be an issue here if it's giving the right figure.

In a similar vein, assuming you've a 64-bit version of Windows and have 4GB or more RAM, to prevent the game from running out of memory, it is necessary to use the 4GB Patch application and patch the SimCity 4.exe from your game. There are other potential workarounds, but make sure you've used the patch, if applicable and get back to us if you still have problems.

[IainScot74 3]

I wondered about that system memory.

I have 8GB RAM and have installed the 4GB patch which was included in the NAM zip file.

I did experience problems a few years back installing a 4GB patched NAM on Win XP with 2GB RAM. The result was windows booting in low graphics and so I had to do a system restore to fix it. Hence the reason I was using such an old NAM version for so long.

Looking at the task manager I'm currently using  ~ 2.9/7.7 GB and about 10% CPU

CPU is Core i3, 3.3. GHz (2nd Gen)

Graphics Intel HD

 

As I said if a city actually loads there are no problems at all with graphics, running speed or any functionality.

Is there any way to verify the 4GB patch has installed correctly? Would NAM function at all with out it?

I don't seem to have problems at all with just NAM though. It's only after installing STEX plugin lots I get this crashing.

I'm attaching a screenshot of the installed plugins if that can provide any clues if there are any that are known to cause bugs (I've not been able to identify any particular ones and they all seem to function in the game)...

 

UPDATE:

After some more investigation, removing plugins I can see it is indeed the NAM causing this problem and not any of the lots per se. It must have been pure chance that I managed to load a city after removing plugins before.

Also. I've noticed with NAM plugin I can't get a city in a region I've created to load at all without it crashing if that's the first thing I do after I run SC4. It will only work if I manage to load one of the Tutorial Cities in the included 'Timbuktu' region first - for some reason that seems to 'stabilise' whatever is causing the crash - as I can then load another region and load the cities in it no problem.

Hoping I can solve the problem with Steam version for now but I think at some point I'm just going to get the Deluxe retail version. Is there anywhere to (legitimately) purchase and download the full version to run entirely on PC without having to be connected to e.g. Steam? I don't see much in Google Shopping results other than Steam key and CD versions (some sealed) on Ebay.

 

 

[IainScot74 3]

UPDATE.

So it seems I now have the problem solved.

I looked a bit more into the memory issue, uninstalled NAM and went through the patch process again.

It seems I hadn't patched the SimCity 4 exe file before as there was no backup of the original created (I think it was the patch file itself I'd originally tried to patch [shaking head at self]).

Anyway cities are now loading no problem so no glitches - just a glaring oversight on my part.

Always the simplest explanations that are hardest to find! 

[rsc204 21,815]

2 hours ago, IainScot74 said:

I did experience problems a few years back installing a 4GB patched NAM on Win XP with 2GB RAM. The result was windows booting in low graphics and so I had to do a system restore to fix it. Hence the reason I was using such an old NAM version for so long.

32-bit and 64-bit systems are totally different in terms of how you handle memory. Likely NAM didn’t install the 4GB patch, since using a 32-bit system (XP is almost always 32-bit, the 64-bit version didn’t work with most hardware), instead it changed the boot.ini configuration, in an attempt to “shuffle” memory around, to free up more for SC4. The 4GB patch does something similar, but it calls a specific OS function, that frees up the system (OS) reserved memory and puts it into it’s own dedicated space. This way, a 32-bit application can have access to it’s full potential 2GB of RAM, rather than share it with the OS.

So yeah, it’s probably a red herring, because SC4 is detecting less than your system has. But then it’s an older application that really wasn’t designed with systems like we use today in mind. Do note, many people falsely claim you should use “XP Compatibility Mode” in Windows to run SC4. The truth is, you should not unless it is specifically necessary for you and fixes a problem. Doing this may actually hinder the game, because those modes may not support features in newer Windows that makes thing run better. The simple truth is, at least at the OS level, SC4 is as compatible with Windows Vista/7/8/10 as it ever was under it’s intended OSs. Your hardware and drivers, well that’s another kettle of fish entirely.

59 minutes ago, IainScot74 said:

It seems I hadn't patched the SimCity 4 exe file before as there was no backup of the original created (I think it was the patch file itself I'd originally tried to patch [shaking head at self])

You are not the first so don’t beat yourself up too hard. After the initial release of NAM 37’s new installer, I stated categorically we would not make a tutorial video, because it wasn’t necessary. However, after the number of support requests we received. I did exactly that and the 4GB patch seems to be one of the more common problems users were having. Glad you were able to get to the bottom of it and hope you enjoy all the great features the NAM offers.

[rsc204 21,815]

2 hours ago, IainScot74 said:

Hoping I can solve the problem with Steam version for now but I think at some point I'm just going to get the Deluxe retail version. Is there anywhere to (legitimately) purchase and download the full version to run entirely on PC without having to be connected to e.g. Steam? I don't see much in Google Shopping results other than Steam key and CD versions (some sealed) on Ebay.

Do not buy the Disks if you are on Windows 10. The DRM system it uses was removed from Windows entirely and you won’t ever get them to work.

GoG sell a DRM-Free version, fully patched, it is IMHO, the best version of SC4 to get. Certainly, it does not require an internet connection to use.

However, if you are thinking one version of SC4 is different from another, they are not. Other than some customisations to how it runs, for example Steam locking it down with DRM, they are identical once running. A problem with one version, will be be there on another. But if you wait for a sale, you’d get a copy for about 5 $/€, so if you really hanker for a DRM/connection free version, that’s what I’d do.

[IainScot74 3]

Great thanks for the tips. I'll have a look at the GoG version at some point.