Matrix Games Forums

Is there a way to convert my copy of Command from needing Steam? Is there a way for me to verify a valid purchase through Steam? Or do I need to purchase another copy through the website store?

TalonCG2 wrote: Fri Jul 08, 2022 11:34 pm Or do I need to purchase another copy through the website store?

Yes, that's the only way.

Gizzmoe wrote: Fri Jul 08, 2022 11:43 pm Yes, that's the only way.

Damn... ok

TalonCG2 wrote: Fri Jul 08, 2022 11:46 pm

Gizzmoe wrote: Fri Jul 08, 2022 11:43 pm Yes, that's the only way.

Damn... ok

Just curious, Chuck.

What's your reasoning for wanting to move away from the Steam version?

Easy301 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 2:16 am Just curious, Chuck.
What's your reasoning for wanting to move away from the Steam version?

The updates through steam aren't as frequent and trying to apply them manually over steam isn't 100% successful every time. Sometimes steam sees a different version and reapplies the old version over it because it thinks it's keeping the program updated. At least, I think that's why I'm not having luck applying the beta patches to the steam version manually. There's no way I've found to force steam from updating.

TalonCG2 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 10:29 am The updates through steam aren't as frequent and trying to apply them manually over steam isn't 100% successful every time.

I could be wrong, but afaik the owners of the Matrixgames version need to apply the beta patches manually as well, there is no difference to the Steam version.

Sometimes steam sees a different version and reapplies the old version over it because it thinks it's keeping the program

That veeeery rarely happens, I don't recall the last time a steam update overwrote a newer Command version that I installed from the forum with an older version. When that happens I simply extract the update package to the CMO folder again.

TalonCG2 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 10:29 am

Easy301 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 2:16 am Just curious, Chuck.
What's your reasoning for wanting to move away from the Steam version?

The updates through steam aren't as frequent and trying to apply them manually over steam isn't 100% successful every time. Sometimes steam sees a different version and reapplies the old version over it because it thinks it's keeping the program updated. At least, I think that's why I'm not having luck applying the beta patches to the steam version manually. There's no way I've found to force steam from updating.

Ah, ok.

I do remember you were having issues with the updates being installed on top of the steam version. I will say that the issue you're seeing isn't common at all and functionally there is no difference between the Matrix and Steam versions. I know this doesn't help when you're experiencing a problem with it.

I did some research for you this evening to try and provide more information for your issue in hopes that you can solve it because the issue is so peculiar it's even had thinking about it randomly these past few weeks haha.

Steam doesn't check and update the version of installed games via the content in the folders and then uses that info to update the game if out of date.

When I download CMO from Steam, it basically records "Greg downloaded the game from Y branch, at the time he downloaded it the version of that branch was A." (In this case Y would be the branch that Matrix has the Beta release in)

When Matrix updates that Y branch with a new version say version B, Steam says "I know Greg downloaded the game from the Y branch when it was version A, it's now version B, I'm going to let him know there's an update or update it for him."

With the above in mind, Steam shouldn't be updating or touching the CMO files after you replace the files because it doesn't even know those files have been replaced unless you manually do a repair/verify which is why that option is there. That means in this case if Steam is updating the files continuously it's a problem separate from you replacing the files.

That also means whatever is causing this could very well just not be an issue with Steam at all (depending on if you're seeing any behavior within Steam.) and still happen even if you use the Matrix version. Steam in this case shouldn't be having any effect on the files or folders other than downloading the initial beta, you're essentially just using Steam as a directory at this point.

To be sure though, you can right click CMO in the your library go to manage and then switch the setting for "Always keep my game up-to-date " this will allow you to decide and approve when Steam downloads the updates.

I feel like there's something we are overlooking that's causing this issue, the fact that this unfortunately is happening exclusively to you means there's something that's going on exclusive to your system that's causing this.

Doing more thinking on this over the past few weeks, some of issues and symptoms your experiencing seem really indicative of possibly some security software you have on your machine picking up the extracted .exe and stopping it from overwriting the one in your Steam folder as a security precaution. Security software is sometimes very picky of archives that are attempting to replace .exe files.

Or the issue is possibly happening in the extraction process somehow.

Either way, the good news is that almost every other member of the community who is installing the beta on top of Steam is doing so without any issues whatsoever. This means of course the process works and there's nothing inherently wrong with Steam or manually installing the Betas on top of it and that there IS a way to get it to work flawlessly for you.

If you haven't already please try using 7zip when extracting the files next time and/or temporarily disable your security software and please see if that solves it.

A lot of people in the community have given me help with various subjects over the last few months of being introduced to the War Gaming community, it's quickly become my new favorite hobby.

I've been trying my absolute best to give back when I can and help others users. If you'd like, instead of me posting possible solutions off and on in these threads; I work professionally in the industry, if you'd like to reach out to me, I'm more than willing to provide as much time and assistance as is needed and work with you as long as need be (via any communication methods your comfortable with) to get this solved and working correctly, so you can enjoy CMO with the latest Betas and install them in the future without any issues.

I really do think it's possible to expeditiously find out what's causing this to be an issue only on your system and find a solution that solves it completely. We may have to collect some more information and try some troubleshooting but I have no doubt this is something than can be solved.

Always, good luck and I'm sorry you're still experiencing an issue with this.

Greg

Gizzmoe wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 11:15 am I could be wrong, but afaik the owners of the Matrixgames version need to apply the beta patches manually as well, there is no difference to the Steam version.

There is an opt in for beta on steam. They only release the beta for the major updates there about a week prior, not the incremental builds.

That veeeery rarely happens, I don't recall the last time a steam update overwrote a newer Command version that I installed from the forum with an older version. When that happens I simply extract the update package to the CMO folder again.

It's happened to me the last 3 incremental betas released here. Try to apply over steam and it shows the old version with none of the new features.

Easy301 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 2:02 pm If you haven't already please try using 7zip when extracting the files next time and/or temporarily disable your security software and please see if that solves it.

Always, good luck and I'm sorry you're still experiencing an issue with this.

Greg

As I was reading your reply, I'm thinking to myself, I wonder if my AV is having an aneurysm over this and stopping it?
I've gotten no warnings or alerts, but it's surely possible. I'll try with it off.

I appreciate your help. Why am I always the special one??

TalonCG2 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 4:49 pm

Easy301 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 2:02 pm If you haven't already please try using 7zip when extracting the files next time and/or temporarily disable your security software and please see if that solves it.

Always, good luck and I'm sorry you're still experiencing an issue with this.

Greg

As I was reading your reply, I'm thinking to myself, I wonder if my AV is having an aneurysm over this and stopping it?
I've gotten no warnings or alerts, but it's surely possible. I'll try with it off.

I appreciate your help. Why am I always the special one??

Sounds good. Please do let me know how it goes after trying both the download of the latest beta again and the extraction of the Beta with security off followed by launching the game with the security software off as well.

If that doesn't work let me know if trying the extraction via 7zip works or not.

Fingers crossed the security being turned off fixes it. I usually have the same notorious bad luck as you when it comes to being the special one that gets to expierence a tech issue so I absolutely feel your pain!

Easy301 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 6:34 pm

TalonCG2 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 4:49 pm

Easy301 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 2:02 pm If you haven't already please try using 7zip when extracting the files next time and/or temporarily disable your security software and please see if that solves it.

Always, good luck and I'm sorry you're still experiencing an issue with this.

Greg

As I was reading your reply, I'm thinking to myself, I wonder if my AV is having an aneurysm over this and stopping it?
I've gotten no warnings or alerts, but it's surely possible. I'll try with it off.

I appreciate your help. Why am I always the special one??

Sounds good. Please do let me know how it goes after trying both the download of the latest beta again and the extraction of the Beta with security off followed by launching the game with the security software off as well.

If that doesn't work let me know if trying the extraction via 7zip works or not.

Fingers crossed the security being turned off fixes it. I usually have the same notorious bad luck as you when it comes to being the special one that gets to expierence a tech issue so I absolutely feel your pain!

Well that didn't work. I've been using 7zip all along, I also tried winrar for grins.
I did however get it to work after uninstalling and reinstalling on a different drive, then patching per normal. Very odd, but I've got 1263.1 working at least.

Can confirm can definitely run latest beta with steam just fine. Start out with the beta active in steam then just drop the most recent Beta on top after extracting from Zip file.

FifthDomain wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 7:59 pm Can confirm can definitely run latest beta with steam just fine. Start out with the beta active in steam then just drop the most recent Beta on top after extracting from Zip file.

Thanks, I'm well aware. It didn't work.
I found a way to make it work, however (see my last comment).

TalonCG2 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 7:15 pm

Easy301 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 6:34 pm

TalonCG2 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 4:49 pm

As I was reading your reply, I'm thinking to myself, I wonder if my AV is having an aneurysm over this and stopping it?
I've gotten no warnings or alerts, but it's surely possible. I'll try with it off.

I appreciate your help. Why am I always the special one??

Sounds good. Please do let me know how it goes after trying both the download of the latest beta again and the extraction of the Beta with security off followed by launching the game with the security software off as well.

If that doesn't work let me know if trying the extraction via 7zip works or not.

Fingers crossed the security being turned off fixes it. I usually have the same notorious bad luck as you when it comes to being the special one that gets to expierence a tech issue so I absolutely feel your pain!

Well that didn't work. I've been using 7zip all along, I also tried winrar for grins.
I did however get it to work after uninstalling and reinstalling on a different drive, then patching per normal. Very odd, but I've got 1263.1 working at least.

I'm glad something worked, at least. The next beta cycle that comes out would you be kind enough to post here and let me know if updating it works correctly the first time on the new drive?

I'd love to know if this issue is solved for good now, it would be great if you didn't have this issue anymore and were able to install any new updates on the new drive and it work correctly the first time.

At least knowing it was something, somewhere, somehow about or in the drive that was causing the issues is better than nothing.

Thanks,
Greg.

Easy301 wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 10:22 pm

I'm glad something worked, at least. The next beta cycle that comes out would you be kind enough to post here and let me know if updating it works correctly the first time on the new drive?

I'd love to know if this issue is solved for good now, it would be great if you didn't have this issue anymore and were able to install any new updates on the new drive and it work correctly the first time.

At least knowing it was something, somewhere, somehow about or in the drive that was causing the issues is better than nothing.

Thanks,
Greg.

Will do!