EXTREMELY upset.

[Chazz]

Ok, so I wanted to play SH IV again, missed it terribly. I made the MISTAKE of purchasing online from Ubisoft.

All sorts of ridiculous B.S. you need the launcher, Ubisoft connector blah blah blah. The thing is, I live in a remote area where internet is SLOW and EXPENSIVE and Ubisoft doesn't have the option to go offline. These gaming companies want to update their software every 15 minutes, so needless to say, it costs a lot of $$ to play something THAT I'VE ALREADY PAID FOR.

Before you reply "Yes, it does" I spent an hour looking for the option. It doesn't exist.

So. If I order an old copy of SH4 off of Ebay and install it, must I continue to bend over and cop it from Ubisoft?

[stork100]

Sorry, I've no experience with purchasing from Ubisoft online etc. I can believe there could be issues making it difficult for a user like yourself.

Originally Posted by Chazz

So. If I order an old copy of SH4 off of Ebay and install it, must I continue to bend over and cop it from Ubisoft?

That I am familiar with and can say absolutely not. You have the disc and that's that. You'll never be bothered with the problems you mentioned at all. No need to be online or anything - ever. Just like a good old fashioned normal PC game. Try to get the version 1.5/U-boat missions/Gold (called all these things) - works best with all current mods.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by Chazz

Ok, so I wanted to play SH IV again, missed it terribly. I made the MISTAKE of purchasing online from Ubisoft.

All sorts of ridiculous B.S. you need the launcher, Ubisoft connector blah blah blah. The thing is, I live in a remote area where internet is SLOW and EXPENSIVE and Ubisoft doesn't have the option to go offline. These gaming companies want to update their software every 15 minutes, so needless to say, it costs a lot of $$ to play something THAT I'VE ALREADY PAID FOR.

Before you reply "Yes, it does" I spent an hour looking for the option. It doesn't exist.

So. If I order an old copy of SH4 off of Ebay and install it, must I continue to bend over and cop it from Ubisoft?

to add to what Stock has posted.....you do not have to install Uplay, which comes on the DVD.
in fact, it is recommended by certain Subsimmers () that you do not install Uplay as it effs things up.

good luck with the DVD version...and remember to install it in a unique folder and NOT the default folder.

[propbeanie]

UConnect replaces UPlay, and is the "new" way Ubisoft does things. It is not as pernicious as Steam, though it does have its quirks. I just tried to re-do my UConnect installs on my two Win10 machines, and it "remembers" my old install, so I am not certain of the actual lay-out of things after a "fresh" UConnect / SH4 install. I do know though that UConnect, like Steam, will install most of its functionality in "C:\Program Files (x86) \Ubisoft..." by default. As such, if the game installs below that, it will be unmoddable due to Windows UAC and other "technologies"...

However, start UConnect one last time. Log-in as usual, and change to the "Games" tab, and under "Installed" you should have "Silent Hunter Gold Edition". Select it and click on "Properties', which should give you this (I already clicked the "Update" button in the below image, but that is not necessary):



Clear the "Enable automatic updates..." tick box to remove its going online each time you start the game. You do not have to start SH4 through that UConnect menu though. On that same page, look at the "Local Files", "Game install location:" Click on the "Open folder" button if you are like me, and are afraid you'll forget the full path ( - ), which will then use File Explorer to open the game folder. Find the SH4.exe file in there, and you can double-click that to start the game without the use of UConnect. You do NOT have to be logged in. Or, you can hold the <Alt> key, and then click and hold the SH4.exe icon, and drag it over to your desktop. Release the mouse, and release the <Alt>, and that will create you a desktop short-cut. Name that whatever you want.

An even better thing to do, is while in that same game folder, press the <Ctrl> key, and the <A> to "Select All", which will then highlight all files in the folder. Now press <Ctrl> and <C>, and that will "Copy" all of the files. Either open another instance of File Explorer, or use the one open, and navigate out to the "root" folder of your drive (ie: "C:") and create a new folder, such as "Games" and then under that make another folder, such as "SH4Stock", or whatever you want to call it. Navigate into that new folder, and press the <Ctrl> and <V> keys, and you'll then "Paste" the SH4 game files into that new folder, outside of the influence of Windows. Now use the <Alt> and mouse drag to create a short-cut to that particular SH4.exe file. You can then leave the Stock game where it is, and use your new copy to mod with, if desired. Use the short-cuts, or the SH4.exe to run the game. Do NOT use UConnect, and you should not be take online again. SH5 is different in this regard...

[CJMars]

This is interesting: when I play SH5, I have U
Connect set to start in offline mode. I never connect it to the internet and I can play SH5 just fine. I think what UConnect is intended to do it act as rhe verification that you, indeed, bought the software. It acts as a keychain if you will.

Granted, SH5 is not SH4. I’m not dismissing your problem. Perhaps try setting UConnect to start in offline mode, see if that works. It’s easy enough to find under the settings in the app itself. If not, and you choose to order off EBay, I suggest verifying there is a physical manual. Sometimes these old games require “passcodes” that can only be found on a specific page of the manual.

Fair winds, Following Seas, Good hunting 07

[Chazz]

Thanks for your helpful comments. I went through all the menus and could not find an offline option. IMO Uconnect is mostly there to sell you more stuff.

I will try the dvd option first- I suspended my Ubisoft account out of frustration, not sure how that will affect it.

[Mad Mardigan]

Originally Posted by Chazz

Thanks for your helpful comments. I went through all the menus and could not find an offline option. IMO Uconnect is mostly there to sell you more stuff.

I will try the dvd option first- I suspended my Ubisoft account out of frustration, not sure how that will affect it.

Ahoy, Chazz...

Ok, as I understand it, you're having difficulty in figuring out how to set up Ubisoft Connect, to run in offline mode.

1st off, start with opening it up.

Next, after it has done its updates check & such, find on the window screen of Ubi Connect, the following:

Just to the left (up top) of 'News', you should see a set of 3 lines (running from left/right) this is the options selection. Click on that set of lines.

On clicking on that, you should then see a drop down (or pop up menu) which will then give you a set of options to chose from.

Find in the list, 'Settings' & click on that.

In the new list that pops up, find & click on 'Network', which will auto take you to that section automatically. From in that section, you should see 2 options here.

#1. the very top one, will be the option to run Ubi Connect, in 'Offline mode'. check mark that box... & you're done.

You can then shut Ubi Connect out or down & the times after this, it will run on offline mode.

Hope you find this info helpful...

M. M.

[propbeanie]

The SH4 came really should not be going on line, the way the SH5 game does. For what Mad Mardigan posted though Chazz, you can still use that basic image I posted above for what he is referring to. You should only have to make a new short-cut to the SH4.exe file though, to be able to bypass the online stuff. All it does on the SH4 game is have you log-in for the ads and chat apps. Now, SH5, if you do the same thing, it will still attempt to go online until you do what MM did there...

[Chazz]

Thanks, folks. Appreciated.

Is the Steam version any good? I wouldn't be interested in playing vanilla, being a long term fan of RFB.

[Mad Mardigan]

Originally Posted by Chazz

Thanks, folks. Appreciated.

Is the Steam version any good? I wouldn't be interested in playing vanilla, being a long term fan of RFB.

Yeah, it is... just make sure to install steam out of \program files or \program files (x86) to avoid being able to add mods through jsgme. Also, be sure to drop in multish4 to set up multiple modded versions of SH4.

Also, make sure to not grab 'Silent Hunter IV Wolves of the pacific', but instead, grab 'Silent Hunter IV Wolves of the pacific Uboat missions' there on Steam.

The 1st Silent Hunter IV, is v1.4 & won't work with a vast majority of mods for SH4 nowadays... the vast majority of those mods are for v1.5, which is the latter SH4 I mentioned. The one with Uboat missions included in the name. That'll be the correct version you need.

If your looking to do just 1 modded copy of SH4, then what I outlined here will suffice.

If you want to do more than 1 modded copy of SH4 hit Me up in Discord in the subsim group there if you have that & are in the group there.

I'll be more than happy to walk you through the methodology to run more than 1 modded SH4 copy. I have access to SH4 through steam & have like... 8 or 9 different modded copies of SH4 to date thus far... so I'll be glad to walk you through the process.

Hope this info helps.

M. M.

[1Patriotofmany]

I use the steam version. No more problems than the original DVD's. WIN7, WinXP64, WIN7X64, WIn10