Hey you steam users I'm really stumped here.....

[Zosxavius]

I haven't been able to get TMO + RSRD to work together in steam so I tried to give it another go, figuring somehow I messed something up. I tried some terribly slow torrent just wanting to compare the files of the final install between DVD and steam and see if there were actually differences, and a week later, I realized I had grabbed a polish version. Which doesn't really help me. So I try to make it go on steam. Now I know that there are people here that have downloaded sh4 from steam and run TMO with RSRD and claim to have had no problems. I don't know why I'm the only one. Does the museum show all the ships properly and not crash? It does so on my machine. I'm running windows 7 x64. I run the executable directly in windows sp2 compatibility mode with aero and themes disabled as administrator since I heard people had problems with sh4 and vista. So here's what I do.

I uninstall everything. Delete the SH4 folder from my steam directory, delete the sh4 folder from my my documents, empty the recycle bin and let steam run a new install. I start off installing from just the u-boat missions first as it grabs the whole deal from the start. It says "download paused" in the regular sh4 column. Then when the u-boat missions complete, the regular sh4 stars finishing for some reason. Not liking this out of sequence install, I verify the u-boat data cache. 71 files not matching up. I verify again. The same result. Hmmmm. Maybe steam just needs to catch up and update the files. I check after a while. Everything passes validation. Now everything should be stock right???? This is what ubisoft says. They won't even help because they really don't have to support mods. So I go forth and turn off autoupdates and then I also run the DX9 install because some people reported that helping them on vista, as I guess it gives some of the libraries that dx10/11 don't seem to include for some reason. Whatever, these just go in a compatibility dll folder anyways in windows x64.

Ok, now I install JSGME. I downloaded (again) fresh copies of RSRD and TMO + patches and install the following mods in the following order:

TMO 1.9
TMO Patch 25012010
TMO Stock gramaphone (don't think this one will break the game lol!)
RSRD TMO v502
RSRD V5xx_Patch1

I fire up SH4, go to the museum and bam crash to desktop!

I can replicate this over and over again. Installing again and verifying my files won't make this stop. I honestly don't know what else I can do. My connection is fast, and I never have a problem downloading from steam. (SH4 took about 45 minutes to 1 hour)

I could see if I was the only one attempting this and it just didn't work out for some reason. I could accept that. It really bums me out that all these people here are talking about running TMO+RSRD with steam and not having any problems at all and I cannot seem to get a working install after probably like 4-5 attempts, and trust me, I've read probably every steam related thread on this forum and the biggest thing was 1) turn autoupdate off, 2) Verify and 3) Install the correct mods in the right order.

Maybe there is just something funky with TMO 1.9 and RSRD in general and I'm the only one that has found it! (yeah right) I mean does anyone ever use the museum. I just loaded it up one day and then realized something wasn't right (that and a whole lot of crashes to desktop during a few patrols earlier). That's when I tried to get a better, working install. It seems impossible. So I now have a $30 game that I have rights to, but I have to pay another $20-30 for the game and the expansion on real, physical media. Great. That annoying DVD check is probably still there too. Wasn't there securom or something with SH4 as well? I mean I bought the steam version because I knew I wouldn't run into any snags with an installer and windows 7 x64 not to mention I couldn't find a real physical copy anywhere local to me. I really want to play with TMO+RSRD, and I'm sure a lot of people consider it perhaps essential.

I'm really sorry that I keep hitting this forum with essentially the same problem. (Is it groundhogs day??) I just find it so utterly baffling that I could quite possibly be the only person in the universe with this issue. People keep responding with "turn off autoupdates!" Well I did that 3 installations ago! They also say it might be my mods. Well fair enough. I've downloaded them from 3 different sources and tried different sources each time I rolled the dice. Same result. What's strange is that just TMO by itself works fine, so I don't know if steam is really the problem. It seems that maybe RSRD has some issues, because only when I run that mod do problems creep up.

So the only logical possibilities I can think of are the following:

1) TMO+RSRD are not compatible anymore
2) There are differences between the steam install and the DVD install
3) I've entered an alternate universe where everyone's steam installation performs flawlessly except mine, even though I have reinstalled 4 times and verified 2 or three of those times.
4) A long, long shot: Windows 7 x64 + SH4 +TMO + RSRDC are somehow not gellin like Magellan???

Man I really, really want this to work. Especially after like 4-5 missions later after I started to get really hooked seeing historical traffic flowing into my periscope. This is what I want in a sim. I want stuff to be where it would have been.

Sorry for the long rant, but I'm a little flustered to say the least. I hate feeling like I just threw money away but I'm so close to just throwing in the towel.