I just focused on that because that was the bit I didn't understand about what you were saying.
Steam only goes offline for about a month, so you'll need to sign in again for that. Or there might be another edition with a different set of manuals coming too, like you said (I'm starting to have doubts though).
I'm just curious, no reason really, on why people are ok to install Steam, have it run off-line as a service on their system (it runs in the background, even off-line) and then not use it to play MP with everyone else?
Seems a bit masochistic
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt
Bit weird that out of all the stuff i described, you focused on that one single snippet.
To answer your question, unless steam is required for activation i have no reason to use it. The linked manual is contradicting previous information on the issue so i can't really know how it will play out.
As long as we're talking about a boxed edition, up till now we knew that Steam is not needed for activation but is used for matchmaking optionally. The manual states that it's needed to be installed before the game installation starts (while making no mention as to why, it doesn't state anything about activation or DRM for example, maybe it's just a rudimentary check) but again, it's optional for multiplayer.
Chapter "Playing the Game - Multiplayer", top of page 101:
To me that reads "to join a server you can use a) the already built-in direct IP input b) Steam c) any other suitable 3rd party program". It's hardly a one way street apparently.
EDIT:
For all we know, the manual could be applicable to the digital download edition. If you look at the bottom of each page, you'll see a small piece of text: "IL2CoD_PC_MANUAL_UK.indd" followed by the page number. If that's the case then there is no controversy at all, since DD editions were supposed to activate via Steam, it's the boxed ones that were not.
I don't know how or why this manual would find its way on the disc of a Russian boxed copy if at all in the first place (assuming it comes from one). Maybe they just bundled the multilingual manuals in the Russian release without too much fuss, since the only difference in the entire manual would be that little "how to install" paragraph and people in Russia wouldn't bother to read it anyway because they have one in their own language.
In any case, i'll just have to wait and see until my collector's edition arrives or someone else gets it first and reports back. Since it's clear multiplayer will work with alternative methods i don't mind much even if it needs steam to install, because i can just set it to offline mode and leave it like that.
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