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STICKY: Getting the game Downloaded!

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STICKY: Getting the game Downloaded!

Need help? Here's the place

from GalCiv2 Forums

Hopefully things will go smoothly for you to get the game.  But if not, here's a guide to help you..

First Steps..
When you purchase the game you will receive a link to Stardock Central. Download that.

Make sure you are running 2.29 or later (if you've been running Stardock Central for awhile, double check in the about box that you're not using an old version like 2.24).

Downloading
If you're downloading the game and it's slow, you can try a different server.  From Stardock Central go to tools->Settings and the server is in the "Internet" area.  We have several different servers.

Account Problems
If you used a different email address to purchase the game direct than what you used to create an account here, Stardock Central may get confused. If that happens, email support@stardock.com with the subject "GalCiv Account Issue" and they'll take care of you.  If you receive no response within 1 hour, post here and someone from Stardock will likely see it and take care of you here.

Download Speeds
The core game download speed will be slower than the multimedia/movies/tutorials because those are mirrored.  The core game is regularly updated so we aren't able to mirror it as much.  You should still get pretty decent speeds (and a reminder: try a different server if you find downloading too slow or if you get a time out -- bear in mind, there's a LOT of people downloading the game).

If you have problems related to actually obtaining/installing the game, post them HERE in this thread.

NOTE: Some anti-virus software will cause the installer not to work (i.e. it'll block Stardock Central from extracting/installing the game). If you run into an installation problem, try disabling some of your anti-virus setup temporarily to see if that resolves it.


 

267,545 views 340 replies
Reply #51 from Stardock Forums Top

General tips:

A] If you have trouble downloading, try a different server.

B] If you get an error on extraction, try deleting your temp directory, in particular the ones Stardock Central uses and redownload.

Those are brute force solutions but they probably will work.

C] You can play just the

Reply #52 from Stardock Forums Top
I checked your account

Your password is: 3 numbers and 3 capital letters. No weird characters.



Please tell me you cannot look up passwords and see them!!!
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #53 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also, the movies seem to take forever to download.

I come back and on occasion see it back at 1% or so. I have changed servers to see if that fixes the problem. If its downloading multiple movies then can it at least make that obvious. This download has been going on nearly 6 hours at 150kb/s and never seems to complete. I stopped it twice to force the other items to download but still, even after hours it seems to revert to 1-3%

OK.

Twice it stopped at 270,408kb that I caught it which is at 47%
Reply #54 from Stardock Forums Top
Nobody has addressed my problem:

I start downloading, get to around 50% or so, and then it mysteriously returns to 0%.
Reply #55 from Stardock Forums Top
I have tried all the suggestions and cannot get anything but the maingame to download. I have tried the sounds download 10 time and I get from 5 to 10 % and it starts over again. At this point just tell me how I can get a CD mailed to me. I love the game but this whole process has been a mess.. No Store in a major metro Area has it and now you can only download a piece of it... I know it's a new game and your a small Co. but c'mon guys!
Reply #56 from Stardock Forums Top
I purchased Galctic Civillizations online the other day and have yet to be able to download the game with Stardock Central. Permissions were given to both my software and hardware firewall. Both firewalls have even been turned off and I am still unable to download. I try the option to download the files without entering the Stardock.net account and Stardock central just stays at, "Status: connecting to the required server. When trying to download the files with the Stardock.net account I get the connection error 1001 prompt. After that windows task manager is required to close down Stardock Central.

I have spent many frustrating hours trying different troubleshooting permutations with no degree of success. Does anyone have any suggestions of what the problem might be.
Reply #57 from Stardock Forums Top
Hello

I just bought Gal Civ 2 but the Stardock client keeps telling me that my email doesn't match the serial number email which is stupid. I have both mails (the one from account registration and the one from purchasing the game) right in front of me. Is this a server problem?

Please reply as soon as you can

thnx
Reply #58 from Stardock Forums Top
Hi, I seem to have an extraction problem. I have tried to download .008 6 times and everytime I do I am always stuck at 100% Complete Big_Button_Complete.png. The cancel button does not work , if I want to quit it, I must used the close button. The program has not crashed since I am still able to use the menus of SDC.
Reply #59 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi I also just bought GC2 - installed SDCentral etc


I can install apps from the 'free apps' list, so i know the system basically works for me; however, when i try to install any of the GC2 components the system gets stuck.  When downloading the main file for instance, SDC says 'download gc2.sdc' - it never downloads even a single byte  Eventually it times out with an error message


------------------------------------


C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\temp\gc2.sdc 0 | attempt: 3 | -30 connection timed out.


Installation failed(32)



-------------------------------


I have a firewall, but am assuming since the free stuff downloaded ok then it is GC2 problem.


Thanks for any help


Anthony


 


 

Reply #60 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks, deleting my temp directory did the trick.
Reply #61 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok yesterday I got it to work by leaving my computer alone (I normaly would have several web pages open prior times.

ok movies took hours with me NOT using my computer for anything BUT galciv 2 movies but it worked for me
Reply #62 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok yesterday I got it to work by leaving my computer alone (I normaly would have several web pages open prior times.

ok movies took hours with me NOT using my computer for anything BUT galciv 2 movies but it worked for me
Reply #63 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok yesterday I got it to work by leaving my computer alone (I normaly would have several web pages open prior times.

ok movies took hours with me NOT using my computer for anything BUT galciv 2 movies but it worked for me
Reply #64 from Stardock Forums Top
Boy, I was really lucky yesterday! I finally managed to get the main files (game and multimedia). The resume function even worked once at 80% of the main game.

Unfortunately the movies download failed at 27% restarting from 0%. Because of this I again make a sugestion to divide the movies.sdc file in smaller packages. C'mon Stardock it is not that hard to do this and would help TREMENDOUSLY the people who can't get the file. Five files at 100 MB or ten files at 50MB would solve it all.

I would really thanks if some dev answered this suggestion because I think it is the only way for us to get the complete game and to stop the hammering the server is getting as people try to download the file over and over again.
Reply #65 from Stardock Forums Top
Similar problems with downloading tutorial, multimedia, and movies, even after deleting the suggested temp files.
Reply #66 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you're still having trouble downloading everything even after trying the suggestions in this thread, please go to Submit a Trouble Ticket in our Support Center. Please be as descriptive there as you were here. The more information we have, the more we can help.

There isn't always one fix that suits every similar problem, so we'd like to have the opportunity to issue you a unique trouble ticket number. This will help us track your issue to a resolution.
Reply #67 from Stardock Forums Top
I did post a trouble ticket, [#YAV-373873], and I was somewhat unsatisfied with the response I received.

The tech support guy told me "uninstall Stardock Central and then reinstall it". However, looking at the version numbers shown in "Help -> About", it's the same version. However, it hasn't restarted on me since then. I'm at 48% and hoping to make it this time. With all the restarts, I've downloaded more than 300% of the game by now.

Why should reinstalling Stardock Central matter?

I'm using dialup, which makes this particularly annoying.

====

The issue is, in case someone is having trouble understanding, "DON'T MAKE THE USER RESTART HIS DOWNLOAD IF IT IS INTERRUPTED".

Reply #68 from Stardock Forums Top
That still didn't work. I had Stardock Central crash on me. It was at the same time the dialog "Do you want to download a new Stardock Central" appeared on screen. It made me start over again after the crash!

I'm starting to get annoyed (but I expect that Stardock will someday fix their buggy download client).
Reply #69 from Stardock Forums Top

Unfortunately the movies download failed at 27% restarting from 0%. Because of this I again make a sugestion to divide the movies.sdc file in smaller packages. C'mon Stardock it is not that hard to do this and would help TREMENDOUSLY the people who can't get the file. Five files at 100 MB or ten files at 50MB would solve it all.

I would really thanks if some dev answered this suggestion because I think it is the only way for us to get the complete game and to stop the hammering the server is getting as people try to download the file over and over again.

Seriously, all Stardock Central is doing is acting as a front end to a secure HTTP connection. There's really very little to downloading the file.  It's not even a server issue, there's plenty of bandwidth.  I knwo this is one of those annoying things when developers say this but this sounds like an ISP issue.

The various modules are even mirrored all over the world.

Reply #70 from Stardock Forums Top

That still didn't work. I had Stardock Central crash on me. It was at the same time the dialog "Do you want to download a new Stardock Central" appeared on screen. It made me start over again after the crash!

I'm starting to get annoyed (but I expect that Stardock will someday fix their buggy download client).

I agree that is frustrating.  Let's move this up a level.  Email bharper@stardock.com, he's our lead on SDC.  He should be able to help you.

Reply #71 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
OK, Frogboy, I E-Mailed him. I'm also putting a copy of my E-Mail here so you can make sure he takes it seriously. Notice that I'm also giving specific advice for how to solve the problem.

====

I'm having trouble downloading GalCiv 2. The problem is that the download program keeps restarting over and over again at 0%. I can make it to 50% or 60%, but then something happens and the connection resets.

If you look on the "STICKY : Getting the Game Downloaded" thread on the GalCiv 2 discussion board you can see my comments. Other people seem to have similar problems.

My specific advice for how to solve this problem: Rather than making the download one big file, break it up into 2MB chunks, and have the Stardock Central client reassemble them after download. This way, any interrupted download (due to internet connection dropping, or a Stardock Central crash), can be resumed without making the user start over again at 0%.

I am using a dialup internet connection.

Reply #72 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Seriously, all Stardock Central is doing is acting as a front end to a secure HTTP connection


The problem is that there's no provision for what happens when that connection is interrupted.

I made it to 50% again. My internet connection failed, and Stardock Central reset me to 0% again.

Here's an experiment. Try downloading via Stardock Central. Get to 50%. Pull out your internet connection cable and wait for it to time out. Start over again. You should resume at 50%, not at 0%.
Reply #73 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Tandis -
I'm getting the INVALID URL's for the GC2_MultiMedia.sdc file every time I try to download, no matter what server I point it at (I've tried California, Chicago, and Server 4). Each time it tries all 3, then fails, same errors. TO be clear, it's trying to install the 1.0.042 version of the MultiMedia file. Exact log is:


-- [Application] ----------------------------------------------------
Name: Stardock Central
Path: e:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral
Version: 2.30.380, build: 120

-- [System Information] ---------------------------------------------
Platform: Microsoft Windows Windows NT4, 6.0.5308
Display: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 TE 64M / 6600 TE 128M (LDDM)
Driver Version: 6.14.10.8505
System Dir: D:\Windows\system32
Time / Date: 16:58:30 -- Wednesday, March 01, 2006

-- [Installing] -----------------------------------------------------
Server: http://sdcentral4.stardock.com
Server Dir: public
Network Id: drengin
Name: Multimedia for Galactic Civilizations II
App Id: gc2
Installed: False
Version: 1.0.042
Type: production
Reg Key: GalCiv2
Install Dir: e:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2
Exe:
Last Updated: 02/02/2006

-- [Account] --------------------------------------------------------
First Name: ****
Last Name: ****
Email: ****@comcast.net

-- [Installation] ---------------------------------------------------
Download: e:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\data\public\gc2\production\gc2_Multimedia.xml 1
Load: e:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\data\public\gc2\production\gc2_Multimedia.xml 1
Download: D:\Users\ericde\AppData\Local\Temp\sdcentral\gc2_Multimedia.sdc 0 | Attempt: 1 | -14 The Url is invalid
Download: D:\Users\ericde\AppData\Local\Temp\sdcentral\gc2_Multimedia.sdc 0 | Attempt: 2 | -19 Connection was closed by the server
Download: D:\Users\ericde\AppData\Local\Temp\sdcentral\gc2_Multimedia.sdc 0 | Attempt: 3 | -14 The Url is invalid
Server: Using other server http://sdcentral.stardock.com
Download: D:\Users\ericde\AppData\Local\Temp\sdcentral\gc2_Multimedia.sdc 0 | Attempt: 1 | -14 The Url is invalid
Download: D:\Users\ericde\AppData\Local\Temp\sdcentral\gc2_Multimedia.sdc 0 | Attempt: 2 | -14 The Url is invalid
Download: D:\Users\ericde\AppData\Local\Temp\sdcentral\gc2_Multimedia.sdc 0 | Attempt: 3 | -14 The Url is invalid
Server: Using other server http://sdcentral2.stardock.com
Download: D:\Users\ericde\AppData\Local\Temp\sdcentral\gc2_Multimedia.sdc 0 | Attempt: 1 | -14 The Url is invalid
Download: D:\Users\ericde\AppData\Local\Temp\sdcentral\gc2_Multimedia.sdc 0 | Attempt: 2 | -14 The Url is invalid
Download: D:\Users\ericde\AppData\Local\Temp\sdcentral\gc2_Multimedia.sdc 0 | Attempt: 3 | -14 The Url is invalid
Result: Installation failed (32)
--------------------------------

what's the story here?
Reply #74 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ok I have tried to be patient with you and this download thing but I am completly fed up. YOU DO NOT RESPOND TO MY TICKET IN 3 DAYS . YOU GIVE SOME BS EXPLANATION THAT IS CANNOT BE YOUR STARDOCK SOFT WARE.

NOW EXPLAIN TO ME HOW I CAN DOWN LOAD 95% OF THE MULTIMEDIA FILE AND IT RESETS BACK TO 0% THEN I AGAIN TRY IT DOWNLOADS TO 5% THEN RESETS TO 0%. I HAVE NO PROBLEMS DOWNLOADING ANYWHERE ELSE AND USE MY INTERNET CONNECTION FOR 8 STRAIGHT HOURS A DAY FOR WORK AND HAVE NO CONNECTION ISSUES.

IT IS SOMETHING WITH YOUR STARDOCK SOFTWARE. NOW RESPOND TO MY TICKET #JYV728486 AND GET ME A CD BECASUE I CANNOT DOWNLOAD EVERYTHING I HAVE PAID FOR OR REFUND MY MONEY.

YOU HAVE REALLY TURNED THIS INTO A BAD EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR COMPANY. I AM REALLY DISSAPOINTED.
Reply #75 from Stardock Forums Top
Frogboy said:

I agree that is frustrating. Let's move this up a level. Email bharper@stardock.com, he's our lead on SDC. He should be able to help you.


Well, I E-Mailed him on Tuesday, no response today.

To summarize, either of the following events should not cause your download to restart from 0%:

1. Your internet connection is dropped. The QA guys at Stardock can test this by pulling the internet cable out of their computer.

2. Stardock Central crashing. Yes, this happened to me a few times. This can be simulated by "kill"ing the executable.

Anyway, my attitude is not "Stardock is a losy company." My attitude is "Stardock is going to fix their buggy download program in the next few days."

The issue is, on previous Stardock Central releases, the program was split into several smaller files. This download is being presented as one big file.