First, let me explain why you would want that:
- For some reason the Update 34 broke some things for my mod - not anything serious, just the prices on certain radio actions like "call artillery" or "sniper support". My main concern is that I may not know what else it could mess with.
- On the other hand, there was an issue not connected to any mods - it was complete removal of ambient missions.
- I assume that the curveball missions replaced ambient mission spawn, but that's just an assumption.
- I have read numerous complains on various forums that the update brought crashing, stuttering and many other technical issues that were not present in the earlier versions.
All these issues motivated me to try out a new thing I learned - downloading older versions of games from steam depositories.
Luckily, I have succeeded in this venture and now presenting this guide on how to downgrade State of Decay 2 game to previous update (33) in order to properly play it with Beyond Lethal Overhaul.
So, let's begin!
Step 1:
First, you need to download the previous (update 33) version of the game.You can do that by using the Steam Console with the info from SteadDB site - it may sound scary, but I have already collected information from that site, so you'll only need to follow these simple instructions:
- Open Steam console by pasting "steam://open/console" (without quotes) into any browser - this will automatically open the steam console.
- Then paste the "download_depot 495420 495422 4040559726921692472" command in the opened console and press enter - this will start the download.
- The download will take A LOT of time - the game weights 19Gb. This took around 5-7 hours for me and I have a pretty fast internet.
- You can leave the console to work in the background (it will affect your computer noticeably), but keep in mind that any interruption to the internet and steam connection (sometimes steam just randomly loses connection) will cause the process to crash and you will need to start the download again.
- You can check the progress by checking the D:\Steam\steamapps\content\app_495420\depot_495422 folder size.
- Once the download finishes it will notify you with a success message "Depot download complete : "D:\Steam\steamapps\content\app_495420\depot_495422" (72371 files, manifest 4040559726921692472)" in the console - it will not be a regular steam notification, so you'll need to check it yourself.
Step 2:
Next, you need to replace the current version of the game with the downloaded version:- Go to D:\Steam\steamapps\common\StateOfDecay2 and backup that folder (you can just rename it to SoD2Backup)
- Then create new empty StateOfDecay2 folder and copy and paste the contents from D:\Steam\steamapps\content\app_495420\depot_495422
Step 3:
Next, you need to remove your current save files - otherwise, the game won't let you pass the launch menu (it will complain that your save files are from further game version):
- Go to C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\StateOfDecay2\Saved and rename "Steam" and "SaveGames" folders to clear communities.
- This will remove your communities, but by simply renaming folders back you can restore them.
- On Steam go to State of Decay 2 - settings - general - turn off cloud saves.
- Also go to Updates and set to Update only at launch - this won't prevent the game from updating, but when the time comes you can google how to prevent the update yourself if you want.
Success:
Now you can launch the game and play it without Curveball update and with everything working properly:
- You still have your current version backed up at D:\Steam\steamapps\common\ and your saves backed up at C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\StateOfDecay2\Saved
- So if you'd want to play the latest version you can either make steam update the game by checking file integrity or simply rename the backed up folder back to "StateOfDecay2"
- You can rename other |StateOfDecay2| folder to |StateOfDecay2Update33" to have previous version ready to go.
- Also, version 33 doesn't work with latest Mod Manager - so here's the older mod manager version that works with version 33.
If you worry about other critical mods like Growing Threat - you can check the Posts section of my mod's page to find a google drive link to the version of Growing Threat that works perfectly fine with my mod on Update 33.
ON STEAM AUTOMATIC UPDATES:
- Unfortunately, Steam update mechanism forces the game to update without an option to cancel or wait - if there is an update, steam will not allow you to launch the game.
- Why is this bad? Because this means every time SoD2 gets an update, it will force you to download it, even if you'd prefer to just play the 33 version.
- This also holds additional danger: if you start the game after updating it, the saves will automatically update and you won't be able to continue your communities on 33 if you downgrade the game again.
- This means that you should remember to NOT launch the game after updating it if you want to keep your 33 saves.
- Solution: EITHER backup upd33 saves and then use the saves from upd34 you backed up before to play them on latest version of the game, OR after update replace the game files in the SoD2 steam folder BEFORE launching the game - this way you won't "update" your upd33 communities and will be able to play them.
- There is also this topic you could be interested in: how to prevent steam update.
6 comments
I think it's this page: https://steamdb.info/depot/495422/manifests/, you just need to find correct ManifestID from the list (use dates, I guess).
Then in the step "paste download_depot 495420 495422 4040559726921692472" replace last number with the ManifestID for 31 version.
That's basically all!