Game won't start without verifying license?

[OOTP Rookie]

I purchased OOTP23 through FastSpring last May - not through Steam.

For obvious reasons, I changed my firewall settings a few weeks ago to prevent OOTP from automatically accessing the internet. Now the last 2 days, the game won't start unless I allow it online access to verify the key!

I quickly open the firewall, let it do its thing, and then immediately restrict online access again. I never had to do this before. Am I the only one seeing this? Anyone have an idea why this is happening?

[alphington]

Don't know if you have already done this or whether it may be related to the issue but in the settings on the start screen there is an option you can choose 'do not use online features and content - see screenshot.

this could be a handy option in any case at the moment either with your firewall changes or instead of them.

[OOTP Rookie]

Thank you. But I've used "Do not use on-line features & content" since a certain incident some weeks ago. That was also when I put the firewall restriction on OOTP.

Everything worked fine until a few days ago. Now every single time I start the game, I have to very briefly open the firewall so that it can verify my license.

A few extra clicks isn't a problem, of course. But I really want to avoid having my save (which includes you-know-what) being remotely manipulated.

[alphington]

I've been opening OOTP several times a day for many weeks and have not had the licence check issue you have described. However I have not touched the firewall. Maybe that is implicated then? Sorry I can't be of further help with this, hope someone else has the answer.

[BaseballGOAT]

It's been a few years at least since OOTP started that. I remember complaints against it before

[OOTP Rookie]

Originally Posted by alphington

I've been opening OOTP several times a day for many weeks and have not had the licence check issue you have described. However I have not touched the firewall. Maybe that is implicated then? Sorry I can't be of further help with this, hope someone else has the answer.

Maybe it is related to the firewall restriction I put in place. But I set that restriction a few weeks ago, while the issue with online verification of the license key only started two days ago.

The "do not use on-line features & content" in the game settings would imply incoming traffic only, whereas my firewall restriction applies to incoming and outgoing traffic, which probably affects the key verification process that runs under the hood.

Anyway, the game still works fine and I'm very happy with my global setup and the respective leagues therein.

[tejdog1]

I can't activate OOTP20 for much the same reason, which sucks.

[Dave Stieb II]

Originally Posted by OOTP Rookie

Maybe it is related to the firewall restriction I put in place. But I set that restriction a few weeks ago, while the issue with online verification of the license key only started two days ago.

The "do not use on-line features & content" in the game settings would imply incoming traffic only, whereas my firewall restriction applies to incoming and outgoing traffic, which probably affects the key verification process that runs under the hood.

Anyway, the game still works fine and I'm very happy with my global setup and the respective leagues therein.

Yes. In an ongoing effort to try to keep my computer secure (I know, good luck!) I've only played OOTP while offline for several years now. The game lets me do it wihout any complications for a while but then, suddenly, it will ask for my licence key on every start up for quite awhile.

When this happens, I just enter my licence key; connect to the internet for a few seconds; the game start up screen appears; and I go offline again.
It's my only work-around.