ARMA2 & OA's Steam Thread: All Steam Q's/discussions go here [covered by Dwarden]

Never mind, I see now that you were probably talking about having CO and the DLC:s on two different Steam accounts...

Hey guys

just brought the DLCs just now off steam and tried to run them but Datacachepreprocessor.exe and it wont startup, on all of them not even a nofication it will only retry twice then say in the steam dialouge "The game is currently unavailable" im really starting to blow my fuse. its like you have being waiting for something for ages and when you get there there is nothing.

can anyone help me with this or refer me?

I might have a similar problem.

Today when I attempted to start CO (both A2 and OA over steam) there was a message telling me that steam would convert the data into a more efficient format after the process was completed CO would no longer start and the infamous message "This game is currently unavailable" was displayed.

I followed these instructions to try and resolve the issue:

1) https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4595-WEXN-6831

2) http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=19729282&postcount=2

In addition, after both methods didn't yield a positive outcome, I even went as far as uninstalling A2 and OA with all addons and reinstalled it, which also didn't help.

The thing I really cannot wrap my head around however is that I can, without any issues, start A2 or OA but if I select "launch arma 2: combined operation", I get the error message.

(I was playing on SIG-Sever, CO-domi-Server on Chernarus, just the day before without issues)

Does anyone have any ideas or is haveing the same issues?

I had the same issue, after converting everything (A2+OA+all DLCs). Starting "Combined operations" doesn't seem to work anymore. However, I ran PMC instead and that works fine. It seems all the content is available, at least everything shows up in the addons menu, and I was able to play the ACR campaign.

A possible workaround to the problem is to delete the -mod= line in the start parameters and start Operation Arrowhead and enable Arma 2 via the Expansions in the main menue. However this is just a workaround not a real solution to the problem.

I hope Valve or BI figure out what went wrong and will be able to fix the issue.

Have you tried using any launchers? I'm running Steam but use this to launch the game with mods, but it will launch vanilla if you don't add any mods to it. You have a choice of running Arma 2, Arma 2 OA or Arma 2 CO. All you have to do is point the launcher to the two .exe files. Might be worth a try. You do however lose the Steam overlay.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?89731-ArmA-2-Game-Launcher&highlight=spiritedmachine

Ok, that worked, but only after I removed the "-mod=ACR" from the OA startup parameters. This was needed before to make ACR work, but now it apparently needs to be removed. Also, why don't you remove the "CO" option if it's no longer to be used?

do not use the 'run A2: CO menu option' it's deprecated and obsolete ...

all You need is run ARMA 2 once then run OA (and A2: CO will be active by default)

Thanks for the information. The problem is that, if you use the start parameter line to load mods that are not located in the Arma 2: OA folder (can't be loaded from within the game if located on a RamDisk or other hard drive) the game will not start as Combined Operations but as OA. The use of the "run A2: Co menue option" was that one could load mods located anywhere on the pc over the start parameter line and then launch the game as CO.

This is the reason I called it a workaround rather than a fix since functionality did get lost.

Is there any fix to that or will I have to make symbolic links to the modfolders within the Arma folder so I can run them in CO?

on dos prompt mklink /J ... that's NTFS junction ...

anyway like i said, the A2: CO is loaded auto if there are correct registry entries ...

This is absolutely correct, but as I said, as soon as any mod is loaded over the "start parameters" it will revert back to only launching OA for whatever reason. I just wanted to bring this to your attention.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Recently after a long business trip i left Steam open while I was gone to find itself updating Arma2 Arrowhead, I clicked continue, then tried to launch Combined ops it ran through a black screen with text then said it couldnt launch and an error screen came up saying application currently running.

I tried to contact steam support but to no avail, does anyone know how to fix or by pass this?

Recently after a long business trip i left Steam open while I was gone to find itself updating Arma2 Arrowhead, I clicked continue, then tried to launch Combined ops it ran through a black screen with text then said it couldnt launch and an error screen came up saying application currently running.

I tried to contact steam support but to no avail, does anyone know how to fix or by pass this?

Please read at least the comment just above yours and you'll see that the topic is covered and a workaround found ;)

Here is the suggested workaround: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?73554-ARMA2-amp-OA-s-Steam-Thread-All-Steam-Q-s-discussions-go-here-covered-by-Dwarden&p=2242247&viewfull=1#post2242247

Hope this helps, have fun.

I just got this "Game running" issue a couple of days ago. The problem is, no matter what, OA only launches. Is it because of mods in the modline? Even then, I play ArmA with mods so that's a problem lol. I tried launching ArmA 2 then OA. No Avail, only works if I press "Run CO", but if I do that then get the first issue. This randomly started 2 days ago, whats going on?

If you have the mods installed in your OA folder, then just delete them from the startup line. They will load anyway, or at least you can activate them from the "addons" menu option. The problem, like sherlock pointed out, is if you have your mods installed in another location, then you're screwed...

For some reason steam automatically uninstalled OA ( at least steamwise, the files are still there ) And when I try to launch it, it says "Scanning for game updates"

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w229/Overwatch_Sniper/scanning.png

Also, for those who didn't lose their ability to launch OA or CO, you should check this link out since it seems like a good fix potentially (for the game is running problem)

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2975783

Nevermind, deleting the OA folder lets me reinstall.

That fix works, only problem is you can't use mods :/ I hope this gets fixed soon officially.

Im not a big fan of this recent patch...I can install all my other DLC except for ACR I tried logging out of steam and running it as admin, and then using the installers just like for PMC and BAF, but now its asking me for a CD key, what the hell.

Welp, removing CO from the start list hasn't fixed the problem at all. Launching OA doesn't launch it with ArmA 2 or mods.

Did you first run Arma 2 at least once since it was installed? Have you removed all mods from the "launch options" start line? If so, OA should launch and load all content, and you can activate any mods installed in the OA folder from the "Expansions" menu option.

Did you first run Arma 2 at least once since it was installed? Have you removed all mods from the "launch options" start line? If so, OA should launch and load all content, and you can activate any mods installed in the OA folder from the "Expansions" menu option.

Yes and if you activate from expansions option, will they stay active each time you start game?

Yes, they will. You will have to restart OA any time you activate or deactivate a mod though, so if you activate and deactivate mods often, you're better off using a launcher.

Works like a charm, thanks much!

What the hell is going on here?

Why can't things simply be left alone?

I can't run Arma 2 CO now.

And I'm under the impression that the way the game handles mods has changed?

WHY?!

It was perfectly fine the way it was.

I was asked to update by Steam, and then after the update had finished I keep getting the error "invalid application configuration".

It seems this update has basically ruined my Arma 2 setup.

And I'm not interested in playing Arma 2 if I can't run it the way I have been, flawlessly up until this point.

Can anyone tell me what has happened and if there's a rather painless way I can revert back?

I've gotten the game to run, but now I'm getting missing asset errors such as missing ca/buildings/fuelstation_army.p3d

Did that stupid update fuck with CAA1?

Jesus christ.

For a reason, I can't run my arma 2 CO from steam anymore... how can I?

For a reason, I can't run my arma 2 CO from steam anymore... how can I?

Use a launcher like Six Updater or Spirited Machine.