When launching Ravaged Zombie Apocalypse, the game will crash on the home screen. This is due to the game attempting to obtain news from the games website, which no longer exists. In this guide we'll redirect the network traffic so the game attempts to obtain data from within our own network in a loop; preventing a crash.

Basically, this:

Full credit goes to Steiner! Without their wisdom this guide wouldn't be possible, give them a community award if you have enough points.

Navigate to the hosts folder: \Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Right click on the file called "hosts" > Open with > WordPad
At the very end of the document, on a new line, paste this:

127.0.0.1 game.2dawn.com # Ravaged fix

Save document

Navigate to the Ravaged config folder: \documents\My Games\Ravaged\RavagedGame\Config

Delete RavagedEngine.ini and RavagedNews.txt (the game will re-make these at launch)

The game should now launch. If this doesn't work, please let me know and I'll try to help you out personally.

The server browser is functionally useless, if you want to play with friends, you'll need to use the steam chat function. The host starts the server, then the guest right clicks on their profile > join game. Alternatively, the host can right click on their friend and invite to game.

If you are unable to save the hosts document due to a permissions error, we can just create a new document and replace it. Open the WordPad application, and paste in this command:

127.0.0.1 game.2dawn.com # Ravaged fix

File > Save As > Save as file type: Text Document (*.txt) > Name it "hosts" > Save to desktop.

You'll receive a notification warning you that a text-only format will remove all formatting, this is a good thing, select Yes.

We now have a file called hosts on the desktop, but it's still a Text Document, we must remove the extension.

In Windows Search type "file explorer options" > press enter > View tab > deselect "Hide extensions for known file types" and click OK.

Now rename the file on the desktop from "hosts.txt" to "hosts".

Navigate back to the hosts folder: Windows\System32\drivers\etc

In the folder, rename "hosts" to "hosts.bak" (this is a backup).

Copy the file from the desktop into the folder. You may need to give admin permission.

Done! But don't forget to delete the RavagedEngine.ini and News.ini files from the config folder (documents\My Games\Ravaged\RavagedGame\Config).