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Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

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Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak > Guides > Mr Elusive's Guides

26 ratings

Bypass Epic Store Requirement

By Mr Elusive

Play the game without installing the Epic Game Store.

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Created by

Mr Elusive
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Category: Modding or Configuration

Languages: English

Posted

21 Oct, 2023 @ 10:19am

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Guide Index

Overview

Option 1

Option 2

Additional / FAQ

Comments

Overview

Gearbox, in their infinite stupidity, have decided to patch in Epic Game Store as a requirement to play Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. This guide will give you a step-by-step on getting around it with minimal effort.

Option 1

Buy the game from GoG[www.gog.com] instead.

It doesn't have the Epic Game Store requirements at all. No idea if you need GoG Galaxy for multiplayer, or if it's cross-compatible with Steam players - please let me know in the comments.

Option 2

Install through Steam, but DO NOT START THE GAME yet.

For context, the very first time you run any game on Steam, it goes through a first time installation script. For most games this is things like Visual C++ runtimes, DirectX updates etc. If you start Deserts of Kharak, it will try to install Epic Online Services and Epic Game Store - you know, the two things we're actively trying to avoid!

If you're running Windows, go into Add or Remove Programs and make sure you have nothing Epic related installed. If you have no results in the search bar like the example screenshot below, go to the next step.

Go into your Deserts of Kharak installation folder and delete the EpicOnlineServices folder shown below.

Lastly, make sure (Optional) Epic Sign In is unchecked in the multiplayer menu (if you intend to play it).

Additional / FAQ

Does this work with multiplayer?

No idea, haven't tested it. If anyone has please let me know in the comments and I'll update the guide accordingly.

Will I need to re-do this every time there's an update?

Anytime the game is updated, (re)installed or you use the Verify Files function in Steam, it will re-download the installer folder. Again, the GoG version[www.gog.com] doesn't have this problem, so I strongly recommend buying it from there instead and saving yourself all this trouble.

I know a better way of doing this.

Great! Put it in the comments, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks for reading.
Mr Elusive :)

19 Comments

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leo_man4u2000 27 Aug, 2024 @ 10:11pm

i tried this game for advanced difficulty, mission 1, "repair support cruiser".....right clicking everywhere did nothing.....left clicking only moved her. also, with this "epic" thing, I had to exit and try again. second day I played, game "exe not working".....

The C𝔬w God 23 Apr, 2024 @ 6:53pm

hi if you delete the steam api from the plugins folder it works

Elegant Caveman 25 Oct, 2023 @ 6:36pm

That's really disappointing to hear. Thanks again for trying.

Honestly, you've tried everything I could think of doing, and your results fit with what Reaper reported in the thread I linked to.

Sounds to me like at this point, all we can do is accept EOS, or give up on the game.

Mr Elusive [author] 25 Oct, 2023 @ 6:26pm

Apologies, I forgot to mention in my last comment:

I tried offline mode first to at least get single-player working, but again it just refuses to start. If you don't rename the executable, it says "executable not found" because it's looking for DesertsOfKharak.exe (as per the error message).

If you copy and rename either the *64.exe or *32.exe files to try and trick it, it still refuses to start. I didn't make a note of the error - I think it was something about being offline?

Running in online mode immediately validates/updates the game back to the "Epic" version, undoing everything in the process.

I'm completely stumped at this point. If you can get it working, you're a better man than I am lol.

Elegant Caveman 25 Oct, 2023 @ 5:24pm

That's really unfortunate. Thanks for trying, though.

Did you try running it with Steam offline?

The guide does mention having to rename it, and that you should be able to play through Steam. But if it just updates again, maybe trying it with Steam in offline mode would let us play singleplayer, at least.

Mr Elusive [author] 25 Oct, 2023 @ 4:09pm

No luck with the older build unfortunately. The older build has two executables - DesertsOfKharak32.exe and DesertsOfKharak64.exe. If you try start the game from the directory, it crashes.

If you try to start the game through Steam, it's looking for DesertsOfKharak.exe (note the lack of 32/64). If you rename one of the executables to DesertsOfKharak.exe, Steam tries to update the game, undoing your work. I suspect it notices the binary is different somehow (checksum? file size?) and assumes your install is outdated or corrupted...which technically isn't wrong lol.

In an ideal world, someone from Gearbox will read this thread, notice how much we're actively trying to avoid Epic and reverse the changes after seeing the error of their ways. Wishful thinking at it's finest.

Oh well, it was worth a try at least.

Elegant Caveman 23 Oct, 2023 @ 5:39pm

Appreciate it. And good luck.

Mr Elusive [author] 23 Oct, 2023 @ 5:06pm

Ugh, that's disappointing.

Screw it - I'm going to have a go at downloading that older build. I'll let you know how I get on.

Elegant Caveman 23 Oct, 2023 @ 5:00pm

Unfortunately, EOS doesn't like being denied.

Trying to block it tends to break a game, unless it was inactive to begin with (most purely-singleplayer games; though I've recently learned that even those aren't entirely safe - Insurmountable is singleplayer-only, and EOS is active).

An earlier build should work in theory, but someone tried it ( https://sp.zhabite.com/app/281610/discussions/0/3875968426427927800/ ), and apparently it doesn't help.

Not sure what's going on there, and I haven't tested it yet myself, so I can only go by what's been said in that thread.

As far as I know, right now, GOG is the only way to play this game without Epic legitimately. For now. Assuming they don't add EOS to that version too (some games on GOG did get EOS added to them, like Saints Row IV).

Mr Elusive [author] 23 Oct, 2023 @ 4:29pm

So I tried the HOSTS file entries from that guide and ran into the exact same problem you did with the main menu. The game is functional without the launcher/store/whatever installed, but ultimately it's still "phoning home" in the background.

Outside of buying the GoG version, or running an earlier build of the game, I don't know how else you can avoid it - unless you have a cracked version of the game that somehow bypasses it.

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