[SOLVED] Running backup of .12 causes .13 to start instead

[Tallinu]

I wanted to be able to try out 0.13 without having to uninstall it and revert to 0.12 every time I wanted to work on my existing game that I was running with a few mods, so I copied Factorio out of its location in steam apps before setting steam to update to the latest experimental version.

The expected behavior is that if I run the 0.12 executable (via a shortcut which has the working directory set to the location of the 0.12 backup copy, with its /bin/x64/Factorio.exe in the Run field), that version would start and load the 0.12 mods, while if I ran the regular steam shortcut it would launch 0.13... But regardless of how I try to start 0.12, it always somehow runs version 0.13 instead.

I set use-system-read-write-data-directories=false in the config-path.cfg file (and moved my 0.12 saves and mods into that folder) to make sure that the different versions of the game shouldn't have any conflicts, but that seems to have had no effect on the unexpected behavior.

If I tell steam to delete local content for 0.13 and then attempt to run the backup of 0.12, steam behaves as if I attempted to run Factorio through its interface and prompts me to install it. And if I manually delete the 0.13 install instead of using steam to do it, steam gives me an error launching the game.

What is going on here and how do I make this work?

[DaveMcW]

You can only use one exe installer, all your other copies must be zip versions.

[Tallinu]

Considering that I'm talking about steam, it should be obvious that I didn't use the exe installer.

I was under the impression that I could not download a zip or exe installer from this site if I was using steam to install it. Are you saying this is incorrect?

...

Apparently so, I was able to access the download page and grab a zip version of 0.12.35 -- that should take care of that. (I'm still confused by the unexpected behavior of somehow running a completely different version of the game than what was launched, but I guess it's a moot point.)

[DaveMcW]

Create an account on factorio.com
Click your name, scroll down, and link with Steam.
Download the zip version.

[Tallinu]

Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 12:14 am

... which is to say, I've had one of those for a while. I purchased it before it was available on steam. Apparently I was misinformed, or perhaps confusing the situation with KSP on Steam. Thanks for helping me solve this though!

[Nexela]

The steam version and the installer version sets the default data directory to %appdata%/factorio. The zipped version has the app path set to false.


From the config-path.cfg file

config-path=__PATH__executable__/../../config

#This value specifies the way the aplication generates default values for path.read-data and path.write-data
#When set to true, it will use system directories (Users/Name/AppData/Roaming/Factorio on windows), this is set to true
#for the installer versions of Factorio, as people will usualy install it in program files, and the aplication can't write
#to program files by default (without UAC turned off), similar with osx/linux packages.
#When set to false (default value for zip package), it will use application root directory, this is usable to create self-sustainable
#Factorio directory that can be copied anywhere needed (on usb etc), also for people, who don't like to manipulate saves
#in the windows users directory structure (as me, kovarex).
#Note, that once the values in config are generated, this value has no effects (unless you delete config, or the path.read-data/path.write-data values)
use-system-read-write-data-directories=false