how to buy this game?

It is not recommended to install the 'stand-alone' POL Viewer if you also have it installed via Steam. Bad things can, and will happen when doing that.

I don't doubt however, that there is a way to make them work together, but for the average user, I can see it spawning more harm than good, unless it's merely the installation order that affects the outcome. In any case, I wouldn't recommend that method except for the adventurous...

The location where Steam installs it, is not a bother. ^^;

They muck each other up because Steam automatically updates the registry file-paths for its copy of FFXI when you install it.

Outside of using a different region version (I'm pretty sure JP ver uses its own registry folder, dunno about EU copy), sandboxing, or ToS-breaking 3rd-party tools, not really much way around having two identical functional copies of POL/XI installed and operating happily.

Steam copy serial key can be grabbed without installing it by using this view in Steam and hitting CD-key, such as this old pic shows...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../steamffxi.jpg


For those that do run off a Steam install though, it's identical to a disc-release. Not Steam DRM'd either, can boot POL without having it open, which is how I roll.

My issues here were i already had the game installed and playable with 1 char, i bought an account from steam and installed steam and ffxi thinking it would leave me with the 2 games, but as stated above steam version over wrote my original, and then none of the passwords used would work kept saying incorrect id or password. So i installed my original account only to get same message.
After a day of messing about i decided to delete it all off my pc, only for 1 version to refuse to be deleted and as such when i tried to run pol from my cd and install it along with all the expansions it would not work as it says another version is installed.

I downloaded the version of se's web site and that installed pol but i had to go in to the game disk and run the installer for each expansion seperatly.

Again another day of telling me passwords were wrong only to suddenly work after try 100, but i'm missing several of the expansions now and no idea how to get them installed.

Riggs,

That should definitely be unrelated to how you install the game. Did you make sure you had entered your SqEX Account name and one-time password option (if applicable) set for use?

As for the expansions, did you re-install them after installing the 'stand-alone' POL Viewer? In any case, I would try reinstalling them once more again...

you can buy it on stream!

i would love to reinstall them but the installer won't run as it says pol is already installed

I don't see the point really of running it through steam; unlike 99% of steam games you only use steam for the download and acquiring the cd-key. You can then launch the game outside of steam whenever. It's pointless anyhow to run it in steam; my friend's can't see me playing FFXI and I can't use the steam overlay in game.

However I play windowed so I see my steam messages pop up anyway so it's all good.

More on topic, there should be sites (amazon I believe, for example) that allow the purchase of the game via download. I can't speak personally for amazon, but by the method I used to buy the game (steam) I was able to see the cd-key w/out downloading it. So you should be fine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Riggs

i would love to reinstall them but the installer won't run as it says pol is already installed

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That would be expected. This is indeed one of the reasons I never suggest installing via Steam, as it can easily become a mess. You may need to be a bit more drastic to get everything uninstalled (may need to do some Registry editing, though using some sort of a 'cleaner' to do that might be more safe) and be able to do a clean install, but I wont go into details here.

Whatever you do, create backups, restore-points, everything possible to prevent messing up things even more. :]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lisotte

but by the method I used to buy the game (steam) I was able to see the cd-key w/out downloading it. So you should be fine.

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Indeed. That has already been mentioned at least a few times. ^^;