Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

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Desynchronization Issue Fix for Multiplayer on Linux and MacOS
By Coprus Christi
This little guide helps to resolve a desync issue that occurs when you are playing a session in multiplayer on Linux using Steam Play based on Proton.
   
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Hello, friend.

First of all, read the information below till the end before doing something.

It could have happened that you receive a synchronization error every time you try to play in Multiplayer. Such error waits for you not so far from the beginning of each session, as a rule, and leads to a termination of a session or the whole game. It is a well-known problem, a fix of which may be found all around the Web.

Here it is:

  1. Install cabextract by following your system's instructions;
  2. Go to steamapps/compatdata/813780/pfx/drive_c/windows/system32/, that is located in Steam installation directory, and run the terminal from there;
  3. Write wget "https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe" into the terminal and execute by pressing Enter*;
  4. Then do the same with cabextract vc_redist.x64.exe;
  5. The last command is cabextract a10.
*Sometimes people use "https://download.microsoft.com/download/9/3/F/93FCF1E7-E6A4-478B-96E7-D4B285925B00/vc_redist.x64.exe" instead of "https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe".

As far as I understand, all steps mentioned above are aimed at extraction of a right version of ucrtbase.dll file and further replacement of one located in system32 with the extracted one.

In some cases the attempt to execute the last command leads to the following result:

a10: no valid cabinets found

It means one thing for sure - you will continue to receive the out-of-sync error.

I do not know how to make it work, but if the game requires the right version of ucrtbase.dll, it is much easier to provide it without any goofing around in the terminal. Just download required ucrtbase.dll here[drive.google.com] and place it into steamapps/compatdata/813780/pfx/drive_c/windows/system32/ by agreeing with a replacement.

As of now, the out-of-sync error in Multiplayer should disappear.

It even works on Apple devices via CrossOver under MacOS, therefore, make use of it on your Mac, for instance.
4 Comments
Coprus Christi  [author] 15 Jan, 2024 @ 11:05am 
No, did not launch it or test on Windows 11.
♿ SoSo 15 Jan, 2024 @ 9:15am 
Do you have solution for Windows 11?
skatedawe 22 Dec, 2021 @ 11:57am 
I can confirm that its working, but after aprox 30minutes it freezed for me, 4 AI and 3 other players, i was invited to the game.
skatedawe 22 Dec, 2021 @ 11:25am 
I did an upload of the shared file on google drive; and it seems to be legit and not of virus etc.

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/05fdef5f91cd38055021c6e7ae83b32936b30b6032f7ccf05b2b50233ab7fe9b?nocache=1