Idiotic install instructions

[Mankm]

So I've put hundreds of mods on the many games I've played. Yet this one seems to be the most broken and impossible to install of them all.

I'f downloaded and installed it a dozen times. I have the game on both directories, coh and oposing fronts off disc, and tov off steam, yet I can't get this mod to work in either.

Seems when I install it, first it asks for a path, and then it asks for a shortcut path as well, the funny thing is the shortcut path won't allow anothing but letters, no symbols quotes, brackets, paranthsis, or forward or back slashes, and whatever folder I put the "shortcut" in it never shows up. I've downloaded and redownloded this pathetic mod a dozen times, and each time it's the same thing. It will patch, but when I go to play it says it can't find the locaction of coh, regardless of following the "instructions" on this forum. Which I'm just thankful has turned me off of thism od completely. Maybe I'll check back to see if there is a response on here but I doubt it since it seems whoever made this crap has decieded it's so important to them to completely ignore that "shortcut path" step in their installation instructions.

[SpungE]

follow the guide in the sticky

[Jimbosmith]

If you had wrote the topic like this

Hi i have been having some problems with installing your mod, i have a disk version aswell as a steam version of the orginal COH series games.
I have downloaded and installed the mod a few times in different locations, but no luck yet. When i go to launch i get a error stating "cannot find the location of COH". I am able to patch though

i would of replied like this check the settings in the launcher to make sure the COH directory in there is the same as you installed to, and maybe check your running as a admin. Failing that i would of pointed you towards the bug and tech support where people are more than happy to help someone having troubles

But seeing as you didnt im just gonna agree and say launcher sucks balls and i can see why everyone who has downloaded the mod cant install

[Blackbishop]

...
I'f downloaded and installed it a dozen times. I have the game on both directories, coh and oposing fronts off disc, and tov off steam, yet I can't get this mod to work in either.
...

I stopped reading there... Looks like you discovered the recipe of failure. Have fun with your hundreds of mods.

You can look over Bugs & Tech support section perhaps there is your solution or you can mix some tips to achieve the result.

Ah, btw I moved your post because was on the wrong section.

[GodlikeDennis]

You don't deserve help after you come in here with your knobhead attitude. Clearly the majority of people find a way to get it to work.

Just follow the steam instructions. I can't imagine why you would buy ToV on steam when you have the other games on disk. That's a recipe for failure right there.

If the shortcut path won't allow certain characters, just set it to desktop (the best place to put a shortcut anyway).

Fix your attitude mate. You'll get nowhere in life thinking everything that doesn't work is someone else's fault.

[Zerstörer]

Epic fail....

[Bloodspew]

My installation tips that I think will help others:

On attempt to run the newly downloaded file it errored saying folder name cannot contain any of the following characters / : <>*.  The installer default wants to make a program group called Company of Heroes: Eastern Front.  Notice the :?  I removed that to proceed.   

Once installation finished I didn't have a desktop icon to launch the mod.  So I hit Windows Start, browsed to the new "Company of Heroes Eastern Front" folder yet there was only a button to uninstall.  I searched forums and found that you need to launch the game from “EF_Launcher.exe”.  It’s not in the Windows program folder Company of Heroes Eastern Front with the uninstall option, but instead is in in my COH directory.  My own directory happened to be "E:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\company of heroes\EF_Launcher.exe".  I found it by doing a full computer hard drive search on "EF_Launcher.exe".

I launch the file EF_Launcher.exe from Windows Explorer.  It comes up with a little window, play or update.  Clicking on play immediately recognized I was in an old version, so it updated from their server.   I had to manually browse to the correct Steam subdirectory each time it wanted to update (4 updates I think as of Nov 4, 2010).

Now that the mod is fully updated and installed, I click on Play and it says it can’t find the location of my COH directory.  I click on the Settings menu option on top.  In lower right hand corner of settings there’s a COH directory Field, and it was blank.  I paste the STEAM directory again and save.  My own happened to be E:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\company of heroes.

The game now launches to a familiar COH start screen with Multiplayer, Skirmish etc.  From there play as you would COH, with the Soviets now a 3rd option under Allies.

I'm quite excited to start playing with this further.  COH has been my favorite computer game since it was launched.  Now I have a whole new faction to play with (actually against, I usually play Panzer Elite against my friend who was playing British until now).

[redtail666]

I thank you Bloodspew for your post notes on getting the game re-installed.  I had the same problem with the characters not allowed, in my case it was the ":"  Once I removed it everything installed, but with no desktop icon.  I found the launcher file quickly in programs, THQ, Company of heroes.  Double clicked it, and it started the launcher, which proceeded to auto update.  Installed all the updates it found and the icon was created during one of the updates, now EF seems to be working.  Hope this small kernel of info will help others, like myself who know little about these maddening electronic wonders.
I didn't have to try some your other steps, thankfully