Ok I've tried with flushing DNS.

Results:

- Adapter OFF ==> Game won't start, oblivion.exe starts and starts rundll32.exe, but only the launcher appears, clicking play presumably launches the game, but the only thing which happens is that the rundll32.exe causes 50 % CPU, nothing else
- Adapter ON but router off ==> Same as before
- Adapter ON, connected to router, but internet access off ==> Same as before
- Adapter ON, connected to router, internet access on ==> Game launches.

Looks all pretty clear to me.

Installed FONV on a clean Win8 installation on a PC without a network cable. It works and plays just fine, it doesn't require an internet connection. Therefor the topic title is wrong!

Maybe it pings to somehwere during installation but that is a different problem.

that's not the issue, there is a weird behaviour of different gog games that include "Galaxy.dll"
(for me those are: dex, shadowrun dragonfall, pharaonic, fallout nv)

while network cable is connected and internet access of game exe restricted by firewall the games will fail to start with error in module "galaxy.dll".

while cable DISconnected and internet access of game exe restricted by firewall the games will run, but after closing game the error "crashed, module 'Galaxy.dll' " will happen.

while cable DISconnected and internet access of game exe allowed, the games run fine.

however, this is not constant: e.g. "the witcher 3" works fine with just firewall restriction. for other games ignoring the firewall request will do the trick.

tl;dr
it's not the game, it's galaxy causing the problem; still troublesome.

I'm not using the Galaxy client but the offline installers and do not have any crashes or issues. I noticed on a previous installation (where I played Gwent and needed Galaxy) the Galaxy client would crash when there was no network connection. Even though I disabled the Galaxy autostart, so yeah that's troublesome.

Still I recommend using the offline installers.

The topic title is still wrong, when you use the offline installers it works perfectly fine on an air gapped (no network) environment.

MasterW: I used the standalone installers. Title fits.

Hi, melmovano. Thank you for the thorough testing and step-by-step description of events, as they had transpired. I updated my original post with the following that may be useful: This seems to be the answer to the question of: "Why is it that so many are unaffected, and can launch the game regardless of internet-connectivity status?" Still, this is something that GOG can easily fix (if they so desire).

OK, now this really is absurd: Today I bought Gothic 1+2+3 in the sale, and all three of them won't start without internet connection.

I'm already in touch with support because of Oblivion, adding the Gothic series to that now. For the moment it looks like GOG Galaxy causes trouble, even when already uninstalled, but still to confirm.

Well, my wallet is now empty until this situation is cleared.

I am not sure why this such a big deal. Sure, it needs fixing. But the internet drama seems unnecessary.

You're right! Let's make Galaxy mandatory, and all games have to be always-on and 5 activations maximum.

No big deal, right? Wait, we already have something similar? Called Steam/Uplay/Origin (pick your poison :D) ? Heck, why not go there then?

/sarcasm off.

Exactly this. I buy games on GOG because I want them to NOT have DRM. Especially when they are ADVERTISED as such. They start adding DRM to games and this site is going to start to die.

Not intending to add flame to any fire here but have you considered the problem is not the game installation but GoG Galaxy?

The initial post seems to indicate Galaxy is installed on that PC.

I have never installed Galaxy as I didn't want another 'Steam' or 'Origin'. The concept is great if you want the other things Galaxy seems to offer. I don't want it. I want the DRM free games that GoG has built itself on.

My FalloutNV installs and launches without internet connection.

The problem is rather that if you ONCE had Galaxy on your PC, no dice!

I deinstalled Galaxy, still encountered the problem. Support is still working on a solution as it seems....

But even then: Even if you have Galaxy and you install with Galaxy, the game SHOULD RUN offline, no matter what.

Is it possible that the link which you use to start the game invokes Galaxy? I read in another thread that some new offline installers automatically set a link to Galaxy when Galaxy is installed on that system. What happens if you try to start the game directly with the exe in the game folder?

DylGog, greetings to you. The most-recent instance of myself using the GOG Galaxy client was during the latter portion of 2014, or sometime during the beginning of 2015 (this was back when I had a Windows Vista partition); I was hoping that the title of the thread ('Attention: GOG - Fallout: New Vegas (from Stand-Alone Installer) Requires Internet Connection - Temporary Fix') would indicate the fact that I was using the downloadable stand-alone installer for 'Fallout: New Vegas' (and the title has not been changed since the original posting).

Also, as described within the subsequent updates to the original post, the issue (the inability to start the game while being disconnected from the internet) is caused by Galaxy.dll attempting to connect to galaxy-log.gog.com. The FalloutNV.exe file relies upon GalaxyWrp.dll (due to GOG using the Steam-version of Fallout: New Vegas, they had to mimic the functions of the steam_api.dll file), and in turn, GalaxyWrp.dll relies upon Galaxy.dll. None of this would have been a noticeable issue had I not been attempting to launch FalloutNV.exe while being disconnected from the internet. Unfortunately, Galaxy.dll would not allow FalloutNV.exe to run without the ability to submit a DNS-lookup request for the aforementioned named address, but the game ran immediately after connecting the ethernet cable (which would be the moment that the DNS request was sent and a response was received). Later, after a bit of testing, it became obvious that most users (that would include most of the people within this thread) utilize DHCP (which is a way to have automatically-configured IP settings), as well as use some sort of DNS-caching on their system. I, on the other hand, had/have static/manually-entered IP settings (on both my main Arch Linux-based desktop computer, as well as a friend's Linux-powered Apple Macbook Pro), and on both, I have not used a DNS-caching mechanism (so, the IP address for galaxy-log.gog.com would need to be determined by sending a DNS query for any and all attempts to connect). From what I have witnessed, using DHCP (instead of static/manual settings) causes the DNS-lookup request to be sent without the need to be actually be in contact with any DNS servers (it will quietly fail, it would seem).

In short (I know that I am a bit too verbose; I whole-heartedly apologize for that, but I have attempted to lay out a clear explanation), this is one of those errors that occurs to (seemingly) very few people, but it should not be possible for it to happen, in the first place; As any purely single-player offline game (from a GOG stand-alone installer) has zero reason to rely upon a file that seeks to connect to a foreign (meaning remote) server, which ultimately causes the launch of said game to stall until the request can be made (a request related to a non-installed gaming client, of all things).

@Palestine: Exactly!


@Chris: No, the standalone installers and the shortcuts they create have no link to Galaxy, and even opening the exe of the game is not helping.


In the end, I will ask for a refund, because Gog is still investigating. What really troubles me: I don't have all of my games currently installed, but I am beginning to discover that more and more games are affected:

For the moment

- Swat 4
- Gothic 1+2+3
- Oblivion

won't run offline....