"Connecting..." Yes, but to what?

[Timrath]

Every time I start a single player game, the launcher is connecting to... something. It takes 10-15 seconds until that connection is established. Once, my internet was down, and that connection failed, leaving me unable to play.
What is the game connecting to, why does it need an internet connection for that, and why is it necessary for single player? Can I bypass that somehow?

 

[therimmer96]

If you are uplinked and have it enabled in your options, it is trying to connect to the registry to verify you are indeed you. Otherwise it is connecting to the locally hosted server, and if your internet was down, it may have been something local that was causing the issues when connecting to the local server.

 

[jayman38]

At one point, the game would not let you play if it could not connect to the online registry, even if you chose not to link up your player name. That problem should have been eliminated in an update somewhere in the past 4 months. However, if you are linked up, the game might still fail if it can't verify the online registry. In that case, if you are on single-player, it might be easiest to enter a new, non-linked player name and see if you can connect to your own local server. You won't have all your stuff, but at least you can still play.

 

[lazarus78]

Even in single player, the game runs a server instance, so it may be "connecting" to the local server.