Is this your error? Instead of unpacking it, point it to the game directory and it will self-unpack and self-install. I hope so, If I remember correctly.
Thanks, but I don't think that's correct. The game engine will self-install, but not the other patches, which use the Game Updater.
But I
THINK I've got the game working now. It hasn't been easy, and I still don't know why it keeps failing. However, I've apparently got the 5.81 game engine, the 3.09 patch update, and the 1.03 district update. (As much trouble as this has been, I'd be terrified of actually purchasing any of the DLC!)
After my above post, I installed the May district map update. That worked, although... well, it worked, at least. Then, I installed the August game engine update. When the Game Installer popped up, it didn't include my previous patch, so I thought something was wrong. But I closed it, opened it up again, and things looked fine.
Then I tried to install the August patch, that
.gt2extension file. That looked like it was working, but it also gave me a flickering command line screen, in a separate window, that seemed to indicate a failure due to lack of permissions. (Note that I live alone, this is
my computer, and there is no other account on it.) And sure enough, when I tried to start the game after that, I got that familiar error message instead.
I went back to the Game Updater, which showed only the district update installed (not the May patch, for some reason), so I just tried the whole thing all over again. I didn't change
anything. I just dd the same thing all over again, installing that
.gt2extension file the same way I did the first time, and this time it seems to have worked. At least, I
can get into the game now. As long as 3.09 is the correct game update, I should be good to go - assuming that nothing else goes wrong.
I don't know how to start that tutorial again, or even if I should. Frankly, it was infuriating the first time I tried it, clear back in January (since I couldn't get it to pause or even slow down). But hey, I can get to the menu at least. That's progress!
Thanks for the help.