cannot play FM!!!!

I am 99.99999999999999999% sure I am set up to start the game in offline mode on Steam but when I try to start up FM it trys to update Steam and then gives me the pop up giving me the option to retry or start in offline mode. If I click start in offline mode I get another error bos saying, 'Could not connect to Steam network. This could be due to a problem with your internet connection or with the Steam network. Please visit www.steampowered.com for more info.' I am presuming it is a problem with the Steam network as I am trying to start in offline mode which doesn't need a connection to the internet but I cannot find where on steampowered I can get more info? Has anyone else had this problem and can you help as I am starting to get minor withdrawal issues and its only been 2 days!!

I'd suggest going online and letting Steam update then going offline again if that's possible for you.

I cannot go online because I live in the school I work at and Steam doesn't work with their internet proxy and I cannot remember my ID etc. Have e-mailed Steam but waiting to hear back from them. The game was working fine until I took it with me to a friends house to update to the latest patch and then turned offline again.

edit - when I try to open Steam up it tries to update the game as well so I cannot actually get on Steam to turn online to then turn it off again! I get another error message after I go through the process but the box doesn't stay up long enough for me to read it

It looks to me as though you do need to get online to sort it, sounds as though the game update and/or a Steam update haven't properly completed:(

I was playing the game with the latest patch after updating it over previous weeks when I was away from my house which is the frustrating thing! Don't know whether this is linked but I have just tried to log in to Steam website and it says that it appears I am on a new browser, new computer or haven't been on for awhile so have had to go through extra security measures to get in so it seems Steam isn't recognising my computer

Having just re-installed Steam I have now got the following message, 'Unable to connect to Steam network. Offline mode is unavailable because there is no Steam login information stored on this computer. You will not be able to use Steam until you can connect to the Steam network again.' Seems the problem is solved!!

Yeh you must have the box checked in Steam prefs that says "don't store account info on this PC" or the reinstall deleted it.

I think perhaps when I verified the cache previously the log in details were deleted....all sorted now as remembered my phone can be used as hotspot so updated and back in the FM world!! :-D

Excellent news:)