I tried more things. I tried running steam with steam-runtime and steam-native, it didnt' work. I tried switching my steam server to another location. Interestingly, all files validate just fine when my server is Toronto, but the problem persists with Pheonix. Of course in both cases the game still has the same issues...

Turning off debug mode didn't affect anything, so it was really the overlay causing the initial crash.

well since I cant check your PC info I cant help that much , the only thing I can say is that it works fine on Manjaro

I'm on antergos with every package updated.

My specs:

Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB
i3-6500
8 GB Ram
Asus Z170-P

On a previous installation I was running KDE. Now it's XFCE. Didn't work in either case.

Any idea what font the launcher is using? Sounds stupid but if I could at least see the options in the launcher, it might help me mess with settings and see if I can fix this.

So I've made some progress. I was actually launching the game while logged in with i3, which I installed on top of XFCE antergos. For some reason, switching to XFCE for my session made it so now the launcher doesn't even start. I navigated to the AoW3 folder and tried to start the game directly. It fails to start and spits out:

./AoW3_Debug: /usr/lib32/libssl.so.1.0.0: no version information available (required by ./AoW3_Debug)
./AoW3_Debug: /usr/lib32/libcrypto.so.1.0.0: no version information available (required by ./AoW3_Debug)
Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 226840
Steam_SetMinidumpSteamID: Caching Steam ID: 76561197983538909 [API loaded no]
UserPath set to: \home\*REDACTED*\.local\share\AoW3\
Build Number: 20914 - Build Time: UnknownDate UnknownTime -STEAM BUILD
SignIn parameter: (null)
[OpenGL] NVIDIA Corporation : GeForce GTX 1060 3GB/PCIe/SSE2 (3.1.0 NVIDIA 375.26) GLSL: 1.40 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
[ERROR]Failed to load user profile...
Initialize took 207 ms
Destroying Window..
Terminate duration: 0.011 seconds

Both libssl.so.1.0.0 and libcrypto.so.1.0.0 are present in my /usr/lib32 folder. I have no idea what to do at this point but I guess these might be causing the problem.

btw in order to use steam runtime you have to run steam like this

steam %U -runtime

if that doesnt help I think there is a solution on AOW Forums

http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/linux-game-wont-launch-libssl-and-libcrypto-error/

That's interesting. The steam runtime doesn't seem to fix things, and starting the game with the proper 64 bit libraries in the game's folders still produce the same errors, while putting the equivalent 32 bit libraries in the folder skips the warning but now AoW3 simply doesn't start. Without any error message.

In fact using steam-native is what seems to allow me to launch the game with the all the "NOT FOUND" text. It's only when I'm using the runtime that it doesn't get that far.

Antergos has an option to have it install steam for you. I suspect there's something wrong with that script that is screwing up my runtime. I'll try to reinstall steam on my own.

EDIT: Nope. Screw this, I'm installing xubuntu. Urgh.

Install Manjaro :P

I might. Apparently the GTX 1060 3GB isn't super well supported yet. I have only been able to successfully install antergos on this thing. Seems like ubuntu-based distros might be using a version of the nvidia driver that doesn't support my card yet, so they just give me a black screen when I try to boot the install media.

All this because there's one game in my library that doesn't work!

One of the staff at triumph helped me solve my problem. Antergos set my locale as en_CA when I installed, but didn't even enable en_US. This would not have happened if I'd done a manual archlinux install... Anyway, the game requires en_US to be turned on.

I see now why I couldn't find a lot of info. It had to be a Canadian linux user who wants to play AoW3 with a distro that doesn't enable en_US by default. Pretty obscure.

I think I'll stick with pure arch from now on.

I will hijack this discussion a bit.

What do you people think about this game? I was and still am huge AoW 1 fan, although later instalment spoiled a bit fun from this game with that weird 3D things.

But AoW3 goes even further with its 3D stuff and a lot of models look a bit ugly. You know, like these games from early 3D revolution, when everything went from 2D to 3D, but looked very ugly.

Additionally, while AoW1 maps were well crafted, I just don't have the same feeling from AoW3 maps. AoW1 maps had a lot of local story packed into each map. Signposts, monsters roaming dark forests, revolutionaries pillaging farms, goblins attacking halfling towns...

Additionally, because everything needs to be very detailed, even every ground tileset, I found that I just can't recognize terrain from units. You know how good strategies are designed so you can see everything with quick glance? So you can't miss enemy or your units standing next to town? Or that you can recognize active place (well, magical tree, mine) from just map graphics? I just can't. I had similar problem with later HoMaM instalments (5, 6).

Also, the map dimension is weird. In AoW1, you could have relatively tiny maps and still full game with advanced spells and late-game units. Here it seems that due to weird terrain placement, small maps are just rush. And due to TB games being too slow, I just don't have that much time to play these long games, but I still want late game.

I loved AoW2 and I think this is one of those rare series where a long-awaited sequel actually manages to improve on the formula. It showed that rather than rushing into a sequel after AoW2, they waited until they actually had enough new ideas to make a compelling product.

I think the combination of classes, specializations and races allows for really cool customization of your characters. Yesterday, I made a theocrat tigran dedicated to neutrality. I tweaked him to evoke cultures where balance is important, and to have some aura of odd mysticism surrounding him. It's really cool that you have all these options. The workshop mods give you even more options.

I like the change they did to hero leveling. More deterministic, you don't find yourself raging at the game for not giving you any good options. As well, the change to only allow one spell per turn was sorely needed. In AoW2, you could make a good mage learn that spell that damages all enemy units, holy wrath I believe, and have all your heroes get enough casting points to cast it once. You start your battle with 3-4 casts of this thing and everything that's not a high tier unit is already dead. Totally broken.

Getting rid of the whole wizard tower mechanic is also good. It really restricted your magic. The new game encourages you to use your leader more aggressively.

I really like it. I didn't really see any problems with what you mentioned.