What�s the point of the new copy protection?

reverend · #1 February 14th, 2007, 02:06 PM

Sorry, I didn't mean to rant either.

It's just that this game is one of the most lenient when it comes to compatibility, ever. (Windows/Mac/Linux, no CD required etc.)

As for the point about appearing buggy: There is a demo (there is, right?), and as soon as you come to the official forum and spend a few minutes searching, you KNOW it is your fault, not the games.

Also, in my opinion, Dom3 fits in a market where there are decidedly less pirates than for example first-person-shooters or real-time-strategy. At least it doesn't get a bad reputation for wrecking you cd-rom drive like other games.

PS: Maybe, in the next patch, Illwinter could change it so that the orders of all your commanders read "AWOL, buying the game", without the ability to change them, much like insanity.

Nick_K · #2 February 14th, 2007, 02:31 PM

Is this the bug where the map stays present, but the controls etc vanish so nothing can actually be done? I've had that a couple of times despite playing with a legitimate copy... if this is supposed to be 'copy protection' then it's not very good for two reasons:
- Firstly, as I said, I had it a few times
- secondly, quitting and restarting the program fixes the problem, so as bugs go, it's not that much hassle.

Of course, you could be talking about something else entirely... Have you official confirmation that this is intentional? I've seen several forums accept the 'fact' that a recent, quite serious, bug in Football Manager 2007 was put in by the developers to affect pirated games, despite this not being at all true and the bug also affecting legitimate users. This sort of rumour can be quite nasty if a user asks for help about the bug and gets flamed as a 'pirate'.

Gandalf Parker · #3 February 14th, 2007, 02:37 PM

Discussions of the copy protection dont tend to last long. But this is the publishers forum so I dont hav a problem with that.

But just for now.. Umm.. are you sure thats the action? All the tests I can do seem to just say that it wont work with a bad key. Ive seen guesswork that some bad events might be a bad key but I havent been able to duplicate it. But I do tink they should do some simple cryptograhy with the key file.

On the other hand, if they were to do something interesting I remember one game (I think it was a space game) that a bad key meant you got a load of the games bad events piled on you every turn.

Baalz · #4 February 14th, 2007, 02:50 PM

I know that I stepped in to sub in a MP game because the previous player was "having problems" with the 3.06 patch. First turn I step in I get a message (based on the previous turn, the one I didn't play) that the CD key was bad, so no orders had been processed. Guess we know what problems the guy was having.

Turin · #5 February 14th, 2007, 03:12 PM

Johan K mentions the bug being copyprotection in this thread:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...b=5&o=&fpart=1

Heh if not even Gandalf Parker, a moderator of the board knows about this, how is the casual pirate supposed to figure out the game is wonky because of copyprotection.

Gandalf Parker · #6 February 14th, 2007, 03:33 PM

Hmm I still cant dupicate it that way.

By the way, moderator isnt based on knowledge. Expert moderators tend to create an unsocial forum. They dont moderate (I mean the definition of the word) very well.

Loren · #7 February 14th, 2007, 03:50 PM

It doesn't sounds like a very good way to do it, either.

For a good way to do it, consider the ancient game "Stars!". If it detected key problems you would have problems with your orders because there was doubt as to whether you were the true ruler of your empire. (I forget the wording of the message and never even saw it myself, just discussions of it.) IIRC if you didn't fix it units started defecting also.

Don't make it buggy, make it disobedient.

Twan · #8 February 14th, 2007, 03:59 PM

People at http://forums.somethingawful.com/ pay to register on a forum but not for games. It may be a religious thing, or perhaps psychiatric, nothing can be done imho.

Nick_K · #9 February 14th, 2007, 04:16 PM

This is definitely deliberate?? If so, it seems to have been implemented buggily, as I've had it a few times and my copy is direct from shrapnel.

tombom · #10 February 14th, 2007, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Twan said:
People at http://forums.somethingawful.com/ pay to register on a forum but not for games. It may be a religious thing, or perhaps psychiatric, nothing can be done imho.

What are you talking about? Nobody there encourages piracy, which is banned on sight. There is no reason that people there pirate more compared to anywhere else and there have been threads which have encouraged other people to buy the game.

Oh wait I just checked the thread I see what you mean