Very nasty surprise.

Pocus · #1 April 8th, 2004, 12:34 PM

you can play a small pbem game with one single key, if you are confident in your host: give him your password (or dont set password), and let him open your turn, then submit and close. It will fingerprints your turn with his comp sig and cd key, and no conflict will arise.

Beorne · #2 April 9th, 2004, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by calmon:
If your friends like the game they should buy it too, if they think its not worth 50?... have a look in the forums. Pbem and normal mp starts at times.

I was disappointed too about the high cost (payed 50?) but so far there is no regular european publisher.

There are a lot of greys between black and white.
I'm very fond with this game, my friends are fond too, but not like me, and 50E for a game is much (I don't think things could be different if there were an EU publisher).
I think that, if a single key allowed mp games, the game would be a lot more played, even between friends and not only between fans. I don't think I'll spread the "DomII word" in Italy, I'm from a small town and have other things to do, but I think communities would born and grow much faster.
But I'm not marketing man of Shrapnel.

Cainehill · #3 April 9th, 2004, 01:45 AM

Beorne,

While I might agree that the MP license policy is a bit restrictive (and counterproductive), your friends could always install and play via the demo Version. True, they'd be limitted in their choice of races, magic research is capped, and the game ends around turn 40 - but that would probably allow them to decide if they enjoyed the game enough to buy it.

On the other hand, I fail to see why you refer to a "Very Nasty Surprise" - you bought one copy, not three, so why would you expect it to allow three (or 10, or 20) people to be allowed to install and use it?

Finally - there's several other Italian players out there; I've run into at least 2, Cohen and one other.

[ April 08, 2004, 12:48: Message edited by: Cainehill ]

Cainehill · #4 April 9th, 2004, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
What is a spawn install?

As others have mentioned, it allowed one purchased copy to allow, typically, two other computers to play the game, but only in MP mode, and only with the machine with the "master" installation hosting the game - I think they tended to use the CD as indication of which machine was the legit/master.

You might be able to do something like this for server games, but I don't see how it'd work for PBEM....

Unless ... If the CD keys are encrypted into the turn files, and all the turns are coming from the same CD key, allow the game to proceed as though it was a somewhat less limitted demo. Maybe keep the turn limit, but allowing race selection & research as normal. This has the benefit of requiring minimal changes to the program - checking the keys, and ending the game early if all keys are the same.

Gandalf Parker · #5 April 8th, 2004, 02:06 PM

Everything has its pros and cons. With Dom1 the price was something like 20 and I bought 6 copies. All my machines (5) had one and one frined who was determined to "borrow" it so I just bought him a copy. I was very unhappy to see the pricing on Dom2 since I knew I wasnt going to do 5 or 6 copies.

On the other hand, as a programmer I understand the difficulty in having this kindof game understand multiple LAN copies and still tell the difference between that and multiple computers across the net. And I WONT say that its not worth the money. Definetly try the demo first but IF you can get past the learning curve then I can pretty much gaurantee that it will live on your machine 10 times longer than any other game you can buy now for the same price. Its worth the money and Illwinter does deserve to get paid for it.

I did suggest to Shrapnel (they actualy control things like pricing and cd keys) that a way to pay less money and download a key (not get a disc or manual) might be good but apparently its not cost effective.

Beorne · #6 April 8th, 2004, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cainehill:
Beorne,

While I might agree that the MP license policy is a bit restrictive (and counterproductive), your friends could always install and play via the demo Version. True, they'd be limitted in their choice of races, magic research is capped, and the game ends around turn 40 - but that would probably allow them to decide if they enjoyed the game enough to buy it.

On the other hand, I fail to see why you refer to a "Very Nasty Surprise" - you bought one copy, not three, so why would you expect it to allow three (or 10, or 20) people to be allowed to install and use it?

Finally - there's several other Italian players out there; I've run into at least 2, Cohen and one other.

Yes, you are right.
But several things made me think at least mp would be allowed:
- the game is costly
- the "no big company" atmosphere around the game (very much like that of freeware or shareware games), a game that is a forever work in progress with great enthusiasm and feedback between fans and autors
- I think, but i could be wrong, that another great Shrapnel game I have (SEIVG) allows mp gaming with one licence
- the fact that a game like this has no advertising apart that of fans
- the fact that lovers of turn games are almost disappearing, and is difficult to pull any other real time high graphic junk fan to access this sort of "steep learning curve" type of game.

Ok, i think something like the cited spawn install, where I and only I could be a host should be the best.

Gandalf Parker · #7 April 8th, 2004, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Ok, i think something like the cited spawn install, where I and only I could be a host should be the best.

I slap myself on the forehead for the obivousness of that statement but I dont think anyone ever brought that scheme up specifically before. I would be worth a discussion.

So the host would still check IDs but would allow other machines to play if their CD keys matched the host? Hmmmmmmm

No come to think of it someone would probably setup a site where they would host games and say "download this" so that hundreds could play for free. mmmmm I dont think that would work well.

The "big company" thing you mention usually means they can have programmers who will work on headaches like "lan recognition while not allowing other computers not on the lan". Thats not as simple as it seems and gets harder every day just like any other protection scheme.