Hrmmm

[Odesa]

Hi all, first post, and probably the last. I've just finished reinstalling windows for the second time. I bought flaming cliffs about a week ago and my system has gone bonkers no thanks to starforce. I've paid for flaming cliffs twice now because I didn't realise or even bother to see what the lomac gold pack included and also ordered a seperate flaming cliffs along side. No worries, flaming cliffs seems pretty awesome, and I congratulate the makers because it is, but starforce has ruined it for me and I've concluded that I cannot play this game anymore and I won't buy black shark if starforce is included.

 

So anyway, nice job boys on a great addon, shame about starforce though.

[Kuky]

Hi Odesa,

 

I know the feeling of frustration when yuo can't get something to work (or work the way you want it :D) but there are many people, including myself, having aboslutely no problems with Starforce activations.

 

I recomend you go for the Manual activation... have your serial number handy.

 

Start the lock on and when asked by startforce to activate... go for manual option... get your hardware code... go to main page of this website (http://lockon.co.uk/index.php?lang=en) go to Manual Activation (from the left menu)... enter your serial and hardware code... this will get you your activation key... and just copy/paste this back into starforce window... and that should activate the Flaming Cliffs.

 

Once you've done that, download ED's utility to save your registry... then next time you reinstall windows you won't need to use up another activation key... but just double click on this saved registry file... and done :D

[Odesa]

Hi,

I got flaming cliffs working great, it's just that starforce made my windows install extremely unstable. My XP load time went from 30 secs to 90 seconds, and when it did eventually load everything was way too slow in execution. I hadn't installed anything or changed any settings so it was quite clear that starforce was the culprit. After reading about starforce I was more inclined to believe this was the problem. No offense to you guys, but is starforce the only option ? I really want black shark, but I'm adamant I won't get it if it has starforce. I'd be much happier with some other copy protection system, as opposed to something that installs device drivers and embeds itself so deep in the windows install.

 

 

Cheers.

[spugnut]

All modern copy protection systems embed themselves. It's the only way to prevent copyright theft these days. No polymorphism and hardware abstraction means stolen software.

 

I seem to be repeating myself here - but the argument about sf is waaaay out of proportion. Having disassembled large swathes of the sf core a year or so back, I'd say that the chances it causing you issues are fairly low.

 

Embedded copy protection has been around for a long time, and is included in secuRom 7 (one of the most popular modern systems). It's here to stay.

[Odesa]

Hmm... well I'm not disputing that copy protection doesn't embed itself. I'm saying from what I've read multiple times is that starforce embeds itself 'deep 'into the windows core access area. I'm also fairly computer literate and I know that my system was working fine for 3 months before installation of starforce and directly afterwards it went to the dogs (3 months from the time I last reinstalled XP). Maybe they could use Securom ? I havn't read diddly about people having problems with that copy protection.

 

But anyway, an overuse of aggressive and obnoxious copy protection which installs itself without my knowledge, means one less customer for publishers that include it in their product.

[GGTharos]

Nah, not that deep. You can use the uninstall utility to uninstall it (naturally when you run FC, it will reinstall itself).

In any case, SF isn't the worst of the CP systems - there are worse that are used but they haven't received the same publicity.

In any case, if you notice instability or issues, use the SF uninstall utility!

[Anytime]

Wonder if it will bet better under Vista?

 

Nah, not that deep. You can use the uninstall utility to uninstall it (naturally when you run FC, it will reinstall itself).

In any case, SF isn't the worst of the CP systems - there are worse that are used but they haven't received the same publicity.

In any case, if you notice instability or issues, use the SF uninstall utility!

[Odesa]

Hi,

Yes, the uninstall utility, that you have to download separately... independant of the game uninstall.

 

Operation Flashpoint had fade copy protection, I personally thought this was a brilliant idea... if you didn't buy it legit or made copies the game would slowly degrade into an unplayable mess... and it didn't mess with legit consumers. I'm extremely surprised it didn't take off as I've yet to see another game that uses it. Or what about online authentication, that's pretty much fool proof, if anything could be called fool proof these days.

 

Something, ANYTHING else would be fine with me, starforce gives me the creeps.

[S77th-konkussion]

Hey Odesa- I haven't experienced issues to the level you describe- but I am pretty sure that SF has screwed my CDRW drive up somewhat. At any rate- when I reformatted some time ago after I got my NIC card up & online I just decided to not install ANYTHING other then the Windows updates. (Keep in mind that a sweep of my disk puts you back to pre- SP2) I just left it alone until it was done updating itself, then began my installations and had no problems.

[Odesa]

That's a fair idea kon. I wonder if having 2 copies of XP, each on a seperate drive would be the way to go. That way the baddies can get in and do whatever they want then, I'll be able to play FC at least. :)