Why is the X3 copy protection such a big secret?

[CBJ]

For balance, I suggest you read the other article also posted earlier in this thread.

[Patrocles]

I believe the starforce drivers have improved somewhat since then, However it is not up to the developer it is up to the publisher, so there is no point in pestering Egosoft about it, pester Deepsilver or Enlight or QV they are the ones who decide CP

ditto! I will wait to find out if Egosoft is using Starforce CP protection. If the game has Starforce I will not buy it.

[nicklinn]

For balance, I suggest you read the other article also posted earlier in this thread.

Being one who has been burned by starforce myself I gotta say I love where she blames people's problems with starforce on them "being upset they cannot clone their CDs".

[Slocket]

Starforce does place nanny ware onto your computer. The newer version I used caused no problem I am aware of. I have Nero and Alcohol 120, stuff like that. I had no problems. Plus there is a tool on their website at Starforce to remove the nanny ware.

You should not cancel your order if you fear it may ruin your computer. You can blame pirates for the more extreme protection measures.

A new trend from the makers of 'Never Winter Nights' is making you dial up on your Net connection EVERY time you play for verification! It is the new Diamond's edition and the price for it is half the platinum version. Customers are not happy about that move.

[nicklinn]

You should not cancel your order if you fear it may ruin your computer. You can blame pirates for the more extreme protection measures.

I am not about to cancel my order, er actually I am not pre-ordering so more accurately I will still buy the game. I have the hard disk space to set up several windows "sandboxes" on my system. It ain't perfect and can be annoying at times but it works. However, blame is one thing but, if the protection causes problems for users why would people take that risk? Like the article from the horse's mouth says (well it isn't exactly true as you cannot entirely disclaim liability in most jurisdictions but I digress) if it messes up it's your problem, not the developer, not the publisher and certainly not Starforce. If I didn’t have a system in place to prevent damage to an install I personally wouldn’t mess with it.

[DJSoulJammer]

Why not just release the information about what copy protection different regions will use so we all can pre order and go on with our lives?

Come on guys i think this is already to much about this Star Sh*t and this protection ,why don't you understand that if they know we will know to .Be little objective whit this ,loock this forum and all this help they give as and all information they provide for as and help in any kind and protect as some times even from our selfs , so why you just don't want to understand and stop this pointless questions .PLEAAAAASE .I am really desapointed to see this again and again and i belealive that i am part of this also becouse i am mamber of this forum also .

[martindemon]

It was the piece that read "it can install whatever it wants on my PC and read anything on my hard drives and registry" that had me worried.

I've now read the interview and it made no mention of reporting back.

Software can read this information but that doesn't mean it can pass the information back to someone else over the internet. Similarly, software can "dial home" for perfectly legitimate reasons such as checking for updates, but it doesn't generally pass information back to do this other than its own version. Whether Starforce does either of these, I don't know, but even if it does both that doesn't mean there is anything dodgy going on.

However i'm still a bit bothered that it may not work on my machine because i have nero installed. I use nero often, preparing cd's for my wife to listen to in the car, backing up data etc so it would be a major bug-bear if it was going to insist on having nero removed every time. Will that be the case CBJ as the interview doesn't state which programs this particular copy protection has issues with?

You don't normally have to uninstall disk-burning software to prevent problems like this; just ensure that the software is not actually running, which sometimes means deactivating any background processes they install. In practice, Nero is as likely to interfere with your audio codecs as it is with any copy protection system.

I remember I could not play at Doom3 with CloneCD, that I am sure. I had to uninstall it every time I wanted to play Doom3... I know there are other games but I don't remember right now. It does not work this way with starforce but still, other copy protection systems have heavier restrictions.

[General_Sun]

Why not just release the information about what copy protection different regions will use so we all can pre order and go on with our lives?

Come on guys i think this is already to much about this Star Sh*t and this protection ,why don't you understand that if they know we will know to .Be little objective whit this ,loock this forum and all this help they give as and all information they provide for as and help in any kind and protect as some times even from our selfs , so why you just don't want to understand and stop this pointless questions .PLEAAAAASE .I am really desapointed to see this again and again and i belealive that i am part of this also becouse i am mamber of this forum also .

The information's already out. THe UK version uses SF.

[Galaxy613]

I believe the starforce drivers have improved somewhat since then, However it is not up to the developer it is up to the publisher, so there is no point in pestering Egosoft about it, pester Deepsilver or Enlight or QV they are the ones who decide CP

ditto! I will wait to find out if Egosoft is using Starforce CP protection. If the game has Starforce I will not buy it.

Egosoft is not using Starforce. Not at all, however Deep Silver, the people who are in charge of the CP, ARE using Starforce, Egosoft will never use can form of CP. It's the Publishers that choose and add.

[Harlock776]

OMG are you ppl so dense that you can't realise that europe is on the same land mass as asia? Look here is a website: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/ ... r/map.aspx

Aw lookatthat... europe asia china and russia all on the same land mass isn't that nice. This isn't some gameshow lol it's just so completely obvious like a 100ft high brick wall lmao.

[mark_t50]

OMG are you ppl so dense that you can't realise that europe is on the same land mass as asia? Look here is a website: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/ ... r/map.aspx

Aw lookatthat... europe asia china and russia all on the same land mass isn't that nice. This isn't some gameshow lol it's just so completely obvious like a 100ft high brick wall lmao.

Correct, however you said that Europe is part of the same continent as China. That is incorrect, Europe is a continent in its own right, China is part of the Asian continent

Europe is part of the same continent as china

[Chips]

I took some time, and did some research about Starforce, which appears to be alot more than some people do!

http://www.firingsquad.com/features/starforce_interview

The "Firingsquad" interviewed a representative whom outlined what it does, how it acts, exactly why it is chosen etc. It made interesting and informative reading, with the interviewer seemingly giving a balanced opinion.

I highly/strongly suggest people read it.

I quote myself so that people may read an article in which they tell you exactly what it does - and not hokum pokum rumours or made up circumstances. People will blame any system problems on Starforce if they can. I used to get blue screens of death after installing X2... was that starforce? Nope, although others would be quick to jump on the bandwagon - it actually turned out to be sound driver issues with WinXP SP2.

I've also had graphics card driver issues before as well, no issues with Starforce. From the article I posted earlier, I am alot less worried about it as well. Whilst some articles may talk about "what it does" - how do they actually know for sure? Alot of PC users experience problems, is it not possible those problems also exist for people whom install Starforce copy protected games as well? Is it not therefore possible it is unrelated to Starforce, and indeed - just a coincidence that they have it on their system?

I'm not saying Starforce doesn't cause issues, I am sure there are some that it genuinley has caused/ may cause - I am just saying people should treat anything they hear with a pinch of salt! Angry people always over embelish and rant a little harder than rational after all...

Harlock - Although Europe is linked to Asia, Africa etc by land itself, doesn't mean its the same continent. Especially when it comes to software piracy, being linked by land means absoloutely nothing - it makes no difference whatsoever, so why that would even be relevant Harlock, I do not know.
After all, the US is linked by Ice to Russia during the winter...

[mark_t50]

It was the piece that read "it can install whatever it wants on my PC and read anything on my hard drives and registry" that had me worried.
I've now read the interview and it made no mention of reporting back. However i'm still a bit bothered that it may not work on my machine because i have nero installed. I use nero often, preparing cd's for my wife to listen to in the car, backing up data etc so it would be a major bug-bear if it was going to insist on having nero removed every time. Will that be the case CBJ as the interview doesn't state which programs this particular copy protection has issues with?

Just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that Starforce does report anything back. I do not know if it does or does not do this. I was meaning that it could do whatever it wants such as read my disks, memory, registry as part of it's install and I don't mind. I'm not sure how it works, I do know that I have nero installed and it worked ok once I had the latest starforce drivers installed.

I think I was just very unlucky with what happened to me, it did get me mad at starforce for having to rebuild, but it won't stop me installing or purchasing any future games that use it, I will however always make sure to check for the latest version of starforce before installing a game again.

[Zanchito]

I've been tring to contact Enlight to ask them about their CP, but no luck so far. Their forums have an inquiry about this matter, with no replies, and info@enlight.com isn't accepting any of my messages.

[TimWheatley]

I've been tring to contact Enlight to ask them about their CP, but no luck so far. Their forums have an inquiry about this matter, with no replies, and info@enlight.com isn't accepting any of my messages.

Did you look six posts higher?

[Duriel_LOP]

I did and I can only see that DEEPSILVER UK have said what CP thye are using.

[Zanchito]

Did you look six posts higher?

6 post higher in this forum? That's for DeepSilver, I'm trying ot know about Enlight.

This is the closest thing I've found.

[Barred]

My Pre-Ordered copy from Game arrived this morning

NO BOOK as prommised though

The CP is wait for it................. Starforce

[Zanchito]

Barred:

I think the book is only for preorders signed through this website, not for online retailers (although I might be wrong).

Starforce... Is your version DeepSilver's or Enlight's?

[esd]

Starforce... Is your version DeepSilver's or Enlight's?

Deepsilver. Enlight's isn't out yet.