Dear @all,
i am very disapointed and angry regarding this new policy of distributing patches ONLY via impulse!! In the future we need one installation per vendor in order to protect our privacy any more. Users with small internet uplinks are not in the focus of this Stardock anymore?
An angry customer.
Sundansyr, it was stated numerous times for this sort of case, you should archive your copy of Sins using Impulse for future re-installation. Refer to my own reply #135 above. The network connection that Impulse makes while restoring an archived game is merely to check/verify your account and serial number.
Doggone double post.. Sorry..
Install Impulse
Install Sins of a Solar Empire
Update via Impulse
Uninstall Impulse (if you are paranoid that Stardock watching you)
Run Sins of a Solar Empire
How hard can that be? You save time by doing that instead downloading full patch which devs said is big.
I think some people who whine about "Impulse is watching me" or "I dont wanna patch via Impulse" are people who do not have legal copy. I checked Piratebay and I didnt find any torrent with Sins 1.1. So now people come whine here and if they get 1.1 file, I bet it will be on torrent sites instantly.
Having been a gamer for many years, I don't have much of an issue with using the Impulse download manager - it's less intrusive than Steam. Stardock have gone much further towards treating their customers as honest citizens than most companies. EA, for example, is getting worse and worse, and all they are achieving is to alienate their sales base - pirates seem to take pride in cracking their attempts at stopping piracy before their software hits the shelves. Those of us who pay for software are the ones who face the tighter and tighter restrictions, not the pirates or those who use pirated software. I understand their reasons, and I would be pretty hacked off if someone stole my work, but I don't go around threatening my customers.
My only gripe, as others have also mentioned, is the inability to save the update to a directory of my choice, so that I can retrieve it later. I live in an area of this country with very poor access to the internet - dial-up speeds are the best we get, and the signal drops frequently. Occasionally I can get a strong enough mobile phone signal to use 3G (like right now) but it is very expensive. I really don't want to have to spend a lot of money and a lot of time to re-download a patch. We could save patch 1.05 to our HDD / CD, so why not the recent ones? I log in as a registered user to downlaod, so why can't I save it? If you are afraid of losing control because someone will host patches elsewhere, then by all means electronically tag the one I download with my username - I won't pass it on, so have no need for concern - but please treat me as an honest adult.
There is no update (as such) to save, because when you update Impulse simply does a differential between your file versions and those on the server, and downloads the updated ones. You can, however, archive the entire install once you're up-to-date and copy that off to a DVD, etc.
Sigh, kryo, you guys are gonna have to put this in some very obvious FAQ somewhere. If you have upgraded Sins to the latest patch version and want to make sure that you do not re-download the patches again in the future, use the Impulse archive function and save the archive file for future use (restore from archive).
I will admit that I too asked this question on this forum when I first started using Impulse because I didn't see it anywhere, so the question is a valid one for many legitimate users.
Which is true. But I meant an FAQ specifically for those who do not have good Internet access and/or wish to reduce their download bandwidth.
"Q: How can I keep my patches and updates to my SOASE so I do not have to download them all over again if I needed to re-install SOASE on my PC for some reason in the future?"
A: First, run Impulse to update your installation of SOASE to the latest patches. Secondly, click on the blue orb and choose archive.. then copy the archive.. then.. When you need to re-install your SOASE (eg. after a HDD crash), you need to install Impulse, click on the blue orb, choose restore from archive and select the file you saved from step 2..."
On the topic of Impulse itself- I originally downloaded Sins back before Impulse was released and was using StarDock Central. I had some problems with getting online with the game and the Registration Code. StarDock Support asked me to try downloading this new software package called Impulse and try the code again and suddenly everything worked. So I can't knock Impulse in any way. I don't understand how, but it makes Sins work better for me ha ha.
Also, perhaps it just slipped my mind, but I don't remember the part where I inputed my Social Security number and Credit Card Info upon downloading Impulse. As I said though, maybe I just did and I forgot...
Even if Impulse was stealing your information it would see what forums you accessed and what games you're interested in. O no, the software company I buy games from and post on the forums of knows I like their games. Damn, now what do I do? You register your game with StarDock, they realize you took an interest in the game, you start posting on the forum, they realize you took an interest in the game. Yes, there are legitimate problems with information theft and such but seriously you're not telling StarDock anything they didn't already piece together.
I think the argument here is pretty irrelevant. You can contact StarDock Support if you have a problem and let's face it- if your problem is legitimate they'll know and help you fix it. If you just picked up your friends registration code and want to download it on your computer as well then they'll realize that right away as well. Getting all angry about it on the forum isn't going to solve your problem and it honestly makes your argument look a lot weaker. The grammer and such is forgiveable on a forum but damn- put your stuff in MS Word and spell check it before you post or something.
Sorry for the rant, guys; hopefully in a month we'll all be downloading Entrenchement in exchange for our Checking account numbers and PIN's along with digital photocopies of our tax returns...
After reading all six and a half pages of topics, I've learned a lot, and I'm going to summarize what I gathered from all this reading:
1. Stardock employees are awesome! You find me another company with such great games that has real employees reading and responding to your comments and complaints. Props to Stardock for being so accessable.
2. SoaSE has a version of DRM, but a very mild one. What's protected? A patch. While this has caused some legitimate issues because of Impulse (no internet, slow internet, etc.), Stardock is obviously aware of these problems and is trying to address them.
3. Impulse really hasn't done anything to deserve the attacks it's getting. Some of you have had some legitimate issues, some of which have actually been addressed in this forum (see #1). Others are simply paranoid. I don't see how you can be. Try downloading a game with Steam, and then uninstall Steam. Can you still play your game? Didn't think so. Do that with Impulse. See? Impulse>>>>>>>>>>>>Steam. Is it a perfect system? Of course not, but it does address a lot of the issues that other companies have, and SD is working to improve their product.
4. Pirates WILL pirate a game. No matter what kind of DRM you have, your product will be pirated. 1.1 hasn't been pirated yet, that's better than any other game company out there. Look at EA. They are a much larger company than SD, have more resources, and a bigger employee base, but there latest hit (Spore) was on the torrent sites two days before the game went retail. How long has the latest SD patch been out? Is it readily available yet? Nope. Props to SD.
5. Pirating is illegal. The law says it is, therefore it is. Just because you aren't stealing a physical object, does not mean you are not stealing. How would you like it if someone called you to do some work for them (pick a profession) and then didn't pay you for it. "That's different!" BS! The people at (fill in the blank) put the time and effort into (insert product name here) to create it. Most companies don't do it for free. Some of you make the argument that "I wasn't going to buy it anyway if I didn't like it." Try the Demo. It's legal. If you don't like demos, then companies need to make the demos more appealing. Just because you download something that you weren't going to buy, doesn't make it legal. I know I'm wasting my typing here because...
6. Thieves will always justify what they do. We've heard every excuse under the sun. Doesn't matter. Ever try talking your way out of speeding ticket? You still broke the law, and deserved to be punished. Everybody speeds, but that doesn't make it legal or morally right. I wonder how you thieves would like it if I were to come and steal all your computers. No more legal than stealing software, just hits closer to home. Anyway...
Thanks for reading! Stardock, keep up the good work!
Disclaimer: This post has not been evaluated or approved by Stardock and does not necissarily reflect the opinions and views of the company. (Though they have been very up front about there opinions and views)
yarr matey!!!
After all these discousions - the last updates were crazy huge again. Now from 1.15.048 to 1.16.051 = 220 MB. WHERE THE HELL IS THE BENEFIT now of this impulse stuff?????? Increment updates huh? Everytime i´ll start it - a new update of impulse is boring me as well.
Boys this is a F$%&/)(=? DRM TOOL - nothing more. All those fine lib promises are just smoke on the water. Damn it.
Strange, this week's updates were only about 3MB each for me.
All this complaining, I guess Impulse really does keep the pirates at bay I do not use Impulse because I do not trust Microsoft and its IE7, but I think Impulse is a brilliant program and great new way to piss off pirates. Hell, I say make patches unavailable and have a program like Impulse that actually edits the core files once a week, even if it is small 8b segments that take 2 seconds on the slowest connection (and do it in the background during game startup). Sure people could still steal it, but they would have to go get some torrent every week or they could not play online (oh yeah, make the only one that works online the latest one).HA, I love it! If ya can't beat 'em, piss them off without remorse!
Mine too... (I downloaded them in far less time than it took me to write this post.)
I have a lot of time for Stardock. Are they perfect? No. (Though if we can can just train you guys out of excessive random in-game events (Gal Civ 2 and Space Rangers 2, lookin' at you), you'll be gettin' there...) But I think they have a sane attitude towards their customers. And seriously, how many companies have their CEO come and reply on the message boards? That's pretty damn impressive, frankly.
I 'meh'ed a bit when I had to download Impulse (or rather, let's be completely correct, I choose to use Impulse to update my games), but I was under the erronous impression it was another steam-type thing. Which it isn't. I don't really mind having to download a special patching program for my games. Ultimately, I my big issue is ensuring I always have backups and access to the games that I've bought - which, provided either me or Stardock are existant is not likely to be a huge problem. (Might try doing the archiving thing, though...) Once I realised the way it worked, I didn't care.
Compare that to EA's DRM (which I tolerate only insofar as I really want to Play C&C, Mass Effect and Spore). It doesn't inconveniance me too much (though I'm far from happy with it); I consider a hard-drive or OS re-install the greatest of catastrophes, so I won't use too many installs. It has, granted meant I wouldn't be willing to lend said games to my mates, mind...
But I think it perhaps indicative to point out how different Stardock are from THQ or whoever it is is ultimately responsible for Dawn of War 2. DoW 2 requires you to be online even when playing single player, nevermind about installing steam and whatnot. Even if you buy the disk. I think that's pretty much the worse case scenario, frankly. It's certainly totally put me off buying Dawn of War 2. (Heck, should it ever occur, it might be the first time EVER I am even tempted to try pirating a game. If I'm going to be treated like a criminal...) My tolerance for anti-pirating has limits. Now, that, that is draconian to an extreme.
Impulse, now I understand what it is exactly, doesn't even register on the scale. Stardock can release their updates/patches in whatever damn way they like. (Now, I might have issues if they (or anyone else) ever put out a game that was genuinely required of a patch to work at all - but I don't think Stardock would ever be that sloppy!)
Entrenchment 1.02 was that size.
The vanilla sins update (1.16) that you needed to go with it (which had most of the memory tweaks in it etc...) was about 200 odd MB compressed.
It was ~4MB for me, updating from 1.15. Slightly larger than the update for Entrenchment. Shortly thereafter it unpacked a mere 7 files in the "install" process.
i think its disingenuous to say impulse offers any benefit to the consumer that any other downloader does not offer.
i cant even seem to connect to the service to get the latest updates to Sins. im stuck with 56k and ICS, so having a network install is important to me in the event that i have to reinstall my OS.
yea, i bought into the grass roots movement that said lets all buy Sins to support the developers who decided to make the game DRM free, who then turned around while sitting on this huge pile of money we gave them and stabbed us in the back by making the patches impulse only.
stardock has been wrong before, when they were saying multiplayer does not sell games in reference to GalCiv.
i also feel its weak sauce to say anyone who does not like impulse must be a pirate and find its offensive.
if you cannot attack someones argument, you attack their character and thus their credibility. its a bunch of garbage talk.
That's why Impulse has an archive feature.
Ironclad is the developer, Stardock is the publisher.
Have you even tried to get help with your connection problem?
ah yea, i stand corrected.
i think you can do that in steam as well, no?
its nice that they offer impulse for people who want it, but not so nice for those of us who do not. i dont want 100 folders under Program Files, i want options. and some of those options are to download updates for broken features or whatever how i want and not in a controlled enviroment, and also the ability to sell games that suck or i dont like.
That very rarely comes up when people say they don't like, or even want, Impulse. However, it always comes up whenever someone says they can't get Impulse.
That's probably the one thing Steam is less picky about than Impulse-you are correct; it does have an equivalent feature.
I honestly don't see what your issue with Impulse is if you permit Steam.
And while I wasn't around for the retail launch, my understanding is that it was by and large bug free. Almost all of the updates are adding more functionality, with a quick fix here and there when new coding results in a new bug.
Therefore, you don't have to have patches/updates. So you don't have to have Impulse.
Assuming you don't care about playing online, anyway.
This is the first I have read of being able to archive the version of the game I was playing. It would have been most helpfull.... since all the mods I play now, crash and worse still for me,,, those modders have continued their work on the mods and made changes to the mods. Some changes I like, others not so much. But that is why this information would be helpful if it were as previously mentioned in a FAQ. I can not expect a modder to go back an make a old version of a mod compatible for just me. But as I have said before, if I could get a single version of this game to work, with the mods I like, then I would only ever change that version when I was sure the new version was not going to crash. So, I too, like many of you have riddiculous, insane, over the top hard drive, so I do not care how many installations I'd have to have of the game on my hard drive. I'd just have liked to keep the mods I had working. Does not matter now. They are gone. Along with the Entrench version I was using. If Impulse offers such great service, then why can it not be used to offer me the version I want to play?...... I mean it already checks my version, and it alrdy makes the download process vastly more simple? Why not allow it to ask me what I want since it seems to already know I am me?
Ok, I'll admit to being technically ignorant, but to those of us that are so, an explanation would mean a great deal. If one exist lol.
Thanks for reading, Valkajin
I like a number of others feel the need to jump in here to defend Stardock and Impulse from unjustified and uninformed attacks.
I think the general gist of the problem is Impulse getting dragged into the EA Downloader/Steam Validation argument even though it works nothing like those apps. The problem I think is that it 'appears' to work like those apps. I dont know if there is an effective way to battle this 'appearance' problem other than trying to educate people. The EA Downloader/Steam Validation are made to protect the company at the expense of the consumer even if some of them like Steam attempt to give some value added benefits for the consumer. Many of the problems and complaints about these apps/systems have found thier way into here. Impulse on the otherhand was made for the benefit of the consumer AND has benefits for the the company. Somehow WIN-WIN is a problem I guess?
Impulse is just a simple, optional, download manager, and automatic updater you get to use for FREE if you just register your purchased game. Registering your game is as easy as typing in your CD key. Many of the games offered on Impulse even have demos you can download right through Impulse to (imagine this) try before you buy. Theres even a demo for Sins didnt the OP try it before they bought it? Impulse is user friendly, low impact, and greatly simplifies things like downloading the latest patch for game X without hunting around websites and forums trying to find out what the latest patch is and then find some source for the latest patch. You also know you are getting a clean and 'official' patch not some malware infested file you downloaded from www.malwarepatches.com.
As far as access to patches goes not every gaming website in the world has every up-to-date patch for every game ever made. Do people go around heaping hate on these websites for not having the latest patch for thier particular game? I can just see the post now, "Hey [insert file site] your repressing my god given right to the latest patch and/or every patch ever created (should I happen to want some screwed up interim patch that was later patched) for [insert game name]. I demand a full refund of my free registration." Oh wait many/most of the sites that host patches dont even allow you to post comments. They must be repressing your right to free speech too. You'll have to go post some comments on another website about that. Most websites that do have patch downloads require some kind of registration anyway (which likely requires validation of your email address) and many of them even have 'download' managers of unknown origins or purposes.
Stardock has been around for many years now and has always displayed an utmost of integrity, professionalism, and an unrivalled dedication to customer satisfaction and support for thier games. Trying to lump them in with the likes of EA/Sega/Steam is simply uninformed hogwash. Go over to those forums and see if you have the president/ceo/board of directors of EA or Sega posting responses SPECIFICALLY addressed to you - in an attempt to resolve your SPECIFIC problem. You'll be lucky if you see an autoreply email from a techsupport replybot that says 'Thank you for reporting your problem.' Or try going over to those forums and complain about thier 'actual' DRM/Malware/Spyware applications that you are in fact forced to use to even start up thier games. See how long it takes for your thread to be locked/erased and your account banned. Here Stardock is letting you rant on and all the while trying to talk to you person to person to solve whatever problem you may be having.
Stardock respects their customers more than any other developer/publisher out there. Thats why I have supported Stardock over the years and I see my support as a win-win.
Whining about pirates is the most stupid thing you can do, makes you a retard in marketing. If the pirates whine, let em whine. It's rather easy to see who is one because the whiner pirates, oh they are stupid. Not to mention I had a laugh at these bootcamp people, if you really feel that Windows works when it's run like that. Guess what, the major failure you had was that you kept fucking your system up. And yes please stay away from Linux and Windows since anyone who uses MAC is a bastard who likes closed source, just look at the iPhone and iPod Touch headphones.... GO CLOSED SOURCE ONLY OUR PRODUCTS SHOULD BE ON THE MARKET, NO 3RD PARTY SELLERS AT ALL..... okay a bit much but that's Mac, if Microsoft tried something that Mac currently is doing you'd be hearing about it all over in the news and sue this sue that.
Anyways back to pirates, I can tell you this, I pirated this game the moment it came out. Less than a week after I bought it, didn't even know about impulse then. If I had known? I would probably not have bought it because I hate retarded programs that you have to install to keep another one running (even if it just is patching). Games for Windows Live anyone? Install 500x programs to run your one game, that's what it's coming to if we keep agreeing to stuff like Steam and Impulse. One of the reasons I try to find Digital Downloads that let you download a file and a cd key for some minimal protection and that's my choice always if I can find it.
Back to piracy, because I downloaded and bought this game I also introduced it to some friends. So in the end thanks to piracy Stardock sold 3x copies of Sins of a Solar Empire + Entrenchment thanks to piracy, would this ever have happened without piracy? NO NO NO, I would never have bothered trying this game at all without the pirated version, and my 2 friends... well normally they don't even touch this genre. Enough rambling I guess, just remember piracy is marketing, just spot the retards which exist all over. UH HOW DO I BURN THIS 900MB ISO FILE TO A CDR..... yada yada
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