Elemental: No Copy Protection, Activation, LAN and more

By Frogboy on August 15, 2010 2:31:13 PM from

There’s been a lot of discussion on these kinds of topics on recent games and I thought I’d give you our perspective on it.

No Copy Protection

Elemental, out of the box, like all of Stardock’s other games, has no copy protection whatsoever. However, you obviously need Internet access to get updates. But then, why should this be necessary?

Because Elemental, unlike our previous games, has really been designed to be a game that people can play for decades, this is something that has concerned us. Because we want to encourage people to have the latest version but at the same time, we are aware that some people are worried that 10 years from now, they won’t be able to get the “better” version.

So here is what we’re going to start doing on our developed titles: We’re going to start making archival DVD versions of the game that can be sent to customers. We already do this with Object Desktop (our most popular non-game product). This archival version would have no copy protection whatsoever. It would just be a DVD you can put into your machine.

So starting in October, what we will do is make archival DVD editions of our games starting with Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition and Elemental. Roughly every year or so, if there have been updates, we’ll create a new archival version of the game that people can have sent to them (it’ll just be a DVD).

LAN Games

There’s been a lot of questions of how someone would play Elemental on their LAN with their friends. Here’s my suggested way to do it with minimum hassle.

#1 You’ll need to install Impulse on the machines that will be playing the game. But that’s all. Just install and go to step 2.

#2 Go to http://anywhere.impulsedriven.com which is the web interface to Impulse. From here, you would download the web package of Elemental. As long as Impulse is installed on the machine, you can install the game.

#3 When you install, type in your serial #. If it’s on a LAN, just use your single DVD key, Impulse::Reactor’s GOO uses smart activation (i.e. it doesn’t have a “activation limit” type system) so you can just install it on the various machines on your LAN.

#4 When your friends come over to play, they will need, once in the game, to logon with their own accounts (so they or someone will have to provide them with a serial # to attach to their account but they can use it at your LAN in game). This is because on day 0, the data from the game is handled by our servers (this way, when we update the game data for balancing players don’t have to update their game which would be a real hassle for LAN players). Eventually we plan to release custom servers so that players can make their own stuff but we won’t have that ready at release.

+892 Karma | 434 Replies

From the official manual

"Custom Games

Players can also set up custom games with friends or strangers over the Internet.

To start your own game, choose "Create World" from the Custom Games screen. From there, you can change map, player, and team settings. Up to 16 players are allowed in a custom server.

The Custom Games screen also displays available games. If there is a [*] next to the game, that means the game is being hosted on a custom server. Custom servers are servers that are hosted by individuals around the world rather than by Stardock. As a result, they may be heavily modded and/or support more than 16 players."

So when the multiplayer is enabled...I will have the above feature ?

This was the only reason I bought the game to begin with.

ps... I do love the game and am having a blast with it....

I still didn't see an answer as to why the guy who got the game new couldn't play it from the disc. It smacked of DRM - activation required - exactly the thing I hate about DRM.

Any word yet on why he couldn't simply install and play it from the disc? Or does the game truly require Impulse activation?

Just a quick word of thanks to Tridus, Nesrie and others. Thanks to the points that were brought to my attention due to your posts, 2 of my friends and I will no longer be buying Elemental.

Our plan was to play LAN almost exclusively on weekends when time permitted. We stay in a country where there is internet connectivity but it is expensive, capped and has below average reliability. This is the exact reason we avoided Starcraft 2 (even though we were looking forward to it) and one of the reasons Elemental entered our sights (voting with your wallet and all that).

In all my reading of previews and snippets of Elemental leading up to this point I had the impression that LAN was going to be included. I guess I was mistaken. *shrugs*

The thing that really irked me though about this thread was the outright hostility from the stardock crew. Their responses were quite aggressive and condescending at times. You almost had me and my friends as customers, and I would have forgiven the lack of LAN and kept an eye on future releases as I like to support games makers that create products that I like, but due to the way the stardock reps handled this thread, I am going to say that out of principle I will not be looking to support stardock in any way or form in the future. The amount of hubris displayed by frogboy is second only to the hypocrisy.

regards

the pig

My apologies if this has already been addressed, but I have a question directly for Stardock. One of the largest issues I have with modern computer games is the fact that I have to go through some internet authentication system in order to play a 'LAN' game. While I understand that it is arguably inappropriate to play large LAN games with only one copy of the game, I find it fully appropriate to play a LAN game with my wife without having to buy 2 copies of the same game. Is this possible with Elemental, or would we need 2 copies?

As a side note, please do not use the lack of multiplayer interest as a reason for not allowing this. I am interested in playing LAN multiplayer games, so this argument is completely irrelevant to me as a potential customer.

Thanks.

It is my understanding that you should (in order to remain in license compliance) have a second copy of the game for your wife's system. Each of your systems has it's own legit licensed copy of an OS doesn't it? Why would/should entertainment software be any different?

I have a serious question not intended as a provacative question or to try and create a situation as it regards LAN setups and internet access. I am in the Navy Reserve now and was formerly active duty on submarines. In my current unit and when I was active duty there have always been a few active gamers who have had our laptops and have setup LANs during our off hours to play various games in whatever space we could arrange. TBS especially those that we could save and resynch the games on, or do PBM within our own network, have always been among the easiest to get multiple people to buy and join in on.

Is this going to be possible with the current intended format for LAN play?

Will it be possible to setup up the LAN host on a couple computers go online and activate all the other clients through the game host and have the information retained within the hosts' archive files so that we may then be able to play the game later with those same players without the active internet connection then?

Will it be possible to save and resume the games later with a given setup of players so long as they are reconnecting to the same host?

I hope to recieve answers to these questions and I amd fairly certain I am not the only serviceman (or woman) who may have use for these answers as we are often without the ability to make these type of active internet connections. If this won't be able to be accomplished then I still would like to hope that the single player game will be good enough once the initial round of patching is completed and we can find something else always for our LAN entertainment.

Stardock has definitely earned my loyalty. Assassin's Creed sounded like a fun game, but the DRM definitely makes it a no-go. I think back to Sony and the rootkit scandal, though, to waking me up to how unenjoyable DRM makes gameplay. It was bad enough back in the day when DRM meant trying to read those weird black-on-very-dark-red cards with SimCity and always having to fish out your CD to play your game, now DRM causes hidden damage to your OS and there is no reason whatsoever to trust or believe that when you uninstall a game, it will uninstall the spyware/DRM along with it.

Software and games in the buff, with no DRM? What a very welcome relief! Why should paying customers have to pay twice -- forking over dough to install hunky DRM that mars their gaming experience and records and sends who-knows-what private information about their computer and activities.

Astro, you'd have to purchase the game for each player and you'd need to have constant internet to be able to play (currently, the Multiplayer still isn't enabled so I wouldn't plan on doing any LANs for another good week).

If you want to play without having constant internet, I believe you are going to have to wait for the first Expansion Pack which, according to a recent post, will be the major release that has the custom servers included in it.

Since I can't play MP since it is still off, I could be wrong about the following:

- saves are saved on SD's servers but you can load it. I know a promised feature was to allow players to jump in/out and allow AI to take over their stuff while they are gone. No idea if that is in or not.

Quoting awuffleablehedgie,

reply 25

You need to purchase the game once per player. It's in your EULA. Does no one even read those? -.-

The problem is, I bought the game before it was released. Things can change without notice in those instances. I was under the assumption you could do LAN play which, in the case of the other two Stardock multiplayer games, means one copy for multiple people. I think it needs to be advertised when a game will have significant deviation from the norm. I paid a lot of money and waiting a long time for the release of a game I will now never ever play as the only reason I purchased it was to play it with my sister, and I can assure you, she won't be buying it.

I stopped buying games outright about a year ago because there's never any indication anymore if a game requires you to purchase multiple copies just to play with siblings or friends in your own home. I even had a game that only allowed for one save slot so my sister was unable to play without messing with my progress. Both my friends and family will definitely not purchase games to play a few hours with me. In my opinion, this model harms the gaming industry as a whole because it requires players to be gamers. It omits the possibility of casual players getting a chance to play the game--people who probably wouldn't purchase it--causing someone like me, a veteran gamer who prefers multiplayer gameplay, to not purchase the game in the first place. If someone like me stops purchasing games because of this, that should be a pretty good indication it's the wrong way to go allotted others in my situation are doing the same.

Hopefully this changes, or I'm gonna see about refunding my purchase.

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Elemental: No Copy Protection, Activation, LAN and more