Playing with my CD from several computers with patch 2.11

liga · #1 April 9th, 2004, 10:25 AM

Hi all,

I'm use to play Dom2 with my regular CD (key) from at least 3 different places ... my laptop (winXP) at home, my PC (winXP) at home and my Pc (Linux) at work.
I'm use to move the .trn and othr files from work to home and back to work every day.

It will be that still possible with the new speyware or I'll be classified as a thief becouse my CD key is used from 3 differnet "persons"/PCs ? How can I do ? I would like to know that before installing the new patch.

thank you
Liga

Norfleet · #2 April 9th, 2004, 10:33 AM

I believe this should not cause any overt problems. In theory. Illwinter claims that this check is not performed when the game is played in single player, although oddly enough, it occurred when I was testing a single player game, which is why I noticed: Had this not, for some unknown reason, occurred in a single player game, I would probably not have noticed, since I'd already have given Dom2 access.

Clearly, this is a little odd, and leads me to suspect that there is more than meets the eye here.

However, you probably won't have any problems....unless you count the distinct possibility that Illwinter is now tracking your every move as a problem.

liga · #3 April 9th, 2004, 10:38 AM

Yes ... my problem was:

if IW prevent me to play in a MP games with two CD key that are the same that's good becouse every player needs a different CD key (and his own copy) ... but if they preventy me to use the same CD key in differetn MP games coming from different machines that prevent me to play both at home (with some friends) and at work with other ones and tht's is not good ...

good play
Liga

Norfleet · #4 April 9th, 2004, 10:41 AM

What I am somewhat MORE concerned about is what the ramifactions it has on a single person simultaneously attempting to play different multiplayer games using physically adjacent computers.

Does anyone care to test this? I don't have enough expendable computers for such a test.

Gandalf Parker · #5 April 9th, 2004, 02:07 PM

There isnt going to be anyone around to comment until Monday or so, but the answers I got so far is that each PLAYER needs his own CD key and that it doesnt affect solo-play.

Dom2 is in its 3rd printing. Im majorly sure that little machine its contacting isnt trying to keep a database matching keys to ip addresses (sheesh, I alone would max that out). All it seems to be doing is instead of checking an internal list of cracked CD keys, it now checks a centralized list. So if you are playing with a downloaded cd key you are out of luck.

BUT the HOST does check IP/Key together (it always has). So players connecting to a host get checked to see if the same key is used on multiple machines. It used to just declare you a cheater (no, turning cheating off in the menu doesnt affect that).

I dont think it keeps track over multiple turn-ins of the files. I think it only compares players in that turn when it hosts. If you were able to play the same game before by doing different turns from different machines, then you probably still can. Now that I think about it though, I can see a problem if you played mutliple nations and used multiple computers. It would be too easy to forget that you finished Ctis from home and turned in the final move on Jotun from work. I think I would always make sure to reload and turn in both nations.

I have a 5 machine network in the house with multiple copies off one CD. This machine alone has 4 full copies off one CD (plus 3 partials, and 2 demo Versions). We have 3 players in the house and one other we are trying to convert. Im surprised my key still works.

Norfleet · #6 April 9th, 2004, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
It used to just declare you a cheater (no, turning cheating off in the menu doesnt affect that).

You can turn cheating on/off in the menu? I know the patch said you now could, but I found it humorous to notice that this was not, in fact, something you could actually turn off, but merely something that sat there mocking the would-be cheaters.

Gandalf Parker · #7 April 9th, 2004, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:
Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
It used to just declare you a cheater (no, turning cheating off in the menu doesnt affect that).

You can turn cheating on/off in the menu? I know the patch said you now could, but I found it humorous to notice that this was not, in fact, something you could actually turn off, but merely something that sat there mocking the would-be cheaters.

I asked for it to turn off the god check that kept maps (and maybe mods) from creating gods outside of the normal rules. That also generated a "has cheated" message. (I wonder how many people tohught it would turn off the CD-Key check)

While the button not making any change is irritating, apparently other changes also happened which make me quite happy. Apparently (hard to verify but Im working on it) AI's are no longer checked. If a map creates a cheating god, and has that nation automatically AI then it seems to work. If a map creates a cheating god but leaves the AI/Human selection open, and the player selects that nation as an AI then it works.

What bombs now (and apparently that switch is supposed to change) is that the map cannot give a cheating god and let a human player play it. I did consider that maybe the button worked but the screen didnt update. I tested that and it doesnt seem true. The button actually does not seem to work. But for all I know I might be the only person really testing it.

Johan K · #8 April 9th, 2004, 06:32 PM

Some people seems to be concerned with Dominions making a connection to illwinter, so I'll explain why that may happen. We like to offer a bonus for our paying customers and that bonus is being able to patch without having to bother with getting hold of a newly cracked cd-key as well. This bonus has become increasinly harder to provide so we now have to connect to illwinter to verify the key. If it is a legal key you will not notice any difference at all from the Last Version (regarding the cd key). It only checks whether your key is legal or not, it does nothing else, Dominions II never reads any files on your computer that are not Dominions related. Once again to clarify, it only checks if your cd-key is a cracked one.

BTW, I'm on vacation.

[ April 09, 2004, 17:33: Message edited by: Johan K ]