Combat Mission status

Started by RyanE, May 27, 2018, 02:09:59 PM

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RyanE

Quote from: WallysWorld on August 14, 2018, 09:47:56 AM
Quote from: Pete Dero on August 14, 2018, 09:42:23 AM
Quote from: RyanE on August 14, 2018, 09:37:16 AM
I was trying to see if the patch was coming out with CMSF2.  Does anyone know?  I couldn't sort through it all on the BFC site.
If I understood correctly there is no patch.  You upgrade to CMSF2 (and keep CMSF1 as a separate install).
So if the site offers the upgrade option at the same time they start selling CMSF2 you would have the new game from the start.

I think RyanE meant the CMx2 patch that Steve posted was coming out right after the release of CMSF2. I am waiting for that patch too.

Correct.  Sorry for being ambiguous.  I set aside CM2 a few months ago thinking the patch might be out soon.  But didn't see any news about it.  Official news, because I can't tell what is official anymore.

Zonso

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on August 14, 2018, 05:07:57 AM
^RyanE somehow always seems to be the most extreme case in just about every scenario. He loses dongles in luggage on international flights. He buys and upgrades a dozen computers each year causing him to spend "100 hours" re-registering CM products. He sets an extremely high bar for any company to reach, especially when it comes to companies that just make niche games. He is the consummate unhappy nightmare customer and the scorn of game developers and publishers alike. I've seen them spend an inordinate amount of time in what frequently becomes a near endless cycle of debate and argument. However, he keeps some of these guys on their toes and has definitely been a harbinger of change.

Yesx2, having had my own business the majority of my working career I had a fair sampling of clients and customers. Most were of the reasonable and realistic variety, but some were as the extreme described above. Intially when young and eager and sincere(naive) I would make every effort to make these customers happy. However, I became aware, and as my wife liked to constantly remind me, this small percentage of customers(< 3%) were likely causing over 75% of my stress. The answer was to cut them loose and move on, then even better, later on to recognize them from the get-go and not take them on. Bad feelings, unhappy and unsatisfied customer? Yep, but business did not suffer from this handful, in fact probably flourished more because time and energy could be better focused on the customer who were the true bread and butter. I know that goes against the 'customer is always right' motto but it was a life lesson learned otherwise and I slept better for it. :)

August, September, October release date? <shrugs> Lots of things to do in the meantime.

Elvis

Quote from: Snapper on August 12, 2018, 12:00:04 PM
Quote from: Tuna on August 12, 2018, 07:48:34 AM
Quote from: Snapper on August 12, 2018, 01:44:20 AM
So if i have the Paradox version minus the retail patch but have all the modules, i have to buy the main game again?

Why not base the discount on modules, as surely it must be assumed that if you have the any of the modules you have the main game (which takes out the uncertainty of not knowing the Paradox keys).

A trust thing if you like. .

This way everyone gets treated fairly.

I thought I had to buy the 'retail' patch in order to get modules?

Nope - I've all modules running and never bought the retail patch.

Through some research and back and forth emails, you are correct. If a someone owns the Paradox base game and owns the Marine or Brit module then their version was converted to the BFC version when they got one of those modules. The same is not true if they just purchased the NATO module but there should be no one that was able to play the NATO module without the patch or at least one of the other modules. Simply put, it's moot because it won't run without any of those things then there is nobody with just that configuration.  If someone has just the base Paradox version with none of the things that I've mentioned then there is nothing that can be done for the reasons I've mentioned before.

The other nonsense I'll reply to tomorrow when I finally get home from the hospital visits.

Destraex

Quote from: Zonso on August 14, 2018, 11:32:48 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on August 14, 2018, 05:07:57 AM
^RyanE somehow always seems to be the most extreme case in just about every scenario. He loses dongles in luggage on international flights. He buys and upgrades a dozen computers each year causing him to spend "100 hours" re-registering CM products. He sets an extremely high bar for any company to reach, especially when it comes to companies that just make niche games. He is the consummate unhappy nightmare customer and the scorn of game developers and publishers alike. I've seen them spend an inordinate amount of time in what frequently becomes a near endless cycle of debate and argument. However, he keeps some of these guys on their toes and has definitely been a harbinger of change.

Yesx2, having had my own business the majority of my working career I had a fair sampling of clients and customers. Most were of the reasonable and realistic variety, but some were as the extreme described above. Intially when young and eager and sincere(naive) I would make every effort to make these customers happy. However, I became aware, and as my wife liked to constantly remind me, this small percentage of customers(< 3%) were likely causing over 75% of my stress. The answer was to cut them loose and move on, then even better, later on to recognize them from the get-go and not take them on. Bad feelings, unhappy and unsatisfied customer? Yep, but business did not suffer from this handful, in fact probably flourished more because time and energy could be better focused on the customer who were the true bread and butter. I know that goes against the 'customer is always right' motto but it was a life lesson learned otherwise and I slept better for it. :)

August, September, October release date? <shrugs> Lots of things to do in the meantime.

You are unfortunately right. However in the age of the internet even one person can do a lot of damage. They have the time and will, you do not. Their is of course still a method to dealing with them. Which is not to say you just smack them about with a 4b2 and tell them to stop. You have to defuse them and let them have time to think about things without inciting them to lunacy.
There is of course the other consideration that you may in fact be wrong. When that percentage is larger than you think. Recognising the difference between a few loonies and a commonly held customer view is paramount. It is very easy to consider anybody without your viewpoint to be one of your "rare" loonies. The whole thing requires a light touch with a firm set of boundaries.

If your company is big enough to absorb the losses, you of course just tell the staff to adhere to the "customer is always right" philosophy. Which does breed the entitled broods of customers and people we currently have in society.
"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

RyanE

All I can say is even BFCers admitted the DRM up to a few years ago did not handle anything out of the ordinary very well.  It is documented in the forums at BFC that upgrading OS, plugging in USBs, plugging in headphones, adding RAM, adding an SSD can trigger a lost activation.  That is 8-9 years of dealing with it for customers.

By itself, not a huge deal.  But when you have no clue how many activations you have and how long to get stuff reset, it starts to get into frustration territory.  It has been much better lately, but the die is cast as those previous activations are lost.

Yskonyn

Quote from: RyanE on August 19, 2018, 05:58:13 AM
All I can say is even BFCers admitted the DRM up to a few years ago did not handle anything out of the ordinary very well.  It is documented in the forums at BFC that upgrading OS, plugging in USBs, plugging in headphones, adding RAM, adding an SSD can trigger a lost activation.  That is 8-9 years of dealing with it for customers.

Highlights are mine. I highly doubt these can cause issues and are documented as such. Of course the SSD can cause issues if you install the game on a new SSD, but just plugging in a new one is very unlikely to cause issues.

I have upgraded SSD count, swapped videocards and plugged in more RAM with my CM games installed and I've never run into DRM issues because of it.
Only when reinstalling the games I had issues once with a license.
"Pilots do not get paid for what they do daily, but they get paid for what they are capable of doing.
However, if pilots would need to do daily what they are capable of doing, nobody would dare to fly anymore."

Elvis

A big misconception is being repeated by RyanE. What he is referring to is when you need to use a "tool" to reset the license state of the game when there has been a major change with a computer.....using the tool [does not/i] luse/burn an activation.

RyanE

I had a usb trigger an activation on CMBN.  There was a forum post in the early CMBN days of a usb headsey triggering an activation.  I had a RAM upgrade trigger an activation.  In all of these Steve admitted that the licensing system was overly sensitive.  New video cards also had triggered activations as well.  Steve explained it at the time that the licensing system took a snap shot of the systems config.  Any significant changes would trigger an activation.  Adding a piece of hardware in certain ways would trigger off the system.  For 5-6 years they were tweaking the DRM for all the potential licensing issues.  Only in the last couple of years has it seemed to have stabilized.  Bu, as I said, those were activations that were gone, never to return.

Again, just go through the forums around 2010 and see all the issues people had.

RyanE

That is not what I was told.  I was told that if I had to use the tool, which I have had to use 6-8 times because the license was stuck somewhere, I had to get a new activation because all of mine were used up.

Elvis

Quote from: RyanE on August 19, 2018, 07:48:37 AM
That is not what I was told.  I was told that if I had to use the tool, which I have had to use 6-8 times because the license was stuck somewhere, I had to get a new activation because all of mine were used up.

It hasn't for as long as I've been on Da Desk. Maybe it was before and it changed. Looking at my original template for using the tool on a Mac it says that it does but, again, it hasn't for since I've been on board. I even tested it today with my CMBN installation. Checked how many activations my key had used, ran the tool and re-activated, check the number of used activations and it hadn't changed. Maybe the first incarnation of the tool did but that would have been a while ago.

dinsdale

All it took was 10 seconds on google to verify that Ryan isn't making it up, or some type of customer that just likes to complain.

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/108890-cmfigustav-drmlicense-questions/

Writing DRM is difficult, specialized and requires picking a method which provides enough protection while minimizing the number of honest customers who are inconvenienced. It would be more surprising if Battlefront didn't have issues as they seem to be rolling their own system.

stolypin

My issue with Battlefront is the lack of regular patching.  Since about February, all of the CM titles crash on me at some point in a scenario (usually after I have been playing for a while).  I assume a new nVidia driver or Windows 10 change has adversely affected the game but unlike Graviteam or Matrix -- both of which are quick to release patches / updates in response to reported problems -- Battlefront remains silent (though others have reported having the same problem). 

While I know Graviteam offers a more up-to-date, shinier product, I've stuck with CM because of the familiarity and ease of play.  But these unfixed crashes are pushing me toward finally biting the bullet and making the switch. And they are also souring me on the idea of purchasing CMSF2. 

Elvis

Quote from: stolypin on August 20, 2018, 07:10:18 AM
My issue with Battlefront is the lack of regular patching.  Since about February, all of the CM titles crash on me at some point in a scenario (usually after I have been playing for a while).  I assume a new nVidia driver or Windows 10 change has adversely affected the game but unlike Graviteam or Matrix -- both of which are quick to release patches / updates in response to reported problems -- Battlefront remains silent (though others have reported having the same problem). 

While I know Graviteam offers a more up-to-date, shinier product, I've stuck with CM because of the familiarity and ease of play.  But these unfixed crashes are pushing me toward finally biting the bullet and making the switch. And they are also souring me on the idea of purchasing CMSF2.

You can open a ticket on the Help Desk if you'd like but I believe you are correct about the driver. Try rolling back your driver to one that was released in December. That should do the trick.

Jarhead0331

Quote from: Elvis on August 20, 2018, 08:53:50 AM

Try rolling back your driver to one that was released in December. That should do the trick.

Ouch. That should go over about as well as a heart attack. Good luck with that one.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


stolypin

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on August 20, 2018, 09:05:41 AM
Quote from: Elvis on August 20, 2018, 08:53:50 AM

Try rolling back your driver to one that was released in December. That should do the trick.

Ouch. That should go over about as well as a heart attack. Good luck with that one.

Yeah, I've seen that suggestion by users on the CM forums (and the games seemed to be fine in December) but I'm not thrilled with "rolling back" drivers to something 9 months old (nor am I sure how to do it).  I get that Battlefront can't be expected to respond to every change by nVidia or Microsoft the second they occur but after 9 months, I would expect Battlefront to issue a patch.