Posts by Chips

Esky - you´ll have to check what versions (country) people have - Deep Silver (publisher) in Europe use Starforce - so every game that has Deep Silver as their European publisher will use Starforce as anti copy protection. It may not be the same case in other countries - like AU or US etc.

As of yet there is no say so as to whether X3 will use Starforce in Europe . In the US, Australia - indeed, the rest of the world - it is a <i>different publisher </i> from Deep Silver. Those publishers do <i>not </i> use starforce at all - so an AU version of X3 will certainly not have Starforce. I may cancel my pre-order (its not gone gold, so I can do so) and get it from the US to avoid this. I also emailed Deep Silver to ask that they consider other copy protection methods due to the vast hatred there is against starforce, and asked why other such copy protections that are less invasive or disruptive aren´t already used. Doubt I´ll ever get a reply, but there was no loss in trying <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Edited by - Mike G on 10/13/2005 11:07:24 PM

Hate to say it, but if the copy protection requires the CD in the drive, then its illegal to attempt to circumvent the copy protection itself - ie, to run the game without the CD in the drive is illegal. This is not the issue I have. If you need the CD in the drive to play a game - then you need a CD in the drive to play a game! My issue is that if they are scanning your computer, or the method they use causes instability - then its just not cricket! Some say the reason to not put the CD in is because it gets scratched. Generally if the CD gets scratched then it is the users own fault for not looking after their stuff properly! I have never had a CD scratched by a CD drive - and even then its not the software manufacturers fault. Edited by - Mike G on 10/13/2005 11:03:11 PM

<font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>Oh my god, that´s so 2003... <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Strangely enough I was under the impression the &quot;I´m feeling lucky&quot; button was added a few months back...

AOL´s IM is terrible, never used it. I can´t get cable (else I would probabily be NTL, as I dislike the fact we pay line rental for nearing £130 a year on a telephone line, even if we never use the damned thing to make a call!) - which I then pay for AOL on top of (you also do for any other DSL or whatever connection - only cable would negate that cost). I just am not aware what AOL users are getting slapped for, hence why I ask what would be different by using other ISP´s. All I do know is that there are all these little tools for noobs... erm, I mean for less net savvy people whom are lax, to ensure they haven´t got dialers, hijackers, spyware etc. I don´t want to use them, but I don´t get an option when installing... Edited by - Mike G on 10/13/2005 6:49:36 AM

LMAO - I just posted about that in another thread after someone brought it up on the X forums again... Hmm, I have had the odd blue screen of death... but never whilst playing any X games. I used to get quite a few, but they disappeared after a sound card update was made available (when I say odd, I mean 1 per month or two). As for what it does... I am actually suprised that something like MS hasn´t implemented that kind of anti copy thing already in windows... I thought they had. Do I like it, well - as always - I haven´t tried to copy anything, but I would imagine its damned fustrating. If you uninstall the game -then it should uninstall as well, because you are wanting to remove any installed components of the game from your system. The fact that it doesn´t is rather disturbing. You should be able to remove an item without having to format (I know you can, but people mention you have to pay for the tool?). I´m still buying the game, because as I said, it doesn´t affect me, and I don´t harbour strong enough feelings to resist such a game - but rumour is that the reason Egosoft opened the downloads to the public was because of 64bit systems and starforce. It aint compatible, so they must use the no-cd patch to play the game. Interesting - hopefully starforce won´t be on X3 for this very reason <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Edited by - Mike G on 10/13/2005 5:52:12 AM

I like the email system, its great - I don´t get spam or any viruses... unlike my other accounts that I stopped using due to the ridiculous amounts of spam they received. I have plenty of other email clients (like my uni etc), but they aren´t as good from my perspective. Of course, I understand that some places have issue with AOL mails - but that doesn´t really affect me <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> As for other deals to choose, I am still with AOL because: 1) I have 0 bandwidth restrictions, so I have at times dl´d up to 2Gb per day... and that is without any surfing, gaming or anything else. Meh, only 1 reason really... I dislike the software that you cannot &quot;opt&quot; to install or not install (like the checkup, or other items), and think they should offer a low-spec version of the browser (remove the toolbar crap that I have never used...), connection tool etc and the other un-necessary processes that are running. I may change because: 1)Other providers are offering simliar priced packages for the same speeds, or in some cases cheaper (depends though, they are &quot;new&quot; companies in general). Generally though, these offers all have bandwidth caps on them... they are limited. Although plenty of people have horror stories about ISP´s, I haven´t heard any more about AOL than BT, TISCALI or NTL (the major ones in the UK). I haven´t had any issues myself with AOL - hence why I &quot;trust&quot; them. I am sure there is plenty of bad stuff I don´t know about them, but there is about any company at all. I have had the odd connection problems, but that turned out to be BT engineers and also a main central BT connection going down for 16 hours one day <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> I dunno, maybe I am missing out big time on some amazing stuff that BT would enable me to do, but I haven´t really heard anything about it to be honest. What am I missing?

They shouldn´t be poking around on your system at all, check the actual game files perhaps - but nothing more! Oh, by the way Esky - X2 (European) had something called &quot;Starforce&quot; as its copy protection, something that people say is <i>evil </i>. Of course, its &quot;Deep Silver&quot; the publisher whom are responsible. Strangely enough, the US release (Koch I think - but the same company as Deep Silver, just the US arm) use a less evil copy protection.

I suggest trying it with 1.0 version - and finding that you still have the same crash first. You rule out the exe file, because it certainly doesn´t sound like the exe´s fault to me!

Agh, you´re actually getting an error page and not a message saying &quot;this topic has already been posted&quot;. Although when you use the back button, you can still see your writing - and then you hit submit... to be told its already been posted. As I said, copy all your text and then return to the normal forum. Then hit the &quot;post new thread&quot; again, and paste it in. Then try This is the only way to solve the issue you are having at present.

Yah, but he has good taste... mine´s better of course, but I cannot fault him <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

Fraid it is just not possible <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

President George W. Bush visits a primary school classroom. They are in the middle of a discussion about words and their meanings. The teacher asks the President if he would like to lead the discussion on the word &quot;tragedy&quot;. So, the illustrious leader asks the class for an example of a tragedy. One little boy stands up and offers: &quot;If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a tractor runs him over and kills him that would be a ´tragedy´.&quot; &quot;No&quot;, says President Bush, &quot;that would be an ´accident´.&quot; A little girl raises her hand: &quot;If a school bus carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a ´tragedy´.&quot; &quot;I´m afraid not,&quot; explains the President. &quot;That´s what we would call a ´great loss´.&quot; The room goes silent. No other children volunteered. President Bush searches the room. &quot;Isn´t there someone here who can give me an example of a ´tragedy´?&quot; Finally, at the back of the room, a small boy raises his hand. In a quiet voice he says: &quot;If Air Force One, carrying you, Mr. President, were struck by a friendly fire missile and blown to smithereens, that would be a ´tragedy´.&quot; &quot;Fantastic!&quot; exclaims Bush. &quot;That´s right. And now can you tell me why that would be a ´tragedy´?&quot; &quot;Well, says the boy, because it certainly wouldn´t be a ´great loss´ and it probably wouldn´t be a f **king ´accident´ either!&quot;

If you use the <i>italics </i> tags and then click &quot;edit&quot; - you will find that the tags are now &quot;corrupted&quot; - you will need to correct them. Its been a long standing issue for, well, ever. As for url, you have to use the closing tags otherwise it puts them in itself <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

Absinthe... I remember trying it (with sugar/burning) and it was pretty evil stuff which the guys had brought back from the Czech Republic. We then had some &quot;supermarket bought&quot; about 2 years later, and I swear it just wasn´t the same stuff - it left the enamel on your teeth for starters! Sam (or &quot;two pints&quot; was his nickname at Uni, when this occured in ´99) had a shot of the Czech stuff after the usual two pints of lager. He fell off the sofa a few minutes later, and we watched him trying to climb back on it for a good 5 minutes... and when I say climb - he had his leg and one arm hooked over the sofa and was trying to pull himself up... Edited by - Mike G on 10/12/2005 7:33:09 AM

I was reading about copyrights today (to do with google and their google print idea, and their current legal problems leading to upcoming court cases), and one part stuck out. Even if you own the software etc, it is illegal to circumvent any anti copyright or anti-piracy measures put into place by the creators of the software. So using cracks for &quot;no cd´s&quot; is actually illegal - as is making them (obviously). This is also how the Xbox chipping was banned, because it circumvented anti piracy protection - regardless of whether the person then used it to play pirate games or completely legit - it was still illegal. Obviously though it is up to the creators of said software - Steam I imagine would be rather harsh, whereas others have proved to be less so. Edited by - Mike G on 10/12/2005 5:06:51 AM

Trail, even hinting at how to get around the basic servers anti cheat is not going to be tolerated. If everyone started doing this, the whole game would be pointless to play and ruined by stupid behaviour. As for the gun firing out nano bots - fraid not. As for any other method of cheating to get something without buying it on a base, this will answer the stance towards that. *Click*

I put in 5 votes for you, only took 30 seconds. I can spare 30 seconds <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

But the question remains: If some carnivorous robot monkeys made a strange sound in TLR´s off topic forum, and no-one was around to hear it - would it be a strange sound?

Nope, sorry.