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I must activate the game everytime when I install Windows and there is an activation limit? This is so annoying, I thought Impulse is like Steam. Steam has no activation limit and you can play and download all Steam games everywhere just need an internet connection. I wanted to buy Demigod but this limit is really bothering me now.
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acare84: I must activate the game everytime when I install Windows and there is an activation limit? This is so annoying, I thought Impulse is like Steam. Steam has no activation limit and you can play and download all Steam games everywhere just need an internet connection. I wanted to buy Demigod but this limit is really bothering me now.

Like Steam there is normally no activation limit with Impulse unless the editor decide to add another DRM layer with an activation limit. But like Steam if that's the case it's mentioned in the game specification.
So demigod has no activation limit? But they are saying Stardock games has an activation limit.
http://www.impulsedriven.com/support/activation_info.aspx
Post edited April 15, 2009 by acare84
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acare84: So demigod has no activation limit? But they are saying Stardock games has an activation limit.
http://www.impulsedriven.com/support/activation_info.aspx

The only 'limit' would be if they see the same copy being downloaded and activated on 7 different computers at 7 different IP addresses. I've never heard of a legit customer having issues, though, putting it on their home PC, their laptop, and another system, then reinstalling as needed down the road.
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acare84: So demigod has no activation limit? But they are saying Stardock games has an activation limit.
http://www.impulsedriven.com/support/activation_info.aspx
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Crassmaster: The only 'limit' would be if they see the same copy being downloaded and activated on 7 different computers at 7 different IP addresses. I've never heard of a legit customer having issues, though, putting it on their home PC, their laptop, and another system, then reinstalling as needed down the road.

Actually its only if the addresses are suspicious, and this is only for Stardock games/ games that use Goo, as far as I know. Wardell details it here (search 'what is goo').
Post edited April 15, 2009 by chautemoc
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chautemoc: Maybe your computer sucks?

Not even remotely close. And that weird comment doesn't even have anything to do with what I said:
I really dislike programs that stay in residence in your memory unless you do something about it, put icons in your web browsers and quick start bar and start program menu and on your desktop, and slow your start-up to a crawl by immediately trying to connect, along with every other program, to the internet and transfer useless or private information to the company's home planet or just check what's going on there. I've had new programs sometimes fail to negotiate properly with other programs trying to do the same thing and drastically slow down or even hang the computer entirely shortly after start-up. I find the extra things game makers add to slow down my computer and clutter up its memory and its disk space aggravating at best, and I feel it is borderline unethical. You are buying a game, not giving out an unlimited key to access your system, put crapware and advertising on it, and do stuff unrelated to playing a game.

Don't troll.
Post edited April 15, 2009 by Blarg
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chautemoc: Maybe your computer sucks?
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Blarg: Not even remotely close. Don't troll.

It was an honest question. Relax.
Wow, that was very informative (Impulse Road Map). I was one of the many users who got excited about 'Goo' and that it would allow resales. What I didn't understand then (and what I do now since I read that page you linked to chautemoc), is that you only get store credit for the sale, not real cash. That won't be as much of an issue to me personally because I don't really sell any games I get (though I do give some away from time to time), but I feel it's important to uphold the right for others.
On a different note, I had also bought into what they marketed as a feature: backing up your game. As it turns out you don't 'really' have that option due to the activation requirement on restorations. Though maybe they have a fix for that ...
Impulse Anywhere:
Impulse Anywhere & the Tray applet: Web access for Impulse Phase 3
Phase 3 also introduces Impulse Anywhere:
Users will be able to download their game anywhere via a website, take home their .Impulse file and then install it there with Impulse. For users whose home Internet connection isn’t set up to handle large downloads, Impulse Anywhere provides an alternative way for users to get their software (in addition to providing an off-line archive).
Impulse Anywhere: Visit http://anywhere.impulsedriven.com and download your purchase from anywhere and then take it to the computer you want to install it on.

That may actually give a user who still believes in hard media backups an option to have 'real' backups of their games.
Bottom line for me though is that I still prefer GOG's approach to any other service currently out there. I mean, it's about as user friendly as you can get. I won't say more than that as it's not necessary. ;)
Post edited April 16, 2009 by deoren
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deoren: Bottom line for me though is that I still prefer GOG's approach to any other service currently out there. I mean, it's about as user friendly as you can get. I won't say more than that as it's not necessary. ;)

Glad you found it informative.
Funnily, I just found out today one of the main guys behind GOG used to work for Stardock..I'd like to see the former influencing the latter..;)
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deoren: Bottom line for me though is that I still prefer GOG's approach to any other service currently out there. I mean, it's about as user friendly as you can get

I agree. GoG is the ideal way to purchase games, too bad that other companies don't share their point of view.
I too was disappointed by Impulse. If it wasn't for Demigod, i wouldn't even know the real truth about them, as i never used their sistem. I feel sorry that Demigod uses their service. Even their retail copy of Demigod isn't really DRM free, as you need to register and install their impulse client in order to get updates. So you need an active net connection on the pc you are installing the game, if you want updates. And this is unacceptable for me. Maybe i will do a compromise with Demigod, because is such a fine game, but i'm sure i'll never buy anything else from them. It feels like renting the game, just like with Steam games...
Post edited April 16, 2009 by DG
Well looking at the Impulse forums and at the problems that a lot of people seem to have with getting the game to run: Apparently won't run with Comodo and Defense + running, doesn't like some Logitech drivers, may have to spam click a shortcut to get it to run and so forth... I really need to see a demo for this now, as without one, I won't be buying this at it's current price tag.
Perhaps in a few months/years if it ever drops significantly in price or they fix the issues without the need to permanently disable parts of Comodo I might give it another look.
Some PC gaming paladin type guy should come to the rescue and banish all forms of DRM and fix all technical issues forever at the call of gamers. That'd be neat-o.
Update on the connectivity issues..Wardell says thus:
"The challenge we're running into is that our NAT facilitator servers are getting hammered by the number of requests. That's the most significant issue as it results in users not being able to connect to each other. The solution to this is partly more servers (which we're doing right now) and partly a code update to connect users without using so many resources. We expect to have this largely resolved in the next 24 hours or so.
The other thing we have to do is isolate the warez users off the main server branch so that legitimate customers aren't competing with the 100k+ warez people playing the game for database resources.
The only reason why we haven't had this happen on other games is because we've never had anything like this many users in such a short amount of time. Sins of a Solar Empire was a huge hit but its success came not from an immediate burst of users but rather sustained long term growth which allowed us to keep enhancing the infrastructure as needed with minimal issues for users."
(via)
More on his blog.
Post edited April 16, 2009 by chautemoc
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chautemoc: Well, the positive side of a system like this is it prevents pirates from getting the updates. Or, that's the idea anyway. I'm not sure how effective it is. .
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DG: That's the thing, it's not. Look at updates of Steam only games. When an update rolls out, the pirates crack it and put it online. Or look at GTA 4 patches: GTA 4 has a TON of DRM: Games for Windows, Securom and the Rockstar club application. And with all these protection, they still crack the updates and make them available to the pirated copies.
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Hammerfall: There is absolutley nothing wrong with protecting your work

It is, because it's futile, as i explained above, and it's a pain in the ass for the legal user.
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Bodyless: and atm impusle is still a less annyoing form of drm. you can play the unpatched version without it, you can archive the patched version and transfer it to another computer, it makes patching fast and easy and the patches they produce are worth it.

Yes, but that computer, where you transfer your game, must have the Impulse client and must be online the first time when you install it there, from the arhive. Or maybe i'm wrong about this, i never tried it, just read about it.
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Bodyless: cd keys and clientside drm like diskchecks will in the long run require more work from the user.

Cd keys work very well for online play. You can't play a game online without a valid cd-key. Think of Blizzard games, for example. As for SP games, any form of DRM (be it ancient, like cd checks and cd key, or modern like Securom, Impulse Goo, etc) is defeatable. That's why is futile to try to protect you games with DRM, imo...
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Bodyless: And i didnt saw any patches on gog yet. all games here are no longer getting new patches neither does gog produce any patches.

Look more carefully at the description: All games on GoG are patched with the latest available patch. The same thing can be done with modern games. For example Gamersgate: when Braid was patched, it was automatically patched server side. Of course it's easier to release a manual patch, since you don't have to dnl again the whole game, but i prefer it to the Impulse and Steam's solution.
Think about it. Imagine ten years from now, when games like Demigod would be just like some of the good old games around here: their devs don't exists any more, the publishers have been bought by others or dissapeared, etc. In that case, where would you get your updates from? Where will get the last patch?

I know that all game son gog are already patched. if you download a game via impulse it will come patched too immediatly but the point is that the games on gog dont get any new patches. so you wont see anyone downloading a patch from gog.
oh and if you dont like somethign starting up when booting then you can always just deactivate the damn thing. there should be either an option in the program or you can use msconfig.
Anyway. as long we are not lving in some kind of fairy tale land you cannot expect anyone to put up their newest games like gog does (it is neither publisher or developer, its a store) . gog's way works cause the game so are OLD.
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bansama: Well looking at the Impulse forums and at the problems that a lot of people seem to have with getting the game to run: Apparently won't run with Comodo and Defense + running, doesn't like some Logitech drivers, may have to spam click a shortcut to get it to run and so forth... I really need to see a demo for this now, as without one, I won't be buying this at it's current price tag.
Perhaps in a few months/years if it ever drops significantly in price or they fix the issues without the need to permanently disable parts of Comodo I might give it another look.

I'm not surprised that it's not cooperating with Comodo:
http://forums.demigodthegame.com/346061/page/1/#2137579
All the phone-home stuff is likely being blocked which would likely cause quite a few issues.
they deactivated the auto search for patches at the start up in the latest update. you should try again.