OT: Master of Magic 2 - now looking quite likely

Arryn · #1 July 16th, 2004, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:
I didn't like it either, although not because of the gameplay: I disliked it because of the intermittent crashing bugs combined with the fact that trying to even download a bloody patch was like trying to perform root canal in the field with a butter knife.

Never had this problem myself. One of the very few ultra-stable games I have. It's more stable than Dom 2. And patching via Stardock Central for me is painless and quick. You're not on ... ack, ugh ... dial-up, are you???

Daynarr · #2 July 16th, 2004, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Arryn:

quote:
Originally posted by Norfleet:
I didn't like it either, although not because of the gameplay: I disliked it because of the intermittent crashing bugs combined with the fact that trying to even download a bloody patch was like trying to perform root canal in the field with a butter knife.

Never had this problem myself. One of the very few ultra-stable games I have. It's more stable than Dom 2. And patching via Stardock Central for me is painless and quick. You're not on ... ack, ugh ... dial-up, are you???

I bet he's still using 28800 modem.

Dom 2 never crashes (at least not on my system) so I can hardly call anything "more" stable.

Norfleet · #3 July 16th, 2004, 06:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Arryn:
Never had this problem myself. One of the very few ultra-stable games I have. It's more stable than Dom 2. And patching via Stardock Central for me is painless and quick. You're not on ... ack, ugh ... dial-up, are you???

Oh, hell no. I was referring to the absolutely ridiculous number of hoops and obstacles you had to work around just to get a freaking patch.

Arryn · #4 July 16th, 2004, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:
I was referring to the absolutely ridiculous number of hoops and obstacles you had to work around just to get a freaking patch.

What "hoops and obstacles"? How hard is it to have a net-connection, launch the Stardock Central app (SC), and then watch it download and auto-install whatever the latest patch is? Or are you referring to the *registration* process to initially set up SC? Once it's set up it's essentially brainless. And if you don't want to deal with SC, you can always just go to their site via browser and download the patch (or get it from some other site). I simply fail to understand what's so hard and what your problem is? (Of course this Last question is one helluva juicy straight line for your detractors to jump all over ...)

Blitz · #5 July 16th, 2004, 08:03 AM

The saddest thing is that I get 90% of my (purchaced) game patches from a site like gamecopyworld. In fact, much of the crap I've bought requires a CD in the drive or some kind of asinine registration to get patches. Why game companies insist on making owning a legal copy of a piece of software more tedious than simply stealing it is beyond me. I have downloaded "illegal" Versions of several games I already own, simply because the pirated stuff comes without spyware or requiring me to email my life story to some anonymous server. The fact that I actually pay for the game seems more like a paypall donation to your favorite website. Thanks for the hard work, keep it up. You want your unopened box back?

[ July 16, 2004, 07:07: Message edited by: Blitz ]

Arryn · #6 July 16th, 2004, 08:19 AM

I legally own all the games I have, despite having several excellent CD copying tools and knowing how to use them effectively. I also have downloaded no-CD cracks (from gamecopyworld) for every one of them that has such annoying copy protection. IMO, according to the Fair Use laws, once I buy something, it's my right to use that product however I wish so long as I don't abuse "Fair Use" (ie, give copies to other people, etc.). If I want to create 20 backup copies for myself, or install it on 5 machines, that's my right. So long as my legally-owned copy is only played on one machine at a time, the game publisher has no right whatsoever to dictate how I use what I have paid for.

I don't approve of software "piracy", but the software industry, with its utter lack of concern for such things as fitness for intended use, and fascist licensing, just begs for piracy. Software is the only product I can think of that you can buy without any consumer protection as to getting what you ostensibly paid for. Be it a functional game (countless example of games that won't even run out of the box, such as UFO:Aftermath or MOO3) or million-dollar enterprise accounting apps from Oracle (that won't install or even if you get them installed won't actually work).

Sorry about the rant.

Anglachel · #7 July 16th, 2004, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Blitz:
Take pity on my BELOVED Jagged Alliance series. First, Sirtech goes tits up, then the franchise is purchaced by infamous garbage-spewer Strategy First, who oh by the way just layed off everyone and fired the whole JA legacy team. Then they hand the whole kit and kaboodle over to an unknown russian developer, who don't seem to have anyone on staff who speaks english. Actually to call them unknown would be generous, as they are best-known for a horrible piece of trash cyberpunk game whose name escapes me. To make things worse? TWO DAYS after the 2-year development program is announced, they RELEASE SCREENSHOTS. Yes in two days, they managed to get a working alpha going and post screens on the webpage. Seems they are using the "engine" of another TBS to kick start their process. I've never heard of a TBS using an engine from an existing game before. This ought to be interesting.

As far as what they have done with it is to release what is a mod of Jagged Alliance called "Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire". It is a mod created already in the strong mod community for Jagged Alliance by this russian guy named Popov. It adds more guns, notably a lot of russian type ones, makes the game harder in that the easy setting for "Wildfire" is harder than the hard setting on the original game. By harder I mean they throw more men at you, make town loyalty harder to gain and easier to lose, and the AI will tend to dogpile you in daylight ops. Dressen airport, for instance, is extremely time consuming and difficult to take now and the AI makes damn good use of roof-tops. It is also designed so that you can run it on windows xp and down. Other than that it is essentually the same game as the original JA:2. It also has some really annoying bugs such as the sam site number 8 crash, game corrupts saves if you quick save and if you save in mine areas of a town and unfortunately because of a legal dispute between the russian modders and Strategy First over not getting payed there will be no patch fixes to the game forth comming except those fixes the JA community have been able to come up with.