Very Frustrated and annoyed in general

from GalCiv2 Forums
hmm nnot really a bug report, more as an area to vent my frustration, but its a big none-the-less.

Why oh gods why do we need to Use some idiotic stardock central to download it? here is my story.

I paid 20 dollars at 2 AM because i am mored and can't sleep and feel like getting immereased into something new. I will probally pay this 4 times at most.

Now i am told i must download stardock central. Ok

I enter password and username about a dozen times just to figure out where i need to be. Im a speed reader, sue me. its a game should be point-click-download.

Then i get onto stardock, and the whole site is trying to sell me all kinds of crap i don't need.

Then i get to download it, and it gives me the Generic 'Page not found' error.

Needless to say, all the redirection and information entering and long complicated e-mails lead me to beleive that i have just been scammed. After a long walk to cool down from the most frustrating purchase expeirance of my existance, i cool down, and realize that it is actually legit. Just buggy.

Stardock forums are no help. Neither are these. I have no firewall on, no anti-virus, all security completely turned off, SSL and TSS turned on (as the forums say) and i just directly plugged into my router and still i get the same message.

If i right click and try 'save target as' it tells me server can get no connection.

Either way, im pissed. im highly motivated to go find a cracked version of the game just so i can play, even though i have already paid for it, but i can't even get the software. BTW i haven't even tried getting GalCiv2 yet. Im also totally turned off by the route commercialism of stardock, with its redirections and excessive sales picths. HEre is how you download. CLICK HERE. Save to desktop. RUN. THats all it should be. My god.

Here is a lesson for all you people out there in the software development world (and have the reason i decided not to go into a carreir in said feild) stop making things more complicated than nessicary. When made complicated they go wrong, and you or someone else has to spend the time fixing it.

Hope i didnt offend anyone, but giving you people money should not be hard. Oh wait, i already paid you but don't have a game. Right.
3,632 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Problem Solved. Due to the fact that stardock has another copy of that file on their website, that some samaritian linked on a forum completely unrelated to my issue.

http://storage.stardock.com/files/sdcentral_setup.exe


this is the link i got the file from. This is not the link the download page points to. This is probally a Stardock and not an issue with you guys, but either way, pissed me off plenty. its just sloppy web work.

If anyone else is having problems getting Stardock Central, use that link.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You're a good man. Same thing just happened to me, and I thought I was screwed. But now, I'm on my way.
SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually I don't have Stardock Central on my PC. I personally don't like installing "extraneous" programs. I did initially start out installing the game from a CD, but since then have upgraded with the "standalone" installer. The latest version available in the "Downloads" section is v1.40X.

I pre-ordered DA months ago with the CD and I could download a copy via SD Central if I wished, but I'd just as soon wait for the CD to arrive.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hmmm good you solved your problem. But I think Stardock is a great program/utility that ensures me that my game i up to date when I want to check if a new version available. And it remembers my keys as a bonus. So I really like Stardock I can use when I wanne use it, not like "the other" companys product.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I enjoyed the rant. It reminds me of... well, me, back when I first bought this game. I saw it in a store and had to have it. Took it home and almost immediately had issues regarding my PC and the game 'interaction'. Came in here, vented, got assistance, and became a 'better man', lol.
Actually I've spent roughly 400.00 on my PC, basically just to play this game. I needed a graphics card if I wanted to enjoy all the visuals without issues (which I do want to enjoy, I love all the bells and whistles), then a power supply to provide adequate juice for the card. Since my internet situation at home 'fluctuates', I bought a flash drive so that I could download updates from work, then realized it wasn't large enough so I purchased an external hard drive case and used an old 40 gig drive from my ancient HP 7955. Now I have more than enough room to bring home the goods. All of this, and I'm leaving out the initial CD purchase of Dread Lords and the pre-order of Dark Avatar.
My point is this: despite the 'inconveniences' this system causes for some of us, this game and the support behind it are the best I've ever seen, and I've spouted this off in many a post, period. Maybe one day a new kid on the block will come along and bump Stardock from this position, but not anytime soon from what I've seen. It's a great game once you get it up and running and I can never state enough how much support is behind this game, even from within the community of players. Stick with it, and for the love of God, ask for help if need be! Someone will always come to your aid in here if you give them a chance, especially the infamous Kryo, and the world reknowned diplomat extraordinaire, Mumblefratz.
Now onto some unfinished business from yesterday! Peace.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Liked the rant. My story was similar in that I changed my e-mail address between the time I bought the first game and bought the expansion. OH... MY... !!! It confused the H-E double hockey sticks out of Stardock, and it looked like I was going to have to wait 48 hours for support, but somehow I managed to enter in the different addresses, keys, registration numbers, etc from my purchases in just the right order. I finally got the expansion downloaded and installed, then it said it couldn't verify that I had bought it! Wah! So I found the freaking game icon, double clicked it, entered in my registration info there (that I had just had e-mailed to myself from them!), and poof, everything works now.

I suppose it was my fault- should have remembered that I registered last time with my previous e-mail address, but sheeeeeeeeesh. It took me at least 90 minutes to finally get to play.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That was a good little rant, and I kinda understand where you're coming from.

The first time I downloaded Galciv2 I was a bit confused as well.

However, at this point, I love Stardock Central, and I've gotten used to the interface. When I need to install Galciv2, I just go back to the original email I was sent, and click the setup link from there, and after that it's just a small matter of copying and pasting my serial number during the setup process.

When the setup process is done, GalCiv2 is right there under my "Purchased Games" section, and I can just click the "Install" button and it goes about its merry way.

I think Stardock's system is much better than Steam for example. Steam is the only other game-downloading client that I've used. Here's the things I like about Stardock Central vs. Steam

- Steam always wants to freaking run in the background on your computer. Screw that, I want my memory resources free when I'm not playing Half Life, thank you. Stardock central doesn't need to EVER run unless you want to download something.

- Steam shows you advertisements for new games both when you open it, and when you exit it. Stardock Central does not. Stardock Central opens to a "News" page where you can see new stuff. That's about it. No banner ads, nothing.

- If you format your computer and reinstall Steam, Steam tries to download everything you've purchased through it all at once. So if you start up Steam and you just want to install and run Counterstrike, too bad. It's downloading at the same time as Half Life, Half Life 2, and that demo of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic that I played awhile ago, and don't even want to install anymore.

- The only thing that makes Steam EASIER than Stardock Central is the lack of a need for serial numbers. Steam just has you log in to it with your account, and automatically knows what games you've purchased. You never have to enter a serial number. I guess this is because Steam also doubles as the client through which you can purchase the games directly.

I like Stardock Central, personally. It's unobtrusive, it has the downloads that I need, and I've even installed a few demos from it to check out random games that sound cool now and again.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm picky about what I install on my PC and keep it super clean and tight. SDC is a simple, stand-alone, run when you want to app. It's handy for getting updates, installs, free content additions, registering, betas etc. I also hate ads, spam, and all that crap, and I don't find SDC to be obnoxious in any way in that regard. It's a harmless app. There's no reason to NOT install it unless you somehow have an incredibly tiny amount of available disk space.