Download and offline play

If you're coming up from 1.0, then your saved games will be pretty surely useless. Your campaign progress should not be lost if you have not finished it (you can continue from the start of the last mission you reached even if your saves are lost).

The 1.4 patch for DL is available as a standalone installer on the downloads page of the site. There is a 1.5 patch, but it is only available on Stardock Central. Patches for DA will also likely only be available on SDC as long as it is actively being updated.

To patch a non-connected machine with SDC, you need to install SDC on a connected machine, download and archive the game (you can download direct to archive if you are not allowed to install games there, but you would need to redownload the entire game for subsequent patches as well if you do that). Then you just need to get the archive file and the SDC installer and burn them to a disc or copy to a USB drive and take them home to install there.

Activation is required once you have patched. If your gaming machine is not connected, the game will generate a message for you to take to another machine and email in to get the activation file you need.

DA's requirements are officially the same, but some users have reported that it takes more in practice. Your mileage may vary.

Activation is indeed good only on the computer it is generated for.

FYI the core downloads for DL or DA should be less than 300MB each if you exclude movies and multimedia, so both should fit on a single CD-R.

Ah ha! Clearest explanation I've seen of the process. Thanks kryo.

(Apologies to original poster for hijacking the thread...)

To confuse matters, I have two different hardware profiles for my offline PC selectable at bootup...one for games, one for everything else. In the past I've had problems with other online activation type software because the different hardware profiles generate different machine IDs (or whatever its called!) Do you happen to know if the same will occur with Stardock products?

This is a ridiculous way of doing things. Not everyone who is downloading from elsewhere has the ability of installing software on their terminals. That requires administrator rights which most people using other than their home system don't have. You're effectively making it impossible for anyone to download the patches from anywhere but their home systems.

Welcome to do the wonderful world on on-line distribution. Ever buy a game from Valve/Steam?

-HM

But I got my copy of Dark Avatar from my local retail outlet in the Gold Edition version. Those of us who did so deserve the same amount of support as those who got their versions online. If Stardock doesn't want to acknowledge that some people aren't directly connected to the internet, then they shouldn't release their products through general retail at all. I'm getting rather annoyed at their attitude that those of us without our own connections are somehow undeserving of their products. It's a blatantly elitist view of the gaming public and I will certainly consider this next time I'm deciding to purcahse another of their releases.

... i remember asking about patches before and was told (as far as kryo knew) that updates would be stand alones.....i cant update those huge files through sdc cause of dialup. what about the rest of us cursed to not being able to have broadband? i'm feeling a little screwed out of the latest updates and fixes. i understand it "takes less effort" to do it through sdc for the developers but wth. i would have waited to get da if i had known i would have had to wait forever for a stand alone patch.

I can totally sympathize with what you're saying as I too had some of the same reservations which you mentioned. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is. I'm just thankful that at this moment, my workplace still allows us some 'freedoms' with our internet access. My work machine can't run the game, but as Kryo said, I can use it to pretty much download what I need and then transport that back home to my PC. But yes, it does seem like we are all 'expected' to have internet access from home anymore... something that I just don't agree with. I jumped through all the hoops necessary for this game and don't regret it one bit. As I posted elsewhere, I've probably spent around 400.00 or so between the game and all necessary items/upgrades to my PC just to play it without issue. I would most certainly do it again. I think the main issue however is the fact of updates/patches. Pending on how many there are it can be quite a pain in the ass to have to 're-check' with SDC from time to time to see if there are any updates. Not that updates are a bad thing mind you, but I still maintain that for the average gamer, there are quite a few hurdles involved with this game, and I would also assume that there are a good number of 'unplayed' GC games... you know, like the average joe buys the game at the store, takes it home, has issues and really doesn't know why. I've come to realize that most of the time, those people will just attempt to return the game or worse, chock it up to a lesson learned and never play this game again, which was what would have happened in my case had I not been lucky enough to have hi-speed internet available to me at work.
Bottom line, the game is awesome and if you can put up with the occasional frustrating moment or two, the end result will be worth it.

Hey, I bought Half-Life 2 from a store, and I still needed to connect to the Internet to get it registered (you cannot play the game unless you have registered it via the Internet through Steam). Furthermore, no patches for HL2 are available for standalone download. Any updates are done via Steam.

I prefer patching the old fashioned way (downloading an update directly to my PC and extracting), but I've come to accept that this is the new model, and that most people like it.

-HM

Honestly, I think those who like it have had internet since it was first made available to the public. Most people in here who play this game don't seem like finances, or sometimes even time, are an issue. It always seems that the few, the proud... the poor come up on the short end of the stick, even in cyberspace!

Agreed, but what's bothering me is this seeming two faced attitude by Stardock regarding their products. One the one hand, they made a big issue of the fact that the game will not be using any on-disc anti-piracy systems. They carried on as if they were trying to be mega user-friendly for all their customers. Yet they've replaced it with a system that in many ways is even more restrictive than having to place a disc in the drive, at least for those of us that are off-line at the moment.

Like I said, I prefer the old fashioned way of getting patches too. But the fact is that I'm paying about as much for my high-speed bandwidth at home as I did way back for dial-up. So the cost is roughly the same as it was back before broadband hit big.

The biggest problem with this (other than the fact that I like to do things the old/hard way) is that I can't save incremental patches. Every time there's an update I have to archive the entire game and store it, which is just wasteful. Thankfully, CD-Rs and DVD-Rs are cheap these days too, so I don't complain about this too much.

-HM

and thats what i like to do. its just a pain to have to redownload a file if i should have to uninstall the game for some reason and have to repatch. just wish broadband was available around here then i wouldnt have this worry

I can definitely understand how this would be nasty if I didn't have broadband available in my area.

-HM

I'm not so sure about that. Accept it, sure. Probably most don't even give a crap either way. But I suspect the minority that dislike it far outweighs the minority that like it.

I'll buy DA even with all this faffing about, because I'm sure it'll be worth it and because I'm sure Stardock will continue to support offliners (even if it is in slightly inconvenient fashion). But I'm going to be rather more cautious with future products, especially having bought NWN2 recently which has *no* offline patch support (at least, nothing official. People have developed workarounds, which I have yet to get working) Even worse are those programs expecting you to buy a serial number based on your hardware configuration with no way to deactivate(why the hell should I have to rebuy my software everytime I change computer?) or just require an active internet connection to run period. I really don't like the way digital download and copy protection is developing. Frankly, there's a good chance I'll eventually end up pirating software to avoid the hassle. Of course, I'll be buying it as well, but just downloading the pirated stuff helps out the pirates, which I would prefer not to do! If only the industry would just trust its customers and accept those that aren't trustworthy probably aren't gonna buy in any circumstances.

On this one you've got me beat. I can't come up with any good defense for why the system is like it is. I myself have never 'pirated' a game, and have never had any issue with entering the serial number that comes with the game to 'prove I have a valid copy'. I never had any issues with 'copyright protection' and quite frankly didn't give a damn until I joined this forum and read countless posts/replies bashing the copy protection gig. My experience as a gamer has always been buy the game, load the game, type the serial number/password... and then play. What was wrong with that? I never had any compatibility issues or any issues that I was aware of. Plus, if all this system does is allow me to play the game without a CD... well it is no biggie for me to slap a CD into the drive and go, so what is the real benefit? Stardock's way pretty much forces you to have internet, or forces you to play an 'incomplete' game... it's just a matter of knowing if your game is incomplete or not, and how would you know this unless you came to this forum or other similar ones?
Besides that, the sig.bin file which must be deleted and then re-established on a different PC... isn't this pretty much the same as copy protection? I mean, if I buy this game, download at work, take it home just to 're-activate' it because the home PC isn't recognized to match the sig.bin... you get my point.

I was mistaken, and I apologize.

salright, i understand that, its just a frustration knowing i am going to have to wait how ever long now

I really don't see what the big deal is here. If the Stardock software will archive the patch in order to transfer it to another computer, why can't you just post that file here on the site? You're really screwing alot of people with this method, all those that don't have administrator rights to install Stardock Central on the systems that they use to download files with. If this is the way Stardock wants to do things, I'll certainly be thinking twice before I buy another of their products.

I would observe that any machine you dont have or cant get administrative rights to, is a machine you wouldnt be or shouldnt be intalling games on in the first place. I find your complaint moot.

Moot!

You're missing my point. I'm not refering to having the game installed, just Stardock Central. That's what's needed now in order to get the patches for the game. Since most people can't install that program on an out-of-home computer, only those people who have their game machines connected to the internet, or who have adminstrator rights to the outside system, can get their hands on the patches now. Most of the people who used to download their patches from work or through a public system will no longer be able to do so now, since they won't be able to install Stardock Central on those systems.