Good to see some things never change » Forum Post by Timsup2nothin

It would be useful if you let us know what issue you are having and what game you are having with it.

With regards to buggy DRM, I am not aware of any SD games ever coming with any buggy DRM, Stardock have never used anything other than a basic activation system which is in use with every single one of the applications Stardock sell without problems.

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S'okay, I really just came here to vent. My actual search for a solution took place on a more independent forum since the first five similar problem reports I saw here all came up empty and there is no reason at this late date in the evolution of Fallen Enchantress that mine would fare any better.

My long since past problem was with that "it isn't DRM, it's just activation" on GC2. I had a store bought no DRM hard copy of GC2 that I was very happy with and paid full blast for GC2 complete version as soon as TotA was released. I tried the forums here, and I spent unprecedented time in a chat room full of Stardock staff trying to resolve the issues before I was finally unceremoniously told that wanting a gaming rig that wasn't connected to the internet marked me as some sort of idiot Luddite that Stardock just wasn't going to give a damn about. So, yeah, until they show up DRM free on GoG Stardock products are off my list.

By the way, in the course of solving my problem I did a general cleanup and I found that more than half of the uninvited processes running on my machine could be traced to Stardock and my newly installed Fallen Enchantress, even in the GoG version. Gotta give you guys credit, you are the stealthiest purveyors of invasive malware I've encountered in the marketplace. Coincidentally, killing all that BS actually solved the original problem. Fancy that.

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Quoting Timsup2nothin,

reply 2

S'okay, I really just came here to vent. My actual search for a solution took place on a more independent forum since the first five similar problem reports I saw here all came up empty and there is no reason at this late date in the evolution of Fallen Enchantress that mine would fare any better.

My long since past problem was with that "it isn't DRM, it's just activation" on GC2. I had a store bought no DRM hard copy of GC2 that I was very happy with and paid full blast for GC2 complete version as soon as TotA was released. I tried the forums here, and I spent unprecedented time in a chat room full of Stardock staff trying to resolve the issues before I was finally unceremoniously told that wanting a gaming rig that wasn't connected to the internet marked me as some sort of idiot Luddite that Stardock just wasn't going to give a damn about. So, yeah, until they show up DRM free on GoG Stardock products are off my list.

By the way, in the course of solving my problem I did a general cleanup and I found that more than half of the uninvited processes running on my machine could be traced to Stardock and my newly installed Fallen Enchantress, even in the GoG version. Gotta give you guys credit, you are the stealthiest purveyors of invasive malware I've encountered in the marketplace. Coincidentally, killing all that BS actually solved the original problem. Fancy that.

I am sorry but that doesn't sound like Fallen Enchantress. No Stardock product comes with any kind of invasive malware and nothing should run when the game isn't running.

Would you care to explain further what you feel is malware (and or invasive).

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That seems like such a reasonable request, and I'd actually be willing to comply if it were really easy. But it really isn't. All I can say, easily, is that I disabled and removed SEVEN unknown items from my scheduled tasks list using CCleaner, all of which were tagged as products of Stardock and related to Fallen Enchantress, and my bug went away after a reboot and has as yet not resurfaced. Since the bug was not present upon first run but once it appeared it refused all efforts to get rid of it it stands to reason that one of those scheduled tasks had triggered and done something for Stardock that inconveniently also produced a bug for me.

Unfortunately, I guess, I did not take a lot of time investigating what each and every task my computer was scheduled to perform on Stardock's behalf actually was, so I cannot give you any more detailed answer.

The bug in question is pretty commonly referred to as "the task bar thing," is annoying as heck, and I'm sure you'll be happy to know that it is so easily solved. It also coincided with a more general bug in which my system would show numerous "phantom" browser applications as being open on the taskbar...which would refuse to close, or open onto the desktop to be seen, and were presenting a mystery in themselves that I was actually more concerned about than a minor game bug. Fortunately, the solution seems to have been universal as that problem also has disappeared...funny that.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2058

I think you have Stardock mixed up with Starforce. We are pretty well known as being against copy protection on games. We certainly don’t bundle other tasks with our games.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1221

If you're seeing numerous processes that say "Star-something" that will very definitely be "StarForce", NOT "Stardock".

StarForce IS a DRM security process... here's a quick overview...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarForce

...and yes, THEY are a pain-in-the-bum ... I had the 'pleasure' of installing a game which used StarForce protection years ago, and I almost threw out the entire computer rather than persevere with the removal process [which from memory ended up as a reformat].

Ubisoft decided to investigate the extent of the StarForce boycott and ran a poll on their forums, the outcome of which was against the use of StarForce.^[9] As a result, (along with general discontent on the web^[10]^[11]), in Heroes of Might and Magic V and GTR2, StarForce 3.0 was replaced by SecuROM.

....yep, and the culprit for me would have been GTR2 ....as I'm a car nut...

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Aaaaand, there it is. The "wow, here's a thought, maybe you are so stupid that you can't read" level dismissal from Stardock.

No, I actually CAN tell the difference between the word "Stardock" and the word "Starforce." Besides, I'm pretty sure this "Starforce" isn't infringing on you guys by making a game called Fallen Enchantress. But whatever.

By the way, you guys are actually well known in the circles I keep as the company that tried to be Valve but got beaten out of the DRM market. The whole "it isn't really DRM, we're gamers, for gamers, trust us we're doing this for you" line was hypocrisy in the extreme no matter which of you said it, but they won and have to be put up with (or not) and you guys lost. Which is a good thing for me because you guys have too many good games and I'd hate to boycott you the way I do them...so kudos for that.

Your customer service, in my experience, is flat effing awful though. I mean, I'm not looking for "the customer is always right," but "WTF customer, can you not read" is some next level stuff, don't you think?

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As the second person suggesting I can't read, I feel absolutely no remorse in suggesting that you can't. Note that I said NOTHING about processes. I said there were SEVEN, yes seven, entries in SCHEDULED TASKS. What those scheduled tasks were I did not bother to research.

<sigh>

Here, cut and paste of the list:

No    Task    {1A4AD13D-4ADF-488D-B7B2-520553A6F6BE}    Stardock Entertainment, Inc.    F:\Games\Fallen Enchantress\FallenEnchantress.exe
No    Task    {313E1CBD-9FAF-41EB-AA90-73CB4EC48A22}    Stardock Entertainment, Inc.    F:\Games\Fallen Enchantress\FallenEnchantress.exe
No    Task    {4117EB6D-A8A1-4B71-B89C-FAE22C0FCF38}    Stardock Entertainment, Inc.    F:\Games\Fallen Enchantress\FallenEnchantress.exe
No    Task    {65020308-18F8-4931-B58C-4A10D58460B6}    Stardock Entertainment, Inc.    F:\Games\Fallen Enchantress\FallenEnchantress.exe
No    Task    {83C35A0D-4325-4AF8-8986-052A87980BAF}    Stardock Entertainment, Inc.    F:\Games\Fallen Enchantress\FallenEnchantress.exe
No    Task    {B3899941-E4D3-4079-9FF7-6AFE8E28BE53}    Stardock Entertainment, Inc.    F:\Games\Fallen Enchantress\FallenEnchantress.exe
No    Task    {B3DF8025-7A4E-4F2D-B1E5-D091D2F668D2}    Stardock Entertainment, Inc.    F:\Games\Fallen Enchantress\FallenEnchantress.exe

The NO, for the reading challenged, is a word in the "enabled" column signifying that they are shut off. Is anyone having trouble distinguishing "Stardock Entertainment" from "Starforce" there?

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Wow, my bad, and my apologies. I did say processes. I did also say scheduled tasks, and went into some detail about removing them from there, but I did make a mistake and perhaps pull you down the wrong path.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1221

Quoting Timsup2nothin,

reply 9

Wow, my bad, and my apologies.

Apology accepted. [no-one suggested you can't read]...

I don't have that particular game installed, but can't help but wonder what your process tree would have looked like had you simply activated Stardock's games online rather than spend the past 6 years attempting to bypass the simple one-off process of activation via the internet.

I better not mention the 26 instances of 'Chrome.exe' listed in my Task Manager ...or the 4 of Skype, 4 of Discord....

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Yeah, well, when DRM wielding hacks come at me with "but our DRM system is good for you really" I tend to run the other way. But as I said, all's well that ends well...you guys are on GoG and that's my preferred source since digital distribution has made brick and mortar stores drop out of the game business. Thanks for that by the way /sarc.

As to the "simple one off process of activation via the internet"...when I first encountered your DRM system my gaming rig was in a room that would now be called a "man-cave." It, and I, were very comfortable there without an internet connection. That rig had every bit of autostarting network stuff and other non-essentials stripped out...and for the hardware that it was it was extremely fast and reliable. My home network was hardwired, not wifi, and somehow you guys telling me "well, you'll just have to hook it to the internet somehow because we can't get the "how to get a hash code for a machine not connected to the internet" feature that we put in our activation system that is certainly not a DRM system to work for you" really pissed me off.

My position was "if you can't get it to work, perhaps you ought not claim it is a feature," which seemed pretty reasonable to me. Contemporaneously, another company using an on-line activation DRM system with a very similar "for off-line machines..." process managed to send me the promised hash code first time, no problems, which helped make you guys look extra bad. As to how I spent the intervening six years...no, bypassing your DRM system has not been a priority. I filed my purchase of TotA under "lessons learned" and took the loss.

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