14-07-2004 15:54									#361
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Uh-oh

Just a word of warning. Met someone last night who bought HotU on EBay, and was disappointed to find the whole game was in Thai. Not only that, but they had missing texture files, and some objects appeared as huge white blocks as a result.

You might be lucky though.

-Jam

	14-07-2004 15:59									#362
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Fingus crossed (and George Best headed it in).

According to the listing, the box and manual are in Thai, but the ingame text is all in English.
But I won't be sure until it arrives.

	14-07-2004 16:02									#363
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Jamski can you elaborate on the cd protection you mentioned. With every other MP game I've got you only need the key. I know this for a fact because even when I buy games I usually play them without the cd, since it is much more pleasant.

Obviously there is no point in my borrowing Duke's codes if there is additional protection.

Also, I would say those Asian copies of stuff are a lottery. Sometimes you get really cheap high quality stuff with some Asian characters on the box, or maybe an Asian manual (you can download this anyway). Other times it is cheap copies, or an actual Asian language version. What was the guy's % of happy customers?

	14-07-2004 16:06									#364
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Well the seller's called Jamski-san (), and has 97% favourable or so. But a couple of negative ones recently.

	14-07-2004 16:21									#365
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Btw what were you basing needing all 3 games on Duke? I was trying to work out what I should buy last night, and thought that the first expansions content is in the second (with some more), so I don't see why SoU is necessary to play HotU. Do you have more info?

	14-07-2004 16:38									#366
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Nope, but knowing computer games then I reckon you'll need all three. You'll be able to play HotU without SoU more than likely, but you'll need to have all three installed to play online.

	14-07-2004 17:04									#367
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They are both separate expansions though, with as far as I can see HotU having all the content of SoU (without the SP campaign of course). Thus my prior would be that I only need NWN and HotU.

Jamski, you are font of NWN knowledge, so find out what it is please!

	14-07-2004 17:13									#368
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If that is the case, then expect to see me online soon £45 for a game I shy away from, especially one that I've not played before, but £30 seems reasonable (NWN and both expansions are £15 each from amazon.co.uk).

	14-07-2004 17:14									#369
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I suppose that we'll just have to wait until he gets back from his lunch/prolonged session of NWN.

	14-07-2004 17:35									#370
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Heh... I was doing the dishes actually

Erm...sadly its not the case that HotU contains the SoU content too. You'll need both. Of course, its possible to play with only one of the two at home on your own, but since there's very little overlap of content between the two expansions you're going to need both to play online. Its stuff like creature models, character classes, textures, tilesets, placeable objects... If you don't have SoU and some builder put a table in using a model from SoU, you won't see it. If that table had a quest item in a draw... well, you're stuffed really. It probably will crash before you get to the "trying to use an invisible table" point anyway.

They COULD have put the SoU content into HotU as well, but that would have meant another 800megs and another CD, so they cut costs and didn't. There's probably another XP coming soonish too... even more monsters and objects and classes and skills and weapons

As for the cost... hell, I'm unemployed, and I'm going to get a complete new set of the UK version for ease of use next month when I'm in the UK. I figure it costs the same as going to see United play - and that might be a 0-0 yawner.

-Jam

	14-07-2004 17:37									#371
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IIRC Chaunk you can get gold for £20 and HotU for £15 from Amazon.

	14-07-2004 17:38									#372
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Thanks for clearing that up.

Also you need to clear up your cd protection comment!

	14-07-2004 19:20									#373
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Oh... ...well you have to put in a CD key when you install, right? And then when you play online it checks that your CD key matches your CD. Its possible to get NWN running with a CD key got from a software-theft site, but that won't let you take it online. Don't ask me how it all works, but it seems to. *shrugs*

-Jam

	14-07-2004 19:27									#374
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Oh, so my code won't match his SoU then because he would have to tick the box marked "other" if asked about its origin.

	14-07-2004 19:53									#375
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You can play online with a no-cd crack, but you do need a legitimate CD-key. I haven't actually unpacked the CDs from my purchased expanion packs...


There is some method of determining wether a CD key is truelly legitmate or not by checking it with some sort of databse or something. It's not done for the single player game, but it is for multiplayer.



I think sharing a legit CD key with someone would work, but you probably couldn't log on at the same time, and trying to do so may cause them to flag it as being pirated.

	14-07-2004 19:58									#376
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Hmm, I guess I *should* trust Jamski's knowledge on this, but this is a new one on me, which makes me a little sceptical. If it is that easy to tie a key to the cd why don't all games do it? Go on any ezboard style forum and you will get tonnes of people trading/requesting keys. They do this because they can download the game and use the acquired key.

I've seen people asking for NWN keys as well.

So are you sure Jamski?

Of course if you know you will play MP IMO it's far easier to buy the game unless you have time to burn, which most of us don't. Unfortunately I didn't think I'd play MP when I got the games, which means I don't have the SP campaigns as a fall back if MP doesn't interest me.

Anyway, I've been reading about WoW all day and I'm salivating about it. NWN PW could fill the gap, though probably it would mean putting BG on hold yet again!

Decisions, decisions............more minutes in the day please.

	14-07-2004 20:00									#377
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GL that's exactly it in my experience.

	14-07-2004 20:04									#378
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Yeah, you do need a legit key. The keygen is borked. Not that I didn't try .

Since it's such an important part of the game, I'd recommend storing the CD key in their online database. Go to the official website, click my account, log in, and click on register games. Copy the cd keys from the nwncdkey.ini file in the game directory into the correct fields and check the "allow CD key retrival" boxes so you can get at them later. Even if you loose the manual or whatever you'll still have your unreplacable key.

	14-07-2004 20:05									#379
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NWN PWNs WoW & BGI R0XX0RS 1337!



It's a bummer if you bought NWN legitimately, because now you can only seem it buy it (new) with SoU included. But eBay is all things to all men, and one man's eBay is another man's poison so just look out for a legitimate copy if you are desperate. I'll still send you my code if you'd like (provided I remember it), and if it works then I'll be the one to have to remember to tell you if I ever get a broadband connection.

	14-07-2004 20:17									#380
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quote: Originally posted by MattH Yeah, you do need a legit key. The keygen is borked. Not that I didn't try .

Modern day keygens are *never* for MP. They just follow the structure of the keys enough to get past the install prompt. In the old days you could generate MP keys, but it hasn't been that way for a long time for almost all games.

Read the Deviance (or whatever) info file - it will say the same.

	14-07-2004 20:19									#381
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quote: Originally posted by duke o' york NWN PWNs WoW & BGI R0XX0RS 1337! It's a bummer if you bought NWN legitimately, because now you can only seem it buy it (new) with SoU included. But eBay is all things to all men, and one man's eBay is another man's poison so just look out for a legitimate copy if you are desperate. I'll still send you my code if you'd like (provided I remember it), and if it works then I'll be the one to have to remember to tell you if I ever get a broadband connection.

Well my NWN is second hand, and the key is suspicious (it was very cheap off of a friend of a friend so no questions asked, since I didn't envisage playing MP).

So I'd need to buy all 3 anyway.

Anyway, check your PMs.

	14-07-2004 20:42									#382
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* Jamski remembers copying C64 games on a cassette recorder in the lounge*

I think the best antipiracy solution is to release games on vinyl, and have them read the game from the record each time you play.

WHAT?

-Jam

	14-07-2004 21:38									#383
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quote: Originally posted by DrSpike Jamski can you elaborate on the cd protection you mentioned. With every other MP game I've got you only need the key. I know this for a fact because even when I buy games I usually play them without the cd, since it is much more pleasant. Obviously there is no point in my borrowing Duke's codes if there is additional protection. Also, I would say those Asian copies of stuff are a lottery. Sometimes you get really cheap high quality stuff with some Asian characters on the box, or maybe an Asian manual (you can download this anyway). Other times it is cheap copies, or an actual Asian language version. What was the guy's % of happy customers?

you need the key and cd. But there are no-cd patches. I use one because I hate switching around CD's all the time. I'm a lazy gamer . I play many different games. I do have legit versions of all my games.

	14-07-2004 21:46									#384
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So you don't actually need the cd, that's the point. If Jamski cd/cdkey protection that he made up was true you'd *actually* need the cd.

	14-07-2004 21:47									#385
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quote: Originally posted by Jamski Heh... I was doing the dishes actually Erm...sadly its not the case that HotU contains the SoU content too. You'll need both. Of course, its possible to play with only one of the two at home on your own, but since there's very little overlap of content between the two expansions you're going to need both to play online. Its stuff like creature models, character classes, textures, tilesets, placeable objects... If you don't have SoU and some builder put a table in using a model from SoU, you won't see it. If that table had a quest item in a draw... well, you're stuffed really. It probably will crash before you get to the "trying to use an invisible table" point anyway. They COULD have put the SoU content into HotU as well, but that would have meant another 800megs and another CD, so they cut costs and didn't. There's probably another XP coming soonish too... even more monsters and objects and classes and skills and weapons As for the cost... hell, I'm unemployed, and I'm going to get a complete new set of the UK version for ease of use next month when I'm in the UK. I figure it costs the same as going to see United play - and that might be a 0-0 yawner. -Jam

even if you play single player. I don't think you can use the SOU prestige classes in the HOTU campaign if you have SOU. according to the HOTU manual. not that anyoe wants to play a harper scout . but the shadowdancer and arcane archer are pretty cool.

	14-07-2004 21:49									#386
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quote: Originally posted by DrSpike So you don't actually need the cd, that's the point. If Jamski cd/cdkey protection that he made up was true you'd *actually* need the cd.

you just need a legitimate copy of the CD/CD-key. When you go online the first time I think it checks it. If someone else is using that key, there may be problems. Although maybe not. who's to say that you aren't that person but just using the game on a different computer? So if you are not on at the same time, you may be okay.

	14-07-2004 22:12									#387
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You're missing the point Diss. Jamski suggested that on top of needing a unique key this was tied to your cd, so that legit keys you acquired from anywhere wouldn't work. In this case acquiring the game (and hence using a no-cd or backup cd crack) with a legit key still wouldn't work.

However we have, I think, decided that that is not the case.

	14-07-2004 23:22									#388
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Hmmm... It would be nice for some people were it not the case...

-Jam

	15-07-2004 00:09									#390
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Be nice for me even, I can see you all on Folderol

-Jam