Digital downloads (grrr)

[Koshling]

So, having got my new machine up and running, I wanted to get c2c operating on it. My bts was a digital download (with unlimited personal installations) from Direct2Drive, which I purchased in 2009 (I originally had some physical CDs, but I lost them sometime prior that). Anyway, when it came to installing today, I dug out the emails to figure out my login and went to download again. Turns out d2d was taken over by gamefly in 2011, and although my account showed the purchases it had no download option for them. Fortunately (or so I thought at first) I still had the downloads from 2009, so I installed those, but on running the result I was unable to activate it, because the installer was packaged with the d2d activation code, which attempts to talk to (non-existent) d2d servers. I then IM'd with gamefly support, and they told me to provide the activation challenge code which attempting to run bts displays. I did this and they said it didn't work. This was because they can only generate activate codes for gamefly packaged versions (not d2d ones).

So next they told me to redownload them, and I'd get gamefly packaged versions, which would auto activate. After explaining I had no download button available to me, they got me to install a gamefly client, which gives me an in-app download that does work...partially...this enabled me to download their bts installer, but it wouldn't then install because it Requires base civ4 to be installed first. Guess what, base bts (which I also had previously purchased from d2d), didn't have a download even in the gamefly client unless you have a current gamefly account. This is because its now free to account holders, and in implementing that they made it inaccessible to non account holders even if they had already bought it!

I finally figured out that I could get round it by creating a 15 day free account (yes, had to give credit card details to do that), loading civ 4 as an account holder, then installing the bts installer and getting it to activate, then canceling my account (well, that's still a theory - ill cancel tomorrow and check it).

After that I was able to install c2c and run a 250 turn autoplay to test it (successful).

Yay!! Only took all afternoon. With my luck itll stop working when I cancel the temporary gamefly account.

 

[JosEPh_II]

That's why I like Matrix games. You can still get a physical copy of their games ( for an extra $10) as well as the Diggy D/L.

Other Diggy D/L's I have I burn a copy immediately after D/L.

Isn't the digital world fun!

JosEPh

 

[Koshling]

That's why I like Matrix games. You can still get a physical copy of their games ( for an extra $10) as well as the Diggy D/L.

Other Diggy D/L's I have I burn a copy immediately after D/L.

Isn't the digital world fun!

JosEPh

A copy don't help though, because its the activation stage that has the potential to kill you.

 

[JosEPh_II]

Hmm, I've not encountered anything like that...yet. And all my copies work so..., I don't know. I'll take your word on it though.

JosEPh

 

[ls612]

Argh, I know how that can feel. My BtS comes from Civ 4 Complete on a physical disk which does not require any codes or other DRM that I got in 2010.

Also, if you don't mind me asking, what is your new rig like?

 

[Hydromancerx]

I feel you pain Koshling. Sorry you had to go through all that.

I am so glad I had mine of physical disks when I upgraded my computer and had to reinstall everything.

 

[SargontheGreat2]

Got Complete,but probably get it on Steam when I have to upgrade, all my paradox stuff, and Civ 5 is there, I think the only physical games I have left are Civ4 and Age of Empires III

 

[pi4t]

Ouch. Yeah, that's why I don't like buying games from digital distributors like Steam. Most of my games are actually either physical, or downloaded from sites which don't have drm like that (GOG.com being the main one). Glad to see you got it working!

 

[Koshling]

Argh, I know how that can feel. My BtS comes from Civ 4 Complete on a physical disk which does not require any codes or other DRM that I got in 2010.

Also, if you don't mind me asking, what is your new rig like?

Seem great so far. I was aiming for a decent level of performance but with emphasis on relatively low power consumption and quietness. The low power consumption because my ambient temperatures are so high, so (a) the cooling has to work that much harder,; and (b) I really don't need more extra heat than necessary pumping into the room.

So with that in mind:

• i7 4770 (stock rather than o/c because of heat concerns, NOT the K because no o/c requirement and the K series is actually missing some of the new instructionset [bizarre])
• Noctua MP12U-SE2 cooler (great reputation for efficient but quiet cooling, and good mounting system)
• 960G SSD storage (I had planned on a single Crucial M500 960, but the availability seems to be nil; so had to back off to 2X480)
• 32G low voltage RAM at 1600
• Platinum efficiency rated PSU (minimize losses as heat)
• Radeon 7790 2G graphics (most power-efficient option, adequate performance for the things I'll need, 2G for future-proofing)
• Silverstone FT02 case (this thing is just an AMAZING piece of engineering - best air-cool case I could find to give good cooling without compromising acoustics - it's practically silent)

Windows 8 performance index gives me a net of 7.6 (pulled down by the GOPU, which is unsurprising), breaking down as:

CPU: 8.2
Memory: 8.2
Graphics: 7.6
Gaming graphics: 7.6
Hard disk: 8.1

Once I get fully up and running I'll rerun some comparative profiling of the test games I use when doing performance work (Talin's saves mostly), and see what the impact is for C2C.

 

[JosEPh_II]

I gotta get an SSD, this Seagate Pipeline 5200rpm 1TB HD has lots of storage but only a 5.6 rating.

32GB of 1600 ram wow!

I would think your trouble shootng and test times will be greatly accelerated now. A more efficient Koshling! Oh My!!!

JosEPh

 

[ls612]

960GB SSD!? That's ridiculously expensive, do you really have that many programs you use on a regular basis?

 

[Koshling]

960GB SSD!? That's ridiculously expensive, do you really have that many programs you use on a regular basis?

$599 (the M500 broke through the $/G barrier in April by a substantial margin), though having to back of to 2X480 added about $150 (which sucks, but...).

I use a lot of I/O intensive VMs in my work. On my old system I found that VM image activation/deactivation basically locked up the entire system for minutes on end with long command queues to the spindle disk, so I decided I wanted to host all my VMs on SSD this time (they are mostly SharePoint servers of various configurations). The heavy VM usage is also what drives maxxing out the RAM capacity (32G is as high as you can go without moving to a server motherboard, or one of the Intel Extreme (socket 2011) series processors).