Steamed over DRM

[Togainu]

as for security as a whole it never is flawless what is made by man can be broken by man no matter what it is . It is just a matter of how easy

Originally Posted by Villadelfia

I think we miscommunication somewhere, I did not intend my proposal to require a constant internet connection. What I'm intending is this: if the license is valid, hero lab would work exactly as it does now.

However, once it detects a license invalidation, it will phone home and start a week long "trial mode" and require an internet connection from that point until the license becomes valid again.

I know you didn't mean it for always. However the suggestion you made did state to need an internet connection during the trial period to boot. This means that players that play in areas without internet connections can't do anything. In the current system they can still view their character just not save edits they make to the hero lab file. (meaning make notes manually and add those later after reactivation) Making that trial period actually a huge leap backwards for gamers playing in internet free zones. Compared to a small step forward for gamers with an internet connection. (as I said then you can go the route of unblocking/blocking the save feature but this in my eyes something that is a minor upgrade. Compared to feature/material/bug fixes I rather have the focus there instead of a minor upgrade on the DRM)

Originally Posted by Villadelfia

I can see how this won't work for people that play without internet connection, but for the rest it would provide a nice way to avoid a ruined gaming evening.

When it invalidates your license the client still has all material the only thing that does stop working is the save feature. Meaning you just need to make notes for that session separate and add those when you reactivated your license. (This is exactly what I do when I forget to request a license update when a new windows 10 insider build comes out). So there never really is a "ruined" game night in all honesty.

Originally Posted by Villadelfia

As for abuse, this system would obviously invalidate the license for use on any system ID when it gets flagged, this would mean that the original user can no longer update until he contacts lone wolf, and the person he shared it with can only use it once, for one week. Continued abuse would quickly become apparent.

The issue with this is that the original owner would be removed. If for some reason their license got compromised by whatever means. They end up being kicked out of their account over and over again without being actual abuse. This in my eyes would be a worse DRM situation then what is currently in place just not allowing you to save and having to make notes.

[evdjj3j]

Saturday night. I was wanting to get back into playing PF again. Tried firing up HL but updates wont download and it says I need to activate my license again. I reactivated my license in July when I first installed Win 10 and hadn't used HL since then. No hardware changes or OS installs since the last activation but now HL is no longer activated, so I cant create my character for PF tomorrow. I've spent so much money on HL and it pains me to stop using it but this is the second time I've tried to create a character on a Saturday and been shut down by the terrible DRM. If you are going to use such restrictive DRM then you need to have someone on call 24x7 to deal with licensing issues. While I don't like PCGen as well as HL I don't ever have to worry about this situation when using PCGen. I was so excited to get back into playing PF after not playing for many months but this has really ruined it for me. Also, I've never had tech support respond to any issues that I've emailed about other than licensing issues. Very poor customer service. Like I said it truly pains me when I think about how much money I have sunk into this poorly supported product, I really wish I would have went with PCGen from the get go. You've already got my money so I'm sure this will fall on deaf ears.

[liz]

@evdjj3j, I see your support email that you sent us over the week, which outlines the same frustrations you shared here. Our support team will work with you through our support system, as the forums are not the ideal location for troubleshooting.

Originally Posted by evdjj3j

Also, I've never had tech support respond to any issues that I've emailed about other than licensing issues. Very poor customer service. ... You've already got my money so I'm sure this will fall on deaf ears.

I checked our support system, and of all the emails you sent, we responded the same day or the next business day. If you're not receiving our responses, please check your spam folder and make sure that support@wolflair.com and tracker@wolflair.com are white-listed for your email.

[Farling]

Originally Posted by evdjj3j

No hardware changes or OS installs since the last activation but now HL is no longer activated, so I cant create my character for PF tomorrow.

If you are on the "fast-track" option of Windows 10, then that seems to cause more issues with licensing than receiving just the normal Windows 10 updates.

[TheSleeper]

Originally Posted by Farling

If you are on the "fast-track" option of Windows 10, then that seems to cause more issues with licensing than receiving just the normal Windows 10 updates.

Not sure about Win 10 but I had it reset again 2 weeks ago and while it was reactivated very fast it was a patch of HL that brought it down and was very likely the thing that did so in all cases.

I have 3-4 weeks of Eyes of the Ten left and I am done with pathfinder for a bit. I am just not going to patch it till I am done.

[TheSleeper]

Back in November I received an email from Colen McAlister about a feature in the new beta release of HL:

”I wanted to update you on this situation on our end. We're currently testing a new solution for identifying an individual computer, which we're hoping to deploy within the next few months. Hopefully this solution will fix the problems you're encountering, and stop you having to reactivate your license so often.”


Now after testing this version I wanted to post 2 things:

1 - Colen McAlister & LWD are a class act to proactively follow up with me with a well thought up and effective solution.

2 – The reactivation issue has not occurred any more since I installed the new beta version.

I just wanted to post this here to let everyone know what LWD is made of. Props to LWD!