Anno 2070, what does this mean?

Northern Lawn

Platinum Member
May 15, 2008
2,231
2
0
"3rd-party DRM: Solidshield Tages SAS
3 machine activation limit"

Does this mean if you buy this game you can only install it 3 times? or you can only install it on 3 different machines? The reason I ask this is because everytime I reformat Steam considers my computer a new machine. In fact, since I bought win7 when it first came out, I need tons of updates and steam will think I have a new machine with every major group of updates.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I see what you're talking about in the beginning, but you've lost me near the end.

Personally, I don't know much about exactly how Tages SAS operates. My assumption is that these DRM services generate some sort of hash based on something about your computer or your operating system, and they compare that. That's why I'm confused as to why you're talking about OS updates, reformatting and losing access to your games.

I still have a machine active on my iTunes account that I no longer have physically active (in fact, I don't even have the parts anymore). I'm not sure if this is what you're getting at, but I would assume that they will not automatically deactivate a machine.
 

Northern Lawn

Platinum Member
May 15, 2008
2,231
2
0
What I'm talking about is that, I did buy win7 ultimate when it first came out and When I reformat, since my DVD is out of date, it takes quite a few "Windows Updates, downloads, and restarts" before I'm really up to date. My brother just bought win7 recently and they seemed to have put all the updates on his DVD, so when he reformats, he only had to update/restart a couple times, but for me it's a few hours process.

Each time I did these updates and when I already had steam installed, steam would lock up saying they don't recognize my account. I had to go to email, then enter a code because steam saw my computer as a new machine. Literally, it would make me validate my account 4-5 times during updating the win7 os. Eventually I just update win7 first, THEN installed applications such as steam.

What i am worried about is Steam thinking I have multiple machines during a simple reformat (which I'm about to do again) and cancelling my game... subscription or what ever they call it.

If I can only install it 3 times with steam... I'll pirate it without a hint of guilt, I have to.

EDIT: basically, if you go from service package 1 to service package 2, with steam installed, it thinks you are putting it on a new machine, which screws up the DRM if I read it Right.
 
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paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
6,517
280
126
www.the-teh.com
Looks complicated:

http://www.solidshield.com/docs/activation-and-revocation-client/

"License revocation:
License revocation offers the possibility to remove the activation data from a client PC and increment the number of activations allowable with a product serial number, enabling him to install and activate the product on a different client PC.

Starting the executable usually named “activation.exe” in the application’s folder will show a dialog similar to the following one:"

So it looks like if you go over 3 you'll have to call them to increase that amount.
 
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Mygaffer

Junior Member
Nov 28, 2011
3
0
61
It is really sad that Ubisoft continues with this kind of BS. At least they are taking a step back from always on Internet DRM in single player games.

Still, I can not support Ubisoft with their horribly restrictive DRM. I understand that piracy is a problem (although how big it really is I think is up for debate) but to hurt your paying customers in an attempt to defeat it, especially when piracy still happens ANYWAY, well that is a stupid business practice. You can tell Ubisoft's management is all businessmen who don't understand gaming. They have to cover their own butts so they put in DRM, knowing it won't really do anything.

I love the Anno games and I really want to buy it. But when I see things like this: "Solidshield Tages SAS, 3 machine activation limit" I say no thanks.

So now, even though I really want to support this game and make sure the developers see some money from it there is no way I am paying for it. I will probably also go out and get the "drm free version" (wink, wink) but if this game is ever released without this BS DRM and not through Ubisoft I will buy it in a heart beat. Ubisoft thinks they are stopping piracy and getting more sales but really they are only INCREASING piracy. They are cutting their nose off to spite their face.

Thank god we have more sane alternatives like Steamworks, which while it requires an online download to get the game you can go into offline mode, permanently, if you want. Good Old Games, gog.com, has many great games, including a few more recent releases like both of the Witcher games totally and 100% DRM free! I have bought over 30 games from them.

Hopefully as the industry moves forward they will realize that piracy is going to happen no matter what, that most pirates probably are not their customers to begin with, and that if you put out a good game free of malware-like DRM then people will buy it.
 

Kalmah

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2003
3,692
1
76
Hmmmm I was actually considering buying this today since I've been board of my current games and it looks interesting.

Imagine if something like Baldur's Gate 2 or Dungeon Keeper had this kind of DRM shit. I wouldn't be able to load them up every 2-3 years and play them like I've always done. Games of the past would just have to stay in the past.
 

poohbear

Platinum Member
Mar 11, 2003
2,284
5
81
It is really sad that Ubisoft continues with this kind of BS. At least they are taking a step back from always on Internet DRM in single player games.

Still, I can not support Ubisoft with their horribly restrictive DRM. I understand that piracy is a problem (although how big it really is I think is up for debate) but to hurt your paying customers in an attempt to defeat it, especially when piracy still happens ANYWAY, well that is a stupid business practice. You can tell Ubisoft's management is all businessmen who don't understand gaming. They have to cover their own butts so they put in DRM, knowing it won't really do anything.

I love the Anno games and I really want to buy it. But when I see things like this: "Solidshield Tages SAS, 3 machine activation limit" I say no thanks.

So now, even though I really want to support this game and make sure the developers see some money from it there is no way I am paying for it. I will probably also go out and get the "drm free version" (wink, wink) but if this game is ever released without this BS DRM and not through Ubisoft I will buy it in a heart beat. Ubisoft thinks they are stopping piracy and getting more sales but really they are only INCREASING piracy. They are cutting their nose off to spite their face.

Thank god we have more sane alternatives like Steamworks, which while it requires an online download to get the game you can go into offline mode, permanently, if you want. Good Old Games, gog.com, has many great games, including a few more recent releases like both of the Witcher games totally and 100% DRM free! I have bought over 30 games from them.

Hopefully as the industry moves forward they will realize that piracy is going to happen no matter what, that most pirates probably are not their customers to begin with, and that if you put out a good game free of malware-like DRM then people will buy it.

right because DRM free games like "The Witcher 2" have had such great results right? i was so happy to hear CD projekt decided to go DRM free for witcher 2, but the results were a financial disaster! it had a 4:1 pirating ratio!!!! people are just cheap as hell & will pirate anything without giving the developer their due. So i say all the power to em for protecting whats theirs.

Besides the DRM is usually removed 4-6 months after release. The first month is absolutely crucial to sales, so DRM IS needed.
 

ussfletcher

Platinum Member
Apr 16, 2005
2,569
2
81
right because DRM free games like "The Witcher 2" have had such great results right? i was so happy to hear CD projekt decided to go DRM free for witcher 2, but the results were a financial disaster! it had a 4:1 pirating ratio!!!! people are just cheap as hell & will pirate anything without giving the developer their due. So i say all the power to em for protecting whats theirs.

Besides the DRM is usually removed 4-6 months after release. The first month is absolutely crucial to sales, so DRM IS needed.
Why would you say that? There is absolutely no indication that any of those that pirated the game would have bought it anyway. The way I see it is that people that are going to pirate the game, are going to do it regardless of drm or price.

Note: I do not pirate software.
 

merrychristmas

Junior Member
Dec 25, 2012
1
0
0
right because DRM free games like "The Witcher 2" have had such great results right? i was so happy to hear CD projekt decided to go DRM free for witcher 2, but the results were a financial disaster! it had a 4:1 pirating ratio!!!! people are just cheap as hell & will pirate anything without giving the developer their due. So i say all the power to em for protecting whats theirs.

Besides the DRM is usually removed 4-6 months after release. The first month is absolutely crucial to sales, so DRM IS needed.


First of all, your facts are incorrect. Within 2 months of release (August 2011), sales were nearly 1 million copies. [See: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-30-witcher-2-sales-are-nearly-1-million ]. As of May 2012, sales of The Witcher 2: Assasins of Kings exceeded 1.7 million copies based on sales of PC and XBox games. [See: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-30-the-witcher-2-sales-top-1-7-million ]

According to VGChartz.com, sales of this game as of today, Dec 25, 2012, were 1.4 million copies on PC and XBox. According to the same site, sales of Anno 2070 were 0.99 million copies on PC (apparently there is no Xbox version).

Regardless of sales, Ubisoft is certainly not engendering any goodwill among paying customers that feel screwed by your DRM. See these headlines to consider just how screwed paying customers feel:

"Ubisoft DRM server downtime locks players out of Anno 2070" - PCGamer, August 15, 2012

"Ubisoft: Anno 2070 DRM Works As Intended" "On Monday we reported the strange discovery by Guru3D that something so simple as changing your graphics card could use up an activation on Ubisoft game, Anno 2070. At the time I suggested that this was perhaps a bug in the DRM Ubisoft uses, Tages, meaning it was overreacting to hardware changes. It seems I was wrong, and Ubisoft have confirmed to us that this is how they intend the DRM to work." - Rock Paper Shotgun, January 19, 2012. Link: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/19/ubisoft-anno-2070-drm-works-as-intended/

Finally, the assertion that somehow DRM goes away after 4-6 months of a game's release is false. Anno 2070 was released in 2011. Even today, a year later, this game contains the same DRM it had when it was released. Even the downloadable version distributed via Steam, which it itself a DRM based distribution channel, contains the horrible Tages DRM with its 3 hardware profile limit. UBISOFT's senior management is in the business of selling, not in the business of gaming. It will never be a successful company if it simply tries to maximize sales without truly understanding how its products are used. Reduce friction. Learn from Apple, dummies.
 
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Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
right because DRM free games like "The Witcher 2" have had such great results right? i was so happy to hear CD projekt decided to go DRM free for witcher 2, but the results were a financial disaster! it had a 4:1 pirating ratio!!!! people are just cheap as hell & will pirate anything without giving the developer their due. So i say all the power to em for protecting whats theirs.

Besides the DRM is usually removed 4-6 months after release. The first month is absolutely crucial to sales, so DRM IS needed.

You are sadly mistaken and flat out wrong. TW2 sold extremely well, in part because it was an awesome game and well supported by CDP. When Witcher 3 is announced, I'll be one of the first people preordering it from GoG.com.

To the OP, that TAGES activation limit means, in a nutshell, that you should spend your gaming dollars else where.
 

thm1223

Senior member
Jun 24, 2011
336
0
71
How is Anno 2070? Looks like one of the better strategy games to come out recently.
 

Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
2,517
0
71
It's the best city builder I've played in recent history. I really enjoy the more passive eco style with not much military combat. There is a pretty fair chunk of depth to planning. I spent $25 on it I think during a previous sale and didn't regret that at all.
 

paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
6,517
280
126
www.the-teh.com
It's the best city builder I've played in recent history. I really enjoy the more passive eco style with not much military combat. There is a pretty fair chunk of depth to planning. I spent $25 on it I think during a previous sale and didn't regret that at all.

Is it really that deep? I've played the other Anno's and felt they were kind of repetitive and there wasn't a lot to gather and build. Though I don't think I sunk more than 15 hours into any of them.
 

thm1223

Senior member
Jun 24, 2011
336
0
71
Is it really that deep? I've played the other Anno's and felt they were kind of repetitive and there wasn't a lot to gather and build. Though I don't think I sunk more than 15 hours into any of them.

That's how I kind of feel. Also, I have a somewhat specific question. Is the only gameplay mode the mission system, or are there sort of custom games/skirmishes for singleplayer and/or multiplayer?

Oh and also, how does the underwater system work?
 

Ferzerp

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
6,438
107
106
I looked at it, saw tages, passed. (I've probably passed on $500 or more in games in the last 2 or 3 years due to this type of issue).