I'm not angry or bothered by this thread. I've just tried to point out the facts and make some logical assumptions. I took exception to some of the comments made and addressed them.

Does the Gold release include Starforce?

pfunk

I think some of us feel that since Lock On and Flaming Cliffs are Eagle Dynamics software, we should be hearing more from them on the issue, even if it is somebody else that is causing all of the trouble. ED coded this sim, and ED is patching this sim, so to me it seems like they are "in charge" of this sim. Perhaps not an entirely rational expectation, but one that makes sense on a gut level.

I also see it as in their best interests to tell us something substantial, because this makes them look bad IMO regardless of their actual role in the entire situation. I guess that's what this whole thing comes down to, really; it's not ED's fault, but they are unfortunately the easiest to blame.

Unfortunately, yes. I installed it this evening and at this moment SF is preventing me from running Lock On. I've sent my error report to SF support. I'm waiting to hear back. Sure seems like there should be a better way.....


Jon

Joe,

Lock On is a Ubi Soft property. TFC/ED owns the code.

I will agree, as I have stated numerous times, that TFC/ED needs to have an official spokesperson to keep their customers and the community informed. But again, this entire Gold fiasco was created by other companies and NOT TFC/ED. Why put the burden on them to clean up a mess that was created by others? They did the most logical and appropriate thing they could: They contacted Evolved and worked out a deal that allowed the product to ship.

I don't buy into the "easiest to blame" routine. It's ill-informed and ignorant. I've already asked once for someone to tell me what TFC/ED should have done differently. Beside having an official spokesperson, how would you have handled the situation?

I think most of the blame for this lies with Evolved, but on the other hand it should have been possible for ED to speak to Evolved and perhaps make a statement some time ago. It has been quite a while since Gold was first advertised and brought to their attention in the forums after all.

Those who bought Lock On Gold. Do you still need to have the cd in the drive to play? Thank you.

1.02 wasn't to be the last free patch for LOMAC 1.0.

There was a 12 month agreement to fix lockon 1.00.

At least two 'unofficial' official statements to highlight exactly why unofficial statements are worth nothing.

Unless it's from ED's mouth officially it is all subject to change - and we'd all be foolish to make any decisions based on unofficial statements Simply because ED are not bound by anything that is said by 'unofficial' representatives and we have a history of unofficial statements being wrong.

From what I've heard, yes. I can't tell you first hand though since I'm STILL waiting for Starforce support to reply to my error report

Yes. The disk is required to be in the drive. After you get the code from StarForce and enter it, the game will load. You'll notice that it will not sit there going through a bunch of verification actions with the StarForce popup on the screen.

Thank you Spyfence.

Since it requires the cd in the drive. Does it take a long time to load?

To Francis: How long have you been waiting to get a Starforce activation?

Doctor,

Not long at all. Put the disk in, Hit start when the screen pops up, and the game starts loading. No additonal checks at the StarForce popup, but the time to get to the opening Lock On screen may vary based on your system.

16 hours and counting.

Francis,

Who did you send your email too and did you send the report along with it? Just asking. I sent my first to StarForce on Saturday afternoon. I figured they weren't at work, but I wanted to get in line.

They got back with me on Sunday and once I started working with them, the response back from them was very fast.

I sent an email to support@star-force.com asking what I needed to do to get the code. They responded to this email within less than 30 minutes telling me to send the report. When I got home from work in the evening I sent them another email with the report file attached. That was 16 hours and 45 minutes ago.


Jon

Thank you for the fast reply Spyfence. Okay let me get this straight. Since the cd is required to play the game. Is it only a cd check or does Starforce checks for validation using your internet connection?

I heard that those who has the downloaded version. Obviously cd is not required but starforce checks through some master server type method to validate the key. Is this the same for the Natural Point version (cd check only) ?

I would rather have the cd check only option.

Can you please provide us a copy of the contract that states this? Sounds like conjecture to me.

Doctor,

I'm not sure what happens behind the scene, but the time it takes to get to the opening screen in the game, on my machine anyway, appears to be the same as it did with 1.02. It's like the StarForce code validation is being skipped, but don't hold me to that.

Sent mine last night around 9 pm and received a code this morning. Unfortunately, they failed to tell me what to do with this code. I was never prompted to enter a code during the verification process. It simply failed and generated the report.

I purchased Gold edition yesterday. There were no CD keys in the box. After full instllation, SF did not recognize the disk. I downloaded "the StarForce driver uninstall utility" from here and it worked in CDROM drive but did not work in DVD drive.

Also I am not sure how to check/activate whether I have the seasonal pack on Gold CD. Can someone tell me how to activate/get seasonal pack? Also should I get key code from SF anyway even if it works?