I was first going to post this in the official SB forums, but since most of you guys visit here also, and I actually want the information for SimHQ visitors/members...

I'm assuming it was shipped as plan, and hoping for a delivery today, tomorrow, or wednesday...

But who do you contact if you either have a problem with the software or your dougle dookie thingy wingy?

Is there set up support (either web site or phone service) to get anyone with problems some answers quickly and accurately?

Thx for any info.

http://www.steelbeasts.com/index.php?nam...r=asc&start=100

They've talked about it in this thread, something like 1 in 20 "might" have problems.

If it flashes green and red it needs to be replaced, so I would be surprised if anyone had alot of trouble getting one replaced.

Also Sean has started this support thread
http://www.steelbeasts.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=6625

I've had experiences with WIBU before. Not too good ones, I might add. Their solution for dongle-protecting a java application was extremely immature and I cooked up a crack in under 1 hour. In the end we decided not to emply a dongle-protection, but resorted to code obfuscation to at least lessen the effectiveness of decompilers. We've also had issues with some of the demonstration dongles being defective. I wonder why they would still have problems with the hardware though. That was 3 years ago, certainly enough time to fix such problems.

why something like this is even necessary for such a "niche" sim is beyond me. More developers should take a cue from the devs for il sturmovik and less time alienating potential clients.

I would have thought a 'niche' market would be even more important for copy protection. Given the fewer expected sales, every potential loss due to piracy is going to be felt more.

NTM

Plus most of the clients for Pro PE are like the people signing my paycheck: military.

They like the idea of people not being able to 'borrow' the software for 'home use', or the ability to buy one set of discs and twenty licenses (and thus dongles).

Of course what is the probability of a government or military pirating software?

Dont get me wrong, Im just going to be UBER PISSED if this freakin dongle thing malfunctions and I have to send **** back to eSim. Been gaming for at least a decade and have never hear dof this.

Now I have Starvirus on my computer from Flaming Cliffs ans will soon have to use this dongle thing along with some unknown software you have to install with the dongle. LAME. If I wasnt such a compulsive sim addict, I would simply tell eSim to keep their "game". See, THAT is the problem. In order to spend 125 bucks AND deal with some suspect copy protection program, you HAVE to be a compulsive addict. This is lmiting the potential customer base. And they wonder why sims are a dieing genre. These companies are digging their own grave. So be it.

Hmm. I can quite understand eSim's concerns - after all, the full DangerousWaters for example was available via Bittorrent WEEKS before the official release. And there were numerous questions and support requests on the official forums before the release date, with the threads being locked and the users being banned because that's insulting beyond words.

Also, companies don't seem to trust the military a lot. I have a copy of VBS1 (the "military-issue" version of Flashpoint) and that too is dongle-protected. It even goes so far as to not allow the installation of any addons that have not been specifically encoded for your dongle ID!

Lastly, a dongle is infinitely more "polite" than crap like Starforce. The dongle doesn't care what software you run, while Starforce effectively "judges" your based on your software. If you have DaemonTools running, then you must be a pirate, right?
(Nevermind that the usage of Daemon Tools for software I legally own is perfectly legal in my country...)

So yes, a dongle is a hindrance. You can loose it, forget it on the wrong computer and it can get broken. It's not "good for the customer", but we could be off worse.

That said, I wish there was a way to have ONE second copy running off the same dongle. Kinda like in TotalAnnihilation where you could have two people playing in a LAN for each present game CD. That's the best way to infect others with the addiction.

Requiring a dongle for each copy will no doubt squelch piracy of this title (unless someone writes a crack, which is not likely for this title), but at the cost of the customer base.
Many people willing to buy this title will not shell out 125 bucks for it. This part of the audience will essentially be lost.

But eh, I guess that's what they're planning SB2 for, right?

Well, I understand what he's saying. No one realy "likes" the new wave's of copyright protect that comes with the new games.

There just doing there best to "Protect" them selves in reality. They know this is something that will bother there customers.

But hey! what are you going to do. You make a small product, for a nich market. And what is the avarage number of lost sales due to illegal copys?? 40-50%?? And now you have even a small amount of sales. And a game that cost $125 is a prime canidate to be riped off!

The point is, we the customers brought this on our selves! How can we blame them?

I'll be honest, I was planning on copying it myself! I've got a buddy who can't affort it at the momment. And I offered to make a copy. He said, "Wait, its got that dongle thingy"

There is $125 saved by e-sim. Becuse he will have to save and buy his own! And he will.

And I would be very surprised if there was "ANYONE" in here that can say, "I've never copied a game, or music CD to give a friend"

Well...here's one gamer that has never made a copy, games and or music, for anyone. And shame on you with those thoughts about copying SB Pro.

Let me just follow up my previous post to say THANK YOU eSIM! I am thoroughly impressed and pleasantly surprised by the graphics. IMHO, the game looks GREAT at 1280x1024. You undersold your work in the graphics area big time. There is a lot to learn here.

As far as the dongle thingy goes, it worked flawlessly as I knew it would. Never doubted your decision to go with it from the beginning. By the way, my stick flashes red and green when you put it in but stops after a few seconds. The sim works so the flashing isnt necessarily a sign that you are screwed.

Great work...looking forward to years of support!

Think tomorrow looks like a sick day for me.

This "Dongle" is going to provide years upon years of humour online.

Oh the possiblities....

shure..........

Not even music huh? Well, what about you... A 1%er. Someone give this one a gold star. ADA boy

Roguesnake... just drop it now... I have never done it either so don't try and justify your reasoning... let that topic go.

*warned*

We just had our first Co-op game at SB.com .
It was a little "Bradley" scenario against Russians .

It was great and flawless
Join in !

Cheers .

The SB.com Teamspeak server is on fire with People playing and hosting like mad !!!

Cheers .

Green and red is a good thing. Green and red for ever isnt such a good thing.

Well, people here complain about copy prevention solutions that make them inconvenient to use and which occasionally reduce the functionality of the target system - to put it in the most neutral words I can come up with. I totally understand that this drives some people mad. In fact, I don't like the implications of these solutions either, especially not the fact that they make life harder for legitimate users while those using cracked versions laugh about the hassle to which the legitimate user is subjected.

There's two possible solutions left, if copy prevention solutions are not desired - not using any kind of protection mechanism at all (which means losing customers to the pirates, which means a higher software price for the legitimate users to make up for the losses to piracy), or to use hardware protection (dongle).
We decided to use the CodeMeter dongle because it seems to be reasonably easy to use, offers many advantages like the ability to distribute SB Pro PE and its subsequent upgrades through BitTorrent or other peer to peer networks, and it cuts off the threat of "underlicensing" - that is, armies buying licenses from us, but not enough of them.

What made us opt for the CodeMeter stick were the additional options like being a repository for better passwords of websites, the capability to store many licenses of different software developers in a single stick, as well as making backups of your license/reprogram licenses and sending them out by email.
The value of the CodeMeter will become more and more obvious in the long run, I think. The better we learn to integrate its features in future versions of our software, the better we will be able to adjust the license conditions to the needs of this community.

Ssnake: One point to remember when considering such protections is the chance of the protection getting cracked. If this happens, you essentially loose all the positive points, with the negative ones still remaining.

I have pre-ordered SB Pro but admit that I probably would've downloaded it just to play "a little sooner" if it had been available.

Ah, underlicensing. Yes that's too true. A colleague of mine recently sold "just one license" of a product to Nortel, a week after someone there asked for the price on "more than 10 licenses". :rolleyes: - How more obvious could it get?

Seriously: The dongle seems to work pretty flawlessly. If this trend continues, I have absolutely no problems with it. Time will tell. My only fear is that now we have to worry about losing support from TWO companies. If either link fails, I fear this sim may become unplayable?

ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING SIM. If you are debating the cost, don't. It is worth it. Will be on my HD for years.

We need some hyperlobby support for this sim now!

We should seriosuly consider setting up a few teams and have a SimHQ league or something. I can't think of a better sim to team play with.

Bravo guys....Ive been waiting many years for this sim. The holy grail of computer gaming is here.