Nats II

Join Date 06/2006

Cant register to get update and stardock doesnt work

Hi. I just bought GalCiv II yesterday and cant get it to register my serial number at all. I've installed the game and registered here and with stardock but neither seems to be accepting my serial number (which by the way is on the second disk not the back of the manual as it says in the game instructions).

I have the normal English game, not collectors edition, bought from Game Ltd and the installed version says 1.0X.02 or something like that. The game plays fine out of the box but when I try to update to version 1.20 it is asking for activiation whenever it isnt accepting the serial number I'm putting in. Does the serial number have to be put in in lower or upper caps? Or does it not matter? Ive tried both and either way it keeps saying 'error with validation' or something.

Similarly when I try to upgrade the game using Stardock the game asks me to recheck my product registration details and when I put in my email address and serial number Stardock says 'email address not found on our records'. Which is rubbish because if I ask for a 'serial number look up' they send the email to me ok. But the email they send me doesnt have my serial number in it for GalCiv2.

Please can someone sort this out for me thanks as I'm getting rather fed up. I don;t want to take the game back and this is the first time Ive ever had a problem registering a product.

Regards
Nigel Stutt

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INCLUDE the - (dashes) and letters should be all caps I think

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I havent got any dashes in my serial number just 28 letters and numbers.

Nats

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

If you got it in Europe, you can go to https://www.galciv2.com/paradox/ and trade it in online for one that works (Paradox screwed up and left out the game serials, only including the one to unlock the special collector's content).

If you got it in the US, Take 2 (the company manufacturing the retail boxes) also screwed up and about 1000 of the Collector's Editions went out from the latest run with incorrect serials in them. Please contact support@stardock.com and they'll straighten it out for you next time the office is open (should be Monday, but may be later due to the holiday Tuesday).

Sorry for the inconvenience.

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Its not a collectors edition of the game so I only have one serial number.

I wish manufacturers would leave 1 and 0 out of serial numbers altogether or alternatively programme them to accept either zero or O and L or 1 for the numbers/letters so theres no mistake. What happened to making these tests foolproof which is the way I was tought how to program? Wouldnt help me though I have tried both and neither have worked.

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

In that case contact support@stardock.com and explain to them the problem. They should be in Monday so you should have a response by Monday night EDT.

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Yes Ive done that already thanks will see what they have to say probably just a faulty serial number or something.

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No comments from Stardock so far. I will give it another day. If I dont get a response tomorrow I'm taking it back to Game for a refund. Theres no point in trying to play the game in its present state its bugged to hell. I cant even see the components I'm adding in the ship designer!

Nats

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

It appears they are closed today (and assumably tomorrow as well, being July 4). They should be back in and answer Wednesday. Please be patient a little longer--you won't regret it!

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My only concern is that there is a limit on how long Game Ltd will accept a no quibble refund I think. Probably a week. And I bought it on Friday. I could take it back and consider buying another hopign the serial number will be ok. But I cant help thinking that the problem is at Stardocks end not with my serial number and therefore now I have tried to register a game once it probably will never work with any serial number.

I'll probably just wait and see what happens. I might pop into town on Thursday just to see if there are any other copies of the gaem kicking around but I cant remember seeing any recently.

Nats

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Hi

Further to the set of emails sent to Stardock recently (see above) and not having received any response from them today I took the game back to the shop for a refund. I have since bought another copy of Gal Civ 2 and I registered that copies serial number perfectly well. So it seems obvious to me that the original game I got (see serial number at bottom of this post) was bought by someone, registered, and then they took the game back to the shop for a refund. And so when I bought it I couldnt register the serial number. Obviously the original purchaser has kept the game on his computer and has updated it using this serial number and also got his money back after returning the game to the shop. This is a potential problem with Stardocks choice of software protection I believe especially where the likes of Game Ltd in the UK offer a ten day hastle free exchange for their games.

Personally I cant see anything wrong with the ago old protection system of having to type in a word from the manual once a month or so. As long as the manual is quite large theres no way pirates are going to bother photcopying that for every game they copy. Why bother with all this activation nonsense?

The reason I have stated the number below is so that Stardock can choose whether to deactivate the serial number or let the original purchaser get away with theft. If I was them I would also deactivate his account and ban him from registering any future software. But then maybe thats me just being in a vindictive mood.

Regards
Nigel Stutt

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