Yea that's exactly the problem I'm talking about. If this is how stardock operates then I won't be purchasing anymore of their software. This is a backwards and suspicious way of doing things

hello and thank you for your reply and yes that's what it seems like I agree, but it's not practical and it's punishing the customers who bought the game. Lets face it, there is no 100% fool proof copy protection. This system will not prevent the pirates, they will simply get a working email and one registered game code and use it to take the patch, or worst get the patch and rig it so it can be distributed out with a hack full of viruses. This system only makes it frustraiting for the honest people.

No company can say they will be around and online forever (look at Enron), it ties my hands to have go through impulse/sd central to get a patch. Not only that it didn't even work correctly, I installed my game from the cd's which are a couple years old now and my stardock was out dated. I downloaded impulse and tried to "import/detect" my game and it only detected the expansion and not galciv2, so I ended up fooling with it for a couple of hours only to just throw my hands up and have to download the entire game from stardock.Yes I also tried to download the new version of SDcentral, I did that and it saw both games installed as they were but when trying to apply the patch I got an invalid url error. When looking on the forums I saw others having this problem but didn't see a solution.

This is a backwards, frustraiting, rediculous way of having to update a game I purchased. All I needed was to take one simple little patch and apply it...done.

Sorry I don't mean to rant here but I'm really surprised and yes frustraited with stardock for doing it this way. Honestly guys lets drop the Nazi way of guarding your patches and get with the rest of the world here. Don't make it annoying for PAYING customers to get a freaking patch.

Yes but that isn't the point, It's a great feature to be able to download the game and I'm not knocking that, it's innovative and a really great option but the point is if stardocks folds or if you don't have access to the internet your sunk. Most other game companies out there give out stand alone patches, they offer these for free and open to everyone. locking down the patches doesn't prevent pirating, that's totally ludicrous and it's defies all good sense for stardock to go down this road.

I have some old games that I still like to play now and then. Total Annhiliation is one of them, Cavedog who made the game went out of business but because they gave out stand alone patches you can still download and apply them. They even made additional units for the game all in stand alone mode.

You bring up an excellent point Mtrixis. I would like to add that once your Impulse games are installed and patched if you wish, you can actually uninstall Impulse from your computer if you want.

Who knows they may release them....or they may not. Why not just give us the patch now in stand alone?....like everyone else does. Also I am saying that installing Impulse is intrusive, I'm saying I don't like having to be at the mercy of stardock simply to get a patch. It actually seems a little shady of them not release the patch in stand alone form, this anti pirating reason is really not believable since anyone can very easily bypass it.

Why is it whenever a failure is pointed out in the game some die hard fan runs in and makes the same old tired accusations and comments. If you want kiss stardocks feet and give them your shirt so they can wipe their feet on it then be my guest, but being a paying customer I look at it a little differently. They made a great game and I'm happy with it but being a customer paying for the product I would like a little more warranty here. I don't want to be holding the bag if stardock goes out of business (hopefully this doesn't happen) which many companies are now a days. Why can't they give us the same stand alone patches as any other mainstreak publisher does? I've been purchasing and playing games for many years and have never seen this kind manditory system before. If others do it the same way they are in the minority. It's a perfectly legit and reasonable question.

It's not as restrictive as it seems. You can do like me:

1. Instal Impulse

2. Update your game

3. use impulse to create an archive of your installed and patched game

4. use your cd burner to burn impulse and the archive

5. remove impulse

now you just need to reinstall impulse next time you need to reinstall the game.

you don't need to be online to use impulse. think of it as win-zip / win-rar or any other archiving software

you don't need impulse to be installed to play the game , only for the few minutes you actually dowload and install the patch. And each time you'll want to reinstall the game from the archive after that (without needing to go online) and only for the time required to install the patch (after which you can remove impulse again, since you got a copy of the impulse installer  on that same cd anyway)

so if you're paranoid, don't worry, you can be as paranoid as you want, Stardock is nice for that, they don't prevent us from protecting ourselves.

Myself I hate the new DMR/ need to be logged in trend of some company and general invasivness. Best protection from hackers is always to be disconected. (and have a good firewall / antivirus, of course, for when you're connected)

I've used the above methods many time, I don't like having games on my computer when I got lots of exams/report. School comes first. So install / reinstall every 2 months or so. poor hard disk 8D So be assured the method work.

And yes, it means you can play thoses games even if Stardock goes bankrupt, since the method works perfectly. I never had to go back online to install the patched/archived version on my backup disk.

Anyhow, try it, it's explained in the faq somewhere, and if not I remember someone wrote a guide on how to archive your game using impulse. I burned a copy on that same disk in case I forgot what button to click

Nice, I hadn't thought of that.

Why wouldn't you like Impulse anyway?  I think it's great.  It was hard for me to accept at first because I'm very much a system tray minimalist, but after I accepted Impulse living in my system tray I've found it definitely deserves the privilege.  (Besides it beats the crap out of "Steam" which is a pile of rubbish and steamy dog poop.)

I definitely did NOT regret this decision when upgrading my PC recently - re-installing all the stuff I purchased via Impulse is WAY easier than locating all those CDs (and keys) all over again.  Impulse is the first place I look to buy stuff from now.  It's even easier than online game download stores (never can remember the location/login info for those things); once it's installed and set up you have access to everything.

I just wish there was a way to add OLD games that I've purchased before I was using Impulse as much as possible.  I'd even pay a few bucks fee (in addition to whatever I paid for the old box version) to Stardock for the download/install convenience... doubt it'll ever happen though.

[/quote]Even if it's not a huge amount for each patch, it adds up over time.[/quote]

But isn't that what impulse is doing as well? It must have to do all the exact same functions a stand alone patch installer have to do. How exactly is impulse saving time? I would think once an installer was coded its engine could be used for any future stand alone patch that was made. It seemed you folks were doing that up until 1.4 so what changed after that?

See where I'm going with this is why doesn't Stardock relax on this point, If someone is truely out to pirate the game they are going to do it as much as it sucks but I see no advantage in annoying your paying customers to get some false sense of security here. It's making the honest people pay. Granted there are lots of people that like impulse and have no problem with it but also granted there are lots that don't like it and to keep the patches locked away isn't fair to those people. You can certainly understand why people would like the stand alone patch right?

Again I'm not saying this in a harsh way but let's improve the current way of doing things.

As for the database corruption, yes I did see the announcment and attempted to edit that question out of my post, however everytime I tried Save changes and post the system would error out. I've been having lots of issues posting in the forums as it usually takes several attempts to actually get my post to take. I've used both IE and firefox and cleared cache etc but the issue remains.

No usually a game provider will give you 1 stand alone patch that update you to the latest version. As I've said in here already my beefs with impulse is it's an intrusive peice of software that I don't want to have to install in the first place simply to update my game when 1 simple stand alone patch can do that. Also with stand alone patches you get to keep them on your hard drive, or burn them to cd so if in the event stardock and impulse vanish then you can still update your game thanks to the stand alone patch. it's for your benefit to have the stand alone patch, pretty much all game providers give you stand alone patches, except stardock and few others not even worth mentioning.

Total Annhilation is a good example, a great game made 13yrs ago that many people still play and make mods for. Cavedog the company that created it when bankrupt 3 yrs after making the game but thanks to thier stand alone patches you can still download them and update your game. With stardocks impulse if they vanish what are you going to do? Your only way of updating your game is gone and because they refuse to make stand alone patches your stuck, the customer that supported them by giving them money is stuck. A pretty pathetic situation in my view that didn't need to happen. That's what I'm talking about here. I can't really understand why anyone who paid money for a product would walk away from that, it's like not getting warranty. Most other game companies give stand alone patches out on their websites ....in fact lots will give you stand alone patches AND give you a tool to update your game online like impulse does.

I don't care if they keep impulse going but dammit give us the patches to, I want to save mine and back them up, it's a reasonable request and practically everyone else acknolodges that and gives these patches out.

Thanks for your post Joel,  Yes I'm aware of what the typical fanatical hardcore fan is like and if they want to attack me that's fine, I can always use a good laugh. I appreciate what you're saying but I honestly cannot understand why any thinking human being would purposly shoot themselves in the foot by not wanting to keep the fix for a game they paid for. I'm pointing this patch stuff out not just for myself but for all paying customers. Hell leave impulse running but provide stand alone patches to.

I'm not here saying the game sucks or that stardock sucks etc I'm simply asking why and I'm sorry but I a thinking person and don't just bob my head up and down even if the reason given makes no sense.

I'm saying that stardock is poorly serving "the customers" by not providing something that practially everyone else does and their excuses don't make logical sense. Most other game companies are happy to give you the fix for your game and let you keep it. Impulse doesn't prevent pirating and as for the expense to create a stand alone patch well the code for it has already been made, that's exactly what impulse is already doing. It's already been written, if you have impulse installed there it is guys your working patch installer the only thing it's doing differently is downloading the patch for you, it isn't magical. They were even making the patch installer up until 1.4

So if impulse doesn't prevent pirating which I think we can agree that it really doesn't and since impulse has to follow the same rules as a patch installer would the only real difference is that it downloads the patch for you but it still has to install it right? So those two reasons really don't make sense, so what's left? what other reason is there for forcing everyone to use impulse?

So my posts are here to get you to really _think_ about _why_ you are using impulse, and _why_ you will be holding the bag when and if stardocks goes out of business. Also to point out the value of stand alone patches and to see if Stardock if for real and is going to step up to the plate and deliver for ALL customers.

I don't really think Stardock wants everyone to be holding the bag if they go down and I have to believe that they want to serve those that paid for their game but you have to make choices right? We understand that the code needs to be protected and I can accept that but put in a system that makes sense, I don't appreciate going through hoops for no reason or being forced to use an intrusive 3rd party software program to update my game and I want to keep my fixes on my hard drive. I want to be able to install them on a computer with no internet and I want them in case SD goes offline. Its a totally reasonable request! It's not reasonable to expect someone to archive the entire freaking game and store all of that and to keep archiving it every single time a patch is produced. It's pretty standard, you install from your cd and apply the latest patch, there you go all done.

I think it's really in stardocks best interest to address this issue, I'm not the only one out there that doesn't like impulse so why not provide patches. They don't have to be once a week, I mean crap leave impulse running and put an update in there everyday if you want to and maybe throw a cumulitive stand alone patch out there once every 6 months or something. I don't think that's asking for much and I don't think I'm being unreasonable. Like I've said pretty much everyone else does that.