Silent Hunter 4-funny twist on the whiners

**Forward Observer** · 03-24-2007, 21:03

The 4th installment in the Silent Hunter submarine sim franchise was released on Tuesday or Wednesday this past week,

This version moves the action back to the WW II US submarine fleet in the Pacific like the first game in the series. The middle two games were both about the German UBoat war--mostly in the North Atlantic.

Of course like any new game, the various fan forums are filled to no end with the usual mix of fanboys, whiners, and trolls.

A patch was issued within two days of release, and looking at the huge number of fixes and additions it contains, it is pretty obvious that tons of intended content were simply left out, or not made functional, to meet the release date.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the norm now, especially for game sequels. I have no doubt that the game will become very playable once they are through patching and the mod community has a chance to fix the rest just as they did for the previous SH games. (sounds kind of like a franchise we all know and love--doesn't it?)

Anyway, what my post is about is an absolutely hysterical and ironic fact that has also just been revealed by the developers in the last two days.

One of the complaints that many of the whiners have been posting about is that while in game some of the crew members turn to 2D figures, or their eyes pop out of their heads. They also start shouting strings of meaningless numbers.

It turns that this is part of the copy protection system and is actually intended. In other words these weird anomalies only happen if one is running a pirated copy of the game.

I find this to be hilarious, and a fitting comeuppance for those miscreants who have the nerve to complain when their stolen property doesn't work.

Cheers

**Sasaki Kojiro** · 03-24-2007, 21:16

Haha that's great.

For an fps game they could make it so at a certain point in a level you always die no matter what if your copy is pirated...and everyone with a real copy thinks that part is easy.

**professorspatula** · 03-24-2007, 22:37

I'm sure I remember reading about a developer or publisher saying how they might introduce some kind of degraded experience to those playing with a pirated game. IE everything starts well, then things get worse, so much so you have to get yourself a proper copy to sort everything out. Of course, I'm sure some crafty coders will be able to get around such things, or a few genuine customers come undone. There's usually the odd innocent who gets caught up. Anyway, seems the SH4 have gone down this path. But are they still running that awful Starforce software?

**Blodrast** · 03-24-2007, 22:42

Cool, SH4 - must check it out! Thanks for the heads-up, FO.
And it is hilarious indeed.
Btw, this is not new in the least, somewhat similar things have been done in the past - I still chuckle sometimes when I fire up the good old Castles 2, where the way to check for an original copy is a message that tells you that there's an epidemic of theft in the "realm", and in order to prove you're worthy of a candidate for the King of Bretagne, you have to answer the following question...
You get two tries, and after the second failed one, they tell you that blah-blah, you failed in your quest, and show a screenshot with a hooded executioner beheading you :)
Not the same thing, sure, but in the same vein, a little.

**Husar** · 03-24-2007, 23:05

Operation Flashpoint already had this kind of copy protection.
I once just tried to play it on teo computers with the same key etc and in the same MP session, there were objects missing on one computer etc.
I then knew they did not want me to use my copy on 2 computers.

**Forward Observer** · 03-24-2007, 23:18

There is no Starforce.

Ubisoft has quit using this type of copy protection due to all the controversy. I read somewhere that Ubi actually took a poll across their various game forums, and as a result canceled the use of Starforce for all future games.

Someone actually brought a class action suit against either them or Starforce, but I don't know if it went to any sort of formal litagation.

Of course there is a way around Starforce for some of the games if one utilzes the no disk (you know what) option, but I understand that this can cause conflicts with the mods that have been developed---at least for SH3

It would be nice if they re-issued Silent Hunter 3 without it, and I think Ubisoft is missing quite a few additional sales by not doing so. I still play the original, but I would certainly buy a re-issue if they released it sans Starforce.

I recently had to replace a CD/DVD read/write drive that just quit working, and although i have no idea if Starforce had anything to do with it, I would just feel better if i could continue the play the game with my system totally free of that Draconian crap.

The publishers of the space sim X3 Reunion re-released their game without Starforce, and everybody I know that had the original went out and bought an additional copy of Starforce free edition.

Cheers

**Kekvit Irae** · 03-24-2007, 23:58

I remember playing Pirates! Gold and if you got the copyright protection answers wrong, the game slowly became unplayable.

**Evil_Maniac From Mars** · 03-25-2007, 06:27

Originally Posted by Sasaki Kojiro

Haha that's great.

For an fps game they could make it so at a certain point in a level you always die no matter what if your copy is pirated...and everyone with a real copy thinks that part is easy.

My copy of Battle for Middle Earth did that.

It was legally purchased.

**Rodion Romanovich** · 03-25-2007, 09:34

Cool! I'm currently playing the predecessor SHIII and it's been great so far...
My current mission (I'm on my 13th or 14th patrol or so) has been amazing - I managed to sink all the escorts of a large convoy over several in-game hours, and just after I sunk the last one, night fell. Perfect conditions for a uboat, you might think, but there was one additional annoying little detail - the weather was too rough (11 m/s wind) to allow me to use the deck gun

... so I've been following the convoy for about 24 in-game hours to see if eventually the winds will slow down before I get too close to the Irish and Scottish coast, so I can start picking off all the merchants one by one.

**edyzmedieval** · 03-25-2007, 11:17

And to think that my fellow Romanians did that... Can't wait to slap them. :slap:

I will probably buy SHIV, if it's at a good price.

**Rodion Romanovich** · 03-25-2007, 12:09

by the way, does anyone have any good tips for becoming more successful with the torpedoes launched from the aft tubes? I don't think I've hade more than 1 hit out of 10 fired - I'm a lot more successful than that with the bow tubes. Since I'm still a beginner at the game I'm still using the automatic torpedo aiming.