[Bug] Game hangs when network unavailable. Bad DRM.

from Demigod Forums

Last night Stardock's servers were down for whatever reason (couldn't login to Impulse, couldn't play Demigod online, couldn't connect to forums, etc.).  When I tried to launch Demigod under these conditions the game would hang for an extended period of time just after the intro movie before the main menu appears.

Now I'm a big fan of Stardock primarily because of their anti-DRM policy and while I trust that this isn't caused by a DRM phone home, it sure feels like the exact same problems that occurs when DRM breaks a game.  I don't know why Demigod needs to phone home before I get to the main menu (I can understand needing to connect to play multiplayer) but in almost any other case I would scream DRM and run away to my nearest pirating facility to get a "fixed" copy.

1,287 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

Welcome to the Beta.  Connectivitiy will not be required on release.

Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

Connectivity is expected once I attempt to login to the multiplayer section.  I would not expect any connections to be made before the main menu.  On top of that, it's a bug that the game locks up when a connection cannot be established.  It should either be done in the background or polled periodically, not blocked until the connection succeeds.

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Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

I think they created the beta this way to count who and when people are playing it. As said earlier it is part of the beta experience. Not because it is the only way, but because they want it.

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

The game checks the version at startup and notifies the player if an update will be needed to play online, so this is probably just an unforseen issue with that. Nothing to do with DRM.

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting kryo, reply 4
The game checks the version at startup and notifies the player if an update will be needed to play online, so this is probably just an unforseen issue with that. Nothing to do with DRM.
End of kryo's quote

That check should be done when the player clicks on multiplayer like all other online games.   Definitely a bug.

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

RedAlert3 did the same which made for some really long game startup when the checkup server was busy.