Penalties for those who play a pirated copy of Automation

[vmo]

In my opinion (I have a pirated software by me for personal use (pc's, psp, ps3, nds, wii, but NOT PS3 or a few software for PC created by small companies, for example, this), the price is first to reduce or avoid this phenomenon, because, for example, I have downloaded the NFS the Run for PC, because I have more bugs for the elevated price.
The second, there are people who download pirated software to test how it works, if it's worth .. to buy if it is satisfied with the original.
The first, the people bought few or little software (may seem silly, but I will explain what is true), the piracy software that makes itself known to more people.
In my opinion, Automation is a game worth buying because it is very complete, and we must support the creators of this game because they have much future.
(I bought this game).

[TecnoLord]

a good way to make people pay for products is the "apple" way:
make online content and upgrades available for people with a registered (and payed) license key.
You dont have to pay a montly amount to have the benefits of a membership.

If people like to invest money to support the devs they can opt for a monthly fee. (with or without any additional incentive)

i think 25 or 35 dollar isn't much for a game. It is a game for a large (tycoon games) but also nice market (not everyone is interested in building engineblocks i guess.)

[Nightmare5oh]

Validate once and then offline play, with validation required again for every update. Validation being logging on with current credentials, and limiting that user id or user code to two or three IPs at a time. IPs registered in a database that can be changed from the users end.

ex: I have a laptop and a desktop.
-Database has me logged in as Nightmare5oh with registration code XXXXXXX
-Code XXXXXXX can unlock the purchased game on two IPs max: Laptop xxx.xxx.xx.x and desktop xxx.xx.xx.x
-Code XXXXXXX will only work on these two IPs until I change them from the (my) user control panel, so if I break my laptop I can go in, take that IP off, and reregister
(using my original registration code) the game on a new laptop.

I guess steam does something like this... sort of? Probably not, I don't know. This might stop piracy if the registration code has to be matched to a user id, and a user will be needed to play and get updates.

I think I lost a braincell or twelve trying to come up with that.

[viperfan]

ONly give them 2 cylinders and always make their engines explode.

[Kubboz]

Validate once and then offline play, with validation required again for every update. Validation being logging on with current credentials, and limiting that user id or user code to two or three IPs at a time. IPs registered in a database that can be changed from the users end.

ex: I have a laptop and a desktop.
-Database has me logged in as Nightmare5oh with registration code XXXXXXX
-Code XXXXXXX can unlock the purchased game on two IPs max: Laptop xxx.xxx.xx.x and desktop xxx.xx.xx.x
-Code XXXXXXX will only work on these two IPs until I change them from the (my) user control panel, so if I break my laptop I can go in, take that IP off, and reregister
(using my original registration code) the game on a new laptop.

I guess steam does something like this... sort of? Probably not, I don't know. This might stop piracy if the registration code has to be matched to a user id, and a user will be needed to play and get updates.

I think I lost a braincell or twelve trying to come up with that.

That won't work for one reason: dynamic IPs.

[NvidiaForTheWin]

my opinion is .. don't lose time and hard work for nothing.
doing anything against game pirate will only slow down 100 kids over 99999999999999999999999 player so totally useless to work on that.
cracker will crack it in a second whatever the protection.

the true fact is that gamer pirate game to TRY it because demo is piece of sh*t limited everywhere and you can't even know if you really like the game.
if they like it , they go buy it ! if they hate it , they uninstall it ! END OF STORY !

i personaly NEVER bought a game without trying it cracked first ( offline and online game ).
i play all battlefield game serie since the first one ( battlefield 1942 ) to the last one ( battlefield 3 ) , command and conquer ( ALL ) and much more.
but guess what ? after trying them without any limitation ( f**ki*g demo ! ) using crack , i've gone bought them all.

sure i wasnt able to play them online.... but the offline mode was working and that gave me enought to know i like the games after like 20 minute on the cracked version.

but for a game like that.... there no way it can't be cracked and playable.

i also cracked minecraft to try it.... 15 minute after i bought it online.

this is not only me ! there is several gaming tv show talking about it and 70% of gamer do the same. they don't use the cracked game forever.

IF THEY LIKE , THEY BUY !

if i was you... i would never lose time doing this. you guys do a hard work and the result is impressive. just keep the good job !

i'm not saying GO CRACK IT to cracker... i'm saying the truth about it.

did you know ? game compagny make more money since most game are cracked. because its way better than a demo and most gamer buy it after.

the best solution if you wanna lose time is a FULL GAME DEMO with time limitation but cracker will remove it anyway.




if you put a luncher with login , they will bypass it the same way as Minecraft ( cracked launcher , removed online login with password , only put a nickname and ready to go )
to explain what they did , here 2 image from google

official


cracked


all that to say there always a way to bypass/crack something.
not worth working hard on something against crack.

just my opinion to save you lots of time

[vexican]

a way to stop pirates is to have a file that holds launcher information that makes it work then make it so it cannot be copied this would only slow down crackers so have a triple identification system that will only launch the game if the game gets all three ID's this will slow down the pirates a bit more but there is no way to avoid it all together

[Mitchd03]

I like the idea of Pirate fuel. Only be able to run the car on "Ethanol (Rum)", 85ron and not quite as much energy as other fuels.

OT: How about ethanol fuels?

[arkejn]

Iirc, Garry, GMOD creator, added update which cause polygon error for pirated copies. People who started threads about this error on gmod's forums so it was easy to track them and ban from using game.
quote from one of the websites

Garry Newman, of Garry's Mod, has revealed that he's introduced a deliberate error into the latest version of his game with the intention of identifying pirates.

The update causes a 'Unable to shade polygon normals' error in pirated versions of the game.

'Just enabled this error in GMod today. It happens when you pirated it. Having fun watching people complain.' Garry said on Twitter.

As well as damaging the game experience for pirates, the error also includes the user's SteamID within in - meaning that pirates can be identified when they paste the error online while looking for help. This means their Steam accounts can then be banned. (UPDATE: Garry has since confirmed to Bit-Gamer that accounts are not being banned, as was originally reported.)

I think it's a good way to trick people.

[Raticon]

Codemasters old gem, the cold-war soldier-simulator "Operation Flashpoint" from 2001 used a very sophisticated system for countering pirates, they introduced a system called "FADE" where the quality of a pirated product simly faded over time. Rifles didn't shoot straight, tanks moved slower and slower and couldn't hit straight either, the controls for a helicopter would become more and more sluggish over time. But you could still "play" the game, some people even managed to break into their online-service, but it was easy to defeat an opponent who had "Fade" kicking in as he could hardly shoot you at point blank range and every vehicle he attempted to drive was moving at walking-pace and could hardly steer.

If the dev's manage to make such a "feature" it would perhaps make all your engines knock more easily over time, or make all your bottom end parts fail more easily for everytime you start the game. As in "Operation Flashpoint" the most regular reaction was to simply buy the game after hours and hours of trying to break the FADE-system, as you could still, in a very degraded way, "enjoy" the game and the features.

Also, Battlegoat, the makers of the "Supreme Ruler" series of grand-scale strategy games did a nifty thing, they disabled the ability for players of pirated games to save their progress. So they iether had to let the game run constantly and never shut off their computers or go and buy the game. Simple and effective. Anyone who can't save the engine they have fine-tuned for 2 hours or the car-body of their most favourite car thay have worked on for several hours will rip out their hair in frustration when they have to make it all over again.

But please don't do like Ubisoft. Anything but Ubisofts DRM-"feature" that have it's habit of ruining perfectly legit and legally aquired games. I would cry if you do...

[noobinsnipe]

I want to buy the game..... I need some money.. and a credit card.. if not please.. make it IN THE STORES>..... in all the countries! I love automation!

[USDMFTW]

No DRM bullshit please, this is not EA.

[kgeen1987]

So just a thought. What about an authentication server that's running more or less a SQL server, or even an Access database that would store your username and game key, and could allow a simple 0 or 1 option to your account. 1 if it's in use, 0 if it's not. This would allow for any computer to run the game, but tied directly to your username, since you should be the only one using your account anyways, if you are running the game online.

Then as others have stated, you could have it authenticate with each upgrade, this would also force a check in, though 99% of people will want to play online anyways, so it would always be connected. If it failed authentication it could just be set to "demo" mode aka, 4 cyl sandbox mode. That functionality is already there would would be easy to implement. That way, the "pirates" can still get a taste of what they could do if they bought the game, and wouldn't make the game look buggy to others. It could be simple message stating:

"Your copy of Automation has failed authentication, please connect to the Internet to validate your copy of the game or visit automationgame.com to purchase a copy. Until your copy of the game is authenticated, you will be restricted to the demo mode functionality."

[Daffyflyer]

So just a thought. What about an authentication server that's running more or less a SQL server, or even an Access database that would store your username and game key, and could allow a simple 0 or 1 option to your account. 1 if it's in use, 0 if it's not. This would allow for any computer to run the game, but tied directly to your username, since you should be the only one using your account anyways, if you are running the game online.

Then as others have stated, you could have it authenticate with each upgrade, this would also force a check in, though 99% of people will want to play online anyways, so it would always be connected. If it failed authentication it could just be set to "demo" mode aka, 4 cyl sandbox mode. That functionality is already there would would be easy to implement. That way, the "pirates" can still get a taste of what they could do if they bought the game, and wouldn't make the game look buggy to others. It could be simple message stating:

"Your copy of Automation has failed authentication, please connect to the Internet to validate your copy of the game or visit automationgame.com to purchase a copy. Until your copy of the game is authenticated, you will be restricted to the demo mode functionality."

Without reveiling the specifics, that's pretty much exactly how it works currently

So yes, good idea! So good we're already doing it

[Cynikal]

Somewhat recently, there was a game called "Game Dev Tycoon" that tried out an idea...

They made a "special" copy of the game, and put it up on popular torrent websites themselves.

What it did:

After so long, the player got a message saying "Boss! Too many people are pirating our game!" and then the player would lose money. It was a bitter sweet victory for the devs, and you can read about it here: http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/ ... of-piracy/

---

A "cute" idea would be somewhat similar...

The devs of Automation make a "special" copy of the game and flood the internet with it themselves...

Ideas?

Game randomly crashes at a random time with the error: "Bug is noted, can't afford to fix it at the moment.".

Each time the player attempts to test an engine, the game crashes.

When the player revs the engine up past 6,000RPMs, there will be an explosion, with the message "OUCH! You died!" then the game crashes..and deletes their C:\Windows\ directory.