Latest Update

you know, there were about four to five downloads.  and Entrenchment will be available through there, as well as the other two miniexpansions.  plus, it support multiple games other than Sins.

Butt he is right, it's a horribad system, even though i've stopped playing it WOW's updatesystem seems alot smoother, and dossent force you to keep upto date on when patches come out, you just get it when it comes out. imo a much prefered method as my expirience is that at most 25% of a games population reads any boards more than once a month.

First it does not take up space. Two yes there are advertisement on impulse only and it is not in your face. Third it makes easier for the developer ironclad so they dont have to put up multiple links and explain wich patch is for who, basicly impulse detect what patch you got downloads the type need because people want to test betas or wait it out. Fourth microsoft internet explorer update was not a forced update it was your choice I still have the older verison on my laptop and our home office computer.

As a developer I would want to protect my intellectual property while minimizing hassel to my clients.  I think Impulse does a great job finding that balance.  As a user I don't think it takes up that much space and I appreciate that I can install Impulse, update my app, then remove Impulse if I want.

I like the fact that impulse doesn't deliver a patch but rather looks at differential files between my PC and the server and only updates the files that need updating.

The "Explore tab only shows on first load.  Never again.  As an aside, I've bought a few other games because they were listed in teh store.  Good for everyone.Sounds like you are making two mutually exclusive choices.  A bit of research might have saved you time and money.Likely never.  There's no money in linux (compared to Windows).  As soon as a dev ports to linux you start hearign "Great it's in Lunux . . why isn't it free/OSS?"  Not worth it I wouldn't think.

After thinking about the Linux port, I would agree with the last statement by Zubaz.  I am a bit lost about the statement regarding mutual choices.  I may be off track, but I paid for the game simply because its awesome.  So how would a bit of research saved me money.   And please don't read my post with unfair inflection.  I am not trying to start a flame war here.  I will admit the last time I installed impulse was about a year ago.  SO maybe it's better.  It's been said that if you have the internet then you have "all the free software in the world"  I agree that you should protect your investments, but again I paid for the product, registered my serial, and expect to be able to go to your site and login and get the update.  But out of the 1 million that play the game (just throwing out numbers for arguments sake), what percentage paid for it?  You probably can't let that info out and it's really none of the players business, but again for arguments sake you have every right to protect your investment.  I just think that getting the Sinners community used to getting the update one way, then all of the sudden changing it is abit presumptuous.  How many players might not have the internet at their fingertips?  Like people who download the update to thumb drives and take it home.  How are they expected to get the update?  Can they call tech support and have it mailed out?

I appreciate the responces from Dev's thus far by the way.

Also Zubaz : Thanks for detailing your answers they way you did.

Also Orodum : The things you mentioned -- Are they free?   Me and free get along  .. lol 

Stardock publishes a lot of products. They have several games, and lots and lots of apps. It may seem like overkill to install Impulse if you only have one product registered, but to those of us with more (I have probably 15 or so products registered, and that's not counting all the separate stuff in Object Desktop) and it saves me a hell of a lot of time because Impulse updates them all. It saves Stardock a lot of time and money, because instead of putting out a huge catch-all standalone update for each single app/game, they can just let Impulse figure out what files changed, and updates only what's necessary.

Got forbid I have to install a third party piece of software like adobe acrobat to read a PDF file for my motherboard just because asus would allow a direct download.  How dare they make me use a program against my will just to look up jumper settings!

You mean that the torrent and warez sites are actually forcing me to use WinRAR and 7zip to unpack their files!?? 

 

Isn't this subject a bit tired?  I mean, a little reading would have reveiled several other threads dealing with this, complete with official posts by Brad himself.  Clogging up the boards with multiple threads is a bit annoying....  

Mutiny, I think the assumptuion is that most players have the internet at their fingertips.  They *are* players, not Amish.  ;)  And Stardock is aware that there are kooks people (;)*) like yourself that have off-line PCs and they are working on a system to allow exactly what you are describign with thumbdrives etc.  However, in addition to their own software, they are also a retail arm for other publishers/developers and off-line activation is a very serious issue for resellers.

As a small aside, ALL the pathces were supposed to be delivere through Impulse from the very release of Sins (Check the manual).  However, Impulse wasn't ready so SD reverted to a more "traditional" patch delivery system to get the players the best product possible as fast as possible.

 

 

 

*Please note that this was meant in jest and that I actually understand the many people, especially gamers), have OSs that are stripped of every unneccessary service so that they can run as fast as possible while gaming.  The downside is that Sins-like games can be a blast online.

The forums can be difficult to traverse at times and posts move off the recent list fairly quick here.  As new people join it really is easier to start a new post.  The nice thing is that there are folks like ourselves that can either answer or direct to those older posts with little effort.

The other thing is that it's not like the database can't take it, right? 

 

lol good one.

That all depends on how hard you hit the servers with a sledge.

I just looked at the technical support in the sins training manual and it does state that clearly. I never noticed that there before. I gues it does clear up all the confusion and actually quite helpful when searching for a new game because you will not get all the garbage from the internet while searching.

Was Impulse out that long ago??? I downloaded the 1.05 patch for Sins as an exe as Impulse was not available and I'm sure that wasn't a year ago!!!!

I think specifically in SOASE's case, the number is pretty high. 1) There are torrents online for SOASE up to 1.05, but beyond that, none. 2) I don't think the pirates rate Sins "high enough" on their priority list to target it (much).. Just look at the scene war over GTA IV.. Now that's a real fun read.. So, on the whole, I think the majority of Sins players paid for the game - much more so than pirates. Those few who did pirate it, well, they don't get the support - which is the trade off, what do you expect..

I must say, that I bought the box set at retail, and although I was hestitant about Impulse at first, and I asked a whole bunch of Qns, I think the responses and support from ppl here at the forums have warmed me up to the fact that Impulse could be a lot, lot worse. So thanks to SD for making it "reasonable" when they could have gone down the terrible path that Rockstar did with GTA IV (as a very recent example)..

The beta has been running for a long while.  I don't remeber when exactly.

So Mutiny1 is either complaining about a beta program if it was a year ago, or making stuff up about the proper released version???

I dont understand what people are complaining about. Impulse works smoothly, its unobtrusive and it downloads at a decent speed. Impulse is great. Dont need to muck around with disks either. Whats wrong with that?

Its different!!!!

Four legs good-Two legs bad!

 

OK , sorry.

Couldn't you install Impulse on a thumbdrive? I have thumbdrives with mini-OSs on them....

If you have time and the access to post a thread and read it and reply to it, couldn't you just DL the patch?

It took all of a minute or so.

 

There.  Is.  No.  Patch. 

I think he meant if you have time and access to these forums already, what's the biggie in using Impulse to update your already installed copy of Sins Or did I misunderstand him instead?

But, for those who are still looking for the stand alone patch/upgrade installers - just remember - there is no spoon! If you truly, truly, and I mean really know this, then you can bend it and DL the patch auto-magically to your PC without Impulse (or the Internet for that matter).

 

Send me your Credit Card details and I will send you the patch!!!

Honest...

No questions asked...

No, really. I will!!!!

 

yes, sorry for the confusion

Impulse was "released" mid-summer, and was in public beta before that since at least early in the year. Either way, the OP's assertion that he's making judgements, six months *after* release, based on a beta from months *before* release, is pretty unfair.

At this point, the great silent majority have no issues and most people who are having issues with Impulse are either isolated cases (which we're working to fix), or philosophical objectors. In the latter case, there's nothing we can do; to put it bluntly, they've got a choice to make.