We are getting "full service" for what we paid for, your sense of entitlement to certain services is detached from reality.  You are getting full service too, unless when you purchased it said in writing as part of the sales contract that standalone patches would always be offered. 

I couldn't care less if there were standalone patches available, honestly.  Stop trying to force other people (others who don't want such a "service") to PAY for the service YOU want.  Assuming there is extra work and cost involved as Stardock claims, this is what you are doing.  Pay for it yourself with a $x.00 "standalone patch" service when you purchase if you can get Stardock to offer it to the 5 people who want it.  If you still doubt there is any cost attached, what IT development experience and knowledge do you have that you can use to back up such a claim?

Bump

I've been looking for stand alone patch as my copy of the game came with v1.2 and it's v1.53 it takes 2 hours to patch just to install the expansion, and then another 2 hours to patch that one as well. so it's not faster by any means. If I were to be able to DL and save the patch, it would be quicker all around.

njareg, had some concerns I see way back when, what I found, and stardock may want to look into this, is that with the ability to update then archive the game and burn it to disk, one can and has, rip it, crack it and seed it on line, as that was all I found when hunting for standalone patch, so Stardock hasn't prevented piracy by locking down the patches

They aren't locked down.  They're available via Impulse.  It's not some arcane piece of software which will turn your computer into a self-aware AI bent on dominating the world.  If you can't get a good download/install speed, then maybe that's something that needs looking at.  It's not a reason to demand a standalone patcher.

The downside of standalone patches is that they go out of date as soon as a new update comes along.  Ever had an old game which needed five standalone patches to run one after another?  That's not much fun.

Pirating will go on so long as file-sharing systems exist.  So the only way to persuade customers to buy your game is to give them better service than the jokers.  Impulse is a better service than just throwing up an HTTP download and hoping for the best.

 THANKS A LOT Stardock.

I had a big fight with EB over Sins of a Solar Empire today. I purchased the game today. I install it. I try to do a update only to find i need Impulse to install the patches which also means this game has activations. No where on the box does it state you need to have the game activated to download patches.

I promptly uninstalled the game and return it to EB. I had a big fight with EB because they wouldn't take the game back because of Impulse. I said to the guy no where on the box does it state that activations are required. In the end i got my money back because i said i would take EB to consumer affairs.

I thought EA was bad but they don't even go down as low as Stardock and force you to register and activate the game so you can download the patches.

standalone patches should be available. And i wont buy anymore games or products from Stardock until these patches become available and even then i might not buy any of the games.

You caused me a lot of anger today Stardock.

Stardock encourages piracy by this draconian system. Stardock and other companies still don't get it. No matter what extreme DRM you have the pirates will always beat it hands down. And so long as companies enforce this DRM this gives a challenge to the pirates and they will win. Look at UBI draconian DRM with assassin creed 2. The game was hacked.

In the end it is the end user who suffers while the pirates get a free DRM game this is something the gaming companies don't seem to comprehend they are inconveniencing the genuine gamer and not the pirates.