UbiSoft uses pirates' no CD patch as official fix.

A

aznpxdd

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 5, 2006
Messages
2,354
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1991064316/m/1381029176/p/1

Awesome.

r6vegas2.png
 
hmm for some reason the ubisoft.com link doesn't work.. no real way to verify (only going on the posters words) that this indeed happened..
 
After skimming through the forum link, its apparently a "patch" for the people who use direct2drive. And they pretty much just went out and got the no cd crack of Reloaded and used it as an official patch.

Absolutely hilarious.
 
Somehow I'm not surprised. They screwed up Vegas PC so why not continue that trend with PC customers. Don't get me wrong, Vegas is a good game but multiplayer (non coop) never worked for PC.
 
The cracking community has its benefits then!?!

Vegas 2 is a great game btw, really enjoyed the hell out of it. Now playing the original Rainbow Six Vegas and also Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. I would recommend all.
 
roflxi5.png


So does this mean RELOADED is employed by Ubi? In my fantasy world, Ubi would be sued by the group for copyright infringement.
 
hahaha, incompetent fools. No wonder Reloaded and those type of guys always outsmart these companies. Cant even sort their own game right *cough* CCC *cough* Crysis
 
I'd laugh if this wasnt so pathetic...this is good proof that the copy protection bullshit put into games does more harm than good.
 
seems like i have permission from ubisoft to do this to any of their games now.
 
You'd think the company that put the CD protection in place could take it off??? No no no no.... that would make too much sense :rolleyes:
 
Don't the UbiSoft games usually employ FADE protection, too, that the 'hacked' no-CD executables usually cannot address?

I wonder if this was taken into account...
 
dderidex said:
Don't the UbiSoft games usually employ FADE protection, too, that the 'hacked' no-CD executables usually cannot address?

I wonder if this was taken into account...
Click to expand...

Haven't heard of FADE, but I'm pretty sure it hasn't really slowed down the piracy.
 
At the end of that thread this was posted by an Ubisoft admin: "I'd say this discussion has run its course, as such it is now locked. The file was removed from the site over a week ago now and the matter is being thoroughly investigated by senior tech support managers here at Ubisoft. Needless to say we do not support or condone copy protection circumvention methods like this and this particular incident is in direct conflict with Ubisoft's policies."

I guess a magic troll hiding in the Ubisoft offices did it. :confused:
 
WhyYouLoveMe said:
At the end of that thread this was posted by an Ubisoft admin: "I'd say this discussion has run its course, as such it is now locked. The file was removed from the site over a week ago now and the matter is being thoroughly investigated by senior tech support managers here at Ubisoft. Needless to say we do not support or condone copy protection circumvention methods like this and this particular incident is in direct conflict with Ubisoft's policies."

I guess a magic troll hiding in the Ubisoft offices did it. :confused:
Click to expand...

Yeah, nice cover.... who knows how that crack got in that patch to fix the problem :confused:

Damn, now they have to crack it themselves. Funny how that works since... if you download it from D2D... you don't have a CD to begin with :confused:
 
I'd venture a guess that someone used the crack to compare or tried to reverse-engineer a reverse-engineered .exe (if that makes any sense) and either mixed up .exe's or was really lazy and used the cracked version without going over it. Will someone get fired? Doubtful if it was an honest mistake.

It is also my understanding that D2D is responsible for repackaging/distribution of all games, patches and updates that they wish to offer. So it is possible that someone there took the crack and called it there own and sent it to Ubi for approval and distribution. I could be wrong, as I don’t really know how those two companies do business.

And to the people that think Reloaded should sue, that would be the worst thing they could do. Ubi and the rest of the VG industry would have a real person or people to go after for piracy instead of just alias’, rumors/speculation, and torrent sites that may or may not fight back (and possibly win.)
 
DangerousMan said:
And to the people that think Reloaded should sue, that would be the worst thing they could do. Ubi and the rest of the VG industry would have a real person or people to go after for piracy instead of just alias’, rumors/speculation, and torrent sites that may or may not fight back (and possibly win.)
Click to expand...

Obviously nobody thinks they should ACTUALLY sue... missing the punchline FTW
 
Citizen86 said:
Obviously nobody thinks they should ACTUALLY sue... missing the punchline FTW
Click to expand...

No I didn't, I get it. However from the time I found out till now, I have spoken with people that actually believe Reloaded should sue. Not that any [H]er would actually believe that. I’m just saying, incase a foreigner comes along, reads the posts and tries to stir something up.


BTW I should mention that when I found out, I was drinking and, well..... I'm sure you can all imagine what ensued.:eek:
 
Looks like some developer took the easy way out of doing his job. Someone's getting fired.
 
dderidex said:
Don't the UbiSoft games usually employ FADE protection, too, that the 'hacked' no-CD executables usually cannot address?

I wonder if this was taken into account...
Click to expand...

No, it was Codemaster who came up with Fade. Some people claim Fade was BS though and doesn't work as they claim. I remember my copy of Operation Flashpoint claimed to use FADE but I never cracked it to see of the game would actually disintegrate over time.
I don't think they use FADE anymore so it probably was just a scare tactic.
 
DangerousMan said:
I'd venture a guess that someone used the crack to compare or tried to reverse-engineer a reverse-engineered .exe (if that makes any sense) and either mixed up .exe's or was really lazy and used the cracked version without going over it. Will someone get fired? Doubtful if it was an honest mistake.
Click to expand...


its probably even simplier than that..

this was on the Tech support page, probably more like some nobody in their support departement posted this up as a fix and the tech supervisor or whoever didn't check it out completely, probably just said.. yea sure post it up..

i highly doubt anything like this would have come from the game developers themselves..
 
H-street said:
its probably even simplier than that..

this was on the Tech support page, probably more like some nobody in their support departement posted this up as a fix and the tech supervisor or whoever didn't check it out completely, probably just said.. yea sure post it up..

i highly doubt anything like this would have come from the game developers themselves..
Click to expand...

Nah. D2D needs to produce their own patches, so more than likely this is independent of Ubisoft. I am guessing the D2D guys had to fix the issue and couldn't get the support from Ubisoft to make it happen. Since D2D couldn't remove the copy protection themselves they did the only other thing they could do.

Still completely f'd up, but I don't think Ubisoft are the one's directly responsible for releasing the cracked exe. They could have easily avoided this by giving D2D the support they needed, I'm sure this will do more to damage D2D than Ubisoft, although the damage is certainly already done to Ubi. I would expect their software to be removed from D2D, if they don't go so far as pressing charges, because this is one serious fuck up. I am really anxious to get more info about this.
 
milkweg said:
No, it was Codemaster who came up with Fade. Some people claim Fade was BS though and doesn't work as they claim. I remember my copy of Operation Flashpoint claimed to use FADE but I never cracked it to see of the game would actually disintegrate over time.
I don't think they use FADE anymore so it probably was just a scare tactic.
Click to expand...

FADE is a real protection system and ARMA (Armed Assault in some areas of the world) uses it. I used a no cd on my copy at one point at time to check it out. At first it seems like everything is fine but then weird things started happening. Oddities included:

Horrible accuracy as in, couldn't hit a 3 story building 20 feet away.
Turning into a bird.
Random mission failures (though I will admit this can happen normally in the game).
Random text on the screen stating that the original exe would not exhibit FADE.
Horrible FPS/performance. Go back to original .exe and all was well.

So it definatly exists, and it does work. However a quick search on Google has many hits claiming to have cracked it. I guess the saying is true, If it's coded, it can be cracked.
 
Right you are, just checked and it seems FADE is an invention of Bohemia Interactive and why it is still in ArmedA. Thing is you don't need a crack if you use the latest beta patches. I can play with no cd on my copy and am using a recent patch and have never cracked it.

While searching google for FADE I saw that some Ubisoft games do use a similar system too. Silent Hunter4 was mentioned.
 
milkweg said:
No, it was Codemaster who came up with Fade. Some people claim Fade was BS though and doesn't work as they claim. I remember my copy of Operation Flashpoint claimed to use FADE but I never cracked it to see of the game would actually disintegrate over time.
I don't think they use FADE anymore so it probably was just a scare tactic.
Click to expand...

Well, it doesn't "disintegrate over time", it just gradually (within a play session) starts "sucking". As noted above - you miss shots you shouldn't miss, the game crashes a ridiculous amount out of nowhere, game saves are 'lost', etc. And it resets each play session specifically to make the experience seem like "the game's fault".

Basically, it makes the pirate with the simple 'no-CD' crack decide the game is a buggy mess and sucks and stops playing it (and, presumably, distributing it...I guess).

I suppose they are, at the same time, telling people who download a cracked .exe as a 'demo' to "piss off", but...honestly, the best numbers I've seen on 'conversions' of these people (pirates who download the game and then buy it) are somewhere around 1%, so...they basically are too few to matter.

(FWIW, it's a lot more widespread than indicated - a large part of the 'effectiveness' of it, such as it is, relies on nobody knowing that the game is "protected" that way. I honestly don't remember the last game released with it - but the official forums on release were full of posts with the strangest set of issues that were never reported by folks who just left the CD in the drive. IIRC., it was 'Oblivion'...which made it all the stranger, as the game had no other protection at all...just a "simple" CD check, and that's it. No Starforce, no SecureROM, etc. But that's just IIRC. UbiSoft's Sh3 and Sh4 definitely did have it, confirmed by the devs themselves, although not the publisher - UbiSoft.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top