No-CD Patch?

[SLiM]

I had a no-cd patch for the original game, but when it was updated I noticed that the swkotor2.exe file had a large increase in size from approximately 6Mb to 13Mb, with that in mind I would guess that the no-cd patch that I had before probably wont work (I haven't bothered to try it yet, just using the CD).

 

So does anyone know if there has been an updated no-cd patch for the updated version?

[alanschu]

No-CD "patch" eh?

 

It's a good possiblity that the size shot up since you're not using the cracked exe file anymore...give it a try I guess and see if it works

[Mark Havel]

Since there is some bug fixes in the patch, it's likey there is some modifications to the .exe. Anyway, it seems there is a new protection included in the 1.0b patch, which is still not yet cracked.

I predict a closure of this thread within hours.

[alanschu]

I would normally predict closure too....but nothing seems to be getting closed at the moment.

[ChAiNz.2da]

Though I know the majority of no-cd patches are used for "not-so-legit" reasons, and of course, I don't doubt the possibility of closure of the thread...

 

Not everyone that uses a no-cd patch is running a questionable copy of the game.... :ph34r:

 

I run alot of my completely legal and purchased games with a no-cd patch simply because the game runs faster and smoother when reading it from your harddrive rather than being dependant on the severe bottlenecking of memory usage/swapping between IDE channels (or SATA) related to CD drive read speeds. It's a definite improvement when it comes to movies and cutscenes

 

Still, it doesn't change the fact that this may be a 'taboo' subject here on the OE forums... so I'll shut my 'pie hole' now... hehehe

 

"I have my receipts Officer ... I swear!"

[JamieKirby]

Well,

 

I don't see cracks as illegal because the protections that companies put on their games make it virtually impossible to make perfect backups, which screws up our rights to have a single copy for backup purposes.

 

The only reason they put cracks as bad is because as you use your CD it gets scratched and eventually becomes unreadable and so you need to buy another copy. lol

 

If you bought the game and there is a crack out, use it.......in the end no matter the protection it always gets cracked eventually, so i don't see the point in it. (but thats just me)

 

Pay more money for protection and less on content is a silly choice.

 

But since Kotor II was such a disaster, from now on, any games from Obsidian and/or Lucasarts, i am gonna play my mates copy first, if it runs fine, no content cuts, glitches or anything like that, then i will buy it......no sooner then that.

[213374U]

I don't have a problem with No-CD patches. I use them myself all the time. But asking for one at the very game's developer boards? Are you THAT dense?

[SLiM]

Well since this will probably be closed soon I'll say this...

 

I think the game developers should provide a no-cd patch.

 

Like someone mentioned earlier it does make the game run smoother when reading from the hard drive so shouldn't they want us to have the best possible experience with their game?

 

Anyway it doesn't really matter because the game keep crashing whenever I finish the first "turret mission" on peragus when you've just boarded the ebon hawk.

 

Atton says something like "we've got company" and it's suppose to, I'm guessing, load the ebon hawk where, I'm guessing, I'd have to fight a bunch of sith assasins.

 

Even after I patched to 1.0b, the same thing happens, the load bar is almost finished, then it takes a while and then the error report thing comes up.

 

With that said, I'm probably not going to bother with Kotor II for now.

 

Got Battlefield 2 and San Andreas to keep me busy. "

[GhostofAnakin]

Anyway it doesn't really matter because the game keep crashing whenever I finish the first "turret mission" on peragus when you've just boarded the ebon hawk.

 

Atton says something like "we've got company" and it's suppose to, I'm guessing, load the ebon hawk where, I'm guessing, I'd have to fight a bunch of sith assasins.

 

Even after I patched to 1.0b, the same thing happens, the load bar is almost finished, then it takes a while and then the error report thing comes up.

 

With that said, I'm probably not going to bother with Kotor II for now.

 

Got Battlefield 2 and San Andreas to keep me busy.  "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If the game keeps crashing on you anyways, why do you want the no CD crack? I don't think that's one of the things it "fixes".

[Kitch]

You could probably manage to find one from just searching google or something.

 

 

 

"

[Mark Havel]

I must say that whenever I can, I use nocd patches for my legally acquired games since I find it's quite stupid to still have the game CD after an installation which consisted in copying the whole CD content on the hard drive.

 

A nocd patch will not fix anything but the CD check. If you find a bug, you'll have to solve this by another means. In SLiM's case, I would try to load an old savegame or begin a new game. I had crashes like this which seemed to be caused by a corrupted savegame or something like this.

[Cactus]

You could probably manage to find one from just searching google or something.

 

 

 

"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

subtle dude, subtle

 

i too use N-CD/dvd because of the following reasons

 

1: disks dont last in my bedroom, no matter what they are worth.

2: my DVD drive is god damn loud and annoying

3: i hate the constant speed up/slow down noises CD reading makes

4: depending on the game, speeds up gameplay (depends what/when/how often the disk is read)

5: i lose disks

6: i'm too damn lazy to have to look for CD's

7: EVERYONE here knows that black hole your mother puts things, you know, the one called "a safe place". things get put there and never return. ever.

8: i prefer to keep legit games in their case, in their box, in somewhere they cant be damaged. i still have the origional "worms" game in perfect condition :D

 

i think thats enough for now... feel free to kick me in the skull for being off topic

[Marka Ragnos]

Well since this will probably be closed soon I'll say this...

 

I think the game developers should provide a no-cd patch.

 

Like someone mentioned earlier it does make the game run smoother when reading from the hard drive so shouldn't they want us to have the best possible experience with their game?

 

Anyway it doesn't really matter because the game keep crashing whenever I finish the first "turret mission" on peragus when you've just boarded the ebon hawk.

 

Atton says something like "we've got company" and it's suppose to, I'm guessing, load the ebon hawk where, I'm guessing, I'd have to fight a bunch of sith assasins.

 

Even after I patched to 1.0b, the same thing happens, the load bar is almost finished, then it takes a while and then the error report thing comes up.

 

With that said, I'm probably not going to bother with Kotor II for now.

 

Got Battlefield 2 and San Andreas to keep me busy.  "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

if you get that bug, the only way to get past it AFAIK is to kill all the siths when you're in the turret. I'll give you a tip, keep tapping with your space button quickly and keep firing at a certain spot that the siths keep running past. I always get them that way.(when you start out though they are on both sides so you have to clean some of them up on one side before you start this)

[cal_01]

Apparently there's a bug concerning Secure-rom (spelling?), the latest version of KotoR 2, and some CD drives. Evidently, it would recognize the KotoR 2 cd as invalid.

[metadigital]

I don't like the CD-check because I don't want to have all the CDs with me when I take my laptop around; I ALWAYS buy the retail game (ah, the power of an income).

 

Also, I take issue with the ludicrous concept of "copy protection" provided by a CD in the drive. Especially with almost every drive being a read-write one, there is no impediment to copying the original anyway. (Or am I missing something? Have the publishers inested in some decent copy-protection?)

[Musopticon?]

You could probably manage to find one from just searching google or something.

"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Okayyy, now that's what I call subtle.

[Master Dahvernas]

The only copy protection that hasn't been officially "cracked" is StarForce.

 

Why?

 

Because it installs drivers into your system* that authenticate not just the disc, but also individual game files -- like sound files, ini. files, even video files -- And not just the core executable where 99% of most CD-Protection schemes lay.

 

Splinter Cell: Choas Theory is currently the "test bed" product for this new copy protection scheme and apparently it is working as planned as many pirate groups have given up on cracking it... Because they can't.

 

This is relevant to this discussion because unfortunately, SC:CT is a big franchise game for PC gamers and did well enough that I am sure other companies (UBISoft publishes it) will start to use it now that it has been proven effective and this will mean the end to NO-CD cracks in the near future.

 

This may be good for game companies, bad for consumers because SF has a lot of compatibility issues let alone other things like many gamers take offense to the fact that when installing the game, nowhere does it state additional drivers are installed. Also, there have been reports that SF is unsafe as far as OS security is concerned because they did not work with MS and others to make sure their product is compatible (secure) with regard to those drivers that are installed without gamer's knowledge.

[Mark Havel]

As far as I know StarForce is not used in the KotOR's II patch.

[Master Dahvernas]

As far as I know StarForce is not used in the KotOR's II patch.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

KOTOR II uses Secur Rom 7.x.x -- Brand new version of Securom.

[metadigital]

The only copy protection that hasn't been officially "cracked" is StarForce.

 

Why?

 

Because it installs drivers into your system* that authenticate not just the disc, but also individual game files -- like sound files, ini. files, even video files -- And not just the core executable where 99% of most CD-Protection schemes lay.

 

Splinter Cell: Choas Theory is currently the "test bed" product for this new copy protection scheme and apparently it is working as planned as many pirate groups have given up on cracking it... Because they can't.

 

This is relevant to this discussion because unfortunately, SC:CT is a big franchise game for PC gamers and did well enough that I am sure other companies (UBISoft publishes it) will start to use it now that it has been proven effective and this will mean the end to NO-CD cracks in the near future.

 

This may be good for game companies, bad for consumers because SF has a lot of compatibility issues let alone other things like many gamers take offense to the fact that when installing the game, nowhere does it state additional drivers are installed. Also, there have been reports that SF is unsafe as far as OS security is concerned because they did not work with MS and others to make sure their product is compatible (secure) with regard to those drivers that are installed without gamer's knowledge.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am not against copy protection, per se. I am against anything that destabilises my pc, or interferes unduly in the operation of it, including but not limited to, the game in question.

 

For example, I don't mind Steam, as I have an internet link, and (although the initial installation took the best part of half a day to verify and decrypt the files from the DVD with a key from the internet), once it was installed I was able to use it off line and without the DVD.

 

I had a big problem with the official NwN module expansions, because the did an internet check before each save game could be restored as well as when the modules were installed. This made the process of restoring save games almost completely untenable, and I have not played any of those modules since.

[213374U]

The only copy protection that hasn't been officially "cracked" is StarForce.

 

Why?

 

Because it installs drivers into your system* that authenticate not just the disc, but also individual game files -- like sound files, ini. files, even video files -- And not just the core executable where 99% of most CD-Protection schemes lay.

 

Splinter Cell: Choas Theory is currently the "test bed" product for this new copy protection scheme and apparently it is working as planned as many pirate groups have given up on cracking it... Because they can't.

 

This is relevant to this discussion because unfortunately, SC:CT is a big franchise game for PC gamers and did well enough that I am sure other companies (UBISoft publishes it) will start to use it now that it has been proven effective and this will mean the end to NO-CD cracks in the near future.

 

This may be good for game companies, bad for consumers because SF has a lot of compatibility issues let alone other things like many gamers take offense to the fact that when installing the game, nowhere does it state additional drivers are installed. Also, there have been reports that SF is unsafe as far as OS security is concerned because they did not work with MS and others to make sure their product is compatible (secure) with regard to those drivers that are installed without gamer's knowledge.

Yes, Starforce is totally unbeatable. Except VMBL used it, and like a week after its release, there was a tool to neutralize or plain mislead the SF protection. I know because I used it. )

[Cactus]

starforce cant be totally unbeatablecan it? wasnt there a game like commandos that used it? i i know you can play that not-so-legally. There will always be cracks and fixes for things imo. I dont see why there cant be some kind of cracked starforce that stops the check? i dunno, its not my thing, but in my opinion there will always be a work around at some point.

 

just my 2 pennys "

[Sarjahurmaaja.]

"But asking for one at the very game's developer boards? Are you THAT dense?"

 

If memory serves, questions such as this have been asked here before and those threads haven't been locked.

[mkreku]

I use no-cd patches. They're very convenient when you're getting 2-3 games sent to you per week. Also, in Sweden no-cd patches aren't illegal as long as you own the original game. Which I do.

[Master Dahvernas]

starforce cant be totally unbeatablecan it? wasnt there a game like commandos that used it? i i know you can play that not-so-legally. There will always be cracks and fixes for things imo. I dont see why there cant be some kind of cracked starforce that stops the check? i dunno, its not my thing, but in my opinion there will always be a work around at some point.

 

just my 2 pennys  "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

What makes StarForce unbeatable is that unlike most game's copy protection schemes, it resides in not just the executable, but other files (the SF drivers that are installed "hook" into your IDE channels on your mobo to identify how many physical drives you have... As well as virtual drives... ) that make up the game itself like .ini files, sound files; even a .bik movie could have a sum check on it.

 

While most sum check schemes can be gotten around what is different with StarForce is that it comes with an unlock code that specific to that particular disc and installation and has to be verified right after installation and every time you play the game. A key-gen can't get around this because no one knows the algorithm that is used to generate the keys... And even if you managed to find a working unlock key, it probably would not match the image of the original game disc or DVD that the copy was made from.

 

Basically, what SF aims to do is two fold:

 

1) Isolate the activation of one disc per user via verification key code on install.

 

2) Prevent an actual image (.iso; .bin; mspd; etc.) of the disc of DVD from being copied in the first place and thus, distributed.

 

They seem to be doing a good job of this considering that these two areas are the "backbone" of the pirate scene more than any other format or process.

 

Also, the reason the earlier SF protection schemes were "hacked" was because they were still experimental. The new versions are not only fully integrated, but can be updated via the web (not even with the users knowledge if they have 24/7 broadband like most people) as well as any patch that a game producer makes can contain NEW check sums and verifications that weren't in the previous patch/version. So it is almost an air-tight system they've developed.

 

The only other copy protection scheme I know of that can't be cracked are the profesisonal level, high security schemes that require a USB key -- A physical key -- That is inserted into a USB port that unlocks the game either for the initial install, or whenever you play it.

 

VBS1 - Virtual Battlefield Systems is the only "game" -- it's not really a game; it is a training simulator -- That I know of that uses a USB key to unlock and I gurantee no one is going to try and burn a copy of this "game" for that reason alone (let alone it is a series of discs that total up to $300+ for the core files needed to run the sim).