Happycat Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 I notice that some time back, a fellow who did NOT buy a Battlefront product griped about the elicensing system. Well, I am someone who DID just buy both the download and CD version of Pacific Theatre. Here I sit, an hour and a half after having downloaded it, unable to play the bloody thing. I keep getting a 501 error, which implies that either I am an idiot unable to do a simple cut and paste, or that perhaps my license number isn't yet registered in the database. Since I'm reasonably sure I'm not an idiot and can in fact master basic computer commands, then I have to assume the license number isn't registered at the Battlefront end. WTF? I paid with PayPal, Battlefront has my money, so what's the problem? If a company wants to use an elicense system (reasonable enough, I suppose), it should at least work seamlessly and with ease. After having played the demo for a couple of hours, I am duly impressed and would like to play this game. If I can't play the download and have to wait for the disk, then I am wondering why I paid extra. Wonder how long before THIS thread gets locked? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt Andrew Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Sorry to hear that Happycat! Don't worry, Battlefront is pretty consistent about getting back to people, regardless of the issue. I believe that you can contact them at elicense@battlefront.com, and they may answer you pretty quick (even after hours or on weekends from what I hear!). If not, you may have to wait until regular business hours, but don't be surprised if they work it out with you. Good luck, and enjoy the game! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happycat Posted December 9, 2008 Author Share Posted December 9, 2008 Sorry to hear that Happycat! Don't worry, Battlefront is pretty consistent about getting back to people, regardless of the issue. I believe that you can contact them at elicense@battlefront.com, and they may answer you pretty quick (even after hours or on weekends from what I hear!). If not, you may have to wait until regular business hours, but don't be surprised if they work it out with you. Good luck, and enjoy the game! Thanks for the reassurance. It is a bit annoying when you pay for something, have some free time on a cold snowy evening to use it, and then find that the flipping licensing procedure doesn't seem to work. I have checked everything on my system (admin privileges, e-license control panel, etc) and find nothing amiss. It's midnight where I am (Atlantic Canada); where is Battlefront? UK? Btw, I did also email to the contact address you mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Happycat, sorry to hear about the trouble. If you are still up can you send me an email at support@furysoftware.com. I can at least confirm if your license key is valid. Otherwise Battlefront will likely get back to you very early tomorrow morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfredtc Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 I have the same problem of error code 501 still waiting for reply from Battlefront. This is why I hate elicence and avoid to purchase this kind of product. Even you got your CD you still need to activate it under elicence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Actually this has nothing to do with eLicense as such. It appears that there was a brief server problem during which several license keys were not properly registered on the server. Hence the 501 error. Email elicense@battlefront.com in such a case. We provide support in both the US and European time zone, so usually you get a reply within a few hours tops (and sometimes within minutes). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_j_rambo Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 When this puppy is fixed, I'll be buying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEVILS ADJUTANT Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 im having the same problem error 501,and have already sent e-mails to all concerned and still have heard nothing.that was over 5hrs ago,maybe its because im in australia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 I have just replied to all outstanding issues, including you. 5 hours is not a bad average for any customer support even though it's technically in the middle of the night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfredtc Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 OK Just received the email from BF and the problem was fixed. Thanks. I am in HK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Kipper Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 I have to say this looks great though I am not a fan of internet-activated software. Is it really true that buying this on CD uses this eLicence program as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Yes, both the downloads and the CDs use the same DRM. eLicense is very flexible and does not limit the number of total activations, does not run each each time you play the game etc. You only activate once and that's it. You can also transfer licenses freely. In theory, you could sell the game to someone else and if you unlicense your keys they would get basically a spanking new copy. People usually only get into problems with eLicense if they forget to unlicense or lose their key etc. But then it's simply doing what it's supposed to do :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Kipper Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 And if Battlefront went bust or stopped supporting the game, and the activation server was no longer maintained? Not trying to spark a debate here, just want to make sure what I am getting into. I like to have my software on my shelf for the years ahead with no external dependencies Thanks Kipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happycat Posted December 9, 2008 Author Share Posted December 9, 2008 And if Battlefront went bust or stopped supporting the game, and the activation server was no longer maintained? Not trying to spark a debate here, just want to make sure what I am getting into. I like to have my software on my shelf for the years ahead with no external dependencies Thanks Kipper Actually, this is a very good question. While it is unlikely that Battlefront would go "bust", when turning out such good products, anything is possible. Look at GM (oops, wait a minute, they stopped making good products some time ago for the most part). Of course, some clever little devil will figure out a crack in such a case, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happycat Posted December 9, 2008 Author Share Posted December 9, 2008 With regard to the elicense failure, I am happy to say that my misgivings about Battlefront were misplaced. Hubert was on line with me well after midnight his time (and mine), trying to help. As per his prediction, Martin (in Germany) fixed this problem while I was still dreaming of SBD's, TBD's, and Wildcats. But, this failure points up the validity of Silent Kipper's question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 And if Battlefront went bust or stopped supporting the game, and the activation server was no longer maintained? Not trying to spark a debate here, just want to make sure what I am getting into. I like to have my software on my shelf for the years ahead with no external dependencies Thanks Kipper Good question and no worries Silent Kipper, this question came up years ago when Strategic Command 2 Blitzkrieg was the first Battlefront game to employ the eLicense system and the short answer is that if Battlefront were to ever go out of business they would simply de-activate eLicense requirement for each of their games sold... i.e. right before they clear the office and turn out the lights sort of thing. As the Developer of the SC franchise I can also personally back this assurance up as well. Hubert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Happycat, glad to see your issue was resolved as quickly as I had predicted... hope you are enjoying the game so far as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Kipper Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 While it is unlikely that Battlefront would go "bust", when turning out such good products, anything is possible. Look at GM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Silent Kipper, Hubert already answered that question above. And we answered it more than just several times as well in other threads since 2006. if Battlefront were to ever go out of business they would simply de-activate eLicense requirement for each of their games sold... i.e. right before they clear the office and turn out the lights sort of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Kipper Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Silent Kipper, Hubert already answered that question above. And we answered it more than just several times as well in other threads since 2006. Mine and Hubert's postings crossed. I am not sure I understand how this eLicense thing works and seeing as I am thinking of buying it I would like to know. Take the deactivating the eLicense system as the last thing to do before the lights in the office go off. Surely the activation server has to be working and if "you turn it off at the office" the software on my machine won't get an answer when it looks for it and will not allow me to re-install? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Kipper Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 I don't want to waste your time answering my queries above - I studied www.elicense.com and have decided to give this a miss. Very, very reluctantly as it looks like a heck of a game. Maybe you will reconsider this copy-protection issue in the future. Here's hoping as the demo is great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happycat Posted December 10, 2008 Author Share Posted December 10, 2008 Happycat, glad to see your issue was resolved as quickly as I had predicted... hope you are enjoying the game so far as well Fantastic game! Best Pacific theatre experience since Grigsby's "Pacific War" circa 1992. Which I still have on the shelf, and which runs under XP just fine. One of my old friends on the west coast, who also contributes to this forum (DGold) and I used to play Pacific War by email, and now plan to give your game a try as a PBEM experience. Based upon what I have seen thus far, I am sure we will have a great time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 Happycat, Great to hear and the name dgold rings a bell too... enjoy the Multiplayer experience as the Beta testers have had some fantastic battles as the published AARs attest to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 Silent Kipper, Not that it will necessarily change your mind at this point but I thought I would clarify one important point of apparent contention. The easiest way to de-activate the elicense requirements, i.e. should the very unlikely situation ever be required, is to simply provide a non protected executable of the game. Even, and we are talking a very worst case scenario here, if all entities related to the development and publication of this game go out of business, there are many ways to make this file readily and easily available considering the multitude of download sites on the web. FYI, one of the reasons I mentioned that I can provide assurances of this is that since I am the Developer, this is quite easy to do since I am the one that actually makes the game executable. Hope this helps, Hubert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justanotherwargamer1 Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 Not wanting to open a new thread I will comment here, as this is clearly the thread for it. Tried the demo, as the demo has no eLicense baggage. Hubert, ya did a fine job on this one. But I frankly don't support eLicense. It's your prerogative to prefer it, but mine to say it cost you a sale. You are not alone though. eLicense also cost the guys that make WW2 General Commander which also looked like an interesting game. Battlefront can assume eLicense has cost them any sale at all from me additionally. It's not the oft mentioned 'will you still be around' thing necessarily, it's the 'I don't support clumsy copy protection when better exists'. When Matrix Games has Battles from the Bulge ready, I'll likely get a copy even though I hardly need yet another blooming wargame on my computer. All I need do for their games is insert my registered serial. And their method has produced several sales to me in recent years as a result of my approving of the method. Good luck on the game, I think this one looks good enough that I could even deal with the tiles. But I refuse to deal with eLicense on principle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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