I commend your very thorough, unbiased, and original explanation of V-mate.
Yes, it is a very objective review. So restrained, in fact, I wonder how the game earned an overall rating of 8/10. The review also does a good job describing V-Mate, except for one area I consider essential for deciding whether to purchase. I am really curious to know if there’s a workaround for those who want to play offline. It’s been suggested that one can start the game online, then suspend Windows and resume offline without having to reconnect. Did you happen to test this theory? Also, I think someone said [perhaps Ecchifan] that loading a saved game requires another connection. Is this a known requirement?
quote:
Originally posted by Dark_Shiki:
I commend your very thorough, unbiased, and original explanation of V-mate. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img] [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]
I used my personal experience with VM, and also the instructions manual, to explain the process. And I tried hard to avoid speculation (i.e. when the patch will be released).
quote:
Originally posted by perigee:
Yes, it is a very objective review. So restrained, in fact, I wonder how the game earned an overall rating of 8/10. The review also does a good job describing V-Mate, except for one area I consider essential for deciding whether to purchase. I am really curious to know if there's a workaround for those who want to play offline. It's been suggested that one can start the game online, then suspend Windows and resume offline without having to reconnect. Did you happen to test this theory? Also, I think someone said [perhaps [b]Ecchifan] that loading a saved game requires another connection. Is this a known requirement?[/b]
I have DSL, so I couldn't test the resume-playing-after-disconnecting theory. as for loading a saved game requiring VM connection, I don't know about that either.
All I know for certain is the following:
a. you pop in the game disc
b. LMMW menu appears
c. you click on "play" to run the game
d. the menu disappears
e. nothing happens for a second or two
f. Yamitsu logo finally appears
g. LMMW game menu appears (start, load, etc.)
I would guess that during the quick pause at point (e), VML is running in the background to authenticate your saved VM account info with the server.
I've successfully installed LMMW on two computers, and one of them has a problem connecting with the server. After the game disc menu disappears, a VMLaunch message pops up. After hitting "ok", the program ends.
quote:
Originally posted by Ecchifan:
After the game disc menu disappears, a VMLaunch message pops up. After hitting "ok", the program ends.
I must say...that's less than heartening. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/rolleyes.gif[/img]
I don't know much about DSL, but couldn't you disconnect it or something? [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]
Just so you know, the [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img] in my last comment was for you, and the [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img] was for someone else. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/wink.gif[/img]
quote:I can connect/disconnect my DSL with ZoneAlarm, but for Windows in general if you right-click on My Network Places/Network Neighborhood, select Properties and right-click on your network connection, it offers the option to disconnect/connect. The reason I ask about having to connect when loading a saved game is that it would restrict offline gaming to a single playthrough. That would be a severe limitation for the suspend/resume method.
Originally posted by Ecchifan:
I have DSL, so I couldn't test the resume-playing-after-disconnecting theory. as for loading a saved game requiring VM connection, I don't know about that either.
I may try disconnecting later. . . The computer that I couldn’t connect to VM server is a labtop w/ internet connection through a wireless broadband router. So the problem with that comp may have to do with the router.
If your Internet works on the labtop, then I would hardly call that the router’s fault. Now a firewall is a different matter.
quote:
Originally posted by perigee:
The reason I ask about having to connect when loading a saved game is that it would restrict offline gaming to a single playthrough. That would be a severe limitation for the suspend/resume method.
I sort of understand what you're asking. But I honestly don't think VM would require authentication every time you load a saved game. Interlex wants to ensure that the copy of the game you have is legit; so testing the authenticity of your copy at startup of the game program would be the way to go. If authenticity doesn't check out, then the program would simply exit at that point. Requiring an authenticity check at the point of loading a previously saved game (which is past the initial authenticity check at startup of the game) would be repetitive, and wouldn't make sense.
I may test the disconnect-and-reload theory either later tonite or tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I would be able to reconnect the DSL, and report back the results to you. lol
quote:
Originally posted by Dark_Shiki:
If your Internet works on the labtop, then I would hardly call that the router's fault. Now a firewall is a different matter.
I do believe there's a firewall involved. I'm just not familiar with the broadband router setup.
I just tried loading a saved game on LMMW with the DSL disabled, and I was able to do so. I also quit the game and tried to restart the program with my internet connection offline, and I got the VMLaunch server error. So this confirms that the authenticity check occurs only at startup for LMMW, and not during loading of the game.
quote:
Originally posted by Dark_Shiki:
If your Internet works on the labtop, then I would hardly call that the router's fault. Now a firewall is a different matter.
When I disabled my connection, I noticed that it's firewalled. So that's why my labtop couldn't connect to VM server.
Windows XP SP2 also has an automatic firewall, which is something different entirely. Also, almost everyone has it enabled, so GC had better make V-mate compatible with it.
Hm, the one time i tried to load a game without being connected, i got a fatal error and the game killed itself, which hasn’t happened ever again since i started leaving the connection on while i played. This lead me to believe a connection was required to load, but it must have just been yet another odd fluke i ran head first into, go me!
I’m surprised nobody has cracked it yet! Perhaps people don’t care enough… if that’s the case, G-Collections might actually make some money this way…
Come on, disconnecting DSL is easy. Just pull out the wire. I doubt everyone has wireless.
quote:
Originally posted by Benoit:
Come on, disconnecting DSL is easy. Just pull out the wire. I doubt everyone has wireless.
I deliberately don't have wireless. I'm not nearly as paranoid as SOME people, but I am paranoid enough to not use wireless with the 'security' that comes with the equipment.
quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
I deliberately don't have wireless. I'm not nearly as paranoid as SOME people, but I am paranoid enough to not use wireless with the 'security' that comes with the equipment.
Depends on the equipment. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]
Besides I got a nice honeypot before my systems and it's funny watching what people try to do.
Ha, the new kana was suppose to be on net only, but due to customer responce, they also added a non net version too. why can’t we have the same ><
quote:
Originally posted by Teagan:
Ha, the new kana was suppose to be on net only, but due to customer responce, they also added a non net version too. why can't we have the same ><
Different companies response differently. Hopefully GC will do something similar.