The U-Boat Missions Expansion

[The Renegade]

I just have a quick question about the Uboat expansion that was released a while back. I kinda just started playing SHIV again, and also just found out that this add-on was released like back in the spring/summer of '08 and kinda missed it.

So, from what I've read here, I can either buy the Gold edition and get it, or download it from D2D or something and get it that way. I'm just wondering though, because I've never bought something with D2D and basically have always bought my games in their physical form....can you burn the data onto a disc? So that if you need to, you can install it again or on a different computer than the one you dl'ed it on? Or is it like Steam, where you can download it again if you need to? (I would just get it on Steam, but you need the STEAM version of SH4 to play I guess..... :(

I'm finding that I really want to get this add-on, probably because I finally got TMO 1.4 to work yesterday, and wow.....just after I had gotten my mind blown from seeing SHIV at playable framerates and with all the improvements with patch 1.4, now Trigger Maru comes along and proceeds to blow my mind yet again, and with a greater explosive force this time.....wow. I've read that Ducimus doesn't come here much anymore, but I wanted to just shout out to him or just acknowledge that his mod is truly fantastic, and he and all those that contributed to the mod should be hired as devs. You guys really put the heart and soul into this game! (I also have RFB, waiting to give that a try as well....gosh you leave for a few months, and a game has evolved into something far greater than it ever was..... mad props and many thanks to everyone here, modders and supporters and fans and everyone!) :up:

Sorry for such a long-winded post, but I guess I'm finding myself aching for this add-on, so I can patch to 1.5 and use the latest mods out there, and just continue to follow the work of and support these awesome modders. Plus, I'd like to see what the Germans have been up to since SH3..... (installing SH3 with Vista is a headache:damn: ....havent been able to do that yet.....)

So I guess I'm really just asking if you can use the D2D downloaded game on a different computer, if you can download it multiple times(if it gets erased, etc), or if you can make your own physical CD of the expansion with the data you get. I could also just buy the gold edition, but I do have SH4 already, and I'm kinda cheap, so paying another $30 is a little much.

Thank you!

*EDIT* Ok.....well I'm silly, I coulda just tried to buy the expansion from D2D, and there it is! It says it DOES let you re-download your games if you need to....good to know! So with that out of the way, how have your experiences been with D2D? Do you recommend it?

[FIREWALL]

I prefer haveing the cd's. That's just me.:D

I spent some time during the holidays building a nice oak shelf to hold my games and software.

[Orion2012]

I agree with Firewall. I avoid D2D like the plague. It may say it will let you re-download, and I'm sure it will. It's the activation of it for a second time that is a pain. If you really want to do it, and I dont know if you can even get the U-boat Expansion, don't use steam. Occasionally, steam's protection will hamper mod ability.

[A Very Super Market]

With Steam, I have modded Silent Hunter 3 to the ends of the world several times, unless the protection has inexplicably changed for SH4, there shouldn't be any problems.

[FIREWALL]

From day one there has been alot of complaints about the d\l's

[The Renegade]

Lovely, so it looks like all this downloading and D2D crap really is crap.....I was really unsure about it, and the only thing that appealed to me was the price, so that's why I asked here....looks like I'll be looking for the standalone expansion or just suck it up and buy the gold edition!

Thanks everyone for the replies. And yeah, I know about Steam, and while it is a cool program/platform for some things, it definitely is a pain in the ass in other areas. I just found it nice though, how you could download games over again and how it does a really good job of keeping track of your purchases, while with iTunes I had to jump through a WHOLE lotta hoops to be able to re-download a TV episode.

So would you all recommend the Gold edition? I'm guessing that the original Uboat Missions by itself is pretty hard to find it nowadays, but has anyone seen the expansion for sale still in a store? Or online anywhere?

[FIREWALL]

I still see Gold at Bestbuy and GameStop\ EB Games stores at $29.99

Frys Electonics is another place. Same price.

[Syxx_Killer]

I wish I would have known about and waited for the Gold Edition before getting the game. The U-Boat add-on was the first time I ever bought a download. I got it from the Ubi store so I don't know how that compares to D2D. Needless to say, I'm not going to be buying a download again. I like to have an actual product disc, although I did burn my copy to a DVD-R. I was able to copy it off my disc and install from it. When installing for the first time and you go to start the game a window pops up and you put in the activation code you received when you bought. What will then pop up is a manual activation code. I haven't had to use it yet, but I did save it.

[Uber Gruber]

When I can get JUST the U-Boat expansion ina a format that allows me to use it just as I would a CD/DVD then i'll buy it.

Until then, there's loads of other stuff to be playing with.

[Travis Reed]

When installing for the first time and you go to start the game a window pops up and you put in the activation code you received when you bought. What will then pop up is a manual activation code. I haven't had to use it yet, but I did save it.

This window is where the new sh4.exe is installing SecuROM on your machine again (if it wasn't already there). The activation just gives SecuROM the license info for that game (thus allowing you to play it).

I'm not certain whether the physical CD/DVD contains SecuROM, but the download certainly does...

[SteamWake]

From day one there has been alot of complaints about the d\l's



I guess Im the excpetion. I got the expansion from D2D, burned it to a disk, and had no problems with it.

[FIREWALL]

From day one there has been alot of complaints about the d\l's



I guess Im the excpetion. I got the expansion from D2D, burned it to a disk, and had no problems with it.

You also know what the heck your doing.:D

Alot like me have had probs with d\l's especially STEAM. Won't ever use it again. :nope:

[The Renegade]

I guess Im the excpetion. I got the expansion from D2D, burned it to a disk, and had no problems with it.

SteamWake, how exactly did you do all this? Was it hard or easy? Is there any DRM or protection stuff on it, like that SecuRom someone mentioned?

I'm still kinda leaning towards buying the physical disk or just getting the Gold edition, but if this D2D thing isn't TOO bad or too hard to burn onto a disk, I could consider that. So how did the digital download thing work for you?

I'm still learning how to play with TMO and haven't touched RFB yet, so there is definitely a lot left to play.....that's the great thing about these games, they never really become obsolete or die thanks to this incredible modding community! Thanks again, drinks all around! :up: :rock:

[Webster]

the mistake most people make is to run the install instaed of first saving it to desktop.

after you save the download to desktop it is yours, just burn it to cd and you have your disk to forever reinstall it as needed. but as Syxx_Killer said, save your registration key. i have mine written on the cd and on a sticker on the cd case.


but only buy the download if you already have the game and just need to get the v1.5 ad-on so if you havent bought anything yet i would say only buy the gold edition. :up:

[RSColonel_131st]

I only bought the Gold Edition late December, and what I like about it is that you can install SH4 (on one disk) and then U-Boat Missions (on the second disk), and you'll never need a disk in the drive again, no activation required either.

U-Boat does update SH4 base install with all required patches, so you have everything on just those two disks.

[Rockin Robbins]

OK guys, the download version does have SecuROM. It is not fully functional though. Although Ubi claims it is only for the purpose of validating the download and performs no local functions on your hard drive, Ubi is wrong. Either they have been mislead or they seek to mislead us. I can't say which.

With the downloaded SH4UBM, every time you start SH4, it scans running processes for certain blacklisted software, including harmless and legitimate software like Microsoft's Process Explorer. If it finds any of these arbitrarily selected processes running it issues a warning and refuses to run SH4.

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/SecuROMSH4UBMmessage.jpg

I'm STILL looking for the "not OK" button!!!!:damn: :rotfl:

Hilariously, if you shut down Process Explorer and start SH4UBM download version, it will run. You can then restart Process Explorer, yielding a victorious screenshot like this:

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/ProcessExplorerSH4UBMprocesseslist.jpg

So, you gotta wonder: if SecuROM is so useless, why is it there? Well, it's there for the same reason everything else is there, somebody sold it! SecuROM is a fine product by those happy henchmen at Sony, the company who loves to hate its customers. Sony goes to the game companies, puts on a dog and pony show about how useful SecuROM is, undoubtedly giving a demonstration with how it prevents the EVIL Process Explorer, and charges the game company a fine fee. The game company is a victim as much as we are. They paid Sony to treat their customers like dirt. And of course, Sony didn't demonstrate what I demonstrate above, that SecuROM is completely useless.

[ExMachina]

From day one there has been alot of complaints about the d\l's


I guess Im the excpetion. I got the expansion from D2D, burned it to a disk, and had no problems with it.
me too...no problems. i didn't know any better and it has worked great.

plus, d2d guarantees free future downloads should you lose the original files and fail to backup on DVD

[ReallyDedPoet]

From day one there has been alot of complaints about the d\l's


I guess Im the excpetion. I got the expansion from D2D, burned it to a disk, and had no problems with it.

Same here, worked like a charm :yep:


RDP

[Alky]

Reading this thread prompted me to buy the U-Boat expansion. I found the Golden Edition at a local retailer and now I'm wondering about installation. I have SH4 with the 1.4 update. Do I need to completely uninstall it and start from scratch with the golden edition? Does Golden include 1.4?
I'm sure my questions are answered somewhere else on this board but since the expansion was released some time ago, I'd probably have to wade through a thousand posts.
Thanx for any help ;)

Never mind.. problem solved :)