Ouch. It definately sucks to be Lucasarts...

[Excalibur Bane]

The Star Wars: Empire At War demo has been utterly modded to pieces. Or I suppose you could call it hacked, but then Lucasarts hasn't been very loud about protesting any of them. Virtually all of the game has been unlocked and is now playable.

I can't say I feel sorry for them, it's their own stupidity for including half the game in a demo like that. Very sloppy. One could easily see this coming well before it happened. Five tutorials, one space battle and one land battle? 750+ MB? No, I don't think so. Heh. They must have left most of the game intact in their rush to get a demo out.

Oh, well. I won't complain. It was kinda stingy of them to make such a limited demo anyway. I just finished one of the mods and gonna see what the zealots managed to unlock. :rock:

Never underestimate the sheer power of the public's skill and ability get something done even quicker then the developers themselves. Furthermore, NEVER rely on people to be honest. It's not in our nature ;)

[Dowly]

Awww... that sucks. I know it´s a great thing to get something for free, but in this case, think about the hard work the developers put in to the game. All the hard work for nothing. :nope:

[joea]

This is the kind of stupidity from sofware companies and idiocy from pirates that leads to drastic measures like starforce. :nope: :nope:

[Skybird]

They fell victim to their own greed, avoided thinking about that demo's structure to spare some time and get it out faster. My sympathy is limited. Usually the customer is paying for that attitude - in form of paying for buggy or unfinished products. This time it's not us, but them. So be it.

[TteFAboB]

Never underestimate the sheer power of the public's skill and ability get something done even quicker then the developers themselves. Furthermore, NEVER rely on people to be honest. It's not in our nature ;)

Who do you think Lucasarts and the developers are? Not the public? Not the people?

Someone seriously made a BIG mistake here, since the nature of the demo wasn't to be the full game, likewise, how can you be so sure your nature is to be dishonest? Perhaps you are but a Demo of a human being?

[Konovalov]

This is the kind of stupidity from sofware companies and idiocy from pirates that leads to drastic measures like starforce. :nope: :nope:

Sadly yes. :damn:

[Godalmighty83]

reminds me of a demo some years ago that i wont name that simply required you to open a .cfg and change some values from -1 to 2 in order to unlock pretty much the full game. thought things have moved on since then.

[Mustang]

reminds me of a demo some years ago that i wont name that simply required you to open a .cfg and change some values from -1 to 2 in order to unlock pretty much the full game. thought things have moved on since then.
I remember that! It was DeusEx the preview copy.


I agree, they were probably ordered to get the demo out this quarter and didn't have time to write up new scripts and just added restrictions to the existing one. However they could have done more to encrypt their files but I guess they just didn't think we were smart enough to figure it out.

[Godalmighty83]

in fairness though demos have to include (usually anyway)-

game engine
AI
physics
player interface
menu interface
and a selection of levels/videos

thats probably most of the content anyway, i mean if there was a demo for SH3 what could be left out? almost nothing as everything needs to be there fot it too run. (well everything but starforce but thats for a different thread).

[CB..]

yeh that's probably the jist of it---spent so much time worrying about copyright protection they forgot to check if they were giving the game away free with the demo---bit of a pattern emerging really--

[Wim Libaers]

But they didn't really give everything away. As far as I know, all space combat stuff is in there, but land battles are limited (only a few terrains in the demo), and retreat from battle in space doesn't seem to work. Also, saving your progress is disabled, so you have to finish a campaign completely without turning off your computer. It takes time.

Still, it certainly is much more than they intended to give. The unmodded demo was incredibly short.

[goldorak]

But they didn't really give everything away. As far as I know, all space combat stuff is in there, but land battles are limited (only a few terrains in the demo), and retreat from battle in space doesn't seem to work. Also, saving your progress is disabled, so you have to finish a campaign completely without turning off your computer. It takes time.

Still, it certainly is much more than they intended to give. The unmodded demo was incredibly short.


Yes, maybe they rushed things out a bit, but in the end it will be positive for lucasarts.
They are not giving away the game for free, and anyone who thinks that is just being delusional.
Customers now have a very good idea of the game in its entirety, and the reviews are extremely good.
You can bet this will be of the best sellers this year.

[Marhkimov]

Is there a real article that someone can link me to?

I'm wondering about the whole story behind this snafu...

[kiwi_2005]

Ive been waiting for this game to come here. Can't get enough of Stradgety war games.

[kiwi_2005]

I put your info on another gaming site and it got deleted in seconds! then the moderators accused me of being a warez user!!!! LOL. Farout anyone would think i was going to do a cafe run with a bomb.

:|\

[Sulikate]

I downloaded the demo, great game indeed, but 750MB? for a tutorial and two battles? I wander how the large the game will be; 8Gb?:roll:

just kidding, I think it was obvious that someone would be able to hack the game and unlock at least half of it, the demo is HUGE (I haven't played the "unlocked" version, cause I'm going to buy it anyway).

[Marhkimov]

I'm going to wait for the reviews, because this game looks promising... :yep:

I'm in it for the dynamic campaign.