Sorry, but the problem here is that all this should not be happening and the suggested workarounds should not be required in the first place - the game should not behave differently when an active Internet connection is present. As russellskanne said, this is unacceptable, and I hope that a permanent solution that doesn't involve any home-phoning for single-player will be implemented soon.



Would you please stop repeating this as a valid solution? A DRM-free game shouldn't need this sort of workaround, which, if I may add, may not even be a trivial one for the average gamer. Or any workarounds relating to active Internet connections.

oh man ... this is bad :(

how about darwinia and multiwinia? are they drm'd too?

No it wouldn´t be needed as those a normally use a different address

i.e.


127.0.0.1 ubisoft-orbit.s3.amazonaws.com and this for multiplayer
127.0.0.1 onlineconfigservice.ubi.com and this for key-verification.

So if you put just the last one in, MP would still work.

If the first one wouldn´t be in the hosts file, Windows would send it straight out and only onlineconfigservice.ubi.com would be looped back.

But somebody with a copy of defcon would need to check for the addresses. I don´t owhn the game.

For certain games that is normal behaviour and not even related to DRM. Just think of WIndows checking all the time and you have to dig for, where to disable automatic updates.....

I DO AGREE that for the way as GOG advertises, that shall not be the case.

This IS a valid solution or if you prefer the term valid workaround.
And IF by doing this the game will run without the DRM part, it IS DRM free. Now would be only the question if/when GOG would implement it. But again WE don´t know the contracts. Maybe the dev did forbid removing this part of the code. WE don´t know, but if what I wrote above will work, IMHO it would be a feasable workaround.

SO:

Could somebody who owns the game check with wireshark to which address the request is being sent and put this address in the host file and let us know if it works.

THIS would help the people who would like to play the game.....

And I am here to help, despite what you are writing.
This would be needed to be done on every computer were defcon is installed and connected to the internet. That´s why I would like to confirm with some gamers, if it works, because then GOG might be able to implement a patch in the general installer....

its a DRM game "pre-activated"
clearly its not DRM-Free
devs have to patch the game to remove DRM
its not GOG fault but they need to presure devs to do it

GOG isn't exactly blameless, they're the one who decided this 'solution' was acceptable. Yes it's up to the developer to make the game DRM-free in this case, if GOG told them this is fine then of course they're not going to do any more.

I don't think Goodaltgamer is suggesting we do this as a workaround, but rather that GOG does this to disable the home-phoning. If GOG did it I'd say it's a valid fix. Preventing the home phoning absolutely disables the DRM.

I shall be watching this topic with great interest, as I have the game and darwinia etc but have not installed them yet.

I have tried uplink though, and I posted in that forum some time ago that my firewall at that time was reporting that uplink was trying to connect to the net. It may not be related at all and mostly harmless but here is the post:-

http://www.gog.com/forum/uplink/uplink_likes_to_uplink

I have a few games from gog that try to connect once installed. Some I will allow, things like AI wars etc that check for patches etc (but this is a relatively new game that seems to be updated fairly often), but I block most as a matter of course- but I would be interested to hear what others think about this with regards to DRM.

Obviously, in this case it is major cause for concern but exactly when is an older gog release that tries to connect to the net a concern and when not a concern?

I can see where you're coming from, but I wouldn't consider it a fix but still a workaround.
I don't feel like DRM-free games have any need to mess around with my OS core files.
Also in the unlikely event they ever release a new game that also uses the same DRM mechanic, you and everybody using that computer would be unable to play that game without changing the hosts file again.
And that is why I would consider it a workaround instead of a fix.

Looped DRM ≠ DRM Free

If i had to bother to actually crack a game (This is close enough), i see no reason to buy it, especially if it's sold DRM free.......

I wouldn't consider a game messing with my hosts file without my knowledge, or at least consent, a valid fix.

oh man - remember the thread where this got brought up. must be what...nearly two months ago?!
thats fugg dupp!

Uplink has an in-game capability to connect to a central IRC server for chatting or something IIRC, however I think it is buggy and causes the game to crash to desktop. This would nonetheless generate Internet traffic.

As I mentioned, if someone who ones the game could try it, at least it could be confirmed as a possible whatever in the moment. Sometimes the problem of removing something like this can lead to an unstable product. Hence quite often bugfixes like this does mean adapting other things, as they might be easier.....

AND, we don´t know the legalese between the copyright holder and GOG. the copyright holder might have said, yes you can have it, BUT you are not allowed to remove this part.

IF this would be a possible scenario out of it, both sides would win, as this could be done with a batch file (for sure asking the user for permission) and no need for any key or whatsoever.

Maybe not a good solution......By the way which OS are you running ;) (talking about bugs ;) )

And

Smannesman,

NOOOOOO

This is address specific!!!!!!

Anything NOT matching is unaffected!!!!

^This!