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Topic on Talk:Emperor: Battle for Dune

The Play with out CD segement is misleading (you can't without piracy).

4
154.21.20.190 (talkcontribs)

The segment asserts one can play without CDs using the official patches. You cannot.


The author incorrectly asserts the official patches that remove SafeDisk also removes every other form of CD check from the game along with along it. This is not the case as several volume label checks persist. This is by design, We left the checks behind on purpose out of legal requirement. The patch merely addresses Windows 10 no longer supporting SafeDisk, this has the side effect of removing the disk requirement to start the main menu, but checks are still triggered during the campaign missions requiring CDs.

Steps 5-9 as outlined in the play without cd this segment are explicitly dependent on pirate materials the author conveniently fails to mention. Steps 1-3 are required to play the game on modern systems and should be moved to the top of the Game article. The Play without CD section should be removed entirely as it is both incomplete and condones piracy.

Anonymous (talkcontribs)

Nice try, 'developer'. A simple check reveals 1) the install fix was added on 7/6/2001 to the OFFICIAL WESTWOOD STUDIOS PUBLIC FTP SERVER, and the linked install fix, when compared with a SHA-256 file hash of the fan site source and the official source reveal them to be identical - even the EXEs are identical when extracted.

Feel free to try again, but this time, provide PROOF instead of trying to peddle false facts and an obviously-false claim to be a developer on this game.

154.21.212.200 (talkcontribs)

I think there was a miscommunication because I was not trying to imply your website was directing anyone to unofficial materials. Only that someone erroneously appended to the end of the official install fix, the tail end of another procedure that comes from pirate sources. This in turn was misleading people into believing the official patches provided benefits only obtainable without unofficial patches. I can now see however that you have already put it all together and started making corrections before I even had a chance to respond.

I was going to point you to read the .txt provided with the official install fix as "proof" steps 6-9 were derived elsewhere unrelated to the fix but I can see you're on top of it. Even though I was a total jerk about things you looked into my commentary and saw I wasn't just flapping my gums. I want to thank you and just say that makes you the better person between us. I was already going to submit with my retort an apology for my needlessly aggressive posture and for making things more difficult for you. The fact that you went ahead and made the corrections before I got around to apologizing and providing clarification speaks volumes about you(in the best way possible)


My only remaining suggestion (since you preemptively made most of the changes I was going to suggest) is to put the installation instructions at the top so that everything appears in the order a new player would have to follow. Otherwise, you did a great job cleaning up all the inaccuracies.

The game is 20 years old and no one has made money from it in ages, my primary concern regarding piracy is user safety. I didn't want people trying in vain to get NOCD to work because of incomplete details and then go aimlessly searching for a fix on google leading them to malicious binaries. If an authoritative source says something is possible but they can't get it to work they might go turn to a source with malicious intent trying to find a solution. That was my primary concern and it has been addressed.

I can only assume someone at some point was under the mistaken impression the SafeDisk patch removed all CD checks and becuse of this it would make steps that were previously only applicable to restoring cutscenes with an old crack suddenly applicable in the general sense. This has to have been the original motivator behind merging these two sets of instructions but as it was done unders a false premise it simply created a set of instructions that didn't accomplish what it promised. You've elimianted all of those problems so I have nothing else to add outside than my previous comments about the order of operations.

One last time, thank you for cleaning up this wiki, thank you for setting your frustrations with my intolerable behavior asside. I sincerely appreciate it and apologize for any headaches I may have caused you. Clearly a person of principles.

Anonymous (talkcontribs)

You're quite welcome, and apology accepted, whoever you are! Testing is the name of our game, and we've found in the past the truth in the saying/writing trope "the jerk can still have a point". So the individual who tested it with his own, original retail game discs tested his legal "play without the CDs" fix again, and found it didn't work in exactly the way you said it wouldn't. He corrected the title and did his best to note the game could be played without the CDs if a user somehow had a copy which lacked the volume check within our piracy guidelines, but it was determined by PCGamingWiki staff that since no fixes for issues relied on a no-CD crack - not just reasonably, but at all - the rest of the instructions were purged.

As to your suggestion, while our own order of operations dictates we can't put the whole SafeDisc bypass at the top of the article, we do have a way to catch users' eye: an introduction section (see these examples for how a full introduction section works). I've taken the liberty of adding a basic one to the article and putting a link to the bypass front and center. I've also taken the liberty of putting the bypass as the first item in the "Essential improvements" section so those jumping straight to that section will see it first.

Thank you again for reaching out to us! We wouldn't have noticed the "play without CD" fix was legally and literally-impossible without your pointing it out and pointing out why.

Also, if I may be so bold, if you are indeed an original developer on this game, I invite you to join us for our upcoming general meeting as well as privately reach out to our site's chief administrator and founder, Andytizer, with your suggestions and, if you feel comfortable, identification that you are who you say you are (anonymity on the Internet is a double-edged sword, for better and worse). We rarely get the perspective of developers on our site, despite our best efforts to balance representing the rights of both users and developers, and yours would truly be a gift.

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