Most of us are. becaise its relatively unintrusive and offers huge discounts on games constantly. ARC on the other hand, is a blatant ad campaign for the zen store.
same problems here...
thanks klixan
but ur link isn't available, the file can't be found after I click the download button at that website
is there any other site?
0
ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
edited August 2013
Hey, please take a look over the new Arc FAQ. It answers many questions about the new Arc platform.
I've been using Arc since it became available and here is my experience overall:
It really IS lightweight, nimble, fast and convenient. However, I'll admit that as of right now, the minimal feature set does not add to the user experience IF you play only one PWE game (i.e. Neverwinter and none of the others).
However, if you do play other PWE games (I play STO, CO and NW) - there is a massive convenience in having a simplified unified "shell" to manage and launch them all.
As of right now, the Arc shell will launch a game Launcher (it then can auto-log into your account and start updates automatically, etc.). The primary features of Arc -right now- are that you have easy access to all forums and blog posts of all PWE titles, and while in-game having a keyboard shortcut to show the Arc "informational" portions, like forums and blog posts etc - while in-game.
Admittedly, Arc will not really be all that useful until the "real" features are finally implemented: launching a game directly from inside Arc (without using the existing game launcher) - and background updating (I hope it's background, anyway). As for the other promised features like achievements and tokens and whatnot - meh.
The TL;DR of it is pretty simple: if you only play ONE PWE game it's okay, not great. But if you play two or more PWE games it's awesome.
Simple as that.
It's easy enough to uninstall (and keep the game files you want to keep) - but doing that is obviously not supported and not recommended. But if you're asking how to get only the game files without Arc then uninstalling Arc and keeping your game files should be a basic no brainer for you.
In short, I recommend you at least give it a go. It's not great (yet) but it's not bad either.
I read your FAQ on the ARC platform and while I applaud you for attempting to keep it minimally invasive, requiring it to download and play Neverwinter seems like a step too far. Especially for those of us who play only one Perfect World game, the advantage just isn't worth the cost of having a second content delivery service.
If there starts to be more of an advantage to it, such as cutting down on the number of bots, creating a "trade" channel so the main "zone" isn't flooded with offers, adding invocation along with managing professions, Auction House and guilds via HTTP gateway or some anti-cheating measures, perhaps this discussion will change.
For now, can we please get a version of the launcher that does not require ARC to install?
There is a purpose. The current cryptic launchers for the individual products don't really have an easy method to do real-time updates on current issues, like server outages or major bugs. I'm sure I don't have to point at the launch bugs this game had, with server outages and such, to point out why this is bad. But, ARC does provide this ability. Its major selling point is as a communication tool.
With that said? You can run the game without arc by just launching the EXE, I gather.
I feel like people would be less annoyed by it if they stopped thinking about it as a program, and started thinking about it as a launcher.
In game, I am @EvilTaco. Happily killing purple gang members since May 2008. RIP Caine
0
zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
I feel like people would be less annoyed by it if they stopped thinking about it as a program, and started thinking about it as a launcher.
. . . . . Indeed, ARC is extremely minimal. Right now it is indeed just nothing more than the launcher for all Perfect World Entertainment's games. Steam uses more resources than ARC and I barely even notice Steam.
However, if you do play other PWE games (I play STO, CO and NW) - there is a massive convenience in having a simplified unified "shell" to manage and launch them all.
I can launch and patch all 3 from CO launcher, same with STO and NW. No Arc needed...
I just play neverwinter and I have no desire to install another program just for neverwinter. If this becomes required I'll just leave, as much as I love this game, I'm not willing to install a new platform with a browser etc just to play the game.
I've used Steam for years as I live overseas and its hard to find hardcopies of games in english. Not sure why people are comparing a glorified game launcher for a few games to Steam.
I don't want, or need a launcher for a launcher for one game. Honestly if you force this down peoples throats your going to lose people, it should remain optional for people like me who play 1 of your games. I quit playing EA games when they decided Origin was a good idea. And I haven't played an Ubisoft game forever.
I don't really care how much resources it takes, if its useless its useless. If other people want it, fine, more power too them.
The only people who will leave if they do at all is the ones complaining. People say they are going to quit but in the end they don't. ARC is not useless. Steam uses more than ARC. So whatever.
Just curious? What's this ARC thing you're all talking about? Never seen it when installing/launching STO, CO, or NW.
*sings* "I like Gammera! He's so neat!!! He is full of turtle meat!!!"
"Hah! You are doomed! You're only armed with that pathetic excuse for a musical instrument!!!" *the Savage Beast moments before Lonnehart the Bard used music to soothe him... then beat him to death with his Fat Lute*
0
zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
As long as it doesn't use pando booster, I'm good. Because ncsoft games needs it and it's quite annoying to download something that uses your internet without any notifications. Anyway, you can just delete arc after it has installed the initial 100 mega or whatever file, so it's all good.
Hey all, we ask that you please take a look over our Arc FAQ. It answers many questions about our new and exciting Arc platform!
Took a look at the FAQ. It lost me at "unified software experience".
("Unified software experience" is marketingspeak for "<font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> we want you to install that you don't want or need")
"What's in a name? Would a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> sandwich by any other name not taste as nasty?"
0
progz86Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited August 2013
Is there a way? For some reason I need to run Arc just to update Neverwinter, its stupid as ****.
chelseacrafterMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited August 2013
I thought I was going to hate Arc... but I was forced into it. Now I love Arc. No more 4 separate icons on my desktop. It seems a LOT faster than any of the past downloads I've had with PWE. Not one error or fail yet... which is a staggering improvement over PWE's past performance. I can switch games easily.
Only bad thing is... multi-client ability seems to be gone. I can't find out how to do it now. I'm not needing to that much but I like handing off my stuff from other accounts to my other toons from time to time. Oh well... mail will do.
Yeah Arc isn't what I thought it would be and the game is running smoother for me. Go figure.
Anyone care for my little story ?
No ?
Well i'll write it down here anyway.
Some years ago i was still on Win XP with an not so old custom build computer.
Since MS was discontinuing things for XP more and more, i felt forced to make the move to Win 7.
I ordered new parts, assembled them, installed my new Win 7 Ultimate 64.
Then, now that i had the new DirectX needed for many games, i wanted to get me some new games.
Prior to that i only had Guild Wars on my computer, I decided to forget about Neverwinter Nights a few years before starting that one.
Since i had "fallen" for an Xbox some years before this, i decided to try the "Games for Windows Marketplace" on wich i buyed a game thinking it might had achievement to my Live account, but no, that game had it's own system.
But when i decided i loved that game and wanted the expansions, MS wasn't selling them so i had to get them on Origin, since their staff said it would work.
But thoses were not working together and after spending some time pulling my hairs out, i removed the MS version of the game after their staff kindly proposed to activate the game on their plateform for me.
It was working great.
Later i "fell" for a game on Steam that i though to be very similar to that game i had on Origin. I was wrong. Some aspects are similar but it's a very different game.
Now, i have all 3 plateforms on my computer, sitting there, i very rarely double-click their icon.
Do i need a fourth one ?
I certainly wont whine about them taking space on my hard drive, i have four drives : 2 SSD and 2 HDD.
1) SSD for Win 7 : 6.71 Go of free space
2) HDD for softwares : 77.5 Go of free space
3) SSD for my most important games : 16.6 Go of free space
4) HDD for the "Users" folder : 100 Go of free space
I usually install softwares like Arc on the software HDD (2) wich has more than enough free space.
And when possible i tell thoses software to install games elsewhere than the default location on C: drive.
Is that option availlable on Arc ?
Because, even though i still have that 3.48 Mo install file i downloaded for the game about a week prior to offcial launch and that i dont play any other PWE/Criptic games, i would be willing to try Arc.
But, what would convince me would be if Arc would show my ingame friend list and give me access to guild and custom chat channels.
Why ?
Because after reading some old post on this forum i tried to configure Pidgin for this but the servers kept answering that my username was wrong.
No, the wiki page isn't any help in configuring Pidgin, and the FAQs about Arc dont tell if it does this.
I've had Arc since it came out and have had no issues my hubby has had no arc during same time period
our performance has been basically the same.
I find the web browser kinda pointless since I run in windowed mode. if the in game browser was in an adjustable window or something it might be better but if I want to blank out my game to browse ill just t use IE or Chrome.
if core connect let us access friends and guilds and achievements it might be better.
maybe if there was a connection to the "Official wiki" that might be helpful
as far as pidgin goes you are not the only one getting a Username/password error right now.
Ive ben trying to help a few people set pidgin up. I personally have HOTN and GOLD on CO
so I don't have any issues. But NWO has no GOLD Options. Id love to know if there is some sort of
requirement of level or purchase to run the program like there is in CO/STO. or this might just be a bug.
You bring up a good point. The interesting thing is that we are purposely releasing Arc early with minimal features because we only want to add what people want. Rather than creating bloatware and filling it up with what we think players want, we are making it clean and simple at first, then adding new features as we see feedback from players. This is a great time to share your feedback regarding what you'd like to see in terms of functionality!
How I read this: "we purposely hammered PW's bloatware into our game because we were forced to".
0
derpaderpistMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Comments
Most of us are. becaise its relatively unintrusive and offers huge discounts on games constantly. ARC on the other hand, is a blatant ad campaign for the zen store.
thanks klixan
but ur link isn't available, the file can't be found after I click the download button at that website
is there any other site?
It really IS lightweight, nimble, fast and convenient. However, I'll admit that as of right now, the minimal feature set does not add to the user experience IF you play only one PWE game (i.e. Neverwinter and none of the others).
However, if you do play other PWE games (I play STO, CO and NW) - there is a massive convenience in having a simplified unified "shell" to manage and launch them all.
As of right now, the Arc shell will launch a game Launcher (it then can auto-log into your account and start updates automatically, etc.). The primary features of Arc -right now- are that you have easy access to all forums and blog posts of all PWE titles, and while in-game having a keyboard shortcut to show the Arc "informational" portions, like forums and blog posts etc - while in-game.
Admittedly, Arc will not really be all that useful until the "real" features are finally implemented: launching a game directly from inside Arc (without using the existing game launcher) - and background updating (I hope it's background, anyway). As for the other promised features like achievements and tokens and whatnot - meh.
The TL;DR of it is pretty simple: if you only play ONE PWE game it's okay, not great. But if you play two or more PWE games it's awesome.
Simple as that.
It's easy enough to uninstall (and keep the game files you want to keep) - but doing that is obviously not supported and not recommended. But if you're asking how to get only the game files without Arc then uninstalling Arc and keeping your game files should be a basic no brainer for you.
In short, I recommend you at least give it a go. It's not great (yet) but it's not bad either.
Agreed! I will opt out of playing PWE games before I download this thing.
If there starts to be more of an advantage to it, such as cutting down on the number of bots, creating a "trade" channel so the main "zone" isn't flooded with offers, adding invocation along with managing professions, Auction House and guilds via HTTP gateway or some anti-cheating measures, perhaps this discussion will change.
For now, can we please get a version of the launcher that does not require ARC to install?
With that said? You can run the game without arc by just launching the EXE, I gather.
I feel like people would be less annoyed by it if they stopped thinking about it as a program, and started thinking about it as a launcher.
RIP Caine
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
I can launch and patch all 3 from CO launcher, same with STO and NW. No Arc needed...
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
I don't want, or need a launcher for a launcher for one game. Honestly if you force this down peoples throats your going to lose people, it should remain optional for people like me who play 1 of your games. I quit playing EA games when they decided Origin was a good idea. And I haven't played an Ubisoft game forever.
I don't really care how much resources it takes, if its useless its useless. If other people want it, fine, more power too them.
"Hah! You are doomed! You're only armed with that pathetic excuse for a musical instrument!!!" *the Savage Beast moments before Lonnehart the Bard used music to soothe him... then beat him to death with his Fat Lute*
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
I don't see an option to launch CO or STO from the NW launcher.. how does this work?
Edit: Found the option to show all games. NEAT!
Took a look at the FAQ. It lost me at "unified software experience".
("Unified software experience" is marketingspeak for "<font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> we want you to install that you don't want or need")
"What's in a name? Would a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> sandwich by any other name not taste as nasty?"
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
Only bad thing is... multi-client ability seems to be gone. I can't find out how to do it now. I'm not needing to that much but I like handing off my stuff from other accounts to my other toons from time to time. Oh well... mail will do.
Yeah Arc isn't what I thought it would be and the game is running smoother for me. Go figure.
Whoa, tested that and it worked. That IS neat. *removing arc*
No ?
Well i'll write it down here anyway.
Some years ago i was still on Win XP with an not so old custom build computer.
Since MS was discontinuing things for XP more and more, i felt forced to make the move to Win 7.
I ordered new parts, assembled them, installed my new Win 7 Ultimate 64.
Then, now that i had the new DirectX needed for many games, i wanted to get me some new games.
Prior to that i only had Guild Wars on my computer, I decided to forget about Neverwinter Nights a few years before starting that one.
Since i had "fallen" for an Xbox some years before this, i decided to try the "Games for Windows Marketplace" on wich i buyed a game thinking it might had achievement to my Live account, but no, that game had it's own system.
But when i decided i loved that game and wanted the expansions, MS wasn't selling them so i had to get them on Origin, since their staff said it would work.
But thoses were not working together and after spending some time pulling my hairs out, i removed the MS version of the game after their staff kindly proposed to activate the game on their plateform for me.
It was working great.
Later i "fell" for a game on Steam that i though to be very similar to that game i had on Origin. I was wrong. Some aspects are similar but it's a very different game.
Now, i have all 3 plateforms on my computer, sitting there, i very rarely double-click their icon.
Do i need a fourth one ?
I certainly wont whine about them taking space on my hard drive, i have four drives : 2 SSD and 2 HDD.
1) SSD for Win 7 : 6.71 Go of free space
2) HDD for softwares : 77.5 Go of free space
3) SSD for my most important games : 16.6 Go of free space
4) HDD for the "Users" folder : 100 Go of free space
I usually install softwares like Arc on the software HDD (2) wich has more than enough free space.
And when possible i tell thoses software to install games elsewhere than the default location on C: drive.
Is that option availlable on Arc ?
Because, even though i still have that 3.48 Mo install file i downloaded for the game about a week prior to offcial launch and that i dont play any other PWE/Criptic games, i would be willing to try Arc.
But, what would convince me would be if Arc would show my ingame friend list and give me access to guild and custom chat channels.
Why ?
Because after reading some old post on this forum i tried to configure Pidgin for this but the servers kept answering that my username was wrong.
No, the wiki page isn't any help in configuring Pidgin, and the FAQs about Arc dont tell if it does this.
our performance has been basically the same.
I find the web browser kinda pointless since I run in windowed mode. if the in game browser was in an adjustable window or something it might be better but if I want to blank out my game to browse ill just t use IE or Chrome.
if core connect let us access friends and guilds and achievements it might be better.
maybe if there was a connection to the "Official wiki" that might be helpful
as far as pidgin goes you are not the only one getting a Username/password error right now.
Ive ben trying to help a few people set pidgin up. I personally have HOTN and GOLD on CO
so I don't have any issues. But NWO has no GOLD Options. Id love to know if there is some sort of
requirement of level or purchase to run the program like there is in CO/STO. or this might just be a bug.
id be happy to try and help you configure pidgin
Oh really? But mr Administrator said it is useless, here:
How I read this: "we purposely hammered PW's bloatware into our game because we were forced to".
looooloololo ?!