The only problem I am having with ARC is the same one many people seem to have and that is the thing is a RESOURCE HOG. It also slows down my machine enough that it affects my ability to Podcast a Live stream of the game, as I cannot keep everything running with ARC eating SO MANY resources.
i can also confirm that it slows down my back up computer which is more or less a new rig. since the previous installation was corrupted, went after this ARC to see how it goes. for now its just too much trouble then it is worth to keep on the system because its this heavy.
Overall it is ok meaning it has some good sides to using it, but it is also a memory hog as in takes up virtually 1/4 of what the game client itself uses.
I do like the information it provides and the ease of purchasing zen along with how fast the game client downloaded, but when trying to use the forum it is kind of lame how once signed into ARC that you need to sign into the forum from there as well.
I joined Start trek online, downlaoded it via steam and set up a account on perfect world.
2 days later i am forced into downloading arc client and game again if i want to subscripe to the game.
How is that in any way fair to Steam users?
And i have no intention of installing Arc client if it's a major ressource hog like most people claim it to be.
I myself don't care for Arc, it's mostly just a steam ripoff, I mean just look at the user interface. I downloaded it to get the free stuff, but I've gone back to using steam.
My fleet mates don't care for it as well. They have all removed it and gone back to their original non arc installs.
One thing i can't stand is the browser integration. I'm tired of everyone wanting to add their bloatware TRIBBLE to my browser.
Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. HATE it. Get it?
STO is the only perfect world game I play, the only one I will ever play. Another Steam ripoff does me zero good. I could care less about resource use. What PWE is doing is forcing us to install useless and needless, potentially unsecure, marginally malicious software so they can jam more advertising into your eyes.
I have gone as far as installing ARC and STO on a machine I intend to wipe (I'll get all the freebies this way) in an effort to keep this garbage off my main computers. I will play STO as long as an option exists to play without ARC
I just done a fresh install of Arc and STO. Because when i loaded STO it would crash at the first loading screen everytime. I could get past the crash by running in admin mode. But thought, if it was crashing, there was something wrong with a file somewhere. Hence why i decided to do a fresh install.
i disabled the on demand patching as i dont like it patching at the in between loading screens on STO.
Yes, big download, 13GB to be exact, thats why i let it run overnight while i was asleep
Anyway, i checked it when i got up, and was able to play STO no problem through Arc. No more patching needed. But upon loading STO by itself with Arc not running at all, (checked tray at bottom of windows desktop to make sure),STO wants to patch another 3831MB.
When it started, i cancelled it, re-opened Arc and started STO again. It didnt need to patch thru Arc. So, i exited Arc and STO again, and restarted STO by itself once more, to find, it needs to patch the 3831MB.
Why is it patching when running STO by itself when i have already patched the entire game thru Arc? I havent encountered this problem before.
Just seems strange that i have to repatch the game if i run it with Arc not running.
I believe God created the universe, because he knew we wanted to explore. So, he made us a playground...
Has anyone used this new Arc thing? What is it? What does it offer me?
You can get a free uniform if you use it. Other than that it is a waste of resources on pw and your side.
I have seen companies do things like this in the past. If there is no perceived benefit to having this, avoid it. It won't be used for your benefit. Avoid arc.
You can get a free uniform if you use it. Other than that it is a waste of resources on pw and your side.
I have seen companies do things like this in the past. If there is no perceived benefit to having this, avoid it. It won't be used for your benefit. Avoid arc.
unless you play other games like neverwinter.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
..? Please explain.
If a company spends resources on anything and forces it on you, it isn't for your benefit.
(Unless it is legislated like seat belts).
Their has to be a money making purpose. They are legally responsible to their shareholders.
..? Please explain.
If a company spends resources on anything and forces it on you, it isn't for your benefit.
(Unless it is legislated like seat belts).
Their has to be a money making purpose. They are legally responsible to their shareholders.
The purpose is to create synergy between all their games; especially since they're adding more new games in the future as well as adapting current games to new markets. NWS is not only being adapted to consoles but it's also being adapted for their asian market. I wouldn't be shocked to see sto follow suit in the next couple of years.
Many companies have a unified launcher: steam, ncsoft, etc. What's going on with arch isn't new to the industry.
chalpen, Arc (when it is complete - it isn't yet) will be a unified launcher for all PWI games, modeled on Steam. Currently, it launches the existing standalone launchers, but the plan is for that to end when the software is finalized. It's also supposed to make it easier to access game data while playing (currently, if I want to, say, check the wiki, I have to swap over to the desktop and launch Firefox separately), and to share screenshots and such.
If you don't like Arc, download Steam and get used to it, because the day is coming when the standalone launchers will no longer function. Originally, PWI planned on not using Steam either, but there was considerable blowback on that one from Cryptic game players (and devs!) who've used Steam since Cryptic's games first showed up in their store. The advantage to Steam, of course, is that it's already been through the growing pains Arc is beginning to experience, and the software is accordingly more polished.
Of course there's a money-making purpose - the unified launch screen means every time you open Arc, you're seeing ads for all PWI's games - but that doesn't mean it can't be intended to make the end user's life easier as well.
..? Please explain.
If a company spends resources on anything and forces it on you, it isn't for your benefit.
(Unless it is legislated like seat belts).
Their has to be a money making purpose. They are legally responsible to their shareholders.
It's called "mutually beneficial"
Arc consolidates your games into an easy to launch, single click limited web browser. You can access any PWE game you play, check out the news and forums from the browser, buy zen, etc.
and you don't have to login in each time as it saves that info and enters it for you when you use the launcher via Arc
PWE benefits by advertising their entire lineup right on your front page, as well as enticing you to buy things for the games you already play
so right there you have the benefits to the player (consolidated and easy to use interface, everything at your fingertips) and benefits to PWE (money making opportunities through players spending money directly through Arc, either because they're trying a new game that piqued their interest, or because they want something new from a game they're already playing)
there are downsides to Arc, such as the bloated processes that eat up memory, so if you have a low end PC it might make it chug. Also as it's not as widespread in use it doesn't have the utility of Steam (or the library of Steam either) in terms of friends lists and chat functions.
but even so it's not this evil piece of software that eats babies and steals your soul that some people make it out to be
KDF for Life! Romulan at Heart Fed cause they made me ~ :P
Guys, arc may do this and arc may eventually do that. It may benifit us in x way.
But it doesn't right now.
You cannot judge something on what something could be. Only what it is. Priorities change.
Sto's Gateway could be as good as the neverwinter gateway.
Cryptic sold it so on many occasions.
But as you have heard, it isn't and it won't be.
By your logic you should be avoiding not only this game but all video games because companies spent resources on them and force you to do things in order to make money off of you.
They forced you to download their programs in order to play the game.
They forced you to use their game engine
They forced you to use the original launcher to play
They forced you to play on their servers
They forced you to play at their convenience because they bring down those servers whenever they feel like it
They forced you to use their forum
They forced you to follow their rules when using their forum
They forced you to use their pretend money if you want a digital item
They forced you to use their private C-store
They forced you to not use gold seller sites
They forced restrictions on what types of characters you can play, the ships you can use, the types of equipment you can use, what your avatar can look like, how much currency you can have, and how much you can spend/sell on the market, etc. etc. etc.
There is making money legit and not.
When you buy a car you make an honest transaction. If a month after you get a bill for things that you were not told about, it isn't honest.
Facebook was sold as being safe and secure and the touted not selling your info.
Then they realized there was money in it and changed their policy.
But you couldn't back out of it if you used their product.
So if it is a p2w game and they sell you stuff, and you buy it, it is fair.
If they sell you the possibility of getting stuff it is dishonest and illegal in most countries.
There is making money legit and not.
When you buy a car you make an honest transaction. If a month after you get a bill for things that you were not told about, it isn't honest.
Facebook was sold as being safe and secure and the touted not selling your info.
Then they realized there was money in it and changed their policy.
But you couldn't back out of it if you used their product.
So if it is a p2w game and they sell you stuff, and you buy it, it is fair.
If they sell you the possibility of getting stuff it is dishonest and illegal in most countries.
I don't know about anyone else, but I've been able to get informed of new items, spend money and buy things without ARC for a long time now. ARC isn't doing anything new for me.
It is for me. It's gotten me an amusing Wrath of Khan costume, a Ferengi shuttle, and 20 Lobi.
And aside from those "Please use our Steam wannabe" bribes, it's done absolutely nothing. Logged back in with the old launcher the moment I finished looting the freebies.
I tried Arc Beta last week because I wanted the 20 free Lobi Crystal for my KDF toon which I started too late to get the 1,000 Qmmendations for the free Dyson starship (go one for my Fed toon). I only ended up with 800 by the time the anniversary event ended. I slotted the mission so I buy the remaining Qmmendation with Lobi Crystals. I haven't bought any yet so I don't know how many points 20 Lobi Crystals will get me.
Anywaste, using Arc Beta means you need to download STO again it seems. When I tried to launch the game, it told me STO was not installed. Oh well... I exited out of Arc Beta and launched STO the old fashion way.
Anywaste, using Arc Beta means you need to download STO again it seems. When I tried to launch the game, it told me STO was not installed. Oh well... I exited out of Arc Beta and launched STO the old fashion way.
I'm no ARC fan (pretty much the opposite for the most part), but when I installed it it detected my existing STO and went right along on its merry way. Now it launches fine from ARC when there are freebies to be looted, and launches fine from the standard STO launcher the other 99.99% of the time.
the added attraction is its also a resource hog. for some apparently thats not the case but for a good number of other players it is a resource hog.
The bane of a programmer is making something work on more than one machine.
Ideally, if they can get it to not be a resource hog on one machine, it shouldn't be on another either. But we don't live in an ideal world.
As for my opinion on Arc, I'm neutral. I use Steam to launch the game, and I'll continue to use Steam even if I played more than one PWE game. I also have Origin and Blizzard's Battle.Net launcher, so I've got enough of those things on my machine.
i have decided i am not using Arc no more, as it has taken over my pc's. I have to format both my computers because of Arc.
I cant open programs without admin rights, that i USED to be able to open before i installed Arc.
I cant delete screenshots without admin rights. I cant edit screenshots AT ALL as it comes up with a message saying you do not have the rights, access is denied. Im going back to my DVD retail version, you can keep arc. If you force it on me to use, i guess i wont be playing STO or blacklight ever again!
Useless garbage
I guess my bottom line on Arc, is that my pc's do not recognise me as the admin no more. When before Arc was installed, they did.
I believe God created the universe, because he knew we wanted to explore. So, he made us a playground...
I've no idea if it has to do with Arc or not, but I know there has been a grievous issue with STO that has kept me from playing for the last 6 months. Starting after an autoupdate patched STO, I began experiencing black screens, crashes, pixellation, all of which has made it impossible to enjoy my favorite MMO. And well meaning as tech support may be, they have been unable to pinpoint the issue and resolve it; though they are still working on it. All I want to know is when someone is going to figure a solution out so I can get back to playing or at least verify that it's impossible to do so for good.
Sometimes I manage to clear the game screen up to be playable and these problems only occur with STO, not with any other MMO. If anyone wants to give a try and let me know some hidden setting I can tweak, see my thread below for the full story. I'd really appreciate any input that may get things back to proper functionality.
i have windsow 8.1 and i start up the game and than i can't get into the game and i tried to unistall the game than i install the game but i still can't get into the game i can get into neverwinter but i can't get into startrek
I recently figured out after 15 BSOD crashes and several black loading screens, Norton AV, Advanced System Care, or Iobit Malware scannerr was somehow interfering with Arc.
I've run the above mentioned programs since the game launched, but I am really leaning towards one of their patches interfering somehow especially after verifying all my drivers and software were certified, pc system checked several times, and no evident hardware or cooling issues.
I ended up downloading Microsoft Essentials and using Windows Defender with the build in Windows firewall...I used msconfig and disabled the above mentioned programs and it seems to have cleared up the issue quite nicely...no BSOD, crashes, or anything wrong.
Comments
intel i5-4670 3.4ghz
z87m gaming intel m-atx mobo
radeon hd6700 2gb
4gb corsair ddr3
750w psu
1tb sata hdd
even with that, sto is suffering with arc in the background.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I do like the information it provides and the ease of purchasing zen along with how fast the game client downloaded, but when trying to use the forum it is kind of lame how once signed into ARC that you need to sign into the forum from there as well.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
2 days later i am forced into downloading arc client and game again if i want to subscripe to the game.
How is that in any way fair to Steam users?
And i have no intention of installing Arc client if it's a major ressource hog like most people claim it to be.
My fleet mates don't care for it as well. They have all removed it and gone back to their original non arc installs.
One thing i can't stand is the browser integration. I'm tired of everyone wanting to add their bloatware TRIBBLE to my browser.
STO is the only perfect world game I play, the only one I will ever play. Another Steam ripoff does me zero good. I could care less about resource use. What PWE is doing is forcing us to install useless and needless, potentially unsecure, marginally malicious software so they can jam more advertising into your eyes.
I have gone as far as installing ARC and STO on a machine I intend to wipe (I'll get all the freebies this way) in an effort to keep this garbage off my main computers. I will play STO as long as an option exists to play without ARC
Feedback is served
i disabled the on demand patching as i dont like it patching at the in between loading screens on STO.
Yes, big download, 13GB to be exact, thats why i let it run overnight while i was asleep
Anyway, i checked it when i got up, and was able to play STO no problem through Arc. No more patching needed. But upon loading STO by itself with Arc not running at all, (checked tray at bottom of windows desktop to make sure),STO wants to patch another 3831MB.
When it started, i cancelled it, re-opened Arc and started STO again. It didnt need to patch thru Arc. So, i exited Arc and STO again, and restarted STO by itself once more, to find, it needs to patch the 3831MB.
Why is it patching when running STO by itself when i have already patched the entire game thru Arc? I havent encountered this problem before.
Just seems strange that i have to repatch the game if i run it with Arc not running.
You can get a free uniform if you use it. Other than that it is a waste of resources on pw and your side.
I have seen companies do things like this in the past. If there is no perceived benefit to having this, avoid it. It won't be used for your benefit. Avoid arc.
unless you play other games like neverwinter.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
..? Please explain.
If a company spends resources on anything and forces it on you, it isn't for your benefit.
(Unless it is legislated like seat belts).
Their has to be a money making purpose. They are legally responsible to their shareholders.
Many companies have a unified launcher: steam, ncsoft, etc. What's going on with arch isn't new to the industry.
If you don't like Arc, download Steam and get used to it, because the day is coming when the standalone launchers will no longer function. Originally, PWI planned on not using Steam either, but there was considerable blowback on that one from Cryptic game players (and devs!) who've used Steam since Cryptic's games first showed up in their store. The advantage to Steam, of course, is that it's already been through the growing pains Arc is beginning to experience, and the software is accordingly more polished.
Of course there's a money-making purpose - the unified launch screen means every time you open Arc, you're seeing ads for all PWI's games - but that doesn't mean it can't be intended to make the end user's life easier as well.
It's called "mutually beneficial"
Arc consolidates your games into an easy to launch, single click limited web browser. You can access any PWE game you play, check out the news and forums from the browser, buy zen, etc.
and you don't have to login in each time as it saves that info and enters it for you when you use the launcher via Arc
PWE benefits by advertising their entire lineup right on your front page, as well as enticing you to buy things for the games you already play
so right there you have the benefits to the player (consolidated and easy to use interface, everything at your fingertips) and benefits to PWE (money making opportunities through players spending money directly through Arc, either because they're trying a new game that piqued their interest, or because they want something new from a game they're already playing)
there are downsides to Arc, such as the bloated processes that eat up memory, so if you have a low end PC it might make it chug. Also as it's not as widespread in use it doesn't have the utility of Steam (or the library of Steam either) in terms of friends lists and chat functions.
but even so it's not this evil piece of software that eats babies and steals your soul that some people make it out to be
But it doesn't right now.
You cannot judge something on what something could be. Only what it is. Priorities change.
Sto's Gateway could be as good as the neverwinter gateway.
Cryptic sold it so on many occasions.
But as you have heard, it isn't and it won't be.
There is making money legit and not.
When you buy a car you make an honest transaction. If a month after you get a bill for things that you were not told about, it isn't honest.
Facebook was sold as being safe and secure and the touted not selling your info.
Then they realized there was money in it and changed their policy.
But you couldn't back out of it if you used their product.
So if it is a p2w game and they sell you stuff, and you buy it, it is fair.
If they sell you the possibility of getting stuff it is dishonest and illegal in most countries.
No. Just...no.
the added attraction is its also a resource hog. for some apparently thats not the case but for a good number of other players it is a resource hog.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
It is for me. It's gotten me an amusing Wrath of Khan costume, a Ferengi shuttle, and 20 Lobi.
And aside from those "Please use our Steam wannabe" bribes, it's done absolutely nothing. Logged back in with the old launcher the moment I finished looting the freebies.
Anywaste, using Arc Beta means you need to download STO again it seems. When I tried to launch the game, it told me STO was not installed. Oh well... I exited out of Arc Beta and launched STO the old fashion way.
I'm no ARC fan (pretty much the opposite for the most part), but when I installed it it detected my existing STO and went right along on its merry way. Now it launches fine from ARC when there are freebies to be looted, and launches fine from the standard STO launcher the other 99.99% of the time.
Ideally, if they can get it to not be a resource hog on one machine, it shouldn't be on another either. But we don't live in an ideal world.
As for my opinion on Arc, I'm neutral. I use Steam to launch the game, and I'll continue to use Steam even if I played more than one PWE game. I also have Origin and Blizzard's Battle.Net launcher, so I've got enough of those things on my machine.
I don't have enough bandwidth to keep trying to install a 13gb patch every time I try to open it...
Help?
I cant open programs without admin rights, that i USED to be able to open before i installed Arc.
I cant delete screenshots without admin rights. I cant edit screenshots AT ALL as it comes up with a message saying you do not have the rights, access is denied. Im going back to my DVD retail version, you can keep arc. If you force it on me to use, i guess i wont be playing STO or blacklight ever again!
Useless garbage
I guess my bottom line on Arc, is that my pc's do not recognise me as the admin no more. When before Arc was installed, they did.
Sometimes I manage to clear the game screen up to be playable and these problems only occur with STO, not with any other MMO. If anyone wants to give a try and let me know some hidden setting I can tweak, see my thread below for the full story. I'd really appreciate any input that may get things back to proper functionality.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1057311
I recently figured out after 15 BSOD crashes and several black loading screens, Norton AV, Advanced System Care, or Iobit Malware scannerr was somehow interfering with Arc.
I've run the above mentioned programs since the game launched, but I am really leaning towards one of their patches interfering somehow especially after verifying all my drivers and software were certified, pc system checked several times, and no evident hardware or cooling issues.
I ended up downloading Microsoft Essentials and using Windows Defender with the build in Windows firewall...I used msconfig and disabled the above mentioned programs and it seems to have cleared up the issue quite nicely...no BSOD, crashes, or anything wrong.
Game is now running smoother than ever.