I got arc a while ago because I had a virus go through my system, and have had no problems with it. today after I logged off of sto and left arc running in the back round. then I came back later in the day and have a endless loop of telling me that "Login has timed out. please check your network connections and try again. I do not know what to do. every thing I can see is all correct and I even tried restarting my computer. I am not that big on working on the forum and cant find where to post a bug about this or get help. I finally found this tread so I thought ill ask here.
I got arc a while ago because I had a virus go through my system, and have had no problems with it. today after I logged off of sto and left arc running in the back round. then I came back later in the day and have a endless loop of telling me that "Login has timed out. please check your network connections and try again. I do not know what to do. every thing I can see is all correct and I even tried restarting my computer. I am not that big on working on the forum and cant find where to post a bug about this or get help. I finally found this tread so I thought ill ask here.
It was doing it earlier, probably with the update patches and all. It's nothing.
I've learned in my time, when a community is vehemently against something, and suddenly a pro minority appears, it's either one of two things.
Well meaning idiots (who are siding with the 'authority' because it makes them feel good) and/or are also ignorant of the situation, it's eventual effects, implications or the fact that it's promises are lies
OR
They are Propagandists, straight up social engineers, (professional psycho-analysts who are explicitly trying to create a social change for the purposes of their employer/client).
And yes there is a market for these people, intelligence agencies, political parties and even corporations the world over make use of them all the time.
So in the case of ARC when I see someone, out of the blue come out and say "I think ARC is good" without any supporting argument, nor any response to the points of the Anti side, it always raises a red flag to me.
Look up my forum name and go to the last page, which shows posts WAY before we even HEARD of Arc. I'm stating my opinion: I like Arc. If you don't, I will point out the good stuff but if you end up not agreeing, I'm perfectly OK with it.
That doesn't change the fact that you could be a plant, In fact I suspect that there are probably planted accounts from as far back as when PWE took over Cryptic.
The rampant censoring of any post or threads that were very much against what PWE was doing. The mass bans, some of whom were perma banned, and conveniently it was some of the long standing members of the this community who were very much against the changes that were happening at the time.
You didn't need to be a rocket scientists to see the writing on the wall back then.
Now flash forward to today, and you see that PWE has been systematically instituting their game policies into STO one by one, and ARC is just the latest thing, it's unnecessary, intrusive, and more over, redundant in at least what we need the STO launcher to be.
The real purpose of ARC is to make their other games more accessable, more tempting, and while normally I would say that's a good thing for any other gaming company, for STO players that's just another nail for this game.
I have chatted with folks over in other PWE game forums, and when I describe everything from the policies, the resistance to it, the forum purges, the Orwellian style double speak, etc.
All I hear is "Yup, that's sounds familiar." and "Doesn't surprise me."
So i'm very sorry to suspect you, but it's either that or you don't really know what the institution of ARC really means, and that's OK, generally people don't constantly think about how people and corporations put the screws to communities, but the flip side is that Naivete' also leads people to deny those things when they are happening.
So I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you but PWE are not nice people if you read about their history with other games they have.
eventually ARC will be made mandatory, again over the communities objection, and the fact that people are already talking about it like it's going to happen is already acclimating them to that when it comes.
STO has become nothing more then an Operant Conditioning machine, if you don't know what that is, look it up, and when you understand the principles of an Operant Conditioning machine, and with a little imagination connect the dots, you will get a nauseous, I know I did when I finally figured it out.
1. Well with Arc, if STO is already installed you shouldn't have to re-download it. It should recognize your previous install and allow you to run it through Arc. If that's not the case though (and in some instances it isn't), let us know. We're still working on ironing out all the bugs, and this one is pretty high on our list.
2. I understand your worry, but you have to look at it from a bigger perspective. Net security is a big deal, for any company dealing with net based programs, etc. This can happen to anyone, as shown by your examples. We're doing our best to prevent security breaches though.
3. Bugs on Arc are handled by a completely different team than STO bugs. The developers at Cryptic are extremely talented and work around the clock to iron out all the bugs they can. If you find a bug, submit a ticket and try to gather as much proof as you can. If possible, screenshot or record the steps on how you found this bug. This helps the developers find and squash those bugs.
Sorry, I got sidetracked by another problem last post.
When I try to update via the launcher without using arc it downloads everything up until the last file and then I get an error 36.
Then when I open it in Arc, it patches all the way through AGAIN, instead of recognizing the patching previously done, and then goes through with no problems.
This error 36 also coincided with me being unable to launch STO independently from the normal launcher. Any thoughts on this? Anyone?
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
Sorry, I got sidetracked by another problem last post.
When I try to update via the launcher without using arc it downloads everything up until the last file and then I get an error 36.
Then when I open it in Arc, it patches all the way through AGAIN, instead of recognizing the patching previously done, and then goes through with no problems.
This error 36 also coincided with me being unable to launch STO independently from the normal launcher. Any thoughts on this? Anyone?
Hrm, that's odd. I'll bring that up as a bug and see if we can find out why it's doing that.
Hrm, that's odd. I'll bring that up as a bug and see if we can find out why it's doing that.
If it helps the problem started with the Season 8.5 patch, and I'm running Windows 8.1 on a stock Asus Essentio desktop M11BB-B06.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
Hello PWE and STO community,
Before I start, this is not meant to be a rant or a whine.
I'm absolutely fine if ARC stayed, however I DO NOT WANT it to become mandatory
From the discussions I've seen on the forums/ in-game, people do NOT want arc to be mandatory.
So, if anyone wants to join the boat, add in your signature 'say NO to mandatory ARC', I don't care how you add it, whether it's a meme or just a message, I don't care. If you add a link to this post, I would extremely appreciate it.
I apologise if this sound like a rant, but I, and many other people, do not want ARC to become mandatory.
Yours sincerely,
jmaster29
Arc will help boost player organization and multi-game fleets. Once it is perfect, I think players will like Arc and won't mind if it's mandatory.
I've learned in my time, when a community is vehemently against something, and suddenly a pro minority appears, it's either one of two things.
Well meaning idiots (who are siding with the 'authority' because it makes them feel good) and/or are also ignorant of the situation, it's eventual effects, implications or the fact that it's promises are lies
OR
They are Propagandists, straight up social engineers, (professional psycho-analysts who are explicitly trying to create a social change for the purposes of their employer/client).
And yes there is a market for these people, intelligence agencies, political parties and even corporations the world over make use of them all the time.
So in the case of ARC when I see someone, out of the blue come out and say "I think ARC is good" without any supporting argument, nor any response to the points of the Anti side, it always raises a red flag to me.
That doesn't change the fact that you could be a plant, In fact I suspect that there are probably planted accounts from as far back as when PWE took over Cryptic.
The rampant censoring of any post or threads that were very much against what PWE was doing. The mass bans, some of whom were perma banned, and conveniently it was some of the long standing members of the this community who were very much against the changes that were happening at the time.
You didn't need to be a rocket scientists to see the writing on the wall back then.
Now flash forward to today, and you see that PWE has been systematically instituting their game policies into STO one by one, and ARC is just the latest thing, it's unnecessary, intrusive, and more over, redundant in at least what we need the STO launcher to be.
The real purpose of ARC is to make their other games more accessable, more tempting, and while normally I would say that's a good thing for any other gaming company, for STO players that's just another nail for this game.
I have chatted with folks over in other PWE game forums, and when I describe everything from the policies, the resistance to it, the forum purges, the Orwellian style double speak, etc.
All I hear is "Yup, that's sounds familiar." and "Doesn't surprise me."
So i'm very sorry to suspect you, but it's either that or you don't really know what the institution of ARC really means, and that's OK, generally people don't constantly think about how people and corporations put the screws to communities, but the flip side is that Naivete' also leads people to deny those things when they are happening.
So I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you but PWE are not nice people if you read about their history with other games they have.
eventually ARC will be made mandatory, again over the communities objection, and the fact that people are already talking about it like it's going to happen is already acclimating them to that when it comes.
STO has become nothing more then an Operant Conditioning machine, if you don't know what that is, look it up, and when you understand the principles of an Operant Conditioning machine, and with a little imagination connect the dots, you will get a nauseous, I know I did when I finally figured it out.
1. Well with Arc, if STO is already installed you shouldn't have to re-download it. It should recognize your previous install and allow you to run it through Arc. If that's not the case though (and in some instances it isn't), let us know. We're still working on ironing out all the bugs, and this one is pretty high on our list.
2. I understand your worry, but you have to look at it from a bigger perspective. Net security is a big deal, for any company dealing with net based programs, etc. This can happen to anyone, as shown by your examples. We're doing our best to prevent security breaches though.
3. Bugs on Arc are handled by a completely different team than STO bugs. The developers at Cryptic are extremely talented and work around the clock to iron out all the bugs they can. If you find a bug, submit a ticket and try to gather as much proof as you can. If possible, screenshot or record the steps on how you found this bug. This helps the developers find and squash those bugs.
Heres the best proof I can give you, as promised.http://catstarsto.deviantart.com/art/Cant-name-outfits-437386068Someone also mentioned in 10forward the other day that if you already have it downloaded in a place that doesnt work for the ARC program, it will download it to the location IT wants it, so there is the explanation for why its doing that.
Some feedback also about ARC, have you considered (and stop and honestly consider this) that the way you are selling it, as though it will be great and fantastic, the answer to all of your prayers, generically promoted by other forum users that sound too fake and bought off to take seriously. It will be mandatory, but you can keep the steam launcher you have, it will benefit everyone in the long run, pop open the champagne and celebrate this great new day, etc...
...it brings back the encroachment process of how obamacare has kinda been sold and forced onto people in the US, and no matter how sweet, helpful and angelic you try to make something sound, if people dont want it they will resent the ones who force it on them, especially if it creates an inconvenience for them. Now that isnt being said to be mean, its just a fact, picture yourself in the same position. I realize the people behind the scenes have an obligation to not bite the the hand that feeds them (their company) but this is just an observation from a customer. Now I understand some may like it and a number of players are working hard to deal with and adjust to these new requirements, and your helping them through this process of making something work that started off the same way as the RL example I gave....reminding me of the old saying, once bitten, twice shy. ...and why many are fearful of it in someways. Am I making sense?
I understand "I don't like ARC because it takes up memory". It does, and that's a problem for some people.
I understand "I don't like ARC because it hooks into the game interfaces, and thus a bug in ARC can affect gameplay". All true, and part of why I dumped Origin (it was crashing SWTOR for a while.)
I understand "I don't like ARC because it's made the website ugly". That's not really a problem with ARC the program, but it's related to the branding effort, and I get it. (Boy do I get it.)
There are lots of other minor objections that make sense as well, I won't sit here listing them all.
What I do not understand are the following:
"I don't like ARC because it wants to spy on my processes." All PWE games spy on your processes, and you agreed to this; ARC is just them trying to consolidate their anti-cheat monitoring into a single program, instead of having separate codebases for it in each game. Your objections to ARC should apply equally to STO if this is among them.
"I don't like ARC because it takes up hard drive space." It takes up around 100MB, and STO takes up like 13GB these days. It's a fraction of a percent of the space of the game. If they just added more anti-cheat into STO it'd probably take up at least that much space, and you wouldn't bat an eye. If you have a SECOND PWE game, then it takes up LESS space than adding more code to the games themselves, but even with just one it takes up the same space.
Neither of those two objections make the LEAST bit of sense to me.
Former moderator of these forums. Lifetime sub since before launch. Been here since before public betas. Foundry author of "Franklin Drake Must Die".
Heres the best proof I can give you, as promised.http://catstarsto.deviantart.com/art/Cant-name-outfits-437386068Someone also mentioned in 10forward the other day that if you already have it downloaded in a place that doesnt work for the ARC program, it will download it to the location IT wants it, so there is the explanation for why its doing that.
I understand "I don't like ARC because it takes up memory". It does, and that's a problem for some people.
I understand "I don't like ARC because it hooks into the game interfaces, and thus a bug in ARC can affect gameplay". All true, and part of why I dumped Origin (it was crashing SWTOR for a while.)
I understand "I don't like ARC because it's made the website ugly". That's not really a problem with ARC the program, but it's related to the branding effort, and I get it. (Boy do I get it.)
There are lots of other minor objections that make sense as well, I won't sit here listing them all.
What I do not understand are the following:
"I don't like ARC because it wants to spy on my processes." All PWE games spy on your processes, and you agreed to this; ARC is just them trying to consolidate their anti-cheat monitoring into a single program, instead of having separate codebases for it in each game. Your objections to ARC should apply equally to STO if this is among them.
"I don't like ARC because it takes up hard drive space." It takes up around 100MB, and STO takes up like 13GB these days. It's a fraction of a percent of the space of the game. If they just added more anti-cheat into STO it'd probably take up at least that much space, and you wouldn't bat an eye. If you have a SECOND PWE game, then it takes up LESS space than adding more code to the games themselves, but even with just one it takes up the same space.
Neither of those two objections make the LEAST bit of sense to me.
The first one is easy - this is a combination of paranoia and, I feel, prejudice. PWE originates from China, right? Thus, this combined with recent security incidents has fueled paranoia that the anti-cheat devices is actually spyware designed to steal out information for China's benefit.
Its not that simple, that leads to another bug...for me at least. When you click to an outfit that isnt in the uniform category. It starts it in the uniform category anyways and removes all the options not associated in that category even changing colors on the outfit you made. So I never could change an off duty outfit or formal outfit once made, because I would loose all progress. I stopped putting in bug reports because they never seemed to get through. Its a good part of my frustration with cryptic, its my favorite game (and ill remember cryptic in a positive light for making this awesome game!) but I feel ive been talking to the wind the last few years when trying to ask to get things fixed. GM's I gave up on too, I realize they are limited on their abilities to do things, they came across as being "Magic 8balls" that take longer to answer you. PWE...you know why, I posted it on Deviant Art, so the fans of my work know why I will no longer be entertaining them with STO stuff!
I submitted the costume thing to help Caitian users, as I considered Caitian players as digital brethren while in game and always stopped to say "hai" when ever I encountered one. Now that you publicly know about it, I know we can count on you to fix it.
I must admit that I'm somewhat ambivalent to the ARC client, it isn't radically offensive to my tastes but it is a little annoying when it pops up windows in the middle of my gaming-- even if I launch a game through it-- to tell me that it has an update available as though it were an urgent update.
My largest issue right now is the new website. I absolutely, positively do not like any aspect of it as it is; the website that we had before was much more well-organized and felt more like a website that is full of news and development notes-- I don't want to say it felt "alive," but that may be a fair comparison for it.
As it stands right now, the current website feels more like an impersonal sales pitch, pushing aside current players, important news, and information into a box that is not only harder to navigate, but often times requires me to click, expand, and re-click links over and over in order for it to load the actual news post.
I'm not going to throw up my arms, flail, and scream like a crazy muppet, but the current website feels like someone tried to fix something that was not actually broken.
And why exactly do you not want it? What, specifically, is your objection?
Because, as I keep pointing out, it is coming. All you can do is try to make the transition as painless as possible, by pointing out things it does either wrong or poorly, in the hope it will be improved. Just saying you don't want it is irrelevant to the suits.
The first one is easy - this is a combination of paranoia and, I feel, prejudice. PWE originates from China, right? Thus, this combined with recent security incidents has fueled paranoia that the anti-cheat devices is actually spyware designed to steal out information for China's benefit.
No, I didnt know PWE was a Chinese company, a few of their decisions makes sense now. But don't go the "he's racist for not going along with ARC!" Route! Leave that nonsense for desperate politicians. We are gamers, and all our races here are all fiction!
..and we all know, the Caitians are the best of em all! :cool:
Neither on the ARc website nor in the Arc client can I read how much Zen you get.
When I go here: https://billing.arcgames.com/en/
I see the price of the packages, but not what they contain.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
As one who has given constructive feedback and makes the effort not to allow my disappointment color my posts on the matter, without downloading Arc Beta, mind you, I find the comparisons to four-year-olds having tantrums and accusations of racism to be off-putting and outright offensive.
One does not necessarily have to try a thing to know they do not like it. My refusal to eat a moldy lasagna does not make me racist toward Italians. The same applies to my lack of interest in using Arc if it does not shut down after game launch. It does not equate to an irrational hate of the Chinese.
Business and governing bodies always want to do things as cheaply (as is least expensive) as possible and they are often caught taking shortcuts and liberties to which they know they have no right. Those are valid concerns and watching for such activities is always a wise move.
On another note, I had toyed with the notion of trying Champions Online and it was one of your postings on that forum that gave me the final push to give it a go. I don't know if I'll ever go past silver on that one because it is difficult to find good info in game, but I am having some fun with it so far.
And why exactly do you not want it? What, specifically, is your objection?
Because, as I keep pointing out, it is coming. All you can do is try to make the transition as painless as possible, by pointing out things it does either wrong or poorly, in the hope it will be improved. Just saying you don't want it is irrelevant to the suits.
I get where your coming from, but "I dont want it" should be enough for a customer to avoid something they dont want. When your ordering your food at the window and they say, would you like fries with that, then answer no. You shouldnt have explain why and give em a good reason. The customer is always right, was such a noble concept...it showed a business had YOUR best interest in mind!
Customer: "no thanks, what I have is fine."
Business: "Give us feedback, tell us why you dont want the fries?"
Customer:" Im happy with what I have thanks."
Business: "Your getting the fries whether you like it or not!!"
Customer: "But, why."
Business: "We here at (Nerf Burger) are committed to giving you the best quality and..."
Customer: "..I am getting hungry, what about my order?..."
Business: " ...service by making sure you are aware of all our other fine selections we have.."
Customer: "Thats really not necessary, I.."
Business: "..available to accommodate all of our customers, and to show you..."
Customer: "...hello?.."
Business: "...our appreciation, we will be adding in some apple pies to your order..."
Customer: "What? hey wait a minute...!"
Business: "aren't we generous?"
Customer: (speechless) :O
Business: "We have your order, pull around."
Customer: "...."
Business: (hands over 3 bags) "K Thx Bye"
Customer: "I really just wanted a DoubleBurger and coke." ...drives off.
Business: " Wait sir, come back!"
Customer: (drives back to the window) "Are you going to fix my order?"
Business: "No, we felt the doubleburger was giving you too much, so we need to take back a patty. Have a nice day come back again!"
Customer: =T.T=
I get where your coming from, but "I dont want it" should be enough for a customer to avoid something they dont want. When your ordering your food at the window and they say, would you like fries with that, then answer no. You shouldnt have explain why and give em a good reason. The customer is always right, was such a noble concept...it showed a business had YOUR best interest in mind!
Customer: "no thanks, what I have is fine."
Business: "Give us feedback, tell us why you dont want the fries?"
Customer:" Im happy with what I have thanks."
Business: "Your getting the fries whether you like it or not!!"
Customer: "But, why."
Business: "We here at (Nerf Burger) are committed to giving you the best quality and..."
Customer: "..I am getting hungry, what about my order?..."
Business: " ...service by making sure you are aware of all our other fine selections we have.."
Customer: "Thats really not necessary, I.."
Business: "..available to accommodate all of our customers, and to show you..."
Customer: "...hello?.."
Business: "...our appreciation, we will be adding in some apple pies to your order..."
Customer: "What? hey wait a minute...!"
Business: "aren't we generous?"
Customer: (speechless) :O
Business: "We have your order, pull around."
Customer: "...."
Business: (hands over 3 bags) "K Thx Bye"
Customer: "I really just wanted a DoubleBurger and coke." ...drives off.
Business: " Wait sir, come back!"
Customer: (drives back to the window) "Are you going to fix my order?"
Business: "No, we felt the doubleburger was giving you too much, so we need to take back a patty. Have a nice day come back again!"
Customer: =T.T=
The first one is easy - this is a combination of paranoia and, I feel, prejudice. PWE originates from China, right? Thus, this combined with recent security incidents has fueled paranoia that the anti-cheat devices is actually spyware designed to steal out information for China's benefit.
Nope, that still doesn't make sense, because if PWE came tomorrow and said "OK, ARC is scrapped, put this anti-cheat code into STO instead", Cryptic would dutifully start porting.
The only difference would be you'd have the Cryptic systems programmers porting it into their games, and those of us running more than one game would have several copies of it on our hard drives (consuming negligible space, but still several copies), which would detract from the time they'd have to code other things.
You'd get exactly the same results in the end. It doesn't make any logical sense.
Former moderator of these forums. Lifetime sub since before launch. Been here since before public betas. Foundry author of "Franklin Drake Must Die".
Cat, your comparison fails because this isn't a restaurant. I'm having trouble coming up with an analogy that might involve food - perhaps ordering a hamburger, then complaining because it comes with a bun and you didn't say anything about buns? Or because it comes in a paper bag, and you never said you wanted a bag?
No, those fail as well, for similar reasons. Perhaps it's more analogous to buying a car, and getting upset because now you have to have a driver's license and insurance, both of which have your name and home address on them. They're part of owning and driving a car, at least in the US, and whether you like them or not, you have to have them - at least, if you're driving legally. You didn't ask for them, but there they are.
And if you really want to read back through all this thread, you'll find I'm not the one who brought up being afraid of Arc because "it's from a Chinese company, and you know what they're like," nor was I the first to mock this attitude. There are those who seem to sincerely believe that it's Chinese government spyware; I don't know why they think they're such special snowflakes that Chinese Intelligence is even vaguely interested in the contents of their hard drives, but that's a risk I think I'm prepared to take.
I'm sorry you seem to dislike Arc so viscerally, and I hope it doesn't dissuade you from continuing to play after it becomes one of the mandatory methods. But all this stamping about and screaming about how much folks hate Arc really does sound like my children. (At least they have an excuse - they're autistic, and aren't really clear on how this whole social-interchange thing works.)
Now, all this having been said (and it has been, a number of times), I will note that if Steam is ever disallowed as a launcher, I'll have to stop playing CO unless the resource load of Arc becomes a lot lighter; in its current format, Arc renders CO unplayable on my computer, and it doesn't look like I'll be upgrading any time soon.
Comments
It was doing it earlier, probably with the update patches and all. It's nothing.
I've learned in my time, when a community is vehemently against something, and suddenly a pro minority appears, it's either one of two things.
Well meaning idiots (who are siding with the 'authority' because it makes them feel good) and/or are also ignorant of the situation, it's eventual effects, implications or the fact that it's promises are lies
OR
They are Propagandists, straight up social engineers, (professional psycho-analysts who are explicitly trying to create a social change for the purposes of their employer/client).
And yes there is a market for these people, intelligence agencies, political parties and even corporations the world over make use of them all the time.
So in the case of ARC when I see someone, out of the blue come out and say "I think ARC is good" without any supporting argument, nor any response to the points of the Anti side, it always raises a red flag to me.
That doesn't change the fact that you could be a plant, In fact I suspect that there are probably planted accounts from as far back as when PWE took over Cryptic.
The rampant censoring of any post or threads that were very much against what PWE was doing. The mass bans, some of whom were perma banned, and conveniently it was some of the long standing members of the this community who were very much against the changes that were happening at the time.
You didn't need to be a rocket scientists to see the writing on the wall back then.
Now flash forward to today, and you see that PWE has been systematically instituting their game policies into STO one by one, and ARC is just the latest thing, it's unnecessary, intrusive, and more over, redundant in at least what we need the STO launcher to be.
The real purpose of ARC is to make their other games more accessable, more tempting, and while normally I would say that's a good thing for any other gaming company, for STO players that's just another nail for this game.
I have chatted with folks over in other PWE game forums, and when I describe everything from the policies, the resistance to it, the forum purges, the Orwellian style double speak, etc.
All I hear is "Yup, that's sounds familiar." and "Doesn't surprise me."
So i'm very sorry to suspect you, but it's either that or you don't really know what the institution of ARC really means, and that's OK, generally people don't constantly think about how people and corporations put the screws to communities, but the flip side is that Naivete' also leads people to deny those things when they are happening.
So I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you but PWE are not nice people if you read about their history with other games they have.
eventually ARC will be made mandatory, again over the communities objection, and the fact that people are already talking about it like it's going to happen is already acclimating them to that when it comes.
STO has become nothing more then an Operant Conditioning machine, if you don't know what that is, look it up, and when you understand the principles of an Operant Conditioning machine, and with a little imagination connect the dots, you will get a nauseous, I know I did when I finally figured it out.
-AE
Sorry, I got sidetracked by another problem last post.
When I try to update via the launcher without using arc it downloads everything up until the last file and then I get an error 36.
Then when I open it in Arc, it patches all the way through AGAIN, instead of recognizing the patching previously done, and then goes through with no problems.
This error 36 also coincided with me being unable to launch STO independently from the normal launcher. Any thoughts on this? Anyone?
Hrm, that's odd. I'll bring that up as a bug and see if we can find out why it's doing that.
I HATED NEW LAUNCHER, AND NEW WEBSITE!
If it helps the problem started with the Season 8.5 patch, and I'm running Windows 8.1 on a stock Asus Essentio desktop M11BB-B06.
PWE is doing it's best to improve both.
Arc will help boost player organization and multi-game fleets. Once it is perfect, I think players will like Arc and won't mind if it's mandatory.
Feedback, explanations of what does and does not work, is helpful. Tantrums are not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyenRCJ_4Ww
Heres the best proof I can give you, as promised. http://catstarsto.deviantart.com/art/Cant-name-outfits-437386068 Someone also mentioned in 10forward the other day that if you already have it downloaded in a place that doesnt work for the ARC program, it will download it to the location IT wants it, so there is the explanation for why its doing that.
Some feedback also about ARC, have you considered (and stop and honestly consider this) that the way you are selling it, as though it will be great and fantastic, the answer to all of your prayers, generically promoted by other forum users that sound too fake and bought off to take seriously. It will be mandatory, but you can keep the steam launcher you have, it will benefit everyone in the long run, pop open the champagne and celebrate this great new day, etc...
...it brings back the encroachment process of how obamacare has kinda been sold and forced onto people in the US, and no matter how sweet, helpful and angelic you try to make something sound, if people dont want it they will resent the ones who force it on them, especially if it creates an inconvenience for them. Now that isnt being said to be mean, its just a fact, picture yourself in the same position. I realize the people behind the scenes have an obligation to not bite the the hand that feeds them (their company) but this is just an observation from a customer. Now I understand some may like it and a number of players are working hard to deal with and adjust to these new requirements, and your helping them through this process of making something work that started off the same way as the RL example I gave....reminding me of the old saying, once bitten, twice shy. ...and why many are fearful of it in someways. Am I making sense?
I understand "I don't like ARC because it takes up memory". It does, and that's a problem for some people.
I understand "I don't like ARC because it hooks into the game interfaces, and thus a bug in ARC can affect gameplay". All true, and part of why I dumped Origin (it was crashing SWTOR for a while.)
I understand "I don't like ARC because it's made the website ugly". That's not really a problem with ARC the program, but it's related to the branding effort, and I get it. (Boy do I get it.)
There are lots of other minor objections that make sense as well, I won't sit here listing them all.
What I do not understand are the following:
"I don't like ARC because it wants to spy on my processes." All PWE games spy on your processes, and you agreed to this; ARC is just them trying to consolidate their anti-cheat monitoring into a single program, instead of having separate codebases for it in each game. Your objections to ARC should apply equally to STO if this is among them.
"I don't like ARC because it takes up hard drive space." It takes up around 100MB, and STO takes up like 13GB these days. It's a fraction of a percent of the space of the game. If they just added more anti-cheat into STO it'd probably take up at least that much space, and you wouldn't bat an eye. If you have a SECOND PWE game, then it takes up LESS space than adding more code to the games themselves, but even with just one it takes up the same space.
Neither of those two objections make the LEAST bit of sense to me.
Having trouble renaming outfit slots because it gives you an invalid parts message? I already figured out what causes that and posted a bug report about it back in November 2013. http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=13507571#post13507571
The first one is easy - this is a combination of paranoia and, I feel, prejudice. PWE originates from China, right? Thus, this combined with recent security incidents has fueled paranoia that the anti-cheat devices is actually spyware designed to steal out information for China's benefit.
Its not that simple, that leads to another bug...for me at least. When you click to an outfit that isnt in the uniform category. It starts it in the uniform category anyways and removes all the options not associated in that category even changing colors on the outfit you made. So I never could change an off duty outfit or formal outfit once made, because I would loose all progress. I stopped putting in bug reports because they never seemed to get through. Its a good part of my frustration with cryptic, its my favorite game (and ill remember cryptic in a positive light for making this awesome game!) but I feel ive been talking to the wind the last few years when trying to ask to get things fixed. GM's I gave up on too, I realize they are limited on their abilities to do things, they came across as being "Magic 8balls" that take longer to answer you. PWE...you know why, I posted it on Deviant Art, so the fans of my work know why I will no longer be entertaining them with STO stuff!
I submitted the costume thing to help Caitian users, as I considered Caitian players as digital brethren while in game and always stopped to say "hai" when ever I encountered one. Now that you publicly know about it, I know we can count on you to fix it.
My largest issue right now is the new website. I absolutely, positively do not like any aspect of it as it is; the website that we had before was much more well-organized and felt more like a website that is full of news and development notes-- I don't want to say it felt "alive," but that may be a fair comparison for it.
As it stands right now, the current website feels more like an impersonal sales pitch, pushing aside current players, important news, and information into a box that is not only harder to navigate, but often times requires me to click, expand, and re-click links over and over in order for it to load the actual news post.
I'm not going to throw up my arms, flail, and scream like a crazy muppet, but the current website feels like someone tried to fix something that was not actually broken.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=590121
Because, as I keep pointing out, it is coming. All you can do is try to make the transition as painless as possible, by pointing out things it does either wrong or poorly, in the hope it will be improved. Just saying you don't want it is irrelevant to the suits.
No, I didnt know PWE was a Chinese company, a few of their decisions makes sense now. But don't go the "he's racist for not going along with ARC!" Route! Leave that nonsense for desperate politicians. We are gamers, and all our races here are all fiction!
..and we all know, the Caitians are the best of em all! :cool:
When I go here: https://billing.arcgames.com/en/
I see the price of the packages, but not what they contain.
Yes, Arc is coming.
As one who has given constructive feedback and makes the effort not to allow my disappointment color my posts on the matter, without downloading Arc Beta, mind you, I find the comparisons to four-year-olds having tantrums and accusations of racism to be off-putting and outright offensive.
One does not necessarily have to try a thing to know they do not like it. My refusal to eat a moldy lasagna does not make me racist toward Italians. The same applies to my lack of interest in using Arc if it does not shut down after game launch. It does not equate to an irrational hate of the Chinese.
Business and governing bodies always want to do things as cheaply (as is least expensive) as possible and they are often caught taking shortcuts and liberties to which they know they have no right. Those are valid concerns and watching for such activities is always a wise move.
On another note, I had toyed with the notion of trying Champions Online and it was one of your postings on that forum that gave me the final push to give it a go. I don't know if I'll ever go past silver on that one because it is difficult to find good info in game, but I am having some fun with it so far.
Perhaps I'll see you in-game sometime.
Cheerio!
I get where your coming from, but "I dont want it" should be enough for a customer to avoid something they dont want. When your ordering your food at the window and they say, would you like fries with that, then answer no. You shouldnt have explain why and give em a good reason. The customer is always right, was such a noble concept...it showed a business had YOUR best interest in mind!
Customer: "no thanks, what I have is fine."
Business: "Give us feedback, tell us why you dont want the fries?"
Customer:" Im happy with what I have thanks."
Business: "Your getting the fries whether you like it or not!!"
Customer: "But, why."
Business: "We here at (Nerf Burger) are committed to giving you the best quality and..."
Customer: "..I am getting hungry, what about my order?..."
Business: " ...service by making sure you are aware of all our other fine selections we have.."
Customer: "Thats really not necessary, I.."
Business: "..available to accommodate all of our customers, and to show you..."
Customer: "...hello?.."
Business: "...our appreciation, we will be adding in some apple pies to your order..."
Customer: "What? hey wait a minute...!"
Business: "aren't we generous?"
Customer: (speechless) :O
Business: "We have your order, pull around."
Customer: "...."
Business: (hands over 3 bags) "K Thx Bye"
Customer: "I really just wanted a DoubleBurger and coke."
Business: " Wait sir, come back!"
Customer: (drives back to the window) "Are you going to fix my order?"
Business: "No, we felt the doubleburger was giving you too much, so we need to take back a patty. Have a nice day come back again!"
Customer: =T.T=
:eek: you nearly have 1k posts
Nope, that still doesn't make sense, because if PWE came tomorrow and said "OK, ARC is scrapped, put this anti-cheat code into STO instead", Cryptic would dutifully start porting.
The only difference would be you'd have the Cryptic systems programmers porting it into their games, and those of us running more than one game would have several copies of it on our hard drives (consuming negligible space, but still several copies), which would detract from the time they'd have to code other things.
You'd get exactly the same results in the end. It doesn't make any logical sense.
No, those fail as well, for similar reasons. Perhaps it's more analogous to buying a car, and getting upset because now you have to have a driver's license and insurance, both of which have your name and home address on them. They're part of owning and driving a car, at least in the US, and whether you like them or not, you have to have them - at least, if you're driving legally. You didn't ask for them, but there they are.
And if you really want to read back through all this thread, you'll find I'm not the one who brought up being afraid of Arc because "it's from a Chinese company, and you know what they're like," nor was I the first to mock this attitude. There are those who seem to sincerely believe that it's Chinese government spyware; I don't know why they think they're such special snowflakes that Chinese Intelligence is even vaguely interested in the contents of their hard drives, but that's a risk I think I'm prepared to take.
I'm sorry you seem to dislike Arc so viscerally, and I hope it doesn't dissuade you from continuing to play after it becomes one of the mandatory methods. But all this stamping about and screaming about how much folks hate Arc really does sound like my children. (At least they have an excuse - they're autistic, and aren't really clear on how this whole social-interchange thing works.)
Now, all this having been said (and it has been, a number of times), I will note that if Steam is ever disallowed as a launcher, I'll have to stop playing CO unless the resource load of Arc becomes a lot lighter; in its current format, Arc renders CO unplayable on my computer, and it doesn't look like I'll be upgrading any time soon.