Ubisoft Online DRM - eviiil

[Agent X20]

"If you get disconnected while playing, you're booted out of the game. All your progress since the last checkpoint or savegame is lost, and your only options are to quit to Windows or wait until you're reconnected." They give an example, saying: "So I tried a different test: start the game while online, play a little, then unplug my net cable. This is the same as what happens if your net connection drops momentarily, your router is rebooted, or the game loses its connection to Ubisoft's 'Master servers'. The game stopped, and I was dumped back to a menu screen - all my progress since it last autosaved was lost." They point out that this is what will happen to even the most stable net connection if Ubisoft's master servers go down, saying: "playing a current Ubisoft game is kicked out of it and loses their progress. Even massively multiplayer games aren't so draconian about the internet: you can't play when the server's down, but at least you don't lose anything for getting disconnected."

http://www.bluesnews.com/s/107530/on-ub ... online-drm

That will do wonders for how SH5 plays.

[Agent X20]

Uh-oh - that didn't take long now did it?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... rs-Go-Down

Ubisoft's new DRM scheme is already causing problems, as the servers required to authenticate games went down today.

Been down for over a day apparently.

[ilikepie]

wow.... they really must be putting "pirates" in their place whilst keeping the loyal fans oh so happy with that......

good onya ubi...... en theives

[Agent X20]

Ubisoft counters with:

Due to exceptional demand, we are currently experiencing difficulties with the Online Service Platform. This does not affect customers who are currently playing, but customers attempting to start a game may experience difficulty in accessing our servers. We are currently working to resolve this issue and apologize for any inconvenience.

People are suggesting that this is just like the Demigod fiasco where all the pirates are still pinging (read swamping) the Ubi servers and then getting to play anyway. And the legit owners aren't so 'lucky'.

But then we knew this would happen whether it was under-resourcing or a DDOS attack.

[awful]

All that and it took less than 24 hours for the DRM to get cracked anyways. I've never pirated a game in my life but am having serious thoughts about it now just to tell these idiots where they can stick it

[Noon416]

I can imagine those of a more criminal/mischievious nature will put together regular DDOS attacks and the like against the servers.

I suppose that's the other side that Ubi don't seem to have anticipated or thought through completely. If you have a DRM service that makes a literal 100% uptime pretty much a requirement, then your investment in that infrastructure goes up a hell of a lot more than other forms of DRM. Makes you wonder if the increase in the first couple of months sales is worth it.

And if it's actually been cracked (has anyone verified it yet?), then that makes even more of a mockery of the whole thing.

[The Bursar]

Looks like the Ubi servers are under a DOS attack. (though I guess it just be customers trying to play their game). Seems the moral of the story is that if you get connected, don't disconnect what ever you do. You might not get back on. Quite a few irate people at subsim and the Ubi forums.

As for the crack - seems like the intial one failed. Ubi seems to keep a little bit of info on their servers which is required to generate the next mission. (for Silent Hunter 5 - can't say for Assissans Creed 2)

[Agent X20]

Yup definitely a DoS attack from what I've read. And of course, Ubi are downplaying the impacts big time.

As for the initial crack yeah there was lots of uncertainty over whether the missing bits were part of the design/DRM or not - and what I read suggested it was more down to wonky UI design. *shrug* Who's to say.

[Agent X20]

And they're being attacked again...

http://twitter.com/Ubisoft/statuses/10184920360