| I'm new - Question about serials |
Sat, 24 February 2007 07:53  |
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 NeFuRii |
 | Civilian |
Messages: 3
Registered: February 2007 | |
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Hello,
I've seen a page with serial key donation, and was just wondering, if those keys work? are not banned etc. I suppose it might be against the rules to post a link to the page, but I saw Ron posting on that page, so I guess the page is known to the community.
Anyways, I'm new here, I loved stars many years ago, played in multi only on hotseat, and hope to play it again, this time on a bigger scale.
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| Re: I'm new - Question about serials |
Sat, 24 February 2007 09:11  |
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| PaulCr |
 | Chief Warrant Officer 3
Stars! V.I.P
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Messages: 187
Registered: February 2007
Location: An Island that kinda look... | |
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From reading the forums, Ron has an agreement with the authors that he can give out serial numbers while empire are not publishing as I understand it.
If you are in the UK, you can get them for £1 at one of the £1 store chains, I think the name of the one I saw it in is poundworld, I went in to the one in wigan yesterday and they had quite a few left.
I've also read somewhere on the site that if you email empire you'll probably be given one for free.
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| Re: I'm new - Question about serials |
Sat, 24 February 2007 10:57 |
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| NeFuRii |
| Civilian |
Messages: 3
Registered: February 2007 | |
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I'm aware of the donation thing  .
But since the game isn't sold anymore, and it pretty much quallifies for abandonware, which is offered for free (tho' not entirely legally), plus that I simply dont have a credit card, nor i'm willing to wait in a line in bank to make a transfer, I thought that when there are people offering their serial numbers, I could use them. Which makes me kind of like a hyena I suppose, but that's what those people intented - to help the community grow by donating serial numbers. However, I read on this forums, you had trouble with some people trying to cheat, so the public serial numbers might be banned.
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| Re: I'm new - Question about serials |
Sat, 24 February 2007 11:09 |
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The problem with 'public' serial numbers is that more than one player can not use the same serial number in the same game. The Stars! hash encoding includes the machine ID with the serial number to create a unique ID for a given serial number. Two turns being submitted from different machines with the same serial number would trigger an error in the turn processing.
A few serial numbers were given out by some players that had quit playing the game, however, they were quickly accepted by people who wanted them. I had one of the extra's for instance and then gave it to a player that needed it.
You can donate through PayPal to have Ron issue a serial number. It is free to set up a PayPal account so, then all you would have to do is put a little bit of cash in the PayPal account.
Ptolemy
Though we often ask how and why, we must also do to get the answers to the questions.Report message to a moderator
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| Re: I'm new - Question about serials |
Sat, 24 February 2007 11:19 |
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| NeFuRii |
| Civilian |
Messages: 3
Registered: February 2007 | |
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The idea of the guy who started "serial donation" was to gather 16 unique keys, so that each key would represent one of the position in the game a player can be set up on. This way you could either choose your own serial, or choose a public one representing your position, thus making sure that all keys are unique. There weren't enough responses to his idea, so only about 5 legal keys were donated, but it's still something.
Just to be sure, i'm not asking for a serial, or a way to buy/obtain one, i'm asking if there is a chance for those public keys to work, because I would like to apply for any new game that will take place, but I don't want to cause trouble for anyone (for the host?) if those serials are already used or banned.
Thank you for replys tho.
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| Re: I'm new - Question about serials |
Sat, 24 February 2007 17:48 |
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This probably will not work for games on Autohost. What that hack does is modify the Stars! executable - this will allow you to play solo games against the AI with the modified .exe.
However, the number you enter will probably not be valid with the CRC check for a valid serial number encoded with the machine ID for games using a non-hacked .exe to generate the turns - i.e. Autohost.
Ptolemy
Though we often ask how and why, we must also do to get the answers to the questions.Report message to a moderator
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| Re: I'm new - Question about serials |
Sun, 25 February 2007 17:35 |
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Stars! checks validation for every turn that is processed each and every year.
Ptolemy
Though we often ask how and why, we must also do to get the answers to the questions.Report message to a moderator
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