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Spellborn: First impressions
Mayhape
Member Posts: 7
Update:After opening up all the ports and doing a clean install it worked - see my last post for details.
Update: Opened up all the ports I could and the patcher is now updating the game. So it may not be as bad as all that or they've fixed it. I'll get back to you if/when I get in.
Hi all
having taken part of the Open Beta test I decided to acquire the game which has gone Gold in Switzerland and Germany. The Open Beta left a great impression on me and led me to going to the shops today to buy the box. (Standard edition)
Here's my impressions:
Setup: Multi-lingual French, German, English
Chose an English install. Install goes through normally and tries to start the game - get the message the game requires administrator rights (I'm on Vista).
I register on the player website, enter my CD key and get an account, status Full but subscription none (there's a free month on the standard version). Clicking on Subscribe takes me to a new page displaying the message "Shop closed". Hmm? Okay maybe it's because I'm in the free month don't need a subscription. Let's start the game.
Start the game in administrator mode the patcher comes up and returns immediately with an error message. I go into the bin directory of the game to find there's no executables files in there - I figure maybe there's an error, uninstall and re-install using the German version. Same error.
I place the sb_patcher.exe file in a new directory and it promptly starts patching, installing the open beta (0.9.0.2) version of the game. But at least I've got executables in the Bin directory.
Start the patcher hoping to patch to 1.0.0.3 (Current hotfix version) but get same error.
Contact Support who tell me to download the Open Beta and patch from there. I do that although it's the same version as the patcher installed. Same result, game won't patch.
I decide to try starting the game and get to the Login screen but it won't accept my Account and Password. Login failed.
Contact support again - long exchange of messages to be told that they'll relay the information to the developers. End of exchange.
Result: frustrated and disappointed. The game is not ready togo live at all so it's probably a good thing that Acclaim decided to postpone the launch. At the moment the game is a Pita. Pity because it's a good game, could even be a great game. But the packaging and deployment is lousy even catastrophic.
Hopefully they can get their act together. Sp far all I've got from Spellborn is a waste of my time and money. 
Comments
If it turns out to be your system that caused the problem then you might want to delete your earlier accusations about the deployment being lousy and catastrophic.
Hi Aganazer
If it's my system I'll be sure to edit my post. I'm running a 32 bit Vista laptop with 4GB Ram, Intel Core Duo T9330 @2.5GHz, and twin Nvidia Geforce 8800M GTX graphic cards. It's probable that they may have had too little time to check a lot of configurations although I'd expect less errors from a box game.
Patched ran but stopped at the end with an error message. The good thing is that it downloads the data to the _patch directory off the root so that the patch upgrades can be run from hand. Still trying to get the game to run but getting closer I hope.
Patched and started the game but got a MissingIni error. I'm going to do a fresh install and re-patch to see if that works.
Laptops have 3x more problems then Desktops due to driver issues.
Edit: nm I need to read more carefully
- Syn
Originally posted by FE|Tachyon:
Laptops have 3x more problems then Desktops due to driver issues.
Hi Tachyon
my laptop ran the open beta without problems, it's the installation of the boxed game which at the moment sucks. Still trying to get it to install and patch properly...
Okay the install has a couple of problems on Vista but it basically works with the following:
The patcher must be started in administrator mode
If you get a message that the patcher failed to retrieve PatchInfo.xml your router / firewall or proxy is blocking the update in some way.
When the patcher fails with an error message look in the _patch directory, rename the .exe_ files and do the update manually by executing the patch files with administrative rights.
Doing this should get you in. I'm in now, the game client is stable and combat is fun. Bit of a pain to get in, maybe the pointers above will help someone else.
I ran open & closed beta with this setup: 2x1.6Ghz, 1gb RAM, ATI Radeon XT1400... worked fine
.
My first impressions:
Less than 2 weeks before release, the game was delayed for a second closed beta, which should last another 1.5-2 months, despite going live in other parts of the world, which I am ipblocked from playing. The main developer forums were ipblocked, which will keep me out of posting on them. I logged onto mmorpg.com and adjusted my hype down to 1s across the board. I start looking for a different game.
That's my first impression. I enjoy playing mmos with friends as far away as germany, who are now forced to play on a different server. Gee thanks.