2018-11-22 20:26:31

As Aamir explained in a few posts back, the decision to not encrypt sounds was a hard one, and based on player advantages. The fact they are contained in a .dat file, means they are compacted for game use. Since the licence says: no disassembling, the only part of the sounds that aught to be on your harddrive is sounds.dat . disassembly may not be the utmost correct term, but it's how i see it. If a game just has a sounds folder, well, you could certainly listen to the sounds, but even then, that doesn't entitle you to use them or just do whatever you want with them. I sort of compare sounds.dat with the ahc account: you're supposed to use it to play or activate the game, and that's where it stops. Or, are you going to use your cd/dvd/bd-r(w)drive as a cup holder, just because you can, but you're not supposed to?

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2018-11-23 15:10:06

3371 nailed it. personally, here's the way I see it. if the license agreement tells you that you're not allowed to share, that's all good. and in that case, it doesn't matter whether they're in the folders or not. but there is nothing to prevent one from extracting the .dat. it's not exactly a secret, and since no one has technically shared the sounds, only the method of extracting them, the question of whether one even broke the license in the first place still stands. but curious. from a developer stand point, would it not have been possible to include the sounds.dat in stw.exe? that may have been a work around against the encryption, but don't know enough coding to be sure. here's an example. I have a shop. so I'm selling computers. this evening, though, I will leave the door closed. not locked, just pulled up the handle. now, someone comes in, and steals my goods. while they technically shouldn't have entered, and while I technically didn't leave the door open, there was nothing to stop them from turning the door knob. this is the way I see it, and my view will most likely not change. I personally thought not encrypting was a mistake at first, and assumed that a new setup with encryption key will be uploaded. I'm against the idea of them not being encrypted, but I'm also against the idea of, well, this idea of the license tells you to not do it. there has to be a middle road.

2018-11-23 21:05:46

@braille0109
that would be a god damn pain if he decides to do it. Even then the sounds could still be decripted, eg adventure at c sounds. I think the reason they didn't incript the sounds is so that they can add more without having to update the client or anything, just a thought though.

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2018-11-24 00:00:19

The sounds had to be unencrypted themselves because encrypting them was causing a massive performance degradation to the game. However, the sounds are in a dat file, they have been assembled that way. The license agreement states that disassembling the game is not OK. Extracting the pack file is most certainly disassembly and should not be permitted. The choice to not encrypt sounds was made because there was no alternative in BGT with LAV. Think of it this way. In order to get the encryption key, you must debug the application with a tool. Here you must also extract the dat file with a tool to view the sounds. It falls under the same category, disassembly. This is clearly forbidden in the license agreement.

I am a web designer, and a game developer. If you wish see me at http://www.samtupy.com

2018-11-24 02:35:43

A slight rephrasing of my previous statement. It’s a developers responsibility to encrypt the sounds within reason. Meening, if they have the means to do so.  But there’s only so much you can do. The simple fact is that either way, at least in this case, someone would still find a way to get a hold of the sounds no matter what was done.  I’ve seen it happened more than once with encrypted sounds.  After reading some of the posts, I’m not sure what good, if any, encrypting the sounds really does any more.  Yes, you may as well do all you can,  but with bgt? Well...

I would rather listen to someone who can actually play the harmonica than someone who somehow managed to lose seven of them. Me, 2019.

2018-11-24 13:03:10

again, not a dev, but redspot had the sounds encrypted, and sounds could still be updated without a new client. I guess we don't know enough to be sure one way or another.

2018-12-12 21:50:23

I have a completely unrelated issue, I played stw ages ago, haven't played it in a while. Last time I tried I found that it wouldnt connect, just said "connecting..." I uninstalled and even tried on another pc but with no luck. Does anyone have any ideas?

2018-12-13 00:11:19

Hi.
Could be your firewall blocking it, your on win10, head over to control panel / windows firewall or something like that, and make sure stw has access. Not sure how it works on other versions of windows. If that doesn’t work, chances are your router might blocking it. Instructions on how to fix that vary depending on what router you have, however if all else fails, remember there’s always vpn. Hope it helps.

2018-12-13 00:15:15

Oh, and chances are the server may just be down, I don’t really play stw that much anymore so not sure on the stability.

2018-12-13 00:31:29

I had a look and STW doesn't appear as an option on my allow apps options, I'm not sure what else to try.

2018-12-13 01:15:39

Maybe try doing a google surch for how to edit the firewall in your ISP’s routers, for example if your ISP was talktalk, your google search would look something like, how to edit the firewall in talktalk routers. I’ve known this to work 9 times out of 10 when dealing with stuff like this.

2018-12-13 01:26:32

thanks, I'll do that when I get home

2019-01-11 10:44:18

Hi.
I don't know if that is even in the game and I am not able to find it, but it would be a good idea if we would have the option of disabling the bgm during gameplay.
Personally i have two problems with that, it firstly steals a bit of the experience, imagining you are walking around in the wilderness and you always that that happy music toodeling around in the background.
And secondly, the more severe part, I have problems of understanding my screen reader or detecting ingame items due to the music.
So, it would be nice if turning off the music could be implemented.

Greetings Moritz.

Hail the unholy church of Satan, go share it's greatness.

2019-01-11 11:23:25

hi simba.
you can completely turn down the music by holding down the end key.

2019-01-11 13:31:36

Hello,
could it be possible to add a BGM volume management system in the option menu? For some unknown reasons, the config I've made with sharpkeys in order to have an end key is not working with stw.

Best regard,
Simon

2019-01-11 14:51:54

Hi. I'll talk to sam about it and see what can we come up with.

2019-01-11 16:20:47

Thanks! It would be fantastic, since I'm currently unable to play. Of course I can wonder arround since I know the world quite well, but with the bgm volume being at its maximum level since the update, it's difficult to hear my screenreader or to distinguish some dynamic elements of the environment itself.

Best regard,
Simon

2019-01-11 23:38:25 (edited by RTR_Assassin 2019-01-13 05:17:48)

Hi,
Is it possible to speed up the weapons? All of the melee weapons are painfully slow to use and I've gotten killed by mad boars four times now because of it. Also, why are the mad boars lightning fast? No matter how fast I run away from them, they manage to catch up to me. Something doesn't seem quite right.

I attack with the savagery of a thousand piranhas.

2019-01-12 02:11:39

3777  and 3778... it has been said  over and over and even by the same developer that extraction, IS NOT OK. Respect that. Its just like when you are at school and you ask a friend to stop bullying you. You have to respect that. What is so amazingly impossibly difficult about it?
you hold developers responsible for good quality of games but yet you expect them also to encrypt their sounds. If one does not become possible because it depends on the other, but you are complaining to death about how the game is too unstable and whatnot, then please put on a skill show an enlighten us how a game like this is done, but complaining will certainly get you absolutely nowhere.
no wonder why there are less and less devs around.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

2019-01-12 12:01:59

3391. so I released a game, and I asked people to not extract the sounds. just what percentage of the people will actually stick to that? as you've quite rightly pointed out, the community isn't what it once was. if I was absolutely against my sounds being extracted, I'd either compile them into the EXE, or encrypt. and I'm afraid that's how my view will stay. just look at any audio project on any audio, (at least most) and please tell me where most of the sounds originate from in them.

2019-01-12 12:18:51

Hi?
I am in Korea.
Even though I use 1 Gigabit internet, 400MS is output and sometimes Ping last is outputted.
I wonder if I can solve the problem.

2019-01-12 12:18:54

Hello everyone.
I need a leaves to make a compass.
But I do not know how to get it.
Even if I track the leaves with k, there is no leaf there.
Please tell me how to obtain leaves.

2019-01-13 05:20:52

Hi,
I've discovered a bug while trying to put a bike in my left hand in the "Travel Items" section of the inventory.
Call stack size: 5

Function: void invmenu()

Function: void game()

Function: void login()

Function: void mainmenu()

Function: void main()

I attack with the savagery of a thousand piranhas.

2019-01-13 16:16:33

Go to the leaves covered area and start hitting space.

2019-01-17 07:42:19

lol, thats a, erm, issue?