Penalties for those who play a pirated copy of Automation

If you ask me, Automation is one of those games wich do not deserve piracy.
I can't blame pirates for Activision or EA, 'cause everybody, even the ones who bought it, got screw*diver*ed (bad language avoided ) : Short-as-hell campaign, unsupported buggy games (ex : NFS Carbon on PC)...
But games like this one, awesome game by the way, is made by great guys, who know what they're talking about, and care for the players, have to be paid for : quite low price, good collector stuff...

About pirated ideas, it could detect an Internet connection after the first verification : if there's one, it will always check the copy, if not, it won't. This could solve the "Afghanistan problem", and make more work for pirates. I like the pirate language idea, but it could also be replaced with using the Webdings police...
The octane fuel is great too : 1 octane "Pirate Special" fuel ? By the way, I was asking myself if I could easily add a fuel... (Futuristic 200 !)
This could be joined with a forced 1$ starting campaign with no save feature, but there should be a "Pirate version detected" message to prevent it from being asked on the forums...
The problem is that most of those things can be avoided by modding (adding fuels), trainers (1$ campaign), traduction (pirate language) or moved files (Webdings policy).
Hey ! What about replacing most of the textures with a pirate flag ? That should do.

I do not see something else for now...
See you (maybe) on the upcoming V8 Update Bugs Thread !

Please don't make it online only to play. It's one of the reasons so many people are avoiding SimCity. I have every SimCity game and have played since the early 90s and I am not sure if I will buy the game until I learn more about how it plays. If it were not for always online I would have my game preordered now because I know how great it will be. Please use an online validation system. In any case, please make sure the savegames are saved to the player's computer so that we can transfer them between computers. I hate how SimCity will supposedly store your file in the cloud - relieving you of any ability to backup your own work.

[Killrob]

No worries there Driver69, I even think the offline play is already in place with the latest launcher - one verification and then no more connection needed for an extended period of time (weeks?)... try unplugging your internet connection and see if it's working already

We want to have as mild DRM as possible to not punish our paying customers - and one online verification seems to be a good way to go.

There is no real way to stop pirating... If somebody has the skill to do it they will be able to crack any game... Its happened a million times and will only happen again even with the online thing a simple EXE fix can remove that.

- All engine noises sound like ducks, or emus, or farts, or just Daffy or Zuessy going "BRRRUM BA DUM BRUM BA DUM DUM BA BRUMMMM"

That looks more like a cool feature to me... Will just make the game better.

In my opinion (I have a pirated software by me for personal use (pc's, psp, ps3, nds, wii, but NOT PS3 or a few software for PC created by small companies, for example, this), the price is first to reduce or avoid this phenomenon, because, for example, I have downloaded the NFS the Run for PC, because I have more bugs for the elevated price.
The second, there are people who download pirated software to test how it works, if it's worth .. to buy if it is satisfied with the original.
The first, the people bought few or little software (may seem silly, but I will explain what is true), the piracy software that makes itself known to more people.
In my opinion, Automation is a game worth buying because it is very complete, and we must support the creators of this game because they have much future.
(I bought this game).

a good way to make people pay for products is the "apple" way:
make online content and upgrades available for people with a registered (and payed) license key.
You dont have to pay a montly amount to have the benefits of a membership.

If people like to invest money to support the devs they can opt for a monthly fee. (with or without any additional incentive)

i think 25 or 35 dollar isn't much for a game. It is a game for a large (tycoon games) but also nice market (not everyone is interested in building engineblocks i guess.)

Validate once and then offline play, with validation required again for every update. Validation being logging on with current credentials, and limiting that user id or user code to two or three IPs at a time. IPs registered in a database that can be changed from the users end.

ex: I have a laptop and a desktop.
-Database has me logged in as Nightmare5oh with registration code XXXXXXX
-Code XXXXXXX can unlock the purchased game on two IPs max: Laptop xxx.xxx.xx.x and desktop xxx.xx.xx.x
-Code XXXXXXX will only work on these two IPs until I change them from the (my) user control panel, so if I break my laptop I can go in, take that IP off, and reregister
(using my original registration code) the game on a new laptop.

I guess steam does something like this... sort of? Probably not, I don't know. This might stop piracy if the registration code has to be matched to a user id, and a user will be needed to play and get updates.

I think I lost a braincell or twelve trying to come up with that.

ONly give them 2 cylinders and always make their engines explode.

Validate once and then offline play, with validation required again for every update. Validation being logging on with current credentials, and limiting that user id or user code to two or three IPs at a time. IPs registered in a database that can be changed from the users end.

ex: I have a laptop and a desktop.
-Database has me logged in as Nightmare5oh with registration code XXXXXXX
-Code XXXXXXX can unlock the purchased game on two IPs max: Laptop xxx.xxx.xx.x and desktop xxx.xx.xx.x
-Code XXXXXXX will only work on these two IPs until I change them from the (my) user control panel, so if I break my laptop I can go in, take that IP off, and reregister
(using my original registration code) the game on a new laptop.

I guess steam does something like this... sort of? Probably not, I don't know. This might stop piracy if the registration code has to be matched to a user id, and a user will be needed to play and get updates.

I think I lost a braincell or twelve trying to come up with that.

That won't work for one reason: dynamic IPs.