Dec 2014 FC3 Uplay Update Blues

[mandru]

UPDATE: COMMAND LINE EDITS ARE BACK!


This morning (12-16-2014) I ran a check on FC3 and there was an update for UPlay that reversed the FC3 Auto load and returned to the UBI game select mode.  :-D

I'm happier that a coon hound that's discovered a hunter's unprotected lunch sack full of pork chop and bacon sandwiches.  I'm almost giddy. 

***********************************************************************************************************************



Back in the good 'ole days I can remember when...   Ah crap!  >:((

The first week of December UPlay ran update for FC3 that has eliminated any chance of accessing command line edits.  I suspect this was to keep those codes from ever being used with FC4.  >:(

We went from being able to select the FC3 run .exe file shortcut on our desk top to access the UPlay Game Select hub pop-up box where we could then choose which of our UBI games we were going to be playing and then launch an FC3 shortcut with imbedded command line edits for game play with our selected cheat options.

For the last month or so UPlay had been updated to go straight into auto-playing FC3 when starting up but the game load could be interrupted (shutting it down) and allow for an altered FC3 desk top file to be launched.  Where upon I would usually spend two or three highly enjoyable hours a day rampaging, burning down and tearing the snot out of everything I could draw a bead or drop a C4 charge on.

I encountered the changed effect of this update when I blocked the game auto-load and selected a shortcut file that would allow me infinite ammo and godmode.  When it loaded I immediately had an exquisitely animated jeep blow up in my face that normally would have simply left me grinning but in this case annoyingly ate away half of my life and all of my usually untouched armor.  I closed the game out without saving.  Then retrying the exact same game load I found I was open to all the typical damage the game had to deliver.

Usually I don't have to do the same thing "Over and Over" especially when I don't like the results.  But if anything I'm usually pretty willing to attempt trying something out of the (proverbial) box.  ::)


I unplugged my internet router and attempted to load the game forcing the offline play option but the updated conditions that exclude any ability of accessing altered start files has been hard coded into the UPlay file on my computer.

With almost no desire of playing through the storyline again after the five or six times I've gone through it UBI has managed to finally kill any interest I have in the game for a very long time.  :(

[Binnatics]

Sad news again. I am starting to really hate all that starts with an U

[PZ]

With almost no desire of playing through the storyline again after the five or six times I've gone through it UBI has managed to finally kill any interest I have in the game for a very long time.  :(

Unfortunately that is their intent.  "Encourage" you to quit playing and purchase a new game.  Works much like textbook industry - they make a few insignificant changes every 2-3 years and then offer a new edition at the bargain price of $300.  Of course, they quit offering the older (but essentially same) textbook, forcing students to purchase the new one.

[mandru]

 :D

[fragger]

With almost no desire of playing through the storyline again after the five or six times I've gone through it UBI has managed to finally kill any interest I have in the game for a very long time.  :(

This company is a piece of w@&k. Yet another example of the contempt with which they view their customers - kill the old game for you with a below-the-belt tactic in order to coerce you into buying the new one.

Underhanded bastards

[PZ]

So true, fragger.  The problem is that they still produce the most attractive games to me.  Unfortunately the disappointment continues to grow with each new game despite the fact that we are given a taste of a fantastically spectacular game (potentially).

I really enjoy the new AC game, Unity, and Ubi has made great improvements in many areas.  Unfortunately what you chaps are experiencing with FC4 sours the gaming season.  What really pisses me off is that I will eventually purchase FC4, and I know that I'll throw down my controller in disgust during the main missions just to be able to enjoy the truly open world parts of the game.  I hate to blow a gasket (and know that I will do so) when playing what is supposed to be an enjoyable experience.

It seems that Ubisoft is watching the 'net and every time someone comes up with a way to actually enjoy one of their productions, they will leverage Uplay to ruin it.  It is actually enraging - they are purposefully looking for ways to ruin gamers fun.

[fragger]

Just part of the dumbing-down process, unfortunately. Movies, TV, music... the lowest common denominator is king.

[PZ]

Don't forget education.  The geniuses in Washington think that the best way to increase the education level in America is to dumb down the content, and reduce the credits required for a degree.  Sure, we'll see an explosion in the numbers of college graduates, but they will become part of an incompetent, lazy workforce who's best opportunity for employment will be in a shoe store.

[fragger]

Yep, I can see that happening. We'll have college graduates who won't be able to read their own degrees and who think that a mortar board is a building material ::)

[mandru]

Has the AC series gotten that pirate jag out of their system?

To be honest I've not even looked at those related threads because I don't like pirates and haven't been interested enough to jolly myself into considering what adds up to being another online multiplayer game couched in a weak storyline.  Nah, UBI burned me too bad when I was promised all pre-release perks for preordering AC3 and FC3 eight months in advance and ended up with none of the game upgrades promised on both games.

Yep, I can see that happening. We'll have college graduates who won't be able to read their own degrees and who think that a mortar board is a building material ::)

Heh.  As if their hands have ever been dirty enough to even know what mortar is.


Here in the U.S. there is a diploma mill for budding lawyers that is allowing their students an extension for time allowed on their required course of study due dates.  The students have petitioned for the extension on the time allowed for when their tests and assignments can be submitted as they have claimed that they are emotionally distressed by a recent pairing of supposedly racially charged grand jury court cases that refused to turn into cop lynching kangaroo courts to the dismay of violent protesters nation wide.

These two cases went to grand jury instead of typical jury trials because it was the only way these cases could even get a foot it into a court room.  In a typical trial there is a pretrial hearing wherein the judge looks over both sides of the submitted evidence and has not only the option but the full responsibility of determining that there is no legal justification for the case against the accused and can dismiss all charges out of hand.

My personal thought is if these pre-lawyer twits are so sensitive that they get their guts twisted in a knot and can't study properly because nationally publicized trials (an occupational field the students are expecting to enter?  ???? ) Have judges who  1. refuse to fly in the face of fact based results"  2. "ignore our justice premise that all accused are innocent until proven guilty" and 3 follows the full rule of law should have their names published to warn other schools that they fail to make the cut of rational behavior, be expelled and advised to find another area of study.

If they are allowed to become lawyers will they weep and wail over the injustice of it all because of a hangnail they are suffering through and were unable to properly prepare their briefs?  Will they try to petition the court every time a judge finds against their client because that's what they've learned has helped them squeeze through lawyer school?

Who would want a commercial airline pilot who is terrified (to the point of hysteria) of heights, a scuba diver with an internal ear disorder and is unable to dive deeper than 3 feet or for that matter a color blind interior decorator.  I see very little difference in these comparisons and the going for the big money jobs, crybaby only want the frosting and not the rest of the cupcake slackers.  ::)

I've always taken the personal position (through all on the various jobs I've had) every time some meat head co-employee has passed a petition around addressing fixes for some trivial workplace grievance I've recognized that I want to keep the job which means that putting my name on a convenient list of trouble makers doesn't best serve my efforts to stay employed and I didn't have to go to college to figure that simple concept out.

[PZ]

Get this: in education, institutions are required to adhere to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) which was intended for those in a wheelchair or some other physical disability equal access to education.  I fully support that.  However, now that has been extended to mental disability as well.  Here are examples of accommodations that must be met:

• A student can bring in a pet dog claiming that it is a "service animal".  No one can ask if it is a service animal, and cannot ask why the dog is there.  Suddenly this year (since that practice has been enacted) there has been an explosion of "service animals" on campus.  It does not matter if anyone else in the room has an allergy, or a fear of dogs.  The person with the accommodation has preferential treatment.
• A student asked for, and received this accommodation: come and go as they please during class, bring food and drink into the room, and receive preferential seating
• Another student can't read properly, so they go to the testing center and a person has to read the exam to them
• Yet another has poor note taking skills.  The college pays for a professional note taker for the student
• Another has trouble remembering things - they need to have their notes open during an exam when all others are required to do so from memory

Of course, the transcript cannot show the accommodations this student has received, so they go out into the workforce as completely incompetent individuals, incapable of doing what other college grads do and the employer is the one to suffer.  In fact, what kind of employer is going to put up with incompetence like that?  none.

It keeps going from bad to worse in the American educational system.  My wife just read that China is now the number one economy in the world.  Not even 240 years in existence, and we are already going down the same road as other civilizations toward ruin and collapse.  That time frame is not even a drop in the bucket when compared to other civilizations from the past.

[Binnatics]

lol

Western civilization is killing itself with idleness

[Art Blade]

Guys, buckle up, you've got me now, I'll finally start a rant.

All those laws that make it easier to pass exams are silly. If someone is disabled, he should get help. Individually. Like, with help from a (if necessary, charitable) foundation or by scholarship, but has to prove the inability so no hoaxes make it. Someone who can't remember? Oh my goodness. Seriously, why would someone who can't remember properly want a job that requires to STUDY? Note-takers are OK for a blind person but when I was at university, I had a blind guy in my semester who used a recording device and learned by listening to the tapes at home and he would dictate his exam to an assistant who wrote it down for him, all that in a separate room so he wouldn't disturb the rest of the people. If the US think that their educational system should be improved, they should bloody UP the level, not lower it. How do they even know that they need improvement if not by comparing themselves with other countries? So how can they expect to get better at something if they DROP their bloody levels? Those people who came up with those decisions are already incompetent if not outright stupid.

When I was young, we admired the Americans. Now we feel sorry for them or worse, despise them and make jokes about them. Generally speaking. That doesn't apply to you nice chaps here who prove that there are still Americans with a mind of their own and a working proper common sense (which is why we all here at OWG love to interact with one another). You Americans here are actually the first people representing your country that I love to talk about as in, there are actually Americans that make sense, show intelligence, are individual and are good people.

The picture of "America and Americans" over here is really bad and if you look at what America exports.. most notably "movies" and fast food chains. And, for reasons unknown, you can take any given movie and what do you find in it? Military. Special Forces. FBI and CIA. And the American flag in every 2nd frame. As if the message was, "all we know is how to go to war and worship the star-spangled banner, have at least one fire arm, and if you're not in any way related to the military or government special agencies to show you're a patriot, you're not a proper American at all." The guys who make good things are no longer Americans, they're immigrants. What happened to the grand things that came from, say, the MIT, and where are the great guys who went to, say, Harvard? We don't hear of these any more. We learn of a self-declared world police and global force that declared war on their enemy number one (the guy with beard and turban) and a massive bounty on his head yet year after year went by without the final message, "we got him!" All that, and much more.. America doesn't make it easy for those people who can think and voice their mind as those people are being ignored. Instead, the big nation decides on their own when and where to go to war outside their own territory to do good and justice by protecting people from bad regimes. If only they remembered their own native Americans who are down at the very bottom of society and locked away in reservations so foreign and domestic tourists can find them more easily.

No wonder you are dissatisfied with what is going on in that country. It is not really a nice reassurance realising that you're not alone. Other countries know how to ruin themselves and their reputation just about equally well and on a similarly grand level.

So it is not just America complaining about that type of things. If you open your eyes and start to look around, you'll see that there is actually a whole bloody lot of countries that have their own local specialties.

Overall, I believe that the thinking people (those who actually know the meaning of "thinking") will have realised more or less the same problems in their own countries, voice the same type of complaints and feel the same type of helplessness that only a minority of intelligent people may know that are surrounded by a majority of stupid people.

And there it is. The same end of all rants. It's not the clever people causing problems. It's the stupid people. And they're the majority. And they determine the path, they change all those good rules that once upon a time a few clever guys established when the times were just right. It is a deterioration of culture, education and society.

Remember (in case you have a disability regarding your memory functions, I'll repeat it here) that you are not alone.

It is just how nature works.

There are only so many nuggets in a gold river.

[PZ]

To top it off, it is the stupid, uneducated, entitled people that breed the largest number of children.  I recall one ghetto slob that had fathered 20 + children, hardly any two from the same mother.  He was on public assistance as were all his women, and all his children.

In contrast, my former boss and his wife had no children.

The above are not isolated instances, and with numbers like that, do the math.  It is only a matter of time before society will be unable to sustain itself, and as has happened in all other societies in history, revolt will occur as the unproductive entitled members of society become angry that not enough is being done for them

How's that for a bright and cheery outlook?

[Binnatics]

Amen, that was Santoku-sharp and so true.

But I'd like to accompany it with a little "Old Continent" rant;

We, Europeans, are desperately divided. We don't stand like one man behind a flag or national symbol that bounds us to a strong group of willing people. We discuss, deliberate, toss and turn, and finally push forward. We can, because big brother is watching our back. Yes, Big Brother is watching our asses as well, and Big Brother digs holes through our 'security network', but we all feel safe and confident knowing that Big Brother will come for a rescue whenever the Big Bad East is threatening us.
We cannot make a fist, cannot truly become one and share our solidarity with poor, less developed countries. Compare Europe and its countries as a class with students. The biggest students with the rich families permit themselves to break their own rules, but once the poor students can't suffice they get punished and threatened. When things go bad, the students act like old ladies talking dirty about the other's bad behaviour in the past, and we draw back to our own small cultural roots showing racial hate, intolerance and conservatism.

I remember when my Uncle came home from America (he worked for Shell and was stationed there for a couple of years) bringing fancy toys like a calculator as thin as a coin working on solar power. That was amazing. Funny enough he also drove an American Volvo, which was one of the best cars I've ever seen. Anyway, America had a big advantage on us European countries, and of course we tried to keep up. We still do, and America is still ahead of us. Only this time I think the advantage isn't too positive. But believe me, we European countries will follow. We will have to. America rules the world and Europe has made itself dependent like lemmings following the one leader that shows balls.

We're all humans after all. Intelligence is a luxury we can only afford as long as we have good food and safety. And even then it has to compete with brutal force and natural stupidity. And let these last two be so evident in providing said conditions on which intelligence prospers. That makes it so damn hard to prevail... it is intelligence after all

I love OWG 8)

[PZ]

 :-X

[Art Blade]

 :-X :)

[fragger]

 :-X :-X :-X Well said, all of you. Guys like you help me to retain what little faith I have left in human nature :)

[JRD]

 :-X :-X :-X

Nice discussion here... and again, that's why OWG is an oasis on the internet.  :-X

Coming from a third world country I know very well about education issues and poor political role models. A couple years ago, the government implemented a racial quota regulation to all universities in Brazil. It is basically a certain number of chairs in the student body reserved to black people. The idea behind it is that since a majority of the population is of blacks and browns and this big slice of our country is condemned to live in poverty having no means or access to good basic education, this quota would give those people a chance to enroll in an university and become an undergrad student.

The practical outcome is that, statistically, now Brazil show a great improvement in the overall Human Development Index since the proportion between white and black people in universities is now more balanced. What the statitics fail to picture is that absolutely nothing special has been done to change the brutal reality these people live in and that puts them in disadvantage when compared to white, middle class people (like me) who can afford good education and is capable of competing for a chainr in an university. Although the last 12 years presented reasonable investments in education, social disparity still abysmal in my home country and simply putting more poor black people in an university doesn't mean they are ready to keep up (not always, most of those guys really w@&k hard and ace in their exams) and masks the cultural and social backbone in which this country is immersed.

I have seen basically the same idea applied to all major problems this country is facing. You have basically a historical series of events that created a chain of causes leading to today's social, economical, political  and cultural reality but all measurements taken to change that aim at the last effect in this long sequence of events. For example, slavery created segregation and masses of poor black people in the centuries following the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil. It created a scenario of ghetos where this population is left aside in all major political decisions. This means they cannot have a say in the decision making process and are left at bay living in areas characterized by the absence of the State - the slums in Brazil are huge and frequently overrun by druglords with no basic services like sewage, basic health care, basic education from kindergarten on, decent energy network, no internet access (this is changing), no official mail delivery or garbage collection. These are located, quite often, far from the city and main job opportunities and only connected by a inneficient bus and train services. People living in a place like this may have to commute for 2 hours to and another 2 hours from w@&k on a regular day, sometimes more, which leaves practically no time for any other activity.  How can you expect that a person living under these conditions manage to apply in school and actually become a good professional. Not that they are not capable of, on the contrary, give them a chance and they will show what dedication and effort means but chances are these guys will give up way before they reach the level to apply for college. So creating this quota may be helping all those who managed to attend the university (and they really do a good job) but it doesn't change the fact that they've been forgotten by the same people that are now throwing a bone at them and looking good in front of the UN Programme for Education for having improved the statistics.

[Binnatics]

That is indeed a drop in the ocean. Yet it's a start. How rude life can be; such a student given the chance must be facing a mountain as high as the sky applying for a job; all the expectations burning in his back, and probably the internal feeling of inferiority muddling the view...

Well IF they succeed they may truly mean something to Brazil in the future ;)

[mandru]

Responding to Binn's comments on the fall of the West.  :(

I spend way too much time pondering this topic.  I'll attempt to express my concerns and yet avoid becoming too toxic.  :-\\  *Whew... Takes a deep calming breath*

A here's few points I've come to recognize.  First off, every historical atrocity I can think of has has come from one group attempting to force their ideals on others.  :(

There are enemies of civilization all around us who seek only to tear everything down and rebuild it in their ideal.  The main problem with utopias is that their end product usually turns into (power brokers) Morlocks feasting on the flesh of the masses of well tended Eloi who in turn have been stripped of any ability to think or act for themselves.

Spoiler

The Morlocks and Eloi reference are from H. G. Wells' 1895 novel "The Time Machine" so even way back then the writing was on the wall and true visionaries were seeing the "Things To Come" (another H.G. Wells novel  :-D ).

Both of the main political orientations here (conservative and liberal) have been thoroughly corrupted from the inside out and have now become fixed on maintaining their power by promising witless followers lots of free stuff.  Get in line, vote for me!  Pay raises for everyone and we'll make the rich foot the bill for everything.

At least here in the U.S. it has been established that people of wealth create jobs while politicians (often the most useless wealthiest among us) create bread lines.  Our Government is driving up the cost of job creation via new business start-ups through the uncontrollable addition of thousands and thousands of impossible to keep track of regulations which has the end result of pushing jobs that would normally elevate our population's self sufficiency to countries overseas.

Even if the minimum wage here in the U.S. (through legislative decree) was raised to $5000 USD per/hr it's inescapable that the price of a McDonald's Big Mac combo meal (before super sizing) by necessity would jump up to $4500 USD. Torquing the minimum wage upwards to gain votes is a net zero prospect for our overall economy every time.

As a direct result of that Governmental intrusion into the free market I've seen that within the last few days it was reported that China has become the #1 economic power house in the world.    Oh Yay! We're now #2.  :D

In our country we are lead by single goal oriented morons who completely fail to understand that they are slated to be the first unceremoniously lined up against the wall and shot by the very ideologists they seek to cozy up with.  We all have enemies who despise us and are determined to burn everything to the ground that doesn't meet their 7th century mindset.  And yet our current president has installed a revolving door on the Oval Office in the White House (the symbol of our seat of power) for factions of these same enemies and accepts their influence even to a level that impacts the language used for essential training materials of our armed forces.

The genuinely disturbing part of allowing enemies with foreign alliances to have input towards the behavior and undermining mindset that is being used to train the various branches of our military is that those advisers (I use the term adviser very loosely) are being allowed to rewrite in politically correct speech materials that should otherwise be absolutely confidential and never allowed to be seen (I can't stress this enough) by anyone outside of our armed forces in the first place.

Additionally I'm not inspired by the fact that there is a huge constituency of political advisers deeply embedded (on both sides) in our leadership who get absolutely giddy over the dream that the world's population through several possible methods could be decreased by two thirds overnight.  I'll let you figure that one out yourself.


Politically there is an intentional effort from the highest offices in our country where every one is being driven into smaller and smaller subgroups.  Lies and obfuscation are destroying the threads and very foundation of our country.  Of course that really is no surprise.  It was a key promise by our current president with his election campaign to "fundamentally change America" rhetoric when he ran for office.  The Attorney General of the United States over the Dept. of Justice appointed by our president for many years has carried in his wallet a quote that he has found to be a model of his political orientation which basically states that the most significant factor binding people together is the color of their skin.  Care to take a guess what shade he is?

Under this administration our history is being gutted and rewritten as we watch.  Children are told "Don't bother trying to explain this to your parents, They're not smart enough to understand it.  In the last few years children in schools are no longer being taught about our founding fathers and if they are mentioned at all it's to point out that they were America's first terrorists overthrowing the legitimate rule of England.  Funny how the people in power will toss that word around but refuse to use the word "terrorist" about out real enemies.

Parent Teacher Association meetings (PTA where parents supposedly oversee what is going on in their local public schools) have taken on the tone where a District Superintendent feels comfortable and justified enough to look a parent in the face and say:

"We don't like it when parents introduce concepts that conflict with the principals we are teaching our children."

???



Groups of people within our country that are not being encouraged to learn English are easily mislead and manipulated by politically funded community developers which strangely enough was* one of our president's former occupations.  Instead of learning for themselves the dynamics and differences between Rights and Privileges within a free population (including the duties and responsibilities) they are instructed on their entitlements (like free high speed internet access), who they should hate, how they are being exclusively discriminated against and how to pool together through protest to overthrow anyone or anything that gets in their way of grabbing up their full share of the good stuff.

"United we stand, Divided we fall" as a national motto in the past has always rallied us together here in the U.S..  But these days I suspect those words are being printed on silk fiber toilet tissue in large gold foil letters and handed out as a gag gifts among the haughty political elite who at any cost seek to maintain their control over each and every one of us.

Again I've spent too much time writing, editing this and I'm sure I've pushed it right up against the edge (possibly over the line) of what I should say here.  :(



*Added a missing word for clarification

[Binnatics]

"United we stand, Divided we fall"

"In Sickness and in Health, may God safe us all"

That's intelligence speaking. Preaching in fact. An attempt to gain control over the brutal and stupid. Gain, not force.

I don't believe in God, but I do believe in the holiness of sharing and bonding and teaming up trying to make the best of it for our near future and eachother. Becoming one is a true goal for a civilized society and it's got to be something like a new world order. Back in the days (again old continent crap) our lords spoke of divide and rule, but that was back in the days. When home was sweet and everything over yonder was the barbarian horde. Now we will face another political pretender of the same kind, playing the same tricks.
And our brutals and stupids are now well informed and can talk to anybody. that makes them brutal² and stupid². With the world becoming smaller and the brutals taking over it's going to be either war or starvation. Or both. I'm really pessimistic.

IS is controlling large numbers of religious and disappointed followers who no longer feel united with the rest of human kind, they become Eloi. The world is so damn complex, there's so much space and freedom for the evil forces trying to become bigger, richer and more powerful, that many people fall back on simple beliefs who make the world either black or white. Good or bad, no in between, no sharing, we first and f@#* the rest!
I think wisdom and intelligence is loosing at the moment and I'm puzzled...


I like your writing, keep it coming. We keep eachother busy and I it's not a bad idea to sharpen the knives ;) :-D

[Binnatics]

And our brutals and stupids are now well informed and can talk to anybody. that makes them brutal² and stupid². With the world becoming smaller and the brutals taking over it's going to be either war or starvation. Or both. I'm really pessimistic.

Lol, that really is pessimistic. Sleeping over it I'd like to bring a little nuance to that phrase; I do think war and starvation are possible scenarios, but I really hope we can find a good solution to the problems we are facing at the moment. I think we will.  8)

[Art Blade]

 :-D

[PZ]

I don't know - I have very little faith in humanity.  Collectively as a species, I believe we are too stupid to make the proper decisions