I've organised many LAN parties and I have to say that everything that the developers have said about their chosen style of multiplayer are the right choice. MA is not a RTS which is ideally suited to LAN gaming, but a considered and thoughtful game along the lines of chess, albeit with much more scope for strategy.

I'm also a software developer and fully agree with the policy that the only method of play is Internet play. This ensures that when pirates have exhausted the single player game, and are now hopefully hooked on the game, they will have no choice but to purchase the game and support the developer and also the community.

Massive Assault is the best game I've bought this year for the PC and definitely the best strategy games since Warzone 2100.

My advice, stop complaining, buy 7 copies (which you can then play at LAN's "and" over the internet) and come and join the fun .

Ren

I totally agree with GamesMan. Most small private LAN parties I go to are in places without any kinf of Internet connection, and while this may be sad it's nonetheless a fact we cannot change. LAN play would be perfect for a game like Massive Assault, perhaps because it plays much like a board game.
I recognize the piracy issue stated by the developers but there has to be another way of preventing piracy other than amputating such an essential part of the game as LAN play. Take the old game Stars! as an example of another PBEM/LAN game: Every player has to use different serials to play. If two players used the same serial, both players were banned from the game. Sure, there were pirated serials flying around, but with every game update these numbers were collected and banned making them unusable to anyone. So if you wanted to keep your game up-to-date with patches you'd have to buy it.

Couldn't this be done with MA?

And if this isn't enough, how about a hybrid solution: Internet play works as usual, but if you want to play LAN you'll have to re-activate the "LAN play"-feature weekly online (requiring a valid id of course). So you could activate the LAN part and then play for a week offline-LAN before having to re-activate.

I'm not saying this is the only way to go, but like I said there has to be a more intelligent way of fighting piracy while giving customers what they want

Thanks Victor.

I do hope to see the LAN option very soon - because the Hotseat makes Secret Allies unusable - and that is a very important strategic feature of the game.

there does seem to be a problem with the activation codes, as i bought two copys with no codes in side and to ppl i no have bought game again with no codes inside !! although i must when i sent e-mail for code they where very quick coming back with a code for me so a plus there ,but why we having this problem in the first place ??

Hi

I own the game, and while not impressed with the techincal quaility (see previous posts ), it was bit off putting that LAN play is not an option.

Software Piracy can never be defeated. Ever! As long as your system invovles software, some brightspark will reveerse engenier it and crack it. All it takes is looking at the assemblly code, hell I did assembler for years ( oops there goes my age )

And to be honest, I actually find myself wanting to use pirated version nowadays, not to cheat the developers, not cause I cant afford it, but simply because the pirated games dont ask me to put the cd in the drive every single time. This is such apain. The hacked version just runs. The hacked versions are usually far more stable, I think ithis is because copy protection is resposnsiblity for a lot of instablility as seems to be the case with MA as mentioned in a previous post.

All round I get a better user experince with a hacked game than with the one released by the developer! Then again I getting to old to play games any more

My point is, using futile methods to TRY and stop piracy is not an excuse to harm your customer base, the people who actually give you money. By doing this you actually punishing the peole who pay because of a miniroty element which doesnt. How fair is that ... ?

My view and feelings anyways ...

The problem is, enough people use hacked versions and suddenly there's no money in it and there'll no longer be the games being made to be hacked.

If you don't like it, contact the developer (though it's more likely the publishers call), but using a hacked version will do nothing but damage the likelihood of the developer making another game.

Can't you just get your buddy to go look at something else while you take your turn?

That gets a bit tiresome.

First let me state that I am still debating whether to buy the game, the issue of the MAN concerns me. I do like the hotseat function. My question is as follows and it may be clearly stated in the manual of the full game (which I stated as not owning).

Is there direct IP play? By that I mean like in the Old Warcraft games and Starcraft games when you find out your PC IP address and the other person just types it in and you connect.

Thank you.

No.

Alright, with that said, before I purchase the game, with all the talk about MA and MAN and 90 day notices and stuff, will the paid owner of MA always have free MP available even if MAN gives the 90 notice?

Or is MAN the only way to do MP? Ever?

2 gargax
you will be able to play MA multiplayer for free.
however some new features will be only available to MAN users not MA so you will have to pay for MAN if you want those features.if you feel ok with the standard MA multiplayer nobody will force you to pay anythng.
dont pay attention to those noncence Drakovius wrote about 90 day notice - he quoted that from old discussion which is now obsolete.

When you say 'features' are you meaning anything that would affect gameplay (IE: New Units...well thats all I can think of) or do you mean like Website stuff (IE: Ranking, Player-Bios, Awards, Tournement Ability, Clan ability, ...)

Thank you.

For now these features are opponent finding (public challenges), chat and some web-based stuff.

Ladies and Gentlemen, see the resolution here:

http://massiveassault.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=942

2 Gargax -
when i wrote that i meant just web-based stuff like chat,public challenges and so on...
and new maps probably will be for MAN only
devs not say anything about new units yet

My god! What kind of stupid response is this, and from a real developer, even?

For your information, our group of friends regularly have LAN parties in either the very large garage that one friend has, or in one of the halls of the local music school of our town.

Neither of those two places have an internet connection!

Two us have now bought Massive Assault, but we had a lot of delivery problems from the site we bought it from (Play.com) and I just scratched my disc, which apparently kicked in the copy protection, so I guess I won't be playing this game at all.