Home » Archived Forums » RenGuard Client » RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience
| RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience [message #82570] |
Thu, 22 April 2004 21:25  |
mrdie69
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2004
Karma: 0
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I want to make it clear that I have waited a WEEK before posting this, so it is not a post in anger.
I play regularly on the n00bstories servers, and I love this game. I have been forced to stop playing it, however, because of a very ill-conceived rollout of a very unfinished product. I want to return to playing this game, but it has been impossible.
I want every single person here to go to the following website: http://www.projectmagma.net
This excellent group of amateur programmers has been working with MythDev to maintain the codebase of the Myth series for years. They have released major patches and improvements, all without breaking the game. RenGuard has broken the game for many of the people who play...read the forums! Many don't post, they just stop playing. When you have a community with NO corporate support, you can NOT alienate so many players...you have to be careful and make sure things work. You have to assemble beta test groups and make sure everythign is PERFECT, because every lost player is pretty much lost forever.
My advice: retract RenGuard until it works, period. The game survived for a long time without it, and it can wait a few weeks. I, on the other hand, will not. The application will not work with any workaround I have researched in over 4 hours over the past week of tring to fix the problems. I have reinstalled Renegade, downloaded the patch fresh, and installed RenGuard on top of that...and it still crashes.
I'm just a guy who wants to keep playing the game...I am capable of no threat. But trust me: you guys will lose your community if you keep doing things like this.
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| Re: RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience [message #82586] |
Thu, 22 April 2004 21:49  |
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Blazer
Messages: 3322
Registered: February 2003
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Karma: 0
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General (3 Stars)
Administrator/General |
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| mrdie69 |
I want every single person here to go to the following website: http://www.projectmagma.net
This excellent group of amateur programmers has been working with MythDev to maintain the codebase of the Myth series for years. They have released major patches and improvements, all without breaking the game.
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Indeed! They also HAVE THE SOURCE CODE TO THE GAME. If we had the source code to Renegade, we could just fix the flaws in it that allow cheating instead of having to shim in a third party app and hope it works on everyones various configurations.
| mrdie69 |
RenGuard has broken the game for many of the people who play...read the forums! Many don't post, they just stop playing.
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Actually looking at negative posts is not a very accurate determination of the overall state of things. Of course a support forum for anything is going to have mostly posts from the people who are having problems. If you buy a new car, and it works as expected, do you go back to the dealership and wait in line just to say OMG MY CAR STARTS AND RUNS LIKE ITS SUPPOSED TO! 
I have no doubt you are sincerely having trouble. Believe me when I tell you that RG was not rolled out untested, there is just a huge difference in having a testgroup of 100 people, and a production system supporting 5000+ users with varying configurations. There are some issues beyond our control, like users who have installed the Beta of Windows XP Service Pack 2, which even Microsoft warns breaks a lot of applications, especially ones that work the way Renguard does. We are doing what we can to work with the people having trouble, including giving them debug versions of RG that give us information on what is causing it to crash. As Zunnie pointed out, actually very few people are having trouble, just a handful compared to the thousands of successful installations.
In short, you should not have sat here for a week fuming about RG not working for you. Post your problems, come to the support IRC channel, let us help you and in turn you will be helping us identify others problems and to make RG more stable.
[Updated on: Thu, 22 April 2004 21:55] Report message to a moderator |
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| RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience [message #82587] |
Thu, 22 April 2004 21:52 |
flyingfox
Messages: 1612
Registered: February 2003
Location: scotland, uk
Karma: 0
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General (1 Star) |
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| Quote: |
Your wrong, RenGuard works.
There only a few people who have a fucked up pc and blaim it on RenGuard for not running properly.
For 99% (or at least 98%) of the Renegade Community RenGuard works the way it is supposed to work.
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Loads of people don't post, they have problems with it and don't bother using it. It would be a lot less than 98% with a sucess rate. And how can you say it works to someone whom it doesn't work with??
mrdie, if you posted about your problem alone people could help you with it. I don't really understand why you waited without posting anything for a week then done this. Detail what happens when it crashes (error message or anything), and your operating system version and someone probably knows what is going wrong.
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| 99% is not enough. [message #82593] |
Thu, 22 April 2004 22:16 |
mrdie69
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2004
Karma: 0
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The fact is, only 100% of current players being able to keep playing is acceptable. That being said, I am sure that it will get worked out eventually. However, it ought not to have happened in the first place.
Some pointers:
-Make the installer more intelligent. After an uninstall, it will not reinstall unless you manually reinsert a game.exe file into the directory so it can overwrite it.
-Drop the whole "MOTD" concept. It's not needed, and seems to be the source of your problems. Just place a hyperlink to an actual webpage, and if I want to go there, I will click it.
-Consider making auto-update either voluntary, like WOL, or consider just dropping it in lieu of an update link.
The major failing of this project was that in order to silence the 5% of people that cheat, you have effectively kicked out another 5% or so with silly technical issues. Seriosuly, was BIGHEAD really that much worse than being unable to play at all?
As for why I waited so long to post, it is because I waited for the activation email for 2 days on another account name, which never came. Before that, I was too busy in real life to post here as well as read 50 messages trying to solve my problem...many other people were having my problems, too, and it seemed that in every thread they were given solutions that just did NOT work.
For those of you(zunnie) who just say "RenGuard works", I am genuinely happy for you. Take it easy on those of us who haven't been so lucky. My machine is pristine, with not even a single piece of annoying adware or other registry-gnawing problems. Everything else on the machine works fine, and I even code from it. In my case at least, RenGuard is broken.
Blazer, thank you for the excellent reply. I think you mean well, and I am sure you'll get it fixed in the end. I appreciate it.
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| RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience [message #82610] |
Fri, 23 April 2004 02:49 |
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Rex
Messages: 107
Registered: March 2003
Location: Netherlands
Karma: 0
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This is no personal attack towards mrdie69. ( I have problems as well m8! )
I just want to make some things clear:
The update should NOT be voluntary! People have to be forced to download the newest version of RG whenever possible. I don't see why it should be voluntary. The only bad sides I see is: More coding, bigger file, more pc sources usage...
I wouldn't drop the MOTD concept either. Server owners love this. It's not the "source" of RG's problems and if it was: a link to the actual page would be as bad as the MOTD.
What I dont understand at all is why you haven't been able to play the game! Haven't you read that you can start game2.exe and play asif nothing happened?
Or maybe you couldnt connect to WOL ?? (Well, WOL has been down all week, you could have used GSA then...)
Or you mean you could have played on any online server except on n00bsvr's cos they have RG enabled???
.... :rolleyes: Rex
You can rent this signature for 2 euros/month.
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| RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience [message #82612] |
Fri, 23 April 2004 03:07 |
cokemaster
Messages: 144
Registered: April 2003
Karma: 0
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I can also confirm I have had NO problems what-so-ever.... even on my Win2k03 box and my main windows XP sp1 box - no problems.
Personally most of the errors are probably caused by reading the read-me file. There have been too many "OMG RENGUARD SUCKS BECAUSE IT DOESN'T WORK" threads... they need to read the readme file and if problems keep going search the forums, failing that post a thread explaining whats happening.
The Renguard team is under huge pressure to make Renguard work on most systems, these things take time and complaining time and time again about known issues won't speed things up - if anything it will slow the process down because someone has to answer the threads.
Remember, Friends don't let friends play Reborn!
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| RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience [message #82619] |
Fri, 23 April 2004 03:52 |
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htmlgod
Messages: 360
Registered: July 2003
Karma: 0
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Actually I have had problems. And playing in the GSA servers over last weekend while WOL was down, I can confirm that many others had problems too. I heard a lot of stuff like "Well I can never play in WOL anyway, since they all use renguard, and renguard doesn't work on my comp."
Whenever I run game.exe I see the Renguard 1.02 button on my taskbar, and also on my quick-launch bar by the clock. But it's minimized. So I click the button on my taskbar, and it disappears. Clicking on the icon on the quick-launch toolbar brings the button back, but the same problem persists. This happens whenever I restart my computer. Originally, when it was version 1.00 I would just reinstall and try to avoid restarting or shutting down. But now, since it restarts the program when you update, I can't use the program. I would assume this is a fairly widespread problem, because to the relative vacancy of the RenGuard servers. I must agree with mrdie69, the community (or at least servers running renguard) is almost definitely losing players because of this program.
The majority of people who play renegade do not post in forums regularly, and are not familiar with people like mac or crimson, so when they have problems instead of posting in the forum or trying to resolve the problem they go on to a newer game that to them is "better anyway."
Check out http://newhope.conquergaming.com to see the progress of the STARWARS mod for Renegade.
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| RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience [message #82621] |
Fri, 23 April 2004 03:57 |
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zunnie
Messages: 2959
Registered: September 2003
Location: Netherlands
Karma: 0
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General (2 Stars) |
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| htmlgod |
Actually I have had problems. And playing in the GSA servers over last weekend while WOL was down, I can confirm that many others had problems too. I heard a lot of stuff like "Well I can never play in WOL anyway, since they all use renguard, and renguard doesn't work on my comp."
Whenever I run game.exe I see the Renguard 1.02 button on my taskbar, and also on my quick-launch bar by the clock. But it's minimized. So I click the button on my taskbar, and it disappears. Clicking on the icon on the quick-launch toolbar brings the button back, but the same problem persists. This happens whenever I restart my computer. Originally, when it was version 1.00 I would just reinstall and try to avoid restarting or shutting down. But now, since it restarts the program when you update, I can't use the program. I would assume this is a fairly widespread problem, because to the relative vacancy of the RenGuard servers. I must agree with mrdie69, the community (or at least servers running renguard) is almost definitely losing players because of this program.
The majority of people who play renegade do not post in forums regularly, and are not familiar with people like mac or crimson, so when they have problems instead of posting in the forum or trying to resolve the problem they go on to a newer game that to them is "better anyway."
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Its clear you didnt read my post.
http://www.renegadeforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=9790
Look closely near the bottom of my post!
[zunnie]
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| Ahem [message #82631] |
Fri, 23 April 2004 05:02 |
mrdie69
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2004
Karma: 0
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I take exception to the implication that I didn't read the readme file. I have spent a good amount of my own time trying to solve the problems. Running the game from game2.exe does nothing to get me back onto the servers on which I want to play Renegade.
I am not just another "goddamned n00b" complaining about something I know nothing about. I have been involved with a group of programmers trying to keep another game alive, and have seen it done the right way. I am pointing out that this product seems to be in a 5,000 person beta right now, which would be acceptable if there were more than 5,000 total people in the community.
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| RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience [message #82634] |
Fri, 23 April 2004 05:27 |
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zunnie
Messages: 2959
Registered: September 2003
Location: Netherlands
Karma: 0
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General (2 Stars) |
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I dont want to completely take you down or anything.
I've helped quite alot of people setting up RenGuard on their PC's, not that im a god at it or something. But for REALLY ALL of them it worked when i took them through the reinstall "process" etc.
And they all had problems with it :S, crashes, fails, update-errors etc.
Im unsure just what it exactly is what you tried to make it work.
What are the exact specs of your pc and what OS do you have? The reason it doesnt run must be something with your pc hardware or software i have no clue.
I cant imagine its really hopeless. :S
What you do not tell us is just WHAT errors you get.
Maybe if you uninstall your cheats they go away  lol just kidding hehe
But seriously, try give us some more information about your pc, and especially what you did so far to try make it work. Some screenshots would be helpfull. And maybe the exact errorsummary of the faulting app. which you can find in your Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer (ME, 2K, XP).
With this we can maybe provide a solution to your problem. Rather then accepting it 'wont work'.
And about my comment: "Its clear you didnt read my post."
I was referring to htmlgod15's error/malfunction about the fact that his RenGuard didnt popup. I wasnt talking to you for that matter, i wouldve quoted you if i did.
And btw: Always read the readme.txt its OBVIOUSLY supposed to be that you READ this file BEFORE executing it..... 
[zunnie]
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| Re: Ahem [message #82796] |
Fri, 23 April 2004 18:10 |
cokemaster
Messages: 144
Registered: April 2003
Karma: 0
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| mrdie69 |
I take exception to the implication that I didn't read the readme file. I have spent a good amount of my own time trying to solve the problems. Running the game from game2.exe does nothing to get me back onto the servers on which I want to play Renegade.
I am not just another "goddamned n00b" complaining about something I know nothing about. I have been involved with a group of programmers trying to keep another game alive, and have seen it done the right way. I am pointing out that this product seems to be in a 5,000 person beta right now, which would be acceptable if there were more than 5,000 total people in the community.
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But did you read the file? And did you follow the instructions in it?
If you aren't aware - this isn't a beta test... The beta test had only about 100 people or so.
Remember, Friends don't let friends play Reborn!
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| RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience [message #82840] |
Fri, 23 April 2004 20:41 |
mrdie69
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2004
Karma: 0
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Yes, I did read the file. I tried both safe and InstallShield methods.
I have no more time to worry...I'll just wait for 1.03 and see what happens.
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| Re: RenGuard 1.02, and my Patience [message #82896] |
Sat, 24 April 2004 01:30 |
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Titan1x77
Messages: 1086
Registered: February 2003
Karma: 0
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General (1 Star) |
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| Blazer |
HAVE THE SOURCE CODE TO THE GAME. If we had the source code to Renegade
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I thought i heard someone *whistling* about the source code in quite a few posts here...I also believe he's part of your blackhand studios team.
That'd be nice to have a patch on the game.exe to prevent cheaters from joining any server.
"But if the gameplay sucks, the looks don't matter at all." - Sir Phoenixx
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