Predecessor Mission

[PZ]

I wish that once in my life I would encounter a representative like you two - most of the time I really dislike having to get on the phone because I know that I'll come away annoyed.  ;)

[Art Blade]

Heh, PZ... without going into detail, but a service level what you would like to experience as a customer is a very expensive and complex business. Not all companies invest their money into that part of their enterprise.

[PZ]

Yes, and time is money for the company, that I can understand.  What they fail to understand is that my time is also money - what I resent is having to threaten to cancel an account just to correct an error that was the fault of the company to begin with (my most recent fight with a service representative).  Because of something that happened on their end, a credit card company had issued me a new card saying only that my account had been compromised at an undisclosed location. OK, whatever... Then when it came time to pay the bill, I did so, but they applied the payment to the original account, not the new one, so they sent me a letter saying that I owed a $39 late fee plus interest, and my account interest rate was being automatically increased to 29.9% - all because of a mistake they made.

Naturally I immediately called and the representative told me that she could not do anything about it, but that I'd better pay the bill so that I didn't accrue additional charges - I explained that they already had the payment, and had my bank's confirmation number to prove it, but evidently she was too stupid to understand or didn't understand english.  Finally, exceedingly annoyed,  I asked to speak to a supervisor and before she transferred me, she (the original representative) had the unmitigated gall to ask me if she had solved the problem to my satisfaction!  This particular company evidently does not let the first line representative do any kind of thinking on their own, beyond the script that they are told to recite.  ;D

[Art Blade]

Hahahaha!  ;D

I can't even begin to imagine to w@&k in an office like that, especially with people like that. When I think of my business experience, maybe this info is interesting for you to have: The company I'm thinking of spent around 15 years on developing their customer care and customer service, and have extended that service to their salesmen. Each employee is attended by a personal coach to improve their skill level. Over the years many freelance coaches have added to the broad spectrum of qualifications and skills. The amount of employees working in that sector of the enterprise has risen exponentially. Freelance QA agencies constantly and randomly probe all first line agents with the goal of learning from mistakes, improve, and get to 100% of all criteria for absolute excellency.

I can only smile sadly at UBI and STEAM.

[wexer9]

I can't imagine that this problem would even be that difficult to fix...it's odd that someone doesn't just pony up and fix it so we leave them alone. :P

[Art Blade]

It's the big fish small fish thingy... not important enough.  :-\

[wexer9]

Well, that is bothersome. We can only hope that they will finally do something about it or that some clever hacker figures out how to do it. 8)

[B33 ENN]

Was reading this thread to understand more about the bonus missions but also interested in the Steam related talk. Will get onto that in a separate post...

Right now, just a question or two regarding the bonus missions:

Background:

I had a DVD (non-fortune pack) of FC2 that I got as a promotion with some hardware. I loaded it up, and it auto-installed the 1.03 updates. After hunting around on the net, I found out about the Fortunes Edition. Didn't have that, and no searate pack available. More hunting and I found a download of the Fortune Pack extras. Executed, and it added the extra vehicles and arms. Then after reading forums like this I found out about the Extra Bonus Missions unlocking. Did the code entries, of which only 3-4 worked to give the "...successfully... unlocked..." message. Then I read about the registy hack way, checked my reg and found only Partner Key 1 and the Machete entries. So I updated it to have PartnerKey 2 also.

Since playing, I find Cell Tower missions available, where you assasinate a random suit who never runs away but waits for you to kill him... (LOL) Seems unrelated to the story though.

Then there is the Predecessor Envelope ones where essentially you go around collecting tapes like you do for the Jackal Tapes. I got 3 in the North so need to find the ones in the South now.

Questions:

1. Is that it? Is nothing else supposed to happen? You just collect and kill until you have done them all?

2. I read that Intel did a download for the content of about 6Mb. On FarCry2Game.com it says more is supposed to happen:

Mission 1: the Morrocan

This mission sends you into the most heavily guarded region of the Leboa-Sako territory. Hiding out at the old Legion fort is a Moroccan who might be able to help you locate the Jackal. Your objective is to locate him and find out what he knows.

Mission 2: the American

Your predecessor has tracked down the American informant to the Dogon village in the rocky northern ranges. Your objective: follow his trail and find out what the informant told him.

Only times I went to the Fort in the North was to kill the King, and to get a tape. There was no mention of seeking a guy who will tell me something. Haven't got to the Dogon Village one yet.. Will any of this happen in the registry hack version, or does the 6Mb download actually add characters or animation sequences etc to complete the missions?

[Art Blade]

I have no DLC but used the registry hack.

1: yes
2: I read various times that it is just the same as the reg hack, so no idea why 6 mbs were needed. Never heard of additional cut scenes.

When I did those Predecessor missions, I only found bodies and tapes next to them.

[B33 ENN]

1: yes
2: I read various times that it is just the same as the reg hack, so no idea why 6 mbs were needed. Never heard of additional cut scenes.

When I did those Predecessor missions, I only found bodies and tapes next to them.

Cool, least I won't get paranoid wondering if my system is playing up!  :-X I have downloaded the 6Mb thing but I won't bother running it. For some reason the downloaded file on the HDD is less than 2Mb! LOL.

Steam

I remember my first experience with Steam a couple of years ago. I bought a copy of GTR: Evolution in a shop and when I tried to install it, it gave two options: Single Player (no need for Steam activation) and the Multiplayer with Steam install. I had never heard of Steam so avoided it. For some reason, the standalone didn't install or activate right so I did the Steam version that also istalled that application.  You had to make an account to activate,  which I didn't like, but did anyway... Must have played a few times and then moved on.

Roll forward a few years, and I forgot about Steam. Got a copy of DiRT2 with graphics card, and you needed Steam to download and activate. Didn't like the idea, but did it anyway. Had to make an account, but had forgotten I had an old one. Then when trying to re-install GTR:E that I had to activate. I figured I'd add it to my new account with DiRT2. That's when I hit an issue...

Steam said the game had already been activated on a different account and I couldn't do it. Realising I about my previous history with Steam, I tried to remember my old account info and eventually figured it out. Logged in and yep, there GTR:E was, still registered.

1. I didn't want two accounts so I investigated having them merged or one deleted and the game transfered... But from my efforts I found out Steam under no circumstances allows that! So logically, I realised that I couldn't really ever sell on a Steam activated game to anyone else! Further reading showed it's also against the rules to pass your Steam account on to another user etc... etc...

2. I had been planning to buy many games through it, but decided this lack of flexibility was a bad sign and uninstalled Steam... Which of course wiped DiRT2, as I also found out games installed under Steam are installed within it's own folder structure! I'm sure that's convenient for many, but I like to have that custom option of choosing the install location myself. (I'm weird about organising my HDD.)

Both these reasons were good enough to prefer buying my games from normal retailers, so I then played around and managed to backup DiRT2 install folder from under the SteamApps\Common (as I remember) directory and stick it under my own Codemasters one in my game installs folder.... And it works, but it's just not "installed" in the Windows registry or listed in the Control Panel>Programs & Features applet.

However, it probably works because it was activated under Steam. Issue is if I bought anymore Valve software, I'd have to do the same. Hopefully not for other games I buy retail.

I have gone on a bit, but I really think this activation stuff and these new online distribution things are making life more complicated for users, not to mention creating more avenues for bugs.

It would have been better if Steam did it like Stardock's Impulse and let you install the app whereever the hell you like, and then remove Impulse if you don't like it, or keep it for auto updates or new purchases.

Now I think Microsoft is joining in the fun too, which means MS games available through Steam need you to activate on both or you get no game saves! LOL

I like to keep my PC software to a minimum and prefer to organise things my own way, so I will keep trying to avoid this new trend and keep buying retail as I also like to have my own physical copy for cherished games.

[Art Blade]

Hehe, good you got FC2 sorted :)

Now about Steam, I'd like to quote you and reply to you in a different topic where we have got the biggest discussion about Steam issues, so bear with me and follow this link. Actually, for those of you who haven't read the topic but are interested in Steam related worries or praises, read up from the start of that topic. There is also a link in the second post which leads to yet another Steam discussion. Enjoy the read :)

[wexer9]

What we really need is a copy of the Steam version of Far Cry 2 prior to the "Free DLC" update which broke the bonus content and a copy of Far Cry 2 after the "Free DLC" update, so we can compare the differences in files. It might also be useful to have two different copies, one which had previously purchased the DLC before it was given for free and one which hadn't. If we had this, we could probably figure out the root of the problem. Is anyone on this forum a hacker who could look at the differences between retail and Steam copies perhaps, or somehow figure out how to hack the bonus missions back into the Steam version of the game?

[PZ]

I'm not good enough to do that, but I know the predecessor missions worked fine before I did a few FC2 updates on the PS3.  I might delete everything related to the game, reinstall, and see if they start working again.

[wexer9]

Well, that's the known history of the Predecessor missions on the PC, at least the Steam version. You said the updates broke the extra missions on the PS3, as well? :o

Perhaps this problem is bigger than we thought...

[PZ]

Yep - my PS3 version is non-functional past the "boots" tape as well - formerly it worked fine.

[wexer9]

The boots bug seems to be present for all versions. But it's interesting that the predecessor missions also seem to be broken on multiple platforms...

[PZ]

Like most, I've no idea what exactly the problem is, but it seems to coincide with an update rather than with the DLC, but my memory might not serve me well.  ;D

In any case, it might be some time before I return to Africa - JC2 has been keeping me really busy lately, and Red Dead Redemption is right around the corner.  :-X

[wexer9]

Hmm, well, on the PC I can confirm that it was the free DLC update not the latest patch (1.03) that broke the bonus missions on Steam. The free DLC update (Fortune's Edition) came later, chronologically, after the 1.03 patch.

[Art Blade]

I haven't got any DLC but still I got the same issue with the "boots" tape.

[wexer9]

Yes, the boots tape glitch is completely independent. It was introduced by the 1.03 patch.

As far as I know, the boots glitch affects all platforms.

[fragger]

So, the "boots" culprit is positively identified - the 1.03 patch >:(

I should look up the details on that patch as I'd like to know just what issues it was made to address. My game got updated one day when I fired it up whilst online and I never really bothered looking into what the patch did. I just assumed it would make the game better - more fool me - but as far as I can tell it didn't seem to fix much. Instead, it stuffed up at least one thing that was working fine beforehand ("boots"), and didn't fix some things that it really should have, such as the sniper-in-the-rock, levitating mercs, merging vehicles, etc.

Btw, good on you, wexer9, for your perseverance on this issue, it's appreciated :) :-X

[deadman1]

So, the "boots" culprit is positively identified - the 1.03 patch >:(

I should look up the details on that patch as I'd like to know just what issues it was made to address. My game got updated one day when I fired it up whilst online and I never really bothered looking into what the patch did. I just assumed it would make the game better - more fool me - but as far as I can tell it didn't seem to fix much. Instead, it stuffed up at least one thing that was working fine beforehand ("boots"), and didn't fix some things that it really should have, such as the sniper-in-the-rock, levitating mercs, merging vehicles, etc.

Btw, good on you, wexer9, for your perseverance on this issue, it's appreciated :) :-X

For me atleast the should fix the "boots" issue and the sniper in the rock but leave the levitating mercs and merging cars alone. Just think about how many good laughs those things have provided us with  ;)

[fragger]

True, those glitches are funny! I thought about that after I posted but I couldn't be bothered editing it ;D

[wexer9]

Btw, good on you, wexer9, for your perseverance on this issue, it's appreciated :) :-X

Thank you. I would like to know, how do retail versions of Far Cry 2 (PC) get the Fortune's Pack DLC? I know that it was available for $4.99 on the Ubisoft download store for a while, but when the DLC was released for free on Steam, I looked again and discovered that it was "unavailable" in the store. I couldn't find any downloads for it on the Internet (legal ones, I mean), so I am wondering, how do the retail versions of Far Cry 2 get the DLC?

I would also like confirmation the Predecessor Missions still w@&k on the retail version of Far Cry 2, with DLC.

Thanks!  :)

[Art Blade]

There used to be official downloads (DLC) for retail versions.

check this topic if you like