t1337Dude

I own my copy of Operation Arrowhead through Steam. It worked fine yesterday, but today it started giving me a fuss about having an invalid serial key. I reran the Steam installer scripts and the game will properly start, but now I get this error when I try to join any server. If I verify the integrity of the game cache, I then get kicked out for an "Invalid serial key" on startup. And if I rerun the Steam installer scripts it simply gives the error in the picture again. I've already tried starting the Steam and the game by using "Run as Administrator" and it didn't help. Any suggestions?

Sorry, I don't mean to thread hijack but I find my question slightly relevant - how do you even change the cd key for ArmA 2 : Operation Arrowhead? First time running it, I put in my key, and I've never been able to change it since.

It would be helpful if you told us what the error was.

Mogg, I don't know what to think. I've purchased two legitimate games and neither key works. It makes me think it's the computer - yet ArmA 2 validates and runs perfectly fine. Why would OA be any different? I feel it's at their end but if it isn't. I'm probably never going to get this solved.

Interesting. I figured that's just something you'd tell someone who may or may not be running as a limited User. In all of my years of computing I've never seen "Run As Administrator" provide a different outcome than running the program regularly. Maybe as a complete and total last resort I can understand, but unless every single person can't get the game working without "Running as Administrator", I don't see why I would have to do it. (I'm typing this as I reinstall Operation Arrowhead for the nth time). EDIT: Lo and behold, no success. I guess publishers replaced the CD Key Verification system with Placebo, who has to personally screen everyone's CD Keys to make sure they aren't buying from resellers. I'm a genius :P EDIT 2: Reading through the threads the similar threads, it all comes down to Placebo having to do a "special something" to each key. A lot of responsibility for one guy, it's no wonder it's difficult to get a reply out of him... It would really nice to be able to play the game I've bought (multiple times...). I certainly understand Placebo is a busy guy and can't respond to PM's very quickly, but why don't you have multiple people doing this sort of thing? I've seen a least a dozen relevant threads (here and on other forums) that have been created in the past few weeks regarding this specific problem I'm having. I understand the influx of popularity but it's be realistic - these aren't incredibly popular games. I've never seen a game with such wide-spread key authentication issues in the past. Certainly a unique problem with a unique solution.

I only have one account on my system...and it's an administrator account. :P Would it be a waste of time? I've rather avoid another pointless reinstallation.

I've bought a digital download of the game (Direct2Drive) and I've bought a retail copy. Neither work online and both give me the same error. The only difference is that the retail copy doesn't even let me install the 1.6 patch ("Bad Cd Key" it says). I had to use a registry-workaround I found in these forums which involved backing up my game's registry files, then using an illegitimate key to get through the patch process, and then re-imported the original registry keys. I sent Placebo a PM but I find the situation curious. What are the odds that both of these keys don't work? If they truly are both invalid, that's pretty lame on BI's behalf. I can only imagine the accumulated endless hours of sleep lost over this game's copy-protection (which ends up hurting the consumer more than the pirate). I'm going to give BI the benefit of the doubt and assume there's just something wrong with my computer. I reinstalled Operation Arrowhead twice and I've had no luck. Does anyone have any ideas?

Nope, the anti-piracy system BIS uses is absolute lunacy. A pirate will download the 8gb, install it, use cracks, see that the game is buggy as shit, and will uninstall it and spread negativity about it elsewhere. They don't know what FADE is, they don't care. Other pirates will actually eventually buy the game, notice the game was buggy enough even without FADE activated, and complain furthermore. Additionally, people who bought the game weren't even able to use no-CD cracks until the latest patch. If I bought the game before this point, I probably would have been very unsatisfied. ---------- Post added at 01:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:39 AM ---------- Lots of gamers love coop, but the problem is that ArmA 2 is too difficult for most of these gamers.

It's ACE 2, quite a massive add on. :( ---------- Post added at 01:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 AM ---------- Leaves a perfect amount of headroom, as I have no background stuff and Win XP doesn't use nearly as much ram either. I get good framerate (benchmark says 55) on high settings. I get no mouselag in Crysis at 20 FPS. It's the game engine, not my PC.

Versus more popularity leading to more sales. A pirated copy doesn't necessarily translate to a lost sale. That person may have no bought the game in the first place. On the other hand, if someone pirated the game and thought it was good, they would spread positive feedback about the game and may buy it in the future.

I'm not going to upgrade my videocard just for this game - and I am well-versed in graphics cards. ---------- Post added at 02:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:36 PM ---------- Thank you very much. I'm going to keep playing, try that map, and see if my experience improves!

It can handle every other game I've ever played on high settings. E8400 @ 3.5 ghz 2GB of RAM 9800GTX+ (Overclocked) Windows XP

Reasons for its lack of popularity. - Poor optimization/Steep requirements - Buggy singleplayer campaign (and buggy game) - Poor marketing - Small online community - Difficult Controls - Poor voice acting and distracting radio system. - Extreme copy-protection. If a game can't be pirated and it isn't very popular on its own, the lack of piracy isn't going to help

And if I'm unable to give orders (for example, I, the leader, is wounded), he just sits there like a stooge. ---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:51 PM ---------- Thank you. I've done all these things and it's still extremely rough around the edges. It's hard to explain the problems with the aiming in this game. It's a combination of mouselag (which is now mostly fixed), jitter, and mouse acceleration. Disabling mouse acceleration in the control panel (mine has always been disabled) doesn't do much because the game has built in mouse acceleration. And if I'm ingame, pause, and move the mouse around, it sort of "jitters" as I move it. It's as if the mouse is fighting me.

I used to love Operation Flashpoint and played it with friends all the time. I convinced a few friends to buy ArmA 2 due to its high replay value (and I have spring break starting after today). But we're having a lot of trouble here and there and we need a little advice/help to get more out of the game. First problem we had were the controls. Aiming in this game is much more difficult than it is than other games. There seems to be a combination of inherent input lag (I'm guessing ~70 ms) and mouse acceleration (which can't be turned off). After that, we had problems fighting through the difficulty and content. Anyways, enough with petty complaints, we need help. 1) Are there wave defense-type maps out there? 2) Is there any mod which makes the medic smart enough to heal people once they're injured? Earlier me and my friend were playing and it came down to me and my friend injured on the ground with a Corpsman just sitting around, enjoying the scenery. We have the ACE 2 mod installed and neither of us could give orders on the ground. 3) How do you sneak up on the AI? We played a stealth mission which takes place at night. It seems like the AI magically knows where we are and they treat visibility no different than day time. We could be crouching in the trees 100 yards away and they would go into alert mode. 4) How do you engage the AI in combat? If you prone, your face is going to be full of foliage, meaning that prone is only useful if taking cover - and not for actual combat. If you crouch, the AI will seem to shoot you dead between the eyes. It's difficult to get the element of surprise in this game and long-ranged combat is too hard with the funky aiming problems in combination with the ballistics. 5) How do you face vehicles? They seem be armored, mobile snipers. In fact, it's more often that these things will sight us and take us out before we can even figure out where the shots come from.