Wtf Epic : (

[shombowhore]

Once upon a time I thought the people who whined about UT3 losing their CD key were making a big deal out of nothing. After all, I had only had to re-enter my key twice since I bought the game. However, over the past 2 weeks, I have been prompted to re-enter every single start up.

Seriously, wtf? I know your developers are focused on the next GOW, but can't you hire interns to do some bug fixing? This issue should not still be present after several years...

[gargorias]

If you didn't have the problem before why is it now Epic's fault because you do?

[Stabby]

If you didn't have the problem before why is it now Epic's fault because you do?

because its a glitch they should look into and fix it?

bad forum troll....

[Fartuess]

my UT3 was asking me almost every time, and i lost my Instruction (and CD-Key) with it 2 months ago. I'm a mapper, so i can work without it, but probably i should reinstall game (I have strange bugs :/), and when i reinstall it i must at least once logged in (UT3 must create some files)

[Nono]

I think UT3 is a bit like an OS -it likes a fresh install every 3 months or so to regain that snappy responsive feel.

On the key problem the only thing I 've seen is, when you swap out the config file from my games (from a previously installed version to transfer your prefered settings) it asks for the key , then set these to read only, it can ask for the key every restart.

Settings are partly stored Gamespy server side linked with your profile login?


Another tip for those who don't know- if you've made the 2k4 feel mouse changes in the input ini to get rid of acceleration, you can swap that with no problems, replacing the whole fresh install config does mess things up . This saves having to type in the changes again.

[NovaZzZ]

Yeah Epic is too prompted on the next Gears or whatever(a game that isn't as good) and us Unreal Tournament Fans are pretty much sick of the bugs that aren't being fixed, lack of advertisement(that's why not as many people are playing), and a whole load of other bullcrap.

But sadly I can't answer your question because I am not too well informed on how the CD key problem works for this game.

[[Insta]-Loque]

Just uninstall and delete both UT directories, then make sure the registry entries have been deleted..

[Masaai_Warrior]

It has something to do with your configs. I suspect that if it sees a modification made, it tiggers the CD-Key check in some circumstances. I had a similar issue a while back, but it eventually resolved itself somehow.

Try this: Log on, enter your CD-Key so you access the main menu. Then "Log out" and exit the game. Restart and see if you are prompted. If this does not work, load up again, log in and exit without logging out. Then try again.

Its definitely something that can pop up every now and then. Unfortunately we do not know why...

[gargorias]

because its a glitch they should look into and fix it?

bad forum troll....

Yes there game code has a self destruct button that is activated randomly by forum trolls LOL

To the OP delete you UTengine.ini from your documents directory and run scandisk before restarting the game.

[shombowhore]

Scandisk isn't necessary. Chckdsk ran the other day on boot and found no problems; I don't see why you would think HDD corruption any ways. Considering how widespread the problem is, it's definitely a software glitch that Epic should have fixed by now.

I'll try the various ideas tomorrow and report back.

[DrUnKenSTeiN]

In UTengine ini file there is the EncryptedProductKey: (your key number).Try to set this ini read only n see if it works.I had this prob n it got resolved by itself(dunno how).

You can always copy n keep the EncryptedProductKey line in some notepad file n add it to the UTengine.ini to save u some time.

[gargorias]

Well if the problem doesn't automatically fix itself for you then take a read of this.

These are the most common form of problems occuring with games that save INI files, if a game happens to crash, etc while it is updating the file then it can easily become crosslinked or get a file allocation error.

Software doesn't know the file has a problem (it cannot) so it will just save it again as if there is no problem.

This happened once with my UTengine.ini, it was truncuated half way into the encrypted product key and I was getting the prompt for the product key every time I loaded the game.
There were file allocation errors in my file sytem an UTengine.ini was one of them.

I said it's not a glitch with the game because software code doesn't magically change somehow.

Unless there has been an update to the software (patch, etc) or your system has changed then it is impossible for that software to magically stop working properly as it were before unless it itself has been corrupted somehow.

[RoadKillGrill]

Well if the problem doesn't automatically fix itself for you then take a read of this.

These are the most common form of problems occuring with games that save INI files, if a game happens to crash, etc while it is updating the file then it can easily become crosslinked or get a file allocation error.

The error you linked is very rare and does not fit the actual problem. It does not explain why "corruption" is more common in ut3 than all other applications.
Many applications use ini files and xml to store dynamic data, if this problem is common as you claim you would see other apps losing your settings and failing to start all the time.

[SmokeRingHalo]

UT3 will ask you for your CD key whenever you switch from playing from online mode to offline and vice versa. If you switch modes every time you play then yes, it can make for many wtf moments.

[shombowhore]

Somehow my config files got set to read only, which explains why it was happening every time. I changed this, entered my key, and it hasn't happened since. Obviously not UT3's fault, but that doesn't change that the original cause is a bug in the game.

I'm a software developer, so you don't need to remind me that software code doesn't "magically change." But in general, this occurs far too often in for it to be related to corruption resulting from a crash while saving, or from cross-linked files. The former is highly unlikely, as the odds of the software crashing at the exact ms of the HDD write operation are extremely low. And as I said, chkdsk ran recently on boot, so that would have caught any bad sectors, cross-linked files, etc.

As for UT3 prompting for a key when you switch modes, I hadn't heard of that. It doesn't make very much sense, tbh. But I only play online, so that probably wasn't the initial cause.