Please remove/fix IP address verification.

[Elmoren]

So earlier this week I downloaded/installed the game as I had been looking forward to playing it. I already had an account from when I used to play Wildstar (since it went free to play I cannot play it anymore as the framerate is AWFUL).

 

When I tried to sign in initially, to trigger the update/initial install. I had the IP address verification thing - which I remembered as irritating from my days of playign Wildstar, but fair enough it had been months so I went through the process.

 

I've been a bit busy so I decided tonight I would actually log in to the game and maybe create a character. When I try to log in I'm told that authentication has failed and I need to wait a few minutes (10) to try again. This was a lie. When I then tried to log in to NCSoft's website I was told that my IP address needed to be verified. Authentication hadn't failed, and I didn't need to wait ten minutes. I just needed to verify my IP address...again.

 

Given that very very few people have a static IP address, this "security" is nothing more than a bloody nuisance, especially given that it is so easy to spoof IP addresses given the right software tools.

 

 

Please can NCSoft remove it, or at least fix it somehow.

 

 

I have a DDNS account. Why don't they let me register my DDNS domain against my account, and do a DNS lookup to verify that my IP address is me?

 

Alternatively, when you install the game, have the client generate a unique PGP key and use that to verify that the client is the same as previously, and if the key handshake/verification fails do the current "authorise the new key" mechanism that they currently use to verify new IP addresses. That way you only need to do it when doing a fresh client install, and only people with access to your machine can hack your account.

 

There HAVE to be better mechanisms than verifying a piece of data that changes at your ISPs whim. I keep losing connection periodically (bloody Sky broadband - always in the middle of a game of LoL!) and you can guarantee that when I finally reconnect I'll have a new IP address.

 

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I get the feeling that someone doesn't want me to play this game. After doing the IP address verification, the launcher tells me I need to download an update. 10 minutes later the launcher looks ready to go so I click "Play Now" only for it to start  some sort of file verification that it tells me will take 10 minutes. After 2 or so minutes it is still telling me that there is 10 minutes to go.

 

I just hope that IF (not when) I ever get into this game, they won't have screwed up the graphics engine like they did with Wildstar.  After they went free to play, the main city for my faction in Wildstar was LESS populated, not more populated as I think they had hoped (not a good sign to start with) and yet the frame rate was so painfully slow that it made me feel queasy.