License error vs mobile connectivity

[hayenne]

Hi all

Does anyone experience the following message when you start/continue the game:

"Validating purchase - confirming google checkout"?

I understand Google verifies your purchase EACH time you start the game?

It used to appear very briefly in the earlier versions but now it hangs there for a minute before letting me in (and if I do not have mobile Internet turned on, it would never let me play)!

So the only way to play ST RPG is to have mobile Internet always turned on? I am trying to squeeze the maximum battery life out of my device and always try to keep it off.

Is there any way to stop it "validating" and decide once and forever that I really bought the game?

ZTE Blade running on CyanogenMod 7.1.0

[noesis]

Hi Hayenne,

I don't have this problem of the game always trying to validate the purchase every time I start the game, but it does come up from time to time. My solution is turn on mobile internet or wi-fi let the actual playing part of the game launch, then hit home turn off mobile internet or wi-fi and go back to the game via recently launched programs/apps. You start off where you left the game and can play it as long as you want. I'm also not using CyanogenMod 7.1.0 (or your phone model) so maybe that is part of the problem, but you shouldn't need to have mobile internet switched on the entire time while playing, but for you it may be necessary to have it validate each time you launch the game from scratch and not from recently run apps.

[Slide87]

No the thing doesnt change with my phone(samsung galaxy droid 2.2 not rooted),its a bit boring,surely...ok one time,but always...i redt in another thread/post,some day ago, by Cory,that the checkout doesnt depend by him,but Google...

[blackgauntlet]

From what I know, the checkout comes up everytime you turn off your phone or quit the game (either on purpose, force-closing or somehow or rather getting out of the game entirely).

[Slide87]

So forcing stop the app doesnt help...I ll keep on mind =) thz Black =)

[Cory Trese]

Getting a new license token from Google License Validation Library (LVL) requires a network connection to the LVL servers.

However, according to Google (the authors of the library) LVL tokens should be cached locally for weeks or months once the license identity has been established.

It should only be necessary to establish the license connection a few times. After that, you should see the dialog (briefly) but the LVL check should use the locally cached copy.

It is very difficult for me to test this (I use friend's phones) because my "test accounts" don't work the same way. I have certainly (a few months ago, when we revamped it) verified that the LVL library is capable of storing cached tokens and loading the game quickly without an Internet connection.

It is possible that it isn't working for you for some reason and I'm willing to investigate of course and try to figure it out with you.

[boeu]

Im usually out of credit on my phone so the validation process takes about a minute and a half everytime i start a new game

[hayenne]

Yesterday I turned off 3g/EDGE connectivity and connected my phone to home Wi-Fi. I am able to surf the web with Opera Mini app, read mail and news, etc.

But ST RPG will not get another license token
Market app also works kind of weird, very sluggy and hangs up forever once I try to update ST RPG app.

I don't think it must be ROM-related as I have played the game for some time last week.

Let me know if I can help you with any details!

[andersh]

On my phone, the game does validate each time, but it's ~3 seconds to validate when I have data access, less than 1 second without it. Seems that accessing the cached version is quicker. I regularly keep my phone data off to vastly improve the battery life.

Hayenne, what version of the Market Place app have you got? The latest stable is 3.3.1.1. You can find this under Settings -> Build Version, in the Market Place App on your phone.

Are you using any scripts like App2SD or Data2SD?

[hayenne]

My market app version is 3.3.11. I believe my ROM supports app2sd, but I never bothered to partition my SD card so it should be inactive. But again, I managed to play the game on the current phone configuration just a week ago - I did not alter phone settings, neither did I install any apps. The problem appeared when I updated the game to 4.0.9, although I played this version for a while. Maybe the local license token had expired so the game tries to reach the net. I am actually posting this from my phone now, and the game fails to check the license online.

[Cory Trese]

If you are having LVL issues while online, please e-mail me. I need the Order Number and I can open a ticket with Google about LVL issues for your order.

In the past I have been able to make them fix people's issues

[hayenne]

Changed the firmware - the issue is gone now. Probably CyanogenMod's market app is guilty after all...

[Cory Trese]

Good to know. Probably a hard thing to get right -- Google makes changes all the time without telling anyone and that Market API is probably crazy bad.

[antixeele]

I was worried this would be a problem when I noticed elite wanted to "validate checkout" every time, but force closing, turning on airplane mode still loaded me up just fine. And it still validated checkout! I just hope that that when I eventually upgrade to a new phone, this one can stick around as a dedicated star traders handheld. Grandkids'll find it in 2065.

[Cory Trese]

yeah in airplane mode it won't care.

the forum convinced me that this was worth the small % lost in sales to keep people on here happy.

After we added those two LVL skip systems, we definitely saw a reduction in revenues (or an increase in orders that never validated due to credit card failure.)