Patching up from ToV with friend's ToV key?

[Fritz_Fraghof]

I want to install COH & OF on a new machine and I am wondering if there is any way to minimize the hell of patching from 2.100 to 2.601.

Here is how I was hoping to, since my friend has ToV DVD. Is it possible for me to borrow his DVD to start my patching from 2.500? Obviously I only have retail COH & OP keys, and only wish these unlocked, so the question is : could I unlink my friend's ToV CD key (from my Relic Account) after I have installed and patched up to 2.601?

Apologies if my plan is not clear enough. I just wish to save some time patching from 2.100. Thanks for any help.

[Kapp'n]

It is against Relic's policy to lend the game to another user.
If you were to use your friends ToV you will most likely run into a few issues with the key being activated on two machines at once. To prevent any problems (worst case scenario: the ToV key being disabled) I would sit through the patching process.

[Fritz_Fraghof]

Thanks for the answer. Another question then..

If I bought ToV on Steam, do you get a key to use, where I could use a DVD version of ToV to install? Since I have DVDs of COH and OF I don't want to mix it with a Steam install if possible, but if purchasing on Steam gave a key I could use with the ToV DVD I would buy it..

Anyway it's dreadful there are no cumulative patches. Relic are rather lazy in not producing one, presumably hoping people will pay extra to minimise their patching pain.

[GeoffS]

If you bought ToV from Steam you would be better to use it and add your vCoH and OF CDkeys to it. That way Steam handles all of the patching for you. There is no problem with mixing Steam and non-Steam CDkeys, and that is all you would be doing. ToV, whether from Steam or retail, contains all of the data for all versions of the game, you just need to unlock it with the other CDkeys.

And, there are cumulative patches available, but not one single cumulative patch. It's not laziness on Relic's part, and it is not them trying to force you to buy all the expansions. Since Relic decided that they want everybody to be able to play together regardless of which version of the game they have, it isn't technically feasible to make a single patch. They would need to take account of people who only have vCoH, OF, ToV, or any combination of them, as well as those who have the Gold or GOTY editions.

[ÜberJumper]

Since when is it against Relic's policy to lend a copy of game to a friend?

Just use your Buddy's copy. As long as you don't try and create an account using his copy (or add his key to your account) you're not doing anything wrong.

What matters is the Relic Online account that you're using. The ToV content will only be unlocked if you have a ToV CD key associated with your account. Otherwise, it will use your CoH and OF keys.