AoW: Planetfall - Imperial heroes using sign-in bonuses disabled when using Bitdefender

[Draxynnic]

One line summary of your issue
Imperial heroes using sign-in bonuses disabled when using Bitdefender

What platform are you running the game on?
Steam

What operating system do you use?
Windows 11

Which version of the game are you running?
v1.404.43827

What expansions do you have installed?
Revelations, Invasions, Star King

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
While in the Empire Mode screen, I noticed that one of the commanders I had used to conquer a previous planet had been listed as a "forgotten hero" (see screenshot: "Forgotten hero.png"). Investigating further in the Hall of Heroes (see screenshot: "Hall of Heroes.png"), I observed that the relevant commander, along with some others, had the following error message: "Error loading commander, missing entitlements: Sign-Up, Sign-Up, Sign-Up". The checkbox in order to choose whether a hero is recruitable or not is also rendered nonfunctional with these heroes: if the box is checked, it cannot be unchecked, and vice versa.

This does not appear to be an issue outside of the Empire Mode interface. One of the affected heroes had shown up (as an adversary, since the hero in question was unchecked) in my last conquered planet, and I was able to start a regular scenario using one of the affected commanders. One of the affected heroes which was checked at the time did not show up during the last conquered planet, but this could simply be a matter of other heroes being chosen first.

The issue appears to be linked somehow to Bitdefender Total Security, which I recently moved to after my previous antivirus ended up ruining my computer's operating system during an update. I have two computers running said software, and I've observed the problem on both - however, the issue is not present on an older computer which is not running Bitdefender. However, I've tried putting Planetfall on Bitdefender's exception lists and tried everything I can think of to temporarily shut Bitdefender down short of uninstalling it, and the problem persists on the affected computers. (It is possible that there is some option I have missed, however.)

Have you tried verifying your files?
Yes

Steps to reproduce the issue
Presumably, enter the Empire Mode interface on a computer with Bitdefender Total Security installed with one or more commanders in the Hall of Heroes using sign-up bonus material. (The second of the affected computers that this was tested on was a fresh Planetfall install.)

Attach DxDiag (PC) or System Info log (Mac)
File(s) attached

Attach screenshot / video
File(s) attached

 

[AndrewT]

Just so you know, this game has ceased development so there can be no new update for it to address this!

Have you contacted BitDefender over this?

 

[Draxynnic]

It'd probably be pretty low on the priority order anyway, but I figured it was worth raising in case there was a known workaround. (As opposed to going on the non-Bitdefender computer and adjusting all of the affected commanders so that they didn't use any signup bonus material, anyway, which is what I've done thus far). Also means that if anyone else has a similar problem but doesn't have the means to figure out for themselves that Bitdefender is the issue, they might see this thread and be informed!

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Hey Drax, I don't think Bitdefender is involved in this. Something changed somewhere at some point which caused issues with the entitlement check. This should be fixed up somewhere in the coming hours. Next time you launch the game while logged in, or log in with an eligible account, the entitlement check should succeed.

 

[Draxynnic]

Weird, since the computer that didn't have Bitdefender didn't have the problem, but maybe when I tested with that computer it hadn't updated the launcher and that was where the problem was?

Looks like it's fixed now, though!