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General discussionI feel like a second class citizen on a third rate website..(79 posts)(79 posts)
(79 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 25, 2021
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mikebert: My issue is that offline installer patch files often aren't released at all. I am not sure why you keep talking about patches being delayed. GOG is not "up front" at all about the process for updating offline installers. My understanding is that GOG generates the patch files when updates are received from the developer. The same patch should be applied to both the offline installer and the Galaxy version.
If they don't do a patch at all then that sucks and I'd agree they should work on that. I know some have limited internet, even in 2021. I'm just making a larger point about how limited the number of people using the offline installers is, and how that impacts decisions. Many here act like that's the whole reason to use the website, but with a staff member estimating they're 5% of downloads it tells you how them even keeping the feature is a sort of favor to the community. A corporation like Ubisoft would have nixed it years ago as not worth the trouble.
Posted May 25, 2021
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timppu: I know this discussion has already gone beyond the scope that the OP intended, but just to remind that he was not complaining about lack of or delays in offline updates, but the lack of separate offline patches on many GOG games, meaning you have to redownload and reinstall the whole game with offline installers.

But as you suggested, maybe the best solution for that is using Galaxy with its autoupdate and delta-update features.
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mikebert: The bottom line for me is that as a non-Galaxy user, I pay the same price for a game that a Galaxy user pays, so I would expect the same level of support that a Galaxy user receives. If this is not going to be the case, then I would like to see some transparency from GOG with a statement detailing the differences in offline installer vs. Galaxy support.
Yeah... but still, in your eyes, has something really changed for offline installers?

As far as I can tell, it never was the case that all offline installers got separate update patches. Sometimes they did, sometimes only the base installer was updated. This still seems to be the case, e.g. like I mentioned, a recent game like Cyberpunk 2077 seems to get separate offline patches.

Also, considering Galaxy introduced also e.g. cloud saves, achievements and multiplayer support, would you demand those also for offline installer users like you and me, or at least an official statement why they are missing from the offline installers?

Before Galaxy, GOG games simply didn't have any of those, e.g. if the Steam version had multiplayer support, it was generally just cut out from the GOG version (which, to me, is ok as I am normally interested only in the singleplayer part, but I recall lots of people complaining why the GOG version is missing features that the Steam version has).

I see the release of Galaxy as GOG's solution to those issues, like (the lack of) centralized multiplayer support, achievements, cloud saves, auto-update... and yes, delta-updates, so that you can receive even daily delta-updates easily, which is quite harder to achieve with offline installers.
Post edited May 25, 2021 by timppu
Posted May 25, 2021
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mikebert: The bottom line for me is that as a non-Galaxy user, I pay the same price for a game that a Galaxy user pays, so I would expect the same level of support that a Galaxy user receives. If this is not going to be the case, then I would like to see some transparency from GOG with a statement detailing the differences in offline installer vs. Galaxy support.
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timppu: Yeah... but still, in your eyes, has something really changed for offline installers?

As far as I can tell, it never was the case that all offline installers got separate update patches. Sometimes they did, sometimes only the base installer was updated. This still seems to be the case, e.g. like I mentioned, a recent game like Cyberpunk 2077 seems to get separate offline patches.

Also, considering Galaxy introduced also e.g. cloud saves, achievements and multiplayer support, would you demand those also for offline installer users like you and me, or at least an official statement why they are missing from the offline installers?

Before Galaxy, GOG games simply didn't have any of those, e.g. if the Steam version had multiplayer support, it was generally just cut out from the GOG version (which, to me, is ok as I am normally interested only in the singleplayer part, but I recall lots of people complaining why the GOG version is missing features that the Steam version has).

I see the release of Galaxy as GOG's solution to those issues, like (the lack of) centralized multiplayer support, achievements, cloud saves, auto-update... and yes, delta-updates, so that you can receive even daily delta-updates easily, which is quite harder to achieve with offline installers.
I understand that you sacrifice features like multiplayer, cloud saves and achievements when using the offline installers. I understand that those features cannot be fully implemented without a client such as Galaxy. And I understand that GOG needs Galaxy to be more competitive with Steam and Epic. I have nothing against Galaxy, I just don't have any need for the features that it adds.

I haven't noticed a significant change with how the base game installers are released on GOG, but I have noticed that the patch files that update the game to latest version seem to be posted less frequently, forcing a full download and reinstall. This is my complaint because my understanding is that patch files are generated automatically by GOG when updates are received from the developer. It would be good if someone from GOG could weigh in and explain the process for generating patch files.
Posted May 25, 2021
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mikebert:
Yeah, that's unfortunately been going on for some time. I actually also prefer offline installers, so I hope they don't do away with them altogether - that's what the "DRM-free, yours to keep" brand meant and GOG was founded upon - I don't use Galaxy, as it seems just like another Steam/Epic Games etc, so I hope they don't do away even with those.
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussionI feel like a second class citizen on a third rate website..(79 posts)(79 posts)
(79 posts)