Posted April 17, 2020
high rated
This is to coincide with the various issues seen recently. I have created a wishlist entry for this:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/provide_a_full_and_properly_changelogged_downloads_section
Edit: added another wish list so vote on both:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/more_detail_on_offline_installer_pages
The full text from the wishlist is:
In recent months it is has been noted again and again that the downloads section of the website is not fit for purpose. Changelogs do not show all changes, or in fact be present in some cases. Latest version available is broken compared to previous versions. Latest version has unwanted components. unorganised patches, main files.
What I would propse is a total rework of how this is presented. Have a folder structure for each game. Within that folder, there is a folder for each main release. Then within teach of those folders, the individual patches for that main version are placed. The user can then access this tree structure, and download the version/patches they want. This should all be accompanied with a full and complete changelog.
An example of where this is important, the first release of Wizardry 8 works fine on Windows 10, and has some additional bits. However the latest release does not work on Win10, is lacking the additional bits, and causes audio issues. Users cannot legally get the original download anymore, so they and anyone who updates has an inferior copy.
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We cannot continue to have this setup where by new installers are worse than olde ones, not documented, old versions are not available, updates not flagged, changes not described etc. It is a total shambles, has been for a long time, who could forget the helpful blue dot which until recently sometimes alerted us to a new version?
Anyways, to add substance, I link some example posts on this:
Wizardry 8 - new installer broken, no legal means of obtaining the working installer:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/wizardry_8_not_launching_on_windows_10
Blue dots now no longer working at all - has been fixed (well, sort of) now. Leaving link here for reference.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/has_gog_stopped_flagging_game_updates_with_the_blue_dot
Please feel free to add any other posts on said topic, support ticket is: #618084. And do vote on the wishlist.
Update 03Jan2022:
So nothing has happened, no further news. It has however been highlighted a lot recently, and will become more of an issue, that installers are getting large. There is currently no option for highly compressed archives with options to download only necessary parts of the products - e.g. language packs, compressed/hi res textures/videos. This becomes an issue as games are starting to become huge, and disc savings of tens of gb’s soon adds up. Also, if it is compressed well, I maybe in a lot of instances, not necessary to redownload every bit, just those sections that have been updated thus saving quite a bit of bandwidth.
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/provide_a_full_and_properly_changelogged_downloads_section
Edit: added another wish list so vote on both:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/more_detail_on_offline_installer_pages
The full text from the wishlist is:
In recent months it is has been noted again and again that the downloads section of the website is not fit for purpose. Changelogs do not show all changes, or in fact be present in some cases. Latest version available is broken compared to previous versions. Latest version has unwanted components. unorganised patches, main files.
What I would propse is a total rework of how this is presented. Have a folder structure for each game. Within that folder, there is a folder for each main release. Then within teach of those folders, the individual patches for that main version are placed. The user can then access this tree structure, and download the version/patches they want. This should all be accompanied with a full and complete changelog.
An example of where this is important, the first release of Wizardry 8 works fine on Windows 10, and has some additional bits. However the latest release does not work on Win10, is lacking the additional bits, and causes audio issues. Users cannot legally get the original download anymore, so they and anyone who updates has an inferior copy.
---
We cannot continue to have this setup where by new installers are worse than olde ones, not documented, old versions are not available, updates not flagged, changes not described etc. It is a total shambles, has been for a long time, who could forget the helpful blue dot which until recently sometimes alerted us to a new version?
Anyways, to add substance, I link some example posts on this:
Wizardry 8 - new installer broken, no legal means of obtaining the working installer:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/wizardry_8_not_launching_on_windows_10
Blue dots now no longer working at all - has been fixed (well, sort of) now. Leaving link here for reference.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/has_gog_stopped_flagging_game_updates_with_the_blue_dot
Please feel free to add any other posts on said topic, support ticket is: #618084. And do vote on the wishlist.
Update 03Jan2022:
So nothing has happened, no further news. It has however been highlighted a lot recently, and will become more of an issue, that installers are getting large. There is currently no option for highly compressed archives with options to download only necessary parts of the products - e.g. language packs, compressed/hi res textures/videos. This becomes an issue as games are starting to become huge, and disc savings of tens of gb’s soon adds up. Also, if it is compressed well, I maybe in a lot of instances, not necessary to redownload every bit, just those sections that have been updated thus saving quite a bit of bandwidth.
Post edited January 03, 2022 by nightcraw1er.488