It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
high rated
avatar
nightcraw1er.488: Yes, information has been passed on, guidance is to use the optional galaxy client. In fact a few tickets now, all sing the same refrain, use the optional galaxy client.
avatar
AB2012: That's pretty much the reply several of us got back with tickets surrounding the unfixed bug in the newest Divinity Original Sin offline installers. "Just use Galaxy" as it can roll-back to an older version = GOG clearly still have the older build available to download, it's just a case of laziness in not posting a download link. Fortunately I've long learned to not delete older installers until new ones have been tested and managed to find the last good one (and since then have also adopted an "If it ain't broke, don't 'fix' it" mentality in actively not upgrading for the sake of version number chasing). Good luck with getting that fixed without being told to use 'optional' Galaxy though.
Yup, same with the Wizardry 8 issue too. And others in the past.
Well, I just added a couple of games to my cart (Virtuaverse, and Insomnia The Ark), and got to the checkout and thought, no, am not going to buy them. The reason, insomnia is indev, however there is no way of telling if things have been updated. So two lost sales there GOG.
Tinfoil hat time:

Broken updates are a deliberate ploy to make the website even less usable in an effort to push Galaxy.
BTW there is an ongoing topic which tries to keep track on updated games:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_what_did_just_update_thread

and someone on another thread mentioned https://www.gogdb.org/changelog , which is however a not to GOG affiliated, private website.

I just hope that these issues and the current solution (just use Galaxy) is a temporary problem of the Corona-lockdown in combination with a failure-prone management system on GOGs side.
avatar
andreas.scholz: BTW there is an ongoing topic which tries to keep track on updated games:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_what_did_just_update_thread

and someone on another thread mentioned https://www.gogdb.org/changelog , which is however a not to GOG affiliated, private website.

I just hope that these issues and the current solution (just use Galaxy) is a temporary problem of the Corona-lockdown in combination with a failure-prone management system on GOGs side.
So that "use Galaxy" answer means that this damn Linux Galaxy client is going to get released? Because it has been long overdue and this king off crap abut using Galaxy isn't new. So far I am just anxious they'll make it mandatory.
avatar
andreas.scholz: BTW there is an ongoing topic which tries to keep track on updated games:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_what_did_just_update_thread

and someone on another thread mentioned https://www.gogdb.org/changelog , which is however a not to GOG affiliated, private website.

I just hope that these issues and the current solution (just use Galaxy) is a temporary problem of the Corona-lockdown in combination with a failure-prone management system on GOGs side.
avatar
vladimir1986: So that "use Galaxy" answer means that this damn Linux Galaxy client is going to get released? Because it has been long overdue and this king off crap abut using Galaxy isn't new. So far I am just anxious they'll make it mandatory.
I don’t know, only GOG would. Can’t see galaxy being for Linux anytime soon, it’s a tiny market - see general OS figures, or steams figures. That it may become de facto is all speculation at the moment, if it did it would just happen one day, like gog downloader just stopping. Would be some complaints on the forum, but in the most would not make any difference.
Post edited May 21, 2020 by nightcraw1er.488
high rated
So, updating per the other thread, the blue dot has returned! So that’s some good news. The changelogs are still not necessarily helpful however, unreal tournament for instance was flagged as updated, but changelog on indicated internal file structure change from 2018, not helpful. Obviously this isn’t highest priority anymore, getting update notifications was the highest priority, but don’t let it fall by the wayside.

Is there really only 137 users who still use offline downloads?
Maybe people will have to make their own unofficial patches out of the downloads themselves.
I just received a bunch of blue dots! Most of them had no changelog or a non-updated one.
Also, I rarely download new offline installers for old games, because most of the time they just add Galaxy features (like cloud saves).
avatar
teceem: I just received a bunch of blue dots! Most of them had no changelog or a non-updated one.
Also, I rarely download new offline installers for old games, because most of the time they just add Galaxy features (like cloud saves).
The only thing I would add, one of the reasons mentioned for lack of change log, is that the dev doesn’t provide one. However in a lot of cases the updates are by gog and they just don’t bother, or put something like “internal file structure changes” which is meaningless, and in the case of wizardry is not complete as there were several updates and removals.
high rated
Well, the changelog relly is being highlighted as a total mess and waste of time. Ther is another thread on The Witcher, whereby new version have had compatability settings applied, however this is not in the changelog - by their own company!!
Also, I am just going through the backlog of 35 or so updates, what am I seeing, for some games example: KKND2, there is no changelog. How can there be an update without a changelog? What has been changed? For the vast majority of the others, there is a changelog, but with no recent entry or some completely vague entries, here is an example for Anodyne:
Update 1.521 (14Mar2019)
This patch might fix smearing/ghosting/bleeding issues with the Big Picture Mode steam overlay. If someone could verify this that'd help a lot, thanks!

Also, I am looking into fixing controller issues eventually (like D-Pad on PS4) but no guarantee I'll be able to. Thank you for your patience and support.
---
First, what has updated recently? Second, what does some steam function have to do with GOG?

What does: [WIN] updated internal installer structure, no changes to game files
Actually mean? Certainly in the case of Wizardry 8 it means some content was removed, and the wrapper engine was updated.

Spend less time pushing galaxy features like cloud saves into offline installers and there might be time to fix things like this.
avatar
nightcraw1er.488: Well, the changelog relly is being highlighted as a total mess and waste of time. Ther is another thread on The Witcher, whereby new version have had compatability settings applied, however this is not in the changelog - by their own company!!
Also, I am just going through the backlog of 35 or so updates, what am I seeing, for some games example: KKND2, there is no changelog. How can there be an update without a changelog? What has been changed? For the vast majority of the others, there is a changelog, but with no recent entry or some completely vague entries, here is an example for Anodyne:
Update 1.521 (14Mar2019)
This patch might fix smearing/ghosting/bleeding issues with the Big Picture Mode steam overlay. If someone could verify this that'd help a lot, thanks!

Also, I am looking into fixing controller issues eventually (like D-Pad on PS4) but no guarantee I'll be able to. Thank you for your patience and support.
---
First, what has updated recently? Second, what does some steam function have to do with GOG?

What does: [WIN] updated internal installer structure, no changes to game files
Actually mean? Certainly in the case of Wizardry 8 it means some content was removed, and the wrapper engine was updated.

Spend less time pushing galaxy features like cloud saves into offline installers and there might be time to fix things like this.
Seconded, well said. To add on, I haven't seen one of these in a while but I also like when the "update" is something along the lines of "the name of 'the_file' has now been changed to "thefile".

I was recently backing up my offline installers and wanted to see what changed in updates. I had to go through the "what did just update topic", the individual game forums, and even visit Scheme forums and wikis.

I feel reassured by a message I got from GOG support re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided's DLC issue. But prior to that, and to anyone else who had different experience, it would feel like they're almost ashamed of the offline installers.
avatar
nightcraw1er.488: What does: [WIN] updated internal installer structure, no changes to game files
Actually mean? Certainly in the case of Wizardry 8 it means some content was removed, and the wrapper engine was updated.
It could mean anything from "we repackaged exactly the same content but swapped out some installer adverts for other games" (the banners that get shown during installation) to "now your offline installers come with even more Galaxy integration!"... The former is harmless but mildly annoying when there's no way of filtering it out. The latter is becoming highly annoying indeed especially the newer common.dll based "Steam wrapper" method in use by GOG since late 2018 that appears to continue to have unfixed performance issues (as mentioned previously in the Deus Ex:MD thread). I sure hope that GOG doesn't start normalizing that which for people who don't want any client, setting up offline installers so that one fake Galaxy.dll "client" talk to / through another fake Steam.dll "client" (instead of removing both) has to be the GOG equivalent of a Rube Goldberg Machine...

Either way, I've upvoted your wishlist and completely agree with keeping offline installers sane. I will also suggest to everyone not to auto-delete older versions of offline installers when downloading new ones. Examples like Divinity Original Sin have shown GOG's own support has changed from "all you need to do to download an older .exe version is politely ask in a support ticket" to "I'm afraid that rollback feature is only available for GOG Galaxy users. In this case if you wish to rollback, you should install GOG Galaxy" (exact wording response from a support ticket). Luckily, I run a multi-tier backup system where the last tier is deliberately delayed vs the others (a good idea anyway as doing so provides complete immunity vs ransomware), and I found I still had the last bug-free (with pre-Galaxy as a bonus) version of that. The real moral of the story though is that the GOG hosted offline installers (your account's "cloud copy") should no longer be treated as one of your backups, as once the older versions are gone, they may be gone for good to "encourage" users to install Galaxy for the rollback...
Post edited May 25, 2020 by AB2012
high rated
avatar
nightcraw1er.488: What does: [WIN] updated internal installer structure, no changes to game files
Actually mean? Certainly in the case of Wizardry 8 it means some content was removed, and the wrapper engine was updated.
avatar
AB2012: It could mean anything from "we repackaged exactly the same content but swapped out some installer adverts for other games" (the banners that get shown during installation) to "now your offline installers come with even more Galaxy integration!"... The former is harmless but mildly annoying when there's no way of filtering it out. The latter is becoming highly annoying indeed especially the newer common.dll based "Steam wrapper" method in use by GOG since late 2018 that appears to continue to have unfixed performance issues (as mentioned previously in the Deus Ex:MD thread). I sure hope that GOG doesn't start normalizing that which for people who don't want any client, setting up offline installers so that one fake Galaxy.dll "client" talk to / through another fake Steam.dll "client" (instead of removing both) has to be the GOG equivalent of a Rube Goldberg Machine...

Either way, I've upvoted your wishlist and completely agree with keeping offline installers sane. I will also suggest to everyone not to auto-delete older versions of offline installers when downloading new ones. Examples like Divinity Original Sin have shown GOG's own support has changed from "all you need to do to download an older .exe version is politely ask in a support ticket" to "I'm afraid that rollback feature is only available for GOG Galaxy users. In this case if you wish to rollback, you should install GOG Galaxy" (exact wording response from a support ticket). Luckily, I run a multi-tier backup system where the last tier is deliberately delayed vs the others (a good idea anyway as doing so provides complete immunity vs ransomware), and I found I still had the last bug-free (with pre-Galaxy as a bonus) version of that. The real moral of the story though is that the GOG hosted offline installers (your account's "cloud copy") should no longer be treated as one of your backups, as once the older versions are gone, they may be gone for good to "encourage" users to install Galaxy for the rollback...
True. Thankfully about 5 years back I revamped my whole backup process, so have three ongonig backups for normal day to day, then timepoint backups, so I can rollback quite some time now if needs be.
avatar
AB2012: It could mean anything from "we repackaged exactly the same content but swapped out some installer adverts for other games" (the banners that get shown during installation) to "now your offline installers come with even more Galaxy integration!"... The former is harmless but mildly annoying when there's no way of filtering it out. The latter is becoming highly annoying indeed especially the newer common.dll based "Steam wrapper" method in use by GOG since late 2018 that appears to continue to have unfixed performance issues (as mentioned previously in the Deus Ex:MD thread). I sure hope that GOG doesn't start normalizing that which for people who don't want any client, setting up offline installers so that one fake Galaxy.dll "client" talk to / through another fake Steam.dll "client" (instead of removing both) has to be the GOG equivalent of a Rube Goldberg Machine...

Either way, I've upvoted your wishlist and completely agree with keeping offline installers sane. I will also suggest to everyone not to auto-delete older versions of offline installers when downloading new ones. Examples like Divinity Original Sin have shown GOG's own support has changed from "all you need to do to download an older .exe version is politely ask in a support ticket" to "I'm afraid that rollback feature is only available for GOG Galaxy users. In this case if you wish to rollback, you should install GOG Galaxy" (exact wording response from a support ticket). Luckily, I run a multi-tier backup system where the last tier is deliberately delayed vs the others (a good idea anyway as doing so provides complete immunity vs ransomware), and I found I still had the last bug-free (with pre-Galaxy as a bonus) version of that. The real moral of the story though is that the GOG hosted offline installers (your account's "cloud copy") should no longer be treated as one of your backups, as once the older versions are gone, they may be gone for good to "encourage" users to install Galaxy for the rollback...
avatar
nightcraw1er.488: True. Thankfully about 5 years back I revamped my whole backup process, so have three ongonig backups for normal day to day, then timepoint backups, so I can rollback quite some time now if needs be.
That's clever, but very space consuming.
I have only one back (version) for each game and I am already passed the 5TB drive and its backup. So if I want more I am going to have to get multiple hardrives just for one backup. I don't have money for that any more.
It's annoying paid customers have to try to "trick" the system to not get screwed by the process GOG is following.
I am pretty certain they do this on purpose just to push the stupid client.