Hello friends,

There are a few things that confuse me regarding GOG's offline installers, and I'd appreciate if anyone could enlighten me.

I have noticed that the offline installers are all a bit different in how they're handled depending on the game, why is that?

For example, there are games that have the offline installer re-uploaded entirely with a new version each time an update to the game occurs, making the previous installer "technically" obsolete. This was the case recently with Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun: I had the previous version backed up to a hard drive, and now I'll have to replace it entirely, which isn't that big of a deal since it's a relatively small game, but still.

There are games that have the offline installer in the latest version, but have alongside it patches that update the game from older versions of the game to the latest version. This becomes a bit redundant, given the game installer itself is already in the latest version.

Finally, and I have only seen one game like this so far: Dragon Age Origins, where we are provided with the offline installer and one patch: the game installer is one version behind, and the included patch updates the game to the latest version.

I'm still fairly new to GOG so I don't really know if these differences end up being from the developer's side or GOG's side.

In my opinion, my ideal way of listing offline installers would be the way Dragon Age Origins was handled: have the first version of the installer available, and the subsequent patch installers available individually, so that we can keep and preserve each iteration of the game as we wish. Feel like playing the 1.00 version of a game? Install from the offline installer only. Got tired of the 1.00 version? Update it with each patch installer individually.

I appreciate your answers in advance,

Testiclides

To confuse you even more, I must say that old installers saved my Retro laptop on XP.

Ah, let me guess, more recent installers removed older windows version compatibility? :)

Ay, `ve heard of restoring XP compatibility to new installers, but haven't tested it yet. (for the last year because the retro computer with all games now runs without d outernet : )
Glxy installers include achievements (I like, but it`s growing slowly) and are often different from those ofeline.
Multiplayer in Glxy is a good thing, but most ofeline instellars do multiplay on it`s own when it`s there.

Newest Offline Installers are best for newest systems. While patches, I don`t know, are for not reinstaling a game maybe.
Dragon Age worked without that patch on Win10home 22h2 and without DLC, I thinly think that it is a patch for DLC .

attaching dragon_age screenscan, nd raymembering the suncream : )

I may not be the best person to answer this, since I ALWAYS download the installers - not the patches, but the way I understand this, is as follows:
the patches are here for people who don't want to download several gigs of offline installers.

If the developer offers patches (and not every dev does, I think), people with limited bandwidth, etc, can simply download the (much smaller) patches, play those over the installed (old) offline installers, and have the game up to date.

While people like me simply forego the patches and download the updated offline installers (again), and have the same result.

That's fine, I just prefer saving bandwidth when possible :P If you try downloading the game installer and the patch, you'll notice that in the file names, the versions are different. The patch isnt only for the DLC, its also necessary in order to have the latest version of the game.

You have a point there (that way you could play any version of the game), but that model would fast become unusable with games like Tunguska which apparently have had already like several dozen updates, or so.

So unless it offered a way to update directly to the newest version... no, I don't want to update the game several dozen times manually, just to play the latest version. Also, having lots of redundant patches would also eat lots of hard drive space, for those of us who actually backup their GOG offline installers.

For offline installers, I personally wish GOG wouldn't normally offer the separate patches, but only the latest full installers. Or if they offer the separate patches, make damn sure the main installer is also already up to date, ie. not those cases like Dragon Age where the main installer is not the latest version. Also, make sure the "patches" don't offer any additional content that the main installer is missing (like Dragon Age apparently does too), that stuff should be in the DLC installers, not patches.

If that was fulfilled, then I guess I could choose simply to always skip downloading the patches, and delete those patches that I already have on my hard drive. Now i have to download everything, including all the patches, just to b sure I get all the content and the latest versions.

Yes, I do agree that it wouldn't be as viable to have each patch available individually + the 1.00 offline installer, but it'd be really cool. I already kinda do that with my console games: I download all the game patches, burn them to a DVD, and store them alongside my game disc the game box.

Dragon Age Origins is the only outlier I've found so far. Most games either don't include any patches and just upload an entirely new offline installer each time there's an update, or have the offline installer in the latest version and include patches that update the game from older versions to the latest version, which kind of defeats the purpose of the patches existing, since it'd probably only be useful for people who bought the game at launch, and useless for new buyers.