I would say that is likely, as Baldur's Gate was sold physically eventually. But, I don't think that is in the team's immediate plans, based on comments on the Twitch streams.
Both the EEs were available on Amazon UK fairly soon (weeks I think, rather than months) after their release. I was initially worried that the German publisher was just taking advantage of the US's notoriously ineffective (outside the US) copyright legislation, but as they have not been withdrawn from sale and are all still available one must conclude that they are legit.
Deep Silver is our partner in the DVD editions of BG:EE, BGII:EE, and IWD:EE. They're not involved in the Siege of Dragonspear Collector's Edition, but that doesn't mean that we won't make a deal with them in the future that's specifically for Siege of Dragonspear.
One thing I will say is that the DVD editions don't receive patch support. That isn't to say this won't change at some point in the future, but right now there's no technical pipeline for updating the game on the DVD. So take that into consideration when deciding how to buy the game.
EDIT: If you want to read more about Deep Silver and the games they've published, here's their website: https://www.deepsilver.com/home/
Oh, no. I already own the DVD version of all the EEs and this news is terrible. I like hard copies. I am a material boy I hope they will get patch support in the future.
EDIT: Is it so hard releasing the patch for the DVD version of the games?
Oh, no. I already own the DVD version of all the EEs and this news is terrible. I like hard copies. I am a material boy I hope they will get patch support in the future.
EDIT: Is it so hard releasing the patch for the DVD version of the games?
I honestly have no idea how hard it would be to set up. All I know is that it's not set up right now (and won't be before this next update).
Deep Silver is our partner in the DVD editions of BG:EE, BGII:EE, and IWD:EE. They're not involved in the Siege of Dragonspear Collector's Edition, but that doesn't mean that we won't make a deal with them in the future that's specifically for Siege of Dragonspear.
One thing I will say is that the DVD editions don't receive patch support. That isn't to say this won't change at some point in the future, but right now there's no technical pipeline for updating the game on the DVD. So take that into consideration when deciding how to buy the game.
EDIT: If you want to read more about Deep Silver and the games they've published, here's their website: https://www.deepsilver.com/home/
What about the Dragonspear Collector's edition? Will it have patch support? I would be really dissapointed if after paying this much for the game I won't have access to future patches.
I know we also get the digital copy and that one can be patched, but what I would like is to get an executable patch that I could store away easily.
Deep Silver is our partner in the DVD editions of BG:EE, BGII:EE, and IWD:EE. They're not involved in the Siege of Dragonspear Collector's Edition, but that doesn't mean that we won't make a deal with them in the future that's specifically for Siege of Dragonspear.
One thing I will say is that the DVD editions don't receive patch support. That isn't to say this won't change at some point in the future, but right now there's no technical pipeline for updating the game on the DVD. So take that into consideration when deciding how to buy the game.
EDIT: If you want to read more about Deep Silver and the games they've published, here's their website: https://www.deepsilver.com/home/
What about the Dragonspear Collector's edition? Will it have patch support? I would be really dissapointed if after paying this much for the game I won't have access to future patches.
I know we also get the digital copy and that one can be patched, but what I would like is to get an executable patch that I could store away easily.
Beamdog has never done stand-alone "patch files", and it's unlikely that we'll start any time soon.
That being said, the Collector's Edition comes with a copy on Beamdog.com and a Steam key when the expansion is released. So you have two ways to get an updated version of the game when updates are released.
Beamdog has never done stand-alone "patch files", and it's unlikely that we'll start any time soon.
I've been wondering what the reasoning behind it is? Is it a matter of resources, i.e. hosting the patch files, or is it to simplify bug reporting cause everyone will eventually be on the same version or....
So far there's been enough goodies in all patches that I've updated each time, but I can definitely imagine that at some point there will be changes I don't like and the lack of choice in the matter will eventually hit in a reinstall/download. Only way around it is keeping backups of the entire installations.
That being said, the Collector's Edition comes with a copy on Beamdog.com and a Steam key when the expansion is released.
Sure, but the CE has also a DVD copy of SOD. Will that version get patch support or not? Why releasing a SOD DVD version if we will never be able to update that installation?
As I said, I'm not 100% certain how it will work. It could be that the DVD will install the game to the same location as the stand-alone launcher--in which case, you could run the launcher and it would detect your DVD-installed game and allow you to update it normally (importantly, without the need to download all seven million terabytes).
But I started by answering a question about the DVDs from Deep Silver, and y'all have got me on a tangent talking about something that I don't really know about yet. I wouldn't take anything I've just said about the Collector's Edition DVDs as-writ.
I paid $130 plus $20 shipping for a hard copy of the game, but there is not going to be offline patch support for that $130 hard copy? Is this someone's idea of a poorly thought out joke?!... If Beamdog would have been upfront about this then I would have waited for if & when SoD was released on GOG because GOG releases stand alone patches that can be installed without being online. This sounds a lot like when one has purchased a hard copy of a game that one has to create an account in order to use it fully...
Just a legal note here. If DVDs are sold by Deep Silver, then it's Deep Silver, i.e. the seller, who's responsible for further support of the items they sell, not the developer - Beamdog. These are different companies and different sides of different agreements.
And having in mind that Beamdog gets a licence from WotC for all they do, "offering patches/upgrade support even for the DVDs from Deep Silver" may be a much more complecated thing for Beamdog to do than only ticking this or that box on their site.
The Deep Silver DVDs are a separate thing from the Collector's Edition, for the reasons @bengoshi mentioned.
I'm going to get an answer about the Collector's Edition for you, but it may take a few days. I agree that if you're buying the Collector's Edition, you should be able to update the game you're installing from the DVD.
I'm not sure if this is relevant but I recently had to re-install everything onto a new computer after my old one died. I started from scratch with BG and only installed my Deep Silver versions of the games. When I then tried to install the XP cap remover and DbG I noticed that the game folders and files are named/arranged differently in the DS versions and these two mods wouldn't work. I managed to get the XP cap remover to work by creating an override folder, but when I finally got DbG to run (in what I thought was the right folder) it just caused the game to crash and I had to uninstall/reinstall.
What I'm getting at is that a patch that works for downloaded versions of the game might not work for DS versions if it can't find the right files to fix.
Edit: The problem might be that DS creates some of the game folders in 'My Documents' rather than in 'Program Files (x86)'.
One thing I will say is that the DVD editions don't receive patch support. That isn't to say this won't change at some point in the future, but right now there's no technical pipeline for updating the game on the DVD. So take that into consideration when deciding how to buy the game.
Can't the patch just be uploaded online? Download it and extract to your installation directory. It should be that simple, right?
It's already been reported that the disc versions use a different direction tree.
Also, there's a whole difference between having a client such as Beamdog or Steam verifying the current installation, and grabbing some files from the server to replace them with, and having an executable patch that updates or replaces local files.
Also note that when I wanted to update from 1.3 to 2.0 beta on steam, it downloaded 1.4 GB of data. That's over half the total installation. Not that I mind, as it's like a 3 minute download for me, but for those that actually bought the DVDs, there's a good chance they did because they don't have a solid internet connection to download over a gigabyte of data from, or maybe they have bandwidth caps. To make effective patches for them, you'd have to have an executable that changes the existing files where needed, rather than just going ahead and replacing whatever file got updated, even if a file of 100mb got a few bytes changed.
As if it's not possible to run a patch executable in the same folder as the "Baldur.exe" file or is that to simple & obvious? I wonder how those who have downloaded offline installers & patchers previous to the beta release GOG Galaxy have managed and those who still don't use Galaxy continue to manage? Am I over thinking this?...
Kaliesto
Member Posts: 282
Comments
One thing I will say is that the DVD editions don't receive patch support. That isn't to say this won't change at some point in the future, but right now there's no technical pipeline for updating the game on the DVD. So take that into consideration when deciding how to buy the game.
EDIT: If you want to read more about Deep Silver and the games they've published, here's their website: https://www.deepsilver.com/home/
I like hard copies. I am a material boy
I hope they will get patch support in the future.
EDIT: Is it so hard releasing the patch for the DVD version of the games?
I know we also get the digital copy and that one can be patched, but what I would like is to get an executable patch that I could store away easily.
That being said, the Collector's Edition comes with a copy on Beamdog.com and a Steam key when the expansion is released. So you have two ways to get an updated version of the game when updates are released.
So far there's been enough goodies in all patches that I've updated each time, but I can definitely imagine that at some point there will be changes I don't like and the lack of choice in the matter will eventually hit in a reinstall/download. Only way around it is keeping backups of the entire installations.
But he may never have chance to find DVD drive through Amazon
But I started by answering a question about the DVDs from Deep Silver, and y'all have got me on a tangent talking about something that I don't really know about yet. I wouldn't take anything I've just said about the Collector's Edition DVDs as-writ.
I don't know how it's going to work. I'll find out an answer for you, but I'm only speculating here.
And having in mind that Beamdog gets a licence from WotC for all they do, "offering patches/upgrade support even for the DVDs from Deep Silver" may be a much more complecated thing for Beamdog to do than only ticking this or that box on their site.
SOD hard copy will be sold by Beamdog - and yet, it seems it will not get patch support. Sounds pretty irrational to me.
I'm going to get an answer about the Collector's Edition for you, but it may take a few days. I agree that if you're buying the Collector's Edition, you should be able to update the game you're installing from the DVD.
What I'm getting at is that a patch that works for downloaded versions of the game might not work for DS versions if it can't find the right files to fix.
Edit: The problem might be that DS creates some of the game folders in 'My Documents' rather than in 'Program Files (x86)'.
Also, there's a whole difference between having a client such as Beamdog or Steam verifying the current installation, and grabbing some files from the server to replace them with, and having an executable patch that updates or replaces local files.
Also note that when I wanted to update from 1.3 to 2.0 beta on steam, it downloaded 1.4 GB of data. That's over half the total installation. Not that I mind, as it's like a 3 minute download for me, but for those that actually bought the DVDs, there's a good chance they did because they don't have a solid internet connection to download over a gigabyte of data from, or maybe they have bandwidth caps. To make effective patches for them, you'd have to have an executable that changes the existing files where needed, rather than just going ahead and replacing whatever file got updated, even if a file of 100mb got a few bytes changed.