Really, everyone complaining here should go to GOG and Steam and demand your money back. That might get their attention and lead to speedier cooperation.
I disagree with you on that one. It is ultimately Beamdog's responsibility to make sure their game is in proper condition on all platforms it is sold. And there is no way this method of delivery was not at least co-developed and sanctioned by Beamdog.
*edit* To clarify: I don't necessarily disagree about asking GOG/Steam for a refund (I'm only holding off on that for now until we get an official answer from Beamdog) but I disagree about the sentiment that this is all Steam/GOG's fault and Beamdog is not to blame.
It is possible that Steam or GOG have certain policies regarding DLC. As an example, the Mac App Store version of BGEE ships owned by root with write access for other users turned off. That's Apple's policy for file permissions. It's a minor annoyance for modding since you have to change the file permissions.
I agree that Beamdog should have worked to implement a DLC strategy that was more mod-friendly and still met Steam/GOG requirements for DLC downloads - or at the very least disclosed this fact at launch.
Well, I just wanted to say that I registered on this forum to specifically express my dissatisfaction with the way Beamdog handled the expansion release in regards to mods. I have been playing BG/BG2 since release and modding made the game last a lot longer as well as played a huge factor in BGEE/BGEE2 sales.
Requested refund on Steam and thankfully haven't bought the expansion on GoG yet (have all 3 games on both services, well and iOS). Meh on this release, it's just not a good way to handle things. Excuses such as "I don't play normally on Steam/GoG since install dir is in a bad place" don't really fly considering that probably 90% of Beamdog's customers are on those services.
Im wondering if the dlc mod.key is a pre-cursor for mod support via steam workshop. I always wondered if there might be a way of dynamically adding a 'mod'.key to an existing master chitin.key (in memory) at runtime, and similarly with string support. In an ideal world a mod would be packaged up with its own bif files and master key index (possibly wrapped up in a zip archive). The processing / reconciliation of resource strings, resource indicies and files from the mod to the master is the main barrier to this. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
Also i updated my WinBif program to account for a few new file formats found in SoD, plus it handles bif files from other games other than the Infinity Engine ones, and a few other archive formats from those other games. WinBif v1.0.1.1 build date 02/04/2016: http://letthelight.in/projects/released-apps/winbif
Home_zip db 'home:/*.zip',0
Install_zip db 'install:/*.zip',0
InstallDlc_zip db 'install:/dlc/*.zip',0
InstallWorksho db 'install:/workshop/*.mod',0
WorkshopEnable db 'Workshop Enabled',0
MultiByteStr db 'mod_staging/',0
Hard to say if they are hinting at anything in particular, might be internally used for uploading the packaged dlc (in its zip file) to steam or for cloud saves or ....
It could very well just be standard for them to include all of those at once when they need one of them, such as DLC support, without actually properly implementing them.
I can't see Steam adding workshop functionality on their own.
just want to add my voice to the chorus of people very disappointed to find he suddenly can't install his zillion mods after picking up SoD. not going to ask for a refund or anything, but I'm one of those who won't be able to play until this is corrected. I need my custom NPCs! the vitality of BG's in its mods!
Please note, any mod that has a GAME_IS check in it *still* will not work in SoD until Weidu 239.01 is released. And even then lots of mods might need to be updated a bit. And most mod/makers have day jobs and other priorities.
It's a new game, folks. You can't expect mods to just work perfectly from hour one.
@TrentOster Seeing as you are still active in that monstrosity of a thread about reviews.. I thought we could maybe get a bit of insight from you on this issue here (also, it's way more peaceful here so you might enjoy your stay.)
Comments
I agree that Beamdog should have worked to implement a DLC strategy that was more mod-friendly and still met Steam/GOG requirements for DLC downloads - or at the very least disclosed this fact at launch.
Requested refund on Steam and thankfully haven't bought the expansion on GoG yet (have all 3 games on both services, well and iOS). Meh on this release, it's just not a good way to handle things. Excuses such as "I don't play normally on Steam/GoG since install dir is in a bad place" don't really fly considering that probably 90% of Beamdog's customers are on those services.
Also i updated my WinBif program to account for a few new file formats found in SoD, plus it handles bif files from other games other than the Infinity Engine ones, and a few other archive formats from those other games. WinBif v1.0.1.1 build date 02/04/2016: http://letthelight.in/projects/released-apps/winbif
I can't see Steam adding workshop functionality on their own.
http://gibberlings3.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=27941&page=2#entry243303
As a workaround, I mean. I still hope Beamdog will do something about it.
Seeing as you are still active in that monstrosity of a thread about reviews.. I thought we could maybe get a bit of insight from you on this issue here (also, it's way more peaceful here so you might enjoy your stay.)
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/50441/modmerge-merge-your-steam-gog-zip-based-dlc-into-something-weidu-nearinfinity-dltcep-can-use
I've run it and the game runs just fine. Gonna install a couple of mods one by one to see if they break the game or not.