How Are Patches Applied?

[Scarecrow71]

I have never done EA before, and I have the latest version of KSP1 from Epic.  I was gifted my 1.8.3 of KSP1, and was happy with that to the point that I never got updates to that copy.

A patch is (supposed to be, provided the code holds) released on Thursday.  Which all of us are looking forward to, the same amount as if not moreso than initial EA.  This, in my own biased and unreserved opinion is a good thing.

My question:  how will the patch get applied?  Will we get notifications on launch that something needs to be updated?  Will we get emails?  Will there be a link here?

I own precisely 1 game on Steam (Shadowrun), and that has been dead for almost 10 years.  I own 8 games on Epic, only 3 of which are installed (KSP1, KSP2, and City of Gangsters), and to date none of them have had patches since I've purchased them.  So this question is truly something I dont know.

One other question:  what happens if the patch is applies but renders the game unlaunchable?

[cocoscacao]

Your Play button on steam should turn to Update (which you can also skip, but... duh ). It downloads updates automagically, and you simply continue playing.

Edit:

You're directly on epic store. My bad. Irrelevant comment

Edited March 14, 2023 by cocoscacao

[K^2]

3 minutes ago, Scarecrow71 said:

My question:  how will the patch get applied?  Will we get notifications on launch that something needs to be updated?  Will we get emails?  Will there be a link here?

For both the Steam and Epic Games Store releases, the patch should apply automatically. It will either be downloaded by the Steam/EGS launcher, or the game's own launcher. That specific bit can vary a bit from game to game, but in pretty much any case, it will either happen in the background, or will have to happen before you can play the game.

3 minutes ago, Scarecrow71 said:

One other question:  what happens if the patch is applies but renders the game unlaunchable?

Generally, you have to wait for a patch-to-a-patch or for the Intercept to roll things back, depending on how severe things are. You can, technically, copy the game's folder somewhere before patching, so prior to this Thursday, to have as a backup, then you can launch KSP2_x64.exe directly from that folder. That should bypass the patching and let you run an older version. It works for me on Steam version and I think it should work with the EGS version as well. However, there can be incompatibilities with the save games or some additional server version checks that would render the old version inoperable - it's unlikely, but it can happen with some games.

So if you're really worried, you do have this backup option, but in most cases, if there's a severe bug with a patch, the studio releasing the game will either fix it quickly or roll back the update for everyone.

[Superfluous J]

Yeah Steam will just update, and frequently you can go back multiple versions to stick with a version and not update immediately.

From the website, I've no clue. I imagine you can update through the Launcher but I plan on never actually running the launcher so can't really speak on that.

[K^2]

16 minutes ago, Superfluous J said:

I plan on never actually running the launcher so can't really speak on that.

Some games only do the updates through the launcher. I hope that's not going to be the case, because otherwise, the game runs just fine without it.

[MechBFP]

2 minutes ago, K^2 said:

Some games only do the updates through the launcher. I hope that's not going to be the case, because otherwise, the game runs just fine without it.

i have never actually seen a game do that when purchased through Steam.

Edited March 14, 2023 by MechBFP

[Scarecrow71]

I was able to do a Google search and figure out how to let auto-updates apply to KSP2.  Should have done that before posting the question, huh?

[Superfluous J]

6 minutes ago, Scarecrow71 said:

I was able to do a Google search and figure out how to let auto-updates apply to KSP2.  Should have done that before posting the question, huh?

Naw it's nice to have answers here if they're not already.

[K^2]

6 hours ago, MechBFP said:

i have never actually seen a game do that when purchased through Steam.

Usually, devs don't need the kind of infra that this takes. But if PD invested in their own launcher, they might have invested in the storage and the rest of the backend for rolling out patches as well.

An example of a game where it makes sense and is used heavily is Warframe. When you DL it from Steam, you get the most recent baseline, and then the launcher will get the patches directly from Digital Extreme's servers. It's actually pretty good about collecting the diffs you need, and doing it as a single patch, even if you're several behind. For a live service multiplayer game that already has to juggle a ton of storage, where you want everyone to be playing on exactly the same version, and where you might roll out fixes quite often, because, again, multiplayer live service, you kind of want a more direct management of how your patching is handled than Steam provides.

For a game like KSP2, as a one-off, it makes zero sense not to just do everything through Steam. But then you don't really need your own launcher, either. Once you have a launcher, and you're using it for a number of games, and you have the funding of T2, and especially if you can borrow some technical backend talent that got their battle scars making Social Club work, well, then maybe you can build your own patching backend and get some convenience out of it.

Again, not saying this will be the case with KSP2 now or in the future, but PD fits the profile of a publisher that might, so I don't want people to have the wrong kind of expectations.

Personally, I would much prefer for it to be handled through steam, in which case I can create a shortcut directly to the game, and never have to worry about the launcher. Just like I did with the first KSP once the launcher got introduced.

[Picard2]

12 hours ago, MechBFP said:

i have never actually seen a game do that when purchased through Steam.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is basically a few hundred MB launcher downloaded through Steam, and a few hundred GB downloaded through the awful launcher which maxes out your CPU for hours while it downloads all the game files slowly one by one and pauses downloading to extract everything one by one. Not bitter about this at all. By far the worst non-gameplay user experience I've had in gaming.

Hoping KSP2 is all handled via Steam download.

[whatsEJstandfor]

4 hours ago, Picard2 said:

Microsoft Flight Simulator is basically a few hundred MB launcher downloaded through Steam, and a few hundred GB downloaded through the awful launcher which maxes out your CPU for hours while it downloads all the game files slowly one by one and pauses downloading to extract everything one by one. Not bitter about this at all. By far the worst non-gameplay user experience I've had in gaming.

Hoping KSP2 is all handled via Steam download.

The fun thing about MSFS doing that, too, is that, since you've already technically launched it through Steam, it takes up the entire refund window to just download and install the game. Extremely good system, no notes

[Fluke]

4 hours ago, Picard2 said:

Microsoft Flight Simulator is basically a few hundred MB launcher downloaded through Steam, and a few hundred GB downloaded through the awful launcher which maxes out your CPU for hours while it downloads all the game files slowly one by one and pauses downloading to extract everything one by one. Not bitter about this at all. By far the worst non-gameplay user experience I've had in gaming.

Hoping KSP2 is all handled via Steam download.

And to download any bug fixes for previous patches you have to do it through the marketplace manually 

[Chilkoot]

5 hours ago, Picard2 said:

Microsoft Flight Simulator is basically a few hundred MB launcher downloaded through Steam, and a few hundred GB downloaded through the awful launcher which maxes out your CPU for hours while it downloads all the game files slowly one by one and pauses downloading to extract everything one by one. Not bitter about this at all. By far the worst non-gameplay user experience I've had in gaming.

Hoping KSP2 is all handled via Steam download.

This is such an onerous piece of software to maintain on any machine - perhaps the worst of any game I've seen as well.  MS engineers are not stupid, but I have a hard time believing the install/update/maintain process could not be better.

I had to reinstall the other day, and even on a synchronous gigabit line with a modern rig, it still needed to run overnight to install from scratch.  At that point, just ship me 50 floppy disks through FedEx or something.

[Picard2]

Glad I'm not the only one with that opinion of FlightSim! And didn't even mention the obtuse way it handles DLC, which can't be downloaded through the 'normal' process but also requires manually downloading and updating.

I really don't understand what it actually gives them, either. To build and maintain such a system surely has a cost associated.

Really hope KSP2 doesn't follow this model!

[Jacke]

5 hours ago, Picard2 said:

Microsoft Flight Simulator is basically a few hundred MB launcher downloaded through Steam, and a few hundred GB downloaded through the awful launcher which maxes out your CPU for hours while it downloads all the game files slowly one by one and pauses downloading to extract everything one by one. Not bitter about this at all. By far the worst non-gameplay user experience I've had in gaming.

It seems that Microsoft can't properly handle software downloading and updating.  I compare Debian apt+dpkg to MS Windows Update: Debian is amazing at its ability to download, unpack, and install software, all while doing all the extra fiddly bits needed to handle special cases.  MS Windows Update is horribly slow, taking far longer to do less.

If I could, I'd regulate all download and updating processes by *all* software companies to be forced to use apt+dpkg.

[Kerbart]

29 minutes ago, Jacke said:

It seems that Microsoft can't properly handle software downloading and updating. 

Far from defending MS here, there are a couple of things going on:

• The developer is another studio, not sure if they’re owned by MS in a T2/IG type relationship or if it’s more loosely, so it might not be a “regular” Microsoft thing. It’s still a horrible experience though.
• FS DLC is traditionally outrageously expensive. $45 for a single jetliner seems a normal price. Prices like that encourage piracy
• Because of that, FS DLC has always been heavy DRM’ed, with all the problems that it causes. I have a few gorgeous RealAir aircraft I can’t install in FSX since the studio went out of business
• The marketplace seems to be an attempt to address these kind of issues

Again, it’s an awful implementation. But I think it shines a light on why they came up with it.