Thanks!

Well...

I gave up, fell over, relented, saw the error of my way. Pick your expression ;)

After writing that post in the Divinity Forum about my reasons for avoiding Galaxy i tought about that alot.
I finally came to the conclusing, while i still think that the first reasons i mentioned are still valid, the last reason (which admittedly became my main reason) was just silly.

So, i overcame my stubborness and decided to give it a try. Ironically, after installing, the first thing the client did was updating itself :p So GoG is not so eager to update the whole installer for each update...
After signing in, the first thing i did was to disable any automatisms, and any and all available telemetry. I checked the services that were installed with the client, and was pleasantly surprised, that these were not configured to start automatically.
I fiddled around with the services a bit, and came to the following conclusions:
- GalaxyCommunication can be disabled and it does not seem to affect updating games
- GalaxyClientService is required. This one only starts for a bit after starting Galaxy and then stops automatically. My understanding is that this service will handle any "administrative" stuff the client needs to do, so that the user does not need to run the client itself as administrator.

Long story short, I am pleasantly surprised at how the client behaves. I will keep it installed, but will only use it to update those games like D:OS2, where patches are not available.

That still does not change my opinion on the stupidity of GoG's patching policy. I would still prefer to not having to use Galaxy as an update client.

Can you kindlly pinpoint your post in the Larian's Forim ?

i sent them an e-mail to their support, but if have more informations, ift a later point, would be better.

Sorry, i did not post at larians forum, but here on GoGs D:OS2 Forum:

https://www.gog.com/forum/divinity_original_sin_2/gog_andor_larian_this_offline_installer_is_an_insult_to_common_sense

oh xD , not a problem, no need to be sorry

I came to a slightly different conclusion. I had Galaxy installed once to enjoy multiplayer features on a particular game. I was pleased, that I did not actually need to run galaxy, just having it installed was enough.
But then one day, after I started up a different game, galaxy secretly started itself in the background uncalled for, downloaded stuff without permission, made unwanted changes to existing installations and didn't even log it's mischievous activities. After re-installing every GoG game on my system that could possibly have been affected, I categorised galaxy as malware and banned it forever from my hard drive. And by forever I mean forever :p

Shortcuts are set to launch Galaxy, like all other clients. It takes two seconds to bypass this by creating a shortcut directly to the game exe or modifing the existing one. Galaxy will download things if autoupdate is left on when it lauches said game.

Can hardly blame Galaxy for you not taking the time to properly customize it for your needs. Calling it malware is also wrong, I hate to see your reaction to real malware.

So your experience was entirely avoidable. There was no "affected" games, Galaxy downloaded games and offline installer downloaded games are exactly the same files. You literally waisted your time re-installing the same files.

What shortcuts are you talking about? I installed a DLC to a game and closed this installer by clicking on "launch game" (note: game not galaxy). The game in question did never launch the galaxy client before nor did any other game in my possession. I never even used galaxy for anything (except starting it up once to turn off all auto functions I could find in there). It just rested on my hard drive.

What galaxy did or didn't, no one can say for sure, as no log files were created. Not even the GoG customer support was able to tell me. Even if it wasn't patching and only downloaded installers (why the heck btw?), starting massive downloads without permisson is still malicious behaviour.

No other piece of software ever behaved that badly on my computer. Not even the atrocious steam client who tried to pull a lot of BS on me and ultimately got the same treatment (lifetime ban). If this is not meant to be malware, than it must have been developed by the worst programmers ever (Sorry GoG, i still love you for your awesome drm-free store!)

Yes, this is the main reason I prefer to buy games after a time, so these constant patches and GoG management of them (and not only Gog but all others as well) don't annoy me and make of my dearest hobby another headache instead of a relief to stress.
If I feel really eager to support a developer by buying their new game, I opt to let it mature, like wine, for some time before play it.

Yep, I become a very patient gamer.

Yes this is esentially the same thing, but slightly different. When you click launch game on the installers after installation (I don't know if this has been changed recently with the newer installers or if it only happens with some installers and not others) the button is set to launch Galaxy IF Galaxy is installed. I've seen others report the same behavior. You can avoid this by closing the installer and launching the game from the exe, etc. This change has nothing to do with the game or Galaxy but rather a change to the installer itself.

The games shortcuts also have this change. For example if we look at the Witcher 3 shortcut by right clicking on it and clicking properties you will see this:

Target: "C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\GalaxyClient.exe" /gameId=1207664643 /command=launch /path="D:\GOG Games\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt"

Start In: "C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy"

This it telling the Windows to start Galaxy before starting the game. Once you clicked launch game, that button was set to open Galaxy before the game and then Galaxy probably had to update the game to see the DLC. Galaxy has issues sometimes with detecting DLC installed via offline installers, sometimes it even re-downloads the DLC.

This again, has nothing to do with the game or Galaxy but instead with changes GOG made to the installers and to shortcuts. GOG believes that for non technical people, the process should be as easy as possible, and that (based on support request) a lot of users have issues with understanding that Galaxy has to be running for cloud saves, etc to work.

So their solution was to automatically run Galaxy before a game if Galaxy was installed. Not all the shortcuts and buttons have been changed to this yet so sometimes it is a hit or miss if you experience it.

But again easily avoidable.

I'm telling you what it did based on my experience of using Galaxy which has been the entire time it has existed, even in alpha before it was publically avallable. So I have a lot of time and experience with using it.

Again, Galaxy by default is set to auto-update. If you don't want that you have to customize it so it does what you want it to do. Had you set auto-update to off, the worst that would have happen is Galaxy would have open before the game launched (but should not have downloaded anything).

Steam will actually do the same thing if an update is avaliable. A lot of games require Steam to be running to launch, compared to Galaxy where it will try to launch Galaxy before the game but you can bypass it. Steam this isn't an option for most games.

If an update is available and you try to launch the game without Steam being open (assuming it is a game using Steam DRM), Steam will open first and either force you to update before playing or immediatly begin downloading said update depending on client settings. The default is to start the update automatically, same as Galaxy. The difference being Galaxy will actually allow you to play without updating. Steam requires you to be on the lastest version.

The are how game clients typically function, especially if you leave all the client settings to their default settings.

I wasn't even talking to you and to be honest I don't care much for what anyone thinks of my "behavior". I didn't even initiate the original conversation with you, I simply agreed with timppu to which you responded too (by calling me out directly). I would have simply left it at that had you not responded to me directly.

You can request anything you like doesn't mean it will ever be granted or that others don't have different views then you. If you can't accept that others have their own views on this and accept the fact that this is a public forum, then please stop initiating conversation with me. I don't have time for the self righteous attitude.

Your going off on none relevant stuff to what I said to john_hatcher... so I'm not even sure what you are talking about here. What I said to him had nothing (ZERO) to do with DSO2 or with the way site installers are patched. The only comment I ever made it that regard to that is that making the update procedure crappy for offline installers doesn't make Galaxy suddenly mandatory.

That is a FACT. I don't know if this is a language barrier or what but you missed something with what I said in regards to john_hatcher. Now I have spent more time in this thread then I wanted too over this.

Now please go back and re-read what he said and what I said.

I think this is true if one is hoping for patches for every major version release of a game, as that would get complicated and messy fast. However, if they instead opted for a policy of retaining installers for each major version release with subsequent patches rolled into it, under an Archived Installer section, and then a Current Installer with a subsection for incremental patches until the next major version came along, this might simplify things.

Once the next major version were to come along, they'd simply release an installer for the old major version with those patches integrated and store it with the other Archived Installers for past major versions.

Since I've been caught up with No Man's Sky on PC lately, here's what this would look like with it as an example:

Current Installer:
-No Man's Sky v1.5

--Patches:
--NMS v1.59
--NMS v1.58
--NMS v1.57
--etc. (ideally latest patch + base version install would bring you up to speed, but would likely need to be written with this in mind)

Archived Installers:
-No Man's Sky v1.38 [Atlas Rises]
-No Man's Sky v1.24 [Path Finder]
-No Man's Sky v1.13 [Foundation]
-No Man's Sky v1.09 [Initial Release]

ugh,

My only beef is with DOS2; i think i mentionned it (i spoken about the size of the installer)

You responded to timpu there (if i'm not wrong) : https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_you_need_to_get_your_patches_policy_straight/post58

So you spoken indirectly to me (that was my understading) plus the forum software doesn't really help..

Still ....you don't have to be rude in some of you answers, i never, and i will never try to impose my own views. (you should ask to some long time users there)

I even appreciate your explanations given to others about Galaxy. I just pointed facts, my english isn't perfect for sure.....I expect at least a little comprehension.... but no...hat wasn't the case..

My apologies if you spoken to timpu .... :-(

You continue to be rude, it's worthless to deal with you.. that's make me sad to see users with some knowledge acting like you do....i have the same rights has you there on GOG...

You're clearly insulting me, and i don't tolerate this. I leave this topic for good, it leads nowhere to speak with you...it seels i don't even any riht to your own eyes...(don't even try to aleviate your previous post, that won't change anything).

OH SORRy TO BOTHER,YOU I mUST BE A NUISANCE TO YOU FOR WASTING YOUR SO PRECIOUS TIME

Last point, i never received posts so rude, since i joined this forum, so .....

You answer worth a report to moderator, but i won't do it.

And by the way I never said that what you were asking for is wrong or unreasonable. In general I do agree with you that having to re-download 45 GB for each update is ridiculous and I do hope GOG does something more reasonable.

I only the took issue with 2 things you said:

1. Claiming the patching process for this game is ridiculous so it makes Galaxy mandatory - this false. You can spin it however you want, but that simply is false. For someone on a 1GB ISP connection, downloading 45GB is nothing. You are limited by your own connection (so therefor using a client makes more sense in your situation), this isn't GOG's problem though nor does it change the fact that the game can be updated without Galaxy.

2. Claiming that Steam would have been a better choice, a arguably more restricted ecosystem, instead of just using Galaxy. This is purely illogical but whatever, again it's your choice.

It was not my attention to be rude, I'm just rather blunt about things. Again, I think there is a language barrier here that is getting us off track. I apologize if you felt like I was being rude. I was only trying to convey my opinion to you.