It says this on the front page: As long as that remains true the way it is currently true, I don't have a problem. If I can download an installer and install it anywhere without what I consider "annoyances," I have a reason to continue shopping here.

Your comfort level may vary, and this change is a bit obnoxious, but at least it has some business reasoning and attempts to establish some kind of common ground.

It's been a good almost-decade so far, and frankly, if this really is the beginning of the end as some hysterical types here think it is, I can still pack up my installers and take my money elsewhere. But otherwise, I'll wait and see, and check forums before I buy a game to see how hamstrung that title might be. Kinda sucks that I have to do that now.

Also, I really doubt GOG's going to cast away a major feature difference from Steam anytime soon. Slow crawl over time, strategic little policy changes resulting in a required client, maybe. But it's not like EA just bought the company and is kickin' over your little towers of DRM-free games. Back your stuff up and play some video games and relax!

Steam has a bigger selection and current releases. If there is Linux support for a game, it's pretty much given they carry the Linux version whereas on GOG you'll be lucky. Their games receive updates in a timely manner, whereas some games on GOG have basically been abandoned with crippling bugs or missing features. In the past they have actively pushed for Linux, contributed to its development and built SteamOS on it. Much of the time their games are considerably cheaper, too.

But I don't shop there. Why do I shop here again? Because of the DRM-free offline installers.

See to it that you don't ruin them for me.

I took it to mean that it is just a stub that downloads the real, up-to-date, installer files from online when you invoke it. Like Steam has it, SteamSetup.exe is mere 1.4MB but it is only a stub that downloads the actual Steam client installer files from online.

To me that makes perfect sense, otherwise there would be an extra 150MB full installer on all GOG game installers that would also be constantly out of date.

With recent GOG, I wouldn't bet on logic.

I don't have or want that game so I have no idea what is going on with it.
In general though, it is quite clearly what is going on. Someone at GOG sees the success of Steam and says, look what they are doing, do the same thing.
Underneath this person the rest of the "crew" claps like officers clap the leader of North Korea.
"excellent idea sir!" "marvelous!" "you are the best!"

*sigh*

The question was, how the script can locate the standard or classic downloads? I have human AI, so to me all these options make sense in some way:

"These are the non-Galaxy installers."
"These don't have Galaxy embedded."
"If you don't care for Galaxy, download these installers instead."
"These are the installers containing Galaxy,"
"These installers are Galaxy-free."

etc. And those descriptions might be either in the file links themselves, or as a subtitle on the page under which the installer files are. (See Darksiders for an example of that.)

For human AI, when doing things manually, it is easier to pick the ones you want even if the description and way of presenting it keeps changing, based on who is working at the time when releasing a game.

A lot depends if GOG chooses some clear and consistent way of differentiating them, and sticks to it. Unfortunately from the past, they seem to constantly change the way they are offered. See e.g. how the "old" and "new" version of Darksiders and Darksiders 2 are offered: one has both versions under the same download page under different subtitles, while the other has two separate download pages for them. With some older games, they offer the original or alternative version in the Game Goodies/Extras section instead. So they have several different ways of doing the same thing.

Yet every indication is that this was indeed the plan. This post suggests that the potential problem had been identified and marked off as something to work on in the future, maybe.

It's plain to see the plan here is to ruin the offline installers to force people on Galaxy; sneak it up on the non-careful and force the careful to download it OVER. AND OVER. AGAIN. Until they cease to bother.

If only I could trust GOG after pulling a stunt like this I wouldn't have to say the new plan seems to be to just take a bit longer doing it.

I couldn't agree more.
The Sith have clear control of the company and are in the process of creating a new Steam.
With DotEmu out of the picture, Steam is turning everyone to the dark side. Of course as soon as GOG fully turns, it will be doomed. After that it will be only a matter of time before they turn into just another steam key seller.
But hey, at least they will have managed to satisfied EVERYONE who asks for cloud saves and more online functionality. I mean, that's exactly why EVERYONE already uses Galaxy. The fact they are forcing Galaxy to people is just for fun. People are close to breaching the walls of GOG, DEMANDING cloud saves etc. IF nothing else, GOG are doing us a favor!
Nothing says the demand for a feature is high than forcing it in a sneaky way to the offline installers.
What you and other idiots gamers don't understand is that yes Galaxy is out in the front page for ages, yes you keep preferring the offline installers, but that is exactly because you are an idiot. We all are! Galaxy is what we want and we just haven't figure out yet how to install it!
I have 1116 games on my GOG account. I still don't have Galaxy. You know what I always wanted? 1116 installers with Galaxy in them.

I have no doubt that GOG is a lost cause by now.

What some GOG people might not get is, if you offer what Steam offers, why would people choose you and not Steam? *sigh*

Unless they actually believe they can be a Steam clone and people will choose them over Steam for...what really? lol

Yeah unfortunately I got a similar impression, but on the bright side it seems now they identified "hey, maybe that is indeed how it should be done after all...". The fact that they postponed the release of the new installer sets suggests they went back to the drawing board, and kudos for that. That makes it feel that they indeed do listen to their customer base. After all, the other option would have been that they just go with what they originally planned out of sheer pride or something, even when they have realize there are problems with that approach.

Who knows, maybe they even consider some of the better suggestions here how they can promote Galaxy without actually embedding the installer itself to the GOG offline installers. Some had pretty good suggestions, like Galaxy being being on the top of your game library so that you always see it as the first download, or the game installer offering to download and install Galaxy (well, I guess this is pretty much the same as the "stub installer").

I think some of the suggestions thrown around now by GOG staff have been ad-hoc damage control, like suggesting there will be two sets of installers, just to ease the discussion. Somehow I feel they will realize the extra burden it is likely to cause them (yeah some claim it is no extra work because surely they have automated tools to create installers etc... but then why don't the installers instantly get all the same updates as Galaxy, if it is all really so easy and automated?). And that it might be even more confusing to that hapless newbie who doesn't understand why there are two different sets of the installer, the newbie for which they are integrating Galaxy there anyway.

And thank you (in plural) for trying to find a acceptable solution for average and veteran gamers alike. Although I don't like central game launchers like Steam or Galaxy, I know that many average gamers like them as an easy means to "get the job done". They just don't care about the technicalities of installation, updates, and mods like I don't care how exactly my washing machine makes my laundry clean.

I just hope your plans and promises to keep Galaxy optional will hold in the future, and that we "extragalaxians" will still get all updates, add-ons and goodies.

That said, automatic e-mail notifications about updates or other changes of the games we own is a long overdue feature of your website.

Again, thanks for listening to and informing your customers.

The trust in GOG was gone when they started to sell 10+ years old games for 19.99. The trust in GOG was gone when they started to sell "DRM-free" games that need an additional 3rd party account to get full access to the game. The trust in GOG was gone when they introduced regional pricing to bring BIG games that couldn't be here without regional pricing (like The Witcher 3). The trust in GOG was gone when they started to sell games that are dozens of patches behind Steam. The trust in GOG was gone when they started to call those "abandoned" games "special DRM-free editions". The trust in GOG was gone when they released a 100% game breaking bug for Omerta (so much for testing) and refused to roll back the game to an earlier version (which had another game breaking bug). The trust in GOG was gone when trolls and scammers took over the forums and were even allowed to post how powerless GOG is. Good News™, Top Men™, Soon™, We are listening to your feedback™

Good Old Games is gone for a long time already. There's no trust left. The last game I bought here was The Witcher 3 GotY half a year ago. The last game before that was Morrowind - on December 25 2015. Don't tell mme shit about people losing their trust in GOG.

The "more" button isn't the place to put officially discontinued things. The more button is the place where you put... well... more. Again: If I have the choice between Galaxy-bundled installers and normal installers that move one click away from their normal place, I'll take the moved installers.

My suggestion is high rated too, so you're officially stewpit -.-

You speak as if there was just one specific trust. Every time GOG does something unexpected it sets a new bar that its safe to assume they're prepared to cross again without second thought. You get to decide when gets important.

You were expecting everything would be dirt cheap? Why? Well you can't expect that now.
You were expecting no regional pricing? You can't expect that anymore.
You were expecting up-to-date games? This is a disappointment, but you can't expect them now.
You were expecting a well working forum? Forget about it.

You were expecting sane DRM-free offline installers? We're here now.

The missing features on GOG's end are due to game developers, not GOG themselves. A good example is Vlambeer who treats us like second rate customers by not even patching their games. That said I don't see why GOG couldn't just cut the crap and provide a downloadable link for galaxy instead of putting it on each game, its a waste of time, resources and convenience for everybody.

They'll fix it eventually. Like the notifications that never worked right, or the reputation, or the other forum bugs. When there's enough time, money and demand for it.

well i use manual updating, and it doesnt bother me at all

i usually only update the games i'm currently playing actively and/or the games that receive major upgrades long waited for (like "serious gamebreaking issue finaly corrected" or "extra content/mode/bonus added" for free...)

other than that, i download each patches when i get notified, and store them in my offline archive...

next big galaxy feature will be denuvo support so peeps can get better games with a better user experience...
(i hope this remains a blatantly obvious joke and wont turn true... nowadyas, i cant be sure though)