If I buy will it be its own discrete download or a key for steam (hopes for latter)

Purchases through GOG are a separate download from GOG, not a Steam key.

GoG does not sell keys for games, they are a direct competitor with Steam. You buy the games from GoG, and then you download your games from GoG either through the Web browser or through the Steam like client called GoG Galaxy. You also get your patches from GoG.com.

The games are 100% DRM free, and you get full installers so you can keep backups for yourself. You get to control what version of the game you want to run, if a new patch ruins the game for you, you can simply go back to the previous version and wait for another patch to fix what the other patch broke.

* GoG does not sell keys for games, *

Yeah. Thanks
*glazes over the rest*

I don't understand you or you don't understand the answer given to you.

"GoG does not sell keys for games" it's absolutely true, and i don't understand what in that statement seems wrong to you (not english speaker but that's what i understand from your answer)

Maybe "GOG don't sell a key for a license to play a game you don't really own and which you can lose or being banned or blocked for playing without any explanation and, instead, they sell a game totally yours, that you can fully download the first day with just a simple browser and keep forever in your posession, installing without any forced client, without any limitation of number of computers, without any DRM or forced online check, which you can play in whatever version you want if they pull patches or changes you don't like and a game you can even enjoy after finishing it, when bored, using cheats or mods or anything you want in SP without fear of be banned from the game or from GOG itself because it is forbidden by the devs". *and takes breath...pant, pant*

Worse worded and expressed explanation than what eisberg77 told to you, but even more detailed. But, of course, you were searching for a key site re-seller to Steam and you already knew that and prefer just a limited and controlled license and not a drm-free and a full game. Understandable...(?) :P

Any word on when they will allow us to download ? will it be noon on the 24th?

Probably be midnight on the 24th. I suspect that would be according to Polish time though.

Could have swore i found a timer showing when we could download.. I saw on the paradox forums that it will be noon eastern time usa for them.

https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/launch?iso=20180424T09&p0=234&msg=Battletech+Release&font=sanserif&csz=1

That is a timer to release time. No idea on pre-loading on GOG.

It was just confirmed that the pre-load will only be available on Steam.

That'd be about right. GOG needs to lift its game if it wants to compete and attract new customers for their not-yet-old games catalogue.

But GOG has something very different from Steam: a drm-free download that don't even need a special app. Steam can block the downloaded game from running, but in a drm-free version you can't do that so that is why we don't have a pre-load.

Also, i use to simple download my games and i almost never use Galaxy, and we will need to download just 6 GB of installers, if i'm not wrong. For people with slow connection it's bad, i know, but it will have little sense for me preloading a game and i prefer to wait and download the whole non-Galaxy thing when time comes.

DRM free games can also be pre-loaded. instead of disabling play through DRM you can disable it through a modified primary game file that will be missing some crucial code. Then a tiny patch on release day modifies the game file so it is complete and can launch.

GOG games have done this before. It is debatably a form of DRM itself but it does not persist after the game launch date and does not create any additional software barrier layers. It just delivers 99% of the game a bit early just prior to the launch date and then the last 1% on the promised launch date.

And what about direct installers without Galaxy? I mean, maybe they can do the same but they will need to create specific installers that would be there for 1 or 2 days and then they will have to change them again to the 'normal' ones. More work and more complicated, imo.

Anyway, i think they will have to do that to the exe file for it to work, and will be the same as to add DRM. Also, it would be the devs doing that work, it cannot be GOG themselves (not with this DRM-free system). I think that if GOG starts to ask publishers and devs that kind of extra work, it probably will mean less actual games released here.

It's not an easy solution, imho. Maybe GOG don't have pre-load, but has other advantages that Steam lacks. It's a matter of choice: drm-free or being able to pre-load? For me, it's an easy choice even if i have to wait until the release.

They did a pre-load with Witcher 3 on GoG. It was missing files so it wouldn't work till release day.