Not impressed :(

[andrew]

Very disappointed with the Linux version of this game.

First off, on starting the game it displays a message box saying

This is a beta test of Descent 3.
There are likely bugs. Please report them at:
    https://bugzilla.icculus.org/

There was nothing on the store page about this being a beta version!

Guess what? There is a serious bug that makes the game virtually unplayable. Saving after playing a level for more than a couple of minutes creates a corrupted savefile that crashes the game when re-loaded.

This is a known bug[bugzilla.icculus.org].

How can Steam/Outrage/Interplay sell a game in this state?

My dilemma now is what to do. I bought the game at a 66% discount in the sale. If I refund and then the game gets fixed, I'll have to pay full price to get it again. I think I'm going to sit on it and hope it is fixed soon.

Dev's - if you read this, PLEASE FIX THIS GAME!

[andrew]

Well, now even less impressed...

I tried to contact the dev's directly via the Steam support pages. All three website links return 404 (actually all redirected to the same page at interplay.com) and the support email bounces.

I've subscribed to the bug report at bugzilla, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

From past experience it is not going to be worth trying to talk to Steam Support.

I feel like I've just been scammed :(

[L.1000 Space Wizard]

Who did the Linux port?
Guess it's tough to get everything running perfectly in a different operating system for a game that was released 21 years ago, but I agree that they shouldn't be selling a product with a known bug as severe as this.

[andrew]

It seems to be an official port:

Gaming on Linux[www.gamingonlinux.com]

This is a 64-bit update of a previous Linux port.

To compound selling a bugged game, the 2 hours / 2 weeks refund policy is a joke in these circumstances. I've previously tried, and failed, to get a refund on a game where I found a serious bug after playing for more than 2 hours.

[Hunter]

The most critical bug is the savegame feature bug, which Ryan has yet to fix or address in the bug reports. But, he is doing it for free, and the Linux port is something he did in his spare time, so we'll have to just wait until he gets around to fixing it.

[andrew]

As a long time Linux devotee and an ex-programmer I understand the philosophy, and I greatly appreciate the time and effort that so many put in for no financial reward. What I don't appreciate is the fact that Steam are selling what is clearly labelled as a beta version once the game is installed, and which contains a serious bug, without any warning or acknowledgement of that fact up front.

[Hunter]

You'll get no argument from me. D3 should not be labelled as supporting Linux if it doesn't work properly. But that being said, the game should work well with Proton or just plain ole Wine.

[Hoystein]

I would like to point out that D3 was labeled as having a Linux version even before the new port due to the 2003 port that broke totally around 2007. This is not the dev of the new port that is at fualt, the group at fualt is the people that got the licence to the IP. They've put no work into it, and are not willing to do anything to fix issues that have been known for well over a decade in a remaster of the game. Be glad we got this port, it's better then we had.

[UsedDentalFloss]

How about do your research before complaining about a game that's probably as old as you.

The game came out in 1999. I'm pretty sure every company that was originally involved with this game are gone, or got melded into a bigger entity.

The fact is, Descent as an IP was split between three companies that all ended up breaking up in a bad way. The IP was literally in limbo for forever now and probably won't ever change meaning, no one can actually legally work on the game.

Linux versions were never completed. They were designed for Windows on Voodoo chipsets. I'm pretty sure the Mac port was the only completed port, and that wasn't until shortly before the legal battles.

You're complaining about companies that don't exist, essentially.

So with that, why not search for answers? It isn't that hard to find Descent communities where mods are a thing. Mods 9 times out of 10 are going to be where you find solutions.

Then again, I'm not sure on current events that much as far as where the IP lays legally. Being that it has been forever, I'm pretty sure there's laws about IPs becoming defunct and protections loss, ect.

I don't know about the legal stuff. All I know is the original devs aren't around. Just the two dudes that came up with the idea and they're working on Overload, as far as I know. The solution is still simple: Ask the community. DescentForum and DescentBB are still around. There's NUMEROUS Reddit threads and Discord servers to hit up. Someone, somewhere, will have answers for you.

[paines]

Originally posted by UsedDentalFloss:

How about do your research before complaining about a game that's probably as old as you.

The people are complaining because there was an update to this game in 2020 which made it possible to play it on modern hadrware at least for Linux and Mac. Some of those people, including me, bought it only because of this update. I had a physical copy of Descent 3 which cannot be installed on todays Linuxes. So now that I bought that game I see bugs, and bugs and bugs. If you save and load that save: crash. Modern joypads are not supported or very very hard to setup, etc... So this is now almost 3 years later and nothing had happened about any of those bugs because, i think so, the developer was payed only to the modern re-port and not the support after the release. Of course the people complaining...

PS: https://github.com/icculus/descent3-bugs/issues
The bugs form bugzilla have been moved there.

[Orbnotacus]

Originally posted by paines:

Originally posted by UsedDentalFloss:

How about do your research before complaining about a game that's probably as old as you.

The people are complaining because there was an update to this game in 2020 which made it possible to play it on modern hadrware at least for Linux and Mac. Some of those people, including me, bought it only because of this update. I had a physical copy of Descent 3 which cannot be installed on todays Linuxes. So now that I bought that game I see bugs, and bugs and bugs. If you save and load that save: crash. Modern joypads are not supported or very very hard to setup, etc... So this is now almost 3 years later and nothing had happened about any of those bugs because, i think so, the developer was payed only to the modern re-port and not the support after the release. Of course the people complaining...

PS: https://github.com/icculus/descent3-bugs/issues
The bugs form bugzilla have been moved there.

DOSBox.