Steam deck shutting down while playing Spellforce

[Azarth]

So I am playing Spellforce on the Steam deck, I have it docked and a keyboard and mouse plugged in, and the deck hooked up to a smart tv so I have a bigger screen to play on.
I go into freeplay and start playing the first map after the RPG map and after a short amount of time, (usually around the time I've set up a base and am sending out a warparty to wipe out the enemy camps and the first camp is destroyed), the Steam deck suddenly seems to shut down although when I press the power button normally it doesn't turn back on.
Instead I have to hold down the power button to make it shut down fully before turning it back on.

Does anyone have any idea why it's doing that and how to fix the problem? I really want to play Spellforce again and the Steam Deck is my only option right now

[Lord Farquaad]

Originally posted by Azarth:

and the first camp is destroyed), the Steam deck suddenly seems to shut down although when I press the power button normally it doesn't turn back on.

, so it happens right after a camp / spawn point is cleared? Does it happen in other maps as well? (maybe error with the sound file or graphic effect.)
What are the temperatures of the Steam Deck? (/does it get hot?) Do you have Windows installed or Steam OS?

[Azarth]

Originally posted by Lord Farquaad:

Originally posted by Azarth:

and the first camp is destroyed), the Steam deck suddenly seems to shut down although when I press the power button normally it doesn't turn back on.

, so it happens right after a camp / spawn point is cleared? Does it happen in other maps as well? (maybe error with the sound file or graphic effect.)
What are the temperatures of the Steam Deck? (/does it get hot?) Do you have Windows installed or Steam OS?

I don't think it's tied to clearing camps or anything like that as I have played the level 1 RPG map completely fine with no discernible issues the first time I started replaying Spellforce. I was also able to go to the marketplace map, though I don't think I stayed there long enough to really call that a fair example.

I went back one more time after reading your comment, into the co-op map after the first RPG map again (since my character was only level 3) and summoned elves, but the moment I tried to put them to work chopping trees, the deck black-screened again and all sound and music cut out like in previous attempts. This has happened on both Dark and Light versions with every race (though haven't tried with Orcs).
In the most recent attempt I also put on the overlay and the temperature readouts were in the normal range around the mid 60°C never exceeding 70, and holding the device and feeling around the deck nothing felt particularly hot. The area around the fan was warm, but that is expected.

I am using the Steam Deck OS and have been playing in Gaming mode

[Azarth]

Ok update - I switched to the public playtest version and now it seems like it's working fine. I got through two maps in the same session without the deck crashing. If anything comes up I'll message back in here but for now it seems that the problem is solved. Thank you for reading this thread and for assisting ^^

[Azarth]

So it seems the issue is still around but the game crashes the Steam Deck when I was on the level 7 light/dark map and the level 8-9 light/dark map. It wasn't playing up on any of the previous maps. I'm at a loss as to what might be up with it

[Lord Farquaad]

Did you already tried verifying the game data files in Steam? Maybe there is an issue with files related to chopping wood? I am not sure what else it could be, maybe some weird bug related to Steam OS and Spellforce being an old game?
You could also try a mod data file since they are based on old older versions (which I remember reading are more stable, based on V1.52 I believe).

[Azarth]

I verified the files previously, but I tried again and played again but it again crashes after a few minutes. It's not related to the elves since I went with them again and had them chopping wood and it was fine. I managed to build up a base up to getting some rangers and putting up woodcutters, sawmills and a forester and was about to work on getting some dwarves for my front line unit production and it crashed the deck as the few few dwarven workers spawned.
I don't think that the Steam OS would have an issue with Spellforce since it would run it through Proton and as I understand it, Proton would allow the game to run like it was in windows. I've previously played an old game without issues once I got the flatpak set up with Proton and stuff, with help (Specifically the Sims Complete Collection).
I looked at the mod launcher and when I tried to run the game it threw an exception at me and crashed the launcher but not the deck itself.

I really wish I knew what was up with this thing but it's just looking more and more like it's just going to continue doing this and I am getting more frustrated with the deck (which honestly has been a real pain in the butt to make other games work)

[Lord Farquaad]

Originally posted by Azarth:

I really wish I knew what was up with this thing but it's just looking more and more like it's just going to continue doing this and I am getting more frustrated with the deck (which honestly has been a real pain in the butt to make other games work)

, yeah that is annoying, I wish I could help further but I do not own a Deck so its guessing in the dark. Maybe you can ask someone with a Deck to try Spellforce (I believe you can temporarily share a Steam game to someone?) and see if they have the same issues.