Ive not herd mention of this or it being suggested, im also not sure how easy ir doable it would be but here goess - For the usb hard copy of PA would it be possible / not to dificault to have some sort of updater on it that would allow you to keep that hard copy installer as the latest version?
It occurs to me... would it be possible to have a linux build that is bootable from the USB key that has a copy of PA installed? That would be sweet.
I have no idea idea if that is possible, but it sounds nice. I want it. The linux would need drivers that match the particular machine you are trying to play on, though.
I'd be plenty happy if the USB Key was about 10 GBs larger than the game. The free space would allow you to but all the updates that come out after the game on it as well. There may also be space for third party patches and mods.
Hmm. This is a really cool idea actually, have the installer on the drive (I assume there will be one) have a routine to acquire and assimilate the current patches and let you integrate any mods you want.
Technically, there won't be any problems. Legally, though... Well, let's say it's complicated. For linux gaming you will probably want the proprietary drivers, which can't be bundled due to license bounds. For open source drivers there is also a problem which is called S3TC. It's patented up to eleven. Linux does have an open source implementation called libtxc_dxtn, but thanks to DCMA you can't use it. Or at least, you certainly can't distribute it. tl;dr it's possible, but you'll have to make it yourself.
You gotta remember one thing with the USB keys... It'll come down to money. Those of us who ordered them didn't pay a huge amount (from memory it was something like 25 or 30 dollars), and we're all expecting something special (and commander shaped) based on the hints and initial idea from Uber. It may well be that because of this, we have to sacrifice on the size of the sticks in order to get our funky commander shape (simply due to the extra cost of the housing being custom and awesome), and therefore there may not be enough space for said key to be large enough to put updates etc on. I agree that being able to update the installation on the USB stick to the latest version would rock, but personally I'm not fussed about it being a bootable linux distro with the game embedded - if you want to do that to it, feel free to mod it yourself afterwards. TL;DR: We paid for a key with the game on, expect just that. Updating the base install would be handy, but anything like this costs more programming time and reduces the budget available based on $25-30 per purchase.
You can write your own program to log onto the PA server with your account, check for updates and if one is available download and replace the installer with the updated installer. Wouldn't be that hard to do and if you don't have the programming skills you can always ask someone who has.
I think it would be easier to just host the patch's somewhere and download them from their. Saves you the hassle of automating a login-process that is probably not meant for it. Never do anything manually if you can write a program to do it for you
This was an option for those that backed on kickstarter for the $90 and above if they put in $20 extra.
When I backed this game and saw the USB loaded game, I never thought about space for third-party mods. Now thinking about it, I am guessing that we would be able to put the game on any USB drive (even the people who didn't per-order at that level. Just install the game on the USB drive.) And when we use the game on a computer that it was never used on before, we would have to log on and 'reactivate' it. For me, this could be a hassle because I have limited internet access. But as long as I just have to activate it once for each computer, I will be happy. I think the USB key is just another (But absolutely AWESOME) thing that will look like a commander. And it probably will have 5GB or 10GB. Just enough for the vanilla game, some saves and a few minor mods. But if UBER makes it one of those USB drives with a micro hard disk capable of holding 20GB or more, words cannot express how happy I will be.
So I'm no linux guru (know next to nothing about it), but from what you guys are saying, it would technically be possible to 'build' a setup of linux that boots off the USB stick and runs PA? So a little program that downloads proprietary drivers etc and writes them onto the USB would be A-OK, but an ISO of everything you need would not be?
Ideally it shouldn't be an issue. In most cases, the drivers you need will be provided with the initial install for most distros, especially if you use a huge kernel compilation, where all the drivers load on boot. However, the challenge is the graphics card. While Intel graphics should work just fine out of box for gaming, AMD and NVidia cards would require the drivers to be installed per the hardware being used. The thing is that these drivers overwrite certain parts of the X11 and Mesa installs (possibly other packages, but I can't recall them), meaning that in order to swap between installs, you would need to uninstall the current drivers, reinstall vanilla X11 and Mesa, and then install the required drivers (unless it's Intel's open drivers). This could be automated in a boot script, one that possibly even autodetects it for you, though the reliability may vary with hardware. It might even be more expedient to have all three driver setups installed and enable/disable the setups through symlinks. (Though you'd have to REALLY know the driver systems. Also, good luck upgrading the graphics drivers.) In any case, it's certainly possible, but probably not practical.
Interestingly, I'm sure there was at least one game where you copied the patch files to a 'patches' folder when you re-burned the installation media, and the game just scanned that folder and automatically installed all patches in there in numerical order as part of the total install...
