this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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Steam Deck
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A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
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The following is a list of suggested flairs:
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- Follow the rules of Sopuli
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I will occasionally get internet when in port or I'll Hotspot my phone. At the most, maybe 4-5 days with no service.
4-5 days is more time without Internet than I'm used to, so other people may have better advice.
For using the Steam Deck offline, you can either use it in online mode (without Internet), or switch it to offline mode. For most people, it's best to just stay in online mode and never touch offline mode even if they'll be offline for hours.
However since you're going multiple days without Internet, I'm guessing you'll probably actually need to use offline mode. I would recommend launching any newly installed games in online mode once, then switching to offline mode (both in steam settings and wifi turned off) and making sure everything still works. It's hard to determine what DRM different games have, and what will work or won't work without Internet. Anything that you find doesn't work can be refunded if you have less than 2 hours of recorded gameplay, and you may have to rely on that mechanic to deal with games that have DRM that keeps you from playing on the ship.
Also worth noting, offline mode specifically means the deck is not connected to Steam's servers, but wifi and non-steam internet services can still work. Putting the deck in offline mode is supposed to keep you from having issues with the steam license check, but other DRM programs can do license checks as well and may fail if you don't have WiFi (regardless of if you're in steam offline mode or not).
That's really good to know, I'm coming from console/mobile games so stuff like that never really comes up.
Yeah, it's an unfortunate side effect of most PCs always having Internet access. Hopefully it won't give you any trouble, but it sucks to run into a game that won't run offline or that is insisting on a license check when you know you won't have Internet anytime soon.
I run a heavily modded Skyrim on my deck and it plays fine offline, but the launcher won't work offline for some reason. So, I can play it as much as I want, so long as I don't completely exit the game. Its probably a solvable problem, but I'm rarely without a connection or at least the ability to use my phone as a hotspot just to run the launcher.
One more thing I'd recommend is to set up some emulators or other non-steam games. That way you'll always have something to play, even if you do run into some Internet related issues.
Emulators are great for this, emudeck and other emulator programs make it very easy to set up, and many emulated titles are both battery friendly and don't take much room compared to modern games.
Is there somewhere I can find more info on them? Like I said, I'm coming from console and mobile. I've never messed with a pc in a gaming sense.
https://www.emudeck.com/
This is the one I use, you'll need to go to the website in desktop mode, download the .desktop file, copy it to the desktop, and run it. Then just follow the instructions.
You can choose what emulators to install. You'll need to acquire game roms elsewhere online, and then put them in the appropriate game system folder. A few of the more modern emulators will require bios files or things like that to work.
It takes a little setting up, but once you're done the games will show up in your steam library looking like native games.
You've been super helpful, I really appreciate your time, thank you.