Dead

[Will Robinson]

I got some help at Descendent Studios forums, now I have the steam key and launcher. Can't get the launcher to actually start the game but at least I'm closer...thanks!

[Krom]

There is (possibly) a method of recovering or at least finding out what your old steam account was. Depending on what operating system the old computer had, there is a file called NTUSER.DAT that is either going to be in /users/<username>/ (windows vista/7/8/10/etc) or /documents and settings/<username>/ (windows XP) for the windows login you used on the old computer. Do note: NTUSER.DAT is usually hidden and may even be flagged system, so you would have to set windows to display hidden files and possibly to not hide protected operating system files to even see it. Said file is the user registry hive for windows for that user, and among other things if you had steam set to remember your username and password automatically, it stored them in that file. If that file exists and you are still interested in finding your old steam login, I could probably type up some directions for how to extract the steam information from it.

If descent underground was the only thing you had in your steam library, then its probably safe to ignore it if you have gotten the key assigned to your new profile. But otherwise it is generally a good idea to store your steam credentials some place safe, because for instance mine has enough software within it that it is worth more than most of my computers.

[Will Robinson]

There is (possibly) a method of recovering or at least finding out what your old steam account was. Depending on what operating system the old computer had, there is a file called NTUSER.DAT that is either going to be in /users/<username>/ (windows vista/7/8/10/etc) or /documents and settings/<username>/ (windows XP) for the windows login you used on the old computer. Do note: NTUSER.DAT is usually hidden and may even be flagged system, so you would have to set windows to display hidden files and possibly to not hide protected operating system files to even see it. Said file is the user registry hive for windows for that user, and among other things if you had steam set to remember your username and password automatically, it stored them in that file. If that file exists and you are still interested in finding your old steam login, I could probably type up some directions for how to extract the steam information from it.

If descent underground was the only thing you had in your steam library, then its probably safe to ignore it if you have gotten the key assigned to your new profile. But otherwise it is generally a good idea to store your steam credentials some place safe, because for instance mine has enough software within it that it is worth more than most of my computers.

Thanks Krom!
I'll look for that folder/file tomorrow. It was windows, either right before or after I changed from xp to windows 10. I haven't been able to link my new Steam account to the descendent/underground account. I clicked on the button on the page where they (Descendent Studios) sent me to re-download the Steam key and launcher but nothing happened and I was afraid to go further down that path thinking the key might be exclusive to the old steam ID in some way and it would trigger some security nightmare for me.

[Top Gun]

If you still have the Steam Program Files folder on that hard drive, I think there should be a subfolder in there that at least gives you the profile ID number associated with your account. From there you might be able to recover your original account.

[Krom]

There is also this: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_art ... -QTFB-3090
Or this: https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard ... ssueid=406
Which will take a login name, email address, or phone number and can possibly put you on the right track.

[Will Robinson]

thanks for the help! I did go through steam for help and they said the key I have was a beta that wasn't linked to any active account. and that if the beta period is over that would be why I can't activate it. Other than that there should be no reason why I can't activate it with my current, active, account.

I was concerned that there would be some inherent association between the old Steam account and the key so if I tried to use it with my new account it would think I was stealing it...

I guess I just wait for the new game and try to activate it when Steam has it as an available game?


Meanwhile I cant get the freshly downloaded game to run. I hit launch and it does nothing. I've tried Production and Proving Grounds. Open as administrator...nothing.
Can it be played without Steam or some other service like that? If so I must be missing something to get it to launch

[Krom]

Lots of steam games cannot run without steam also running, because steam itself is the DRM platform. And if the game isn't activated on the logged in account, then steam won't let it launch even if it is running.

[CDN_Merlin]

The website is dead now.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

The website is dead now.

Sounds like the game will be abandoned. Oh well.
It could have been good if it had taken a slightly different path.

[Pumo]

Not only the website, but also the game servers got shutdown.
What I find more concerning, is that there's total silence about this.
There has not been any official announcement anywhere, not even on their Discord, Facebook or Twitter pages, or at the very least on Wingman's FB.

Worse of this, is that everyone that backed the project has basically lost his/her money for nothing.
Thankully I only backed a small ammount, but what about all the backers (like CDN_Merlin, Lothar, etc) that put high ammounts of money on this?!?

[vision]

I'm not convinced it's totally dead. The new publisher, Little Orbit, still has it listed on their site:

https://www.gamersfirst.com/descent/

A lot of work went into it and I think it's only a matter of time before "some version" gets released. The graphics are top-notch and will hold up for several years. I imagine the publisher is just looking for the right way to make it profitable, or at least, break even. Sure there hasn't been any updates for about a year, but I would wait just a little longer to see what happens. Although, the DESCENT IP is still valuable, so they might just be holding on to it in the hope that someone will buy it and take over.

Still, the lack of communication is a dick move. I made a pretty good sized donation to the KickStarter and was hoping to get something...

[CDN_Merlin]

I only pledged 60$ but it's still $60 of my money and I have nothing to show.

[LightWolf]

It looks like Little Orbit's site just moved. Still no word since E3, but at least they haven't vanished.

https://www.gamersfirst.com/descent/

There is a chance that Switch stuff and/or Xbox approval shenanigans may have something to do with delays etc., or so the discussion on Discord has gone as of when I posted this.

[CDN_Merlin]

I'm still saying it's dead. I wonder if we can get our money back?

[Krom]

Funding a kickstarter does not guarantee success or a finished product, it was right there in not even that small of a print when I chipped in my share.

[LightWolf]

Another theory - one I find more likely - has to do with complications between LO and Descendent.

[Alter-Fox]

There were some of those, true, but this is not how those complications were supposed to end.
Something didn't go the way Descendent wanted it to, that's all I can tell for sure.

[defconx]

Tester here. My impression (and this expression doesn't break any NDA) is that LO is stonewalling the release of the game until they get their way which forced the DS boys to focus on LO needs other than making Descent 2019 an actually playable game. So I guess the lead devs at Descendent have had to seek jobs elsewhere to support themselves, and are feeling pushed out of their own game?!

The DS boys have always shown nothing but enthusiasm and gratitude to receive our bug reports. So might it be that it is in LO's onus to respect the creativity and the diligence that brought the game to this level?

It's not very exciting that Interplay.com went from "Coming Soon" to gone while this happened but they're now back to "Coming Soon" so ... who knows?

Come on, LO, please just finish a game that was remotely close to what we Kickstarted! It isn't the unbeatable Overload team, but it's so fun to have a new entry in the Descent titles, plus so many new ships, which was such a cool idea!