Uninstaller doesn't ask whether I want to keep or remove save files. It just deletes them.

[PaddyMac]

Problem description

I decided to uninstall the Linux version of Dead Cells from GoG and install the Windows version instead in order to test some problems I was having with OBS Studio. So I did uninstall it. The uninstaller asked me whether I wanted to delete my settings, log files, etc. I left the boxes unchecked because I wanted to keep everything. It did not explicitly ask me whether I wanted to keep my game save data. I assumed that game save data must be covered under the umbrella term of "settings" since it didn't explicitly mention game save data.

Then I installed the Windows version of Dead Cells from GoG. I realized that my game save data didn't transfer over from the Linux version to the Windows version. I figured that the Linux version and the Windows version just save the data to different locations and that Heroic doesn't automatically handle this. I figured I had two options: 1) find the save game data locations for each respective version and manually copy it over, or 2) uninstall the Windows version (because I noticed it displayed that sync saves was disabled), reinstall the Linux version, enable sync saves, uninstall the Linux version again, and reinstall the Windows version. I opted for the second option.

So I uninstalled the Windows version and reinstalled the Linux version. I then started up the Linux version to ensure that my save data was still intact. That's when I realized that my game save data had been deleted during uninstallation thus thwarting the rest of my plan.

Feature description

There are actually multiple problems here. The first and foremost is the title of this issue report.

1. The uninstaller should explicitly ask the user whether or not to delete game save data during uninstallation. Game save data is far more important than settings or log data which the uninstaller does ask about. So I am completely baffled why this isn't already implemented. It seems like a glaring omission.

2. I realized that the cloud sync saves feature is only available for the Windows version of Dead Cells (and presumably other games) but not for the Linux version. Is this a limitation of Heroic because it hasn't been implemented, or is this a limitation imposed by GoG Galaxy or whatever other interface is working behind the scenes? Ideally, cloud sync saves should be available regardless of whether the Windows or Linux (or Mac or whatever) version is installed.

3. A feature to transfer/import the local game save data when a user migrates between Windows/Linux/whatever versions of a game would be really helpful if the location differs between versions.

4. Though not as important, it would be a quality-of-life feature to have an option to automatically migrate between Windows/Linux versions of a game instead of uninstall/reinstall. The Linux version of Steam, for example, makes this insanely simple to switch between Windows and Linux versions -- just check or uncheck a single box in settings. Boom! Done. And it often takes seconds or a significantly shorter amount of time than it would to completely uninstall the current version, download the other version, then install the other version. I don't know how Valve handles it under the hood, but they are performing some kind of amazing optimization when it comes to switching between Windows/Linux versions of games.

5. Especially if 4 is not implemented/implementable/feasible, there should be some option to at least temporarily cache downloads or set a directory size limit or something to save downloaded installation files for situations like mine which might involve testing and multiple installs/uninstalls/installs in succession. I say this because even though the operations I performed all took place in just a few minutes, every (re)installation apparently involved redownloading the installation files even though they had just been downloaded only a few minutes before. At the minimum, that's wasteful of bandwidth. For people with slow internet connections, it could be a major inconvenience.

Alternatives

Alternatives? Alternatives. I guess I could just install Windows and use that as my primary OS...or my OS for gaming and multimedia production. Or get a Mac. I think I've been pretty thorough in my thought process despite my frustration with losing all my game progress because I was trying to troubleshoot an issue with OBS.

Additional information

No other info. I'm just long-winded, and I'm trying to fill out all the requested boxes.

[arielj]

Saves are not always stored in the same place and are game-dependent. Each game can store saves wherever it wants to. During the uninstall heroic asks you if you want to delete the prefix for windows games, that's where saves are usually stored and it even says Note: this can't be undone and will also remove not backed up save files.

If saves are saved in the cloud, heroic won't delete them, and if they are in the prefix, heroic won't delete the prefix either by default.

Cloud Saves on linux versions of games is a limitation of GOG, it doesn't support that.

I'm not sure where games store their saves if linux native, they can literally do anything and we don't know.

[PaddyMac]

At least with GoG games, the GoG uninstaller (for both Windows and Linux versions) asks whether or not to delete game save data. Maybe Heroic could look at the data in the GoG installers to get the location of game save data automatically without the maintainers of Heroic having to manually curate this for each game. If that's not possible, maybe there could just be a way for the community of Heroic users to contribute this information.