exported battles from FOG empire on steam deck

[nikossaiz]

Steam say that empires is unsupported on steamdeck. I can verify that it plays quite well ( especially with trackpads and good key biddings, though the ui cannot not be upscaled so its a little difficult to read) with the only functionality that i see not working to be exporting battles to fog2. Fog2 plays also well ( great i would say ) on steamdeck, so would it be a way to have connectivity between the two on steamdeck on the future or via manual instructions?? I play the GOG version so moding files wouldnt mind anyone.

Ps in case anybody is wondering why the f i want to play those games on a 7" handheld is because i recently become a father so steamdeck is the only way to play in general.

[zakblood]

congratulations on become a dad

[nikossaiz]

congratulations on become a dad

Thank you zakblood! Having a child must be the more magnificent and masochistic thing in the world ( with second perhaps being playing strategies on steamdeck:)

[pipfromslitherine]

[All this is hypothetical, I am still waiting on my Deck dev kit]

OK - from what I know each game's Documents folder lives under ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/<app-id>/pfx/ In theory you will need to create corresponding folders in the other games Documents/My Games folder (so in each game's My Games folder you would have both a FieldOfGlory2 and a FieldOfGloryEmpires folder). [Steam Deck sandboxes all the games local data.] I think the appids are 1011390 for Empires, 660160 for FoG2.

Then, when you export from Empires you will need to copy the SAVES/AgeodBattleData.txt file (from the Empires pfx/.../FieldOfGloryEmpires folder) across to the corresponding folder in the FoG2 pfx/... /FieldOfGloryEmpires/ folder. This should let you play the battle in FoG2. Then, after the battle concludes, you will need to copy the SAVES/AGEODBattleResults.txt file from the FieldOfGlory2 folder into the corresponding FieldOfGlory2 folder in the Empires pfx folder.

Ah - you may also need to copy across the OPTIONS.TXT files from the original folders into the corresponding 'dummy' folders too, to allow the games to know that the other games are installed. This should be done after you have run each game at least once.

This in theory should allow the exporting of battles to work. You may need to tinker around with it a little if you run into any problems.

Cheers

Pip

[nikossaiz]

Hello PIP,

All this is hypothetical

actually it work. I play the GOG version of both games on steamdeck ( i bought them also on steam to be sure for compatibillity, but all the DLCs are on the GOG versions so i play those ) and the same PFX directories apply on it too.
So , now we have the option to export the battle from empires to FOG2. obviously the " copy this , copy that, copy this etc" isnt a viable solution, since its quite tiredsome and time consuming from one hand and from another it prohibits you from playing on steamdecks game OS ( witch preserve all the key biddings, customizations etc ) . Also one time that i manage to make it work just for the sake of it , i had to manually open one game, close it , open the other. Non of the automatical way we have on windows ( a think that some guys found it time consuming ! )

Hope for the full interaction of the games in the future! please inform us when you manage to do so!

[nikossaiz]

do we have any update on this?

[Karvon]

Hello PIP,

All this is hypothetical

actually it work. I play the GOG version of both games on steamdeck ( i bought them also on steam to be sure for compatibillity, but all the DLCs are on the GOG versions so i play those ) and the same PFX directories apply on it too.
So , now we have the option to export the battle from empires to FOG2. obviously the " copy this , copy that, copy this etc" isnt a viable solution, since its quite tiredsome and time consuming from one hand and from another it prohibits you from playing on steamdecks game OS ( witch preserve all the key biddings, customizations etc ) . Also one time that i manage to make it work just for the sake of it , i had to manually open one game, close it , open the other. Non of the automatical way we have on windows ( a think that some guys found it time consuming ! )

Hope for the full interaction of the games in the future! please inform us when you manage to do so!

Hmm, couldn't you just write a simple windows batch file do all the tiresome file transfers? I did that many years ago for another game I played and hosted.

I'm not a steamdeck user nor empire player, just happened across this.

Regards,

Karvon

[nikossaiz]

Hmm, couldn't you just write a simple windows batch file do all the tiresome file transfers?

i believe this is the way it works on windows. If anybody ( i'm lookin at you developers can make such a banch for steamdeck, then would be easier to just alter the individual install addresses and enjoy the game (s) .

[pipfromslitherine]

In Windows the games can look in shared folders so there is no need for file transfers. The Steamdeck (quite reasonably) sandboxes games from one another. I don't think running (e.g.) a bash script is especially simple on the deck either.

Cheers

Pip

[nikossaiz]

ok, so then, no expactations for a future solution i suppose.and think that i double bought both FOG empire and field of glory 2 first on GOG and then on steam for this reason.

[AdmiralNaismith]

For anyone still struggling with this, I have a solution.

Longtime fan of FoG2, I've recently sold my gaming PC and moved over to the Steam Deck. For anyone else wanting to have Windows-like cross-compatability between FoG2 and Empires, the easy solution in Linux is using symbolic links within each prefix. These soft symbolic links will let the games communicate, and they update automatically too.

Here's the step by step process, for all eight of us who play these games on Deck:

1. Navigate to your 'My Games' folder within the FoG Empires prefix (e.g., '/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/YOURPREFIXNUMBERHERE/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/My Games/'). Confirm that the folder 'FieldOfGloryEmpires' is within this 'My Games' folder.

2. In a new window, navigate to the 'My Games' folder in the FoG 2 prefix and open the 'FieldOfGlory2' directory within. Copy the whole path to the clipboard.

3. Open the terminal (Konsole) within the /My Games/ folder in FoG EMPIRES! (you can do this simply by right clicking within the folder, and choosing 'open in Konsole' from the drop-down menu).

4. Input the command below, and paste the full path for the FoG2 folder so it looks like this (only with the correct prefix number for your Steam Deck):

Code: Select all

ln -s '/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/FoG2PREFIXNUMBER/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/My Games/FieldOfGlory2/'

Don't forget to change this to your actual prefix path, and put quotes around it!

5. Now, close that Konsole window and copy the full path for your 'FieldOfGloryEmpires' folder within the Empires prefix 'My Games' folder.

6. Navigate to the 'My Games' folder within the FoG 2 prefix, and open up the Konsole there.

7. Input this command to do the same for FoG 2, now, as we did for FoG Empires:

Code: Select all

ln -s '/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/FoGEmpiresPREFIXNUMBER/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/My Games/FieldOfGloryEmpires/'

Once again, don't forget to make sure the command is using your actual prefix path (not my example path) and that it's enclosed within 'single quotes'.

8. All done! Now the process is just like Windows - the contents of these folders are visible to each game and you can export directly to FoG2 from Empires without copying any files.

To confirm that everything has worked, when you open up your 'My Games' folder within either of the games' prefixes. You should see two folders, one for each game. One will be in italic font (that's the one that was symlinked into the folder). I've attached a screencap of my FoG Empires prefix 'My Games' folder as an example.

If you're having trouble finding your prefix folders for each game (the specific numbered folders within '/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/'), just load each game up and make a new save in each. Then you can sort the folders within /compatdata/ by 'Last modified', and the top of the list will be the folders for FoG 2 and Empires.

[pipfromslitherine]

Nice find! Hopefully that will help any users who want to use the deck as their gaming platform.

Cheers

Pip

[Roostsock]

For anyone still struggling with this, I have a solution.

Longtime fan of FoG2, I've recently sold my gaming PC and moved over to the Steam Deck. For anyone else wanting to have Windows-like cross-compatability between FoG2 and Empires, the easy solution in Linux is using symbolic links within each prefix. These soft symbolic links will let the games communicate, and they update automatically too.

Here's the step by step process, for all eight of us who play these games on Deck:

1. Navigate to your 'My Games' folder within the FoG Empires prefix (e.g., '/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/YOURPREFIXNUMBERHERE/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/My Games/'). Confirm that the folder 'FieldOfGloryEmpires' is within this 'My Games' folder.

2. In a new window, navigate to the 'My Games' folder in the FoG 2 prefix and open the 'FieldOfGlory2' directory within. Copy the whole path to the clipboard.

3. Open the terminal (Konsole) within the /My Games/ folder in FoG EMPIRES! (you can do this simply by right clicking within the folder, and choosing 'open in Konsole' from the drop-down menu).

4. Input the command below, and paste the full path for the FoG2 folder so it looks like this (only with the correct prefix number for your Steam Deck):

Code: Select all

ln -s '/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/FoG2PREFIXNUMBER/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/My Games/FieldOfGlory2/'

Don't forget to change this to your actual prefix path, and put quotes around it!

5. Now, close that Konsole window and copy the full path for your 'FieldOfGloryEmpires' folder within the Empires prefix 'My Games' folder.

6. Navigate to the 'My Games' folder within the FoG 2 prefix, and open up the Konsole there.

7. Input this command to do the same for FoG 2, now, as we did for FoG Empires:

Code: Select all

ln -s '/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/FoGEmpiresPREFIXNUMBER/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/My Games/FieldOfGloryEmpires/'

Once again, don't forget to make sure the command is using your actual prefix path (not my example path) and that it's enclosed within 'single quotes'.

8. All done! Now the process is just like Windows - the contents of these folders are visible to each game and you can export directly to FoG2 from Empires without copying any files.

To confirm that everything has worked, when you open up your 'My Games' folder within either of the games' prefixes. You should see two folders, one for each game. One will be in italic font (that's the one that was symlinked into the folder). I've attached a screencap of my FoG Empires prefix 'My Games' folder as an example.

If you're having trouble finding your prefix folders for each game (the specific numbered folders within '/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/'), just load each game up and make a new save in each. Then you can sort the folders within /compatdata/ by 'Last modified', and the top of the list will be the folders for FoG 2 and Empires.

Thank you! I confirm that this worked. Great timing as well since I just bought FoG2 and Empires a few days ago.

My ’My Games’ folders were in a slightly different place, but you’ll find them if you go to your Steam Library in desktop mode, right click the game, and ’Browse’ the file locations. Also, running the Konsole in the folder for whatever reason spawned the folder in italics under ’My Documents’, but I just cut and pasted it to ’My Games’. Might’ve been my mistake but that worked anyhow.

You could do a video and/or post this somewhere more visible (a thread of it’s own? on reddit r/SteamDeck or r/SteamDeckGames?). More people should play Field of Glory on the Steam Deck, it seems to run really well!

Thanks again.

[OneoftheLost]

Ok. So. I got this working with Field of Glory Kingdoms and FoG:Medieval on Steam deck, using the exact method listed above. Here's a few tips.

Linux is not Windows. I don't understand why, but My Documents listed above is NOT My documents in compatdata. To find the compatdata you need to show hidden folders. Next up, finding the exact prefixnumber folder was a PITA until I saw a post that the prefixnumber folder number you need is listed on the steam page itself. Here's a list:

FoG Kingdoms: 1985050
FoG Medieval: 1368870
FoG Empires: 1011390
FoG 2: 660160

Next up, that first ln -s '/hom-etc. needs to be exact. That first character is a lowercase L. There is a space between the s and the ' . Its a PITA using the steam deck to create the ... links? What I did was right click - open terminal. Then I typed ln -s ' and right click pasted the address. Then I would steam button + X to open the typer function and add in the final /' use the keyboard R2 to simulate pressing Enter on the keyboard.

Hopefully this helps someone in the future or myself in the future.