I’m considering purchasing a steamdeck. I may be away from my computer when I get the steamdeck. Could there be any issues with setting up games without access to a computer with my steam account? I assume cloud saves will be available. What about setting up a game that requires rockstar launcher?
Edit: Thanks for the feedback. It looks like the answer is no, I don’t need access to a computer with my steam account.
Not really. The only big issue I could see is if you needed create a bootable USB to restore SteamOS.
It’s also occasionally easier to install non-Steam games on a desktop and transfer over the files but that’s mostly just about saving time.
And you can create the bootable USB with the Deck before you swap the SSD. You should never need a second PC to set up the Deck unless you bought your Deck without an OS installed already.
Yeah but what are they going to create the bootable USB on if SteamOS is corrupt?
I don’t really expect someone to always have a bootable USB on hand for each OS they use.
You could probably use your phone. I haven’t tried it but I’m pretty sure it’s possible.
And you don’t need a bootable USB for every OS you have. You only need one and can create whatever you need on that live system. In case of the steam deck you could also have an SD card with a different OS and create your SteamOS stick there.
Oh yeah when there’s a will there’s a way. You could install Linux on a Nintendo Wii and find a way to create a bootable USB from there but it’s pretty much always going to be easier to use a desktop to create it is my point.
I just thought it’s a minor inconvenience worth noting.
That’s why I mentioned the “without an OS installed already” though a corrupt OS is another possibility that would need some other system available (whether phone, tablet, another Deck, or PC).
And honestly that would be solved with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.
Not really. The issue I’m talking about is long install times not clicking and dragging. Tale of Two Wastelands I think took took me twelve hours to install on my Steam Deck versus one and a half on my PC
I mean, that’s very uncommon. TTW is notorious for taking a long time to install. Most installers that are not bizarrely CPU heavy will work fine.
Sure but TTW wasn’t the only CPU heavy installer I’ve encountered. My marginally stronger desktop has saved me a lot of time in that situation
How did you install TTW on your steam deck without a pc to run the installer? I’m willing to put up with the 12 hours if I have to.
You can install TTW on the Steam Deck. You could probably set it up in Lutris and just alter the selected executable back and forth throughout the installation process.
That said Gnarly Repacks has a TTW repack that streamlines the process.
How did you come across this post by the way? Just curious considering it’s three months old.
Thank you. I’ll look into Lutris and Gnarly repacks when I have a day to mess around.
I found this post by doing a search for “TTW” on mbin and got lucky. YouTube and Reddit have been all but useless as tutorials all assume you have a windows pc for heavy lifting. I got a deck to be my pc.