13stein.j
Published
The start to what is now community known as The Ezio Collection, still one of the most popular AC games to date. 0 issues after tinkering.
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dinput8=n,b" %command%
Ubisoft Connect needed to be installed to the game's wine prefix.
Resolved using EaglePatch2
It is unclear if EaglePatch2 unlocked my previously paid for DLC (which is one of its features) as online services for older Ubisoft games are decommissioned, and when this happens usually DLC ends up unactivateable.
EaglePatch2 can cause some occasional severe graphical glitches under default settings related to NPC shadows/fabric textures. Solved by disabling the LOD increase in config. The issue was rare enough that I kept it on.
Game just works fine. Start to a great franchise. The controls and general movement speed definitely show the game's age though.
Initial launch tries to get you to register, and to sign your soul away with a EULA (/s). Attempting to register launches the Wine browser / Internet Explorer clone. Registering is impossible in modern day, and there is no method to close the browser. Force quitting failed, unrecoverable without restarting Steam Deck.
No trouble on subsequent launches.
Initial successful launch can get you to the contoller settings to select a controller via touch screen.
Subsequent launches use the controller, but only after selecting save profile / choosing to go to the main menu via the touch screen. Minor annoyance.
Less than 3 total crashes in an entire playthrough, cause unclear. Safe to say "rare crashes."
EaglePatch can be used to improve graphics, or other retexturing mods. Not worth the effort in my opinion.
The second game in The Ezio Collection, a classic. Maxed out graphics give a mostly consistent 90fps on Steam Deck.
Used protontricks to backup and restore save games when I switched Proton versions.
A transparent to the user Ubisoft Connect process is launched that inhibits a clean exit without additional tinkering.
After first launch, in which controller is detected fine, subsequent launches failed to detect the controller. Resolved by forcing use of Proton 8.0-5, however one needs to enable developer mode and delete proton files before switching, otherwise the game will crash on launch.
Cloud Saves didn't sync.
2 game-states that lead to a consistent crash. Both when one first transitions from part N of a mission (including replays of the mission) to N + 1. After relaunching the transition happened and the game starts past the failure point. One of these was during the Flying Bomber War Machine mission, I forget the other.
An aesthetic skin from the DLC never unlocked. You can find save games from other people online and either use theirs or patch the raw binary data if you're into reverse engineering to regain that skin, and the Project Legacy capes.
A transparent to the user Ubisoft procrss inhibits clean exit of the game. One can configure it to close when the game does in Desktop mode by launching Ubisoft Connect manually.
Ubisoft password required on game launch. I didn't bother tinkering with offline mode, as the method to achieve it has repeatedly changed over the years.
Massive Remapping, just used as a starting point.
Weapon names are small
Randomly dies, but changing to an audio sink in-game resolves the issue permanently. I don't know which sink is better (Virtual or Filter Chain).
Gun glitching, appears to rapidly vibrate.
WASD does not map well to joystick
I wouldn't play competitive with a controller. FPS was decent on deck generally > 120 many times > 200 but very variadic.
Controls are a massive hassle. "Gyro to mouse" feels like an improvement over default Gyro, but makes the menu annoying on smaller buttons.
