i would be far more incentivized to sink my teeth into the game, if i knew that the game could be played and saved EXCLUSIVELY on a local copy of the files.
frankly, i understand that this is possible on the GOG version of the game, but i was gifted the Steam version, and it wouldnt feel right to drop another premium sum on a second copy.
my problem (and yes, its a me problem), is that i dont feel secure in the idea that my progress is only saved on a cloud, and the game itself has a login check to even open the game at all.
Q: âwell, why dont you just use Steam offline mode?â
A: because steam offline mode requires a game to be launched in OFFLINE mode WHILE ONLINE, before you disconnect, to assure that the launcher saves your credentials. and if you do not re-connect within 7 days, you simply lose access to any DRM games on the account.
i know that not everyone is as worried about this sort of thing as i am, but if i have to be out of town and iâm not interested in hooking my computer up to an unsecured network (or if there are simply no networks at all) i want to know that a hard copy of this single-player game is available to play.
as the situation is, i am personally repelled by the idea that any progress i make is cloud-saved only, and i just keep holding out for the day that the GOG version goes on sale, or the login lock is removed. 
huh?
If I remember well Epic had this weird thing where saves were stored in different place whenever launched online or off line:
You can also disable Steams cloud save, though frankly I donât know why would you.
âthough frankly i dont know why would you.â
{ opinion noted, but lets try to keep it objective }
because conflicting save datas have this funny habit of trying to overwrite each other.
when i purchase a product, i intend to be the one calling the shots; where my progress is saved, when i can play it, whether or not i would like to sign into an account to play, or whether ( since it is a single player game ) i just want to play it completely offline on-the-go.
since i cannot choose these things, this is a product that i cannot recommend to anybody who asks about how much i enjoy it-- nor can i personally enjoy playing it, because every time i open it up, i am reminded of exactly how i dont actually own the product, but am instead renting an experience through multiple sign-ins.
does not feel good
Hey, I donât like forced online start as well but there should be no problem with the savegames.
Anyway: you could make a security copy of them before going online again if you really fear that they might get overwritten.
I used to start the game online and then kill the wlan. The only thing that happend was the the hours played would not progress on steam. As I fogot to kill the wlan a few times I ended up beating the game with â20 hours playedâ - lol.
On Steam, you can also disable cloud saving. Right-click on the game in your library and choose properties then in the general section you can find this option. Your saves are stored here: C:\Users[USERNAME]\AppData\LocalLow\Snapshot Games Inc\Phoenix Point\Steam[ID]\
EGS version is DRM free and you can play it in âtotal offline modeâ. Just run the game from the .exe file on your PC (without using Epic Games Launcher). Go to where your game is installed and run PhoenixPointwin64.exe. In my case, it is D: Program Files\Epic Games\Phoenix Point\ PhoenixPointwin64.exe
These days I tend to be always online, but I past I mostly played offline and synced cloud in University, as I didnât have internet at my apartment. I must say I never had issues you describe, at the very worst the system would ask what saves I want to keep. But if you are running into a problem, thatâs another matter, but thatâs not something I ever experience myself - be it steam or google galaxy
But you said it was gifted to you. Donât look a giften horse in the mouth, and such.
You still have options (disabling steam cloud is the option, though as far as I am concerned you just cut yourself from valuable backup if PC of your fails, or if you move between machines with no benefit to yourself) but Steam is DRM in itself. It still requires at least sporadic connection (2 weeks if I remember right from my Uni times) to internet to review validity of your copy.
This is now a standard thing. Even steam does it.
Basically one problem with cloud saves is in a multi-user environment. People at home donât generally make separate accounts for each person on a PC. Meaning that if you log into Epic/Steam with different accounts, youd end up trampling all over your own save games. This is also a problem in cyber-cafes
So the way services like Epic/Steam get around this now is to store their cloud saves in an entirely separate, and unique folder on a per-account basis. That way no matter who logs into a machine under what local windows account, your steam/epic saves are always unique to you. Steam also has a âlegacyâ steam cloud system by which you can cloud save by pointing the cloud save to a specific local directory like âMy Docuemntsâ but as I said, this has a side effect of potentially trampling over other usres saves and thus is generally now only used for older games.
Then to have a DRM free non-launcher save, games have a fall back for when not luanched under Epic.
@Satoru Thanks for the explanation. Itâs been about 15 years since I shared gaming PC so thatâs a side of it, that I am completely unfamiliar with.
Thatâs reminds me of a time I accidently erased my brotherâs progress in ADOM. He wasnât happy. But luckily had a couple weeks old backup.
thats basically where im at right now. my biggest problem is that it feels bad that a friend got the game for me, and the game itself employs many practices that i dont agree with. so im just gonna have to deal with it
I guess I"m confused by what you mean. âCloud saveâ does not mean âyoru saves are on the cloud onlyâ its just âI made a copy of yoru LOCAL save on the cloudâ
The steam version is using a LOCAL copy of the saves. Thatâs how all games work.
Also have you tried just running the exe directly. On Epic the exe itself is basically drm free, steam can functionally work the same way as well