No Single Player offline Mode then?

[Kicks]

... and show me where offline mode was ever deemed as a bonus.

What pecisk is saying, is that they wanted Offline. In fact, they've clearly stated they do want it - it's just no longer feasible. As has been iterated many times in this thread, and others, in large projects as they mature and grow, sometimes what was said a year ago, is no longer feasible in the grand scheme of things, and that to deliver a quality product, rather than a flawed one, it had to get dropped. Now, I understand that to some, a game without offline is the flawed version, but for the majority - that is not the case. It is unfortunate.

If you bought this game on the premise of the Offline-Play option, then you can probably get a refund. As Titus Balls said, don't do a charge-back, that hurts all parties involved and can have ramifications.

Frontier have not done this lightly, nor deceitfully.

Solo-play online is still there, so if you're worried about griefers, grievers, (or whatever spelling is the most popular these days) - worry not.

I am confident the always-online option is due to the simulation of the universe, and to make it dynamic rather than static. Perhaps some of us have rigs capable of doing this real-time whilst playing the game, but that would be the minority.


I am truly sorry for those who had Offline high on their list of requirements. It sucks to have the rug pulled out from under your feet - it could have been delivered a little better in the newsletter... But please let's not start the conspiracy/liars/evil-doers rhetoric.

Fly safe commanders...

 

[MINDWIPE]

Well, it requires regular check-ins for various transactions. Weapons purchases, missions, explorations, etc. etc.. It kind of doubles as an anti cheat method as well, so you don't see players running around in fully tricked out 'Condas or one of the larger, as-of-yet unreleased ships on day one.

good point i hadnt considerd

 

[PIXEL]

So I can pull my ethernet cable and the game will continue?

a simple and very important question to which the answer seems to be 'NO'

it's been a great thread... and I now know what I really didn't want to hear so I'm going offline for a few days and hopefully come back and read the updates...
er hang on, thats how I thought Elite Dangerous was going to work in single player when I bought into it )-:

 

[Renideo]

Having just read through about 20 dev comments posted since last night, whatever the undeniable communication failure that preceded this, I would at least like to thank Michael Brookes for so thoroughly and repeatedly answering questions on this topic in the aftermath.

 

[Voivod]

The Frontier defence force is working well today, I see there is no point going on with this, I already said he spent that money only for this game, not to play something else but hey you can play and I can play so we shouldn't give a damn for the people that can't.

Oh please! Why don't you care about the billions of people who don't have a computer to play it on then?

Let's blame FD for not solving the economic crisis and world-wealth distribution so that everyone is computer literate and can afford a computer to play Elite on.

 

[PrometheusDarko]

I know the truth. I'm just wondering when FD are going to stop evading questions.

They've actually shown quite the resilience in continuing to answer the same questions repeatedly, to a deaf audience...

Anyone else feel like that moment when we first got premium beta is going to feel like the highlight ? Such a step backwards from Elite 2 - Frontier. Maybe they should have just updated the graphics and sound of First Encounters.
Sad,
Gary.

Yeah, because that doesn't exist already... Oh... Wait... Dangit... There goes my argument... And honestly, crying over a server shutdown that hasn't happened yet and likely won't for the foreseeable future is a bit more sad... Quite a bit.

I'd suggest that they should have read the "Computer Requirements" section. It clearly says you need an internet connection, and always has done. They'll need it to register the game when they first load it, for a start.

This. A million times this. Honestly, it's almost like the Devs made this game with MMO capabilities and a Persistent Universe in the forefront of their mind... Odd, that... Yeah, Offline was planned, but it came to be found it just couldn't be done. Boo-hoo, moving on, enjoying the brilliant game that's being developed for us.

Honestly, how did these people expect to patch or update their game that was repeatedly stated would be in constant development.

 

[MINDWIPE]

Having just read through about 20 dev comments posted since last night, whatever the undeniable communication failure that preceded this, I would at least like to thank Michael Brookes for so thoroughly and repeatedly answering questions on this topic in the aftermath.

agreed , and also to thank him for quickly replying to ppls private msgs on the subject also

 

[Pibbles]

The generation of the galaxy isn't the main issue (although it is part of it). The issue arises from the processes and data that changes as players interact with the world. The previous games were essentially static universes with some specific changes. For Elite: Dangerous aspects of the entire galaxy can be changes and there isn't an easy way to abstract that out. We were faced with a tough choice and it's not something we wanted to do, but to release a game that matched what we set out to do we had to go online online. I'd love to be able to make everyone happy but sometimes we have to make a hard choice as we have here.

Michael

So Michael, on the basis that within the EU it is now explicitly enshrined within consumer law that all Digital Content sold off premises must define at the start of the contract what the constraints are for the contract to be binding, will Frontier be refunding those that ask for it?

Please don't point me in the direction of the refund policy because that is not valid due to the contract itself being invalidated due to Frontier NOT providing the above information at the point of sale.

Also we must consider that until very recently FD reps including yourself and David B were publicly stating that there was an offline mode, and therefore buyers can have factored that information into their decision - technically it's a form of pre-sale information.

Regards.

 

[SJT]

Errrr...it's online game, isn't it?

You really need to read the whole conversation to get the point of that last post.

 

[psuamier]

It's not just the data on the servers, it's the processing of everything that happens in the galaxy - so generating missions, trading, events, exploration - the core of the game.

Michael

I just wanted to point to a more interesting part of this discussion: Technical reasons for "Online only".
As it stands so far I have not heard a single argument that states a reason against Offline Play.

The idea is to transfer the server database to your PC and connect to your PC. No Internet connection needed, no code change needed.
The only thing is the Game Server Data. How much of the data is calculated as in old Elite (and Frontier) and what part is fixed.

To not repeat myself I have written some basic details in this thread:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=59074&p=1002363&viewfull=1#post1002363

Still from what I have played so far I cannot imagine that everything needs space of hundreds of terabyte space.
That would contradict everything that DB told us and what we are experiencing now.

So my question is: What are the actual reason to not offer us Offline Mode ?

 

[Skeloton]

You really need to read the whole conversation to get the point of that last post.

Still going at it I see.

The decision wasn't made this week.

So why the small off comment a month prior to release.

 

[PIXEL]

@mr PrometheusDarko..
some people didn't expect to need to be online all the time to play the game...

 

[Milky82]

So Michael, on the basis that within the EU it is now explicitly enshrined within consumer law that all Digital Content sold off premises must define at the start of the contract what the constraints are for the contract to be binding, will Frontier be refunding those that ask for it?

Please don't point me in the direction of the refund policy because that is not valid due to the contract itself being invalidated due to Frontier NOT providing the above information at the point of sale.

Also we must consider that until very recently FD reps including yourself and David B were publicly stating that there was an offline mode, and therefore buyers can have factored that information into their decision - technically it's a form of pre-sale information.

Regards.

why not just apply for a refund through the store site and leave the forum ?

 

[Irre]

If so many people would care about offline why is not everyone playing X Rebirth then, it´s only OFFLINE and it got fantastic updates it deserves a 9/10 rating in the current state and it has 100 times more content to play.

Right because they messed up their release version, can´t happen here or can it??

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

You really need to read the whole conversation to get the point of that last post.

No, I reread whole thread. Please stop looking for sinister motives. There's none.

 

[SJT]

So my question is: What are the actual reason to not offer us Offline Mode ?

They don't have the time or the resources.

 

[Titus Balls]

The Frontier defence force is working well today, I see there is no point going on with this, I already said he spent that money only for this game, not to play something else but hey you can play and I can play so we shouldn't give a damn for the people that can't.

I'm not defending Frontier here - I'm making a common sense point.

I too have spent a lot of money for this game alone (PB, HOTAS, DK2, Additional GPU, extra 2 monitors, etc, etc) a lot more than £700.

That's *MY* choice to do that, no one elses. I cannot and would never expect Frontier to offer any recompense for this, and for you to suggest it for your friend is a little silly. If he chose to spend the money for one game alone then Caveat Emptor.

 

[Quietman]

Heck, the sun could flip out and kill all electronics on the planet tomorrow, sure. Or we could be invaded by tiny green men (a bit more unlikely, I'll admit). But honestly, there are still servers running for games that came out in 1992... So chicken littleing over a server shutdown that might happen sometime is not that logical...

Ok, I'll rephrase the logical assertion of my statement so that you can't strawman out of it this time.

The FD servers WILL shut down, when they shut down no one actually knows. Good intentions and even the most successful companies cannot overcome Entropy, right?

My original reply was to a guy who implied that the servers would not only be around for a period of time so as to minimise people's concerns, but that also they would mostly likely make the servers public if and when that scenario ever presented itself.

I in turn replied, (probably in a rather too dramatic fashion), that this was impossible to predict for not just him, but also for FD.

You then jumped to his defense casting logic completely aside and now you're resorting to misdirection and resumes to keep your argument afloat.

He said to the student of Astrophysics... (Okay first year, but still...)

Sorry but you are a first year, once you get to second year you'll look back at the first years and think n00bz, 3rd year...blah blah..once you have your degree, your masters degree and 25+ years of experience, maybe then you can start showing off your resume?

 

[SuBSynk]

The Frontier defence force is working well today, I see there is no point going on with this, I already said he spent that money only for this game, not to play something else but hey you can play and I can play so we shouldn't give a damn for the people that can't.

I suggest maybe this friend spends a tiny percentage of the amount he has already invested into playing Elite into getting an internet connection installed?

 

[SJT]

No, I reread whole thread. Please stop looking for sinister motives. There's none.

I wouldn't use the word sinister, exactly. I think Michael has to be evasive all weekend until a full answer is given on Monday. It's business.

He can't give an answer on full refunds because it his not his decision (At least not his alone).