No Single Player offline Mode then?

[jamotide]

At which time (probably 15-20 years hence) they will patch in code to make it an OFFLINE EXPERIENCE. By that time we will all still be playing this? Or something else? If 'you guys' wanna take down FD over this, none of us will be playing ANYTHING. I find that infuriating.

We don't want to take anyone down, why do you defenders of FD always postulate this? We just want our money back. There is no reply on refund requests. No official announcement about it either. That is why we continue complaining.

 

[Erna Jedermann]

All this poster in which celebrate there Victory are the best reason for Ofline mode ... It makes really sich to share an Planet in RL and an Offline Galaxy with you ...
But know what I will be there and you can do nothing against it.....

 

[Pennyblack]

The reasons why they pulled online are actually outlined in this thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=59481

Thankyou for the link, I missed that and it does offer some clarity on this matter.

I have to say that I am still disappointed by this news, but I am less angry and frustrated by it.
With regard to my gameplay in relation to Elite, I would go for the online experience because of the collective nature and excitement of online play; using offline when my internet wasn't available due to unforeseen circumstances. It would have guaranteed my continued play with my all time favourite game. However, as I intended to play online in the first place, I cannot and will not pursue a refund because my primary requirement for this game is still being meet; which I am happy about.

Happy flying Commanders

 

[phlOgistOn]

So..all the accountability and legally bound talk from kickstarter is just to get our money?

I'd say that legally you probably aren't entitled to much after you've donated to the investment - but in terms of PR it's a business decision for FD as to how they proceed

"Project Creators agree to make a good faith attempt to fulfill each reward by its Estimated Delivery Date."
"Project Creators are required to fulfill all rewards of their successful fundraising campaigns or refund any Backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill."
https://www.kickstarter.com/terms-of-use/oct2012

Those seem to be the pertinent parts from the UK T&Cs

In terms of rewards the only grey area would seem to be whether the always online part construes DRM where no-DRM is a part of the higher tier rewards. Unlike SimCity the whole game runs server side and will not function without it which doesn't implicitly mean it's a DRM function. AFAIK there aren't any rewards that specifically mention an offline singleplayer part of the game as being part of what your pledge entitled you to.

Most of the KS legalese is just protecting KS themselves from getting sued as a third party.

 

[SalsaDMA]

This might be the first game in history where trying to create a fake server for this game ends up bankrupting the pirates - or driving them mad.

I can't imagine it being much different that Diablo3 or even local servers for WoW.

 

[zelda_n64]

From what I have been reading this afternoon, it appears FD have used their propriety COBRA system to program ED, this is server based and as such a single player offline version will never materialise.

Further COBRA technology developments
We completed the adaption of our COBRA software technology to work with Nintendo’s WiiU and Google’s Android smartphone and tablet OS, which continues to extend our coverage of the major gaming devices. Coaster Crazy was the game used to drive the port, and this game was subsequently released on Nintendo’s WiiU and Amazon’s Kindle tablets (which run an Android variant called FireOS) under the name Coaster Crazy Deluxe. This new Deluxe variant was also released on Apple’s iOS.
-
This was a noteworthy achievement as Coaster Crazy makes heavy use of COBRA’s own physics system, and delivering the required high mathematical precision in a consistent manner is a significant undertaking on such different processing devices. Each of the three versions of the game also used the same COBRA server system running on our commodity servers.
This enabled players from the Nintendo, Amazon (Android) and Apple ecosystems to share data between players within the same game, providing another proof point of the cross-ecosystem abilities of COBRA.
-
We also extended COBRA’s networking capabilities to support the Microsoft Xbox One Zoo Tycoon project, allowing co‑operative play where one player can edit a zoo, even while another player’s
game character is standing in the zoo, watching it happen.

Elite: Dangerous
Alpha process
Development of the self-published Elite: Dangerous title continued during the year, which included the successful start and completion of the ‘Alpha’ section of the process. The process was designed
to front-load the key development risks in order to minimise the overall risk on the project. Hence ‘Alpha’ was split into four phases, each one addressing an important development risk: The ‘Alpha 1’ phase covered the key requirement of moment-to-moment gameplay fun, by providing a single-player combat test – whereby the player flew missions against computer controlled/simulated opponents – which used several novel mechanics including heat-based gameplay. It was vital that this ‘moment-to-moment’ gameplay was satisfying and worked.

There is loads more and it can be found on page 8 of this document http://www.frontier.co.uk/docs/files/Frontier Developments plc Annual Report and Accounts 2014.pdf

 

[Adept]

Really? So you wont be playing the best space combat sim for the last 25 years..your willing to ruin it for everyone because of some poxy offline mode that pirates/people who live in the middle of nowhere are whining about

Yes he is! and he'll do it too! We'll all be sorry!

 

[SalsaDMA]

They have a clear refund process which has been brought to the attention of people on the forums. They've clearly met the legal obligation in this post: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=59481

Not when they haven't replied to the requests.

 

[Binerexis]

Your post changes nothing in this regard. You even make the assumption that things now are designed as it is designed was intended, in which case you are actively asuming that they never intended to fulfill the promise of persuing the design goals that they said they would (otherwise offline would be part of that design)./QUOTE]

You probably shouldn't make assumptions about what other people may or may not be assuming.

It's been documented that in order to make the game they wanted to make, they had to take it online. That isn't an assumption that they never intended to make an offline mode. If anything, it's an admission that it became evident during the development cycle that an offline mode wasn't feasible.

 

[Jeverest]

I thought you were joking! http://www.polygon.com/2014/11/17/7233171/goat-simulator-free-mmo

So many levels of stupid. I MUST HAVE IT.

 

[-o-]

It absolutely can be done, it's just 'impractical' to quote the producer.

There is no reason why fd can't just put an offline version out, they just don't want to because of the way the game has been built thus far.

Maybe we can lure Ian out of retirement for the KS, assuming he is all done with that anti-US, trance based, occult fixation.

He seems to be a reasonable chap.

I'm confident David agreeing to a 99/1 split.

 

[CaptainKremmen]

Hahahaha ok, this has got to be the thread winning post right here. Do you also chase ambulances in your spare time, and try to sue for a million in damages if you burn your tongue on a restaurants hot coffee?

There are some forum member posts you should simply ignore, Adept. For example, members who joined yesterday, and posted four times in one thread, using the same inflammatory word. Just ignore such trolls.

 

[Binerexis]

Not when they haven't replied to the requests.

There's nothing to suggest that they aren't working on processing them. It's impossible for anyone who isn't an employee to confirm or deny that no single request has been processed.

 

[Demosthien]

Really? So you wont be playing the best space combat sim for the last 25 years..your willing to ruin it for everyone because of some poxy offline mode that pirates/people who live in the middle of nowhere are whining about

Some A-Grade empathy being demonstrated here... Well done.

 

[Nomadski]

Little attempt at lifting the mood for some

I know, little being the operative word. Am out of here, will check tomorrow to see if DBOBE has contributed more than a three word tweet to the threadnaught topic.

 

[jamotide]

In terms of rewards the only grey area would seem to be whether the always online part construes DRM where no-DRM is a part of the higher tier rewards. Unlike SimCity the whole game runs server side and will not function without it which doesn't implicitly mean it's a DRM function.

It is no grey area. Outside of this forum and EA headquarters everyone understands that a permanent connection to FD servers is Always-on DRM. Intent or necessity are irrelevant. It just needs to be always online to be DRM. Otherwise all companies would just claim it is necessary, like EA did, btw.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always-on_DRM

 

[Flak999]

Bull. If you've really read this entire thread, or even if you read just one tenth of it, you wouldn't be bemused by anyone's reaction. There's close to 400 pages of explanation about why people are upset. You've just written this to fan the flames, like so many other apologists. I'd explain, in detail, the many reasons why the loss of true offline SP has generated such a backlash, but you could just go back and reread this mammoth thread from start to finish (and try to do so more carefully next time).

I understand, your upset! But at the end of the day there are plenty more serious things to get upset about aren't there? Like I said, it's just a computer game! You wont be able to play it offline, big deal! No amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth on your part are going to change this salient fact!

I recommend you just get over it, ask for a refund if that will sooth your ego. Go and do something more productive, like play another computer game. I'm sure you will be able to find some problem with that one too!

Honestly, life really is to short, we will probably have had enough of ED and moved on to the next best thing in six months.

 

[SalsaDMA]

Really? So you wont be playing the best space combat sim for the last 25 years..your willing to ruin it for everyone because of some poxy offline mode that pirates/people who live in the middle of nowhere are whining about

I already got Freespace2, thank you.

 

[mbpoblet]

I suspect that if you added up all the pledges from those of us who put money in during the kickstarter, who only put money in because we thought we would get a single player offline game, and then deducted that total from the actual kickstarter total - it would probably turn out to be a very close run thing that the kickstarter funding goal would have been reached, and E: D would not have been started at that time, though I'm sure DB would have found another way to get it funded, but I doubt we'd be seeing the end of beta this week if that had happened.

It would do well to remember that original KS backers are who helped this game get off the ground and started back in Jan 2013, and I recall many at the time on the forums stating they wanted mostly to play the offline game.
Personally, I want both offline and online (in all it's forms), but I doubt I would have backed to Alpha level if offline was not on the cards.

Same here.

You can actually see the graph curve upwards once offline play started to be confirmed around december 11.

 

[Jeverest]

Little attempt at lifting the mood for some

I know, little being the operative word. Am out of here, will check tomorrow to see if DBOBE has contributed more than a three word tweet to the threadnaught topic.

Holy crap... this really is at threadnought levels!