The time has come

[Envy661]

Okay, so you want an offline patch. Cool.
An offline patch around 500-1000 GBs at least due to the sheer amount of calculations done server-side and streamed. It doesn't require a lot of internet power to stream it because you're getting a tiny bit at a time. But if you want the whole thing, you'll be filling up and entire HDD with just that. Just saying.

If that's what you want, then by all means, more power to you. But I get why Frontier doesn't do it. It's just not very realistic.

 

[ThatFuzzyTiger]

Promised in alpha? A fantasy right there. That's always good for a laff. A massive ever changing galaxy offline? I couldn't see how. Guess I was right at least once.

That's actually the easy bit, if you think in terms of "making it -look- convincing", Rebel Galaxy managed that with consummate ease on a fraction of Elite's budget. It doesn't -need- to have Deep Blue levels of AI complexity, just a logical and sensible economy, a few factions that fight each other and provide plenty of space pew, and a means of influencing those factions along with gaining standing with them. To be fair even -mobile- games can manage the whole "changing stuff whilst you're away" without much difficulty, so I fail to see why you're lacking imagination in how a space pew game could manage the same.

@frostypaw : Nothing tinfoil about it, simple commercial logic at work. Frontier are almost unique in the regard that they charged explicitly for beta access -and only beta access-, that's the first time I've seen that before, and it's only feasible because everyone has an online account. Sure other games have charged for access to beta as a part of a wider package, but never for beta access as a standalone thing. I'm almost certain it's the only company who could get away with it too (even Blizzard avoided that one).

@Envy661 : You're assuming an offline patch would need to bring down the entire galaxy, read my posts, it's not what I've suggested.

 

[Armour]

Yes, I'm going to do something that's...technically very difficult

But you said it was

not hard to achieve

By the way, when I said "Do it then" I wasn't talking about hacking their game to suit you, I'm talking about making a game from scratch that fits your criteria, seeing as you admit that it would be, at the very least

technically very difficult

to adapt their engine.

So go for it! All the PG and generating a galaxy and all that is

not hard to achieve

, remember?

 

[ThatFuzzyTiger]

Ah yes, reductionist arguments at their finest. For a single person behind a computer, what you're asking for is exceptionally nasty work. Not impossible, but very hard work that would require years, and seeing as you're asking for a full -game- to be spun up from scratch, well, there's someone already doing that (see Limit Theory, though that's still a long way from completion). For Frontier? Soup and nuts. They have three hundred plus employees, including dedicated teams who could quite easily make this possible.

If you're going to use logical fallacies and straw man arguments, have the sense to use better ones please. My argument is that Frontier -can- do it if they wished, and there's not really any debate around that. They have the manpower, technical capability and tools available to concoct an offline localhost version of their galaxy which would fit -and- run on a single desktop computer, any suggestion otherwise would be disingenuous. The reason they don't is commercial, see my point above, there's two reasons to keep everyone "online", either to avoid piracy, but again, unless you're an MMO, denuvo resolves that now, and if you need a secondary revenue stream, which brings us neatly to Frontier. You can't sell Gold paint jobs to people who can mod that kind of stuff in

 

[frostypaw]

Oh good lord. Have you not noticed they've not finished yet?

Or do you think they're intentionally stalling until they've sold a thousand gold paintjobs?

Yes they could make a little toy galaxy game like you describe - would it be this one with this scope? No. Seriously. Different game from the one they want to make - and it's their choice. They've been pretty darn open about it and I think you're being particularly unkind and viewing it in the worst light possible, maybe thinking it'll further your agenda and if you paint them badly enough that they might provide for your wishes.

 

[ThatFuzzyTiger]

Oh good lord. Have you not noticed they've not finished yet?

Or do you think they're intentionally stalling until they've sold a thousand gold paintjobs?

Yes they could make a little toy galaxy game like you describe - would it be this one with this scope? No. Seriously. Different game from the one they want to make - and it's their choice. They've been pretty darn open about it and I think you're being particularly unkind and viewing it in the worst light possible, maybe thinking it'll further your agenda and if you paint them badly enough that they might provide for your wishes.

I view any developer in the same light, not just Frontier. All developers are, at the end of the day, out to sell a product to the consumer. That's not news. The fact that the game was released in a "not terribly finished" state either wasn't news, I think we're all sortof aware that it's still a fair distance away from being a finished product (Horizons enabled landing on barren rocks, forgive me if I don't sound overly thrilled at the idea of landing on fairly empty terrain, I'm waiting for more interesting planetscapes). I merely view Frontier in the same lens that I view any developer, I don't ascribe any particularly warm or fluffy feelings to them (as a fair number on the forum might) because they're a business, and as such I don't look at them with any feelings of loyalty or misguided need to defend them.

Their decision to remain persistently online was a commercial one, that's their good right, attempting to suggest it's for any other reason -than- for commercial reasons is disingenuous, because there's cogent arguments against pretty much any other set of explanations that exist. Again, not saying that their decision is wrong, and I'm not expecting them to change their decision now, they've made their decision (and had to issue refunds over it) and we'll see how it bears fruit, but anyone saying it's for any other reason than to enable them to monetise their customer base needs to take off the rose tinted glasses

 

[frostypaw]

because there's cogent arguments against pretty much any other set of explanations that exist.

No there are not.

This is where you're basically purposefully ignoring what is said to you again and again. THIS GAME - AS IT IS - CANNOT EXIST OFFLINE.

Ok?

Yes you are correct that a different game with many similar features could exist offline.

Ok?

Different games. I am much more interested in the former than the latter, I and many many many others bought it because it is the former too - and that sort of game has to be online. Situation explained, zero rose tint required. Heck fella they don't even charge a subscription - you don't HAVE to buy any paintjobs. You make a terrible argument and it just sounds like crackpottery.

 

[ThatFuzzyTiger]

No there are not.

This is where you're basically purposefully ignoring what is said to you again and again. THIS GAME - AS IT IS - CANNOT EXIST OFFLINE.

Ok?

Yes you are correct that a different game with many similar features could exist offline.

Ok?

Different games. I am much more interested in the former than the latter, I and many many many others bought it because it is the former too - and that sort of game has to be online. Situation explained, zero rose tint required. Heck fella they don't even charge a subscription - you don't HAVE to buy any paintjobs. You make a terrible argument and it just sounds like crackpottery.

No, they don't charge a subscription buuuuut... I'll assume anyone who doesn't have horizons won't be getting season 3... etc. It's the Guild Wars approach to things. It's not a subscription, but you're going to need to purchase the expansions to remain current. It's your good right to be interested in the always online galaxy, you go for that. There's also a contingent of people who'd dearly like an offline version because their internet is spotty, or perhaps they want to mod the game, or they want to tinker with the government settings, or to try and make minor factions more interesting, any number of reasons. Right now, Frontier has no desire to cater to that, but it's not going to make that group of people go away, and neither are you, as much as you want to dismiss my arguments as crackpottery

 

[frostypaw]

I'll assume anyone who doesn't have horizons won't be getting season 3... etc.

<Whoops>

"contingency" seems to mean "you". there's not much demand and the LAST THING IN THE WORLD i'd want you to be able to do is 'tinker' i.e. screw up a game world I'm sharing with you.

You want and need a different game - it CANNOT be this game. You've had it explained to you why, you've happily danced off again amongst the daisies and claimed again noone can give you a reason why and it's all a conspiracy to do people over, so it's been explained again but it's not stopped you for a second

Nope, nothing I can do about that. Enjoy the dead horse, they do get quite dry