Elite - Would it be better as a single player?

[popuptoaster]

FD canned the SP mode because of some waffle about not being able to run the background simulation effectively, I think it was a financial choice, they set the multiplayer game up to run P2P in order to minimise the amount of dedicated game servers they needed to run, having a whole bunch of offline players taking up server space with lots and lots of individual background sims running (you'd have to have your own sim as you'd effect it by trade or politics or whatever) would just have cost them more money and rewriting it to run in your game instead would have added extra complication, also possibly offline players would buy less "stuff" from the store with no one to see it?

 

[Maka Gucci]

I always use Dark Souls as an example because it is primarily single player with multiplayer/co op elements, uses p2p (so suffers some of the same issues/drawbacks) but is really well ballanced across PvE and PvP.

I bought Dark Souls games originally to play alone, not knowing what an invasion was. I loved the multiplayer aspects so much that I stuck with the series for far longer than I would have, pouring hours into builds, dropping my sign and helping random Hollow/Ashen travelers whom I shared the world with for but a moment.
It's a great single player game, that is made better for being online.

I bought this game as a single player game, had no idea what interdictions were.. You see where I'm going with this.

This game is made better for being online imo, and it has a solo/private option that literally gives you no drawbacks for choosing to use, yet you also have all the great player interaction that comes along with playing in Open as an option when you want it.

Will you get some immature a holes in every online game, yes, is everyone an immature a hole, far from it. There are loads of great random encounters to be had, and that can include being "greifed".

Because honestly if you subject yourself to a certain level of pressure you will learn how to handle that pressure and greifers are no different, adding another welcomed element.

I used to love being invaded in DS, just to parry the invader into living hell, having em run off behind an enemy, hugging their soapstone to return home.

Now I love (but am admittedly a lot less proficient at), turning the tables on the ones who interdict me.
Nothing comes close to the feeling of banishing an invader in DS, and nothing comes close to taking out someone who thinks they are about to ruin your day in this game.

You don't have those highs without Open/Online, and you can't have highs without lows, it is what it is.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Never been a fan of the MP focus most games have adopted over the last 10-15 years. The reliance on an internet connection to even be able to load up most games to me is B S!

The reason now for an "always online connection" is because of the cash shop. You have to be online so you can spend money in their shop. I forget which game it was where they made 330 million on the game sales and then a Billlion on selling stuff.

Game devs are greedy these days. They're making games around shops rather than games so watch out for them! Battlefront 2 and Destiny 2 are the biggest examples of that recently. Red Dead REdemption 2 likely to cash shop crazy too.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

The reason now for an "always online connection" is because of the cash shop. You have to be online so you can spend money in their shop. I forget which game it was where they made 330 million on the game sales and then a Billlion on selling stuff.

Game devs are greedy these days. They're making games around shops rather than games so watch out for them! Battlefront 2 and Destiny 2 are the biggest examples of that recently. Red Dead REdemption 2 likely to cash shop crazy too.

What has the cash shop got to do with online. Technically they could do that offline too. It is the BGS which requires an internet connection.

 

[Carroway]

For my money, dedicating itself completely to either being a full-on single player experience or full-on multiplayer experience would, probably, have done the game a few favors. Though I am not convinced that the game would have benefitted massively from being single-player only or multiplayer only.

You can see the game struggling to accommodate both styles of play and I do not envy the developers, who basically has to make two different games in one with all the negatives of both without any of the positives and there is no easy solution to it that wouldn't alienate a huge chunk of the playerbase.

 

[Sylveria]

The reason now for an "always online connection" is because of the cash shop. You have to be online so you can spend money in their shop. I forget which game it was where they made 330 million on the game sales and then a Billlion on selling stuff.

Game devs are greedy these days. They're making games around shops rather than games so watch out for them! Battlefront 2 and Destiny 2 are the biggest examples of that recently. Red Dead REdemption 2 likely to cash shop crazy too.

It's not the game devs... it's the publishers. Game Devs implement what the publisher requests- or they don't publish.

EA is infamous for buying game franchises and destroying them by implementing microtransactions, as evidenced by SWTOR and many other games. Bioware didn't implement microtransactions until EA swept them up.

 

[ITZC0ATL]

It's not the game devs... it's the publishers. Game Devs implement what the publisher requests- or they don't publish.

EA is infamous for buying game franchises and destroying them by implementing microtransactions, as evidenced by SWTOR and many other games. Bioware didn't implement microtransactions until EA swept them up.

Yes, EA are an evil corporation and are well fit to destroy any gaming franchise they get their hands on.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

A galaxy with 400 billion stars and tens of thousands of inhabited systems would be almost completely static and horribly dull to play in.

The scale of the game means that single-player doesn't make any sense (to me).

 

[Jex =TE=]

So you're saying it's not all things to all people?

#unfulfilledpotential

Well when I teamed up with friends for example and we'd hit a CZ, it felt like I was in a CZ just like I was when I was alone. I always flew OP until I wanted to team up then we had to make a group to get connected. It felt very much like a SP experience but there's not really anything objective to do together that you can't do on your own.

 

[xzanfr]

I would have preferred it to be a single player game however I don't think that it would have sold as well.
People nowerdays seem to need multiplayer in a game for some reason.

The mode method that Frontier have chosen seems to be a decent compromise.

PS get off my lawn.

 

[Jex =TE=]

What has the cash shop got to do with online. Technically they could do that offline too. It is the BGS which requires an internet connection.

You need to be connected in order to buy things I suppose? ED isn't a cash shop with a game made around it though like Battlefront 2 was. So basically in BF2 you connect to the cash shop and THEN play the stuff they added to it.

I've never bought anything on ED so I assume that's all done via the launcher and in game then? In which case probably not correct then.

It's not the game devs... it's the publishers. Game Devs implement what the publisher requests- or they don't publish.

EA is infamous for buying game franchises and destroying them by implementing microtransactions, as evidenced by SWTOR and many other games. Bioware didn't implement microtransactions until EA swept them up.

Anyone buying games from EA is an enemy of the people LOL

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

IF FD can come up with a way to have persistent npc characters to build relations with, actual long drawn out missions which we can do over time that actually have some depth in them, the ability to damage stations which then leads to missions to repair them, real time construction which accelerations / decelerates depending on how well the mission to build is going, missions from npcs to take them out to a site in the black and then those npcs can flourish or flounder depending on how well we support them

all that stuff is trivial (relatively) in single player games AND even in MP games where players essentially only come into our game carrying their character and then leave and go back to their game (possibly with more money / experience if they earned some)

but is apparently really hard in the current environment for elite.

so the question i personally ask is, over all, would ED be better with or without that genuine personal narrative?

(its only a pie in the sky question anyway, because ED isnt going to change from its current course, for better or for worse, its just an interesting thought exercise... well that is how i read the OP anyway)**

**btw i do still enjoy what we have, warts and all

 

[GG7]

The reason now for an "always online connection" is because of the cash shop. You have to be online so you can spend money in their shop. I forget which game it was where they made 330 million on the game sales and then a Billlion on selling stuff.

Game devs are greedy these days. They're making games around shops rather than games so watch out for them! Battlefront 2 and Destiny 2 are the biggest examples of that recently. Red Dead REdemption 2 likely to cash shop crazy too.

I hear ya!

And people can say what they will about No Man's Sky, but a couple of months back when our internet went down for 4 days due to a local disaster, it was THE ONLY GAME I could play! Unlike the other 99.9% of my contemporary video game collection, No Man's Sky DOES NOT require an internet connection to play it!

Needless to say, I ended up shelving ED for a good month and a half after that as I explored the latest 1.38 update to that game, which by sheer default, put itself in front of me as the ONLY game that cared about ME as a gamer first!

Its shaping up to be a spectacular game by the way! Kudos to Hello Games for sticking with it despite all the hate.

[up][up]

 

[Vandaahl]

Take GTA V for example - You have two modes, single player and online.

Pardon?
It has Story mode, single player online, closed friend session online (iow, grouped) and open online.

And no, it would not have been a better game. Different maybe yes, better absolutely not. Besides, it can already be a single player game, so I got no idea what this is about.

 

[Riverside]

Well when I teamed up with friends for example and we'd hit a CZ, it felt like I was in a CZ just like I was when I was alone. I always flew OP until I wanted to team up then we had to make a group to get connected. It felt very much like a SP experience but there's not really anything objective to do together that you can't do on your own.

I see this as a single player game with direct multiplayer added on, the BGS is a great addition to a single player game, and being able to instance with another player is just the logical next step - it could be done so it was.

Now I agree the direct multiplayer aspect can be added to even more, but fundamentally it only adds to the existing, primarily single player game. The game is not missing something, but more can be added to make it potentially even better. Probably just a glass half full/half empty thing.

So FDev have added features. Wings, CQC, multi-crew are all multi-player only features, they are of no use to the single player. None have gone down particularly well, although each have their supporters.

The basic feeling of being alone and slightly helpless (relying on your wits) is a big part of the game for me, being able to trust my mates to help me out is not a feature I desire or miss from another game.

 

[ITZC0ATL]

IF FD can come up with a way to have persistent npc characters to build relations with, actual long drawn out missions which we can do over time that actually have some depth in them, the ability to damage stations which then leads to missions to repair them, real time construction which accelerations / decelerates depending on how well the mission to build is going, missions from npcs to take them out to a site in the black and then those npcs can flourish or flounder depending on how well we support them

all that stuff is trivial (relatively) in single player games AND even in MP games where players essentially only come into our game carrying their character and then leave and go back to their game (possibly with more money / experience if they earned some)

but is apparently really hard in the current environment for elite.

so the question i personally ask is, over all, would ED be better with or without that genuine personal narrative?

(its only a pie in the sky question anyway, because ED isnt going to change from its current course, for better or for worse, its just an interesting thought exercise... well that is how i read the OP anyway)**

**btw i do still enjoy what we have, warts and all

Definitely an interesting question if not one that will change anything!

For what it's worth it was a comment of yours (on escape pods in previous games) that got me thinking along these lines.

I'm not an 84er so I've known Elite no other way than as an MMO.

 

[popuptoaster]

A galaxy with 400 billion stars and tens of thousands of inhabited systems would be almost completely static and horribly dull to play in.

The scale of the game means that single-player doesn't make any sense (to me).

No reason it would have to be any more static than it already is, the only reason anything happens in the game we have now is because FD turn it off every Thursday and change stuff, loads of sim games have background stuff being run on your own computer same could have been done for this one IF it had been designed SP from the outset. It wasn't of course and much as i'd prefer not to have to deal with an online game i choose to play it solo mostly and suffer the longer load times and player generated annoyances. I would have paid extra for offline single player mode had it been available, even after giving them 200 quid.

 

[Sapporo]

Don't add anyone to yours friends and play solo. /thread

 

[popuptoaster]

Don't add anyone to yours friends and play solo. /thread

Doesn't work, you can't escape the effect other players can have on stations and you have to deal with having an online connection which in my case makes for longer load times than i would otherwise have to deal with.

 

[Sylveria]

Anyone buying games from EA is an enemy of the people LOL

Completely agreed. Point being though, people are quick to blame Developers for all sorts of things, when in reality it's the Publishers that are making changes/demands that inherently change games/products.

If Marketing doesn't think it's "financially viable enough" they send Development back to their desks to implement features that will make it so. As with any business, it all comes down to the money- but Development usually isn't the department that rules the roost. Development is the "sword", not the arm that swings it.