No Single Player offline Mode then?

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Michael Brookes

Game Director
Michael, could you detail how often "from time to time" is - in regards to when the client needs to connect to the server? (And will the game work if I unplug my Internet connection after one of these "updates").

Thanks for taking the time to reply here...

At the moment it's whenever you need to conduct a server moderated transaction like trading.

Michael
 
Easy for you to say, At the house, My internet works half the time. I prepurchased a game that advertised an OFFLINE mode, not just on the KS page, but on the ED page as well. But that's my fault, for pre purchasing a game. I only thought I learned my lesson last time...

Try to get a refund. You've bought a game you can't play.
 
Well, you see, the promise that there would be a neutered off line game option was the point where I decided to pull the trigger. I shyed away from Star Citizen because off line was not even in question there. I looked at Star Citizen first because I've played Elite for many many years and I actually wanted something else. However, with no hope of an off-line component, I went with Elite.
The game doesn't disappoint me in the least, but when you guys go *poof*, my game goes *poof*. I'm not in the business of buying russian-roulette-ware, you see.
I made my decision on exactly the same basis.
 
The problem is that the galaxy mechanics all sit on the online servers. The data set and processes are huge and not something that would translate offline without considerable compromise to the vision. Trust me we didn't sit down and think what would annoy people the most! It's a choice we've had to make and so we've taken it.

Michael

Michael, so what would it take hardware wise to run a "personal" server that you could connect to via LAN? I have a spare PC sitting around doing nothing or are we talking about needing terabytes of RAM and a dozen Xeon cores?
 
Unlucky for the players who wanted to play offline. I sort of saw this coming, even though it didn't affect me. I understand the reasons why. The hard part to say, and I am definitely not trolling here... sometimes the needs of the many sacrifices the needs of the few.
 
OK, Michael! What else is not coming ? Better you tell us now!

Come on.

Elite was able to simulate an economy, Thargoids, etc. back in 1984 with 64 kb! And I also do NOT believe that this decision was made in the last days.

The whole thing stinks.
 
Michael, could you detail how often "from time to time" is - in regards to when the client needs to connect to the server? (And will the game work if I unplug my Internet connection after one of these "updates").

Thanks for taking the time to reply here...

The offline mode would totally make sense if it didnt have the stats transfer to on-line mode. Gathering the wealth off-line and unleashing the wrath on-line is not the optimal game scenario and will damage the game in the long run.
 
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They know, as they raised this post after posting in other thread.

I gives OP another chance to be critical of this game. Surprised really as all there previous posts
have always been so upbeat and favourable towards the game, always very supportive.
 
As mentioned in the newsletter thread the game has changed a lot since the initial kickstarter. One of the biggest changes is the importance of the the offline component to manage the galaxy and interactions. This isn't something we can translate into an offline experience as we'd effectively have to make a new game world - we couldn't share the same world and that throws out the intent for a shared universe.

Michael

Why not include a server module so that people can connect their client to their own server locally and inject and create their own events in their own server and play in their own world full offline...hell maybe even friends could connect to their server when online..... or is that just a silly idea ?
 
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It's ok Michael, most of us can understand I think. But how about offering refunds to those that want? After all..

"However it will be possible to have a single player game without connecting to the galaxy server."
 
Simply put, since 1984 I've been able to play the latest version of Elite whenever I liked, now I wont, if the servers ever go down pooof games unplayable.

Guess we'll have to keep buying paint jobs to keep them up.
 
Well, you see, the promise that there would be a neutered off line game option was the point where I decided to pull the trigger. I shyed away from Star Citizen because off line was not even in question there. I looked at Star Citizen first because I've played Elite for many many years and I actually wanted something else. However, with no hope of an off-line component, I went with Elite.
The game doesn't disappoint me in the least, but when you guys go *poof*, my game goes *poof*. I'm not in the business of buying russian-roulette-ware, you see.

I see it like this, you guys have my €60. Fine, keep it. But you could have gotten so much more out of me. I'm a gamer and not afraid to drop large wads of cash on my hobby, because I believe that when you do a hobby, you don't skimp on the details. Now €60 is all you'll be getting as Frontier Development is now on my blacklist, next to legendary fail companies Ego-Soft and Maxis.

On a greater scale, do you guys even realise how much damage you have done to your upcoming public release once people on the fence realise that the game is always online? A cynic would suggest that Frontier Development wants Elite: Dangerous to fail...

If you paid in Euros you are in the EU and you absolutely can get a refund, as long as you purchased through the store.

Ignore anyone who tells you otherwise.

I managed this very same thing for a £1000+ software packaged that was mis-described this year. This is very clear cut: All constraints around maintenance of a product MUST be made known at the time of purchase.
 

Irre

Banned
also where is the Mac version, wasn´t that a stretch goal or something?
No word about it either I don´t need it I am on PC now but what with the people who want the Mac version?

Mac version offline mode both under the rug?
 
From Kickstarter:
Projects can run out of time or money, people can leave, assumptions that were made at the start may prove to be mistaken, or the results may simply not be as good as expected.
So let's dissect this a little:

- Projects can run out of time and money:
If time and money constraints are the reason for the removal, fine. If they promised to reinsert it later, once their financial or time constraints were overcome I would have no problem with it. As it is, no such promise is given, quite on the contrary.

- people can leave
I don't think anybody believes that this was the reason.

- assumptions that were made at the start may prove to be mistaken
Okay, obviously they were making their promise based on an assumption. But in this is not the case here. Because it was proven, again and again, often by David Braben himself, that solo games can be made!

- the results may simply not be as good as expected
No problem here at all. It is not the quality I am questioning though there are plenty of people who seem to. Quality is relative. A clearly promised feature deliberately removed is not.
 
I'm glad to see that I'm not alone at all about wanting..., and needing an offline Elite Dangerous.

The first thing that pulled me to this game was that it is an Elite game.

The second was that it was going to be a game that I didn't have to go online with. A very rare think to have.

After I heard that offline playing was not going to be as 'moving' as the online I just shrugged my shoulders, and it didn't bother me.

Please, FD...reconsider about taking away offline playing from many of your backers looking forward to what we backed...playing Elite offline.

This is very important...Thank you.
 
The online servers provide all of the data and processing for the galaxy, interactions between players and all transactions of value. Without it there isn't a game. We always intended that the way to play the game would be online. We had hoped that we could do an offline variant, but as the game progressed the online requirement superseded that. It wasn't an easy choice to make, but to stay true to the game we set out to make we had to make this choice.

Michael

So its basically what I stated on the first page then:

Actually I have a feeling it may because they've been getting more stuff off the client side of things, on to the server. I've noticed a marked increase in cheat protection measures (nice job, Frontier) and they may have reached the point where they simply can't have a fully offline version now since they've moved too much to the servers.

Actually that really worries me for a totally different reason now. If Frontier fails as a company (or if Elite fails as a product) and goes away, so does our ability to play the game - utterly. Michael, what are your thoughts on releasing the server software if Frontier needs to shut the game down? Is that simply not feasible and will we be SOL without a functioning product in the event that Elite: Dangerous fails? What about releasing a standalone server for private groups or people that want to play offline, and can run the server on a local machine or a LAN connected device?
 
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