Elite MMO almost

[quode]

As I see it I don't own this game. Its set up as an MMO but really not well. Original Elite was a one person game, now if there model fails I am out of a game. This is also we don't have any gamer time controls for really long flights. Its also why you cant pause the game. I had wanted Elite to be a game that only existed on my hard drive and not in some server somewhere.

Ken
1961-

 

[Muthax]

So pray it not fail!

 

[Monkeh]

Except when they're in unconnected like they are atm for some then you can't even play offline mode as the Start button is greyed out in game...

 

[Histarium]

Look at the Microsoft games for example... its "always online" DRM was phased out a LONG time ago. Some of the companies have opted to update the game, that is if that company still exists and enough people complain. DiRT is an example of this, it originally used Microsoft Live and always on DRM despite being a predominately single player game. As of right now, theres still no update but... Supposedly that company is working on it.

Needless to say, If FD cant fund the online aspect anymore in the forseeable future... Id say they would just patch it so you can play offline. Or else we can all break down their doors.

However, the game JUST released, please do not expect the game will fail to deliver online mode in the next 5 years at the very least >_>. Look at games like SWTOR for example... that game died in the eyes of MANY yet it still functions with the few that still love it.

 

[agent1138]

FD are a British company with Moral Values, they are not going to stab alll their consumers in the back so just calm down and be patient and wait for this to turn out to be an amazing experience over time.

 

[Fastdruid]

The reason ED being online only is not for always online DRM. Much though the conspiracy theorists and offliners would have you believe.

Most of the individual functions are handled by "online servers" and a number that weren't originally have migrated from "local" to "online" to prevent cheating (or exploits).
Now there is obviously somewhat of a DRM function but even without wanting to prevent pirates (of the software kind) any kind of online game utilising multiple servers *needs* authentication, otherwise anyone can just claim to be (for example) CMDR Quode and ruin his game.

 

[quode]

This is a online only game, just curios of how they intend to maintain the servers with out any continual billing. Currently the on line world is the only one you play in regardless of solo or group.

 

[Fastdruid]

Frontier have made no secret of their plans. There are many mentions of it on the forum but it boils down to this being David's dream and using the profits of other games along with game related sales (eg ship paint jobs, non-gameplay related sales and possibly cash-4-credits) plus of course the money from the expansions to fund the servers and future developlemt.

 

[Lucas Kell]

To be fair, in comparison to a traditional MMO, the servers to run Elite are likely to be considerably lighter and so won't necessarily need the income of paid subs to be maintained, su their current model will be pretty effective.

I like that Elite is kinda like a solo game, but with other people about and a dynamic universe.

 

[agent1138]

To be fair, in comparison to a traditional MMO, the servers to run Elite are likely to be considerably lighter and so won't necessarily need the income of paid subs to be maintained

Ship skins provide a nice stream, especially when they start to roll out more, also paid expansion packs will work. Similar to Guild Wars which has been very successful.

 

[Fastdruid]

I suspect that the servers mostly boil down to being essentially web servers with a database backend. While custom in the sense of the logic and code it's not like EVE where everything is done server-side and it needs some *really* hefty processing power to run.