In another thread, there was a discussion about respawning and other features that were implemented into Elite Dangerous differently from the original Elite games because of MMO playability.
Now, I'm a young 'un and wasn't even alive in the '80s, so I have no opinion on this topic per se, but from those that have played the originals - would you have preferred Elite to be a normal single player game in keeping with the originals, or do you like how it's evolved into an MMO?
I do think there are two sides to this. There are undoubtedly a lot of features in Elite that are designed around it being an MMO that could otherwise be designed much better from a PvE point of view, were it not for online play and (among other reasons) the potential for exploits.
On the other hand, some of the best aspects of this game revolve around player interactions and us all living in a persistent universe, and I think the community is probably all the more active for this conectivity.
Now, I know the PvP crowd will obviously not be very amused at the idea of single-player Elite, but considering that most of the playerbase is supposedly PvE, I thought it would be interesting to hear everyone's opinions.
Would Elite Dangerous have been been better as an offline, single player game? Has Elite as an MMO provided a better experience than it could have if it hadn't made this evolution?
It depends on who you ask.
There are many people who really like multiplayer, or even who can only enjoy games when played with others.
I think that is perfectly fine.
I am not such a person.
I only care about the solo experience.
From that viewpoint it is clear to me that FDEv would have had it far easier to create ED.
All the time, effort and money they poured into multiplayer, into servers, into features etc. could all have been spend on the general experience.
The other way around that would not have been the case because the multiplayer crowd needs the singleplayer features to make the game viable.
. If this was a solo game we would have had a cool NPC crew system a year ago.
. If this was a solo game we would have had NPC wing mechanics and Wing/escort missions 2 years ago.
. If this was a solo game the balancing would not have been such a problem.
. If this was a solo game we could have had much more interesting and powerful weaponry.
. If this was a solo game Powerplay could have easily been integrated in general gameplay and could have been developed into one of the core foundations for the mission system.
. If this was a solo game we would never have been bothered by a bad connection (assuming it would be an off line game too).
. If this was a solo game FDev could have concentrated much more on building the actual ED universe.
. If this was a solo game we might have been able to mod this game !!!!
. If this was a solo game we might get a truly unique solo story campaign.
But as I said: this is purely stated from the viewpoint of someone who does not give one iota about anything concerning multiplayer.
For someone who enjoys multiplayer all this is moot.
I would be willing to pay full price again to get a solo/off line version with all of the above mentioned features.
That is how much I feel multiplayer handicaps development of Elite.