Give us an offline version of the game with just 7 systems

[Deadlock-3000]

Remember Premium Beta when the bubble was about 7 systems wide?

Let's face it, you could still pack the whole current game back in there. 7 different star types (with a few binaries), make sure there's one of every planet type, plenty of rocks to put the engineers on, make sure at least one system has a Hutton type watch-paint-dry exercise, bingo, you have ED in a cosmic nutshell.

The only people who'd lose out would be the screenshot-taking brigade and the Powerplay obsessives. And they can carry on playing the buggy, netcode-freezing online version if they like.

I mean, obviously I wouldn't play it. It's too late for me, I'm so jaded I practically need a kidney transplant. But it might help the younglings out. And they'd gain some karma from reneging on the Kickstarter pledge to have an offline version, without having to transplant the full spaghetti-on-LSD nonsense of the current BGS into offline form.

Everybody wins.

 

[Valorin]

Remember Premium Beta when the bubble was about 7 systems wide?

Let's face it, you could still pack the whole current game back in there. 7 different star types (with a few binaries), make sure there's one of every planet type, plenty of rocks to put the engineers on, make sure at least one system has a Hutton type watch-paint-dry exercise, bingo, you have ED in a cosmic nutshell.

The only people who'd lose out would be the screenshot-taking brigade and the Powerplay obsessives. And they can carry on playing the buggy, netcode-freezing online version if they like.

I mean, obviously I wouldn't play it. It's too late for me, I'm so jaded I practically need a kidney transplant. But it might help the younglings out. And they'd gain some karma from reneging on the Kickstarter pledge to have an offline version, without having to transplant the full spaghetti-on-LSD nonsense of the current BGS into offline form.

Everybody wins.

No.

 

[Old Duck]

Remember Premium Beta when the bubble was about 7 systems wide?

Let's face it, you could still pack the whole current game back in there. 7 different star types (with a few binaries), make sure there's one of every planet type, plenty of rocks to put the engineers on, make sure at least one system has a Hutton type watch-paint-dry exercise, bingo, you have ED in a cosmic nutshell.

The need for ED to be online is more about BGS than it is the size of the galaxy. No Man's Sky has infinitely more star systems (give or take) than ED, yet it is completely playable offline. Granted, many of ED's systems are actual real-life star systems, which require more data than pure procgen, but if Red Dead Redemption 2 can squeeze in all the detail it has into an offline game, ED can easily fit the catalog stars into an offline game as well.

But they never will.

ps - Didn't Elite II have the entire galaxy and yet fit on a floppy disk? IIRC..

 

[StuartGT]

Nah.

 

[Valorin]

The need for ED to be online is more about BGS than it is the size of the galaxy. No Man's Sky has infinitely more star systems (give or take) than ED, yet it is completely playable offline. Granted, many of ED's systems are actual real-life star systems, which require more data than pure procgen, but if Red Dead Redemption 2 can squeeze in all the detail it has into an offline game, ED can easily fit the catalog stars into an offline game as well.

But they never will.

ps - Didn't Elite II have the entire galaxy and yet fit on a floppy disk? IIRC..

Frontier and First Encounters both featured the Milky Way as a game world. But it was far from as detailed as the one in ED. I also think it's not the map data that eats so much space.
Anyway, I don't have a big problem with an offline mode, though I enjoy player interaction, I just need the galaxy map. I am also pretty much indifferent about BGS, so I personally don't really care about bugs in that sector.

 

[Crank Larson]

But it might help the younglings out.

"Younglings" don't seem to know what to do when they are not "online", so I doubt many of them would know what to do with an offline version... And the number of people that were really bothered about no offline version wasn't that high (and they were offered refunds at the time).

I think an you're offering a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.

 

[Rudal]

Would it be great to have all Solo mode experience as offline game? Sure it would but at this stage wouldn't make much difference. Maybe just as a backup when Frontier decides to pull the plug on servers.
Limiting it to just a handful of star systems wouldn't make much sense.

 

[Crank Larson]

No Man's Sky has infinitely more star systems (give or take) than ED, yet it is completely playable offline.

I beg to differ here. I can't play No Man's Sky offline at all (PC version) and I experience regular crashes if my internet connection is poor (admittedly related primarily to missions). Had this a lot when I took it on holiday with me. It's probably fine if all you're doing is wandering around planets or base building.

 

[Leadfoot]

Elite: Reader's Digest version.

 

[Old Duck]

I beg to differ here. I can't play No Man's Sky offline at all (PC version) and I experience regular crashes if my internet connection is poor (admittedly related primarily to missions). Had this a lot when I took it on holiday with me. It's probably fine if all you're doing is wandering around planets or base building.

It's 100% offline compatible on PS4 (which ironically has less storage than the average PC). Trust me, the only time I connect my PS4 to the Internet is for ED in Solo, due to bandwidth caps.

At least it was the last time I played..

 

[PiLhEaD]

Elite: Citizen

(C'mon, someone was going to say it!)

ps No thanks, not for me.

 

[Iskariot]

Remember Premium Beta when the bubble was about 7 systems wide?

Let's face it, you could still pack the whole current game back in there. 7 different star types (with a few binaries), make sure there's one of every planet type, plenty of rocks to put the engineers on, make sure at least one system has a Hutton type watch-paint-dry exercise, bingo, you have ED in a cosmic nutshell.

The only people who'd lose out would be the screenshot-taking brigade and the Powerplay obsessives. And they can carry on playing the buggy, netcode-freezing online version if they like.

I mean, obviously I wouldn't play it. It's too late for me, I'm so jaded I practically need a kidney transplant. But it might help the younglings out. And they'd gain some karma from reneging on the Kickstarter pledge to have an offline version, without having to transplant the full spaghetti-on-LSD nonsense of the current BGS into offline form.

Everybody wins.

That is a definite NO from me too.
I want an off line version for sure, but I want it to have a full galaxy. That is what makes Elite unique.
An Elite game with a measly seven systems would be completely uninteresting.

I would not mind if the BGS was a bit more static.

But it might help the younglings out.

With what exactly? It would only make Elite vastly more uninteresting.
Your suggestion would do nothing to help out with anything.

 

[StuartGT]

Elite: Citizen

(C'mon, someone was going to say it!)

ps No thanks, not for me.

Nah, that'd be the name if only half a star system was done.

 

[Crank Larson]

It's 100% offline compatible on PS4 (which ironically has less storage than the average PC). Trust me, the only time I connect my PS4 to the Internet is for ED in Solo, due to bandwidth caps.

At least it was the last time I played..

It could be a PC/Steam thing, or maybe I didn't try hard enough. I've only just come back to E: D from NMS - I go through phases as to whether I want to fly a spaceship (which is awful in NMS) or explore planets/build bases (which is impossible in E: D). Having got to the centre of the universe again and built five or six massive bases in a system I claimed there (hoping to encounter others - I've even set up several racetracks!), I've got bored of that again (it really is difficult to encounter other humans in NMS unless you join one of the community missions). Anyway, I'll not mention it again in this thread or it will probably get exiled to another section of the forum.

 

[Iron Golem]

The need for ED to be online is more about BGS than it is the size of the galaxy. No Man's Sky has infinitely more star systems (give or take) than ED, yet it is completely playable offline. Granted, many of ED's systems are actual real-life star systems, which require more data than pure procgen, but if Red Dead Redemption 2 can squeeze in all the detail it has into an offline game, ED can easily fit the catalog stars into an offline game as well.

But they never will.

ps - Didn't Elite II have the entire galaxy and yet fit on a floppy disk? IIRC..

Everytime I hear about offline mode I am pulled back in time to the last EA game I ever played.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theregister.co.uk/AMP/2014/01/13/simcity_offline_turnaround/

I feel much like we were told Sim City "needed" online / cloud to "handle" the simulation, Frontier also says the same about ED. Truth is its just smoke and mirrors for first line DRM and to push a cosmetic shop.

ED could go offline tomorrow. Always could always would. I have no doubts modders would breath in the life and changes the game so desperately needs within six months if Frontier was willing.

The game has operating costs and the store helps supplement that and that is a valid strategy. But the whole needs to be online for the simulation bit is a bunch of crap. It "needs" to be online so they can advertise it as a MMO and ride the cosmetics cash wave.

If there's real premium content coming, online and the store are fine by me. But once it ceases and it starts entering maintinence mode I hope they release it offline and don't lock it up tight so modders can have at it.

 

[Soulstain]

"Younglings" don't seem to know what to do when they are not "online", so I doubt many of them would know what to do with an offline version... And the number of people that were really bothered about no offline version wasn't that high (and they were offered refunds at the time).

I think an you're offering a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.

Actually there was a huge number of people upset especially since it was announced only 30 days before release. Those refunds you speak of were only given to those who never launched the game. So if you paid for beta access and tried the game only to find out right before launch there would be no offline, you were offered NO REFUND. You might want to refer to Eurogamers story from Nov 2014 or Engadget’s article from Nov 2014 “ Elite Dangerous Devs counter outrage with SELECT refunds”.

 

[StuartGT]

Actually there was a huge number of people upset especially since it was announced only 30 days before release. Those refunds you speak of were only given to those who never launched the game. So if you paid for beta access and tried the game only to find out right before launch there would be no offline, you were offered NO REFUND. You might want to refer to Eurogamers story from Nov 2014 or Engadget’s article from Nov 2014 “ Elite Dangerous Devs counter outrage with SELECT refunds”.

Indeed. There was roughly a hundred people who were upset, most of which got refunds because of their inability to play online.

There are around a dozen people still salty about it, and use their internet connection to be vocal about their saltiness.

 

[Crank Larson]

Actually there was a huge number of people upset especially since it was announced only 30 days before release. Those refunds you speak of were only given to those who never launched the game. So if you paid for beta access and tried the game only to find out right before launch there would be no offline, you were offered NO REFUND. You might want to refer to Eurogamers story from Nov 2014 or Engadget’s article from Nov 2014 “ Elite Dangerous Devs counter outrage with SELECT refunds”.

There were a fair number of vocal complainants, yes, and magazines love to fan the flames. I'm a beta backer, and the furore passed far too quickly for a "huge" number of people to be upset. Once FD explained the very valid reasons for dropping the offline idea, a lot of people could see it made sense. Given the low bandwidth that playing in Solo mode requires, the only people really affected by this were those who literally had no internet at all (and those scenarios become rarer and rarer as time goes on). Anyway, it's a very old issue and no point in arguing it again now. Let's just leave it as we have different viewpoints on the saga.

 

[Saxon Kili]

Remember Premium Beta when the bubble was about 7 systems wide?

Let's face it, you could still pack the whole current game back in there. 7 different star types (with a few binaries), make sure there's one of every planet type, plenty of rocks to put the engineers on, make sure at least one system has a Hutton type watch-paint-dry exercise, bingo, you have ED in a cosmic nutshell.


The only people who'd lose out would be the screenshot-taking brigade and the Powerplay obsessives. And they can carry on playing the buggy, netcode-freezing online version if they like.

I mean, obviously I wouldn't play it. It's too late for me, I'm so jaded I practically need a kidney transplant. But it might help the younglings out. And they'd gain some karma from reneging on the Kickstarter pledge to have an offline version, without having to transplant the full spaghetti-on-LSD nonsense of the current BGS into offline form.

Everybody wins.

Play X4

 

[StuartGT]

Everytime I hear about offline mode I am pulled back in time to the last EA game I ever played.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theregister.co.uk/AMP/2014/01/13/simcity_offline_turnaround/

I feel much like we were told Sim City "needed" online / cloud to "handle" the simulation, Frontier also says the same about ED. Truth is its just smoke and mirrors for first line DRM and to push a cosmetic shop.

ED could go offline tomorrow. Always could always would. I have no doubts modders would breath in the life and changes the game so desperately needs within six months if Frontier was willing.

The game has operating costs and the store helps supplement that and that is a valid strategy. But the whole needs to be online for the simulation bit is a bunch of crap. It "needs" to be online so they can advertise it as a MMO and ride the cosmetics cash wave.

If there's real premium content coming, online and the store are fine by me. But once it ceases and it starts entering maintinence mode I hope they release it offline and don't lock it up tight so modders can have at it.

This old chessnut has been claimed for over 4 years: "Elite can work offline just fine, hackers will crack it"

As a reminder, SimCity's offline was cracked within nine days of release.

Four years later, still no cracked offline mode for Elite Dangerous, but "it's definitely possible" [haha]