Is it still too early, to ask for an offline game mode again?

amigacooke · Apr 27, 2020

ebbrell said:
No, no no
Listen it's no, it's been no for years, it's still no
Accept and move on

No

Neutronium · Apr 27, 2020

Xanix said:
Now we are in 2020. We have fast and big SSDs, on our computer/consoles. Also; some games already reached the 100Gb/150Gb installation size. EDSM and INARA can maintain and support big databases: star systems, bodies, stations, factions AND players's achievements and discoveries.

ED has its problems but we don't have nothing like it; simple and fun, both on pc and consoles with an HOTAS or PS/XBOX controller.

Why can't we have a full 200Gb Elite Dangerous installation, for offline gameplay too?

I don't think its the size that is the problem (see my sig as to why I think it is not - if the whole universe can fit inside a DVD I am pretty sure the milky way can also

). I think it was the BGS (back in 2014 at least that's what they said). But now that we don't have CGs maybe it is doable - I don't know

Navigare Necesse Est · Apr 28, 2020

Rørik Þrumsålr said:
And who are you to tell me that I can't have fun with offline? I don't care if it's gimped multiplayer. I want to play the product however I want to.

You can play in the mud if you like, but you'll get dirty.

efoo · Apr 28, 2020

It’s a No from me. People could log into Offline, cheat and hack to give themselves 1 trillion credit, then log back onto Open and spend those credits.

If there is an Offline mode, it will have to be a separate account where you cannot play the same commanders and ships you own in Open/PG/solo modes.

Navigare Necesse Est · Apr 28, 2020

efoo said:
It’s a No from me. People could log into Offline, cheat and hack to give themselves 1 trillion credit, then log back onto Open and spend those credits.

If there is an Offline mode, it will have to be a separate account where you cannot play the same commanders and ships you own in Open/PG/solo modes.

It doesnt work like that. Offline xareer would enturely be offline.

zimms · Apr 28, 2020

Things like the Arx store don't work too well with offline game.

The chances of Elite receiving an offline mode at some point are pretty much non existent imho.

Phoenix_Dfire · Apr 28, 2020

Xanix said:
I remember the kickstarter campaign and the offline mode goal; abandoned later by technical difficulties...

<snip>

FD, can you take it in consideration again?

Best regards to all

*I hope you can read this; from the Beagle relay to the areas on the south... we need a FC here.

Short answer will be No. They only time we will get Offline mode is when the game is 'Sunset'. They promised when the whole offline-gate thing happened that when they'd finished with Elite: Dangerous and the servers were shut down; they would release the server side code so that people could run it in single player (I would prefer it it you could run you're own version of the galaxy for your friends but single player would be fine). The Technical Difficulties were all about how to keep the offline players in sync with the online players, once there are no more updates coming, (or community goals, galnet news or interstellar initaitives

) then that will be the ideal time.

Until then it's online only all the way (which is a bit of an issue considering my ISP had a lot of trouble last night).

Navigare Necesse Est · Apr 28, 2020

Phoenix_Dfire said:
Short answer will be No. They only time we will get Offline mode is when the game is 'Sunset'. They promised when the whole offline-gate thing happened that when they'd finished with Elite: Dangerous and the servers were shut down; they would release the server side code so that people could run it in single player (I would prefer it it you could run you're own version of the galaxy for your friends but single player would be fine). ....

Doubt that would ever happen.

amigacooke · Apr 28, 2020

zimms said:
Things like the Arx store don't work too well with offline game.

I thought the point of selling cosmetic items was to fund the servers that supported the online functions of ED. No online functions, no questionable ARXs required.

Phoenix_Dfire · Apr 28, 2020

Navigare Necesse Est said:
Doubt that would ever happen.

I think it will. Dav's said in the past that pulling out the actual server side code it's that hard for a single player version. it's if people wanted to have their own galaxy servers it would be hard.

As far as arx is concerned when the game is sunset that's it, multiplayer game is over so no more need for arx.

amigacooke · Apr 28, 2020

Phoenix_Dfire said:
I think it will. Dav's said in the past that pulling out the actual server side code it's that hard for a single player version. it's if people wanted to have their own galaxy servers it would be hard.

Do you think it will happen for all platforms, or just for Windows?

Navigare Necesse Est · Apr 28, 2020

Phoenix_Dfire said:
I think it will. Dav's said in the past that pulling out the actual server side code it's that hard for a single player version. it's if people wanted to have their own galaxy servers it would be hard.

As far as arx is concerned when the game is sunset that's it, multiplayer game is over so no more need for arx.

Which one would we get? A static universe or a dynamic one?

Agony_Aunt · Apr 28, 2020

Max Factor said:
How would the BGS work with nobody else pushing it but yourself?

Slowly

Agony_Aunt · Apr 28, 2020

efoo said:
It’s a No from me. People could log into Offline, cheat and hack to give themselves 1 trillion credit, then log back onto Open and spend those credits.

If there is an Offline mode, it will have to be a separate account where you cannot play the same commanders and ships you own in Open/PG/solo modes.

It would be. Or a one way transfer of your online account to offline.

-VR- Max Factor · Apr 28, 2020

Agony_Aunt said:
Slowly

You would have to do your own combat zones and play against yourself. The whole thing wouldn't work at all.

Fdev would have to make NPC actions effect the BGS and with their being god knows how many factions, the game could take ages just trying to work that out.

-VR- Max Factor · Apr 28, 2020

Navigare Necesse Est said:
Which one would we get? A static universe or a dynamic one?

It would be static with only ourselves pushing it.

Phoenix_Dfire · Apr 28, 2020

amigacooke said:
Do you think it will happen for all platforms, or just for Windows?

I think Dav was talking about windows at the time. Dunno how they'd do that on consoles.

Navigare Necesse Est said:
Which one would we get? A static universe or a dynamic one?

It would probably be as it is at the moment, with no dynamic events and the factions running in the BGS as they do at the moment, so not completely static but without the vast amount of players to influence the BGS, it would probably remain static. They'd also have to remove powerplay because that needs player actions across the whole thing to make a difference.

Rubbernuke · Apr 28, 2020

Ian Doncaster said:
The really big bit of stored data on the servers is probably the discovered bodies database. Having to remember in full who has scanned and mapped each body is going to be probably at least 100 GB on its own by now, maybe considerably more if they store more than the absolute minimum.

In an offline version this could be simplified a lot - you get first discovery bonus payments if the system is more than X LY from a station, and you don't if it isn't.

The big three things which people would notice if the BGS was taken out:

no wars (or most other situations which generate tough combat scenarios, for that matter)

HGE variety gets even worse

prices of mined gems plummet

The easiest solution would be to statically and randomly distribute one or two BGS states to every faction. Maybe that could be changed occasionally, but actually it's probably no big deal if the war in system blah goes on forever.

(The main problem with "offline Elite Dangerous" is that you'd be left with all the disadvantages of having to design it to cope with multiplayer, as they'd take huge amounts of reworking to fix, with the only new advantage being that you could play it without the internet.)

As a tidbit of info: once on a livestream I asked Dav how much data each tick generates- he said 1Gb for the lot. This was a year ago mind, so I don't know how FCs fit into that (if at all).

Navigare Necesse Est · Apr 28, 2020

Max Factor said:
It would be static with only ourselves pushing it.

I'll rather play X4 then.

Arioch · Apr 28, 2020

Phoenix_Dfire said:
Short answer will be No. They only time we will get Offline mode is when the game is 'Sunset'. They promised when the whole offline-gate thing happened that when they'd finished with Elite: Dangerous and the servers were shut down; they would release the server side code so that people could run it in single player (I would prefer it it you could run you're own version of the galaxy for your friends but single player would be fine). The Technical Difficulties were all about how to keep the offline players in sync with the online players, once there are no more updates coming, (or community goals, galnet news or interstellar initaitives ) then that will be the ideal time.

Until then it's online only all the way (which is a bit of an issue considering my ISP had a lot of trouble last night).

Navigare Necesse Est said:
Doubt that would ever happen.

From Newsletter #50 -

Could the server code be released publicly some day when the servers are shut down?
Yes. This is something we would do if for whatever reason we cannot keep the game going.

I hope no one thinks about using the “but they didn’t say ‘promise’” argument