Yup, it works by other people using it otherwise it doesnt move. Without other people it's pointless.
Is it still too early, to ask for an offline game mode again?
- Thread starter Xanix
- Start date
3 million copies. 200 GB installation. You can easily do the math from there.
There will never be offline mode.
I believe NASA is working on one with the help of Elon Musk. They haven't got beyond Luna yet...
Who would care though?
Bingo.
Also, it wouldn't really take much coding for market variances between systems. You'd have the baseline (galactic average) and a variance (randomly generated) within limits, maybe even taking note of the last time you visited a certain system so that next time you can alter the random variance within the limits - voila, a pseudo-dynamic market. I believe Elite II/III was similar to this or even just static. No one cared.
Basically, anything "dynamic" within ED could be done that way in this imaginary offline version.
"What about datamining the galaxy blah blah?" - simple. Change the initial galaxy procgen seed value - every uninhabited system will now be different. For the offline version you could probably even make that individually random per install. And if you made that definable by the player, you could basically reset the galaxy by selecting a new value, thus refreshing your game/galaxy. It doesn't matter if the static systems (e.g. the bubble) are the same - by now they're all pretty much known anyway - I doubt there are any surprises left.
Who cares if you h4xx3d your savegame for infinite credits/mats/etc. - the only person you'd be cheating is yourself.
Still, yes, there would be a lot of work required to detach the game client from the online ED servers in order to make an offline single-player version of ED - which is why this will probably never happen.
I'd still pay real money for an Elite II/III remake using ED graphics and sound assets though. Call it Elite: Deadly or something
Honestly, I'd LOVE an offline mode. I wouldn't use it often, but I have an RV and take it out from time to time, and I just accept that I can't play ED during that time. If I could play ED on the road? Holy crap, y'all. That would be amazing.
But I think that the BGS could be the easiest thing to resolve about making ED offline mode capable; there may be more complicated stuff than that at play. The reality is that I'm not sure just how much of the game phones home for daily life stuff. Does it calculate ship damage locally? Do system services have any offline components at all right now? I've lost net connection mid game and been able to fly all over a system, and even between systems, with ease but the second I try to do anything at a station I felt the full weight of that lag.
If station services are 100% handled via an api online then they'd have to implement that for offline mode. I imagine there may be other things, like Rez locations and CZ locations, etc, that are all handled that way as well. Maybe not, but if they are then that's all stuff that they'd need new development to create an offline mode for.
But I think that the BGS could be the easiest thing to resolve about making ED offline mode capable; there may be more complicated stuff than that at play. The reality is that I'm not sure just how much of the game phones home for daily life stuff. Does it calculate ship damage locally? Do system services have any offline components at all right now? I've lost net connection mid game and been able to fly all over a system, and even between systems, with ease but the second I try to do anything at a station I felt the full weight of that lag.
If station services are 100% handled via an api online then they'd have to implement that for offline mode. I imagine there may be other things, like Rez locations and CZ locations, etc, that are all handled that way as well. Maybe not, but if they are then that's all stuff that they'd need new development to create an offline mode for.
Indeed. Could mod out all the crap and just play how you want it.
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.
- 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.)
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.)
I want an offline mode. I remember the burn and anger when FD said they were not going to pursue that element of the KS campaign.
I understand that it'd be folly for an offline mode commander to integrate and switch into online modes, so I'd be OK with them being incompatable.
I understand that it'd be folly for an offline mode commander to integrate and switch into online modes, so I'd be OK with them being incompatable.
Elite Dangerous solo mode doesn't need PSN to play.I play ED since the alpha on PC, online-open mode. Today; I've received my physical copy of ED + Horizons, for the PS4. I don't have PSN and I don't play any game online, on the PS4... just a thought.
My daughters wanted “Horizon Zero Down”; I wanted “Elite Dangerous”... I bought a PS4
I'd be about it.
The game has digital goods to sell so I don't think an offline mode is coming.
Offline mode makes not good SP. Offline mode is a gimped MP with the networking ripped out and dysfunctional environment or randomsed states at best. A game designed for SP would always be superior. Offline doesnt mean SP.
The last time I saw FDev mention the discovery database was in 2016, at which point it was at 67 million entries. EDSM today is showing just shy of 180 million celestial bodies stored, though that will be less than the true figure stored on the FDev server.
I don’t know how big each entry must be, but for it to affect our hypothetical offline installation I suppose it depends on whether our hypothetical offline player would actually give two hoots about that database
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.
