how on earth can offline mode be harder than MP?
It's nothing to do with being hard (though I'll bet it's harder than you think). The problem is that everything that's done on the server side (and that's a
lot) would need to be reimplemented on the client side. And it's not just a clone of what's on the server, because what's on there is necessarily more complex than what would be on the client, as the client wouldn't be able to cope with the demands of playing the game and simulating the galaxy. So all that server functionality has to be specified again for the client. Imagine taking everything that's been developed over 2 years, boiling it down to something more simple but still usable and entertaining, then doing the work again.
That's the reason that Michael says it's infeasible to do; Frontier simply don't have the manpower or finances to do it.
In all of the newsletters and news they simply ignored offline mode and on every question regarding it they shifted the subject to "how excited they are about multiplayer" and tried to convince us that multiplayer is better. So, were they working on it at all? i think that is a reasonable doubt.
If Michael says so, I have no reason to doubt him. When he posts here he's an official representative of the company, so what he says is done with every due care. It's why he's so terse.
why they were not happy with offline mode? They gave us no details at all. So i find that answer inadequate. Maybe we'll be happy even with offline play they are not happy with. But they did not even consult the comunity about that and just scrapped it. after foundrising was over (sorry but it looks bad)...
It may be that implementing offline mode would necessarily require some of the offline functionality (client and server) to be refactored. That would introduce further bugs. It may be that they weren't happy with the idea of a static galaxy where nothing changes. Bear in mind that if there's an offline version of the game, it
will be reviewed, and it
will be seen as being indicative of the quality of the work that Frontier do. If they think such a mode would be detrimental to the quality of the game, it's their prerogative to omit it.
If they didn't want the offline mode, they should have been honest from the start (Kickstarter) and said that they are very excited about making MMO Elite only. People who are not "excited" by idea of MMO Elite woul'd not pledge and we woul'd not have a problem now. And questions rising about deception.
I think they
have been honest from the start. During the Kickstarter they thought they'd be able to create a compelling offline mode. Over the course of development more and more stuff that they thought would be client-side has been moved server-side, so the scope and complexity of maintaining a separate offline mode has also increased. Clearly at some point between then and now we reached a tipping point where it wasn't worth the resource to continue with the offline version. I completely agree that it should have been announced earlier.
DRM free promises are broken by "smells like Sim city spirit" alway online
I don't think the timing fits with this theory, nor the apparent willingness to accept refund requests. If this were a way to slip DRM into the product, they could have left the announcement later.
For a start, MB should tell us in details (features not working) what was the reasons of their "unhappiness" over offline mode. It woul'd be fair if "offline players" woul'd know this and maybe have oportunity to decide if they maybe want this crippled offline version.
As above, it's not just about the feelings of the "offline players". If Frontier feel a crippled offline version would be badly received, it's their prerogative to cancel it. I
would like a frank and technical detailing of why it would be so complex to implement the offline mode, but that's simply so that people who say "it wouldn't be hard to implement" are comprehensively refuted. Unless that happens, it's easy to imagine that writing software is something easy and that there's no complexity in an offline mode.
And, yes, it is a very bad idea to anounce cancellation of major game mode as something minor, barely mentioned and then pretend that nothing happened. where are the devs now? I think this problem deserves more serious bilateral communication. their absence just fuels conspiracy theories and general feeling that they are hiding something!
I agree that it's a bad idea, but criticising the developer input to the thread is a bit silly. Michael is clearly spokesperson on this issue and other devs will have been told to leave communication to him. He went out of his way to post responses over the weekend, and as we've been informed they are putting together a formal response. Rushing that out will only lead to further confusion so it's in everyone's interests to give them time on that matter.