No Single Player offline Mode then?

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quote Elite: Dangerous Newsletter #49 - From Frontier Developments
Galaxy, story, missions, have to match, and it does mean the single player has to connect to the server from time to time, but this has the added advantage that everyone can participate in the activities that can happen in the galaxy.

Just wondering if there is any idea about how often this would be once a month or once every 2 months?

Every couple of seconds it seems. Every time you do anything that involves server side data, moving from place to place, any transaction involving goods or the ship, etc. You're thrown out before you can get your hands back on the stick if you pull the network cable.
 
Let's Work With FD, not Against Them.

This thread is getting a bit heat, and I understand the view point of people who are not happy.
I only pledge £200 at the alpha staged when I discovered The new elite ambitions.

I am a lover of elite. The deciding factor to purchase the game was because of the fact that I could play offline.
An always online game model is not financially viable IMHO. Additionally when you buy an always online game you really have only purchased rental access to the server. Without the access to the server the game a computerised paper weight.
I live in Australia and a mere 8 kilometres from my states capital city centre point, and I have the crappest internet. I cannot even get ADSL2+. My neighbours across the road cannot get any ADSL (thanks to our telecommunications monopoly). As a result of my internet connection I wait no less than 100 seconds to come out of super cruise ... every time..

Moving forward and in a more positive note, rather than asking for refunds and distracting resources from the impending launch why don't we focus on win-win outcomes.
I'm suggesting we lobbying for an off-line version to be put back in to production ... Not at launch but say within 1-3 months, with x features, without y features with the plan for y features to be implemented with another 3. Months. Also suggest the game has a check for updates option to connect to update the game with new stories, functionality etc.
Do you see this as an achievable outcome? What features would you want and what could you do without at initial implementation?

This is a just my option an those that disagree can shoot me down inflames as you please. Or target my main engines when you see in galaxy, because I won't be able to shoot back in time because of my crappy internet connect....
[replace the words 'crap' with profanity of your choice]
 
quote Elite: Dangerous Newsletter #49 - From Frontier Developments
Galaxy, story, missions, have to match, and it does mean the single player has to connect to the server from time to time, but this has the added advantage that everyone can participate in the activities that can happen in the galaxy.

Just wondering if there is any idea about how often this would be once a month or once every 2 months?
For every transaction, like buying or selling commodities, flight state changes etc.
And judging byt the FPD drops, every time a ship (be it player or AI) comes in to play.
 
I'm suggesting we lobbying for an off-line version to be put back in to production ... Not at launch but say within 1-3 months, with x features, without y features with the plan for y features to be implemented with another 3. Months. Also suggest the game has a check for updates option to connect to update the game with new stories, functionality etc.
Do you see this as an achievable outcome? What features would you want and what could you do without at initial implementation?

Admirable but polite lobbying doesn't work these days. If it did threadnaughts like this wouldn't have even come to pass, Simcity wouldn't have launched with a persistent online requirement, Diablo 3 on the PC wouldn't have mandated a real money auction house and similarly onerous requirements. The only thing companies and developers listen to now is the sound of lost sales, and bad publicity, if they get enough of both, they tend to start rethinking their decisions. As cynical as this is going to sound but ultimately the only force that -does- get a company to listen is Capitalism red in tooth and claw, and when the consumers actually exercise that facility, lo and behold, companies actually start treating consumers as something other than doormats.
 

gravityztr

Banned
I've said this a few hundred pages back, but again I'd be interested on the current viewers opinions (and dicemanns of course, he is after all FD's mouthpiece)

Offline Mode was functional in Beta 2.0x

So why cant this be boxed and sold to the offliners?

well my friend, it wasnt offline in all the betas... well, i joined since premium beta, and solo was still a part of ''multiplayer'' , means connect to server ;) ! lold
 
quote Elite: Dangerous Newsletter #49 - From Frontier Developments
Galaxy, story, missions, have to match, and it does mean the single player has to connect to the server from time to time, but this has the added advantage that everyone can participate in the activities that can happen in the galaxy.

Just wondering if there is any idea about how often this would be once a month or once every 2 months?

Constant connection, I'm afraid; they are talking, in a very ambiguous manner, about the current online solo mode; Here are Brookes' comments compiled on a single thread, where this is sadly confirmed.
 
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quote Elite: Dangerous Newsletter #49 - From Frontier Developments
Galaxy, story, missions, have to match, and it does mean the single player has to connect to the server from time to time, but this has the added advantage that everyone can participate in the activities that can happen in the galaxy.

Just wondering if there is any idea about how often this would be once a month or once every 2 months?

Every 2 to 5 seconds as has been tested by others already. Disconnect from the internet for that long and you'll be booted from the game. Michael Brookes has already said in another post that a "consistent internet connection" will be required.
 
Conspiracy theories are fun, and encouraged by Frontier Development's terrible PR skills, but really, this is the most likely scenario.

It's more abou maximum monetisation of the game and bolstering their share price before sale of FD to Amazon than any technical reason.
 
Every couple of seconds it seems. Every time you do anything that involves server side data, moving from place to place, any transaction involving goods or the ship, etc. You're thrown out before you can get your hands back on the stick if you pull the network cable.

<not trolling> but how did this work before in Beta 2.0x with offline mode?

(I believe you, i guess, just wondering)

Edit : been answered already, thanks
 
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As much as I'm not interested in your constant baiting of various users and misinformation, but I guess neither of us will get what they want ;)

Addendum : Forums, prepare ye for the storm of all storms. For we are about to be slashdotted : http://games.slashdot.org/story/14/11/18/0353240/elite-dangerous-dumps-offline-single-player

If you want to know what slashdotting feels like, it's brought down large scale commercial sites to their knees before, let's just hope they don't all decide to turn up at once >.<

Well it's not going to well so far ..... ;)

People really are running out of arguments and relying on make believe at times. It is very sad to pop into this thread and read the same old tired comments and some fantastical views. Nothing is going anywhere, there is talk of how easy it would be to do an offline version when the decision to not do one is staring folk in the face.

You have been given reasons, it doesn't really matter to FD if you accept them or not, clearly they can't go back on the decision and wouldn't have made it lightly in the first place.

Eventually it will all die off as launch approaches and the grumblers will walk away (until the next lot arrive complaining about the bugs of course!). In fact I am more worried about the release state at the moment as now we are committed to a date and online solo it had better be ready for the sake of the game.

The weakest argument is I was promised by kickstarter. There are no promises on kickstarter. You instantly lose credibilty with this one. Or see forum post made by Michael and David on Dec 2013.... Come on guys the reality is there was no conspiracy, FD have put a lot of really long hours and hard work into the game and have been forced to drop offline due to limitations in their core product and time left to deliver. Sad fact is the release schedule is there to meet shareholders expectations. This is their liveihood. If they don't deliver they lose everything.

I don't agree with how they have done it. I don't agree that they had alluded to an offline version until very late and then dropped it. But I can see why it has happened. And I accept it and move on. The game is still brilliant and above what I could have expected.

Are we still getting a version of Elite that we can play? For the majority of us yes! And we should still be celebrating the hard work put in to allow us to play that game. When you backed it or bought the beta you didn't buy the rights to any features. You bought into a version of Elite that FD will deliver to their schedule and design. I am so sorry for the minority that have no internet but I can't fix that issue and neither can FD in this case.

All this moaning is going nowhere and is not doing you any favours at all. Really - go back and read some of the arguments in the thread.

I'm enjoying the game and am looking forward to future improvements and expansions. Try it - it's quite an experience ;)
 
There's no rational reason that the same code can't be used for both modes, though.

Either the initial design didn't take offline mode into account (and we were thus falsely told it did), or the current code can handle offline mode, but there are other reasons for it being scrapped.

- Or the code started with offline mode incorporated but as code developed further it became increasingly obvious that it couldn't be done after all;
- Or as time went on it became obvious that keeping offline mode would become an obstacle to further development and expansion of the game because it shuts off certain important options;
- Or as time went on it became obvious that offline and online code would diverge more and more and result in the development of essentially two different games requiring a doubling of resources;
- Or after people had been loudly complaining on these here forums that the galaxy was feeling empty, boring, repetitive and lifeless, the team decided that an offline mode producing essentially such a galaxy would be unappreciated and not worth the extra resources and effort.
- Or --my favourite-- all of the above.

None, as I said.

Hence, since I can come up in an afternoon with a design that apparently would work (please tell me why it wouldn't), Frontier's people definitely could come up with much better and more optimized designs, and yet they claim they didn't, which is absurd.

That's the whole point, basically.

Cold fusion sounds pretty logical to me. I guess professional physicists knew something I didn't.
 
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Just wondering if there is any idea about how often this would be once a month or once every 2 months?
Yes: every time there is a server-moderated transaction (whenever you trade, change ship components, claim a bounty, that kind of thing). So in regular play, a few times an hour I would expect.
 

Harbinger

Volunteer Moderator
Offline Mode was functional in Beta 2.0x

So why cant this be boxed and sold to the offliners?

There was a whole list of things FD wanted to include in the game that required it to be online-only .. so how come offline mode worked before? (and it contained a rich enough, although not dynamic universe already)

I've never seen an Offline mode although I didn't exercise my ability to play (I was a DDF backer) prior to Standard Beta 1.x. As far as I know the options have always been:

Online --> Open Play
Online --> Private Group
Online --> Solo

Unless I'm mistaken it's not like they removed Offline, it was never there to start with and always intended to follow later.
 
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"Smile Let's Work With FD, not Against Them.
This thread is getting a bit heat, and I understand the view point of people who are not happy.
I only pledge £200 at the alpha staged when I discovered The new elite ambitions.

I am a lover of elite. The deciding factor to purchase the game was because of the fact that I could play offline.
An always online game model is not financially viable IMHO. Additionally when you buy an always online game you really have only purchased rental access to the server. Without the access to the server the game a computerised paper weight.
I live in Australia and a mere 8 kilometres from my states capital city centre point, and I have the crappest internet. I cannot even get ADSL2+. My neighbours across the road cannot get any ADSL (thanks to our telecommunications monopoly). As a result of my internet connection I wait no less than 100 seconds to come out of super cruise ... every time..

Moving forward and in a more positive note, rather than asking for refunds and distracting resources from the impending launch why don't we focus on win-win outcomes.
I'm suggesting we lobbying for an off-line version to be put back in to production ... Not at launch but say within 1-3 months, with x features, without y features with the plan for y features to be implemented with another 3. Months. Also suggest the game has a check for updates option to connect to update the game with new stories, functionality etc.
Do you see this as an achievable outcome? What features would you want and what could you do without at initial implementation?

This is a just my option an those that disagree can shoot me down inflames as you please. Or target my main engines when you see in galaxy, because I won't be able to shoot back in time because of my crappy internet connect....
[replace the words 'crap' with profanity of your choice]"

EDIT - sorry forgot to quote properly . . . I agree with this, essentially, although I have already asked for a refund. If there is any dialogue or negotiations with customer support (particularly in the aftermath of any positive announcements by FD), then of course I would reconsider.
 
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I believe FD will take the hit from refunds from future advertising content in the game.

Serious investors will like the decision to make this game online only. There will be higher returns in the long term as the game is effectively sown up by the developer, perhaps answering to the whims and money from advertisers. The reasoning for online only has to be the long term financial gain and not merely the time/money it takes to make an offline capable one.

This whole debate has left a bitter taste in the way it has been handled by FD and I’m not surprised refunds are being asked. Where is the non marketing speak comment to the reaction of Fridays “””going forward !!!””” announcement? IF ONLY to stop this thread from going round and round in circles

I’ll wait for offline game “Limit Theory” to come out - Designed and made by one bloke !!!
 
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I've never seen an Offline mode although I didn't exercise my ability to play (I was a DDF backer) prior to Standard Beta 1.x. As far as I know the options have always been:

Online --> Open Play
Online --> Private Group
Online --> Solo

Unless I'm mistaken it's not like they removed Offline, it was never there to start with.
Until saturday, the official Store listed a fourth option: offline single player
 
I've never seen an Offline mode although I didn't exercise my ability to play (I was a DDF backer) prior to Standard Beta 1.x. As far as I know the options have always been:

Online --> Open Play
Online --> Private Group
Online --> Solo

Unless I'm mistaken it's not like they removed Offline, it was never there to start with and always intended to follow later.

So it never got born, and thus never killed. Ok yep, thanks. Dang
 
No offline mode

Aside from the problem of playing when the internet connection is down or drops in the middle of a game (yes, that can happen) I would be really really interested how the metadata like playing time, time of day when playing, etc. will be used.

Considering today's popular "we are milking our stupid customers by selling their behaviour profile"-approach I feel more than uneasy with the decision that E:D will not be playable offline, if the media are correct there. Enough data are already collected through MMO games.

No, I don't like being forced to go online even for offline play. I looked forward to E:D more than to any other game, and I am fully convinced by the previews that it will be fantastic, but I will not play this game if I get a Facebook milk-cow feeling by it. Only a mercenary less maybe, but if so, maybe one of many.

A detailed statement by Frontier, showing the facts about this, is more than important now.
 
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