No Single Player offline Mode then?

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I have been posting on one of the other thread so this needs to be asked here.
As a further point in this sad turn of events I still have questions.
If I am playing in offline mode, changes to the galactic prices on goods are irrelevant because I can only effect a local change and only by serious grinding at that. I would not be concerned about the price of fish a hundred or a thousand light years away.
The price of upgrades is pretty well static so no problem there.
If I want to upgrade the Missions in 6 months I could go to my friend’s computer a lot of miles away and download it there. (I mention this example because someone in Alpha had this problem)
Or is this to do with your actions in a mission producing several outcomes which have to be catered for and changes made accordingly, but again what can One Pilot do to influence the games structure.
The System information is already decided, I believe, when the current Galaxy is initialised otherwise we would all find different things in the same system. So that would not be a big thing to sort out.
So what is the difference between Solo and Offline except the physical connection?
What makes it impossible to have a separate offline mode?

see this post: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=58789&page=96&p=1002012&highlight=#post1002012
 
Sorry, but that's not true. Forums are echo chamber. This is just a bunch of highly annoyed people. 99% of players really don't care about offline mode (they might care about single player mode, which is still there). It doesn't make hurt to go away but it's harsh truth people should recognize.

They will care the day the servers go down and turn their game to a fancy paperweight that you can't replay at any point after that. Elite have always been a SP game to me. Turning it to a toned down MMO just hur it in the long run.
 
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Would have understood better if FD had been more open along the way

Just have to add my vote- I bought into the Beta and have enjoyed it a lot. But... a promise was made:

"How will single player work? Will I need to connect to a server to play?
The galaxy for Elite: Dangerous is a shared universe maintained by a central server. All of the meta data for the galaxy is shared between players. This includes the galaxy itself as well as transient information like economies. The aim here is that a player's actions will influence the development of the galaxy, without necessarily having to play multiplayer.
The other important aspect for us is that we can seed the galaxy with events, often these events will be triggered by player actions. With a living breathing galaxy players can discover new and interesting things long after they have started playing.
Update! The above is the intended single player experience. However it will be possible to have a single player game without connecting to the galaxy server. You won't get the features of the evolving galaxy (although we will investigate minimising those differences) and you probably won't be able to sync between server and non-server (again we'll investigate).
Last updated: Tue, Dec 11 2012 4:56 AM EST"
This was from the kickstarter page.

Why is this important to me? Because I'm in my mid-fifties, work a low-paying job to survive, and am not assured I'll always have the luxury of online play. A static universe that I can play off-line would reassure me that I can continue to play as long as I have a home and my computer.

Will I cry over spilled milk? Will I ask for a refund? No. FD is giving me a wonderful game.
Did the broken promise taint my faith? Yeah... I guess it did. A bit more transparency along the way would have helped. At least I'd feel they tried harder.

I'll just have to hope FD and my internet connection last as long as I do. :eek:
 
Sorry, but this is one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever read in any forum ever.

Even FD are unsure of how long their servers will last and when or even IF the servers will ever become public domain, there is just no way for them to guarantee any of your statement with anything even remotely approaching accuracy at this point in time, (and given the rather dramatic proceedings of the last few hours I am not sure how reliable that information would be anyway).

But you as our modern day Nostradamus have the situation completely under control, carry on!

I wasn't guaranteeing it, I was giving you my prognosis. My opinion.
Is this the first time you hear of a company releasing a game with the idea of supporting it for years?
Or is it the first time you hear of a company releasing software/code once they stop supporting it?

By your logic, my prognosis is equally as ridiculous as the opposite outcome.
 

Michael Brookes

Game Director
Michael, so what's status with low quality connections people wanting to play? Is there will be such mode where they can try to play as it will require not so intense connection with server or will those improvements merged in solo mode?

Thanks.

For single player it's transaction type data, we do need to make connection failures a bit more forgiving, but it would be improvements for the game as a whole rather than a specific mode.

Michael
 
Sorry, but this is one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever read in any forum ever.

Even FD are unsure of how long their servers will last and when or even IF the servers will ever become public domain, there is just no way for them to guarantee any of your statement with anything even remotely approaching accuracy at this point in time, (and given the rather dramatic proceedings of the last few hours I am not sure how reliable that information would be anyway).

But you as our modern day Nostradamus have the situation completely under control, carry on!

Sorry, but this is one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever read in any forum ever. Honestly, it's not like Frontier popped out of the blue. Heck, most of their posts on Facebook/Twitter are about their other games. This is David Braben's baby. I'm sure he's not going to let it die without one hell of a fight. Just ask Ian Bell.

And what if they went on deployment where there is no net at all, like at a mining site, oil rig, remote island processing immigrants, etc etc the list goes on... sure its a minority, but thats no excuse to 'cut and run'

people with these kind of jobs bought the game based on its offline capability. yeah sure every now and then they come back to town and have access again, but the point is that audience (for example) purchased the game based on its offline claim.

Let me get this straight. People bought a game with a Persistent Universe and MMO aspects for it's Offline play? Honestly, where in the MMO feature everyone is usually complaining isn't mainlined, is the selling point for these people? There's just no pleasing some people. (That's just what Jesus said, sir!)

I'd say a very, very small portion may have purchased for its offline mode. But the Persistent Universe and MMO tags kind of seem to be the bigger tags...
 
OK, this is a rather fast moving thread this morning and I realise I've come across with multiple replies so I'll try boil down to some things that state my views clearly before the usual forum train runs away again:

  • As to the fact that solo offline play will be missing, personally I never paid up for the game based on this but I am sad to see it's not included
  • I completely understand Frontier's position and what Michael has said in relation to why it's no longer in there. I almost expected it to a point
  • I still believe in this game
  • In light of this, I do question when Frontier knew they would cut solo mode out
  • If they knew months, or years ago - I am upset at how Frontier have communicated this in the light of today with Michael confirming with certainty there is no offline mode rather than there may be offline mode
  • If they didn't know until this week for sure then actually I don't see how Frontier could have done any better in communicating this
  • I feel sorry for people who backed this game at Kickstarter level on the basis of solo play
  • I however also invite them to remember when they did back on KS they took on every risk that solo play might not have come
  • I don't believe you are entitled to a refund
  • Anyone who bought this game recently through the store based on believing there would be solo play and buying it only for this reason should be entitled to a refund as this was not a Kickstarter backer
  • I think people doing chargebacks are terrible people, you should have gone through official channels.

Thank you, sir. I am not allowed to give you rep again, but I always believed you were a rational, thinking man. Some of your earlier posts in this thread were ... inconsistent with this view.

This post? Ah, you're back into my "pay attention, this guy knows his shiznit" list.

Sorry I have to bromance you publicly. :D
 
Single player online does require a consistent connection.

Michael

So as it stands now, these are the following game modes?

- Online-Open
- Online-Solo
- Online-Private

Any form of offline as been removed? The time-to-time comment confuses things a bit and implies a semi-offline version...(that needs to sync "from time to time")
 
Hi Tim

I understand the frustration of those expecting a totally offline experience - I personally don't think that FD would have pulled this feature without very good reason, as alluded to by Michael in recent posts. What FD will struggle to defend is the inadequate way in which this change was communicated yesterday.

However will you please allow me to make a couple of points:

1. You have mentioned the "DRM free boxed copy" a couple of times and seem to be putting this forward as evidence that FD intended a fully offline end-to-end experience from installation of the game onwards - I do not beieve this is the case. The Kickstarter "DRM free boxed copy" benefit states:

"Physical DRM-free boxed edition of "Elite: Dangerous" plus all rewards above (please note: the disc in the pack is simply an alternative way to install the game - it will have the same online account code whether installed off disc or downloaded digitally)."

Which seems to mean that the disc simply contains an installer which needs to connect to FD server for download of the full game to be installed.

2. For those with a very basic internet connection (rather than no connection at all) - the single player online version uses tiny amounts of upload/download capability (watch the bandwidth monitor in game when playing SP online) which should make the game playable by all but those with the absolute crappiest connections - or, of course, those with no connection at all.

My apologies in advance if I have misunderstood your points of view.

Best

Ads
 
For single player it's transaction type data, we do need to make connection failures a bit more forgiving, but it would be improvements for the game as a whole rather than a specific mode.

Michael

Ok, that's sensible decision. Fingers crossed single player online will work for those with shaky connections then. Thanks.
 
I will try that, but its been an hour and I have only downloaded about 5% so far. So it may mean that I have to start the game a couple of hours before I actually want to play, so it can download all the data it needs. Still, it should be worth it if it works.

If you're downloading the game just after installing the loader, it has nothing to do with the operation of the game, it's simply installing the client to your hard drive.

Once it's installed the game should be able to start quite quickly (barring any updates), and then, when you start playing, is when you should see if it's playable or you have too much lag.
 
er, its not like its 'months/years' of work, its has been working in offline mode up until now .. so they cant just give them a hybrid of beta 2.0x to play, albeit dumbed down, just to appease them?

I dont see the fact that they are a minority reason enough to exclude them, and not since they were enticed to the game in the first place by the claim of offline mode.

There's also a claim of things changing during development. Like mentioned on Kickstarter.

Also, I wasn't aware the game worked in offline mode at any point in time.
If it did, then there might be a solution to the problem sooner than we think (if FD choose to take it on).
 
The simple point is all those who backed ED based on the fact that it was available offline should get a full refund now that they will be unable to play the game, if the withdrawal of those funds has a negative effect and that impacts the game to the point where it fails then the game would probably never have made it out of the KS campaign in the first place. I hope that isn't the case but FD only have themselves to blame if that transpires. Either way I guess it will put some people off ever touching FD again. Shame.

I think FD need to clarify what the class as a refund if someone has stumped up £1000 and only receive a refund for the final game over this decision i'd be seriously worried by FD ethics, or lack of.
 
I'm annoyed but he's going to be livid when he finds out and considering I was the one who told him he can play it offline at home, I'm likely to either be down one friend or get punched in the face. Either prospect isn't good. We should have been told this months ago, not 3 weeks from launch.

He's not a very good friend then - I'm sure he can find something else to play on his £700 machine. Yes he might be disappointed but it's not your fault.

But it was his choice to spend £700 extra for this game
 
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