If it was a big deal it would be everywhere by now, truth is ED is a niche game not a "blockbusters" like AC/SIMS/Sim City, very few people really care about the loss of offline mode. But come release and no one can log in or play for days then the proverbial will hit the fan.
No Single Player offline Mode then?
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If it was a big deal it would be everywhere by now, truth is ED is a niche game not a "blockbusters" like AC/SIMS/Sim City, very few people really care about the loss of offline mode. But come release and no one can log in or play for days then the proverbial will hit the fan.
It truly is only an issue for those it affects. That's fairly obvious even here. For those it does? Solo or refund, simple as that. This thread has served a purpose though, people needed to get through the five stages of grief.
Wow 209 pages. i could only skim through. In doing so it saddens me to read some of the comments. I personally believe that FD have no choice in making the solo part of the game, online accessible. for a few main reasons firstly to keep the market relative to all accounts that way if you switch to multiplayer the market is similar to solo. Also to me the fact they are offering a solo mode and multiplayer mode is fantastic. so that way you can switch and still have your ships and wealth.
Then remember with steam these days most games need to be connected to the internet anyway. With all this in mind i think if FD decided to make the solo mode offline, i think you would find the gaming experience wont be the same, also you couldn't switch to multiplayer mode it just wouldn't make sense.
Ive been playing the X franchise for years now and felt that the games were missing something, that i think ED has delivered on and games such as SC will deliver when ready.
Sorry if this reply upsets some and it is sad some have bad internet connections. i know were your coming from Ive been there. But it is how games need to go to be a more full gaming experience. Ive been gaming for 25+ years now and seen the advancement of games and to me this is the natural progression for PC games. if they don't move forward and take advantage of server access then computer gaming may die and consoles will take over. which would be sad considering the poor quality they provide.
Thank you Dev's for producing such a great game.
Ironic that console games seem to support more offline play than PCs (due to reasons such as piracy and unwanted mods) even diablo 3 has offline play and offline local multiplayer but no such option on the PC platform.
The offline single player need not be usable online that makes no sense since you could have modded the client or edited your save file. I don't think anyone is expecting that to work like that.
Steam is not an ideal platform due to its policies and DRM some of which are resulting in lawsuits internationally, GoG's store my preference over Steam because it has no strings attached everything is an option and options are good.
Then you'd be wrong.. I bought in at Public Beta level, with the Lifetime Extensions pack, a couple of days before the offer closed. It seemed like good value, so I got in then, in anticipation that a few months down the track, I'd be able to afford a machine that could play the game. A lot of other things happened afterwards, the upshot of which is I won't be able to afford that gaming rig for at least another few months, and I've been forced to relocate to a place that has seriously crappy internet. But I was consoling myself that at least when I get to build that rig, at least I could play offline.
Now that too, has been taken from me.
Wasn't it obvious that the list was not entirely serious? But sure, you can be boring about it.
There was no mention of offline play on the kickstarter page back in 2012, it was all focused on multiplayer back then. They updated it very late in the Kickstarter funding drive to talk about an offline mode, but there were a lot of disclaimers about "investigating" included - it was obvious to anyone with a brain that they really didn't want to go down that route if at all possible. That decision to include that stuff may be coming back to haunt FD, but the game was always intended to be a shared galaxy, and it's not so easy to share anything from inside a locked box (or even a pirate's chest...)
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Yes, there was. Go look now, you can still see it.
Frontier are advising people to seek refunds, based on this feature being gone. Why are people still arguing this?
wolverine2710
Tutorial & Guide Writer
´It seems to have little traction though´. Good to see they got lucky there.
I´m 49 (also an 84´er) and perhaps I´ve been to naive so far. I thought FD would be different then other companies: ED being a KS project, no pressure from a publisher to release to early or drop stuff etc. It then hurts to come to realize that they are not different then any other company wrt PR, spinning the truth etc. YES they are passionate about ED and they are making their game. I´ve been critical, realistic in the past with ED before. Still not buying the whole vertical slice theory, magical gamma update theory told us by lots of commanders and the 22th will reveal most of it. Most of it because the newsletter said there will be surprises till the release of the game. Well perhaps best to keep MY expectations of gamma/release as low as possible (assuming lots of DDF stuff missing) and HOPING that after the 16th they continue with ED (aside from the planned extensions) and that SOME of the DDF stuff will make it into the official release. I think ED will be GOOD game, what I was hoping for was a GREAT game. The truth hurrts the most it seems and thats why I feel a bit sad, bitter.
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I see nothing about it in Nov-Dec 2012, courtesy of the Wayback Machine, but I see something wishy-washy and vague regarding offline updated in early Jan 2013.
The effective always online DRM was a point of contention and was resolved when offline single player was offered as part of the project.
I looked at the comments because those generate the correct timeline. (You can change the cursor position to jump around, I discovered this after clicking more posts for a while)
Luckily im PvE, else I might have been considered a challenge. But a troll is not worth it.. are you one ?
I won't give up the fight for offline for sure, but I see no need to constantly bash about it.
DRM: It is what it is. You will learn it sooner or later.
Sure ? I don't think so. Who will be paying the Devs in 10 years or 20 years from now ?
This decision will have an impact, even if you can't see it now. I doubt it will be positive for Frontier.
gravityztr
Banned
i dont think its true, its rather the contrary. think the purpose was that David Braben wanted to make elite 4 , and also with today's capacity there would be a multiplayer mode too. guess that was the priority ?
the expansions are all optional.. mostly eye candy, some are weapons upgrades, some are missions, new ships and upgrades. Best to jump in and enjoy it
I am one of the People who wants a Offline-Mode and the Offline Mode is promosed from ED, David Braben and Michael Brooks since Kickstarter! The Multiplayer is terrible. The dynamic Universe is not shown in 1 Year of Alpha and Beta. Now 30 Days before Launch DB is cancelling the Offline-Mode, thats hard, to hard for me! No words about the terrible Online-Play and why we should Play online? It sucks!
No DRM-Free game because to Play online you Need an Account and have to Play online an cant reselling the Game. Thats are Facts. So its my decision to cancel my Pledge. This is not the Game i backed and frontier makes with the decision to cancel the Offline Mode a fraudulent misrepresentation.
Boring locations when you can't play a game you thought you could to pass the time with. It is entirely serious because those are real places people would want to play a game but if the game required always online DRM their mileage may vary between maybe works to impossible.
Edit: Also I hope the future isn't boring that would be bad or very bad for humanity if you think about it.
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From those quotes, it would appear that all they need to do to fulfill that is allow for an encrypted copy of the player's current save state to be stored offline. In order to actually load it, you would need to be online and authenticated, but there's nothing in there that I can see that explicitly states that you get to play in the galaxy offline.
All they have to do to resolve this is make all the tutorials playable from the launcher before logging in really, but they could do a bit more. Give the offline player a few static systems to play in, a few of available ships to purchase, limited weaponry and equipment, and that's it. They can tack on an endless high-intensity battle zone, containing waves of progressively tougher bad guys, and an infinite conveyor belt of capital ships, and call it "Elite: Dangerous (Battle for Eranin)". There. Make that the offline version. Then people can play offline as much as they like. If they make a pledge to add that as a post-release patch, I can't see many folks having grounds for complaint.
Wow, did you read the comments, offline play doesn't exist as it was clearly stated it would. You seem to be twisting words to such a degree that you make no logical sense.
"Note that the offline save won't contain all of the server features (exactly how it will balance out is unknown at the moment) and it may not be possible to sync an offline save with the server state, although we'll look at how we can do this.
So yes, you can haveyour own save without having to connect to the galaxy server."
Your statement of "need to be online" flies right in the face of "without having to connect".
Then we have this,
"
Styggron on December 11, 2012
YES YES YES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FANTASTIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So you can have COMPLETELY stand alone no FORCED sync or updates so you can stay offline indefinitely if I read this right....yes Michael ?
B1gdeano on December 11, 2012
@Taumel
*Yawn*
izzy on December 11, 2012
@Micheal : Good morning and thanks for this precision
Eric on December 11, 2012
@All
There! Done!
Now let's talk about something else shall we?
"
The dynamic updates which are just currently market data, player matchmaking, and statistics. A evolving galaxy is the updates done to alter the static galaxy after online events and that was not promised. But just offering a tutorials as "offline" play does not qualify.
It was a settled issue a done deal a win/win. Now it is trust broken, internet firestorm, ...
Except next they will be on here moaning about how everything is always the same or how it feels too grindy.
Wow, this thread has grown like people have been sitting all day with nothing better to do than complain and argue...i wonder how many would be complaining of a dry featureless offline play mode that is nothing like the online experience if it had been done. Fact is FD can't please everyone, some one will always complain, a group will always be dissatisfied with something or other. Seems to me that FD was trying to make an offline version that was worth it all the way to last week, when they had to make the hard decision of stopping development on it in order to focus on release.
The team that was working on that part of the game being released from that task is probably where the manpower to develop the extra 5 ships is coming from. This means that they probably have a working offline build somewhere that is like comparing alpha 1 to beta 3 in terms of gameplay hence the decision to cut it loose.
There is a very legitimate group of players this affects and it is those without an internet connection to speak of, though how they planned on getting the game is beyond me (isn't all of it digital only?...save the boxed KS version?), those have every right to be angry, voice their opinions and demand refunds and Frontier has stated that they do so.
I wonder how many are complaining that have perfectly capable internet access and don't find themselves in the situation where they are away from that access on a regular basis.
I for one am waiting eagerly for 20th and 22nd releases knowing how much FD can do in a single month of development...has anyone stopped to think that beta 3, released a month after beta 2, could have been the build they had 2 months before they released it?, it may not be of course but i do have high hopes for gamma and final release versions.
Please everyone stop arguing, cutting out offline play was a difficult decision and one they knew would generate a lot of complaints from some people, that's why it was explained by DB himself in the newsletter. Arguing the point again and again helps no one, not even yourselves, if you want a refund just go ask for one through the proper channels and be done with it, no need to bring all this negativity around, even if you feel it's justified.
The team that was working on that part of the game being released from that task is probably where the manpower to develop the extra 5 ships is coming from. This means that they probably have a working offline build somewhere that is like comparing alpha 1 to beta 3 in terms of gameplay hence the decision to cut it loose.
There is a very legitimate group of players this affects and it is those without an internet connection to speak of, though how they planned on getting the game is beyond me (isn't all of it digital only?...save the boxed KS version?), those have every right to be angry, voice their opinions and demand refunds and Frontier has stated that they do so.
I wonder how many are complaining that have perfectly capable internet access and don't find themselves in the situation where they are away from that access on a regular basis.
I for one am waiting eagerly for 20th and 22nd releases knowing how much FD can do in a single month of development...has anyone stopped to think that beta 3, released a month after beta 2, could have been the build they had 2 months before they released it?, it may not be of course but i do have high hopes for gamma and final release versions.
Please everyone stop arguing, cutting out offline play was a difficult decision and one they knew would generate a lot of complaints from some people, that's why it was explained by DB himself in the newsletter. Arguing the point again and again helps no one, not even yourselves, if you want a refund just go ask for one through the proper channels and be done with it, no need to bring all this negativity around, even if you feel it's justified.
Are you for real? I know exactly what DRM is, I own and play dozens of games that use it, hasn't effected my gameplay one iota, as for 10 or 20 years time I'll be lucky to be alive then, but if I am I'll still playing games but it certainly won't be ED,I'll have moved on long before that amount of time passes.
No it doesn't. Storing (or "having") your save on your local PC is different from storing it on the server. You would obviously need to be playing the game online in order to create the save file, but the save file could still be stored locally, to be reloaded into the server when you login and authenticate online at a later time. Nothing in that scenario conflicts with FD's posts on that comments section. The responses made by the backers proclaiming full galaxy offline play a done deal don't seem to be confirmed explicitly by the FD staff, from what I just read. The offline edition I described previously would cover those promises adequately.
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