No Single Player offline Mode then?

[Zenicetus]

What troubles me the most is what this might portend for the future. Whichever way you look at it - and no doubt some will say it portends nothing - it's hardly a confidence building event.

Right, and that's the point that seems to be flying over the heads of those defending FD in the thread.

We know there are future expansions planned, and I assume we're all looking forward to them. Probably to the point of committing to a pre-order and/or Beta access, just like the initial release of the game. Before last Friday, I would never have thought FD would do a bait and switch, like promising alien life on the surface and then a week before release say ""Oh, by the way, we decided that alien life on the surface didn't conform to our vision, so you'll be walking on bare rocks instead." Now, who knows? They've established a precedent.

I think what happened here was probably just inept public relations and lack of communication, not realizing that this should have been handled much, much earlier in the pre-order/Beta process. But still, the damage is done. I don't think FD can roll back their plans and offer a true offline mode at this point, but they sure do need to get ahead of the communication issues. They need to insure that the next time they offer pre-release orders for an expansion, a major feature like this won't be pulled again at the last minute, after taking people's money.

 

[Ikari]

I still think the more important issue here is whats next. They have already stated no offline play and I feel they should offer refunds to anyone effected by this. I really hope FD outline any other changes sooner rather than later that may effect our wallets or our game play experience.

 

[the darkwalker]

1. I think he's been pretty clear it is. I think that's possibly your own interpretation, rather than what he has actually said. Can only suggest re-reading.

2. Even if they believe it will damage the product, which is what Michael is saying? Again, it sounds like you have too much hope when there probably isn't a place for it.

3. That's really not the same thing. Listening to something that won't do what we're saying in #2, isn't listening to what would.

Hope that explains a bit. I feel it's been made perfectly clear: No offline. If you wanted offline, they've suggested asking for a refund. That is clear. However upsetting that is.

i just did that 1 hour ago. still waiting for a response.

if by next week i still not got my FULL 60 euros refund ill' take on my local consumer agency

 

[Ruedi]

Sorry for my not perfect english words:

I was also really disapointed that there are now no posibillity to play Elite Dangerous "forever".

Imagine if they sold 800000 copies of this game and everybody starts exploring in a different direction, all people lost in space very soon. So you are happy to see
sometimes an NPC which you can contact or fight or what else.So the multiplayer effect could be soon not so important!

Surely FD had this descision earlier for all to communicate. It is not very clever to do this so short before 22 of November.
So many people are angry about the currewnt status of 3.05 and nobody knows what feature will be suprisingly included in Gamma.

The solution for the whole Story is in my opinion quite easy:

1. Release the game with the possibility to play with your own "server Version" installed on our PC
It's the same like you play online and only one people are logged in. The program generates all the things Micheal had explained.
2. Protect your "secrets" with the server Data with the new uncrackable "Denuvo" protection like GTA V will use it for PC.
3. During update allow to download the patches like an "installation file" so we can store these files seperatly for a future install Elite Dangerous on a new PC. Than the Boxed Version of Elite makes sense again.

We all love this superb game and follow the story nearly 2 years. we have wait so much years for this version. And we are ancient to loose our child if FD have closed the door in fututre.

 

[Ydiss]

I am not trying to minimise Michael's dedication, as he did respond to a large number of posts on a weekend that a lot of developers would never even dream of doing, so I applaud him for that.

But to say they were fielded with clarity and clearly understandable is nothing short of hogwash.

What he actually did, in almost all his responses, was selectively answer 1 or at most 2 questions of multi-question posts with 1 line answers that sometimes answered those questions and other times raised even more questions due to their ambiguity, crypticness and lack of information.

Now I am not saying this is right or wrong, I am not judging his answers, what i am doing is presenting facts and not sugar coating with blinkers on.

Perhaps you should re-read all the questions that were asked of him and his respective responses?

I don't need to reread them. I understood both the questions and the answers. He responded to several repeated questions.

I can't help you if you feel you don't understand the reasons for this decision.

 

[deMangler]

You already have the answers to your questions from Mr Brooks etc,offline is gone its not coming back,what else do you want ? If you want this game to succeed you are not helping.

Actually - my post was in answer to your question. You are correct in that my questions have been answered by now. Sorry you do not see the benefit of my continuuing to post but if it seems to me to add to the thread then I may still post. Of course I will take criticism too and I thank you for it.

 

[Quietman]

This is pathetic. Get a grip, people. We gamers keep bringing shame on ourselves over and over. [Redacted]

This will get drowned in the mountain of bile, but I for one, am super stoked for release, and want to thank frontier for busting their asses on this.

Of course it's pathetic, it's not your problem, it doesn't affect you; but here you are anyway consoling the aggrieved with your words of wisdom.

 

[SJT]

It's Beta!!!!! it doesn't matter what they advertise, it would be different for the retail game which is why preorders qualify for refund.If they took away MP you would still have a game so again no need for an apology.

All complaints are null and void, so again what do you all expect to achieve by carrying on with this nonsense?

Okay, then all the people with pre-orders should get an apology and a promise (oops I used the word) that they will get a full, no-quibble, refund without all this "case by case" rubbish.

 

[WeirdWizard]

Sorry, it's been stated by Michael that it would be completely impractical to build an off-line version as it would effectively be a separate game build mostly from scratch and Frontier don't have the time, money or man power to do it. Wishing this away isn't going to help.

We'll see. I think they are over stating the difficulty somewhat, although to do it justice would take time for sure. But I would be willing to lay money on a fan made offline server being available within a few years and most of the delay will be in reverse engineering the packet structure. Once you have that its relatively trivial to look at what data the client is expecting to receive (IE mission list, commodity prices, NPC spawning, etc) and provide that data from whatever back end model you fancy constructing. That's a project I'd happily throw some time into myself.

 

[Marc Alexander]

I see what you are saying, but here's a few points:

1. There has not actually been an official announcement that Offline Mode is categorically 100% dead, Michael has said a few times that it is currently impractical and not likely to be implemented; this is not the same as saying it's dead. (I am awaiting Monday morning with glee for clarification on this one point alone, let alone on all the rest of FD's communications on this entire Offline Mode issue).

2. The company that can admit when they are wrong, put in place plans to rectify their mistakes and re-earn the trust of their loyal supporters has infinitely more credibility for me, (and I assume others), than the company that sticks to it's guns in the face of overwhelming user-base opposition, just to satisfy some perceived PR image. (Note I am not saying this is the current situation with FD, it is just an example, but it could be a very real situation for FD in the near future).

3. The reason I still have faith in FD is because of the FA off thread, read it fully and you'll understand; these nay-sayers and couch Nostradamus's who are saying that the decision has been made, stop whinging, get a refund, leave, /thread, etc, are just trolls who haven't a clue about pretty much anything.

Ok - 1 and 3 are reasonably arguable points, but "overwhelming user-base opposition"? I'm perfectly happy to except that if it can be shown.

 

[beelbeebub]

i just did that 1 hour ago. still waiting for a response.

if by next week i still not got my FULL 60 euros refund ill' take on my local consumer agency

Still waiting for a response at 530 on a sunday eve?. Terrible

 

[psyron]

Sorry for offtop. I removed part of your message. I know and got one advantage of online cloud . Sony leaked my credit card 2 years ago as i remember from PSN. If you search in internet you will find tonns of leakages from clouds. People happy with such advantages.

With all new technologies come setbacks. But i am sure most people aren't afraid of using a plane even so in the early days passenger planes weren't very safe.

 

[the darkwalker]

Still waiting for a response at 530 on a sunday eve?. Terrible

if money can be taken on a sunday i dont see why they cant give those money back

 

[mbabbs]

Okay, then the all people with pre-orders should get an apology and a promise (oops I used the word) that they will get a full, no-quibble, refund without all this "case by case" rubbish.

+1.

This decision doesn't affect me (unless they drop the servers in X years time), but it would be pretty rude not to refund all offline players who bought the product. I can see why Backers wouldn't be refunded, but those who bought the game should receive an unconditional refund. Infact I would be very surprised if they weren't refunded.

 

[Quietman]

I don't need to reread them. I understood both the questions and the answers. He responded to several repeated questions.

I can't help you if you feel you don't understand the reasons for this decision.

I don't need your help with anything, but cheers for the offer.

 

[phlOgistOn]

if money can be taken on a sundai i dont see why they cant give those money back

Payments can be automated, refunds usually require a real life person to verify them... kinda obvious

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Come on, calling it "mostly from scratch" is an exaggeration. They could do it, by their own admission, but decided that it would be a waste of resources - "waste" being MB's description.

I don't think it's inconceivable that the level of backlash could change their minds, and so it's certainly not time to "grieve and move on" yet.

Then you don't know FD obviously. They won't change their minds. Also overplaying impact this issue have actually doesn't help.

They might change minds in future.

 

[zhaith]

God i think the point has been made, offline is dead unless FD have a change of heart, yes people are dissapointed, me included but the entire forum is full of this, peole need to accept whats happened and see what happens once the dust has settled.

But everyone is entitled to their own opinion this just happens to be mine.

 

[Stormprooter]

Well, having read all the replies in this thread from Michael Brookes and Ed Lewis, I now have some understanding of why the decision was made.
Although somewhat dissapointed myself, from what I can gather, the server-side part of the game, which does a huge amount of work in making the game what it is, cannot easily be replicated on our client machines to make an offline mode anywhere as near as good as the cloud-based system, and probably not easily compatible with the could-based system either. So FD would essentially need to make a completely new version of the game that would work offline, and would still be much inferior to the online version. I can fully understand how this would be very difficult to manage technically, and also from a user expectations point of view.

Again, just reiterating that I am very dissapointed there will be no offline version, but I would rather have a great game that was online only, rather than a mediocre or even crap game that had both online and offline modes.

 

[the darkwalker]

if money can be taken on a sunday i dont see why they cant give those money back

+1.

This decision doesn't affect me (unless they drop the servers in X years time), but it would be pretty rude not to refund all offline players who bought the product. I can see why Backers wouldn't be refunded, but those who bought the game should receive an unconditional refund. Infact I would be very surprised if they weren't refunded.

they have to, their store "rules" are only text on a website.

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Payments can be automated, refunds usually require a real life person to verify them... kinda obvious

but as you see there are people there reading all our posts