No Single Player offline Mode then?

[Jackruss]

I'm not the guy your quoting but;

More players, more pvp, more market action, more dynamic events (AI will never overtake a player's dynamic ability ever)

In reality, what harm can come to more players? - but it'l never happen because with solo-online everyone farms there and then goes and pvps around stations and pseudo-battlegrounds (lmao immersion) in open-play

I am confused if this isn't your quote ,then is what you say here what you think? I will assume it does therefore;
I don't want more PVP, I continually argue with the Pirate factions over this need to get fun out of destroying my hours of trading.
Market action, my ability to move the markets in ED is so minimal that it does not count, we never had to have other players involvement in the markets to move prices and stocks in the pervious Elites.
I on my own cannot change the galaxy but in a mission I could influence something that could lead onto another mission, who needs more players.
I think AI's can become invincible if the program is written as such. I liked the Elite progression in earlier games where you became better as you went along and the NPCs got more numerous.
I certainly don't want to sit outside a station and kill newbies, so more players are a negative not a positive especially given the grievers who can come into your game.
I don't think more players as in Eve make for a better game.

 

[Deyn]

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Let's hope you are the majority then... Always keep in mind, if the official launch starts there will be a lot of players coming into the fold, many of the people looking for an offline mode (having bought presale/backed without beta access) might have never joined the ONLINE beta. Does actually make sense if you don't want to, or can't play online...

Now imagine this currently unaware and silent mass of people gets the preview or start on 16th Dec with the offline feature erradicated.

Just thinking...

 

[CommaNerd]

Another reason why I want single player offline is that I had bought a 2nd copy of the game (with an expansion pass) for use by my 9-year-old daughter, thinking she'd be able to play it on a (as yet unbuilt) PC that didn't require internet access.

I'm not at all comfortable in allowing her unfettered access to the internet, and the fact that it could be played offline (or occasionally in a private group with me under strict supervision) was a selling point for me also. The galaxy is real, and flying around it would have been an amazing passive learning experience for her.

Now that is basically shot to pieces too.

It's very easy in Windows Firewall to restrict access to the web entirely and only allow traffic to the Elite Dangerous servers. Or even just block port 80 (http).

FD are between a rock and a hard place. I can see why some are frustrated that a promised feature doesn't exist, but on the other hand if they start offering refunds, many unscrupulous backers will jump on the bandwagon, demand a refund and buy the retail version, effectively getting a free ride in Beta. Not to mention that could financially cripple FD, meaning we all lose out.

I say FD should take the current beta and package the server binaries with the client for running locally, voila- a local client/server model, promise fulfilled even if performance could suffer. They just stop development of this local version or repeat the packaging process at a few development checkpoints.

 

[WeirdWizard]

I'm surprised by the variety in reasons people bring up for what an utter disaster the no offline mode is for them.


You could deny internet access to your daughters PC for everything apart from Elite.

And how exactly are they to stop her from logging into the open mode whenever she wants to?

 

[TrueFranco]

The solution to this issue is very simple, convert Solo Online to Offline mode (no internet required) and you please two group of ppls at the same time, the ppls that need offline mode and the ppls against switch mode.

 

[Rampant]

I tend to agree, would you get out of your car in the middle of the road to buy a grapefruit ? why would you park your eagle in the middle of space with pirate npcs about ? it is like doing the car thing then blaming other motorists for them getting annoyed rather than looking at your own actions.

Ouch.
I parked up in a safe secluded area, I didn't jump out of a moving vehicle.
Other traffic could clearly see my car parked in a layby and easily drive safely passed. I also didn't attempt to cross the busy motorway on foot a couple of miles away from my parked car. Sheesh.
And it was a human driver, not an errant Google drone that diverted off the motorway to deliberately crash into me while I was parked in the layby in neutral taking a nap in my car.
Thanks for the metaphor, though.

 

[jabokai]

If this forum post is anything to go by they won't see that - these people are blind to the truth

I guess I'll repost this "truth" again then...

What is a creator obligated to do once their project is funded?

When a project is successfully funded, the creator is responsible for completing the project and fulfilling each reward. Their fundamental obligation to backers is to finish all the work that was promised. Once a creator has done so, they’ve fulfilled their obligation to their backers. At the same time, backers must understand that Kickstarter is not a store. When you back a project, you’re helping to create something new — not ordering something that already exists. There’s a chance something could happen that prevents the creator from being able to finish the project as promised. If a creator is absolutely unable to complete the project and fulfill rewards, they must make every reasonable effort to find another way of bringing the project to a satisfying conclusion for their backers.

 

[tagos]

So suddenly everything FD said is a lie?

Unless the decision was made on Friday afternoon then their behaviour in this matter has been questionable I'm afraid. As soon as the decision was made they should have taken all the steps necessary to ensure purchasers were fully informed of the change.

And no - I do not believe for one second that this decision was made Friday.

 

[Binerexis]

To "curses", who repped that post as "Misrepresentative at best": how is it misrepresentative? Fact is that open multiplayer has not worked for me for any significant duration ever since premium beta started, and solo online still has a lot of issues with basic transactions (missions, trade, etc.).

Holy Christ, it's almost as if the game has been in a state of perpetual testing for the last few months where issues such as connectivity are likely to happen or be induced to better prepare the game for full release. Even scarier, it's like you knew all this when you chose to pay so much money for access to it. How did no one see those issues coming?

 

[Voivod]

And how exactly are they to stop her from logging into the open mode whenever she wants to?

A child-lock inside the client would probably be a hell of a lot easier to implement than a full offline mode

 

[baja2215]

I've certainly not read all 5000+ posts in this thread - but essentially what I see is a general crying about Frontier removing the offline mode option .... is it REALLY that big of a deal? Sure if you don't have any internet I can understand - but for those complaining even when they do have internet - I really don't see the point other than you're complaining for the sake of complaining.

Sure it's just like other less-favourable companies have done, but I believe Frontier have not made this decision lightly and I have faith in that they know what they are doing and talking about.

Solo online mode doesn't take much bandwidth so just go with that and stop complaining And for those without broadband - sorry - not sure what you can do.

 

[Andre Peschke]

Looking for interview(s)

Ladies & Gents,

I work for GameStar one of the major games-magazines in Germany. Since we intend to report on the issue I'm looking for community-members who would be willing to participate in a quick interview on the subject. Preferably via Skype. You don't have to speak german, english will do just fine. If you're shy we can do email but it's always better to talk directly.

I'd be especially (not exclusively) interested to get the perspective of some of the people who have a significantly high investment in the game (1000 USD/Euros or more).

I'm *not* looking specifically for someone who hates the decision to drop singleplayer. If you feel fine with this decision by the developers I'd like to get your point of view just as much.

If you'd like to share your perspective and/or have further questions please get in touch with me directly: apeschke at idg.de (Forum does not allow for plain-email, so substitute the "at" plz)

Kind regards,
Andre

 

[Voivod]

Unless the decision was made on Friday afternoon then their behaviour in this matter has been questionable I'm afraid. As soon as the decision was made they should have taken all the steps necessary to ensure purchasers were fully informed of the change.

And no - I do not believe for one second that this decision was made Friday.

Being bad at PR isn't the same as being a liar.

 

[Stormprooter]

I'd guess it's not even close to that. Though still a significant number.

I suspect that if you added up all the pledges from those of us who put money in during the kickstarter, who only put money in because we thought we would get a single player offline game, and then deducted that total from the actual kickstarter total - it would probably turn out to be a very close run thing that the kickstarter funding goal would have been reached, and E: D would not have been started at that time, though I'm sure DB would have found another way to get it funded, but I doubt we'd be seeing the end of beta this week if that had happened.

It would do well to remember that original KS backers are who helped this game get off the ground and started back in Jan 2013, and I recall many at the time on the forums stating they wanted mostly to play the offline game.
Personally, I want both offline and online (in all it's forms), but I doubt I would have backed to Alpha level if offline was not on the cards.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

And how exactly are they to stop her from logging into the open mode whenever she wants to?

Simples. Request FD to implement a parent protection. It's actually very good idea.

 

[Armour]

Posted by me in another thread:

David Braben made a point of declaring that they had all the multiplayer elements working as part of their first stage of Alpha, but then revealed that they overlooked the fact that LANs and WANs might behave differently! This betray's his (and thus Frontier's) complete lack of online gaming credentials. Given this lack of knowledge, was it really the best idea for them to put all their eggs in the online basket? To me, it seems not.

 

[cherbert]

Sure if you don't have any internet I can understand - but for those complaining even when they do have internet - I really don't see the point other than you're complaining for the sake of complaining.

There have been lots of good arguments and examples for why Offline is so important to many people. You clearly have either not read them or are choosing to be very selective with your views on the subject.

 

[Titus Balls]

Not quite, they said they would have to create two games to support it, and they weren't going to.

It's a business / practicality decision. Not a technical one.

We know it's technically possible... it's been done at least 3 times before by Mr Braben himself no less.

That difficult 4th album that doesn't live up to everyone's expectations because the artist went in a different direction.

 

[tagos]

It's very easy in Windows Firewall to restrict access to the web entirely and only allow traffic to the Elite Dangerous servers. Or even just block port 80 (http).

FD are between a rock and a hard place. I can see why some are frustrated that a promised feature doesn't exist, but on the other hand if they start offering refunds, many unscrupulous backers will jump on the bandwagon, demand a refund and buy the retail version, effectively getting a free ride in Beta.

True but I'm afraid that is the price to be paid when you make the big calls. Big and controversial decisions have consequences.

 

[noodle]

I've certainly not read all 5000+ posts in this thread

Might be an idea to catch up before posting then, lest you post without an understanding of the issues that are concerning people.