Apart from the no-DRM thing.
And the 25 ships at launch.
And half the DDA topics.
And 9 months past the original estimate.
But yeah. Outstanding indeed.
No Single Player offline Mode then?
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Apart from the no-DRM thing.
And the 25 ships at launch.
And half the DDA topics.
And 9 months past the original estimate.
But yeah. Outstanding indeed.
Since everything is so limited, are you sure they will have be able to implement an offline patch if the servers go down? Doesn't that require money and resources?? If FD goes belly up then all I got for my £115 pledge is a t-shirt!
Cutter
It's still outstanding as compared to, I dunno,
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/11/14/unexpected-tear-gas-sends-kids-home
The more complex it gets the more the project plan needs to get modified.
But I have no doubt that FD will deliver almost all the remaining requirements and...
we have not seen the final game yet!
Regarding myself I am looking forward to the next release and to the premium event in Cambridge this week.
I did start a few threads questioning the data security of offline mode, the latest just a few weeks ago. Does it count? I could see there was a potential problem to say the least.
I did read some of those threads yes, but there seemed to be very little 'this aint happening' sentiment in them, doubts, maybe, 'offline is gone', no.
Looked very low tone to be honest....they didn't make it look like a catastrophe..... just as new info with the reasons and info on things to come...
They're trying to use in-game advertising (and microtransactions) instead of a subscription model. Remember: a credit store is mentioned in the Kickstarter FAQ. And in-game ads are in the EULA.
If you want to successfully implement in-game advertising and microtransactions, you need to have your player base online and connected. In the Kickstarter FAQ it says they do not plan to implement a subscription model. (Plans can change though, if ads and microtransactions don't over all costs.) Yet, they need a cash flow to keep servers and development running. So they are trying to do in-game ads and microtransactions instead of a subscripton fee. And for that to work out they need everyone online. How can they make profitable advertising contracts if they have to admit that their players can avoid the ads? They can't. How can they sell credits if you don't notice other players have an advantage because they paid for credits? They can't. You need to be in the same universe as everyone else to notice your disadvantage, you need to be exposed to localized ads. If Frontier has everyone online they have a strong advertising opportunity to sell.
Now, realize that we technically already agreed to an ad-filled universe with P2W mechanics. They wouldn't be breaking any promises if it came to that. The only promise they needed to break to make this model profitable was: offline mode.
Anyone else think it's really funny that the EULA still says that you should play offline if you want to avoid advertising? Yeah...
Sources:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous/#project_faq_42659
We do not plan to make it subscription-based. Once you have purchased the game up front, you will be able to play thereafter for no further cost. Everything in the game will be purchasable with in-game Credits, earned from trading, bounty-hunting, etc. We will probably allow the supplemental purchase of Credits with real money, for those who want to accelerate their progress through the game.
We do plan to charge for additional updates, to be available sometime after the original release. These will offer additional content, features and gameplay.
https://store.zaonce.net/ed-eula/
8. In-Game Advertising
The Game may incorporate technology (which may be provided by Frontier or third party service providers engaged by Frontier (each a "Dynamic Advertising Provider")) which enables advertising to be uploaded into the Game on your PC, and changed while the Game is being played on-line. In order that the Dynamic Advertising Provider is able to direct advertising appropriate to your Game and geographic region, as well as to the correct location within the computer game, certain non-personally identifiable data and information may be retrieved and retained by the Dynamic Advertising Provider including your I.P. address, geographic location, in-game position, and information concerning the appearance of advertising visible during your gameplay (for example, the length of time an item of advertising was visible, the dimensions of the advertisements). In addition, the Dynamic Advertising Provider may assign a unique identification number which is stored on your PC and which is used to monitor and calculate the number of views of dynamic advertising during gameplay. None of the information collected for this purpose including the identification number can be used to identify you.
The technology employed by Dynamic Advertising Providers may be located outside your country of residence (including outside of the European Union).
Where a Game incorporates dynamic advertising technology, the technology which serves the provision of dynamic in-game advertising is integrated within the Game. This means that if you do not want to receive dynamic advertising, you should only play the game when you are not connected to the Internet.
To be honest I have not followed the topic all the way, but from what I have read, I think people need to chill. I sympathise with those backers, who for some reason cannot play online at all, but I hear there is a way to get your money back, so I guess FD is not the new Ubisoft.
As for the concerns about servers going down and the game dying. I assume that so far Elite is doing ok. That means release will be on time, with no major bugs and a good experience. Further development is planned, with planetary landings, FPS module and so on, so it's not like Elite will be a on shot effort. There is at least several years ahead of us during which the game will be up and running and will be expanded further. By the time the potential of Elite ends, I am sure a solution to the servers going down will be reachable. This is not a problem we will have to deal with next week. Chill.
I would also like to point out that there is some sort of forced drama here. Up till now, noone mentioned the offline mode much on this forum. I actually forgot all about it and first I have read the news, I was sure they meant the solo play. Most complaints about the game I have seem were concerning the multiplayer, how there is still no grouping options or guilds and that having solo play and online with the same rule and being able to swicth from one to another with a single click is not really fair.
Lets face it, Elite was advertised as a multiplayer game. Many people came here because it was an alternative to MMOs like EVE, so all the rage about offline mode being removed bears resemblance to the "they promise then take it back" drama.
I think unless you don't have a stable internet connection, there is nothing to worry about. I feel sorry for everyone that counted on the offline mode so much, but I intend to remain supportive of the devs since they have shown great passion with the game, made it into something great already (I have 240 hours clocked so far and it is the most I played any game in years) and I am confident they will continue to work on creating a wonderful experience for us. Also, their approach towards the customers has really been fair in many ways and that is not something commons nowadays when most companies just make decisions based on profit charts and do not care about the customers so much as to even respond to the communities concerns.
As for the concerns about servers going down and the game dying. I assume that so far Elite is doing ok. That means release will be on time, with no major bugs and a good experience. Further development is planned, with planetary landings, FPS module and so on, so it's not like Elite will be a on shot effort. There is at least several years ahead of us during which the game will be up and running and will be expanded further. By the time the potential of Elite ends, I am sure a solution to the servers going down will be reachable. This is not a problem we will have to deal with next week. Chill.
I would also like to point out that there is some sort of forced drama here. Up till now, noone mentioned the offline mode much on this forum. I actually forgot all about it and first I have read the news, I was sure they meant the solo play. Most complaints about the game I have seem were concerning the multiplayer, how there is still no grouping options or guilds and that having solo play and online with the same rule and being able to swicth from one to another with a single click is not really fair.
Lets face it, Elite was advertised as a multiplayer game. Many people came here because it was an alternative to MMOs like EVE, so all the rage about offline mode being removed bears resemblance to the "they promise then take it back" drama.
I think unless you don't have a stable internet connection, there is nothing to worry about. I feel sorry for everyone that counted on the offline mode so much, but I intend to remain supportive of the devs since they have shown great passion with the game, made it into something great already (I have 240 hours clocked so far and it is the most I played any game in years) and I am confident they will continue to work on creating a wonderful experience for us. Also, their approach towards the customers has really been fair in many ways and that is not something commons nowadays when most companies just make decisions based on profit charts and do not care about the customers so much as to even respond to the communities concerns.
Solo mode enables mods and hacks. This will seriously cut down on the hack development, and it will be mean we don't have players with hacked ships exploring the universe at a vastly accelerated pace and then spilling the secrets (it only takes a few). It means we don't have crackers data-mining the server files, digging up all the secrets placed there and unweaving the procedural rules that govern factions and NPCs.
It's the existence of the offline mode that was endangering the game experience of everybody _but_ those offline players who would have played it straight.
If you workry about crackers, bots and cheats, this has cut that threat down a lot.
This is not a bad thing, there may be some people not aware that there pre-order is missing the feature they desired, a calm neutral factual handling of this information is good, hopefully those people who might need to request a refund due to their own circumstances will get to hear in a timely manner. Rather than too late or in a world is falling way.
psyron
Banned
Fully agree on this.
And btw, the more complex this game become the more it is simply impossible to simulate it on an ordinary computer.
I am into AI (aritificial intelligence) and it is very obvious that this kind of technology requires a huge amount of data and processor power. Already simulating 1000 of neurons is an amazing task. But in ED we are talking about simulating a whole galaxy with millions of NPCs. Now think about how much resources this requires!
And it's only the beginning!
I am quite sure FD is working on making those NPCs more and more intelligent with time going on. Forget about letting this work on an ordinary computer - simply not possible.
Collectors editions are always pointless
Digital download vs something tangible and a box with a paper manual? nah.. no contest
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