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General discussionFrontier have decided to make Elite Dangerous online only.(608 posts)(608 posts)
(608 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted November 15, 2014
high rated
Bad news.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=58789

Despite having promised the Kickstarters and the other backers a DRM free and fully offline capable game, the cat is now out of the bag in their latest newsletter:

Apparently they designed the game for Diablo3 style online-only all the way along, and not kept the promises they made back then.

A big shame, since i backed this at their kickstarter campaign with a considerable amount - and one of the titles i was really looking forward to.

If anyone here supported this game for the promised off-line mode, you really should demand a refund.

Personally I'm royally pissed right now, i didn't believe Frontier would do such a move and betray the trust of their backers like that.
Post edited November 15, 2014 by Solei
Posted November 15, 2014
Well looks like Star Citizen is the way to go then.
Posted November 15, 2014
low rated
This person is what most people would classify as an "idiot".

The majority of the "Disappointed" don't understand that now defunct Solo Offline and the current Solo Online are functionally identical except Online will mirror the shared universe. All the changes caused by players will be carried over. You will still never see an actual human player in your game.

The only people affected by this decision are those without a persistent internet connection, and that can't be too many.

My understanding of their explanation is that it's simply too expensive and time consuming to maintain two separate code bases for such a small set of edge cases, and that they simply do not want the full universes dataset out there for the obvious reasons.
Posted November 15, 2014
high rated
avatar
opticq: Well looks like Star Citizen is the way to go then.
Star Citizen has been always-online since the get go, I believe (Squadron 42 is supposed to have an offline mode, however, if I'm not mistaken).

It's supposed to have 3d party servers, however (although they might have backtracked on that), something which E:D apparently won't have either because <i>"you'd have access to the server which isn't something we'd want to allow as it contains the secrets of the galaxy"</i>.

Anyway, Frontier have gone full-EA on this one. Their excuses for not having an offline mode seem practically copy-pasted from EA's SimCity bullshit:

"The online servers provide all of the data and processing for the galaxy, interactions between players and all transactions of value. Without it there isn't a game. We always intended that the way to play the game would be online. We had hoped that we could do an offline variant, but as the game progressed the online requirement superseded that. It wasn't an easy choice to make, but to stay true to the game we set out to make we had to make this choice."
Posted November 15, 2014
high rated
avatar
fuknukl: This person is what most people would classify as an "idiot".

The majority of the "Disappointed" don't understand that now defunct Solo Offline and the current Solo Online are functionally identical except Online will mirror the shared universe. All the changes caused by players will be carried over. You will still never see an actual human player in your game.

The only people affected by this decision are those without a persistent internet connection, and that can't be too many.

My understanding of their explanation is that it's simply too expensive and time consuming to maintain two separate code bases for such a small set of edge cases, and that they simply do not want the full universes dataset out there for the obvious reasons.
I think you will find many wanted offline for many reasons.
example bad internet,jobs that take them away from using there isp.data caps ect ect.

For me as well as data cap,i would want true offline mode just incase the company shuts down their servers,at least i still can play what i paid for.hence why i buy stuff off gog.com.
Posted November 15, 2014
high rated
avatar
fuknukl: This person is what most people would classify as an "idiot".

The majority of the "Disappointed" don't understand that now defunct Solo Offline and the current Solo Online are functionally identical except Online will mirror the shared universe. All the changes caused by players will be carried over. You will still never see an actual human player in your game.

The only people affected by this decision are those without a persistent internet connection, and that can't be too many.

My understanding of their explanation is that it's simply too expensive and time consuming to maintain two separate code bases for such a small set of edge cases, and that they simply do not want the full universes dataset out there for the obvious reasons.
The issue is that offline mode was one of the main promised features of the game (and a feature of all previous Elite games, which didn't have an online mode at all), and because of this false advertising a lot of people bought a game that they won't be able to play, or play as they intended.

And, of course, there's the blatant issue of pushing always-online DRM bullshit on a game that was promised to be DRM-free.

Frontier has burned in a single stroke any trust the community could have on them.
Post edited November 15, 2014 by mbpoblet
Posted November 15, 2014
high rated
Sadly this is why I generally avoid backing kickstarter projects. Most of them are good but in situations like this you're literally screwed.

Modern space game, DRM free and fully offline would have been the cherry on the cake for me, I hope they'll at least try to find a solution.
Posted November 15, 2014
I hope there will be a huge backlash from backers. As for me, it means my wallet is safe.
Posted November 15, 2014
avatar
opticq: Well looks like Star Citizen is the way to go then.
avatar
mbpoblet: Star Citizen has been always-online since the get go, I believe (Squadron 42 is supposed to have an offline mode, however, if I'm not mistaken).

It's supposed to have 3d party servers, however (although they might have backtracked on that), something which E:D apparently won't have either because <i>"you'd have access to the server which isn't something we'd want to allow as it contains the secrets of the galaxy"</i>.

Anyway, Frontier have gone full-EA on this one. Their excuses for not having an offline mode seem practically copy-pasted from EA's SimCity bullshit:

"The online servers provide all of the data and processing for the galaxy, interactions between players and all transactions of value. Without it there isn't a game. We always intended that the way to play the game would be online. We had hoped that we could do an offline variant, but as the game progressed the online requirement superseded that. It wasn't an easy choice to make, but to stay true to the game we set out to make we had to make this choice."
Oh then I stand corrected. I don't usually mind always online. But it's not cool to go back on your word like that.
Posted November 15, 2014
avatar
mbpoblet: Star Citizen has been always-online since the get go, I believe (Squadron 42 is supposed to have an offline mode, however, if I'm not mistaken).

It's supposed to have 3d party servers, however (although they might have backtracked on that), something which E:D apparently won't have either because <i>"you'd have access to the server which isn't something we'd want to allow as it contains the secrets of the galaxy"</i>.

Anyway, Frontier have gone full-EA on this one. Their excuses for not having an offline mode seem practically copy-pasted from EA's SimCity bullshit:

"The online servers provide all of the data and processing for the galaxy, interactions between players and all transactions of value. Without it there isn't a game. We always intended that the way to play the game would be online. We had hoped that we could do an offline variant, but as the game progressed the online requirement superseded that. It wasn't an easy choice to make, but to stay true to the game we set out to make we had to make this choice."
My PC is quite capable of doing my own "data and processing for the galaxy" AKA running the game, and I am not interested in "interactions between players" AKA multiplayer, or "transactions of value" AKA microtransactions. Bah, I guess I am no longer interested in this game, hopefully Squadron 42 will deliver a good single player experience.
Posted November 15, 2014
high rated
So is this just an excuse to protect the integrity of their microtransaction system?

The previous Elite games simulated a universe with mere kilobytes of RAM and CPUs measured in MHz; nothing they can say would convince me that this latest game couldn't have an offline mode.
Posted November 15, 2014
high rated
Exactly why I've avoided these two games. The focus on online was way too big to not have an effect on the single player, and the latter is all I care about.
Posted November 15, 2014
high rated
avatar
Arkose: So is this just an excuse to protect the integrity of their microtransaction system?

The previous Elite games simulated a universe with mere kilobytes of RAM and CPUs measured in MHz; nothing they can say would convince me that this latest game couldn't have an offline mode.
Exactly, they were doing this kind of thing twenty years ago with [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier:_Elite_II]Frontier:Elite 2[/url]; Elite: Dangerous is definitely more realistic, but given that the galaxy is procedurally generated and that we've had twenty years of Moore's law since the last game, "technical reasons" is clearly an excuse, and a very lame one at that.
avatar
Pheace: Exactly why I've avoided these two games. The focus on online was way too big to not have an effect on the single player, and the latter is all I care about.
A lot of us thought that way... but the promise of an off-line mode (even if it wouldn't get the dynamic updates from the online galaxy) convinced us. Hence the outrage.
Post edited November 15, 2014 by mbpoblet
Posted November 15, 2014
I'm sorry honest developers but this is exactly why i don't back kickstarter projects, way too far from the final build, way too many things that can drastically change...
Posted November 15, 2014
Yeah I pre-ordered this because I trusted them at their word of an Offline Mode. I have requested a refund so hopefully they will refund me on Monday.

It is pretty disappointing.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionFrontier have decided to make Elite Dangerous online only.(608 posts)(608 posts)
(608 posts)