The difference is that Uber did it the right way with Planetary Annihilation. After the game reached 1.0 and had been online only during the entire development, Uber released the game server as a local component for offline play - and that works like a charm both on windows and on Linux. (i know, because i backed PA too).

And that game is fully moddable too.

But it seems like Frontier messed it up good and proper. I'm really looking forward to see what they have to say in the next official statement after all this.

Screw Frontier and their irrelevant DRM'd game.

I sympathize with those who kickstarted this game, thinking they'd be able to play it offline - if only because the developer made that promise.

There are better games out there that deserve your money way more.

Why Planetary Annihilation? The game is DRM-free right now!
In PA it was ALWAYS promised that we´d get our own server software to run games on our own PCs offline, as long as we have enough hardware power for doing this! Not on release, but soon afterwards !
And that´s what they´ve delivered---took a while, but it worked out!

Big problem: It doesn´t look like Frontier wants it´s game to become DRM-free ANY time after release! (right now, things can always be changed!) That´s no way to go. Look at how many kickstarter-projects did well! Look on this list:
https://www.gog.com/mix/kickstarter_games
And most of them turned out really, really good!

Oh, and don´t forget: Braben will be shitstormed like there is no other morning! And, whichs even harder for him: It´ll be WITH RIGHT on shitstormers site!

They can make it a mobile free-to-pay game for all I care. A Cash of Clans clone, maybe?

"Wait for docking to the station 32 hours. Alternatively, pay 50 cents to dock now."

Hmmm, that kinda works, you can bribe the station managers to put you ahead in the waiting line, but you pay with real money.

6. In-Game Advertising

"The Software Product 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 Software Product on your PC, and changed while the Software Product is being played on-line. In order that the Dynamic Advertising Provider is able to direct advertising appropriate to your Software Product 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 Software Product incorporates dynamic advertising technology, the technology which serves the provision of dynamic in-game advertising is integrated within the Software Product. 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. "

In my opinion, depending on the scale of the the advertising and the if the advertisers are third parties, it would for me get to the point, where they have to pay me to play it or make it accessible for free.

Things like that taught me to never support any projects (well, games more than others) before their actual release.
You never know what you get, things can change very easily over time, as this example shows. If I would've backed the game, I would ask for a refund now.

Oh I am sorry, I was wrong, I didn't know that offline was eventually supported in PA !
Thanks both for the info.

Oh bummer...sounded great in the beginning, I was hyped, then grew weary quickly about the online play focus, but this is too much.

So how can we get refunds? If not I'll just sell the collectors box unopened.

So they don't want to be on Steam and now abolishing DRM-free (as in, playing offline without contacting server)? Talk about killing two demographics with one stone...

Requested refund :(

That's actually the second Kickstarter games I had to request a refund for, I hope it will be the last...
Connect with your account and open a customer support ticket. (that's what I did, not sure it will work though)

Standard MMO tactics till they run out of new subs, then they come to Steam

I find it sad people are already asking for refunds (one said they have already done a chargeback) without letting Frontier reply properly to the concerns raised (not here, on the forums over there)

Frontier have said people may apply for refunds via their store. I assume this will be on a case-by-case basis

Frontier have also given their reasons why offline mode had to be stopped/scrapped. Some quotes:

"It's not a decision we took lightly. We would much rather keep everyone happy (if such a thing were possible), but trying to do an offline version compromises what we're doing with the online version and we have said from the very beginning that is how we intended the game to be played. Of course some people are upset by the decision, we're not happy with it either but it's the decision we've had to make for the good of the game"

"The problem here is that you'd have access to the server which isn't something we'd want to allow as it contains the secrets of the galaxy. Which was also an issue with an online version"

"The problem is that the galaxy mechanics all sit on the online servers. The data set and processes are huge and not something that would translate offline without considerable compromise to the vision. Trust me we didn't sit down and think what would annoy people the most! It's a choice we've had to make and so we've taken it"

I can't find the other quote, but basically they'd have to make two separate games which they are unable to do

I understand the position they're in and would personally hate to be in their position at the moment. I want offline play to remain but if it's going to compromise the game as a whole, I accept their decision. Luckily solo online play is an option (what, I'm a crap pilot at the moment >_> )

EDIT: I'm not saying people shouldn't ask for refunds, just see what Frontier says/does first

Wait... They need this online-stuff to update my singleplayer galaxy with stuff that happened in the multiplayer galaxy? That's really, really sad :( I could've lived with some stupid DRM like Steam, but I don't want to have the multiplayer stuff in my singleplayer game. That's exactly why I'm playing singleplayer and not multiplayer!

Guess I'll have to wait for the next proper X then...

Yeah I read em and people seem to be buying it and I am sure Michael means well. But this surely was a cold business decision from higher above. Either piss off a few people, take a few refunds or suffer alot more extra development costs for what they promised. Our job now is to make the costs from refunds higher than what the other costs would have been.

Done. Requested the bank fees back, too, why should I pay those if they break the deal.

Yeah, I saw you posting there :) Most business decisions of this nature are/have to be cold, sadly enough

This makes me sad to hear you say this

Another quote for those playing along at home:

"As I said it's not simply the data although that is certainly an issue. Remember you don't just have the start point of the galaxy, you have any changes that are applied to it. The decision making processes for gameplay within the galaxy are also cloud based and it's not a simple job to transfer these over. The vision for how the game works has necessitated a much more encompassing online structure than we'd initially thought. We've not just said - let's not do offline. We've investigated the different ways we can do it and the simple answer is that we can't - not without compromising the game we're trying to make"