News - Elite: Dangerous single-player offline mode officially ditched

[davesom555]

Alright, well it's not too bad if it's only the occasional connection needed. However, some more information on the frequency of this would be useful!

[spacein_vader]

Then the point of the game (MMO like) is not what I originally was sold.

And that's what I was duped into thinking I was buying.

Wonder if they'll offer refunds? LOL!

I'll say again: You weren't sold anything, you haven't bought anything. You provided patronage for a game to be developed, if you offered enough you were gifted a copy of the end result, if indeed it got that far. It was not a pre-order.

[kingpotnoodle]

I have almost zero interest in an online game, or even one that gets updated in batches to reflect changes in the online world. I don't have the time to keep up and play regularly...

I might not play for weeks, I'd come back 5/10/20 updates later and find the whole game world had a different tone and I needed to change tack and re-immerse into the "current" at every play - no thanks, that just sounds incredibly annoying. To draw an analogy it sounds like playing Rome2 and every time I play the faction alliances and provinces have been randomised so my armies are now all in the wrong place and nothing is how I remember it.

Oh well, guess I won't be buying Elite Dangerous then.

[scaryjim]

I think the brief was simpler than that: Make a new Elite game. ...

Oh, I'm a lot more cynical than that. I think the brief is "Make an Elite-like game exactly the way David Braben wants it to be and he'll brook no argument over what that means".

I've said elsewhere, I don't want David Braben trying to tell me how to experience video games. I'm *still* playing the original Elite (an emulated NES version - I agree with both Braben and Bell that it's the best version of the original Elite) thirty years on. As others have said, if "offline" mode needs to connect to servers at all, that's just not going to be possible with E: D. And while I fully accept that David Braben has every right to make that call, I think it's the wrong one, and it's certainly cooled a lot of my enthusiasm for the game.

[Ttaskmaster]

I've said elsewhere, I don't want David Braben trying to tell me how to experience video games.

Then don't buy his game to begin with.
As is, I'm feeling very much the same way about Chris Roberts's latest effort. But that's just my personal tastes and preferences conflicting with his. I funded the game to be made the way the Devs wanted it, rather than how some clueless publisher demanded it. That's what the project briefs actually said, though I paraphrase, and this is what is being delivered with both games.

I did not pay to have a say in anything myself and merely trusted/hoped that it would turn out OK. Even now, I'm still hoping for a fun Star Citizen game and I feel the same about Elite... but with more confidence, as I'm actually playing the Beta and can see what it's like.

Did you ever play the original Elite, or Frontier: Elite 2? Were they online? No. Did they not provide hours, upon hours, upon hours of IMMENSE fun that you made for yourself, at your own pace, without being ganked/abused/interrupted by other players? Hell yes! And that's what I was duped into thinking I was buying.

I owned the original Elite... Flippin' thing wouldn't ever load off the cassette, though!

*WERE* you actually duped, though... or did you just not read the project description?
I've always understood I would be playing online, with the choice over whether or not I would meet other human players (so that takes care of your ganking fears). The offline mode was always an "intended" thing, but however much you intend for something, it doesn't always happen.

Chris Roberts "intended" Freelancer to have a dynamic economy and many other features, but that never happened in the end. 11 years later, the game is still being played in both Modded and Vanilla modes even after Microsoft shut the servers down.

For those interested, https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=59481 gives a run-down of why this has happened.

The majority want the online which, in its current state, now makes the Offline version either highly awkward to achieve or so utterly limited that it's pretty much a pointless and separate mini-game by comparison... and you can bet your Beta Access that people would be complaining if they got that, as well!

I think the brief was simpler than that: Make a new Elite game.

The very opening description states that it will be an online, multiplayer, peer-to-peer, lobby-less, etc, version of Elite.

Then the point of the game (MMO like) is not what I originally was sold.

As someone else has said, you were sold nothing. You donated funds to help some Devs make what they wanted the way they wanted. You're now getting exactly that. A best, you bought a pre-order of an unfinished game, still liable to changes, which was also stated on the store page.

Offline would be great - the universe changing at the pace YOU are playing the game, not other people who have more time or whatever.

Well, it wouldn't be changing. That's the point. It would be static, aside from maybe random price fluctuations.
You'd also not get any updates for new drivers or new OSes that might otherwise be neccesary, as they'd require you to go online and download them.

Well that's my point - I don't want it to be dependant on other people. If I buy a game I want it to work to my schedule, not dependant on a third party, especially not ones as fickle as my fellow gamers

Once again, that was all there in the initial description...
As is, players can influence things if enough of them get together... but they can't blow up a planet or anything. Any major changes will be from the Devs only.

Being able to play a good game as it is out of the box is infinitely more interesting than trying to play a game that won't work because it can't connect to servers.

So what do you do when you've explored everywhere, owned every ship, have more money than you can spend, become Elite and all that...?
I reached that point in Freelancer quite quickly and only the online aspect kept me playing to this day.

[Allen]

I'll say again: You weren't sold anything, you haven't bought anything. You provided patronage for a game to be developed, if you offered enough you were gifted a copy of the end result, if indeed it got that far. It was not a pre-order.

I didn't give them money through Kickstarter, I bought the game from them through their website a couple of months back, one and a half years after the Kickstarter fund ended. I am pretty sure that counts as a pre-order. At my time of purchase, single player (as in offline mode) was available.

[iranu]

As long as there is a solo/single player version that means I don't have to interact with another human ever in the game then I think I might give it a go. I would be happier with an offline game. I really wouldn't want things to change in a solo version that I hadn't effected.

[KeyboardDemon]

As far as I am aware, we can't play offline at the moment, we can choose to play alone, but we still need to be connected to the server. We do have the choice to play solo, connect to a private group or play the game whilst connected on an open server.

To me all this means is that we will never have the ability to play solo without first connecting to a server and checking for game updates. Which for most is not really going to be an issue, but for a few it means that they will have to be connected to the internet when they can't be or it might limit their options to come back to the game some time in to the future once the game has reached that point where the servers they need are no longer kept running for them to access it due to an insufficient number of players still using the service.

I can understand concerns of being ganked, which won't be possible if you choose to play in solo mode or as part of a private group even though you have to log in to a server before you can start playing in solo mode, as far as I can tell connecting to the server is simply to update game and authenticate users, kind of like DRM etc...

I also understand the point about the world moving on while you are not online. Choosing to play the role of an explorer finding uncharted parts of the Universe then taking a break for a few days to return and find someone else found that corner of the universe and mapped the area that you were trying to chart would certainly ruin that sense of immersion.

The bit I'm confused about is how will the 'ever changing' universe make that much of a difference to casual/solo players?

What exactly is it that you would be doing that would be so broken by these changes?

Do you think that 1,000's of online players leveling up and upgrading their ships is going to change your solo game that much?

For me I am looking forward to playing online, I haven't done it yet and I haven't been paying much attention to the chatter on the Elite forums lately either as I simply haven't had the time, but what I am planning to do is try the open servers and if I don't like it stick to playing in my Private group(s) so I can play and explore with friends, which is how I have been playing it so far.

Here is a reminder of how this project started:

Quite early in the short video David Braben says, "This is the game that we at Frontier have wanted to make for a long time", so quite clearly he has already stated that he is making a game that he and his team wants to make and then he outlines some of the key aspects to the game that he and his team are excited about.

[wolfsSpirit]

so that means he can pay backer-money back and from a lot others since many backed it for a offline game and don't care for mmo at all , thanks braben for destroying my dreams of a new Elite

[KeyboardDemon]

so that means he can pay backer-money back and from a lot others since many backed it for a offline game and don't care for mmo at all , thanks braben for destroying my dreams of a new Elite

I'm confused, at what point did he ever promise an offline game?

In the video I linked above he is clearly talking about an online universe. That was the vision he talked about when he launched the campaign on 9th November 2012.

[KendrickDM]

On the list of dumb things to do, turning a single player game into a space sim mmorg and telling your customers at the month before launch date is just plain dumb. Have two versions of the game, one with the online content and one with it disabled, for one I could live without the elite news service and the other players. A random mission generator is quite good enough.

[kalniel]

I also understand the point about the world moving on while you are not online. Choosing to play the role of an explorer finding uncharted parts of the Universe then taking a break for a few days to return and find someone else found that corner of the universe and mapped the area that you were trying to chart would certainly ruin that sense of immersion.

Precisely. Also it means there's a very different experience playing the game in the future than playing it on the day of release. I get that it's exciting to take part in a global race for the stars if you've got the time to compete, but there's definitely a single player market out there that want to do things at their own pace. Persistent universe does put a sell by date on things, particular on that explorer aspect.

[bobhope2005]

I have to agree that its disappointing. As a fan of the original Elite and of the largely inferior X / X2 I was hoping that the new game was going to top the lot. Another online multiplayer game just puts in competition with Eve and the like which cheapens Elite in my opinion. Also it will presumably have ongoing subscription costs attached.

I like online multiplayers but there is something satisfying about exploring and discovering a vast universe yourself without 3rd party interference and not having to worry about getting left behind by everyone else when I don't have 4 hours to devote to playing it every night. Especially if they have already bought all the best real estate, mined all the best planets and kitted out the best ships, it can be pretty dispiriting.

You can just imagine that it will become the usual situation where those willing to spend the most money and time in the universe will gobble everything up.

[KendrickDM]

so that means he can pay backer-money back and from a lot others since many backed it for a offline game and don't care for mmo at all , thanks braben for destroying my dreams of a new Elite

I'm confused, at what point did he ever promise an offline game?

In the video I linked above he is clearly talking about an online universe. That was the vision he talked about when he launched the campaign on 9th November 2012.

Not really, the vision he has now in news letter 49 was not stated in any other, there was always a single and multiplayer and the multiplayer was online, mostly it was about the Alpha and Beta builds. Alpha phase 2 (Newsletter 16 31/01/2014) allowed multiplayer, it was the newsletter 25 on 09/06/2014 where David Braben first says he will be upgrading the servers for all the players expected on the 'premium beta' "“The start of the Premium Beta phase is another exciting moment in our development – from today we have over 10,000 additional people playing the game. This is a significant and sensible step-change with which to test the next level of scaling of our cloud-based systems and servers as we move towards the very large numbers of people we will eventually have playing. I once again would like to thank all those who played such an important role in the Alpha phase, which is now at an end. We’re looking forward to continuing to collaborate with the expanded community during the beta phase as we deliver greater scale, richer content and ever higher quality.”". But nothing at all at any time about the game being online only at release.

[csgohan4]

MechWarrior online was the same, look at the player base now, disgruntled and leaving.

Empty promises and years down the line still a PVP mash up with no story line of sort. Just more shiny mechs and more ways to waste your money on vanity items

[x2o]

Seems they are cutting a lot of features to get the game to a quick release for xmas.