Oolite Bulletins

Is there Guild options in ED? Or would any Guild have to be out with the game?

Guilds are not supported by the game (at least, not yet) - thankfully. The whole concept makes me shudder!
Some people plead for guild support, and will try to organise something outside the game, of course.

Player-organised groups are supported in-game, as are 'wings' of players (I think).

Cody wrote:

Zieman wrote:

Trying to find the positive from that - some very special surprises are to be found in the Galaxy...

Aye, some dangled carrots - there had to be!

Well, if you don't, as an offline player, connect once in a while, you'll miss out on all the new discoveries made and opened up by the FGE (First Great Expedition).

Cody wrote:

Player-organised groups are supported in-game, as are 'wings' of players (I think).

To date, the FGE crew have had no luck experimenting with 'wings'.. hopefully it will be in the gamma release.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Well, if you don't, as an offline player, connect once in a while...

It seems from what I've read that you'd need to connect to the server for just about every in-game transaction.

Can't see that working too well.. not everyone has big gobs of internet.. or even reliable internet.
<he sighs, thinking of his own fast-but-unreliable connection. As in, 8+ disconnects in 5 minutes unreliable>

The big sticking point that the decision to abandon full offline mode has exposed is that Elite Dangerous is reliant on an essentially uninterrupted internet connection.

More than once I have found myself breaching mission deadlines due to disconnections (admittedly the netcode seems more stable now). I've now decided that taking on any sort of mission with a deadline is off the table for me, and since all missions have a deadline, that means that the mission mechanism is essentially unviable.

I never expected ED to be the perfect game for me. This decision has simply highlighted the fact that it is not. At least I can still trade (using my own cargo), and mine asteroids. I'm surprised that I've yet to see any explicit distress calls (instead of Unidentified Signal Sources). That would suit my 'opportunistic vigilante' persona.

Cody wrote:

The latest newsletter has stirred the FD forum up - no purely offline mode, it seems.

Stirred it assuredly - my own connection is fast but unreliable too, so it looks like I won't be getting E:D ever!

Cody wrote:

Diziet Sma wrote:

Well, if you don't, as an offline player, connect once in a while...

It seems from what I've read that you'd need to connect to the server for just about every in-game transaction.

Yup. Confirmed.

Michael, could you detail how often "from time to time" is - in regards to when the client needs to connect to the server? (And will the game work if I unplug my Internet connection after one of these "updates").
...
At the moment it's whenever you need to conduct a server moderated transaction like trading.
Michael

In other words, there IS no offline play, and the day the servers get switched off, ED is dead in the water.


After all the promises that were made, Frontier deserve to get bitten good and hard over this, and from what I've seen posted of EU law, they may well get just that.

There's one hell of a pitchfork meeting over there, isn't there? 172 pages so far!

And I see Brookes got cornered on one of the threads and had to fess up that there wouldn't be the 25 ships at launch either (which was kind of implicit in the newsletter.) I dread to think what'll be in the pizzas this time round!

Aye, it ain't too pleasant, but I'm ignoring most of it - it's a done thing now!

Oh Im furious.

I specifically asked about a purely offline mode, and was repeatedly told that there would be.

I felt like Ive been lied too. I never would have backed ED if I would have known.

David Braben may not be a scammer (I understand development is fluid), but if this isnt handled with an after release offline mode, Frontier developments will never see another dollar of money.

I always assumed this would happen. The only quarrel I have with this is that when they decide ED isn't profitable anymore and switch the servers off there will be no more ED...

Hmmm... i will postpone for now the purchase of ED to see how things turn out. Do i see subscription down the road or is my idea?

The fallout from 'offline-gate' may take a while to settle, methinks!

Meh. I may feel strongly about it, but only because I was foolish enough to buy it. It really was marketed from the groundup as a multiplayer game. Not to be bitter, but the fact that they are releasing the game as is says alot. Not the full number of ships promised in the KS. No offline.

To be honest, ED is shaping up to be a rather shallow experience. I sincerely hope FD has alot of post launch content planned.

Bah maybe I am just bitter. The dissapointment is pretty fresh. Ill check on it in a few months when its (hopefully) a household name.