The development path of “Elite: Dangerous” has almost reached its conclusion, and the staff at Frontier Developments have been hard at work putting the last layer of polish on the production before they hit the release button tomorrow. And while most of the game’s fans are understandably excited, as they have been waiting for this moment for quite a while, not everyone is so happy about the release. Some people still seem to have a sour taste in their mouths from the revelations about the game’s offline capabilities, a decision that has been confirmed as final.
However, new explanations have surfaced for the game’s lack of an offline mode. Originally, it was stated that a large part of the simulation was happening on the server, and this would have made it too difficult to separate the gameplay in an isolated offline mode. It has recently been revealed that there’s more going on than that, and the game will rely on information from its master servers even for the single player experience.
According to the developers, things like missions will be affected dynamically by the collective gameplay of the community. So, if many players decide to support a particular faction at the same time, this will result in an increase in power for that faction, further giving players more advanced missions related to it. This concept is reported to have a strong presence all throughout the game, and the way players are approaching their own playing style will have an impact on what everyone is seeing.
Does this warrant the complete removal of offline mode? It’s certainly not easy to say. Some players still have the stance that they would have preferred an offline mode, even if it would mean stripping away some important new features. On the other hand, the number of players without regular Internet access is really quite small, especially given the relatively low requirements that the game will have in this regard.
With all that in mind, and the hurdles the studio has had to overcome to make this release, it’s interesting to see how the game will end up once it comes out tomorrow. A lot of players have been waiting for this date with great excitement, so this release will either be a very successful one, or a big disappointment for many people. In a few days, once reviews start rolling out, it will become apparent how well Frontier Developments have handled their job, although if the pre-release information is to be of any indication, the studio has done a lot to meet the already high expectations of all players, especially those who funded it on Kickstarter.