Devs opinion

Thanks for the update and clarifying (again) that you're still working on offline I'm really looking forward to the new features, and the recent improvements made to the engine are already improving the performance for me (large games are definitely holding up better with the current build than even the release build so Kudos to the team on that one!).

With all due respect BradNicholson, I consider release and or launch...to be the end of the developmental process. I understand that a finished title might need subtle tweaking, OS and video cards being what they are. If the game is still in development, could you please contact the relevant retailers, and inform them of this.

There are many very successful games that have been in development for many many years and are "released". Why would a developer stop improving a game after release?
Be happy Uber actually continues to develop after release

He said the game is still in development, he considers release to be a part of the development process. We have no offline mode because the game is still in development. And I'm being told to be happy, I should be grateful they intend to finish developing the game they sold as completed? Have you ever heard the term "adding fuel to the fire"?

Then go ahead and just think of everything that comes after this to be free DLC or whatever other marketing buzzword you prefer.

The game was released. The devs are still working on it. You can consider it finished if you want but that doesn't stop them from adding more...

When purchasing a new game, I have a rule...the two week rule. I'll watch it at launch, I gage the player reaction. Two weeks after release I check the critical reviews, and the player reviews. You usually get a feel for a game by then. If the game is on Steam, I'll check the steam charts, I also check the Steam forums. I want to know how many fixes have been released and why, since the official launch.
I really wanted to like this game. I own Supreme Commander and Forged Alliance, I have a hard copy and a steam of both games. I also own Total Annihilation thru GOG. I even own Supreme Commander 2 (35 hours played, I deserve a medal for that). My Steam tag is ufarax, my icon is a red devil, you can check my profile, it's public. As it stands now, I will not buy this game. For whatever reason, the game is not finished, the developer in his own words " considers release, or launch as another phase of development". I usually pick a few games, at the Steam holiday sale, maybe the game will be fully developed by then.

Hopefully we will see you around Christmas, then! It's a fun game and it will only get better.

Really? Because since the internet came around, post release development has been a standard thing. Because the internet is great for exactly that sort of thing. Starcraft, for a random popular example, was constantly being patched and tweaked after release. Hell, they even started doing that later on for Warcraft 2 if I'm not mistaken. Why assume Uber is going to abandon the game?

If offline is something you need, then that strikes me as a very sensible policy. I'm not suggesting you (or anyone for that matter) rush into something your not happy with. From my perspective the game is already very good especially if you like the multiplayer aspect (so offline doesn't really affect that). Still if it's single player your after, well that isn't this games greatest strength right now. It's probably always going to be lighter on the single player side of things, however things like offline will definitely improve it in that regard.

You are fully entitled to wait until the game is further developed, a great many people don't think this game is ready yet to be on sale. But the fact of the matter is that this game due to being crowd funded was being sold before development even began. It's not the usual way to develop and sell games but that's okay.

The problem is that "Release" has very specific connotations to Consumers. I completely understand the idea of "Release" being an "Arbitrary" point in development, but considering how that continued development hinges on Player Retention it's a very poor choice IMO to release the game in the state it did. As the game improves overtime players will return, but not nearly as many as would have been retained by a better release.

Add into that the idea that they stopped work/reduced priority on some of the things meant to bring in long term income like the Custom Commanders and Modding on top of the missing core features and it's easy to see how it could be yet a month or more still before PA reaches a more complete state that would actually allow them move forward.

Mike

I'm one of the people that did not read the forums at all before purchasing. Barely looked at the kickstarter. I saw there was a spiritual successor to Supcom and I marked down on my calendar to buy it after the release date. I have been playing it but I do wish I had waited longer before making the purchase.

As I've complained in the support forum, I do seem to be getting some kind of awful server lag sometimes, and occasional disconnected from my Galactic War and losing all progress on my current battle. Can't wait for them to finish this game...

I agree with you, the game isn't ready for a normal commercial release and shouldn't have been marketed as such.

I personally dont need offline and I dont see how I made your point. For me it is obvious they are not trying to cheat anyone, because I followed these forums and the whole development. But for a customer that just buys the game at a store or from some internet retailer with wrong information, it is not obvious that these features will come. These customers dont know that. The question your post raised is basically: Is it ok when these people demand things on the forums? My answer is that it is very reasonable from their perspective to be angry about this game.

I am personally happy with the game like many people here. But the people here have a different history with the game than 95% of the customers. Just take that into account when you say people demand too much from Uber. The information from Brad in this thread is good, I would like to have more of these. But are these informations easy to find? Do you think the majority of the customers is now aware of this? I can see that Uber doesnt like to put information here in these forums because there has been many anger and overreaction. But why is there no information on their homepage? Just a blogpost (the last news is from September 5th): "Hey guys we read your feedback, thank you very much for purchasing our game. We are working hard on bringing you the offline experience and we are looking into the issues you have reported." Silence doesnt help against customers who demand answers.

Can you please sticky this and make a post about it in a more visible location, such as the PA frontpage? There's loads of people from Steam and other places that don't check these forums, nor even the Steam forums, and are completely in the dark about the current state of offline.

It'd be great to let people know about what's happening with offline, as at present there are many out there who are under the impression that it's never coming. I know it is, because I trust what you guys have to say, and I appreciate your openness, but there's a lot of folks out there who have no idea what's going on and don't bother to investigate forum posts after purchasing a product.