Offline Mode In the Wild (We'll get it soon!)

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by brianpurkiss, August 31, 2014.

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  1. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

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    Not true.

    It you take a look through the Wayback Machine we see some interesting stuff.

    Listed "launch features" include:
    • Asteroid belts
    • Multi-player galactic war
    • DRM free
    • Our own servers
    • LAN
    • Offline
    • 40 man games
    • "Thousand man" galactic war battles

    source 1
    source 2

    I dunno about you, but "launch features" is pretty specific.

    It then changed to "upcoming features".
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  2. epicblaster117

    epicblaster117 Active Member

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    Brian ninj'd lol
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  3. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    Because they weren't sure.

    Also- when was that edited anyway?
  4. rapistmonkey

    rapistmonkey New Member

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    I gathered screenshots and everything, I checked out the "waybackmachine" and it even says. "As promised during the Kickstarter, you'll still be able to play the game offline and in LAN mode, without connecting to the UberNet servers."

    Waybackmachine uberent.com/pa/faq March 9th 2013

    If they really want to go through with this I suggest we consider contacting the FTC, however in the meantime we should wait and see what they do with this. I do agree the editing of the FAQ, there is no mention of offline mode anymore, is pretty concerning.
  5. rapistmonkey

    rapistmonkey New Member

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    I don't know about the Kickstarter page, but on their own FAQ on March 9th 2013 they do promise offline and LAN modes. We will see everyone.
  6. drz1

    drz1 Post Master General

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    Offline IS coming, it's just a question of how soon. AGAIN, it's not if, it's when. Sooner would most definitely be better, by the sounds of it.
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  7. epicblaster117

    epicblaster117 Active Member

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    The problem is that they really didn't have to release the game without these features, they have no publisher pressure or anything like that. It was a choice that they didn't have time because they chose to release the game now.
  8. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    I am pretty sure that if Uber had totally free choice they would've released a fully finished game with all features they can dream of. In reality however Uber is a company and there are a lot of business things that drive their decisions that they probably do not like themselves. Not to mention that the technical challenges of developing a game like PA are quite extreme, making it quite hard to make any estimates about anything. Sucks.
    But complaining won't help anything, so they are doing their best, crunching for unhealthy long hours and keep working while a ton of angry "customers" rant at their work in the steam forums/reddit/whereever else.
    Unless you know all the details of the business-situation Uber is in critics like this really are completely pointless.
    Yes they do not share that information, but that's a normal thing among companies: They do not play with open cards. Ever. That's how companies work in real life. No point in attacking Uber for it.
  9. epicblaster117

    epicblaster117 Active Member

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    It wasn't an attack on Uber but to point out the sad truth in industry.
  10. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    Didn't they remove the listing of features not in the game before the launch?
  11. SXX

    SXX Post Master General

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    It's supported by PA client for long time... :p

    Code:
    [05:45:37.560] INFO enableLanLookout
    [05:45:38.812] INFO disableLanLookout
    
  12. SXX

    SXX Post Master General

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    I guess they have to because Valve likely have rules that different for early access and "released" titles.
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  13. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    Well yeah, I would expect them to remove the idea about features that aren't in the game.
  14. bignick277

    bignick277 New Member

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    Wrong. The difference is they DID promise that the game would be offline and DRM free for release actively during their sales pitch during early access and during their kickstarter as others have clearly proven. For many, this was a deal breaker. While not for everyone during early access, it is often a Very Big deal breaker for anyone who backs a kickstarter game during the crowdfunding campaign. They actively highlighted this fact on their very own store pages here, on Kickstarter and on Steam. Going so far as to highlight it "AS" a "LAUNCH FEATURE" on Steam. Now the game is "OFFICIALLY" launched and where is the DRM free? Where is the Offline play? I don't see it. Do you? People are clearly upset about it and they have good reason to be. They were promised one thing FOR RELEASE and low and behold it's not there. That's false advertising, pure and simple.

    But see, here's the thing. If the Dev's had created a news article on their store page saying "Hey, here's the official launch, but due to issues beyond our control, there's going to be a delay for releasing offline mode, but it will be released within the next A to B timeframe." I doubt we would be having this conversation right now. If they themselves (instead of Mod's trying to fan the flames telling people to be patient and saying it will be released and that we are just making assumptions, when the Mod's are also at this point assuming it will be released, because they've clearly not been "explicitly" told it will be by a Dev) had come on to these forums to confirm hands down explicitly that it will be released, we wouldn't be having this conversation. No, what has happened is the game has been "Officially" launched and the DRM is still in place. The game still requires you to be online even when playing single player. And they have even gone through the trouble of removing all references to "Offline" and "DRM Free" from both their store page and their Steam page as if the promise never existed. That raises a lot of red flags, is very suspicious and it doesn't sit well with a lot of people. And where are the Dev's through this. Who knows, because they aren't making a peep. That's a big problem. That's the problem we have, and everyone who bought this game (and especially if they decided to back this game during the Kickstarter), believing the fact that they promised it to be DRM free and feature fully offline play being a deciding factor for purchasing/backing, have every right to voice their concerns. And let me tell you right now. I'm not much of a multiplayer type of person. I am with some games, but they are very few and far between. But I absolutely never buy an RTS unless it can be played entirely offline. I don't like DRM and avoid it as much as possible. But I can live with Steam. But I can tell you right now, that if they hadn't EXPLICITLY promised that this game could be played ENTIRELY offline, I never would have purchased the game. It's as simple as that. Full offline play ABSOLUTELY WAS a deciding factor for me when I bought this game.

    The definition for Official Launch that everyone is familiar with, is that an officially launched game is feature complete. Patching after launch is for fixing existing bugs. New features are never guaranteed. Based on this well known and accepted understanding, people are justifiably concerned. Nobody is attacking Uber. But they are, justifiably, demanding an explanation. It's launched. We were promised offline and DRM free. Now those promised features are not only not in the game, but all references to them have been removed from their sales pages. We want an explanation. We want a timeline. And we "AS PAYING CUSTOMERS" have every right to demand an "OFFICIAL" response. Not guesses as to what might have happened. Not mods trying to fan the flames who really don't know any more than we do. An actual official response.
    Last edited: September 7, 2014
  15. drz1

    drz1 Post Master General

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    You make valid points but, I dunno, kickstarter has always been a bit iffy for what we should expect and when. We are getting offline, just after launch. It kinda sucks, but we are still getting it so it's just an unfortunate situation. As long as we get offline eventually, I don't feel cheated, and I must have dropped about £70 on it in the kickstarter, for a couple of copies of the game.
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  16. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    Indeed, differer people have a different value for things.
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  17. WaylanderPK

    WaylanderPK Member

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    The biggest problem is the lack of official response. The lack of information causes people to be anxious. Devs burying their heads in the sand and ignoring their most ardent supporters seems like a recipe for disaster IMHO.
  18. igncom1

    igncom1 Post Master General

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    It's been a day?
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  19. drz1

    drz1 Post Master General

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    Does anyone know where it was stated that offline mode was in the works, or that it was difficult to do and hence the delay? I could really use the link for defending the games honour on steam. I think metabolical or brad gave the response, maybe?
  20. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

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    Uber hasn't been saying much for a while.
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