What do we need servers for? Let's have an off line mode.

Davor · August 2018

I don't know much about MMOs so I am asking so I can understand better. If I am not mistaken servers are so everyone can play together. So if people like me play ESO as a single player game, then why can't we play off line? After all we have these huge files on our PC/consoles. It's not like we are streaming a game or needing a server to play since we have all the files on our platform of choice. Why can't we have an off line mode? Reason I ask is because what ever happened to this update or maintenance fix the game is so laggy now for me. I am even having trouble fighting mud crabs. Where I thought I was fighting one, all of a sudden 3 come. When fighting an alligator, he doesn't move then transports infront of me. I am trying to pick up a flower and it takes over 15 seconds to do so.

So my question is why can't I play the game off line? I would still be paying for me ESO+. Heck I might even spend money on crowns if the game plays properly and smoothly for me. People who want to play with friends or with others, let them play online like normal but for those of us who want a single player experience or want smoother play we can play off line. I am sure if lots of us are off ling, the online experience would be better for others than.

So why not best of both worlds? How come no off line mode for those who want it?

NolaArch · August 2018

Because it’s an MMO and not a single player with a multi-player/online feature.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · August 2018

Offline mode would cause rampant cheating.

Davor · August 2018

NolaArch wrote: »

Because it’s an MMO and not a single player with a multi-player/online feature.

I am curious to see the numbers of single players vs MMO players who play ESO. Maybe it should change.

Davor · August 2018

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

Offline mode would cause rampant cheating.

How so? Genuine question. I don't know so that is why I made this topic. Never thought of it so like to see your answer.

OutLaw_Nynx · August 2018

Skyrim. Go play Skyrim

Stovahkiin · August 2018

You can’t just flip a switch and make it a single player game. And frankly, If you are going to playing a single player game rather than mmo, there are some way better options out there

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · August 2018

Davor wrote: »

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

Offline mode would cause rampant cheating.

How so? Genuine question. I don't know so that is why I made this topic. Never thought of it so like to see your answer.

Since you would be offline with no way for ZOS to track you, you could use hacks (Cheat Engine, etc.) to blast through vMA and other trials to get gear and skins. You would also have the zones entirely to yourself and could use hacks for farming mats, etc. It's best if ZOS keeps an eye on everyone the best they can.

UnKnowNKiLLeRR · August 2018

Davor wrote: »

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

Offline mode would cause rampant cheating.

How so? Genuine question. I don't know so that is why I made this topic. Never thought of it so like to see your answer.

Alot of calculation are done on server side such as your charcter resources, skills effects and other basic stuff. If they start doing calcualtion on client side, then you can use tools like cheat engine or any hex editor to change those value. we had this problem with ESO pre 1.6 patch where ultimate was calulated on client side and people were abusing cheat engine to get infi metors(unlimate). At this moment, client side only performing rendering and holding art work.

MerlinPendragon · August 2018

Let's not.

Smitch_59 · August 2018

A better solution would be for Bethesda to make a new single-player Elder Scrolls game, sometime within my remaining lifetime.

Sylvermynx · August 2018

Smitch_59 wrote: »

A better solution would be for Bethesda to make a new single-player Elder Scrolls game, sometime within my remaining lifetime.

Yeah. That's starting to concern me, since I'm in my early 70s. Please, let it show up in the next couple of years - and don't make it VR....

vometia · August 2018

I think technically it would be feasible, though I also think it would be reasonable that any character who'd been played in offline mode might have a one way journey and be ineligible to go back into the online realm, including having new instances of the bank and storage which would henceforth remain separate from the player's other characters. Which may or may not be what people might want.

Cr4p0w3 · August 2018

I would only want to let Solo content run on client side, but not offline.

Playing vMA with lag is extra painful.

Davor · August 2018

Thank you both for the explanations about cheating. I never even thought about it. I can see why now, so everything is on a level playing field.

Davor · August 2018

OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

Skyrim. Go play Skyrim

How does this answer my question?

MerlinPendragon wrote: »

Let's not.

Let's not what? I am not a mind reader and not understand what you mean.

PlagueSD · August 2018

Why there is no "offline mode"? Because we don't want this happening:
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/d3/topic/20757356518

dodgehopper_ESO · August 2018

It would be nice but few games have done this. I wish City of HEroes had this as an option but it doesn't.

VaranisArano · August 2018

The closest thing I've managed to a single player game was turning off zone and guild chat, turning off nameplates, turning down the UI to be more unobtrusive, and pretending all the other players were NPCs.

But I mostly enjoyed playing ESO like it was "Skyrim with friends" where I could play with my IRL friends.

TempPlayer · August 2018

Smitch_59 wrote: »

A better solution would be for Bethesda to make a new single-player Elder Scrolls game, sometime within my remaining lifetime.

Still a better chance then Half-Life 3 happening.

Davor · August 2018

PlagueSD wrote: »

Why there is no "offline mode"? Because we don't want this happening:
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/d3/topic/20757356518

Got ya now. I understand.

Sylvermynx · August 2018

It's sometimes hard to get how different MMOs are from SPMR (Single Player Machine Resident) games. Many times you might play them just the same way - if group content isn't something you're interested in for instance. But as a WoW and RIFT vet (8 years in WoW, 3 in RIFT), I can say with perfect truth that - yeah - give the creeps an inch and they'll be all the way to the sun and back before you can get your next breath.

I could see an offline mode one way only as stated earlier. For instance, if you just got burned out on messing with an online game, you could choose to go offline - but for that account, it would be forever. And no new content. Pretty sure most wouldn't go for that.... I would, personally.

I quit both WoW and RIFT when they went in directions I didn't find fun and worth paying for. I had multiple accounts in both games, and yeah, some would be appalled at how much I spent over the years I played. However, it was worth it to me - it was so much fun. Until it wasn't, and that's when I quit. I'm retired, btw - games are my hobby.

TES was my first real love in game franchises. I started with Arena, and haven't ever looked back. Before that (and after getting my first computer in 1984) I played Stonegate (in B&W yet - that was before I upgraded my machine with windows etc.) and then the SSI Gold Box games set in AD&D's Forgotten Realms. But by the time I got to Daggerfall.... well.... TES was my whole game life in SPMR games.

I'm loving ESO, even though it doesn't play as smoothly as WoW and RIFT on my crap internet. It's still TES - MY game(s) of choice all these years later.

CelticStones · August 2018

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

Offline mode would cause rampant cheating.

This is a silly argument. Who would you be cheating against? LOL Single player would mean zero lag, zero bandwidth. As someone with pre millenium copper wires and only one person at a time being able to use the net, offline mode would be great for doing the grindy long winded multi-alt stuff (shards, lore, skill points, crafting writs fishing etc). Pretty sure you cant cheat in any of that.

Sylvermynx · August 2018

CelticStones wrote: »

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

Offline mode would cause rampant cheating.

This is a silly argument. Who would you be cheating against? LOL Single player would mean zero lag, zero bandwidth. As someone with pre millenium copper wires and only one person at a time being able to use the net, offline mode would be great for doing the grindy long winded multi-alt stuff (shards, lore, skill points, crafting writs fishing etc). Pretty sure you cant cheat in any of that.

You wouldn't be cheating against anyone - unless you used addons to make a lot of that easier, and then were allowed to "return" that character to online. Now, I'm not talking about addons that are available in the online game - I'm talking about the sort of addons that would help improve a character beyond expectations and time spent. That would be things like boosting CP and so on. I don't know that there are disallowed addons out there now - but I'd bet there are. That's why an "offline mode" should be one way only.

It's kind of hard to believe you have worse connection than I do. I mean.... I pay wildblue $70 a month for crap 'net. The last time I had dialup for backup (for my business in case wb was out in the winter in a snowstorm - happened lots of times) I couldn't get connected to ANY game over it. And yes, our phone lines are over 60 years old, copper analog, and no - CenturyLink is not going to run fiber into a less-than-100 full-time-phone market. Or not in my remaining lifetime anyway.

Zardayne · August 2018

Davor wrote: »

NolaArch wrote: »

Because it’s an MMO and not a single player with a multi-player/online feature.

I am curious to see the numbers of single players vs MMO players who play ESO. Maybe it should change.

I'd be curious as well. I'd put coin on it there are more single skyrim players.

newtinmpls · August 2018

OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

Skyrim. Go play Skyrim

Don't care for Skyrim. Came here for "ES with friends" but never lost my adoration of the open-world play as you like and if it's too tough you die flavor of Morrowind.

Runefang · August 2018

Sure, just fork out a few hundred thousand for a server to put next to your PC.

LAN connection is all you need then.

Starlock · August 2018

I would love an offline mode. Especially the day the servers are shut down.

LadyLethalla · August 2018

Cr4p0w3 wrote: »

Playing vMA with lag is extra painful.

My god... I was watching a player on NA doing the final boss in VMA on YT yesterday; he got stunned by a comet in the crystal phase and could break free immediately... while if that happens to me it usually takes 3-4 seconds of button spamming. By which time I'm dead. And cursing.
No flawless for me.

Azuramoonstar · August 2018

Davor wrote: »

I don't know much about MMOs so I am asking so I can understand better. If I am not mistaken servers are so everyone can play together. So if people like me play ESO as a single player game, then why can't we play off line? After all we have these huge files on our PC/consoles. It's not like we are streaming a game or needing a server to play since we have all the files on our platform of choice. Why can't we have an off line mode? Reason I ask is because what ever happened to this update or maintenance fix the game is so laggy now for me. I am even having trouble fighting mud crabs. Where I thought I was fighting one, all of a sudden 3 come. When fighting an alligator, he doesn't move then transports infront of me. I am trying to pick up a flower and it takes over 15 seconds to do so.

So my question is why can't I play the game off line? I would still be paying for me ESO+. Heck I might even spend money on crowns if the game plays properly and smoothly for me. People who want to play with friends or with others, let them play online like normal but for those of us who want a single player experience or want smoother play we can play off line. I am sure if lots of us are off ling, the online experience would be better for others than.

So why not best of both worlds? How come no off line mode for those who want it?

if you want to learn how MMO work, watch the "noclip- final fantasy 14" documentary. They do explain how MMO are built, and how ff14 was built lead to its failure.

only the texture files are on the system, the game itself is being hosted on a server. Once the servers are off, we have no access to the game.

vometia wrote: »

I think technically it would be feasible, though I also think it would be reasonable that any character who'd been played in offline mode might have a one way journey and be ineligible to go back into the online realm, including having new instances of the bank and storage which would henceforth remain separate from the player's other characters. Which may or may not be what people might want.

it isn't games have to be built with offline mode in mind.

ff14 devs got asked for a single player version of ff14 1.0 to experience the story of 1.0 to 2.0. And the director stated that isn't possible as the server with ff14 1.0 on it no longer exists.

LadyNalcarya · August 2018

CelticStones wrote: »

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

Offline mode would cause rampant cheating.

This is a silly argument. Who would you be cheating against? LOL Single player would mean zero lag, zero bandwidth. As someone with pre millenium copper wires and only one person at a time being able to use the net, offline mode would be great for doing the grindy long winded multi-alt stuff (shards, lore, skill points, crafting writs fishing etc). Pretty sure you cant cheat in any of that.

I mean, if you wont cheat, its all good, but you cant guarantee that other players wont. Examples of other games clearly show that they most certainly will.
Someone already linked a thread about Diablo cheating, and this problem exists in any similar game that allows both offline and online play. When all files are stored on your pc, you can modify them as you wish, for example, give yourself 999 million of every crafting mat and a weapon with 1 million weapon/spell damage. It's fine when you do that in a single-player game, but in multiplayer games cheaters can just log in and ruin the game for other people.
Botting would be more rampant than ever, people would just run bots in offline mode and log in to sell stuff. Your writ business and selling loot cannot compete with that, so honest players like you will be in a very huge disadvantage. Not to mention that if you dare to log in to play with friends, you wil be griefed by cheaters... Yeah, normally people cant really grief you (aside from stealing nodes), but with cheats its possible to get honest players banned, for example, there was a Dark Souls cheater who got many people banned by modifying their stats, he even streamed that. These people will do anything for attention, so don't expect a pleasant coop experience.

So, how's that a silly argument?

P.S. And no, ESO wont be able to survive as a single-player game. I am also a TES fan, but let's be honest, this game is not on the same level as modern single-player rpgs.