VaranisArano wrote: »I would like to thank everyone for the good comments. I have learned some stuff. Thank you.
As for cheating, why can't we play off line and then when we go online, there is a program to see if the game has been cheated? The game can verify if the game was played without cheats. Again, I am not knowledgeable but I thought lots of things can be done in this day and age now.
Also if people are off line, wouldn't that help the online people? Isn't that what lots of us are asking for? Better online play? I can understand if ESO was a pure MMO but it's not a pure MMO so why not let the un MMO stuff be off line. It's been over 4 years now and Zenimax can't have a smooth game play for everyone. So why not make part of the game smoother? Again an idea, not saying this is the correct answer.
Well, the part of online play that I want to go better is PVP, so having less people online wouldn't actually help me there.
But aside from that, the whole game is an MMO. From the guild based economy to the amount of chests and resource nodes, from the group events like Dolmens and world bosses to public dungeons, the entire overland world of the game is based around massive numbers of online players, even before you hit group content.
There really isn't a way to cut out the "non MMO stuff" and make that offline, except for maybe the rare quests that are solo instances like most of the Main Quest.
Azuramoonstar wrote: »I would like to thank everyone for the good comments. I have learned some stuff. Thank you.
As for cheating, why can't we play off line and then when we go online, there is a program to see if the game has been cheated? The game can verify if the game was played without cheats. Again, I am not knowledgeable but I thought lots of things can be done in this day and age now.
Also if people are off line, wouldn't that help the online people? Isn't that what lots of us are asking for? Better online play? I can understand if ESO was a pure MMO but it's not a pure MMO so why not let the un MMO stuff be off line. It's been over 4 years now and Zenimax can't have a smooth game play for everyone. So why not make part of the game smoother? Again an idea, not saying this is the correct answer.
ESO is a pure MMO, pure MMO are open world rpg with a large amount of players with online connectivity required. You can't play an MMO 100% solo as another player has a hand in some stuff you do.
Azuramoonstar wrote: »I'm not really sure why his request is a problem: if it's technically feasible (which is anyone's guess, but things like KoA and Sacred 2 came in essence with a single-player server, as I understand it) then why not? It's not affecting people who want to play it as an MMO and in fact it will probably benefit them by taking players out of the equation who want more Elder Scrolls (let's face it, it's been a while, and IMHO Skyrim was pretty lacklustre) but don't particularly want to be online. Everyone wins, including Zenimax because they then grab all the people who don't play because it's an MMO but would do otherwise.jedtb16_ESO wrote: »no, it shouldn't change... it's an mmo.
you signed up to an mmo.
you want a single player game?
play one, there are plenty to choose from.
For me personally, I've been invested in TES for a long time. I'm here for that reason, and I'm here in spite of it being an MMO. It doesn't make a lot of sense to say there's other stuff to choose from if what I'd quite like to play is TES.
Do some research, MMO are built from the ground up to require internet connectivity.
Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO wrote: »Just play on the PTS. It's way less populated and you can easily get any gear you want. Basically single-player cheat mode.
DaveMoeDee wrote: »The game isn't designed that way and never will be.
I think it's probably just too late for ESO to try out having an offline mode. It's been out for years and they're not all that good at keeping it maintained as it already stands, I just wouldn't expect this to ever happen.
It's not a terrible idea. It would probably be most helpful for people playing in countries where they can't get good ping no matter how the tech gods are feeling on any given day. VMA with no lag even in Australia! But yeah, there would be abuses, and no, I have no faith ZOS could overcome that.
The only MMORPG I know of that has an offline mode keeps your online and offline progress strictly segregated: Shroud of the Avatar. Single Player Offline: Enjoy the full game experience without the need for an internet connection. Recruit NPC companions to accompany you on your travels and aid you in times of need. Your online Avatar will not share the progress of your offline Avatar; you advance on different tracks through the story due to interacting differently with the world. Haven't tried it because the game doesn't look fun to me, but if that goes well for them maybe we'll see it in more MMOs in the future. I'd be interested in a game I could play offline that had a huge world to explore and ongoing content updates for years.
Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »I don't understand the posts here....
Why are people arguing that "this can't be done" when it definitely can be done and they should really just be arguing "it should not be done" if any argument at all?
At least then it wouldn't be easy to refute their post with proof that it can be done and it would distill this thread down to the very essence of the argument between "we should have offline mode" and "we should not have offline mode" as a personal preference, which is why there should be an offline mode for those who prefer that.
Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »I don't understand the posts here....
Why are people arguing that "this can't be done" when it definitely can be done and they should really just be arguing "it should not be done" if any argument at all?
At least then it wouldn't be easy to refute their post with proof that it can be done and it would distill this thread down to the very essence of the argument between "we should have offline mode" and "we should not have offline mode" as a personal preference, which is why there should be an offline mode for those who prefer that.
They did indeed. I briefly played one in 1987 but quickly got tired of people yelling stupid stuff in the chatbox: how times change!Azuramoonstar wrote: »Lastly, no true MMO has an offline mode. MMO have existed since the early 90s, and prior to those you had text based MUD which have been out since the 80s from what i heard/read.
They did indeed. I briefly played one in 1987 but quickly got tired of people yelling stupid stuff in the chatbox: how times change!Azuramoonstar wrote: »Lastly, no true MMO has an offline mode. MMO have existed since the early 90s, and prior to those you had text based MUD which have been out since the 80s from what i heard/read.
But I still don't entirely accept that stuff like ESO can't be both MMO and single--player; though I do accept that it would be impractical and inadvisable to allow unrestricted transfer of characters and assets between the two media.
Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »Azuramoonstar wrote: »I would like to thank everyone for the good comments. I have learned some stuff. Thank you.
As for cheating, why can't we play off line and then when we go online, there is a program to see if the game has been cheated? The game can verify if the game was played without cheats. Again, I am not knowledgeable but I thought lots of things can be done in this day and age now.
Also if people are off line, wouldn't that help the online people? Isn't that what lots of us are asking for? Better online play? I can understand if ESO was a pure MMO but it's not a pure MMO so why not let the un MMO stuff be off line. It's been over 4 years now and Zenimax can't have a smooth game play for everyone. So why not make part of the game smoother? Again an idea, not saying this is the correct answer.
ESO is a pure MMO, pure MMO are open world rpg with a large amount of players with online connectivity required. You can't play an MMO 100% solo as another player has a hand in some stuff you do.
Completely wrong.
Everything, literally, has to be done by somebody before any other player interaction can take place.
1) Crafting nodes sit there until gathered by a player who can then choose to use or sell the items.
2) Containers like wardrobes and bags and chests all have to be opened by a player before their items can be used or sold.
3) Gold must be earned by players doing quest and defeating NPCs before it can be spent on anything.
4) Even the rarest items come from drops on a per player basis.
5) If stats could get high enough then even the 12 player trials could be soloed, as other MMOs have shown with their content being soloed and ESO's content being soloed in 4-man dungeons and even some trials before One Tamriel scaling.
The only thing requiring other players is trading, which is easily made pointless by drop rate changes. Even group content only requires a group because numbers of enemies and numbers on boss health bars are multiplied to require it, but those can easily be scaled down also. Gimmick group required mechanics are rare and still just fake group requirements.
Really, nothing truly requires grouping in an mmo, thus why people solo as much as they can.
I don't really buy the argument that it's "too big" to run on the client side. Okay, I admit that I don't have a lot of direct experience with coding MMOs, but I do have a lot of experience programming client-server stuff and it's typically not the case that the server is a vast resource-intensive beast except inasmuch as it needs to maintain a large number of clients and information pertaining to them all. Most of the assets that are seen from the client side of ESO are already on the PC anyway: it would simply be way too inefficient to attempt to transfer anything but the most minor amount of information in real-time, which indicates to me that it is not outside the realm of possibility that a single-user server could be hosted on one's PC.Azuramoonstar wrote: »do more research into it then. MMO are hosted on servers, none of the games data is on our pc or console, just textures and net connections. All the game data is server side not client side. Single player games are hosted client side. [snip]
Of course actually converting a large multi-user system into a single-user one if its design isn't already conducive to doing so may be a prohibitive amount of effort, but based on my own experience, my inclination is that development effort (well, and politics) would be the stumbling block rather than the resources required to host it.
In theory, they could use the same back-end for both, perhaps minus some of the more gnarly licenced bits, as with the likes of Construction Set, for instance; but in practice, I imagine they didn't plan for that. Pity, as a stand-alone "Elder Scrolls Offline" would be a nice contingency for when the servers are eventually shut down, but I guess "buy our shiny new thing" will be the official response.starkerealm wrote: »Of course actually converting a large multi-user system into a single-user one if its design isn't already conducive to doing so may be a prohibitive amount of effort, but based on my own experience, my inclination is that development effort (well, and politics) would be the stumbling block rather than the resources required to host it.
Yeah, the time and resources necessary are the big issue here. Maintaining a separate fork for single player would be a nightmare.