CIU offline mode

[CI2Chicken]

@kokokokos

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I am certain you don’t download that from server. It’s already in the game since it takes more space than some ping checks and verifications. Unless you meant something different.

[Bandicoot]

@kokokokos

Unless you meant something different.

[rata536]

@Aft

But again, the game is currently online only for a reason, all of the player’s account data (missions, score, fleet, etc…) is saved on servers because having them stored locally means people at some point will be able to modify the save files for infinite resources, score or game completion, which is certainly not something we want to see.

Yes, but this can be easily avoided. Let the player have the data also locally, used only for offline mode. Even if you would modify the data, when you get online you would still get the new (old actually) data from the server overriding the modified data from your PC. Everything can be done locally, generating new missions, modifying your fleet, whatever, but none of that would be reflected in your actual profile cos the true one is still stored in the server.

@kokokokos

That talk already happened few times and I’m still wondering why it’s not done in CIU. It’s so much better in-app purchase than some keys that you’re gonna waste in few minutes. And players that already have the episodes could receive a key to activate them in CIU so that’s another plus.

I believe iA said he wanted the episodes to have something to stand on their own -which makes sense both in a pride matter and in a financial matter, cos who would buy the episodes if the free to play CIU has it all? But that’s where the keys enter into the equation. If you could play the episodes campaign on CIU only after proving you had bought the episodes (entering serial key), the financial aspect is perfectly covered by this, and about what I call pride matter… I get someone wouldn’t like to see their own work being overshadowed by newer work, but as I see it, it would be a great complement instead.

Imagine doing the campaign with the bomber or the newer raven, or being able to actually use a gun that isn’t neutron gun or utensil pocker on CI4 and 5. Because that’s a sad thing of CI4 and 5, there are a lot of new guns that you almost literally can’t use if you want to succeed. Get a laser cannon, that’s a death sentence. Having the new balance parametres would give all of this stuff a viable use.

Please don’t get me wrong, the episodes are GREAT, but they have balancing issues, and doing this instead of saying ‘You know what, let’s do a patch for them with the new balancing if that’s what you want’ would keep both options completely separated, for both people wanting to play them in their most purist way or in new, almost unintended ways.

[sympatheticdeer]

If offline mode exists, you need to decide if

A) progress is totally separate from online play

B) returning online copies over offline progress

And consider the ramifications of B) to the servers.

[iIfireIi]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that what dedicated servers do?

[VerMishelb]

I don’t understand the question. I’ve explained that most of the game info is being made by the server. Therefore, to make an offline mode you have to make an offline copy a server part.

[InterAction_studios]

The possibility of an off-line mode has been considered from day one. I’m periodically coming to back to it, but the benefits never outweigh the problems. Some random thoughts on this:

• Most of the MMO aspect of CIU is kept on the servers, and client can’t even run a local simulation. So any potential off-line mode would be constrained to the arcade (mission) portion only.

• Due to cheating concerns, you would not be allowed to merge your progress with your career even if you later came on-line.

• Since the game is free-to-play, there is no business incentive to do this because there would be nothing to gain (and, in fact, a lot to lose from an advertisement/IAP revenue standpoint). It could of course be tied into CHL, except you see how popular that is in the poll.

• The technical work required to get this working would be about half of creating a brand new episode, and I’d much rather do the latter if it ever came to that (again, see above point).

It’s still an open issue, however.

[kokokokos]

@InterAction_studios

So any potential off-line mode would be constrained to the arcade (mission) portion only.

I don’t see a problem with that. I even mentioned in the first post that a basic random mission working like budget constraint would be good enough.

@InterAction_studios

Due to cheating concerns, you would not be allowed to merge your progress with your career even if you later came on-line.

I mean, sure. I don’t think anyone that voted for “yes” imagined that the progress would carry over. It’s just to kill boredom when without internet connection.

@InterAction_studios

It could of course be tied into CHL, except you see how popular that is in the poll.

Well, the vote above was probably for “the best case scenario” for players. That’s what we would want most. But I’m sure if you made your own poll asking if “offline mode for CHL-only is acceptable” then there would be much more votes for that. Probably not that overwhelming number but I think it would still be in favor of CHL-only.

@InterAction_studios

The technical work required to get this working would be about half of creating a brand new episode, and I’d much rather do the latter if it ever came to that (Since the game is free-to-play, there is no business incentive to do this because there would be nothing to gain (and, in fact, a lot to lose from an advertisement/IAP revenue standpoint)).

This actually seems in line with what few of us think about DLCs for CIU. But it’s too messy to write about it here. Maybe I’ll also make a topic about it since quite some time passed from the original idea.

[rata536]

I was going to reply, but koko’s post is exactly what I would have said.

It could of course be tied into CHL, except you see how popular that is in the poll.

Obviously if you ask people if they want something for free or have a paywall for it, it’s going to win for the free. For some things, as rude as it can sound, you cannot make a poll for it. It’s your business and you know what would be the best balance between financial sense and community love. Like, you wouldn’t just give it for free because that could potentially hurt the whole business, but you wouldn’t go EA on it because that wouldn’t be accepted. On this proposed case, giving it to the CHL makes perfect sense in both ways, at least from my point of view.