Playing Offline

I created an acount here, as the steam forums seem to be completly overlooked from the dev´s.

So I realy would like an answer to this: Why can´t we play offline? We had a mod for a long time now
making this posible, but the author will take it down as something FC changed made it not working anymore.

So, after I bought the game twice (one for a friend), and 4 DLC´s (again one as a gift) , now I can´t play when not conected to the net.

I enjoy playing on a server with folks, but there is times I just like to build on my modded SP save.
Specially when I´m traveling (wich I do for my job pretty often).

Any official response please.

4 Likes

I also created an account just to support this topic.
I understand investors need to see papers with data on us, but dear FC,I read you already had big problems in the past, why did you adopt a practice hated by the communities throughout the whole gaming industry? Do you like to hurt yourself?:slight_smile:

We are looking into solutions for this but it will be a little bit down the line and nothing something that happens tomorrow.

We are however aware that it’s not ideal :slight_smile:

First thank you for you´re reply. There has been post´s like this for ever on steam with no statement at all, as far as I know. And I found some older ones here too.
All the folks always pointed towards the offline mod from @hades wich is now taken down.

I don´t know what you changed in the pet update but since then it was broken.

It would be verry intresting to know the reason behind this “problem” or is it a policy?
I have no game (I´m no MMO player) that can´t be started without an internet conection but of this.

And yes I would agree that, to make it mandatory to be online on steam to be able to play, wile the forum there was cut down and isn´t realy looked at from FC since launch, is not ideal.

I can see no legitimate need for an internet connection in singleplayer offline play. My best guess is that its purely DRM anti piracy related.

100% backfire. This kind of crap pushes people with legitimate purchases to actually uninstall and instead install the dirty pirate versions that dont have the DRM issue. I’m always online so it doesnt affect me, but I understand your frustration.

There was a time… back when I played Halflife 2 and had dialup… the damned DRM checked for authentication after every level/load screen etc… I honestly uninstalled that crap I paid for and installed the pirate version of that game. AND thats ridiculous… that the thieves out there get a better product than what us paying customers get.

3 Likes

I believe it is pure data collection.
Caused by the same pressure these companies have from banks, funds or anybody who financed their projects, which also leads to release an unfinished game as “released”.
It’s a pattern I see in many games nowadays, too much to be a coincidence.

Suppose thats possible. Everybody wants to know my business these days. Even my darn video card driver is running a ‘telemetry’ program that scans my entire hard drive and sends who knows what back home.

Thanks Tascha! I hope so you will find a solution. An offline mode will be realy nice!

Please don’t disappoint us! THX

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I’m no expert in DRM or anti-piracy methods. I do know that there are other ways though. I understand it’s a struggle for developers too, I’ve been gaming over 30 years now and have seen all manner of software protection methods used. For a while I worked QA at a mass mefia replication facility and got to see first hand how some of that worked in the case of CD/DVDs.

I’ve seen documentaion checks. ie: The game has a start screen with a ‘Identify enemy asset’ image and you have to consult the docs and type in the ‘code’ associated with it. There was a game I played… hrmm… adventure something… anyhow it had a code wheel that came with it… you had to turn the wheel… match up words and get the code to play lol… it was neat… kinda fun.

Then I’ve seen hardware solutions, links golf specifically for the commodore 64 had a small hardware ‘dongle’ that you had to plug into the back of the computer. If the dongle was not present the game would not play. Maybe a USB type dongle would work these days… I dunno.

I’ve seen density checks, read errors, custom FATs, etc all incorprated into some kinda protection scheme.

I guess a lot of those methods are obsolete in the digital age where people no longer use/own phsyical copies of the product on media. I’m just saying there are always options that don’t necessarily need to place additional burden on the customers. In the case of conan… I’d say its not unreasonable to do a DRM / authentication check at the time of install… and have that install keyed to some PC/hardware identifier so it only works on that one unit… and then never check again. If the install is legit then there’s no need to re check ?

I am doubtful it is anti-piracy. If thst case, they could check weekly or even monthly and not risk a lot of bad press over requiring a constant connection.

And I am a believer in Hanlon’s razor. Not saying Funcom is stupid, but not malicious either. Rather, i find it believable that in creating a server/client architecture for the game, Funcom may have accidentally created a scenario where the servers side doesn’t work unless you are online and they did not have time to truly fix this.

Yeah, I have friends and family in Iqualuit above the arctic circle and they have some spotty internet, I’m sure its not easy for them maintaining a stable internet connection.

I don´t whant to spread bad mood, but for CE I used a good bit of pacience over the whole EA period and after.

The fact is, two weeks ago I was able to play wile on a jorney for my work and away from home over some days.
Now it seems unlikely I will be able to in the future.

Not tomorrow is verry open to interpretation, could be next year. Or if we go down the line of city live and mounts, maybe or never.

I´m sorry Tascha, this is not ment to be a rant, and specially not on someone who seems to do her work. but I stuck up for FC during EA and already there people where telling me I was delusional and FC will never get it done.
I wrote a positive review, as this game is artisticly greatly crafted, and the conan feeling was cought verry well. I was intrigued by the plans for this game.
After launch I was sobered up however. I changed my review to negative as I felt like I got told a fary tale of what could be´s, Fool me once…

Now after half a year I saw it is still worked on and decided to give it a second chance.
I erased my review, and looked into the new stuff. All seemed ok, nothing to spectacular in my opinion
but work was done.
But for me I reached a line, and that is, I can´t play wile I´m not home (easy to understand no?),

So, might be time to move on and look for some other timesink.

But if FC does not start to look after there customers with a bit more efford, I tell you, winter is coming.

This was not the place I thought to do this but as a farwell for now and instead of giving this game with a great potential, an other bad review:

List of stuff that buggs me:

Game related:

  • not playing without internet conection
    The obvious grudge I have right now.

  • getting stuck in hitboxes
    one of the most anoying things that happen regulary

  • dying tralls and pets for diverent reasons and places
    takig out followers is like looking after a child from the city into a jungle
    I had a visitor on a server bringing a t4 fighter along who died under my lift like a roach.

  • missing features (city live, sorcery …)
    I was with CE since the first weeks of EA, I know what EA means, and expect changes and such, but we downright got sold an idear that never came to pass. Think of siege animals, no static thralls , sorcery with coruption as a price to pay (great idear as it´s acording to the laws of conan)

  • features not working
    Purge as far away as it is from the original idear from roaming NPC`s it produces unpredictable results, best yet nude NPC´s wo look like they take a relaxed walk towards you´re gate from a spawnpoint 15 blocks away.

  • No merchants or neutral NPC´s worth mentioning
    Merchants with elephant hides for gold coins and drinks so expensive I never bought a single item (how many folks have I wonder), no quests or other generated things like treasure maps and such to fill this gap.
    If you talk about new content, I would consider this content as well.

  • DLC content still buggy
    no crafting que, repair items sometimes breaks them

  • DLC building parts cluttering up the menue
    if you do any more it will be unusable in future without a rework of the building parts (a builders workstation for example)

  • unbalanced game
    like in crafting, cooking, fighting, HP for NPC´s, Sure many mod´s out there wich adress this but this should be adressed in the base game not by mod´s.

  • all the small things
    vanishing stuff, bodys, chest´s not resetting loot …

  • and stuff I would remember as soon as I was playing and saw it, wich has come up in many post´s over the time

  • exploits
    I never used one, and never bothered to find any, but as people bring it up all the time I guess it deserves to be mentioned

Not game related

  • Steam forums
    as far as I can see, you have one moderator sitting on them to make sure the rules are aplied, but no tecnical or official respons from the Dev-team, no sugestions and and on the whole no atention given to the platform. And corect me if I´m wrong but I think most of us bought you´re company out of depts on steam.

  • contradicting and vague talks
    Is sorcery comming, no yes, one sayed next thing (same who sold me the city live, I think), one says not at all.
    The constant answer is working on it when it comes to old problems, new content aside, but a banner on the store page saying : full release 2.0 all buggs fixed for free, would sell this game like mad (if it was true)

  • dev logs and stream
    Wich is good to have, but instead of me asking to do a pumkin for a contest someone who actually plays the game through more then the midnight groove would intrest me much more. Might be it would help FC as well to recognise some of the troubles we have in the game.

Again, I din´t mean to just shovel dirt around, but I find it a fair exchange instead of a negative review with the same content.

Might look into it again, somewhere down the line, just maybe not tomorow.

Have fun all.

7 Likes

Is it your avatar from Advanced Heroquest??

That one is from the box art to the original HeroQuest by Milton Bradly (circa 1992). I know because it was 10-year-old me’s dearest wish (and I got it!) for my birthday.

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So very good memories, It was my first contact with rpg games , I remember playing with my sister, mastered by my mother and using paper medieval towns made by us, as maps with the Heroquest figures, dices and rules. @Mirasstone you touched a sore spot :cry:

I warmly support the idea of ​​playing off-line in single-player mode!

I would not like to try to read other people’s thoughts :), but it seems to me that the fight against piracy was not the cause of the current situation. In any case, this is not the only possible way of such a struggle.

It seems to me that the team FUNCOM initially saw its multiplayer game, and the single-play added simply “just in case.” They just managed to do much more with this game than they intended ;). I can compare, because I play it on the first day of getting into early access (and I always play only a single) :). The result is a huge gaming world that is interesting to explore and that can be BUILD at its discretion.

Therefore, I would like FUNCOM to pay some attention to the single-user mode:

  1. made it possible to play off-line;
  2. made it possible to save the game in a single-play mode;
  3. change some parameters of the game for the single-player mode - at least, the number of HPs of opponents-bosses.
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Registered here just to say i agree with Mirasstone, not a cool move by funcom to remove offline play ( i would go as far as saying its a very scummy move on their part) hope this changes very soon.

+1

I´m gonna try to keep this alive until it´s looked at and resolved.

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Pretty good idea…