I understand there has to be DRM of some sort to prevent piracy. I was fine with Denuvo and I liked how you implemented Battle eye (only required for official servers), so I bought your game along with all of the DLC. But now you’ve added yourself to the list of companies that have changed DRM after people have already paid for your product. This new online only DRM was not a nice thing to do to your customers. Please consider taking the approach that other game companies have done and confine the stricter DRM and control to those wishing to use the features of the game involving online activity with other players. Thank you.
100% Facts. Always Online services are always terrible.
It’s scary
Well, if this game will require me to have more than 1 background launcher running (Like ANY ubisoft game. Uplay launcher is cancer.), all I know is I won’t be spending more money in it, that’s all, really. So far I have no DLCs, since I thought I’ll see how the company handles the updates and overall management first. Turns out I’ve done a very very wise thing. 
screw online required, this just means when my net goes down I can’t play the game I am hosting from my own computer, any clue how annoying this is?
100% agree - this online requirement is awful, and makes the game largely or completely unplayable for folks in rural areas. This ruins the game for me, which is a total bummer b/c the building components are really fun. I cannot understand how a company thinks it’s OK to sell years worth of content on the premise that the game will have offline functionality (specified in the Steam info for the game at the time of purchase), and then suddenly force this change. Not cool, and not something we (as the player community) should simply accept. Imho, anyhow, 
If there are issues with piracy or security, there HAVE to be better ways to solve them.
They’ve already got your money over the years, your feedback means nothing to them at this point.
Agreed
We used to be able to play off line.
why was this removed? it makes no sense.
Please give us back off line mode.
Any physical proof to support this allegations? I would love to see it.
Just asking for a friend.
I agree, a connection being required for solo play is a bad idea, of every game I own on Steam, I’m only okay with two of them requiring an internet connection constantly, and that’s because they’re MMOs.
This is honestly horrible, I play single player and now my game crashes / lags horribly. It’ll be a while before I can play again.
Every online game they’ve made and then abandoned to languish after milking them dry? Only proof anyone needs is Funcom’s own history. Now go away, you got Funcom brown on you and I’m all out of Febreze.
Ok
So no evidence, you just another one who complains, complains, complains without any knowledge of what is really going on in the background.
If you got nothing smart to say don’t say anything at all
Highly intelligent.
Hi - just an update re: the June 18 patch. It looks like there has been some response. The notes on the fix include this statement:: “Fixed a crash that would occur when starting the game without internet connection”. Ok, so far as I am aware, we have never been able to start the game in offline mode, but you can start in online and then disconnect (either by choice or by default b/c of imperfect internet connections). But, that said, it’s looking pretty good. I gave it a try this afternoon, and (just to test it) disconnected my internet connection as soon as the game loaded. No issues! Game ran like normal, despite not being online. HOORAY! Now, in fairness, I only played for about 30 minutes (I don’t have time today to goof off much), so I don’t know if this is going to solve the whole issue, but it’s looking pretty good. I’m still not sure why we have to connect to Funcom Live Services at all in order to play single-player, but at least they’re responding to the forced-disconnect problem for those of us with dodgy internet. Woo-hooo! 
Still ridiculous, so if you don’t have internet connection you can’t even start single player?
Dude you have internet, you on the forum???
it’s 2020 what is your problem with having internet connection to start a game up???
What if I wanted to install on a laptop and travel through areas that didn’t have internet access? Before, even though it was with a 3rd party mod, I could at least play a singleplayer game in this circumstance. Now I can’t even do that. I can’t choose when to start playing. I have to start the game when I have internet and then keep it running. It’s completely contrary to Steam’s offline mode.
OMG dude.
What if there is an EMP explosion nearby
We can keep going on in circles.
Bottom line is this.
It is 2020 and if you don;t have internet that’s on you (when you travel you can still pre purchase a portable internet, same size as a USB stick)
I’m not having this conversation anymore.
Bottom line is there are still people without reliable internet connections due to location or other reasons beyond their control or financial means.
While there have certainly been advancements in internet availability through 2020, sadly the same can not be said of people’s ability to see beyond their own personal circumstances.
Well said, a lot of people still live inside a bubble.