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All I want is to be able to start a brand new game while you are offline. It seems that the game prevents you from making a new game while you are offline. Continuing the game offline works but creating brand new game offline does not work (meaning that you need to have a pre-existing online save to “continue” offline). Plus the dlcs working offline as well - is what I want. I do not care much about BP/Bazaar and even if I do use them, it should work offline too. A great example would be recent Assassins Creed Series like Valhalla, Origins or Odyssey where you can purchase additional contents and still be able to access them while you are offline. The monetization aspect is not that different and in fact I wager that they are exactly the same. The only difference is that Ubisoft allows players to enjoy the dlcs without the need of internet connection. Ofcourse AC also have their live events and what not that can only be accessed while you are online but they are not a dlc or a paid content. I don’t have problem with micro transaction and in fact I would pay for all the available contents if I can access them offline. So if this is the case, what could this entail? does this mean Ubisoft could care less about the “authentication” of users whether they bought the game or not? No! ofcourse not! They do care! They care as much as Funcom cares. Anti-piracy measures? so does this mean Ubisoft does not care about people pirating their IPs? No! They do care too JUST LIKE Funcom does! Then we have to ask, why on one hand we have a company that provides the offline services and on the other hand, some don’t. They have the same business model think about it! cromcoin? Helix coin! Dlcs and expansions? yup Ac have it too! Cosmetic Items? Yup they are all exactly the same. Funcom already allows players to continue their online save offline but why not just make a full offline feature where you can play all the dlcs and the base game? What harm does it do allowing players to play offline? This game has been out for many years and to think they can’t do it because they are busy with the new game just sounds strange to me. When they came out with the offline feature, why did they just go half way instead of giving a full offline feature? The only explanation I can think of is technical limitations…The way how they built the game simply does not allow full offline gameplay but I highly doubt that. Any explanations would be helpful! I just love this game and want to play offline too!!!

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Paragraphs, please!

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You have my hammer, agree 100%!

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Okay… in light of the fact that you have created the 4th “offline mode” thread in a very short space of time… I am going to point out something :slight_smile:

For somebody who wishes to be offline… you sure as hell use the internet a lot to make threads about it.

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Yup thats what I do! Play games offline and talk about it online!

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Alright, well explain then :slight_smile:

So far we have read the HOWs and the change suggestions… I have not seen the WHY yet!

In an age where everybody and their grandmothers have internet… the game itself comes as an online digital download… the shop embedded in the game basically requires internet… etc. etc.
Why would anybody (players) want to even play offline? To gimp ourselves in case we do want to use the shop? and have to run to the wall to plug back our internet? :slight_smile:

Like, even if you play single player, what brings a person to be bothered by the fact that their game uses internet in the background. Dial-up is dead and gamers aren’t exactly on a metered connection, (and if they are… they should’ve thought about that before downloading a 120 GB game)

And what about the developers perspective? Why would they go and develop their game backwards when they have been working on making it more connected over the last few months via the Bazaar and BP.

If I was the developer and I’d look at this request… I’d simply conclude that development requires time and lots of money… this is not something that will bring me money, quite the opposite (I know what you said above, but one person “promising” to buy everything from the shop on the internet is not going to carry a company…), I’d be losing money plus making it easier for anyone to pirate the game, the shop assets, etc. further losing out on potential sales. As such, I’m simply not even going to entertain the idea (harsh pretend-developer!)

So what would YOU gain from offline play? Why do you want this so badly? :slight_smile:

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He does not want the gaze of the Eye of Funcom™ to fall upon him.

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Wait, PC players aren’t allowed to start a new single player game offline?
That’s unfortunate.

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Tell me that you realize that we live in a world where internet is not free and available for all everywhere equally 24/7?

If I buy a game I should be able to play if offline. This was standard in gaming. The only reason why games need to be constantly online is because of shady shop- and live service systems.

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You have the valid argument to some extent except that you failed to conceive the situations that some people deal with, poor internet connection or the server failures. How about people who wants to enjoy their game in peace where there are no server connection failures, unstable connections due to harsh weather conditions like where I live, an island stuck with rain and strong winds almost 300days a year. Sure, internet is such a basic part of our lives now but to think and conclude that why does anyone need offline feature is a very selfish and inconsiderate argument regarding people stuck with less favorable conditions. The generalization you put out is a very one sided argument and you fail to include all the other people with different situations where it is not necessarily an easy task to play online all the time.

Forget about the harsh weather conditions then, how about we move on to something more fundamental. Less profitable to go backwards you say, well, my friend would it be less profitable to “add” the feature to a game or “remove” the feature to a game? Developers get paid just like we do, sure the numbers may be different but they do get their pay hourly, monthly or perhaps weekly. Do they get paid extra if they have to add the feature to the game? oh surely if they did, I would study my ass off to get that job! The answer is probably no, they just do whatever they are asked to do and get their good old regular 9 to 5 pay. From a company perspective then, would it be less profitable to “add” the feature in? or remove the feature “out”? In other words, would it be less profitable to include more audience or less? It is very simple my friend very simple.

Well, to answer your question WHY I want the offline feature so badly. I believe that it is a part of accessibility feature that needs to exist in all products not just out of want, but rather out of necessity. Imagine you bought a car that you wanted so badly. You enjoy driving it, looking at it what not. But one day you find out that your car won’t start because you don’t got no internet connection. Let us say that the car you bought costs roughly below average around 15K (numbers are not that important anyways). Imagine that money you paid to get the car provides you with everything but won’t let you to start the car without the internet, can you really say you bought the car? There is a specific word for this and it is called Leasing. So you bought the car but turns out you only leased it but paid the full price of owning a car. In the car market it is called Leasing and most other platforms it is called “subscription”. So how about in gaming industry? Well sure, it is called “agreeing to the terms” where you only have the rights to play the game but have no right to own it. But even then, it does not necessarily mean you don’t have rights to play offline does it? If it does not explicitly mention that I have no rights to play offline, why can’t I ask for it to get more bang out of my buck? If I had to pay a price to play the game, I want to play the game anytime I want not just when I have internet connection but also when I don’t have internet as well! Nothing in their terms say I can not play because I have no rights to play offline. So why not ask for it? simple.

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Even in Silicon Valley the internet goes down sometimes.
Depending upon ISP and scope of downage, it can last for quite some time.
This one makes a tidy profit when the big ones hit, because that’s when they have to call in emergency crews.

This one supposes it would be possible to use one’s phone to connect, but that will look lovely on your data plan. Assuming whatever took down the internet didn’t also take the towers like the storms earlier this year…

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And this one is quite honored that there are people like you out there doing the in-hand fix up whenever there is an outage. And very right, using hotspot through phone will cost me my rent. Verizon is quite expensive these days.

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(post deleted by author)

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Plus, even if you have a somewhat decent internet connection, and even a storm far far away can slow down internet so hard, you won’t be able to play.
So it is a complete nonsense, that even if you do strictly single player, and don’t give a s**t about online content, you still need connection.
And what if you play, a lightning nearby cuts your power off, system reboot, but you can’t even start steam to switch to offline mode, because it can not start without internet connection if set to online mode previously. Yes, this part is not Conan Exiles’ problem, but still is a problem.

I’ve never ever clicked on play online (okay, that’s a lie, I’ve played two days with my girlfriend in co-op, but she does not play anymore). Never ever clicked on the bazaar. Never brought anything from there. And never will. Challenges? If I complete them, hoorray, but I wouldn’t mind if I can not do them because that also needs online connection. So why should I need internet connection? What for?
And not even mention the three EXTREMELY lame bs functions in SP: hitting Esc does not stop the game, repsawn timer, disconnecting from somewhere… So much wrong with this.

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I do, unfortunately I also recognize that this particular issue is not the most pressing matter in those parts of the world… and generally if people are able to download this game… they do have internet…

Yes, WAS being the keyword…

(also, I don’t want to get into that too much… but when it comes to software “ownership”… you do not actually own anything… you buy a license to use it under the terms they feel like supplying it to you… that’s all)

No I didn’t, I just think that should be handled in other ways. For example I suggested on here several times that the system should have some form of caching so that if it deemed that you own certain things when validating online, it doesn’t magically revoke permission during that same session if your connection to the funcom servers breaks. Creating ridiculous situations that you ride somewhere on a battlepass mount only to be stuck there because you’re suddenly “not entitled” to ride it… I completely disagree with that validation method.
Other than that generally fixing bugs and minimizing these issues would be my approach.

Yes and I imagine those very same people are having a difficult time playing World of Warcraft too, which requires constant internet connection… Again… this is not an argument. If a software developer decides they want to make their game online, that is their decision and humanitarian arguments completely fail here as we’re talking about optional digital entertainment…

With that being said, the game does have offline mode and it works fine, the question here is more of a theoretical “Why would the developers further invest into makinig their shop offline and improving the offline features in general.”

Yes, but they can’t just mindlessly work on features that don’t generate the company money, in fact it generates a loss (and no, an even more offline mode will not increase their revenue, it would decrease it)

That’s exactly what I was pointing out to @Winthor above, in software there is no “buy”… we call it that sure… but you’re essentially renting a license to use someone elses intellectual property, you do not own anything and they can in fact at any point revoke your license and take it back, it’s in the license agreement that nobody ever reads and just clicks accept on :stuck_out_tongue:

See? :slight_smile: you actually know! And it does mean that if the developer chooses to go that direction. It’s basically up to them.

They can, the game only requires an internet connection on the first startup after installation / update so steam can verify that you indeed have a valid license for the game, so I’m not entirely sure what OP is talking about, was merely entertaining this on a theoretical level.

Here’s a very recent steam post with images and everything playing offline and starting a new game. You can even see the game escape menu literally shows “Offline Mode” on the bottom.

And you even have hades commenting there and validating OPs claim (hades is the author of the original offline mod for CE before Funcom implemented it and made his mod redundant)

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Good Good! I will check up on the steam post and thanks for the dedicated response yet again! It has been a while since I had a passionate talk like this, well let us continue this party some more within the love and care we all have for this game!

  1. Poor internet connection:
    Yes yes. Understandable that you would perceive the issue as a whole different topic but unfortunately, for some, it is a reality that you wake up with every morning. I don’t expect you to understand my situation and so many others having the problem like I do, but it is not a great feeling to be put aside because to a fortunate someone, it simply is not their reality to give a hoot about and is just a simple humanitarian yapping. Imagine the exact same disregard you put out turning into a company scale. Do you see why I am trying so hard? And what if it is a humanitarian side of things? well what are the devs doing right now? arent they helping and supporting the server issues? They are already doing the very action and my cry here is to ask devs to apply that same thing they are doing right now to complete the half finished offline feature. Here is my point of view. It would be better of a choice to create an encompassing feature for people who need - “humanitarian” so you call it - support. If they are already in the action of helping and supporting, why would they not do the same here? instead of half-way offline, go full-offline! I feel that having full offline feature can solve so many problems this game suffers from like server disconnecting.
  2. Soo, as for your argument of profit, can you explain exactly how would company’s profit will decline? say if they were to give full offline feature? It would be great to hear your opinion! How does broadening the scope of inclusivity for customers lead to the decline of profit?
  3. Reasons to speak up and voice your opinion:
    As you have kindly mentioned that you dont own a game during accepting the terms of agreement, and basically the company can do whatever they want, IS the reason why all of us should speak up and raise our opinion to the forum, to zendesk and so on. Sure, it might all be for nothing but I would much rather go out with a bang than nothing (metaphorically speaking). As long as I have the rights to play the game, I will voice my opinion! I encourage you and everyone to do it too if you didn’t sign the NDA.

Until our next battle! Ymir be with you.

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Again, I simply don’t see the issue here.
If your internet connection is poor… you can still play this game. Whenever you have internet it’ll work as normal… when your internet happens to cut out, it’ll work in the current offline mode in an intended way.

Like I said, the only caveat I would address here is the verification of owned ingame items, I would change it to be a bit more loose, so you’re not stuck not being able to use your mount halfway through your gaming session.

What you’re advocating here though is to shift the development direction of the game back to the 90s an have it be a completely standalone internet-free game… You know who else love those?.. software pirates… which is part of the reason the industry was moving towards online DRM solutions.

Bottom line, poor internet connection can be more than managed when playing in single player mode even currently.

Sinking development hours into this when they could be working on other stuff (like fixing bugs? :stuck_out_tongue: - I know this is a popular one) while at the same time making their game way more susceptible to piracy and people stealing bazaar / bp content :man_shrugging:
And no, it would not broaden the customer circle as much as you seem to think… your request is not nearly as popular as you seem to think.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with feedback and suggestions!! :slight_smile: As long as it is purely that.

Here’s the thing - and I’m not saying this applies in your case, but more like a generalized example - a lot of people come to these forums, to zendesk… etc… to DEMAND stuff… and quite often they do it in an obnoxious way… as if they had a legal right to it… which they simply don’t.
All the while they’re also forgetting that this platform where they come to complain and demand things and speak up… is also owned by Funcom and not even their right to freedom of speech applies on here as it’s a privately owned space… the only reason they can say the things they say… is because Funcom lets them :man_shrugging:

Not really battling you in any way btw… was just wondering why you keep making new and new threads (when the old ones aren’t even locked yet) demanding something that is already in the game as much as it will ever be… Since fully offline to where you buy it off steam and steam doesn’t validate your installation… that is simply never going to happen, regardless of how many threads we start.

And I was also trying to point out that the game in general is moving in the opposite direction, for example the Chapter 1 event system… the Chapter 2 witch hunt events… these were all enabled remotely by Funcom servers at each startup of the game… so internet was required to experience these, which further suggests the game moving in that direction. I’m sure they’ll try to keep the current offline mode though as much as they can.

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Here you go btw! :slight_smile: This might clear up the confusion.

If you check out @CodeMage 's bug report he just made, apparently there is a bug when launching the game with the continue button from the launcher. That one indeed will not let you play single player offline.
However if you press launch instead and select single player from the game menu, it will work.
This might be what’s been confusing people into thinking there isn’t an offline mode, this however is a bug related to launching the game and as such will probably be fixed

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Okay, so, for what it’s worth, I’ve logged a bug that could help. I honestly don’t expect them to fix it, but I had to try. Even if they fix what I reported, they still might not fix everything – this wouldn’t help with creating a new singleplayer game from scratch – but it would help.

In the meantime, I know exactly what I need in order to add an offline feature to BUGLE that would allow you to create a new singleplayer game even if you’re fully offline, as long as you’ve played the game online at least once (so your FLS account info is cached in Game.ini). I’ve added that to the backlog, and I’ll evaluate whether I can add it to the next beta pre-release, or punt it further down the line.

Not quite. It’ll allow you to continue a previously created singleplayer game. I think it will even allow you to create a new one if you had an existing one. But creating one from scratch doesn’t work either way.

Fortunately, that’s something I can work around in BUGLE.

Unfortunately, BUGLE relies on -continuesession to start a single-player game of your choice, so even if I add the feature that allows you to create a new game from scratch, the UX will still be clunky: you’ll end up in main menu with the error dialog and then it’s up to you to press “Singleplayer” then “Continue”.

But hey, at least there will be a way, no matter how ugly. Just give me some time to add the feature :wink:

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If anyone’s interested in gory tech details, the problem here is that the game needs to know your FLS account ID in order to populate the account table in the game database.

If you play online, the game can fetch that account ID from FLS via the appropriate PlayFab endpoint (I forget the details, but you can go look at PlayFab docs if you want), by logging you into PlayFab using your Steam account ID (and the ticket Steam gives you).

However, if you’re offline, the game can’t do that. So what they did was cache the necessary info in the Game.ini file, under the CachedUsers key in the [FuncomLiveServices] section. For reasons that I currently have no insight into, the game doesn’t seem to be able to use this when creating a new singleplayer game database.

I speculate that it’s for one of the two reasons, and I’ll do my research when I have time to figure out which one it is:

  1. Maybe there’s no way to ask Steam which Steam account is currently playing the game if Steam is in offline mode. Without the Steam account ID, even if they have the cached FLS accounts, they can’t figure out which cached FLS account to use, because they lack the value they would use to filter by PlatformId in the CachedUsers keys.
  2. Or maybe they just didn’t have the time to do this properly in the first place, because it required more refactoring than they had the time to do (or they had the time to do the refactoring, but it would put other, more important feature work at risk so they were blocked from it). Then, later, this issue simply didn’t get prioritized.

At any rate, sorry for the boring technical rant. I just happen to enjoy this shіt way too much :laughing:

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