Why Elite Dangerous offline mode was fired into the Sun
The news is that the planned offline single-player mode for Elite: Dangerous has been stabilized, leading to a typical mix of platform aggression, demands, and simple requests for clarification. To clarify things, David Braben went into more detail on what he described as a difficult decision in an interview with Eurogamer but acknowledged that things could have been handled better.
"During Kickstarter, our vision of creating an unprecedented new sequel to Elite in the online world was clear which we believe we will be delivering soon," Braben explained. "At the time we were confident that we could also offer a good best joystick for single-player experience and that was based solely on the offline-acceptable experience. As it evolved it became clear that this deadline did not exist."
Some thought that killing offline single-player mode would also mean the complete end of story mode, but that is not the case, it will always be online.
"Any offline experience will be basically empty," he continued. "We could write a separate mission system to allow for a limited set of fixed missions, but it's still not an exciting game and it's just the first step in the mountain of necessary work."
Braben also noted the concerns of potential and fellow players about their Internet connections and how living in an unclear connection or poor service area could prevent them from playing.
"Current single-player games do not require a fast internet connection, and time is not as important as multiplayer," he said.
"I've also played single player on wired connections, trains, and many other places and we will continue to tweak the game to make the 'spotty' connection as strong as possible."
He acknowledged that it was wrong to tell the studio that the facility was running out of resources, instead of informing the studio about the struggle for its implementation.
"In hindsight, we should have shared the fact that we were addressing this aspect with the community, but we were still trying to find a solution. Decided to prioritize. Experience online to provide offline version later in development. We had to choose for the good of the game and we did.
"We have developed a multiplayer game with an open story that takes into account the behavior of the players and the group and all the players, working together towards specific goals. That's what the game is about. Without it, it would not be a rich gaming experience.
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