Revised (estimated) delivery date

So we have an undefined game with an undefined release date. Excellent!

 

Single player offline is after release? This official?

Have they started even working on that part? Does that mean they are waiting to tackle that after the game is ready to go? Will there even be unique features to offline?

 

No, they didn't seem to have a clear idea of when it will be available. They said it could be available just before, at, or even after launch. Basically uncommitted right now to single player offline as far as timelines go. Then again, there are still too many TBDs in the offline features thread so they need to answer those first so we know what exactly we're getting -- and by when.

 

No, it's not official, some weirdo on IRC misunderstood something Starr Long said and started a "SINGLE PLAYER OFFLINE WILL BE AFTER RELEASE?!?!" panic. At that point Starr Long addressed the IRC channel to the camera directly and stated that's not what he said, and even said something like "Jesus Christ, can I not have a reasonable discussion with you people?!" while chuckling.

SPO will be available at release.

 

Ahh ok....Star long is a UO background however, not sure how much us old fans relate to him

 

Actually, no. Watch the Hangout again (skip to 35:45). He said "Single Player Offline...we do not plan on letting people play that until right at, near, or maybe even after launch". Basically, they don't know when and can't commit or comment to its availability.

Also, we use SPO to refer to Single Player Online. When talking about offline, we should always spell that out to avoid confusion with SPO.

 

I think he meant "after release" as in, when it's released. Or it was a slip of the tongue. Either way, he made it pretty clear after the channel went nuts that this isn't the case. But if you enjoy FUD, feel free .

Ahhh, noted. I meant single player offline, sorry.

I was playing Ultima 5 in 1988 and played UO from release, do I count as an old fan?

 

I wonder if they realize how bad the backlash would be if they released with very little story and offline being a shell of game....look at how the chat freaked with the possibility of it being delayed.

 

Yeah...wouldn't bother me any, but I'm sure it would cause rioting in the streets and the crash of several international monetary funds.

 

Actually, no, if you continue watching the video, it was said that IRC was panicking because the "single player" (of any kind) was not going to be available (which was a joke, btw). This is purely about single player offline and seeking clarity as to when it will be available, for which they stated in the Hangout that they remain non-committal at this point. So there's no spreading FUD here.

And perhaps you were in IRC or not, but people weren't panicking. They were having some fun with teasing the devs. These posts were simply about asking for clarity on what was said, with direct quotes, not hearsay.

 

Heh, alright .

I was indeed on IRC, there was panic.

16:38 <+Ronan> WHAT??? after launch for single player ???
16:38 <+Bubonic> did he say AFTER launch?
16:39 <+Abhann> AFTER LAUNCH!!! ???
16:39 <+Ronan> Noty (sic) happy he said AFTER launch
16:39 <+Jack_Frost> offline mode after launch - that's kinda silly.
16:39 <+smack> because that now means "Launch" DOES NOT include single player experience???
16:40 <+Arradin> Single player offline canceled? Wow

Looks like panic to me.

 

I think you're not seeing the humor in that, but ok.

 

It was pretty obvious that Starr had little to no interest in the testing of single player features, which was a bit disturbing. It seems to me that things like companions are a big enough deal that testing would be pretty valuable.

Unless, of course, there are no unique offline features. Which has the potential to be even more disturbing.

 

ok, ok...personally it was panic....but then I gave my head a shake, poured more coffee and started listening again

While my main interest is in single-player offliine, I am NOT worried about whether or when it will be finished. The main offline features (my opinion of course) are story based....and they will not add the main story elements until the last possible moment - and I will enjoy them much better that way than if I saw them now! Everything they are doing right now affects single player offline as well....use-based skills, UI tweaking, crafting, adding scenes, balancing...well balancing everything. Even a lot of the companion mechanics can be tested out through things like whether pets follow you around properly. Right now I can't think of much that would be so unique to offline play that some background component of it wasn't able to be tested in the multi-player environment. Another thought is that this it still ONE game, not two! If there were that many differences then...well.

All that being said I would still like to reserve the right to panic the next time someone important misspeaks, because I sometimes run out of coffee

 

WoW, I wonder where ppl keep coming up with this interpretation of what's being said? That's NOT what they've been saying at all... They even said it again today in the r21 postmordum "there is no set date for release", it has always been "end of pre-alph", feature complete (not "ready for launch")... Why don't you get that?

 

I love how mysterious it is...

 

I'm guessing companions will work exactly like hirelings and pets. They've also talked about getting in the code for a stationary NPC following you around, which will no doubt be ported into the companion system.

 

We are committed to Single player offline mode being available at launch and we will test it as much as we feel it needs with as many people we feel necessary before that time. That is as much clarity as we have to provide right now. Our apologies if that causes concern but it is the truth.

 

I guess that is as close as we are going to get to "we are deeply committed to single player offline mode" as we are going to get.

I don't think it is something to belittle because some will care about something you don't care about.

 

You don't?! What else am I going to belittle, things I care about? That doesn't make much sense.