If I want to play with just my family, do I have to play "online?"

Maybe a dumb question, but will "offline mode" possibly have some LAN capability? Or is it "all or nothing?"

I am looking at playing this with my wife and possibly my (then 6 year old) daughter. I'd rather it be just us, not the whole MMO thing.

I understand I can limit to "friends only" in online mode, and that's fine. My question basically is "can I create a single-player character and play on my LAN with other PCs in my house?"

The big reason is of course HOUSING COST. I want for us to have a house to live in, but (A) the massive cost of Citizen and above, (B) the whole "land grab," and (C) monthly taxes thing is putting me off.

(Not trying to be inflammatory; I think it's a great system for people who really want a massively multiplayer experience. In a massively populated game, if you want to stand out, it should cost you. It's just maybe too much stress for someone who just wants to play with one or two other people.)

IN SHORT - I want to play with my wife and kid and have a house for us to live in. What are my options?

I realize I can buy a village lot in the add-on store, but I'm afraid the monthly tax would turn the game into a job. We just want to RP a bit and have fun, and worry about paying bills in real life!

I like the way housing works in offline mode (no taxes or upkeep, no losing your land / house), but I want to have the option of playing with my wife and kid.

Is there any compromise, or do i have to bite the bullet and go for Citizen / Edelmann / Knight etc?

P.S. Haven't posted here much (if at all) but I'm a long time Ultima fan (not UO, never played it) and pledged at the Collector level during the KS campaign, so hi there!

 

This is an interesting question, and I haven't heard anything about playing offline on a LAN.
Back in the old days, we would have LAN parties and play Diablo with up to 8 people.

Ah, the old days.

But, to get a real answer to this question, I'd send a note directly to FireLotus, rather than hoping a dev would happen to see this post and reply.
Is LAN support too old-fashioned for them to include in this game?

Yup. Good question.

 

SOTA uses a specific server model, so I doubt you will be able to play online without being part of the persistant world thus being online. The game can be played offline, but that is a single player experience.

It would be a nice feature, but the development path and schedule is set so I don't think it will happen. I imagine at some point SOTA will be hacked to run with 3rd party servers like UO did, but that would definately be unsupported and probably have your game blocked from the official persistant world.

I would email support@portalarium.com for an official response. They are very responsive. However, I would start planning on that Citizen pledge if you want to play with your family and have a house.

Also - I asked this specifically - each member of your family will need a copy of the game to play online together. As such you will need additional pledges for them as well unless you want to buy them copies at launch.

 

I fired off an email to that address. Thanks for the replies!

 

Amen brother. I hope you get a favorable response from the Dev team and can figure out a way to play the game the way that affords your family the greatest joy.

Oh, and if you're going to purchase 3 copies of the game, be sure to have your wife and daughter use your account as their referral. Can't hurt.

 

Yes, I'm planning to get the referral credit!

I'm wondering, though, can my 6-year-old actually create an account of her own? I think a lot of games and sites require a certain age in their terms of use. And if I create the account for her, then I'm going against the ToU if I use myself as the referrer, huh?

Look at this... the game is a year away, and already it has presented me with a tricky question about the Virtues. Way to go, Lord British!

 

The Devs have said they want to play with their family too. I think as long as you consent as a parent it should be fine: you just have to hit the agree button. Although things can be weird with online games and children under 13, but SOTA will have a friends only mode so you can limit online interactions for your 6 year old.

I bought my first son a Nintendo 64 when he was born, and by 2 he was ranking in the top 10 on Quake while sitting in my lap in front of the PC. I always wondered what those people would have thought if they know they were getting tromped by a 2 year old.

 

Just don't open boxes or eat the apples in friend online mode and you should be fine.

But yea why not have a LAN mode that is offline for family use.
Having to buy the game for everyone in the family for a lan party does not seem right.

 

Sounds like you are asking to be able to setup your own private server and get others to join in. I doubt they will willingly handover those kind of mechanics. I could be wrong though.

 

Single player/LAN play for up to X connections should be a part of the game. Not saying they are, just saying it would be cool, even though I'd never use that feature.

I would highly recommend biting said bullet to get the persistant world, the live changes to the lands, the goings on of the neighbourhood. Just get 1 Citizen pledge, or for that matter, buy a land plot & house from addon store. You will be able to place it before the ones that earn it ingame because there WILL be those guys that play 25/8 to get their plot before you but with store purchase, you will have time allotted before them. Once you have that placed, you can at your leisure earn gold ingame to buy a bigger lot, or another plot for someone & then when new lands are available or you find a spot you could place it.

 

Hmmm, you've got a point. That sounds like a can of worms. :/

The add-on is cheaper (and very tempting) but that monthly in-game tax is something I want to avoid at all costs. If we only get a couple hours a week to game together, I don't want to have to go off and earn gold while my wife and kid sit around our virtual house and wait for me to get back.

WAY too much like real life. Sounds like a good way to turn every Saturday into a Monday!

 

Friend, I think you meany to say "6-teen" year old daughter (just in case)...

*she's short for her age, I could see where some people might mistake her for younger.

 

I seriously don't think it'll be anything like that, more of a nuisance. eg. Go kill 3 Trolls, loot 500 gold, pay 150 gold to the tax man to leave you alone for another month

 

Hey bdo7, I'm so glad you posted this. I am also hoping my my wife and two daughters (then 8-teen in "BillRoy years") will be able to play together. I pleged at Explorer, but want a house. I don't want to have to play to pay taxes, so I'm considering the layaway plan for the Citizen or even Knight tier. I hadn't really thought it through like you had, so thank you for opening the discussion. Please let us know what Portalarium says.

 

The mode you'd want is Friend Play Online. It is online play, but you only see people you designate as friends, in this case, your family.

 

Yes, as stated in the third line of my original post, that is certainly one way to do it.

The problem with that method is that you have to deal with all the MMO stuff just to play with one or two others: in-game tax, the "land grab," the possibility of losing your home if you don't pay the upkeep, etc.

I was just seeking a middle ground. Since it would amount to running a private server, however, I'm starting to doubt it would be possible. Anything you could run on a LAN, other people COULD connect to (via Hamachi or something similar). So that opens the door for all kinds of unsanctioned mess. I don't want that at all. I am completely behind LB and the game he's trying to make here.

Soooo.... looking pretty hard at upgrading to Citizen or possibly even Knight. Seems a bit much, price-wise, but really it's a donation to support the development of a great game by a great group of folks.

 

One way or another, housing shouldn't be expensive if it isn't part of the persistent world. FPOffline is a good idea imo.

 

Gotta remember, the knights house is on a Village plot, so you could buy that later with ingame gold to place on your village lot. If your pledging stricktly for the plot & house I'ld go Citizen since that is still ahead of the store addon house placers PLUS you get a lot of goodies, the Piano, the sundial, the metronome, the cloth map, the coin, the grave stone, the house pet, the crafting station. Costly yes, but there's a lot you get for your money.
If you go for Knight, Awesome but your wife might get peeved that you get the Title & she doesn't, so better just get 2 Knight packages

 

Great point. I'm already at Collector level, so I get a lot of cool stuff as it is (coin, cloth map, etc). A Citizen pledge would get me the most valuable thing of all: land. I could certainly earn the gold for bigger / better houses in the game.

My wife wouldn't mind the title, especially if it was just us playing a "friends only" game! She's not super-hardcore. We played WoW together for a while, and while I was grinding levels and eventually raid gear, all she ever did was fish and shop for clothes in the auction house.

There were some days she made more gold than me, though. I had raid repair bills, and she was selling stacks of some stupid fish that everyone needed on the AH!!

I haven't actually approached her to see if she WANTS to play SotA with me yet. I'm just getting my plans together in case she does.

If not, well, I'll probably just stay at my current pledge level and play in solo mode. Forever alone... but hey, I played so many Ultima games that way, and they were fine.

I'm actually nervous about asking her. It's strangely similar to proposing all over again.

I guess in a sense I AM asking her to share my life with me, lol. This time it's my virtual one, that's all!

(I couldn't get her in a spaceship... motion sickness... bah.)

 

If you are interested in playing with your daughter in the game, I wouldn't be all that concerned about a house right off the bat. Play the game a while to see if it's something she likes in general before you get wrapped around the axle with a detail like that. Chances are, she won't care. Stay in an Inn. There should be a LOT of things to do that don't require a house, which is most useful if you are a crafter, and I that is probably not your daughter's main interest either.