An additional feature?

[Tesulak]

I've had a idea for some time, a while ago i tried to share it with you. The idea was generally based upon the thought of an "Offline" feature in addition to the online function. I did get answers. All the answers were written in these forms: "AO is a totally different kettle of fish" -"It's not possible, because all the information and data is on the server." --My idea started after trying the Dreamcast game, Phantasy Star Online. This game has an offline function as well as an online function, which i think worked out great. But i understand that if All of Rubi-Ka and everything within it would be a fairly huge download, and that it would take a long time to re-program the data so it can be played offline. BUT...instead of saying no, and bury the idea -think about this instead; A training area, like the ones in the game, where the enemies is just as challenging as other enemies is to you other places Around Rubi-Ka. With different zones/sections where the enemies vary from easy to hard. With a guard to assist you if the enemies approach him/her. a minor shop where you can buy medkits and other types of healing and nano rechargers. The only thing the enemies have to leave behind after you have killed it is an amount credits that varys after how hard the enemy is. An insurrance terminal and a reclaim terminal. After you are tired of hunting you can exit through a whompa. And when you leave through the whompa the guard orders you to hand over the money and healing/nano kits. After you exit the whompa, you come back to the log-on screen. The thing that doesn't make this an addicting feature is that people WILL have to go online sooner or later (i'm betting on the sooner) to buy equipment and other stuff, and last, but not least socialize with others and interact with the story. I really hope this idea will be realized

[__________WGMelchior]

Uhm, what is the actual point with this? We already have the backyards, which basically does the same thing but are online.

[Tesulak]

The point with this is that your internet bills doesn't stack up. so you lose control over your economy. Modem users doesn't pay the same amount avery month. So by adding this feature, you can save a little time by hunting offline. i really don't see the problem. everyone still pays the AO bill every month/3 months/6 months. but the internet bill is a different problem.

[__________WGMelchior]

Hunting offline will never happen. You could just make programs that gives you tons of XP at once. And they can never check it up.

And the whole point with AO is that you are online. Count in that the client itself doesn't do anything when it comes to mob movement, spawn rates, timers and such, and that you would basically make another game if you would want this.

Hum... Anarchy Offline doesn't sound that tempting to me.

I get your point though. I was a dialup user myself once.

[AkodoReign]

yserbious had this feature and a great way to limit it. at level 20 you had two choices.

A. play this char online

B. play this char offline

you could always go offline but once you did the char was locked out of the online community.

Anyone here Miss VitaminF? lol

[Darkbane]

Its an *online* game, if your not paying flat rate for your internet access, then your with the wrong ISP or your playing the wrong game, or your not rich

Your character is on the server, it will stay on the server...

[______________Venous]

This is the worst idea I ever heard for Anarchy, you would take ppl off the online Rubi-ka making the world less populated and less fun, also you have a dumb isp. I have Earthlink dail-up bc my area its dail-up or nothing and I have unlimited time, my comp is on 24/7 and with windows XP its set up to reconnect with 5 secs of lossing internet connnection.

[Tesulak]

My idea about anarchy offline has been reconsidered...It's just that modem users like me doesn't have unlimited access without paying for every minute online...i agree with what you are saying..thank you for your replies...farewell.

[_____________Bizzaro]

I have a few friends in Europe. In some regions, they do not have a bazillion competing ISPs that can give some of the great prices that some of these people on the message board pay. They pay something in the vacinity of a dollar a minute...sometimes higher. Most of the time they have to go to an Internet Cafe to play these online games and get "bargains" of 25bucks an hour.

I guess its nice to live in the USA, where you can just assume that everyone else in the world has cheap internet access. And that if you dont have cheap internet access, you just arent trying hard enough to find it.

[Darkbane]

Absolutely, but if you don't have cheap internet access or lots of money, AO really isn't the game for you... Sad but true.

[__________WGMelchior]

Well, I see the point. It works perfectly in single player games, which has a multiplayer function which isn't based on a large server-side only world...

Diablo 2 works like this. You can play single player, or you can play multiplayer. Your own computer can act as a host, since everything is already on your harddrive/CD.

But with MMORPGs, the whole point (the thing that makes them MMORPGs) is that the whole world is a place where everyone is playing. There might be different servers, but that is just due to technical limits.

You would need an enourmous computer to act as a server for AO. Otherwise you would have to strip almost everything away. Then it would only be a demo of AO, and since they already have the trial period, there is no point in recoding AO into a single player version.


And the dial-up issue is the biggest problem with online games. They are not suited for connections that can't be online for long periods of times. Unless you get a flatrate connection, you are going to be at a huge disadvantage in this game. There are other games which are somewhat similar, but are offline.