Regarding Offline Mode

Some people have been requesting that the game should have an offline mode where they could play solo without an internet connection. This is a valid idea, but we have numerous reasons why we want to avoid this. Here is the official explanation of the whole deal:

1. Game Design

Martyr is an open system game with missions, events, daily quests, and heroic deeds. These are all rolled globally for all players from the servers. We need this in order to give the same playing environment to all players, and also to be able to shape the global storyline of the game later on, based on the playerbase's actions.

Without online access, players wouldn't be able to complete daily quests and various tasks for rewards.

The game will also feature seasons and global events. Because of this, the game was designed to be online, with 2-3 years of additional development of new content/features after release. Of course, we will have paid DLCs and expansions, but free content patches and story updates will be abundant in these seasons and events. These are a core part of the gameplay, affecting both the size of the available gameplay world, the story and its development. With a mixed or offline only mode this would be impossible to achieve - it would be similar to asking an MMO to be an offline game.

2. Support

Let's clarify the difference between the two branches first:

Offline character: Your character would be a file saved in C:\Users\yourusername\Documents\NeocoreGames\Warhammer\SaveGame\131155583(your steam ID) - for example.

Online character: Your character is saved at our servers with everything belonging to it.

If you have an issue (You lose items, you get stuck, etc.), the process would be the following:

Offline:

  • You send an email to us about your issue
  • We ask you to find your character in the folder above (it is easy to get stuck at this point)
  • You mail your character to us
  • We send it over to the devs
  • They open your character
  • We send back your fixed character
  • You copy it back

Online:

  • I open my browser and fix your toon with 3 clicks, OR
  • We run a script that gives everyone back their lost stuff, globally.

It is infinitely better for support to only deal with online toons.

3. Cheating

Offline characters are prone to being edited. That's OK with us, but then many people who edit their toons will get their characters stuck or corrupted, and then they ask for support, which we are unable to do since any game file editing relieves us from being able to do proper customer support.

Also, you can't play co-op with an edited character because the checksums of the 2 games will differ.

For single player, you play on a local server, but the dedicated server does the account management, loot distribution, mission rolling, etc.

4. Past Experiences

We gave in to the public with some of our older Van Helsing games where offline mode was requested, and it turned out to be a huge hindrance to have online and offline characters separately. Supporting two branches of characters was a huge slowing factor of development and support as well, and both the online and the offline players saw the worse end of it as instead of dealing with a strictly online or offline playerbase with 100% focus, we had to divide our attention between offline and online characters.

5. Co-Op

Without internet, it is hard to play together.

5.1 PvP

Currently, only the base game mode is implemented, but we are planning to add more exciting game modes and smooth out the entirety of this feature. Not only this needs internet, but this is also a place where cheating would ruin the whole gameplay experience.

6. Lifespan of the game

Many people already start burying a title even before it releases. We would only like to make it clear for everyone that Warhammer 40.000 Inquisitor is a passion project for us. We already spent long years working on this title, and we have a clear plan ahead of us for the next many years. We have the dedication, the funding, and the passion to keep our game alive for a long time. Also, we have always been trying hard to provide support for our earliest titles to this day.

7. Evolution of gaming

In 1999, I craved offline only gaming because I did not want to ring my parents' phone bill so far up, and internet was unreliable back then. Nowadays, not so much. Following other titles, it became clear that online only is the way to go. We will do our absolute best to keep the gaming experience fluid and intact throughout the lifespan of the game.


In a nutshell, this is why we will remain an online only game.

This requirement is now clearly stated on the store page as well.

This post was edited 7 years 36 days ago by Megapull