Offline Mode v3

Yeah, being able to host a local server would be the dream. No idea why they're keeping such a tight lid on the source code.

 

Bit torn on this really, because I come from a household that'd make immense use of offline-mode and/or LAN city functionality cause other than me they all dislike the all-online aspect of the game. Got a family member who only plays skirmish mode in offline mode currently lol

This is mostly wrong though. The top level of the game already avoid the ranked system in order to guarantee quality opponents (for them) and they're sick of being accused of driving newbies away, so instead the top sparta players are 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier players. We almost didnt have enough casters for the last tournament. As the only regular Aussie pvper, I stayed up til daybreak to cast half the quarterfinal lol. The most active sparta player over any 5 or 10 season stretch in the past 15 months is me, and I literally started pvping about 2 months prior to that, though I will admit both having prior RTS experience and that the next most active is Vindicator, Zeuz/Pozeidon, or Borg depending on where in that span you look, all with a couple years + experience. There are quite a few regular but not so serious players on the ranked ladder pretty much any time, and stacks of pvp rookies every time an event is on (like right now). Your best bet for fair games and for getting help with build orders is the PvP discord

He isn't. Imagine what it's like looking for PvP partners in East Asia or East Coast Australia. We don't all live in the US or central Europe, just 85% of the playerbase in this tiny community . It wasn't really til starcraft 2 that any RTS had a proper matchmaking system either, and considering we can get 70 people at a time watching organised pvp, in a game that's now around 52,000 accounts, 100 "active" pvpers is a relatively low number

I have more faith in a 32-person strong dev team having a succession plan so the team doesn't suddenly one day just collapse, than I do in the average gamer maintaining good backups

Ideally, I wonder if there could be away to integrate LAN-server hosting into offline mode, without having to give up the source code.

As Jeinx said though, the different perspective is good, we just have to be careful to not fracture the community needlessly, but also like I said, I can see a benefit to expansion of offline mode functionality

 

Because the technically minded folks in the dev team are working on other things and would have to stop what they're doing to implement it, and that there hasn't really been anyone asking for it til now. Money isn't the obstacle, the number of volunteer devs with that specific skillset is. I'm not saying it's a bad idea if done properly. The issue with just handing over source code (as you probably know) is that a million half assed clones will kick up overnight, fracturing the playerbase and souring the perception of community-developed AOEO even if that's not what people asking for it for this reason intend to do with it.

 

This technical stuff is lost on me, but it seems worth mentioning that Kickstarter/charging for content/etc. is off the table. Microsoft’s rules dictate we cannot offer any part of the game for money. Everything is free for everyone always.

 

Gopo did

Either way, the work of implementing them still stands. And like I said, there simply wasn't the calling for it before. Offline mode in limited form actually predates a community hosted AOEO server, and I'm a bit surprised old breakaways or a completely independant group havent looked into doing an extension project to offline mode for these kind of features, without the all-online server reminiscent of the MS realms like Project Celeste uses.

Back end developers are also the most sought after addition to the dev team. Any fool with high school coding experience can make, or in the very least, edit, quests and maps in the game if they're willing to put in the work. I can think of maybe 2 members of the dev team capable of doing what this would take, and I won't mention their names.

Yeah, it's great being a part of the most tax positive demographic to ever walk the face of the earth (Aussie male smokers), and still being told off about my lifestyle