I backed the Kickstarter of Elite: Dangerous - I did so because of the offline mode - for me the MMO part was a "nice to have" - when it got canned with a few weeks to go before actual release... I was really, very upset.
The way I wanted, indeed needed, to play the game was completely based on offline.
But I waited. On Dec. 16th I downloaded the launcher - it downloaded the game (took about 40 minutes on my 60Mbit/s connection). It installed. I fired it up. It worked.
I climbed into my Cobra Mk3 and haven't looked back.
I've only ventured into "Open" mode a few times and play mostly "Solo" - as suspected not having the offline mode has dented when I can play, but when I have played, connection and the game has been faultless.
I don't know if I'm in a minority or it's just the vocal minority who are having issues that make me feel like I'm somehow in a uniquely privileged position.
I'm mostly avoiding the official forums because there's a lot of anger from what appears to be a relatively small number of 'players'.
Not quite sure why El Reg has taken such a seemingly negative view of the game/Frontier - I don't know anything about the reporter in question - perhaps his E:D offline dreams were crushed (like mine) but decided to channel his energies in a different way?
E:D isn't yet the game I'd like it to be (offline mode aside!) but it clearly has the potential to be exactly that and so far it seems to be growing at about the same rate in which I can play it and learn to do new stuff inside its mindboggingly huge sandbox.
(BTW, one of the things that really appeals to me (as a Physicist) is that Frontier say they will continue to add real astronomical data into the game as more stars, pulsars, supernova, nebula, and exoplanets are discovered - I find that pretty cool.)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
