Why is career online only ?

[Gamington]

My connection isnt that great and I can get on mkst of the time. With that said though why cant I play careers innoffline mode? Im not really into stats and how many planes ive shot down vs someone else in an sp part of the game so to me it kinda makes no sense that this part of the game has always been bound to being online ? I know there are mods to go offline but I dont like using mods for games anymore for personal reasons.

[JG27_Steini]

Carreer is offline only. You fly the carreer alone. Why do you think it is online?

[Gamington]

You have to be online as in on the internet to make a new pilot and fly thr missions career mode does not show up if you play offline. You can fly quick missions or scripted missions offline but cant create new pilots ect.

Edited March 20, 2019 by Gamington
Added stuff.

[ShamrockOneFive]

15 minutes ago, JG27_Steini said:

Carreer is offline only. You fly the carreer alone. Why do you think it is online?

 

You have to be logged in for Career mode to work.

 

Try going offline mode and see how it goes

 

13 minutes ago, Gamington said:

You have to be online as in on the internet to make a new pilot and fly thr missions career mode does not show up if you play offline. You can fly quick missions or scripted missions offline but cant create new pilots ect.

 

I don't know what the answer is except that the Career mode system seems reliant on some resources that are server side. I'm not sure if its the missions themselves (that doesn't make a lot of sense to me) or something else.

 

Not sure what the solution is for someone with an intermittent internet connection. Sounds frustrating.

[JG27_Steini]

Damn it. That is really a problem. Sorry

[Feathered_IV]

19 minutes ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

I don't know what the answer is except that the Career mode system seems reliant on some resources that are server side. I'm not sure if its the missions themselves (that doesn't make a lot of sense to me) or something else.

 

The .group files that go to make up the missions are in the data/scg.gtp package, so it seems that something else is needed server-side for them to work.  I've often wondered if these .group files can be modded to make the career more active or more challenging.

[PatrickAWlson]

Guessing here - but my guess is that they store career instance data (your pilot, where he is at, career stats, squadron stats, lots of other stuff) in a database.  Standing up a database on every users HD is a pain, so better ti write some net code that talks to a server and let the server store the data.

 

 

[40plus]

two words, "copy protection"

[seafireliv]

I asked this question once but got chased away by a couple of angry forumers who seemed to think I shouldn`t ask such a question. Your experience has been a lot more polite.

It`s the one thing I had no idea about until I`d already bought the game. In those days the net was always a bit of an `iffy` proposition for me since I never knew how long I`d still have it.

 

I still don`t like taking the chance. There are many reasons why it would be good to play it offline. We really shouldn`t assume online will always be working.

 

I hope one day they`ll make it playable off the net.

Edited March 20, 2019 by seafireliv

[JonRedcorn]

33 minutes ago, seafireliv said:

I asked this question once but got chased away by a couple of angry forumers who seemed to think I shouldn`t ask such a question. Your experience has been a lot more polite.

It`s the one thing I had no idea about until I`d already bought the game. In those days the net was always a bit of an `iffy` proposition for me since I never knew how long I`d still have it.

 

I still don`t like taking the chance. There are many reasons why it would be good to play it offline. We really shouldn`t assume online will always be working.

 

I hope one day they`ll make it playable off the net.

You can try PWCG pat wilsons campaign generator, works offline. No connection required.

[LukeFF]

3 hours ago, seafireliv said:

I asked this question once but got chased away by a couple of angry forumers who seemed to think I shouldn`t ask such a question. 

 

No, you got your answer, which you didn't like. That's on you and not so-called "angry forumers." 

[Trooper117]

That's why I still keep the good old original IL2 on my hard drive... you can fire it up anytime offline and you get the whole works.

But as mentioned, I always make good use of PWCG as it works offline.

[Herne]

Pure guess on my part, but I think the missions are generated server side, which is why you need to be online. Assuming this is correct, one possible advantage I can see is that its easier for the devs to monitor and adjust mission generation parameters without needing us all to download hotfixes.

 

Like I said, its a guess, I could be barking up the wrong tree, but never the less, the game has been designed this way for a reason.

 

If internet access is really a problem then PWCG is really very good. A little alt tabbing is required to generate missions for your campaign, but it's really good fun.

[PatrickAWlson]

5 minutes ago, =11=Herne said:

Pure guess on my part, but I think the missions are generated server side, which is why you need to be online. Assuming this is correct, one possible advantage I can see is that its easier for the devs to monitor and adjust mission generation parameters without needing us all to download hotfixes.

 

Like I said, its a guess, I could be barking up the wrong tree, but never the less, the game has been designed this way for a reason.

 

If internet access is really a problem then PWCG is really very good. A little alt tabbing is required to generate missions for your campaign, but it's really good fun.

 

Thanks for the plug  .  Still think it has to do with data storage.  In PWCG I avoid net code and sys admin issues by writing everything to JSON files.  In effect I am my own Mongo DB.  It would be nice to use an actual Mongo DB but then the same problems arise: how do I ensure that my configuration will work on every machine?  And it has to, because when you are offering software for mass download you cannot expect your users to be sys admins.  1C went the more normal route, add net code to talk to a server that is under their control.  

 

Going forward this could be resolved through the use of containers (Kubernetes for example).  The container isolates the software in its own environment to avoid system conflicts.  This way if you want to stand up a DB and talk to it on a port the port is in use within the container only and not across the entire physical machine.  

[blitze]

4 hours ago, =11=Herne said:

Pure guess on my part, but I think the missions are generated server side, which is why you need to be online. Assuming this is correct, one possible advantage I can see is that its easier for the devs to monitor and adjust mission generation parameters without needing us all to download hotfixes.

 

Like I said, its a guess, I could be barking up the wrong tree, but never the less, the game has been designed this way for a reason.

 

If internet access is really a problem then PWCG is really very good. A little alt tabbing is required to generate missions for your campaign, but it's really good fun.

This is the main reason.

 

Career mission parameters are generated server side not locally.  This allows the Devs to tune the Career, introduce new elements and give us a semi dynamic experience without the pain of locally stored Career Database infrastructure which would then have to be patched on many machines.  Also helps with stat tracking (god help mine LOL).

 

If you fly a mission and screw it up and decide to re fly it, you might notice that some things are not the same, like flight elements you encounter.

 

Noticed some nice stuff in career recently and more elements in the air and on the ground.  AA is also not such a cake walk too.

[unreasonable]

That begs the question why mission parameters are generated server side. They do not need to be; and the idea that this somehow saves on updating is odd; we get constant regular updates including all sorts of things, no technical reason why mission changes have to be dealt with in a different manner. If PatW can get his mission generator into our PCs to be played offline so can the team. I have plenty of games that manage to store data perfectly well without having to go online.

 

When the Career first appeared in RoF it too was online only, and the reason given then was that there was a stats page showing how people had performed in their careers - league tables for each squadron showing everyone's results, which obviously needed player data. This feature is absent from BoX, so that explanation will not fly.

 

The simple explanation - the only one that makes any sense to me - is that it is a form of DRM.  As is usual, this inconveniences the honest customers, but whether it actually increases sales I have no idea.  I can live with it, although it has occasionally caused problems when a dropped connection has caused a mission results to be lost.   

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I wonder if hosting the campaign related elements client side would boost the reliability of the campaigns so that we don't see those missions that refuse to finish.

[Feathered_IV]

14 hours ago, blitze said:

This is the main reason.

 

Career mission parameters are generated server side not locally.  This allows the Devs to tune the Career, introduce new elements and give us a semi dynamic experience without the pain of locally stored Career Database infrastructure which would then have to be patched on many machines.  Also helps with stat tracking (god help mine LOL).

 

If you fly a mission and screw it up and decide to re fly it, you might notice that some things are not the same, like flight elements you encounter.

 

Noticed some nice stuff in career recently and more elements in the air and on the ground.  AA is also not such a cake walk too.

 

The .group files stored on the player's computer sometimes have a random variable in regards to how objects and entities spawn.  It doesn't have anything to do with external influences.  There have never been any changes to the career content outside of downloaded updates.

 

[blitze]

But, aren't the missions themselves generated Server Side?

2 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

 

The .group files stored on the player's computer sometimes have a random variable in regards to how objects and entities spawn.  It doesn't have anything to do with external influences.  There have never been any changes to the career content outside of downloaded updates.

 

 

[=WoVi=cercataa]

On 3/20/2019 at 2:59 PM, PatrickAWlson said:

Guessing here - but my guess is that they store career instance data (your pilot, where he is at, career stats, squadron stats, lots of other stuff) in a database.  Standing up a database on every users HD is a pain, so better ti write some net code that talks to a server and let the server store the data.

 

That's easy to do with SQLite ...

[Feathered_IV]

34 minutes ago, blitze said:

But, aren't the missions themselves generated Server Side?

 

 

The resources that create the content of the missions are stored in the encrypted .gtp files on your hard drive.  You can verify this by altering some of the files and activating them in mods-on mode.  It is most likely that your mission progress is recorded server side.  However the things which make each mission are already there on your computer.

[seafireliv]

On 3/20/2019 at 5:50 PM, LukeFF said:

 

No, you got your answer, which you didn't like. That's on you and not so-called "angry forumers." 

Whether I like it or not is besides the point. It was rude, just like the aggressively rude way you`re being here. You are simply proving my point to others.

[PatrickAWlson]

1 hour ago, =SFF=_cercataa said:

 

That's easy to do with SQLite ...

 

It's easy but potentially risky across a large user base.  You just don't know what that user has installed that could conflict.  By phoning home to a well known location they can eliminate guarantee no conflict. 

 

It will also help them with metrics.  It has been said many times that multiplayer is a vocal minority while single player is a mostly silent majority.  By comparing campaign stats with MP stats they get a better idea of who is using what aspect of the code.  

[=WoVi=cercataa]

On 3/22/2019 at 1:00 PM, PatrickAWlson said:

It's easy but potentially risky across a large user base.  You just don't know what that user has installed that could conflict.  By phoning home to a well known location they can eliminate guarantee no conflict. 

 

Yo eliminate a source of conflict, for adding a much bigger source of conflics ...

 

 

On 3/22/2019 at 1:00 PM, PatrickAWlson said:

It will also help them with metrics.  It has been said many times that multiplayer is a vocal minority while single player is a mostly silent majority.  By comparing campaign stats with MP stats they get a better idea of who is using what aspect of the code.  

 

Yo can do that, but optional, so if it fails, you can still play

Edited March 29, 2019 by =SFF=_cercataa

[Ribbon]

I think it uses internet connection only to generate mission at the start(loading screen), after that it doesn't use internet till next mission needs to be generated.

So no need for stable internet connection!

[Georgio]

I like the career missions but I wish there was an option to really rack up the enemy density.

I know you can choose 'sparse or dense' but I'm talking about a slider with 'none' at one end and 'Holy moses' at the other and let me find the right density for my rig.

Hell, maybe even have another slider that goes from 'cannon fodder' to 'psychotic kamikaze' at the other so I can set my mood...