Offline Mode

Suggestions and Contributions
21

Just curious, Haneko, but have you ever staffed/been part of a fan project? =P

----anyhow,
Formats can be changed, is what I’m saying. I wasn’t assuming it was the same format, but that the data would have to be essentially scrambled or re-interpretted, which would then take more coding to accompany. XL

one array checks for the usual data patterns, and the other array check up the players data, if they don’t match…

What kind of don’t match? =P This doesn’t stop issues like opening up the game, learning about it, and then sending the game legal but false data. “if player moves 1,000 tiles < 1 second ban them,” but there are still fairly known ways around that sort of protection, and updating the system to block that takes more effort and, again, offline will give less data for DEVs to work with in order to patch security.

You could keep patching/loopholing/adjusting these issues all day day every day, but at that point, it’d become much much more than a simple thing staff could add to keep players entertained while the game is down. This feels like it would be a very focused, longtime project, and from my own experience finishing one project takes an entire group focus (minus a few updates in which things like artists aren’t needed). So why not put that focus on keeping the server up/finishing this linux server while artists/whoever else settle out the sprites?

Offline mode in and of itself should become more outdated as time passes, also; if the staff group successfully keeps PMU up for a majority of the time, it would only serve for occasional, personal use (such as the internet going out.) Overall, it would be a decaying feature, and would maintain a minimal use. If somebody is using it for a majority of their playtime, they’re avoiding the “MMO” aspect of PMU, to which I will reiterate:

I mean offline mode would allow you to have fun by yourself, and by keeping the data of your offline save data separate from your online.

Why not just play official PMD games if the files don’t transfer? :L They are there to be portable entertainment. Not having an “pure” offline mode helps to prevent PMU from arguably taking away business from Nintendo; remember, an offline PMU would be a free, single player game skirting around Nintendo’s copyright and aiming for the same audience. PMU just has less marketing.

22

Actually yes, and unlike you guys I mostly do everything on my own. so it takes time and considerable motivation to be everybody in a one man army.

I’ll tell you straight, I have been trying to make games for over 20 years. I’m self taught, I write hundreds of game systems, some are functional even at about 10000 levels and plus without being overpowered. I have thousands of stories and maybe even a couple hundred thousand character concepts, in my apartment I kid you not half of what I actually own in there, are sheets of paper filled with ideas. I mean I have if anything loads of things I could use.

and when I post a few ideas from that pile that spans an area of about 10x12 feet littered with three foot piles of sheets of paper. what’s worst that only a tenth of what I really have stashed away at my dads and moms places. I even have handmade posters I did on whims, poetry by the truck load. I’m not a born programmer. so I couldn’t make games until I had rpg maker 2003 almost when it came out. I have a constant hyperactive hypercreative mind that spews enough ideas that I just can’t count them all even if I tried.

People hallucinate when they have their eyes open well, I simply close my eyes and I see millions of images scenes theories, ideas, inventions even. I just can’t run out of ideas. and being obsessive and compulsive on writing and art makes it worse. Each idea I posted from my piles of left overs wind up making some of the most interesting games. or novels. before they even had crystal monsters I had a thread on surreal twilight when I was still in high school, talking about a pseudo pokemon where you could fuse with your monsters, you had neo seed which could see monsters and purebreds who can’t see monster. then someone from japan read my thread which was a failed rp thread by the way and made a game that got insanely popular. a lot of the ideas from samurai warriors; chronicles, were taken from a thread were I explained to koei how to make a good game and quess what they even put it at the price I suggested of all the good things they put into it there was only 1 complaint. 1!!!, on a minor issue of some player wanting to hear the characters talk in English.

That not all guys. I’m on the verge of finding what I call the “GAME”, my big problem is I never had enough money to make my ideas into projects since I didn’t know how to code and even now I’m not that great at it. But compared to all the devs who have successfully made games, I am a total looser who can’t even afford a bar of soap. forget hiring people, buying good programs, getting a few books published or even getting a proper job.

only jobs I can get are at 20 cents an hour, no one wants to hire at minimum wage. just for my current pc I starve my self for close to a year to pay for it. People either take me for some retard or think I’m a psycho. even though I’m friendly and gentle. The world isn’t nice as most people make it out to be. and my protosphere project that’s just 1 out of 4 projects I have been currently working on and sorting out. how’s that for being patient and holding out onto a dream. a lot of people come and go So I often work alone.

and games aren’t the only thing I’m working on either, I’m trying to invent a better way for data management across a very secure network and I have to make new kind of processors that currently aren’t on the market. Imagine a network that gets better the more peers get online, the processing explodes into action, temp storage with more terabytes than you can count, Imagine a network so powerful it could even transmit people to different places. But with my luck I’ll only have theories on paper and some dolt in fifty years finds my notes and makes it happen. and yeah call me crazy, but I’m not “that” crazy. and something to do with a new kind of Vram, new kind of processing unit. and the key to that technology is using the properties of worm holes and quantum waves…

oops…looks like I shut just shut up now. but yeah I guess you guys are going to ban me at any minute for going off topic. this is just me in a nutshell. I am a mass of hypercreativity with the least amount of successes. actually I have no successes…

23

Why not make a version of PMU that isn’t connected to the server in anyway at all, or on a slighlty different engine? Stupid idea, but eh. To much text :P

In all honesty, the offline version wouldn’t nessarsly make it possible to hack on the online version as long as things are debugged and all possible exploits are looked after. Right? I think…

24

yeah that would work…just the some people don’t like offline modes.

25

so…? some people don’t like online games, should we not do pmu anymore then too?

26

you’re taking it out of context. no pmu shouldn’t be stopped either, but an offline mode would keep people interested and busy. AND attract possible new players to this game. That’s a given.

Keeping people don’t want cheaters online, with an offline character exploit, the solution can also be even simpler. The online client wont read the data from your pc for your character from your account, it looks at the server’s data, therefore you can’t swap them. offline save data would be stored on your computer, which would mean that you could do anything unto that file, the server won’t care cause its not your online data to begin with. and since you can’t access you online data without going online via the server the offline mode would just help maintain the interest of the players offer a sneak peak at pmu without the online stuff.

Guilds and social elements aren’t really needed for an offline mode. in fact it wouldn’t take as much data to make, wouldn’t lag for your pc since you are pretty much alone. People get to play pmu while the devs are fixing their projects in peace. Its a win-win situation.

27

Again, why not just support the official games, instead of dividing staff attention on an offline mode? You could get system updates instead of something to wait with while the server is offline (which technically is already available via official games). And even get the server online faster. x-x

You could avoid becoming iffy with Nintendo and co. as well. Creating a free, single-player game from their copyrighted and distributed products could theoretically make people go “why would I buy PMD when I can play offline PMU for free?” The only thing keeping them from caring right now is lack of quality and popularity (in comparison; I’m not calling PMU crap haha). Otherwise, you could start digging into their profits, which is why several pokemon MMO games got cease and desist letters a few years ago.

@Haneko- I asked because you seemed informed about it and I was curious. It’s nice to see somebody else who seriously considers game concepts/designs and is so passionate about it. For myself, I have hundreds of notebooks filled with decent sketches and ideas as well; two to three visual books have been made about one idea in particular. I have completed over 67 songs, and have 47 unfinished musical ideas. I worked with a fairly populated fangame for at least 4 years, with it having thousands of players active at once. However, unlike you, I can barely even script. XD I’ve picked up what I know about servers and exploits from my time working on the other projects, but I can’t say I’m completely ignorant. I’m well versed with basic and general information, just not the technicalities. =P I’ve focused more on musical composition and problem solving/spacial design.

28

Anyways we could argue for ever and there would be no end to it. Some people want an offline mode to pass the time, its not that hard, just that there won’t be much to it until the servers get back on.

wow apparently I was breaking the rules with this post so… sorry…

I wasn’t doing publicity for another game but oh well. rules are rules. sorry but I was relating a past game experience to explain my point about going out of touch with a game that I had used to play. I dont’ play it anymore, due to a lack of interest and complete loss of what you’d call the buyer’s rush.

for those who do not understand the buyer’s rush, it’s when you just bought something and have the urge to play it, while that urge is there, you feel like its the coolest game in the world. but once you loose contact with the game(Ie when I was out of contact with a pay to play game for three months), the player receives complete confusion as to what to do, who’s character is that and why in the world is he /she still playing this game. why might you ask? because the magic’s over, the game wasn’t fun no more. at this point your favorite game becomes boring.

its a normal phenomenon with most games where you can actually buy things with real money.

29

Remember one thing, the server is currently moving onto a different one. There will be no such thing as an Offline version. Even if there is, there are still the holes that can be breached. You also have to remember another thing. The difference between PMU and NIntendo is online and offline. Online means that it’s multiplayer. Offline means that it is Nintendo. An Offline version of PMU, like what Zebras said, would be taking their profit.

30

Tbh, I don’t think that they would make something like this even if it were possible. You’d have a choice between a very laggy multiplayer game or a lag-free single player game. A lot of people have things such as Skype or Chatango, so they could still chat with their friends, and a lot of people would pick your ‘offline mode’ over the real game.

31

wrong Nintendo has online too… so that isn’t an issue.

32

I meant a Pokemon Game, not one of those on the website. I mean ones where there are trainers that command Pokemon how to attack and ones where you control the Pokemon and attack others.

33

even so, the offline mode would stay at an update so that the player would have to play online at some point to see the changes since then. its just like offline mode being used for pmu 2 years ago. im sure a lot has changed, which it has. just like before xbox live started forcing you to get updates, you could play what you want until you got the update, then tried out the new stuff. with certain games, when DLC (DownLoadable Content) comes out, you cant enjoy the features that are associated with it until you get that piece of DLC

34

even so, the offline mode would stay at an update so that the player would have to play online at some point to see the changes since then. its just like offline mode being used for pmu 2 years ago. im sure a lot has changed, which it has. just like before xbox live started forcing you to get updates, you could play what you want until you got the update, then tried out the new stuff. with certain games, when DLC (DownLoadable Content) comes out, you cant enjoy the features that are associated with it until you get that piece of DLC[/quote]

Nintendo is a company that makes money selling Single-Player games with the occasional Wi-Fi battle or Local Connection Gameplay. PMU is made by a group of people that lets Pokemon fans play together on an online multiplayer server where players can cooperate in dungeons and hangout. If Nintendo wanted to, they could have already had made a Multi-Player version of one of their Pokemon games online all the way back to 1995 if they really wanted to, but they didn’t. Which is why I believe, PMU has stood here without being hit by Nintendo or by the Law.

Creating an offline version of PMU would most likely be illegal since we would be stealing Nintendo’s business which will almost definetely get the staff team sued.

35

even so, the offline mode would stay at an update so that the player would have to play online at some point to see the changes since then. its just like offline mode being used for pmu 2 years ago. im sure a lot has changed, which it has. just like before xbox live started forcing you to get updates, you could play what you want until you got the update, then tried out the new stuff. with certain games, when DLC (DownLoadable Content) comes out, you cant enjoy the features that are associated with it until you get that piece of DLC[/quote]

Nintendo is a company that makes money selling Single-Player games with the occasional Wi-Fi battle or Local Connection Gameplay. PMU is made by a group of people that lets Pokemon fans play together on an online multiplayer server where players can cooperate in dungeons and hangout. If Nintendo wanted to, they could have already had made a Multi-Player version of one of their Pokemon games online all the way back to 1995 if they really wanted to, but they didn’t. Which is why I believe, PMU has stood here without being hit by Nintendo or by the Law.

Creating an offline version of PMU would most likely be illegal since we would be stealing Nintendo’s business which will almost definetely get the staff team sued.[/quote]

We are not making profit on it though. Think of it as a Rom Hack, they don’t make profit nether do we. It’s illegal, if we are using it as a way to raise money for one’s selve or group without permission from Nintendo.

36

Piracy is illegal for the same reason they would be ticked if this become hugely popular and offline. It diverts funds from their official games. After all, why would people pay for the real thing when they could have just as much fun on a free version? Piracy sites can be non-profit as well, but that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt Nintendo’s profits.

Overall, it was a very minor point in a sea of more major points I presented, but it is a thing nonetheless.

37

even so, the offline mode would stay at an update so that the player would have to play online at some point to see the changes since then. its just like offline mode being used for pmu 2 years ago. im sure a lot has changed, which it has. just like before xbox live started forcing you to get updates, you could play what you want until you got the update, then tried out the new stuff. with certain games, when DLC (DownLoadable Content) comes out, you cant enjoy the features that are associated with it until you get that piece of DLC[/quote]

Nintendo is a company that makes money selling Single-Player games with the occasional Wi-Fi battle or Local Connection Gameplay. PMU is made by a group of people that lets Pokemon fans play together on an online multiplayer server where players can cooperate in dungeons and hangout. If Nintendo wanted to, they could have already had made a Multi-Player version of one of their Pokemon games online all the way back to 1995 if they really wanted to, but they didn’t. Which is why I believe, PMU has stood here without being hit by Nintendo or by the Law.

Creating an offline version of PMU would most likely be illegal since we would be stealing Nintendo’s business which will almost definetely get the staff team sued.[/quote]
That isn’t the reason at all. Think how many Pokemon fan games there are out there, the reason Nintendo’s done nothing is because there’s so many of them that they haven’t heard of all of them, and don’t even care about most of them because they’re of much lower quality than the real thing. Look at PMU for instance, the most we’ve had online at once was something like 151, I think? Then compare that to the millions of customers for the real Pokemon games. Even if this sort of game was offline, it still wouldn’t make a dent in Nintendo’s profit and it would be a waste of time shutting it down.

38

lets get this straight, any version of pokemon not run by nintendo or gamefreak or whoever owns pokemon is illegal. so pmu, offline or online is not some legal existence. we’re sapping off another companies game without their say so. the reason nothing is happening to any of these many online or even offline spin-offs is because yes, as drakos says, these kinds of projects gain minimal attention by a fan base, but also because they are free. they’re non-profit games. and since the point of companies is to make money, as long as we aren’t taking any of it all these spin-off projects on pokemon are basically free advertising.

So no the offline version is no worse off than the online.

39

I actually brought it up because In 2011 at least 3-4 fanmade, nonprofit pokemon MMOs were shut down by Nintendo. Some didn’t have that huge of a fanbase either. It is a real thing. And being non-profit, while it helps to appease companies , does not make a game immune to shutdown.

The only thing that makes a game immune is when the company doesn’t know about it, but at the same time…don’t you want PMU to grow? To have several people online at once? :/ To have features that are in PMD? Its a dilemma for certain- the better this game is, the more it will grow and be noticed.

All an offline mode does in the long run is give a company more ammo to fire with. That directly clashes with (what I’m assuming is) PMU’s long-term goal of improving itself and becoming more popular. It might not matter quite as much now, but don’t think of what you want now. It’s a bad habit no matter what you’re applying it to. In this case, the “want now” could give Nintendo a pretty good feature to claim their profits were damaged, if PMU ever does become what you want it to be.

Now add that on top of scattered staff focus and/or security issues/overall pointlessness, etc.

But, again, this is a very minor reason out of the rest I brought up. If you’re thinking I’m saying “THIS IS THE ONLY REASON WE SHOULDN’T HAVE OFFLINE MODE” then quite frankly you’re either blind or too lazy to read.

[You shouldn’t be debating this without knowing the other points that were discussed anyway, otherwise you’ll look like a broken record at best (repeating points already brought up) or ignorant at worst (repeating a point that was already disproven] :@~@: .

[hr][/hr]

40

Majority of people would generally prefer to be with their “friends” online, as playing a MMO alone doesn’t seem to be MMO like. I’d have been totally fine with this but I wouldn’t see how any progress made offline would be transferred online, if some kid got a Pokemon she wanted but logged off and went back online and it wasn’t there due to the server not saving things that were offline in the first place, but I guess it could be like just freeplay?

I disagree with this suggestion.