Nightingale is off to a good start. The horror-tinged, multiplayer survival and crafting game entered early access this week on Steam, and so far has peaked at over 32,000 players. However, like many online games, it’s had a rough first week. One of the most common complaints from users (among the usual early access fare like the lack of some quality-of-life features), according to Steam forums, is the “always online” requirement, which requires even solo players to join a server.
The developers at Inflexion Games have noticed though, and are working on some changes. In a blog posted on the Nightingale website on Thursday, the team announced that it would be focusing on implementing an offline mode sooner than expected.
“We are now prioritizing and developing an offline mode that we plan to release as soon as feasible,” the announcement read. In an update to the post and on the official Discord, it was reiterated that the change in direction doesn’t mean other updates would be ignored. “The offline mode development does not mean we’re stopping or de-prioritizing regular feature development, updates, QoL updates, and bug fixes,” community manager Steph H wrote on Discord.
The post explains the original reasoning behind making Nightingale online only. Essentially, the developers envisioned a game that was a series of interconnected Realms — i.e., the different instances where players can explore in the game — that users could share with others. So you can share a Realm with a friend in your party, and they can explore it on their own without needing you there to host it. There are also cards that allow you to apply effects to certain Realms, so their being separate has some in-game uses, too. Overall, it’s a unique way to do an open-world survival game.
It also meant that the team had to focus on either implementing their version of co-op or working on offline mode for the early access release.
“Co-operative gameplay associated with having party members across multiple Realms was the more technically challenging problem and therefore the one we chose to tackle first,” the post says. Considering the feedback, though, the developers say they “misjudged what some of you were looking for in your experience.”
It’s unclear on the timeline for this feature addition, but it’ll be a welcome one. Not only have solo players been experiencing server and networking errors that seem unnecessary, but also there are bad optics with a game being online only since not everybody has stable internet with high speeds.
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- Source: https://www.polygon.com/24081047/nightingale-inflexion-offline-mode
