Will there ever be an option to transfer Online Characters to Offline? I just get lots of lag and made a new character offline. The gameplay was so much better. But now I have a lvl 53 Druid just sitting in Online and would love to transfer it Offline.
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Not any time soon, no. Can’t remember whether the devs have actually come out and given a definitive answer though).
I have seen dozens of folks in the same boat - online mode is terrible compared to offline.
Given the vast differences in gameplay, this is something the Devs should seriously consider prior to leaving Beta, otherwise mark my words - this is something that folks are going to flame LE for.
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Like all the other live service aRPGs get flamed for? The only aRPG that let you move characters from closed servers to your own pc was Sacred 2 & that was released over 15 years ago. I’m not saying that it’d be a good/nice thing to have, just the “warning” is a bit hyperbolic. LE has many other things that people complain about, this is not one of them.
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Grim Dawn let’s your freely swap from online to offline. You could even modify game files and spawn infinite items offline then bring them and trade online (with online players specifically avoiding that stuff).
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Grim Dawn isn’t a live service game, though. There are no leaderboards, no season races, etc.
GD’s multiplayer is peer to peer, that’s fundamentally different and why Crate can’t control or prevent cheating. They are not even slightly comparable.
That said, I don’t personally have an issue with downloading one’s saves.
The save structures and systems for offline and online are completely different and so isn’t as simple as downloading a copy, it would need to read, translate, and re-write the data into the offline methods in order to work. This of course isn’t to say it’s an impossible task, but it would require a decent chunk of dedicated time to design and develop a system for it.
This isn’t something we’ve really discussed to my knowledge, so we don’t have a current stance on it. Like most anything - If there was enough demand for such a feature, it’s possible, but this of course competes with spending time on other features and content: so the demand would need to be high enough to warrant say, not adding a new crafting mechanic instead. But it certainly wouldn’t happen for 1.0 as we’ve already passed our content cutoff, so if the demand were to arise it wouldn’t be until some point after 1.0.
I also think it’s worth mentioning that this solves a problem in a way we’d rather not solve it. We’d rather have multiplayer reach a state where there’s no desire to transfer offline, than to implement a solution for people to go to offline - which we are very much hard at work on.
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I’m very glad to hear this in the response. Wanting to transition a character to offline should only be considered if you’re moving to an area without Internet or other external factors require you to play offline.
I certainly think the feature is still something that would be beneficial to those select players but I’d much rather see the fix for the problem rather than the symptoms first.
I do see your point, but frankly, i disagree.
Playing online or offline should IMO not be a question of “do the devs like or dislike offline-play” but merely and solely a question of "how do i (as a player and backer/buyer of LE) would like to enjoy my game! No more, no less.
And honestly: online-performance has massively decreased in the last weeks, whereas offline-availability for older chars/bulids STILL (since more tham one year) does not work…
I still do like LE a lot and will always give it a boost towards D4 or PoE2 - but i do not like the way, devs are focussing on purely on online-play - at least not with a massively lagging conection (and i DO have fibre-wire here…).
SO. i do wish for vast improvements on online-stability as well al a reasonable focus on offline-play, which should be (and feels like) the same (excluding shopping/marketplace-features) as the online-variant.
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I disagree with this. Many games have adopted the online-only model. D3, D4, PoE, Lost Ark, etc. These games simply don’t let you play while offline. It’s not something that a player is entitled to, it’s something the devs give to the players.
The online-only model began mostly to combat piracy. If you have to connect to their servers, you can’t simply hack the game like an offline one. There are ways around it (some create servers for their hacks, though sometimes these aren’t entirely stable and are sometimes dropped out of the blue, like the first vermintide), but for the most part, it’s an effective way to make sure people that are playing your game actually paid for it.
So in an age where the majority (not all, but most) of players have an internet connection, having offline mode is no longer a requirement. It’s a decision devs can make and it will be weighted against other factors.
This does not invalidate the fact that, if you offer an online service you should make sure that the performance is good (which I know the devs are working on because they said so a few times already) and if you offer an offline mode, that mode should be up to date and working properly.
I expect that this will happen for 1.0. Performance improvements (possibly with a few patches in the first couple weeks as they properly assess how many players will be using the servers and the impact it has) and an updated offline client.
With less than 2 months to release, I don’t expect those things to happen before that, though.
Well, please don’t make it up-to-date. 
Because, as I tried to explain in another thread already, offline is at the moment noticeably better than online, thanks to not getting the updates (and I am still not talking about servers, just practical differences).
Joke apart, while I do play offline right now because of many small differences making this mode far more pleasant, I completely support Kain’s point of view: the target should be to bring online mode to the same quality level as offline, not push people even more towards offline.
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Well, from what I understand, there are a few things that were fixed online and not offline. But from what I understand, there were also a few things that were broken online and not offline. So it’s a fair statement 
Ideally, you want players to not notice the difference between the 2 (other than online interaction like parties, trade, chat, etc). And some would play offline because they have poor connections, or maybe because of social anxieties, or any number of valid reasons. And others would play online for whatever reasons as well. And the gameplay in both should be the same.
We know this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes there are network issues on the player side, sometimes there are issues in between or on the game servers, sometimes you might get a lag spike, etc. But ideally these would all be minimized so they aren’t usually noticeable.
As for the topic itself, I guess some way to transfer would be nice but it would be far from a priority. I think many games with online/offline versions don’t transfer them and everyone is fine with it. I have personally played D2 both offline and online and I never really felt the need for something like this.
So I think it’s fine if LE doesn’t have this option and it would a nice QoL for some people if LE has it. Possibly down the line when there’s less priority stuff to do.
Completely agree.
I played Wolcen and Van Helsing with both online and offline characters, and never saw the tiniest difference.
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Not quite sure what you man by that?
They aren’t. They’re going to do a (proper) offline version as well (not sure if that’s going to be with 1.0 or afterwards.
Which is what the devs also want.
It is for those people without an internet connection or without a stable/fast one…
And so many things that had been fixed for years that were broken in/by mp.
I know. I just meant that most players are now expected to have a decent internet connection, so these days it’s more of a choice by the developer if they want an online-only game. Sure, if they decide for online-only, they might lose some playerbase, but there are also benefits to this, so it’s up to the devs.
When D4 launched lots of players were crying out for an offline mode but Blizzard made the choice not to have that. It also happened with D3 and with other games. What I meant by no longer being a requirement is that devs these days can choose to go online-only as a valid choice, whereas 20 years ago it was mandatory because most players didn’t have a good connection (or one at all).
I know, it’s exactly what I said in the next line.
Thanks for clarification, Llama8.
Concerning my post “offline-availability for older chars/bulids STILL (since more tham one year) does not work”: i do still have three offline-chars from earlier game-versions (two at levels around 65-70,) which i can’t use, no matter what i do.
Reported this multiple times, still no fix tho. Online-play or creating new offline-chars works smart (well, despite the actual lagging), so i guess, something somewhere screwed up.
It’s okay if you don’t share my opinion - as i do not share your’s.
You are right - most people do have a stable internet connection nowadays (as do i) - but that doesn’t at all mean, everybody WANTS to play online. And concerning copy protcetion: as LE is sold via steam, that problem should be farily solved.
But i can agree on your point and on that of @Houlala that, when you offer an offline-mode, it should be the same quality as the online-game in concerns of stability, playability and functionality.
Which brings me to the conculsion that, as long as people speak (or, in this case, write) with each other, thing do often evolve to a good end. So: looking forward to the “final” LE on february 21st.
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Steam offers exactly zero copy protection. I can just copy my BG3 game files, put them on a USB stick and give it to a friend and they can play with 0 issues. Not only that, but any offline game, even sold on steam, will simply have it’s game files cracked, along with a steam dll crack and can be played at will. The only method that has had any success (so far) is requiring an online connection to the game servers.
Of course not. Like I said, lots of D4 players were begging for an offline client. However, Blizzard adamantly refused that option and opted for an online-only version. Sure, they’ll lose some players that way, but it’s offset by other advantages to them. And other games do the same.
I’m just saying that a game doesn’t HAVE to have an offline client anymore. It’s up to the devs to balance both options and go with the one they feel have most benefits to them.
Though that was a purely philosophical point, since LE does provide an offline client.
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Hm, okay - didn’t know that, to be honest, thks for this update!
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