is it an online onlygame?

[HeavenlyHost]

title or can it be played offline

[Turbo.DCS]

Yes, you can play offline (solo) as well.

[MrPurple33]

Not sure if you could do the Old LAN Party way- where 2-4 Comps are physically in the same place and they're connected by Cables- I believe everyone still needs to go Online to have the Game Access through Steam (or Consoles, Blerg)

(Get Ready, because I Ramble On- this is all Learned Experiences from Me However,
and all Useful- Also, this is all on a PC with Steam- I have No Clue What Consoles will Do)

I DO KNOW there is a Slight Oddity about Playing "Offline" Solo- Which I do quite a Lot as I have a Free, but sometimes fluctuating connection- I have to First Load Up my Game Session by being Online- Once a few minutes of Loading Up have gone by, and I'm past all the regular Loading screens, Once you get past the Final "Initializing" screen where you're Looking at the Space Rig- You'll be starting as normal, in your Cabin- I then immediately run out and go to the Assignment Terminal- If it's showing the Weekly Assignment and Weekly Core Hunt Assignment with Numbers that are Counting Down, I'm Up and Connected to the Servers- If those Assignments are showing "Not Available" in Red, My Comp didn't Connect Properly, and I have to Exit Out back to Steam and try again

Once I AM Connected to the Servers, all my DRG Save Data, The Current Game Season Data, and any New, over the past day released Data is all Synced Up- I can THEN pause, bring up the Steam Screen, and Disconnect from the Internet, going Fully Offline- Why do I do this? Because if my Goofy Internet Connection fluctuates or "down-spikes" My Entire Game Lags and can even Disconnect

Now Once I have-
A) Connected/Started Up Online-
B) Confirmed the Assignments are Clocking Properly-
and C) Gone out for a moment and Disconnected from the Internet, going Offline-

Everything about DRG is now running as Normal and Smoothly- the Assignments are still Clocking, I can Play as Normal, and can spend Hours doing all I want- Any Progress I make, Items, Cosmetics, or Assignments I Unlock or Buy, ANYTHING- It will all be Recorded in my DRG Game Files and be there Once my Files get "Game Synced" at the DRG Page on Steam-

I usually Re-Connect before Exiting Out, just to be Paranoid and Sure, But you don't have to even do that- You can just "Exit to Desktop" Offline and the Game Files will "remember" all your Progress- in over 4 Years of Playing I've only ONCE Lost Data Progress- Also if your Game Crashes Offline, which can sometimes happen, you probably WILL Lose that Data from the Mission you were on, but Any Data Registered before that will be Saved- If you Finish a Mission or a Series of Missions, Once you've Seen the "Completed" or even "Failed" Banner and Mission Debrief Info- Your Game will be Saved all the Way at that Point- Likewise if you're Done with your Last Mission for the Day, but do some final wandering around the Space Rig, Upgrading Weapons, Putting a New OC on a Weapon, Changing your Wardrobe or Pickaxe, Exchanging at the Mineral Terminal- Then Exit Out, even Fully Offline, everything will be Saved and will Be There when you next Sync Up and Load In

I only have a Few Limitations-

1- I can only play Solo, no Teams at all, not even just 2 Players- I still get Bosco though
2- If I complete the Season Assignments, the 21 Hour Countdown for a new one to Pop Up will be delayed chronologically- If I play for 2 more Hours it will be 2 Hours Behind
3- This "appears" to also happen with the 2 Weekly Assignments if I complete those as well- The Weeklies though are "Locked In" Time and Day Wise though, so they will reset as normal at the Proper Time and Day next Week
4- Occasionally some Achievements Won't Trigger and Unlock- The Big Ones that are affected by this is the First Promotions to Bronze, Silver, and Gold, and the "Team" Achievements of having All 4 Dwarves getting Bronze, Silver, and Gold- You WILL get the Promotion and all Benefits, BUT you're Offline so the Steam Achievements don't Register it- I found this out when both my Driller's Silver Promotion wasn't Registered and it also didn't Register what was my 4 Team Achievement- You're not screwed though, there is just now a Long Delay as you have to make sure you're Online when you get the SECOND Silver Promotion- as Long as the Steam System Registers ANY Promotion, it counts it

To Finagle around this, what you do is
-You do the A) B) C) Load Up the Game-
-Play Offline-
-Once you Complete the Promotion Assignment, you go to the Memorial Hall, Stand in Front of the Promotional Terminal, But DO NOT PROMOTE-
-Back out, and Reconnect Online-
-NOW you Promote, and Steam Registers it-

You Can now Exit Out Safely, or go back Offline and do some more Missions- You just have to be Connected and Online at the Moment you're Promoting to Register it

5- Some Additional Steam Achievements might not Unlock either, Like 10 Bittergems, played 20 Hazards, etc- But any In Game Perk Achievements, Played 5 Times on Fungus Bogs, Played Haz 4 Twice, Completed a Deep Dive, etc- Those will all Unlock as Normal

In General, You WANT to be Online as much as possible- But I've been able to do Long Stretches of Playing Offline, and just making sure to be Online for a minute to make sure I get an Achievement- However, this can be Quite Hard if the Achievement happens while you're In Game on a Mission- I've mostly been able to just Pause, Right Before I'm about to enter the Drop Pod to End a Mission, Go Online, THEN enter the Pod and Let the Mission End all the way to the Completed and Mission Stat Screen- But sometimes the Game still won't Register an Achievement- and also sometimes you're on your Final Life In Mission, Grunts are Biting You, and you only have 20 Seconds Left- In that case Pausing and Reconnecting can get you Killed and a Mission Fail- better to Get the Win and Retry for the Achievement next time





So Yeah, Sorry for ALL that Info, but I'm
Pre-Answering Questions and Concerns you might have

In Summary-

-YES, you can Play Offline Solo
-You have to the A) B) C) Online Log In Check First
-Then you can Disconnect and Play Offline
-Once You Quit and Exit Out, All Your Progress will still be Saved
-You can just Exit Offline, but I try do a Reconnect THEN Exit, just to be sure
that everything Syncs Right with Steam

-Some Steam Achievements May have trouble Registering
-Make Sure you go Back Online before ANY Promotions


Hope this is Useful to You and Covers Most of your Probable Issues and Questions
Rock and Stone