I read in reviews content in the game is tied to online. So the game can't be played offline and GOG doesn't care?

So GOG no longer sells exclusively DRM Free games?

What's next?

The game can be played offline, multiplayer is optional

As mentioned, you only need to be online to play multiplayer.

I only ever launch Galaxy to update the program.

After that, I always play offline.

Multi-player requires connection to other players. Who would have guessed?

I know. Shocking.

No need to be smart. I was asking about a DLC mentioned in a negative review complaining it required online.

I didn't know if the DLC forced online or not...

I didn't post the review but was questioning it...

Came to the forum side after reading the Online mention as well. It was not clear if it was a forced login or anything else at all about what it meant.

Is the game able to be downloaded via the browser to get an offline installer or is it Galaxy required?

Just login to your GOG acct with your browser and DL the offline installers. I don't even have Galaxy on my machine.

Galaxy is not required to download the installers and play. So, yes, you can use a browser to download those installers. (I always and only use those offline installers).

Also, you can play completely offline.

I mostly do both those things.

***

HOWEVER (caveats):

Occasionally, Hello Games (the devs) release free "themed" updates (that one might call DLC but they aren't really - they become part of the base game - not a standalone DLC that you can choose to have or not).

Those updates are called "Expeditions". (Currently, Expedition 7 "Leviathan" is running for about 4-more weeks).

Expeditions can be played single-player, and can be played offline. BUT: You MUST use Galaxy to start the Expedition.

Once you start an Expedition, you can then save and quit, go offline, and play the Expedition offline (even without using Galaxy).

So... the themed Expeditions do require at least a one-time GOG Galaxy connection to start it.

Note that there is tons to do even if you don't play the Expeditions (if you're new - you'll be sorely tempted to start the current Expedition instead of a "regular" game, if one is current when you begin playing - but the Expeditions are very hard for new players. It really helps to have gained experience in the "regular game" before starting an Expedition. JMO on that aspect).

Expeditions are both free and time-limited. Occasionally, they "re-run" past Expeditions, so, over time, you won't miss out - but near-term you might.

That's how it works - up to you whether you can get into that or not.

Thanks folks. I'll consider getting the game then. That one off online thing, is rather bothersome though. I mean, it sounds interesting, but really a bad way to go when people like to play single offline games.

If it were a multiplayer thing, I would understand. But the part about it being single offline that requires an online start, is really not ok.

I hope they eventually add in the content to not require that.


Thanks all the same again for the information.

What do you mean by an 'online start'?

I can disconnect my router and the game still works. Single player doesn't need online.

I've been shocked to see people who think multiplayer requiring the Internet is DRM...;) As if you could have multiplayer offline...! If you had a LAN setup, you could do it, but most people don't use a LAN these days. It's remarkable when you see..."GOG lies about DRM!" and they reference the part where GOG tells you that "for the multiplayer version of the game you must go online" as proof of the DRM. Even when you try to explain it, they still don't want to understand why that isn't DRM.

Almost as hard as explaining that Galaxy isn't required to run your Gog games--that they can all be run from the game's exe, bypassing Galaxy altogether. I use Galaxy to download my games and to update them, but I run them all from their own exe sans Galaxy. It's amusing how people will sometimes resist the facts because someone else has told them differently...

I don't own the game on GOG yet, only on steam - so I can't test this on the GOG version.
However, the reason you need to connect to the internet (once) for the expedition is to download the expedition configuration data - called "SEASON_DATA_CACHE.JSON".

You can download this file elsewhere and can play the expedition - even replay already passed expeditions this way - without needing to connect to the internet once.

You can find some info on these sites (not affiliated, I used these myself to replay old expeditions):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2489805375
https://chrisn1992.github.io/Expedition-Replay-NMS/

Interesting, and thanks for the technical info!

I've verified that the file exists in my GOG in install at:

C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\HelloGames\NMS\DefaultUser\cache\SEASON_DATA_CACHE.JSON

I haven't tested it in any way; but it probably works. Since I've played the Expeditions (several times for some of them), I personally don't have a current need to look into it - but that is very useful information to have ITT for anyone finding it in a search.

Thanks!

( +1 for your post)

(That .JSON info may also be the subject of some other thread here; but is topical here too. I've not yet needed to dig into it but it sounds familiar like maybe I've read it before).

***

BTW, as an aside, that's basically the save-game path but one more subdir under it.

Save games here: C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\HelloGames\NMS\DefaultUser\

I back up my saves frequently; and thought it could be useful to also have that info ITT, for someone doing a search.

That's all very clearly explained, agreed totally, but just one detail:
NMS has special features in multiplayer that can also be played solo like Expeditions, Quicksilver missions. If you start without Galaxy you won't be able to play these features without ressorting to complex save editing, also without Galaxy the game will not start with your account name (but that's a minor thing).
That's why I always launch Galaxy before lauching the main NMS game although I never play MP. Of course, I would never put all this in relation with DRM.