Unfortunately still happening in MULTI THREAD PREVIEW: 2.9.7.59263 & DCS Updater 2.16.2.17 on an i-9-12900, nVidia rtx3080, timezone, date & time manual, no trial modules, direct download version (not-Steam).
Short & Sweet:
Until recently, I was a very happy offline DCS customer and had been saving up money coz I was planning to upgrade my paid helo modules & buy some more helos, aircrafts, maps & campaigns. So needed to upgrade by game. Extremely disappointed to discover I now no longer have unlimited offline access to all my purchased helos, aircrafts & maps.
TL,DR:
This is a game breaking issue for me coz I'm on metered bandwidth (online usage above monthly limit costs money). And like others, my internet service is unreliable & not always available. In my case, its worse, coz when I do login online, DCS only allows me to fly for around 5 minutes before flight is abruptly ended & CTD with a 'login session has expired' message, WTF? Then when I switch off internet access, DCS shows the 3-day authentication message & takes 20 minutes to load, and when it does finally load a flight, its a slide show, double WTF? I have to end DCS in task manager and restart it to have any chance to actually enjoy a flight with my paid modules normally. 30 minutes flight time gone.
I purchased DCS modules on the basis that I would have unlimited offline access, per the DCS website, which still currently states about offline mode [quote ] 'The mode is unlimited in time, thus all network services (Manager of Modules, multiplayer, news) will be inaccessible.' [ unquote ]. The 3-day access restriction to my purchased content, introduces the unknown risk (hope, wish & prayer) that a DCS authentication server is available & operational at the time I next play.
But I guess there may be good news on the horizon. I now will have more (previously-DCS) simulation time available & I will save a lot of future money, as its pointless to purchase any additional DCS content, coz I'm not allowed to access my existing modules or new modules, at the time & in the manner, I want to access them, with unlimited offline access.
Bottom Line:
DCS has currently removed unlimited offline access for me & others to both paid & unpaid content. Furthermore, the '14-day trial before you buy' is in effect now only a 3-day trial (until your next login). And there are some wonderful paid offline campaigns, also 3-day access only (until your next login). Not ideal for your 3rd party developers, who are also potentially impacted by this issue.
I cannot even imagine the uproar by the online community, in the event of random 5-minute online flight limits, 'login session has expired', coming to a server near you ...
Not really dreams come true, so lets all hope these issues get fixed well before then, and our whole community (both online & offline) can enjoy DCS World 2025 & beyond.
In the meantime, I guess I need to research how to download & install previous versions of DCS 2.7 or 2.8 so at least I can try to access my paid modules in unlimited offline mode again. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.
