I suggest the following:
Self-contained offline install-and-play package,
with offline/LAN only "play offline" button without any login requirements.
Reasons: totally offline install and play (no faforever.com login requirement, offline DVD FAF install and manual update assumed)
So FAF developers should spent time to allow other people to avoid FAF?
"Nerds have a really complicated relationship with change: Change is awesome when WE'RE the ones doing it. As soon as change is coming from outside of us it becomes untrustworthy and it threatens what we think of is the familiar."
ā Benno Rice
*** update - apparently this is fixed and LAN is fully supported by FAF allowing people to all connect from behind a router such as at a home or LAN cafe -- I have not tested this but those on this thread say so ***
Support for LAN play is important!!!
I hosted family and friends for a FAF LAN party. Foolishly I thought we could all play together. No, it was a nightmare of apologies and delays. Everyone bought the game and had FAF. But, FAF does NOT support LAN play without extraodrinary hoops which are hard to follow. I was able to get a subset of people to play, some VPNed to come back into the game remotely. It frustrates me just thinking about it.
That said, I'm okay with having a faforever login requirement. For me, I just want LAN support.
What do you mean by LAN support? It is easy to have private games with password protection that only your friends can see. The entire multiplayer FAF experience is built around using the FAF servers which aren't accessible over LAN.
LAN would be something that is supported by the game code itself which the networking we do not have great access to and is a pain to work with.
All that being said it still should be trivial for FAF players to host private local games with their friends as is.
Game itself supports multiplayer, if you want to have current patch of faf just run exe file in gamedata.
My github repo with UI Mods
So, you had a LAN party in the days of wifi and broadband and didn't think to connect to the internet to play faf?
*** update - apparently this is fixed and LAN is fully supported by FAF allowing people to all connect from behind a router such as at a home or LAN cafe -- I have not tested this but those on this thread say so ***
@veteranashe Answering questions relative to me (Defiant as opposed to Goofyseeker311 who originally posted this thread).
FAF does not support computers on a Local Area Network connected through a single IP router.. such as at someone's house. This is why my LAN party failed. We were online and all had unique licensed copies of the game.
@mr-skill-issue Answering questions relative to me (Defiant as opposed to Goofyseeker311 who originally posted this thread).
Yes, I figured this out. Problem being getting everyone on the same configuration, considering a couple people had mods, didn't have the maps, etc.
@defiant said in Suggestion: Offline LAN-support install package:
FAF does not support computers on a Local Area Network connected through a single IP router.. such as at someone's house. This is why my LAN party failed. We were online and all had unique licensed copies of the game.
Do you mean NAT router? This has worked for me in the past without problems. I have played FAF on LAN parties with other people behind NAT just fine. I remember it started working after ICE adapter was added, it didn't work before.
*** update - apparently this is fixed and LAN is fully supported by FAF allowing people to all connect from behind a router such as at a home or LAN cafe -- I have not tested this but those on this thread say so ***
@katharsas I haven't tried for a couple years, so maybe it is working. When I did try, only TWO people could play on LAN, after that the next person was unable to join. If I recall correctly, they couldn't join XMPP chat in FAF.
That's mostly because we never used XMPP for chat but always IRC 
"Nerds have a really complicated relationship with change: Change is awesome when WE'RE the ones doing it. As soon as change is coming from outside of us it becomes untrustworthy and it threatens what we think of is the familiar."
ā Benno Rice
@Defiant
Im pretty sure that it works now with default ICE adapter, if you have internet of any kind, no idea if chat worked but chat did not matter for us.
It's not really helpful to state your bad experience with LAN that was several years ago like it is a current problem. There has been a lot of development in the meantime and although things like this
FAF does not support computers on a Local Area Network connected through a single IP router.
was true when you tried it several years ago, saying it now without that context is basically misinformation.
Now we have a confusing discussion for everyone that thinks about hosting a LAN Party.
I can understand your frustration about your bad experience, but please keep this in mind for the future.
@blackyps Fair, I've updated my posts on this threat noting LAN support fully works -- though I haven't tested it myself.
I hope we aren't setting up someone for failure. If you aren't confident, then we should NOT do this.
@brutus5000 Oh my mistake. The log clearly said "XMPP", maybe I was confused somehow.