Vanguard - I don't give a fuck if it's dead, It's still brown as fuck (Download link in 1st post)

jayrebb said:

The main thing is getting a tip on where the Vanguard server is being kept,

and if there are offline copies of the DB available on other work station computers that were worked on by senior developers during the period VG was live.

If the DB was allowed to be copied to work stations to be maintained (offline) that could possibly open a lot of avenues to get the DB.

If everything was done on the server itself and online work only, then there is only one piece of hardware that has the DB. And it's kept where Matrix Online and other retired MMOs are.

The asking price for VG would be around 4.5 million I estimate since they have so many losses to recoup on that project. Without the massive red, you might be able to pick it up for 2 million if they were trying to be rid of it, which they aren't.

Click to expand...

Counter offer: let the project collect donations which go to the DB provider?

Jeff Butler, who was VP at Sigil, goes in to even more detail about Sigil, VG, and Brad. Starts around 1:42:00. Interesting stuff.

His explanation is essentially: money.

What a fucking cop-out

nu_11 said:

His explanation is essentially: money.

What a fucking cop-out

Click to expand...

He did say he tried to cobble some local server together using copies of the code he had. I doubt he'd risk an expensive lawsuit by stating he's going to leak the entire game to an emulator community on livestream.

He'd do that shit where no one could see it if he was going to do it, and it would not come back to him.

So let's make this happen. I miss that fucking game.

ismaris said:

So let's make this happen. I miss that fucking game.

Click to expand...

First, you gotta find his contact info. Cyberstalking is a game in and of itself.

Secrets said:

He did say he tried to cobble some local server together using copies of the code he had. I doubt he'd risk an expensive lawsuit by stating he's going to leak the entire game to an emulator community on livestream.

He'd do that shit where no one could see it if he was going to do it, and it would not come back to him.

Click to expand...

I forget if Jeff stayed on after the buyout. We are talking a pre-SOE build it sounds like? Or a pre- relaunch build anyway.

Either way-- even a bug-ridden 1.0 2007 build would be insanely helpful to this project. The VGemu developers need data badly.

They can do everything on their own almost, it's been the lack of data holding them back from knocking this out. Morale would go through the roof for a 2006-2007 DB and if it was open source, the better. But if he had a re-release era build with a lot of bug fixes, that'd light an even bigger fire.

Jeff was an executive, he'd likely want to be involved in some way. I don't think the interaction would be to hand over a bunch of files. He'd want something anywhere from a token involvement with the emu project, or a substantive role in the revival. Maybe I'm off on that read, and he'd just donate the files. Who's to say, but the way I see it he'd prefer to be involved some way. Anyway the trick is how that's brokered, while still protecting him.

VGemu has reached out to devs before a few years ago-- I think if this was brought to their attention they'd do so again.

jayrebb said:

I forget if Jeff stayed on after the buyout. We are talking a pre-SOE build it sounds like? Or a pre- relaunch build anyway.

Click to expand...

IIRC, he went down to SoE to work on a prototype for a new game that never got off the ground.

He's on twitter https://twitter.com/JButlerDev but idk if he answers dm's or not.

Faux

Use the best approach first. Someone from the project preferably should give their blessing or make contact on behalf of the project first. LARP or not.

After that, if he balks or there is no response, then it's kitchen sink time and Korrupt can take a whack at it.

Korrupt said:

つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Xinux TAKE OUR ENERGY ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

Click to expand...

Get that 1k ready

Well I sure am glad to see this effort rolling.

Uh, perhaps an appeal to revive a real MMO in a dark age of them?

Are people really that sheisty that they'd aggressively defend keeping their dead pile untouched and wasted? Holding out for what exactly and why? Just to be obstinate and "cuz I said so"?

I guess I've never been like that and give reasons or freely give things I no longer have a use for to those who would treasure it.

Nirgon said:

Uh, perhaps an appeal to revive a real MMO in a dark age of them?

Click to expand...

Multiple avenues and ways to approach this-- one thing I can say for absolute sure is that this is the ONLY chance this emulator has of attaining full emulation. Without this cooperation, this project will never be truly playable in the way we all love and know. This is literally "it" so-to-speak. If you guys blow this, there's no other chance to get the DB. 4 other possibilities have been crossed off over the last 5 years. This is the final boss. Just remember this boss is a guy who shipped multiple games, he views emulators as pond scum, as do all the other Sigil/DBG people on these forums. They work on real games. They have about no regard for an emulator.

Ideally it should first be handled by ranking and active VGemu devs. But I see Xinux is inactive since 2018 here and some others are not around.

Wasnt it always a right issue with unreal engine or something like that. I remember reading something like that early on in the EMu project.

jayrebb said:

Multiple avenues and ways to approach this-- one thing I can say for absolute sure is that this is the ONLY chance this emulator has of attaining full emulation. Without this cooperation, this project will never be truly playable in the way we all love and know. This is literally "it" so-to-speak. If you guys blow this, there's no other chance to get the DB. 4 other possibilities have been crossed off over the last 5 years. This is the final boss. Just remember this boss is a guy who shipped multiple games, he views emulators as pond scum, as do all the other Sigil/DBG people on these forums. They work on real games. They have about no regard for an emulator.

Ideally it should first be handled by ranking and active VGemu devs. But I see Xinux is inactive since 2018 here and some others are not around.

Click to expand...

Xinux is active on the VG emu discord. Still is hammering away at it with his cadre, posts multiple updates weekly. This “reaching out” has been discussed over there, so if folks join that discord, read up a little on previous discord convos. /Basically/, the 1-20 content is done, outside darkelf area cuz it wasn’t data collected before shutdown.

Hateyou said:

Isn’t the Unreal engine that VG used free/open source now?

Click to expand...

Only Unreal 4. Unreal Engine 2 (which Vanguard uses), and Unreal Engine 3 are still considered commercially licensed legacy engines.

If anyone is capable of a combat recreation in a way that's true to the original Vanguard, and has the brains to do it, it's the current VGemu team.

But for fidelity sake, I hope you guys get some cooperation. If you can't get cooperation on the entire DB, maybe this individual would be willing to offer specific help on spells and combat if prompted with a specific request. Even a little cooperation or collaboration would go a long way-- to say the least. It's a lot easier to turn down a DB request than it is to turn down small specific advising and data consulting in certain areas.