Van Buren - Where is the code ?!?!?!

efortin · Post by **efortin** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:59 pm

That question may have been ask before, but I'm kind of returning to the world of Fallout after a long time.

So the quesiton is : where is the code for Van Buren (formely Fallout 3 from Black Isles)? I mean, I read that about 75% of the game was done, that the engine was complete, that a complete tutorial was functional. There must be some traces of it somewhere?

Black Isles is no more. Does anyone know if in the deal between Interplay and Bethesda, Bethesda was to get the source code to Van Buren?

Thanks!

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:10 pm

Bethesda only purchased the rights to develop and publish Fallout 3(also option for 4 and 5). Interplay owns the code for Van Buren, I'd assume.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:14 pm

Someone steal it then

Make a Fan Made Fallout or maybe Wasteland Merc 6, yay!!!

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:16 pm

Kashluk wrote:Fan Made Fallout

Shhh!! You're not supposed to say that out loud, just like Stalker.

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:33 pm

Incomplete code would be totally worthless to anybody. Even in the hands of a professional dev team it would take them years to figure everything out.

Haris · Post by **Haris** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:51 pm

We got time to do that.

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:07 pm

Van Buren Merc 3? Oh, the horror!

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:08 pm

But not the wits

Haris · Post by **Haris** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:23 pm

Oh please. With hard coded fallout 2 engine you got 2 options, eather make addon that people will cheat up a char to see what you added and than forget about it or wasteland merc style total conversion. There is a third option in doing like FMF and MR but it requiers braking the law brutally and opening your self to be sued by Harve and spending 7-10 years of working on one single mod. How fun is that?

Nothing against FMF and MR i admire them for their efforts. But lets face it, without the source code it close to imposible to achive anything in fallout 2 total conversion moding.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:59 pm

What the hell are you babbling about?

Nicolai · Post by **Nicolai** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:22 pm

They are totally breaking the law by modifying the .exe file.

Haris · Post by **Haris** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:39 pm

Its not just about the exe file. Even if they where allowed to modify it legaly it wouldnt do much without the source code. For example removing the movies in exe file cause entire world map to go wierd when Hakunin movie is played resulting in entire game being unplayable. And there is about 100 of those kinda problems when moding fallout 2.

Bloodlust · Post by **Bloodlust** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:45 am

Haris wrote:.... And there is about 100 of those kinda problems when moding fallout 2.

Hopefully the FIFE engine (IF it gets finished) will solve those problems.

efortin · Post by **efortin** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 4:50 am

Someone just told that even with the source code, we couldn't do much with it. Well, I totally disagree. If the game was 75% finish, then a LOT can be done with that code. Even more if the code is well documented with relevant and up to date comments.

I know it's not the case for every software projects out there. but remember that the source code for the game was intended for a complete game, and that means futur support. And the one making the correction and bug fix is not necessarily the same that coded the game in the first place. It can be years after the initial release, with patch 5.4.3.2 whatever. The original developpers can be working for someone else. Then, with good software development practice, anyone can dive deep into the code and understand it.

So, with the code to Van Buren, 75% complete, you get a pretty good start for a complete game. With all the good programmers on the net, with a fair amount just dreaming of working on Fallout, I'll say that within 4-5 months, with a good open source management team and dedicated programmers, we would get Van Buren completed. Faster with the original developers support.

baby arm · Post by **baby arm** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:47 am

I thought I read somewhere (no link cause I don't remember) that Beth got all the BI assets for Fallout 3 in the deal but never intend to use them. They're starting from scratch for the obvious reasons. If true, this means the Van Buren code is useless, even if someone were to steal it. Beth does have those lawyer thingies.

Haris · Post by **Haris** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:23 am

If beth has the code it would nice of them to include it with f3. They are gonna include moding tools with the game anyway.

PiP · Post by **PiP** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:52 am

hey, finally an iteresting f-related thread!
still I'm pretty pessimistic about VB code leaking ot the community.

Haris · Post by **Haris** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 12:00 pm

Hopefully the FIFE engine (IF it gets finished) will solve those problems.

Yea i been checking out FIFE to and so far it looks most promising for alot of mods to be finished on. But i dont want to get my hopes up on that before they are finished with it.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:13 pm

I agree with PiP, this is a marvellous utopia, but it's still just an utopia.