Van Buren to the bin?...what a waste!

J

Jame Hammer

First time out of the vault
*blip!*

I. like many others, eagerly await for Fallout3. I loved Morrowind, and must say that BethSoft just might have what it takes to continue the Fallout story in a more than satisfactory manner...

Don't you just hate it when you've worked your butt off for several years to create something wonderful, and somebody just comes and pulls the rug off from under your feet...kind of like Van Buren, eh?

Dumping Van Buren is such a waste! - something that would offer many Fallout fans hours or days of entertainment, and something to complain about for a long time, is now on a DAT tape in some humid basement storage room...in the cold...deteriorating... (this is speculation, naturally)

But what if (this mostly directed to the people here who could perhaps pass on the idea) Van Buren source code would be licensed or donated by the current owner to some developer community to finalize the work...like e.g. the way Linux has been developed?

It's not like anyone's going to make money on it anymore...especially if the game is not even finished...and I don't see many software companies trying to license the engine either...

Sounds wild, eh? Perhaps a bit naive and silly even? Well, aren't we lucky there are naive and silly people out there - we wouldn't be playing computer games at all if there weren't...

Just a thought...

Thanks for your time...*blip!*

~ Jame Hammer ~
 
What are you suggesting for FO3, that somebody buys the Van Buren project and finishes it? If so, the only way for that to happen is either for BethSoft to purchase it, or another company buys and develops it after BethSoft uses up its development rights for FO3, FO4 and FO5.

I think a lot of people would be interested to hear that BethSoft picks up Van Buren, or the Troika PA engine, but there's really no way to tell if that would work out well in the first place.
 
No, he's suggesting that we get our hands on whatever remnants from Van Buren there are and make a new, fan made Fallout.

Great idea, if you ask me, but... still it's Bethesda holding the rights to Fallouts 3 through 5, and I don't think they'd allow fans to develop the game for them ;)

If VanBuren could be released as a fan-game loosely based and technically out of the Fallout universe (and franchise) that'd probably be another issue...

Also: Change back your avatar, Ozrat.
 
Yes, Silencer, that's what I'm suggesting.

It wouldn't need to be "Fallout 3"...perhaps just "VanBuren"! ;)

Still, it's been quite clear that BethSoft won't be using VanBuren in the development of FO3 - the story and the engine is most propably going to change, and if a bit of speculation is allowed, I bet they will be using Oblivion engine for the game (i.e the engine in Oblivion)...and I doubt that it would be any kind of a threat to them to release the source code for VanBuren, but it would perhaps keep the fans off their backs for a while (or even some of them). ;)

But as usual, things like these are usually lost causes - it's all down to the dollar in the end, and I doubt BethSoft (who owns the sources for VanBuren?) is willing to just give it up...But you never know until you try - after all, even the source for Quake was made available to the public by ID, and nobody even forced them to do it. If no content of the VanBuren project ever reaches the FO3, it's basically just a bunch of really expensive but worthless source code (n stuff). It would naturally have to be done as a GNU -kind of license, so no-one would have the right to make money with it, and there are naturally the franchise issues, but I'm getting into details now...It would ultimately be up to the lawyers and management at bethsoft, and I doubt they're reading these forums :)

But, as I said, you never know :)
 
Briosafreak said:
Bethesda has everything related with Van Buren and can do whatever they want with it.
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Really? I never knew that, how long has that been the case?
 
Briosa, does Beth really have all the stuff developed for VanBuren? And even if they had, they'd probably scrap 95% and start anew....

I think the issue was that VanBuren can't be published as part of Fallout series right now and thus even if we had everything related to it, we'd still have to make sure Fallout licence (which Bethesda has) didn't apply to it
 
Jame Hammer said:
It wouldn't need to be "Fallout 3"...perhaps just "VanBuren"! ;)
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Why not go a step further.. "FanBuren".

Someone should seriously start writing some emails. If they have a semi-working engine and some dev tools, the community could do fun stuff with this. Depends largely on how much work was actually completed though really.

Bethezda though has always struck me as a company who at least cares a little bit about their fans, which is getting more and more rare. So they've better odds than many to agree to something like this.

-Wraith
 
Silencer said:
Briosa, does Beth really have all the stuff developed for VanBuren? And even if they had, they'd probably scrap 95% and start anew....

I think the issue was that VanBuren can't be published as part of Fallout series right now and thus even if we had everything related to it, we'd still have to make sure Fallout licence (which Bethesda has) didn't apply to it
Click to expand...

Well that`s what they say:
So we can assume that whatever work was done over at Black Isle on Fallout 3 -- the "Van Buren" project -- is not being used?
Pete Hines: It's a little too early to talk about whether we'd be using any assets.

When VanBuren was shut down by Interplay, the development team at Black Isle was already well into development. What resources, if any, are you going to be salvaging?
Pete Hines: I don't know what assets we'll be using from any previous projects.

As a followup to the above, will you be using Black Isle's original Fallout 3 design document?
Pete Hines: I don't know if anyone in our office has seen that design document and how much of it we'd use or not use. Again, too early to say.

So are you working with the previous Interplay "Van Buren" assets and developers, or are you starting from scratch with a new engine and assets?
Pete Hines: Too early to talk about that kind of thing.

Will Bethesda's Fallout 3 retain any elements of the "Van Buren" game that was in development at Black Isle Studios? Reports are that it was nearly complete.
Todd Howard: No, we're going to start fresh.
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If they are going to start fresh they could might aswell let us use docs and ideas from Van Buren, but it`s their choice. We could get a few design docs, maybe some art and sounds, and use it with the Fallout editor or IanOut, but it`s up to Beth, ask them.

Honestly if it was just up to Interplay we would have released much more stuff and people would be more generous in giving us Van Buren material, i guess.

But they could use Van Buren stuff in their Fallout games at will, mind you, they got everything there is from Interplay, like the source code from the previous games, all of them.
 
I just thought of a GREAT way for Bethesda to get Fallout fans to buy their FO3.

Include everything Van Buren on a seperate disc. Sort of like those "extra" things Lucas Arts does. Like the mini lightsaber that came with KOTOR, or the tiny figurine that came with Battlefront.

Honestly, I don't see Bethesda releasing this stuff to the public for free, but if it could possibly generate bigger sales for FO3, then they might do it!

EDIT: To cut costs, they could even just give it its own folder, instead of a whole disc.
 
That is a neat idea. I bet including all of the stuff for Van Buren wouldn't cost much and the level of press it would get them to do that would be enormous. It is not like they would have to clean up any of it. The could just release all the crap, the good and the bad and let us sort through it. It is also not like they would be divulging any of their trade secrets since all of that stuff will likely be dated by the time they are finished with their game anyway. I would also think that it would boost their sales immensely for FO3.
 
Jame Hammer said:
release the source code for VanBuren
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Okay so here's a company building FO3, and you think they'll give away the interplay FO3 code, which would compete with their own product? No way is that going to happen. Hell, I'd be happy with the FO2 source code, but I checked with Bestheda, and they don't have it or any rights to previously developed fallout games.
 
I think the idea presented earlier by Lost Metal and gonzo13 where the VanBuren project would be included on Fallout3 is very good, and might just sink in with Bethesda!

I don't know about bethsoft's plans on using an online system sort of like Steam is with HL2, as they are becoming more popular amongst SW houses, but a download option for registered Fallout3 players would perhaps be a possibility as well.
 
Lost Metal said:
I just thought of a GREAT way for Bethesda to get Fallout fans to buy their FO3.

Include everything Van Buren on a seperate disc. Sort of like those "extra" things Lucas Arts does. Like the mini lightsaber that came with KOTOR, or the tiny figurine that came with Battlefront.

Honestly, I don't see Bethesda releasing this stuff to the public for free, but if it could possibly generate bigger sales for FO3, then they might do it!

EDIT: To cut costs, they could even just give it its own folder, instead of a whole disc.
Click to expand...


Yea very good idea :) plant in some adding tools with it and let the fallout modding people create the real fallout 3
 
I'm feeling pessimistic today...

Quake sources were released after Quake 3 had made profit, so I think it might be possible for Bethesda to let the community to have the VanBuren some years after FO3 has been released and made it's mark.

If Bethsoft manages to blow our minds with FO3, who cares about VanBuren anymore, since the modding community would start playing with the FO3 editing tools (most likely to be included)...then they would release or more like "leak" VanBuren, and it would not make any difference...
 
Yeah I could see them doing that. Uplink did that with their "previous versions" of the game on a "Bonus CD" that you had to get via inserting proof-of-ownership code on the game's cd case.

Someone, do tell please, I am still a bit shy confused about Van Buren: What the hell is it? Give me a URL to the whole scheme if plausible, thanks!
 
Jovan said:
Someone, do tell please, I am still a bit shy confused about Van Buren: What the hell is it? Give me a URL to the whole scheme if plausible, thanks!
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Van Buren was the project name for Fallout 3 that was being developed for Interplay. Mind you, NOT the Fallout 3 that Bethesda is making.

Van Buren has now been cancelled.

It's not that hard to find out on your own... :roll:
 
Yes Silencer i am quite aware of that. I saw some weird screenshots posted a few months back by a developer from Interplay, or black isle, dont know which, some guy.

Any indepth coverage that is not widely known?
 
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