BCKidd wrote: July 15th, 2026, 1:07 pm
A good question, and why I responded "I wonder what eveyone has been able to save- other than their own personal data, and perhaps a few screen shots of what once was."
When I read this: "The rest of us are all trying to do what we can to save as much as possible... and that very much includes ItIsTom." It doesn't even make sense, unless as I said there are only a select few with such an ability. Perhaps they are magic, or are holding out on what they know- in which case why even mention it, if not all of us can be involved. So, I'd like to know what everyone else is doing to save what they can? Is there some secret that only a few seem to know?
True, and sadly we all probably know the answer to this question - if anyone on the side of publisher/developer could do anything to prolong the life of Classic, it would be done and announced before pressing the "nuclear option" button.
That's the sad truth: either publisher (IP owner) would pay for development work, that would essentially allow all the server operations to be handled on user (client) local PC, or (option 2) they would have announced release of server software to the public, which would allow community to create their own servers and revive the game after official closure (even without user database - that's something you can't really sell willy-nilly, at least in EU).
The only other option to save anything of true value (let's be honest - our screenshot galleries are lovely keepsakes, but it's hardly "saving the game") is for someone to start sniffing around the way game communicates with servers, and start spoofing it all, to make a home-brew local server. One which would work when official server dies. This probably isn't that hard (it seems like game keeps track of data in simple .json files), but is definitely running afoul of IP rights*, so it isn't something that company employee (like community manager) would do - publisher may not sue some Russian warez website hosting pirate versions of their software, but they will sure run after any employee who might have leaked it.
* "Abandonware" is a cool Internet term, but holds no legal meaning. Even when software is removed from sale, and it's support is ceased, that doesn't mean the IP rights are abandoned. And even by Internet standards, Classic doesn't get to be called "abandonware" since it's owner (Avalanche/EW) is alive and kicking.
........you think that's one of my many problems ?... 
