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druidlyclean

Well-Known Member
Hello everyone.

We'd like to let everyone know that there's been no response back from Valve, and that we plan to re-open downloads to the public. In doing so, we'd also like to update everyone on what's been happening.

BEHIND THE SCENES
As we've mentioned in the past, we had gotten in contact with Valve about a few questions regarding TF2 Sourcemods. In particular, about their stance on reverse-engineering, as the Open Fortress team was working on a reverse-engineered TF2 base to use in place of the 2008 leaked source code that most TF2 mods at the moment use.

In short, their response stated that, while the Software Service Agreement allowed for modding to a certain extent, it both does not apply to the leaked code, and forbids the use of reverse-engineering. As such, they asked us to "stop distributing reverse engineered or leaked code, including anything compiled using that code or otherwise derived from it."

In the same email, Valve made it clear to us that they recognize and appreciate the creativity and motivation of the TF2 community, and were internally discussing the best way to let us express it. They asked us if we were interested in releasing our projects in the form of a mod on Steam, which would have required work from both parties.

We sent them a response confirming that we would suspend downloads, alongside stating that we were very much interested in a Steam release, along with a few questions.

Unfortunately, Valve has not responded to us in any form, despite us trying various ways to contact them after this initial email. Due to the lack of response, we've tried contacting them in multiple different ways, including through Steam support. On March 10, around 6 months after their last reply, we decided to send a final email announcing that we plan on opening our downloads back up until they re-affirm that they want us to keep them down. So our reasons for re-opening are due, in short, to the lack of response from Valve.

HOW THIS AFFECTED US
It's very important to let everyone know this has been very hard for our developers. Everyone's been worried that all the work we've done would be for nothing. We've been hard at work on a proper content update that includes new weapons, maps, quality of life changes, and the likes. We plan to show off some content at some point in the future, though getting the assets in a presentable state is currently proving difficult for us, over at Eminoma.

For context, we'd like to let everyone know that for the past two years or so, we've run dry on finding team members who can create assets for the mod, such as: weapon concepts, weapon models and textures, map textures, and map art-passing. We could really use some help in being able to get weapons and maps done. We had tried reaching out in the past, but only had a handful of applicants who could help us out.

This all said, we're incredibly thankful for the developers on our team who've created what they can for the mod, even when times have been tough for us. We'd just like to have more folks who can help carry the weight of asset creation. We'd also like to express our gratitude to Valve for giving the TF2 Sourcemod community the chance to create these projects to begin with.

We don't want to push any blame onto Valve. We mean Valve no ill will, and we'd appreciate if the TF2 mod community would do the same. As stated before, we do plan to take our downloads back down, if and when Valve replies back to us with anything concrete.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
Thank you all for sticking with us through these last 8 months. It's been hard on everyone - both our developers and you guys. We hope to share some of what we've been working on with you sometime in the future.

Remember that the only official news regarding our mods will be coming directly from us and not anyone else. Please do not harass Valve over anything that has happened, we don't believe they meant any harm in trying to help us out. Thank you.
 

Funding Progress To Date

VaultF4 on Steam


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