Community Offline Patch: Work has begun, but we need help.

[Jimmy Jam #BringBackQuickplay]

EDIT: This post is not relevant anymore, we are now working on something even better - an offline AND online server emulator. Please join the discord linked below to learn more.

Original post:
Good day fellas, some of you might know from my previous post "Offline Mode is in the game", that me and our dedicated The Crew 1 community are researching offline mode, and we have made slight progress in unlocking it (for the first time since the game came out 9 years ago), even getting as far as getting the game to display the hidden offline play start screen on both PC and Xbox 360, however it is not functional yet. I uploaded an image showing it in that post.

The point of this post is to spread awareness, that yes, offline mode is absolutely in all versions and builds of the game (along with local save data functionality), and there are (now) a few people working on unlocking offline mode, as a community. However we are currently "understaffed" you could say, so if you, or someone you know is experienced in any kind of game/software manipulation, PLEASE join or tell them to join our Community on Discord![discord.gg]

We have a dedicated thread where we discuss and detail all research, findings and progress, so that will give you a little kickstart on what we're dealing with.

P.S. And don't get me wrong, if you are just an ordinary player and fan of the game, go ahead and join us as well! We play the game, share tips, tricks, secrets, obscure info about the game and etc... And we don't demean you for playing this game over it's mobile game successors unlike a certain "official" community. Please don't take this post as a blatant advertisement though, it's more of an "asking for help" post.

Thank you.

[Espio]

Messaggio originale di Zolton (it/her):

Messaggio originale di Espio:

Might not be any actual way to access the offline mode if it was never officially programmed behind closed doors. But doing what some did with NFS:World and feeding logged packets into your system locally as fake multiplayer might be necessary (if possible) and eventually private servers if enough work is done. This is implying if one gets raw packet information.

It is clear to me you have not read OP's information, why would I be talking about offline mode if it didn't exist? Custom servers would be great, but that is a daunting task on its own and is unrelated to offline mode. :btd6stunned:

I read it just fine. After learning how NFS:World was saved via server emulation first for offline just before it officially died then eventually an online revival, that is the easier method. Cracking offline mode with the game still tied to the DRM will make the effort meaningless, Uplay/Ubi Connect goes poof so does the game and all that precious preservation work.

[Zolton (it/her)]

Messaggio originale di Jimmy Jam TF2:

Messaggio originale di Zolton (it/her):

The scope of the project OP is sharing/involved with goes for enabling the game's unused "offline mode", not making a custom server. Regardless, that would be a really good idea to do before the servers die off! It could feel a lot like the custom servers we have for NFS World, maybe we could even have servers with specific custom cars or other assets...

Can't say we're focused on enabling the offline mode anymore, we're actually more into making a server emu now, seems to be a simpler task than dealing with the game's unexpectedly crazy VMProtect DRM

oh nice, thanks for adding more insight. I wish the best for you... Have you tried getting help from the Amax team? They got Blur working perfectly and is now the primary way people play the game on PC.

[Sergiy Shirshow]

Have you tried to explore the latest PC version with old graphics (before Wild Run) sold on DVD?
Perhaps offline mode (or prologue) it's more accessible there.
Вы пробовали исследовать последнюю PC версию со старой графикой (до Wild Run), продававшуюся на DVD?
Возможно, оффлайн режим (или пролог) там более доступен.

[Thomas Stubbs III]

Is it theoretically possible to restore the original graphics once the patch is developed?

[Jimmy Jam #BringBackQuickplay]

Messaggio originale di Frankie "The Bat" Niagara:

Is it theoretically possible to restore the original graphics once the patch is developed?

Theoretically yes, but practically no. However what's even better is just making the original The Crew playable, and that is very likely going to happen.

[Thomas Stubbs III]

Messaggio originale di Jimmy Jam TF2:

Messaggio originale di Frankie "The Bat" Niagara:

Is it theoretically possible to restore the original graphics once the patch is developed?

Theoretically yes, but practically no. However what's even better is just making the original The Crew playable, and that is very likely going to happen.

That’s good news

[NyghtStryker117]

it's worth noting, something similar happened with Need For Speed World, and a crew (no pun intended) actually somehow acquired the source code and made their own server stuff. it may be worth approaching them to see if they'll do this with The Crew. you do have to pay for access, but IIRC it's like buying a game, and not a very expensive one at that. the company/crew that did NFS:W was "Soapbox Race World". might be worth a shot, might be a waste of time, who knows.

[Zolton (it/her)]

Messaggio originale di NyghtStryker117:

it's worth noting, something similar happened with Need For Speed World, and a crew (no pun intended) actually somehow acquired the source code and made their own server stuff. it may be worth approaching them to see if they'll do this with The Crew. you do have to pay for access, but IIRC it's like buying a game, and not a very expensive one at that. the company/crew that did NFS:W was "Soapbox Race World". might be worth a shot, might be a waste of time, who knows.

the NFS community is stupid about paywalled crap, but Soapbox was never a paid launcher to my knowledge, so I'm not sure where you got that from... As far as I know, the extent of purchases is some individual server instances having small donor benefits

[PoetiC SkillZ]

Words can explain how important modders like this are to the gaming community, greatly appreciated!

[speedtexx]

wow thank you guys for what you set out to achieve, this is really impressive!

[speedtexx]

I love the crew 1 and I purchased it, now Ubisoft just breaks my heart taking this game away! Crew 1 was the absolute best out of all crew titles. The crew 2 and Motorfest, I will never, ever buy or play those 2 games, they have no soul in them! period!

[Cpt BaseballBatBoy™]

Messaggio originale di speedtexx:

I love the crew 1 and I purchased it, now Ubisoft just breaks my heart taking this game away! Crew 1 was the absolute best out of all crew titles. The crew 2 and Motorfest, I will never, ever buy or play those 2 games, they have no soul in them! period!

100% <3

[speedtexx]

AND THATS WHY WE AS A COMMUNITY EFFECTIVE APRIL 1, 2024, WE MUST RALLY TOGEHTER, AND EITHER FIND A SOLUTION TO KEEP TC1 PLAYABLE, OR GET OUR MONEYS BACK, OR COMMENCE A MASSIVE "CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT" AGAINST UBISOFT...THEY CANNOT JUST TAKE OUR MONEY AND RUN, AND NOT DELIVER THE SERVICES THEY PROMISED, I DONT' CARE AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ELSE IS BS..IF UBISOFT CONTIUNUE TO DO AS THEY WISH AND DO NOT LISTEN TO US, THEN THAT WOULD MEAN FRAUD

[Zolton (it/her)]

Messaggio originale di speedtexx:

AND THATS WHY WE AS A COMMUNITY EFFECTIVE APRIL 1, 2024, WE MUST RALLY TOGEHTER, AND EITHER FIND A SOLUTION TO KEEP TC1 PLAYABLE, OR GET OUR MONEYS BACK, OR COMMENCE A MASSIVE "CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT" AGAINST UBISOFT...THEY CANNOT JUST TAKE OUR MONEY AND RUN, AND NOT DELIVER THE SERVICES THEY PROMISED, I DONT' CARE AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ELSE IS BS..IF UBISOFT CONTIUNUE TO DO AS THEY WISH AND DO NOT LISTEN TO US, THEN THAT WOULD MEAN FRAUD

lawsuits like this don't take off and caps lock ain't gonna make you sound smarter

[MaChao]

"They cannot take our money and run"
...they didn't. They gave you the product already. And you knew what you were buying into.

This isn't breaking any law. It's the inevitable fate of any online-only game.
Nothing more, nothing less.
What this is, however, is a testament as to how little Ubisoft actually cares about the products they put out in the long run.
They stop caring past the paycheck.

It wouldn't require arcane sorcery for Ubisoft to patch the game to work offline or to release a server kit so fans can host private servers once the commercial ones go down.

Ubisoft is notorious for not giving long term availability, preservation or even support any consideration. And if you take anything away from this, then to keep something like this in mind when buying Ubisoft games.
They pretty much all have some kind of online dependency. And they will all eventually die without Ubisoft caring.
If this bothers you, don't buy Ubisoft products. That's the only thing they care about.