Why reviving the shuttered Anthem is turning out tougher than expected

""I feel like with Anthem, it heavily relies on online data that was stored in Bioware's server," Andersson added. "In my initial testing, the game couldn't load into the level without that data.""

""Ness points out that Fort Tarsis, the game's lobby area, already runs using offline data piped through a local "server" thread, meaning the rest of the game could theoretically be coerced to run similarly. Just as important, he says, "as far as we have been able to discern, all the logic for the other levels, which when the game was live ran on a remote server, also exists in the client," Ness said. "By patching the game we can most likely enable the ability to host these in process as well. That's what we're exploring.""

""For example, when we try to load most maps, no NPCs spawn, but in some maps they do," he said. "And we have yet to determine why. Ness has some suspicion that the odd behavior is connected to the "fairly extensive amount of player data the game keeps as part of its online RPG nature," but adds that "to be honest we're not entirely sure how deep the differences go, other than that the engine didn't behave how we expected it to.""

Anthem currently depends on server-stored online data for loading levels and gameplay. Fort Tarsis already runs using offline data through a local "server" thread, suggesting other areas could be coaxed into running similarly. Evidence indicates that much of the level logic that previously ran on remote servers exists in the client, and patching could enable in-process hosting. Unusual, inconsistent behaviors—such as NPCs failing to spawn on many maps—are hindering restoration, possibly due to the large amount of player data the game maintains. The team is roughly 75 percent confident they can adapt the Frostbite engine to restore a playable version without EA servers.

Read at Ars Technica