should Surreal re-release Drakan as freeware?

Navaros · Post by **Navaros** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 11:24 am

i think they should. it's abandonware now. more people would be able to enjoy it and experience OOTF for the first time if they made it into a free freeware release on their site. it's not like it would do them any harm since they are making $0 from OOTF these days.

what do you guys think about this, and do you know any Surreal devs who you could ask about it?

Outlaw Wyvern · Post by **Outlaw Wyvern** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 6:01 pm

That's a really good idea. Perhaps it would generate enough interest in the games that D:TAG would go back into production, because I've heard that it's no longer being made. Renewed interest could also help along the possibility of a third project. Wishful thinking. (sigh...)
Also, if that happened, more people would download and play the PCLs and eventually there would be more folks making them. It would also draw new peeps to this and other Drakan-based sites.

The Darklord · Post by **The Darklord** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 12:54 pm

Meh, what I'd like to see one day was D:TAG as a freeware on PC [8)]
Anyway, 'td be nice to see it free... but "free" is a forbidden word in the game world... [V]

sonu · Post by **sonu** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 4:09 pm

well i think D:OOTF should be made free for download.It will add more players to the MP.
Dark >Ofcourse everyone wanted D:TAG for PC at any cost LOL we are not even waiting for free,if surreal releases it for PC still there will be huge demand for it and can generate a lot money.
PUNCH to SONY=[B)] [:D]

Ofcourse its nice to see Drakan fans still creating levels for othere.ANd there have been a lot of nice levels and i really appreciate the effort of those ppl. due to them we see new levels evry time we play.

kypster · Post by **kypster** » Wed Jan 07, 2004 1:02 am

Hey my names Michael I'm new but any way.

I at least think surreal should releaese the source code for free so people could compile there levels as stand alone games and we would also be able to upgrade the graphics and textures/polycounts etc of the original game.

Maybe we should start a petition for it.

Outlaw Wyvern · Post by **Outlaw Wyvern** » Wed Jan 07, 2004 4:54 am

Hey, WELCOME, Kypster/Michael!! Have you played a lot of the player created levels? What're your faves?

ASSASSIN · Post by **ASSASSIN** » Wed Jan 07, 2004 1:01 pm

We've tried every possible way Michael, trust me. From petition to email. Nothing worked - Surreal, as company, is very far from willing to lend a helping hand to the fans. Sad, but true.

kypster · Post by **kypster** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 10:58 am

dammit, maybe the community should make a mod for a different game/engine ( that is alot newer and looks nicer and has more features) which is based on the world of Drakan. Which would allow people making levels for Drakan to have a new engine to work with.

kypster · Post by **kypster** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 11:00 am

just a Idea, I'm no coder myself but I can do 3D modeling so maybe there would be enough people in the community with different skills to tackle a project like that.

Havn't played many single player levels yet but when I've downloaded some more I'll get back to you Outlaw Wyvern

ASSASSIN · Post by **ASSASSIN** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 7:25 pm

Writing a new drakan like game for a new freeware engine? o_o" That sounds tough.

Perhaps it could be done with Quake2 sourcecode, and it could be Unreal Tournamenent/Drakan style - I mean, a game mainly building on multiplayer with singeplayer support.
Ofc we would need to a write an editor for it too. It could be done but it would need many ppl involved and lots of time, I guess.

kypster · Post by **kypster** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 1:30 am

hmmm we could modify the quake 2 editor couldn't we.
Or we could use a more advanced free engine like Crystal Space the same engine planeshift uses http://crystal.sourceforge.net/tikiwiki ... ticles.php or http://www.ogre3d.org/ .
and we could also go rather basic with www.3dstate.com to make it.

I think it could be possible if there are coders who want to give it a go and some 3D Artists even begining ones that could produce content for the engine as it is made.

still just an idea

ASSASSIN · Post by **ASSASSIN** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 7:33 am

Well, I thought of Quake2 because it's an already working game with everything developed (single/multiplayer working, there is a world it can now emulate) - while with a 3D engine we would need to do that ourselves... (maybe 3DState could as relatively "simple" as this).

Plus: there are skin editors for Quake2 (since Quake2 supports an amazingly wide range of 3D editors, we could easily take in Rynn, Arokh and the rest of ppl; and who knows, maybe we could get player customized skins going in mutli even, like UT!!), a map editor yeah (which I just noticed) and various other stuff.

I'll try to look deeper into this as soon as I can (a bit hard while making Doomsday). Currently, these are the list of chancges we gotta do: (priority sorted, the higer is more urgent)
-vehicle support (technically implementing dragons is this

but I have no idea how long could this take)
-FLYING object support (a small tweak around the gravity parts should do it I think)
-close quarter weapon support (another tricky area)
-editor tweaking (this will require some main game tweaking too, but once we finished all the 3 above it will be np)
-additional multiplayer tweaks, bonuses (new gamestyles, FXs, etc etc)

kypster · Post by **kypster** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 11:58 am

yes I can understand your reasoning for the Quake 2 engine its a already has alot of the game play we want i'm just a bit worried about the engine being unbale to sustain large enviroments like Drakan does but I guess if this was a prob we could put in loading points like in Morrowind around the areas.

And the Quake 2 source is free so we could comply it as a stand alone.

I'm thinking if this is planned right and we get the people we need (coders mostly) we could get this of the ground. Anyones thoughts are welcome this Idea is for the community.

ASSASSIN · Post by **ASSASSIN** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 2:02 pm

Hmmm, I don't know. I don't think Drakan would use much bigger maps than Quake2 :S (wonders) but if it did, Quake2 never had any transition-crash problem (unlike Drakan

) and supporst a far more detailed graphics than Drakan does.

And yeah, it's freeware. I think. :S Will check that too, but as long as we don't sell it with advertising and for money, it's okay for IDSoft I think. We are not a developer band, anyway! lol

kypster · Post by **kypster** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:24 am

hmmm does Quake 2 have any graphical upgrade mod being made for it like tenebrae for Quake 1, http://www.tenebrae2.com and yes this engine is based on Quake 1 even though it looks like Doom 3.

I can't seem to find one but that just means its not hosted on Planet Quake we could always use tenebrae its based on the Quake 1 engine and has the same amount of inbiult gameplay we wanted to get out of Quake 2.

Hey should I make a sort of site or should we let the idea stay around the forums for awhile.