Any way to play Dark Sun Online : Crimson Sands?

SorcererV1ct0r

I know that the game ended in last millennium however, I really wanna play it. I don't care about the 65416854165416534968465*10²³ wow clones. Cover and cd room on spoilers.

The game is like a MMO version of SSI games and is exactly like the offline Dark Sun games(Shattered Lands and Wake of the Ravager). That said, the game is extremely different than other post wow mmos.

• You roll attributes in character creation exactly like the SP game and gear which enhances attributes are insanely rare, almost non existent. So, the game has attributes describing what your characters can and cannot do instead of the stat stickie itemization which is the norm among modern mmos.
• You have zero skills on cooldown, magic uses the vancian magical system where you have for "X" casts of tier "A" spells, so you can spend all your fireballs charges in a row or conservate fireball usage.
• The game is sandbox and full PvP
• The lv cap of the game is the same of the last SP game, 15 and you lose a level after each death.
• All spells which exists on SP games exists on the mmo. Including finger of death(tier 7 magic), a spell which the enemy makes a save and if failed the save, is dead. Think on avada kedavra from harry potter.
• The unique difference in relation to SP games is that you have 20 seconds to act or lose your turn
• Armor and weapons looks like armor and weapons, there are no wow style carnavalesque armor on this mmo
• The encounter design is brutal like the SP game "Dark Sun : Wake of the Ravager", where I had to try 8 times to kill defilers in top of a pyramid well positioned protected by all types of traps. If i din't got lucky with some rolls, managed to dominate one of then and din't had a half giant gladiator with crazy high CON, i would't be able to pass that encounter. Even Shattered Lands which is easier, I had a lot of troubles with the final encounter and I soloed BG2:EE on Legacy of Bhaal without great problems. SSI games are often brutal and this applies to SSI mmos. Remember that you can't save/load in a mmo, which makes the risk of losing far more interesting.
• Even the UI is extremely similar to the SP games.

Screens bellow.

jjstraka34

I highly doubt it. I think the Neverwinter Nights Gold Box MMO that was on AOL is playable with just the software, but I don't know of any way to access this one. There is absolutely not footage of it on Youtube anywhere.

Kamigoroshi

The game had required access to Ten.net servers in the past. And those shut down way back in 1998, I think. On top of that you had to pay like $20 per month to use a Ten.net account. DSO is deader than dead. Even the undead have more life in their bones than this MMO.

Also of note is this article: Postmortem: SSI's Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands

SorcererV1ct0r

So sad... Imagine a mmorpg with proper RPG elements on it. Instead of low lethality cooldown management carnavalesque gear farming games...

Kamigoroshi

For what's worth: it may be interesting to you keeping an eye out for the NWNDarkSun PW. Although both of the team's websites and the discord seems to be offline. And looking at its twitter page I found that it hasn't been updated since March.

However, I think @Tonden said back in July that the project is still in active development despite all that.

WarChiefZeke

This...exists? I simply must try this now. Too bad I was too young to ever give this a shot when it was online, playing when it had an active userbase would have been really cool.

I would think, if it doesn't exist currently, it will eventually. Unplayable games get resurrected all the time, even the most unlikely of ones. City of Heroes and Freelancer come to mind.

Kamigoroshi

WarChiefZeke wrote: »

I would think, if it doesn't exist currently, it will eventually. Unplayable games get resurrected all the time, even the most unlikely of ones. City of Heroes and Freelancer come to mind.

Afaik an unofficial attempt by fans was made around 2005~ish to bring DSO back from the dead by using a custom server. I say 'attempt' because in the end nothing came out of it. And while the game's code is now free... I wouldn't hold my breathe for seeing someone grabbing it and do something constructive with it.

WarChiefZeke

Kamigoroshi wrote: »

WarChiefZeke wrote: »

I would think, if it doesn't exist currently, it will eventually. Unplayable games get resurrected all the time, even the most unlikely of ones. City of Heroes and Freelancer come to mind.

Afaik an unofficial attempt by fans was made around 2005~ish to bring DSO back from the dead by using a custom server. I say 'attempt' because in the end nothing came out of it. And while the game's code is now free... I wouldn't hold my breathe for seeing someone grabbing it and do something constructive with it.

I think sooner or later someone is gonna revive it. The internet just doesn't let things die. The last project may have asked WoTC for permission and halted it when it wasn't granted, but not getting permission isn't going to stop everybody.

Tonden

Hi all

Yes the NWN Dark Sun project is still being worked on. I used to be the front man for this project, but things happened and I'm no longer on the team. However you could reach out to Acidchalk, Draygoth, or Dizzitt they are the three main people who are working on it. There are others but those three are leading the way for that project.

Here is a link https://twitter.com/nwndarksun?lang=en to the twitter page that has a lot of screenshots of the work that is being done for the project. If you or anyone would like to help with it I'm sure they would welcome it.

ThacoBell

WarChiefZeke wrote: »

Kamigoroshi wrote: »

WarChiefZeke wrote: »

I would think, if it doesn't exist currently, it will eventually. Unplayable games get resurrected all the time, even the most unlikely of ones. City of Heroes and Freelancer come to mind.

Afaik an unofficial attempt by fans was made around 2005~ish to bring DSO back from the dead by using a custom server. I say 'attempt' because in the end nothing came out of it. And while the game's code is now free... I wouldn't hold my breathe for seeing someone grabbing it and do something constructive with it.

I think sooner or later someone is gonna revive it. The internet just doesn't let things die. The last project may have asked WoTC for permission and halted it when it wasn't granted, but not getting permission isn't going to stop everybody.

Unfortunately when it comes to online only games, sometimes they DO just die. Its not just a matter of cracking the game, the server code also needs to be emulated. There have been dozens, if not hundreds, of online only games that have died and were never brought back. Heck, City of Heroes, the most popular MMO ever shut down, only came back because one of the devs outright leaked the server code and structure. It still took the better part of a decade.

SorcererV1ct0r

Interesting. Lets hope for nwn dark sun project.

WarChiefZeke

If the Dark Sun team releases their assets for use in the toolset, i'm strongly considering making some of the old Dark Sun PnP modules into NWN modules, particularly the series that involves Tyr becoming a free city.

SorcererV1ct0r

The city which everyone in Athas believes that got destroyed but is now in shadowfell is also extremely interesting.

Tonden

I'm not working on the team any more but may be I could create some things for the NWN community that would be helpful for that @WarChiefZeke if I get some free time I will look into it.

Tonden

After all I really enjoy working with Blender

WarChiefZeke

Tonden wrote: »

I'm not working on the team any more but may be I could create some things for the NWN community that would be helpful for that @WarChiefZeke if I get some free time I will look into it.

Glad to hear it. I've used the toolset and created successful quests and scripts, level based spawns and NPC routines enough that I feel comfortable doing it. Any help is welcome.