Arokh's Lair - Archived News. For the latest see www.arokhslair.net


Home Archived news 15th April 2008 - Arokh's Twin I have decided to stop hosting Drakan multiplayer games at the weekends and hence the Arokh's Lair Drakan game server will no longer be running. This is simply because so-one plays on it anymore; I see the odd player every now and then and its not enough to justify the running of a machine plus its a waste of electricity. The server hardware is being replaced with a low power Linux based NAS box with FTP capability so the Drakan music and other files will still be hosted. This web site however will continue for the foreseeable future. 5th March 2008 - Arokh's Twin At last, I have something else to post on this web site! Well, 'Mad Bohemian' has sent me three save games saved with the too hard difficulty setting which can be copied to your Drakan saves folder and loaded as normal. This is ideal for people who have to run the game in developer mode to avoid the game crash on some machines and also to play new levels. They can be found on the downloads page. As for other things in the Drakan community, there hasn't been much and I have no updates on any single player levels including Hammer's series (below) I'm afraid. As soon as I hear anything though, it will be posted here. One other thing worth mentioning is that Drakan: TAG now runs (albeit with random crashing) on a 60Gb European / Australian PS3 console if the latest system software is installed. The game would not work at all before so lets hope Sony will improve backwards compatibility in the future to get it working without the crashes. Note however, the new 40Gb consoles are incapable of playing PS2 games at all so if you have one of these, you are out of luck. 24th June 2007 - Arokh's Twin I have been playtesting a small part of Hammer's upcoming Drakan single player level series titled 'Aergoth' which is shaping up to be looking like a great series. Its set during the days of the Order of the Flame just before the Dark Wars (around 600 years before the events of the games) and although news has been scarce work is being done on it. There is a demo of the 1st level and part of the second on the level previews page. Note that the demo was released several years ago so there will be some changes in the final release. 26th May 2007 - Arokh's Twin I have added an events calendar to the site where members of the drakan community can post events such as multiplayer events and release dates of levels, projects etc. This can be found on the menu on the left. The upcoming events box can now be found on both the calendar page and this index page at the bottom. 29th April 2007 - Arokh's Twin Tips and Help page updated as I have found a potential problem which causes Drakan dedicated servers to crash after a few minutes when running on Windows 2000 and XP. This was due to an old master server that no longer exists causing a TCP/IP timeout which crashed the server. As far as I am aware, Gamespy runs the one and only Drakan master server. 14th December 2006 - Admin It has come to my attention that spammers are sending spam emails and faking the from address using addresses that appeared to have come from this site. These DID NOT originate from my server, it is simply spammers using my domain as the faked return path address. These can be identified by random characters before the @arokhslair.net; please delete and ignore these emails should you get them and do not reply to them. I noticed this because I am getting a large number of bounced messages sent back from dead accounts and / or anti-spam programs regarding emails originally sent from spammers. These mails are returned to me as they have used my domain as a return path. 16th April 2006 - Arokh's Twin Just a couple of things today, first of all the Drakan:TAG fan art has been updated and secondly, Douglas442 dropped me an email to say that his level series titled 'Rynn and the Halls or Morbia' or just RATH for short will be completed. Its taking a while and wasn't released last year due to various setbacks but however, work is definitely now in progress and some great renders have been made that relate to the game. One or two background stories of the characters have been added too. No definite date yet but more info can be found at www.bremsstrahlung.org - do take a look if you get time. 15th March 2006 - Arokh's Twin A few things to post today. First of all, Drakon Rider has managed to 'fix' the problem of the Windows 2000 / XP level editor crash during 3D view when making Drakan levels. This is a welcome fix as many level makers have had to resort to using Windows 98 for making Drakan levels or in most cases, give up making levels for the game altogether. This can be downloaded here. Secondly, an update on the post below which is briefly to say that a lot of time and effort went into it since January mainly comprising of getting the two currently released levels finished and some work on other levels. Its still a long way off but it will almost certainly be finished. Also, a couple of fan art submissions was sent in over the last month. Apologies to the people that drew them but I haven't had time to do much with the PC etc. These can be found on the fan art pages here; newest ones are at the bottom. 24th January 2006 - Arokh's Twin Another single player Drakan levels series is on the way! I don't know how many of you remember Hammer's single player level called Aergoth which was released unfinished a couple of years ago but its now back in development. This was undoubtedly one of the best fan made level series I have seen created for this game and a lot of people were asking on the forums what has happened to it so now you know. A more detailed update will be posted in 2-4 weeks so keep checking back. The demo / work so far can be downloaded from http://levels.arokhslair.net or Planet Drakan. 21st January 2006 - Arokh's Twin I finally managed to find some image gallery script that worked without running into headaches with server file permissions etc so I got that fan art posted I mentioned in the previous post. It's by a fan who has played both games and a direct link the new galleries can be found here. The existing fan art on the site will be left as it is unless I decide to change things round. 29th December 2005 - Arokh's Twin This isn't really a news post as such but this is a note to all the people who have sent in fan art, news & mods etc in the last month that I haven't forgotten to post them and thanks for sending them in, it's just that I have had a lot of tragic events happen to me & my family lately. It may be some time before I get round to updating everything. Hope everyone has a better 2006 than I will.... 21st July 2005 - Arokh's Twin Whilst looking through the other Drakan web sites, I came across this digital image of a Succubus from Drakan: Order of the Flame which was created by 'Temptress'. It looks stunning; worth taking a look and adding any comments if you want. 26th June 2005 - Arokh's Twin A new Drakan site including a multiplayer server has been launched based in Latvia. The web site address is http://drakan.from.lv if you want to take a look. Thanks to Artesh for the heads up! 23rd April 2005 - Arokh's Twin Review of Vale of Gadagar is now done, you can find it on the player made levels page. 17th April 2005 - Arokh's Twin The level mentioned in the news post below is now complete and is available for download. Its a single player level called Vale of Gadagar by Dragaroth which features both Rynn and Arokh. I haven't tried it myself yet but I will do as soon as I can and the usual review will follow. You can find it at http://levels.arokhslair.net 19th March 2005 - Arokh's Twin It seems somebody is making another level for Drakan after all! I forgot to upload this when I was sent it a week or so back but the player Dragoroth who made the single player add on level 'The Hood' is working on another single player adventure. The level will feature Rynn and Arokh who set out to find and bring back an ancient weapon but are captured by a mage called Gadagar. Presumably, the rest of the story will have you escaping and should be good as the level already contains 88 layers and over 1500 objects. It should be complete in the next couple of weeks so as soon as I hear anything, Ill post it here for download and the usual review will follow after. 19th February 2005 - Arokh's Twin A long time since my last post on these news pages, unfortunately there hasn't been any news to post and my personal life has been keeping me away. Well, as you can see, I have reformatted the site to fit a 1024x768 screen rather than 800x600 as it looked rather small on a big monitor. When I first made this site, I had a 14" SVGA monitor. Now I have a 19" and I guess a lot of people have upgraded as well. Got to keep with the times! As for the Drakan community, things seem to have died out. There is much less activity in all of the game's forums and less and less play online. No new levels have been released for a long time as well both muti player and single player. I was looking forward to some of the upcoming single player series (see upcoming levels) but they have been either officially cancelled or nothing has been heard of them for months; years in some cases. If anyone would like to keep me up to date with their level series, please do. Guess people have moved on now but this site will remain for some time to come anyway. If you feel like a trip down Drakan memory lane, check out the story 'The Order Reborn' its a pretty good read. 29th September 2004 - Arokh's Twin Just a quick post to point out an error in last month's post. I mentioned that Assassin is working on a PC Drakan2 but however this is not the case as the project was cancelled due to copyright reasons. Instead, the game, called 'Shadowbringer' is a similar game with similar character names. Also the Quake 2 MAX engine has been ditched in favour of something more modern and versatile. Details will be revealed on the dev site here and of course on our forums. 29th August 2004 - Arokh's Twin A long time since the last update, not really much to say again I'm afraid other than I have updated the single player level previews page with as much info as I can. I have learned that Zeoc's highly anticipated Drakan 2 for the PC which started development way back in 2000 is now effectively cancelled and I haven't heard any info for months from other developers in the community regarding their levels. If anyone has any updates even if its to tell us their levels will never be completed, please let me or any other site members know. The only big thing which is regularly being worked on is Assassin's Drakan2 conversion. Basically this is Drakan2 for the PC but based around the Quake2 Max engine which will be a free, downloadable standalone game; in other words, Drakan and Quake 2 are not required to play this. The major problem last time I spoke to him was getting the Dragon working properly but I guess this has now been resolved. A few people are working on this so its got a high chance of being finished. There is a dev site here if you want to take a look. 7th May 2004 - Arokh's Twin Just a little update on the level series 'Cloudwalking' by Raverdragon (also known as 'The Dope Man' on the Planet Drakan forums. Well, the level series was lost due to a virus and work had to start again from scratch forcing some significant changes. First of all, the series is now known as 'The Brotherhood' and has a new storyline and characters based on a distant continent on the world of Drakan far away from the ones where the events of the games took place. Seem as this continent was completely unknown to the rest of the world, it opens up a new history and events unconnected with either of the two games making a refreshing change to the usual storylines of other recent level series. You can find details on the upcoming levels page. 11th February 2004 - Arokh's Twin At last the Drakan story is done! Its called 'The Order Reborn' and tells the entire events of the two Drakan games in one novel. It was written by many contributors from the Drakan community and has been a long project especially editing everything! Anyway, please visit the fan fiction page where you can download it. Enjoy. 31st January 2004 - Arokh's Twin A couple of things have cropped up in the Drakan level editing community I thought I'd mention; first of all, PlanetDrakan forum member Vader_Darth is working on a 10 level single player level series for Drakan which tells the story of a Hero. Unfortunately, that's all I know at the moment about this one but if I hear anything else Ill post it here. Secondly, Assassin has put his Drakan2 add on level series entitled 'Doomsday' on hold to work on a new project where he is building a completely new Drakan game based on the Quake2 MAX engine. This will be a standalone game i.e. you don't need Drakan or Quake 2 to play it and will be his version of what happened after the PC game ended. The storyline has not been thought about much until the technical bits have been completed and level development begins. Its unlikely it will be the same as Doomsday's storyline. As you know, Doomsday was roughly 60% complete and a demo has already been released so it would be a shame to see it cancelled so late as it looked very promising. Also 56K users will be disappointed as the Quake 2 version download size will be comparable to a full commercial game... Ill keep you posted on any info but for the time being, check out the development site here. 27th December 2003 - Arokh's Twin Hope everyone had a good Xmas! Anyway, just before the year is out, I have some more level news. A Drakan player who goes by the name 'Raverdragon' has sent me information about an upcoming add on series that will feature around 15 levels. Its set a good while after the Drakan games, 500 years to be more precise and revolves around a new character called Adana, a one eyed pirate / bounty hunter. The level is set almost entirely up in the clouds hence its title, cloudwalking. Adana does meet Rynn in spirit form on her journey who offers assistance on a couple of occasions. Anyway here is a screenshot taken from the Prelude level. No ETA yet but further info will be posted on the level previews page. Secondly, Mage 150 has sent me the latest build of his upcoming series but unfortunately I can't get it to work; I will write a short preview when I get it up and running. From what he has told me its going to be stunning and promises much more gameplay than the original game and more depth to the storyline. On a final note, the draft of the story of both Drakan games in novel form is almost done which me and many others have been working on for the past 6 months so if you are good at writing, please lend a hand so we can get this done! See this forum thread for more info. 1st December 2003 - Arokh's Twin Assassin has sent in two more screenshots of his upcoming Drakan add on series called Doomsday. The full preview of Doomsday can be found on the upcoming levels page. 29th November 2003 - Arokh's Twin A new fan art submission! Beverly Lugg has sent in a drawing of Arokh drawn as he appears in The Ancient's Gates so I have added this to the TAG art page if you want to take a look. 22nd November 2003 - Arokh's Twin Assassin has just sent me an update on his upcoming Drakan add on 'Doomsday' which are a couple of screenshots showing some new high resolution textures that give the ageing Drakan engine a much needed facelift. The second shows a modern city world hinting that the storyline involves our world or a modern day Drakan. See the upcoming levels page for more information. 12th November 2003 - Arokh's Twin Remember that stunning single player level series by Hammer that was never finished? Well, I have some good news; Yami in out forums has let me know that he has been working on Hammer's series with the intention of completing it for him as Hammer no longer has time. The first level should be done before Christmas which will be an improved version of the existing level1 released a while ago. The second should follow shortly afterwards and the rest as time allows. Details of this level series can be found on the upcoming levels page. 8th October 2003 - Arokh's Twin Planet Drakan are hosting another caption contest where you have to come up with a caption for a screenshot from Douglas442's upcoming single player Order of the Flame level, 'Rynn and the Halls of Morbia'. A similar contest was run for The Ancient's Gates before the game's release where the winner would get a copy of the game if anyone remembers. More information on this can be found at www.planetdrakan.com 20th September 2003 - Arokh's Twin Assassin has sent in 5 more screenshots of his upcoming Drakan single player level series which shows some impressive effects and new characters. Check them out on the upcoming levels page and go to the Doomsday preview. 13th September 2003 - Arokh's Twin I finished the review of Dark Master's level series entitled 'Drakan: The End of the World' today and I uploaded the latest version to the server. You can read the review on the player made levels page and there you also find a couple of sites to download it from. The Drakan story is going quite well now, I'm currently at Shiverbane and I will add more to the story when I get time. We could do with more contributors though, so if you are good at writing and have played The Ancient's Gates, why not register and contribute. The direct link to the thread is here if you want to check out the draft version. 31st August 2003 - Arokh's Twin Assassin has sent in another story called 'Eternity' which can be found on the lore / fan fiction page. Its set before his last story, Night and Day and is well worth reading especially if you like the history of Drakan. Secondly, Dark Master's single player add on level series for Drakan Order of the Flame has been completed and is available for download. Its set after The Ancient's Gates making it a sort of Drakan 3. You can find it on the level downloads page http://levels.arokhslair.net A review will follow when I find the time. 24th August 2003 - Arokh's Twin A few things today, I have updated the single player Drakan add-ons page with more info on Dark Master's 'Drakan3' level series and an updated storyline. Dark Master also is planning another series of add on levels that will be yet another alternative to Drakan: The Ancient's Gates for players who do not own a PS2. It will be called Drakan: The Castle of Darkness and information will be added when Drakan: The end of the World (Drakan 3) is finished. Talking of alternatives to The Ancient's Gates, Mage150 has let me know that he is still working on his series, Joaxin's Relic. This will be released when its done as a lot of work still needs to be done. Finally, the story version of the Ancient's Gates is coming along nicely, we are up to the Andrellian isles at the moment. If you have played the game and are good at writing, have a go at helping out with it and show off your literature skills! The story can be found on the forums, here is a direct link to the thread. 2nd August 2003 - Arokh's Twin This has been a long time in the making but I have finally got the events of the PC game, Order of the Flame in story form. Players who have played The Ancient's Gates may want to read it if they want to find out what happened before Rynn and Arokh got to Rynn's ruined village. Of course it should be a good read for people who have played the game as well. The story can be downloaded here. 22nd July 2003 - Arokh's Twin I have had a few The Ancient's Gates fan art submissions recently, so I have split the fan art page into separate ones for each game. You can view the fan art on the new page - its under the Drakan: TAG heading on the left. Secondly, Dark Master has sent me the latest version of his demo which currently is not available anywhere else, this can be downloaded here. 5th July 2003 - Arokh's Twin Dark Master has released the demo of his Drakan Order of the Flame (PC) add on entitled 'Drakan: The end of the World'. The add on will consist of many new features and will be about 11 levels long revolving around a storyline set after the Ancient Gates making it a sort of Drakan3. About five levels are featured in the demo which shows some new features and a brief overview of the storyline which is still undecided. Another further two demos will be released as work progresses. The demo is available from www.planetdrakan.com Secondly, I have been play testing Assassin's pre-public demo of his single player level series called 'Doomsday'. In case you did not know, this is a sequel to his previous series, 'War of a Dark Age' which was an alternative to Drakan: TAG (Drakan2) for people who do not own a PS2. The demo is currently being finished up and should be available for download soon. This series has a awesome intro cutscene and is a major improvement over War of a Dark Age and looks to be an enjoyable Drakan adventure. 14th June 2003 - Arokh's Twin I have submitted another piece of fan art drawn by Dave Robinson, its of the Armour Rynn wears near the end of the Ancient's Gates. You can view it on the fan art page. Furthermore, the story of Drakan is coming along pretty well. You can check it out by seeing this forum thread. If you are good at writing, why not contribute to it! 30th May 2003 - Arokh's Twin Drakan3! (well kind of) Dark Master sent me information on is level series for Order of the Flame that he has been working on for a while. Its still not complete and a lot more work needs to be done but I can tell you it will be set after the events of The Ancient's Gates. More info will be available in the coming months but you can read the story if you wish in the preview. 21st May 2003 - Arokh's Twin Hammer has sent me his stunning single player level series which he has been working on for a few years. Its set a few months into the Dark Wars some six centuries before the games and you play as a female human warrior who must stand guard over her village. Of course, there will be much more to it than that and the story is revealed as you play the game. I have played through the series as far as I can and it really does look retail quality; the series is currently unfinished but the first level is done and is fully playable. Most of the second level is playable too but its clearly not quite finished; you will see when you come to it. You can try the levels for yourself - download them here. 3rd May 2003 - Arokh's Twin I added a new single player character to the game mods page called 'Tiamat' created by Andrey AKA Drakon Rider who also created the D'Rynn mod. This is a great looking alternative player character, go check it out on the mods page! 19th April 2003 - Arokh's Twin Are you a good writer and good at writing fantasy stories? Well, if so, I planned a long time ago to write the stories of Drakan Order of the Flame and the Ancient's Gates into one big novel. Now that I have started it, I need help co-writing it. Its currently on the forums but it will be edited and placed on the fan fiction page when its done. For more info see this forum thread. 22nd February 2003 - Arokh's Twin Another update of levels in development, this time I have a lot of info on all the upcoming single player levels planned to be completed this year. To start off, Hammer sent me some information on his upcoming single player series set during the Dark Wars; a prequel to the two official games. A brief description of this series can be found on the level previews page. The storyline is now complete and you can read about it and comment on this series in the forums. The link to the topic is here. Moving on to Zeoc's Journey to Azenera; this is still in the works but work is slow - we won't be seeing this for a long time and I doubt it will be finished this year. Assassin still continues to work on his War of A Dark Age sequel and work is going well on that (the demo is almost ready) and Douglas 442 should hopefully have his level done this month too. Unfortunately though, it looks like the series World in Peril is cancelled simply because of lack of time to work on it and development team members dropping out. I will still keep the preview on the site for a while in case work continues but at this moment in time it looks like its history. Finally, on a better note, Mage150 let me know that he found a backup of his single player series intended to be his version of Drakan2 on a CD - the original was lost due to Hard Disk failure. Anyway the good news is that work will continue on it but at this moment I can't give an approximate release date. He also plans to release his multiplayer level 'Duke it out 2' soon. I can also tell you that at least two more single player levels are in the works going by what I found over at the www.surreal-news.com forums. I will let you know more about these when I get more info. 5th January 2003 - Arokh's Twin The first post of the year, hope everyone had a happy New Year! As you will probably have noticed, I decided to give the site a new look for the New Year and I have redone the site logo and made one or two changes to the borders. Hope you like it. The first thing to be submitted this year is by fan fiction writer extraordinaire, Assassin who brings us another excellent story. Its set a good few months before Navaros's betrayal during the so called Golden Age some six centuries before Rynn's time and its about an exiled Noble who seeks revenge for his punishment. Its called Day and Night and can be found on the fan fiction page. 29th December 2002 - Arokh's Twin Well, this did not turn out to be the last post of this year after all :) so before 2002 draws to a close, Assassin has provided me with a ton of info on his upcoming TC/mod which will be a sequel to his RPG mod, War of a Dark Age. There is information on the background story, a brief overview and a couple of screenshots. You can go directly to the preview here. 22/12/02 - Arokh's Twin I finished the recently announced single player level 'Search for Arokh' so I have done a review of it today and it can be found on the single player add ons page. Also, you may remember a preview I had of Hammer's level series which he cancelled last month; well, he dropped me an email to say that he will finish level one at least. The other two levels may or may not be completed but the series is designed so that if the 2nd and 3rd levels are not done, it does not leave the player hanging at the end of level one. The series spans a 3 year period so I guess there will be a closing cut scene at the end of each level. More info can be found on the previews page - I wrote a brief introduction in case you forgot. Seem as this is likely to be the last post this year, I have decided to do a quick 'awards' for the best single player level (or series of levels) made for Order of the Flame in the 2001 and 2002 period. They are:- Best overall level design: The Breaking of the World - latest build (85%) Best texturing and lighting effects: The Breaking of the World - latest build (85%) Most innovative ideas: War of a Dark Age (76%) Best overall visual appearance: Trouble in Town (76%) Best storyline: Winter at the top of the World (78%) Best overall completed level: War of a Dark Age (The Breaking of the World and The Fortress of Unreasonable Darkness are incomplete so don't count here) The best overall completed level series for the 1999 and 2000 period was Dragonmech (90%) The Breaking of the World is certainly on par with some of the retail levels and Trouble in Town has some fantastic new buildings such as castles but is very slow. Winter at the Top of the World and War of a Dark Age both have good stories and certainly War of a Dark Age has the most innovative ideas and enhancements but falls slightly short of the others in the level design and graphics. All levels not mentioned are definitely worth playing and all reviews of them can be found on the SP add-on levels page. Finally, Douglas442 has mentioned that his single player level should be ready in the new year. For more info on this and other upcoming levels and series, see the previews page. 15/12/02 - Arokh's Twin The English version of the single player level called 'Search for Arokh' that I mentioned in the news post below has been released and its a absolutely massive map which will take a long time to play through. The storyline is set after the PC and PS2 games and sees Rynn and Arokh travelling the world hunting down the last remnants of the Dark Union reborn. One day, Rynn wakes up in the wilderness amidst wine and beer bottles (she sure did drink a lot the night before!) and Arokh is missing - your task is to find him. A review will be done eventually as this will take me a long time to test it. The level can be downloaded from www.planetdrakan.com Also, the Drakan Online: Traveller's Quest forum has had lots of new posts recently with the development team answering a few questions. It finally looks like this is nearing completion after a couple of years work. The forum is over at www.surreal-news.com 08/12/02 - Arokh's Twin A big update today; first of all there is a new single player level in development, made by a German player and the German version is already done. Its called 'Search for Arokh' and can be downloaded from Planet Drakan. The English version should follow soon and Ill post here when its ready and when I know more about it. Also Dark Master has sent in the 3rd part of his story which can be read here. It will be posted on the lore / fan fiction page when its done. Finally Assassin has made a new alternate ending for Order of the Flame which is much better than the pathetic old one. It does not contradict anything and its simple to install; you can download it here and also on the mods page. 02/12/02 - Arokh's Twin I have finally got the Drakan: TAG section done, there is now information on all the main characters plus the types of enemies you will face and a brief description of the levels found in the game. I can't add any more stuff such as screenshots etc because of copyright reasons and other stuff, besides I can only take screenshots via the video in on my PC and it looks very poor. The walkthrough isn't finished; it currently finishes just before you go up to the final level but the last level of the game is very straightforward. If you need help defeating the final boss, please search the forums for the answer. 17/11/02 - Arokh's Twin A new fanfiction is in the works by a Drakan player who goes by the name 'Dark Master'. Its not actually about Drakan but its a story set in a similar world with Dragons and Orcs and all that other fantasy stuff. The story will be added to the fan fiction page if and when its complete but for the time being you can read the prologue and the first two chapters here. Stories about Dragons etc are welcome here so if you have anything you would like to be put on this site please send it in and I will take a look at it. 11/11/02 - Arokh's Twin Three new sketches have been added to the fan art page, these have been sent in by Rachel Sanford and are based on the PS2 versions of the game characters (i.e. Arokh looks like he does in D: TAG rather than OOTF) Anyway, they are up there if you want to check them out, they look pretty nice. 18/10/02 - Arokh's Twin Assassin, who made the great single player Drakan level series titled 'War of A Dark Age' (see SP add on levels page for review) is already planning its sequel. Again, this will feature lots of new items including modern world stuff, the reason why is that the storyline revolves around a gateway being opened between our world and Drakan. You can find out more info on the level previews page or you can go directly to it here. 05/10/02 - Arokh's Twin I have done the review of Assassin's great single player add on level series for Order of the Flame entitled 'War of a Dark Age' which can be found on the single player add on levels page. If you wish you may post your opinions in the forum so Assassin knows what to do and not what to do in possible future levels. The link to the forum thread is here. Alternatively, if you don't want to register, please submit your basic opinion in the poll found lower down on this page. 30/09/02 - Arokh's Twin A couple more things today, first Andrey has made a patch that increases the FPS of complex player created levels on some systems. The Drakan game engine only processes info in 16Mb chunks which results in low FPS in levels over a certain amount of polygons regardless of the speed of your system. This patch increases the memory allocation resulting in better performance. Note this is a single player only patch, it will cause multiplayer Internet to stop working. The patch can be downloaded from the downloads page. Secondly, Caz_Dragonrider has sent in the first part of her story which is her version of what happens at the end of the PC game. The story will be posted on the fan fiction page when its complete but for the time being you can read part one here. 29/09/02 - Arokh's Twin A few updates today, first of all, after months of hard work including scrapping it and starting again, Assassin has finally completed his Drakan: Order of the Flame sequel entitled 'War of a Dark Age'. This is his own version of what happened after the PC version ended, its not a sequel to The Ancient's Gates. A review of this will be coming soon but for the time being you can download it yourself and see what you think! Afterwards if you wish, you may post your opinions in our forums. Here is a direct link to the topic. Secondly, I have updated the mods page, Assassin has also completed a database containing modern world items such as guns etc for use in Drakan. You can find out more on the mods page. The final thing I want to mention today, Andrey the creator of the excellent D'Rynn character has been working on Dragon mods and screenshots of his work can be found in this Surreal-news forum thread. He has really made some great looking new dragon designs with a greatly increased polygon count. I presume these will eventually be available for download and Ill let you know as soon as I do. 30/08/02 - Arokh's Twin PCLs update: Level 4 of Journey to Azenera has been released after 8 months of hard work. This is the latest test version which also includes the previous levels as your save games from previous versions will not work with this version. It can be downloaded from Zeoc's site here. Also Assassin has let me know that his version of so called Drakan2 for the PC, 'War of a Dark Age' will be hopefully ready the first week or two of September. 14/08/02 - Arokh's Twin Zeoc has posted some info over at his homepage about Journey to Azenera which currently level 4 out of a possible 14 is almost complete. There is a new grass model which looks a lot better than the old grass textures used on levels 3 and 4. Zeoc also says that the blades of grass will even sway in the wind. Cool. You can check out the site here. 10/08/02 - Arokh's Twin Level and mods update; I have decided to let you all know the latest status of the upcoming add on levels for PC Drakan. First of all, Journey to Azenera is still being worked on - slowly. Level 4 of a possible 14 is still not complete as it takes a long time to make a series as good as this and time is scarce. However Zeoc promises it will be finished eventually but expect it to be shorter than the planned 14 levels. Secondly, Hammer's series should have been completed a couple of months ago, this was also a top quality level going by the preview he sent me. I haven't heard anything or seen him on the forums for ages and I haven't had a reply to an email I sent him so this may be a series that will never be completed. There are also the levels that are being designed by Lady Alani, Owl and Lady Sylver that may not see the light of day either. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know. There is good news though, Assassin's 'War of a Dark Age' should be complete in a month subject to beta testing and Douglass442 has a great looking level that should be done soon so we can look forward to them. Deprofundis's level series, 'World in Peril' is also still being worked on and should be complete by the end of the year. Also Andrey has modified his D'Rynn single player mod, its now gone from 10 megs in size to 860Kb due to a different way of making it so now 56K users can try it. You can download this on the mods page. 25/07/02 - Arokh's Twin Andrey has let me know that he has almost finished exporting the Arokh .rec files (the Arokh model files in other words) so he can modify how Arokh looks in the game. The first thing that he plans to do is increase the polygon count and make one or two changes to make him look better. Andrey also plans to make / modify other characters based on the .rec files from the Arokh model which should be pretty cool going by his awesome D'Rynn character. I will let you know when its ready. 21/07/02 - Arokh's Twin Assassin has sent in another fan fiction entitled 'Encounter' which is a mixture of sci-fi and fantasy. A strange but interesting storyline which is set more or less when the Order of the Flame was established the first time round - 600 years before Rynn's time. The story can be found on the fan fiction / lore page. 13/07/02 - Arokh's Twin Assassin sent in another level review of the multiplayer level, pool which can be found on the MP level reviews page. I mentioned a while back that Assassin no longer had an Internet connection but he has managed to get himself back online at least until the 1st of August. As for his series, War of a Dark Age, this is still not finished but however a lot of work has been done and it will be complete, its not a dead project. I will let you know as soon as I hear anything but it will be a good few months at least. 13/07/02 - Arokh's Twin Server move completed! The site has now been moved to a new webserver with more bandwidth and disk space allowance so I'm not as restricted as to what I can do with the site. I have added a downloads section where you can grab useful files for Drakan: Order of the Flame so if anyone has any suggestions or wants to contribute please drop me an email. I still can't host multiplayer or large single player levels as they simply take up too much room. However, most single player levels can be downloaded from this site. Secondly, I managed to find a decent box shot of the European version of Drakan: The Ancient's Gates which you can view here. I think this looks much better than the USA version of the game. Also I still haven't yet bought my PS2 and a copy of the game! 06/07/02 - Arokh's Twin Drakan: The Ancient's Gates has finally been released in Europe! I heard the game quickly sold out in most stores within a few hours so it looks like its going to be a major hit. Its also slightly improved over the USA version; many of the bugs that plagued the NTSC version have been fixed in the PAL version which is good to hear. The PAL version also has a new front cover design which shows a concept render of Arokh flying over Surdana; no decent box shot yet, sorry! I have yet to purchase my PS2 and the game but I will buy them in the next few weeks, hurray! Secondly, the site is in the process of being moved to another server with more disk space and bandwidth allowance so I can add more stuff to this site and the other fan sites I have. Also I no longer have to delete old forum posts to keep the disk space usage down so if you are looking for help, give the forums a try! 23/06/02 - Arokh's Twin Another single player add on in the works! Douglas442 who made the excellent 'The Fortress of unreasonable Darkness' is making another level (or series of levels, I don't know yet) with Rynn as the central character. Again, its a ground only level and going by the screenshots it has tons of new models and textures which look great especially the castle. This is the first I have heard of this level and I will try and find out more but for now check out this forum thread for more info. Secondly, the 'new' master server for multiplayer online player seems to have been offline for a number of weeks. This results in many people been unable to play the game online, the only solution is to either use gamespy or manually enter the server address (if you know it). There hasn't been much explanation as to why its gone down but I thing I heard it mentioned somewhere that Zikken who hosted it no longer has a permanent Internet connection. More info as I get it. 04/06/02 - Arokh's Twin I have been beta testing Assassin's add on series 'War of a Dark Age' and its a great mod that you will surely enjoy. It still needs some more work to remove one or two bugs and the level transitions need sorting out but hopefully this shouldn't take too long. I will let you know as soon as its ready. The other two add on series by Hammer and Lady Alani haven't surfaced yet, both were due last month, if I don't hear anything this month I will try and get some more info on them if I can. Both of these series sound like they are going to be great and going by the beta version of Hammer's series, this one is on par with some of the game's original levels. 12/05/02 - Arokh's Twin Assassin has sent in another multiplayer level review of the CTF map Good vs. Evil. You can read the review in the multiplayer add on level reviews page on the left. Also his single player RPG mod of Drakan titled 'War of a Dark Age' should be complete next week - all that remains to do now is get the level transistions working properly. If you haven't heard of this mod before, check out the preview on the previews page. A couple more levels should be complete this month or early June, these are Lady Alani's 3 level add on (no name yet) and Hammer's prequel to the PC game set during the Order's rule. Again, info on these can be found on the previews page - it looks like the next month or two is going to be spent playing these superb mods and add on levels! 08/04/02 - Arokh's Twin I have added some more info on Deprofundis's upcoming single player Drakan adventure, 'World in Peril' You can find information on this series and other upcoming single player levels and series on the SP previews page. 07/04/02 - Arokh's Twin Assassin who is making the single player add on RPG series for Drakan, 'War of a Dark Age' has joined us as a level reviewer. He will be doing reviews of multiplayer levels as one has not been done for a long time and they would be beneficial to the people who still play online. His first review is of the ground level, Orpheus and it can be found on the MP level reviews page. 02/04/02 - Arokh's Twin Another Drakan single player level series cancelled - Mage150 who was making his own version of Drakan2 for the PC entitled "Joaxin's Relic" has decided to not continue with the development of the series. The main reason is due to lack of time, it has been in development for a long time and it is nowhere near complete. (In fact I think only the database and one level out of 11 have been finished) So, a bit of a disappointment, it looked like it was going to be really good. Its not all bad news though, Assassin's Drakan2 series called "War of a Dark Age" should be complete in a month or two. Also by then we should see Hammer's level series which is a prequel to the PC game, this looks like its going to be great too going by a beta version I tested. 16/03/02 - Arokh's Twin Are you good at making single player Drakan levels? Well if so, Deprofundis and his team are making their own version of Drakan2 - for the PC. Note that the series will not be the same as Drakan: TAG rather it will be an alternative so to speak. The team are after one or two members that would be capable of making parts of levels or entire levels that would eventually be part of the series which will consist of around 11 levels. A preview of the series can be found here and if you would like to join the team, please see this page. 13/03/02 - Arokh's Twin Do you want to win a copy of Drakan: The Ancient's Gates? Well, if so, Planet Drakan are running a contest where you have to think of a caption for a screenshot taken from the game. The full details on the contest can be found here. Note that the contest only applies to people in the USA and Canada. A similar contest for European players may be launched sometime after the game ships (30th April 2002) 04/03/02 - Arokh's Twin EU version of Drakan: TAG delayed again - I heard from an unofficial source that the European Union (PAL) version of Drakan: The Ancient's Gates has been delayed over a month, the release date is now the 30th of April 2002. However the demo has been released and is already on PS2 magazine covermount DVD's so EU gamers get a taste of what's to come. 27/02/02 - Arokh's Twin An online petition has been set up for Drakan2 to be released on the PC at petitiononline.com. There are already over 500 votes, so if you want to possibly see Drakan: The Ancient's Gates on the PC, sign the petition here! Secondly, Lady Slag has passed on some info that some Drakan: TAG artwork has been added to Planet Drakan's Drakan: TAG section. Also some character skins have been released for the Drakan level editing community. You can go directly to the editing page here. 24/02/02 - Arokh's Twin The official site for Drakan: The Ancient's Gates has had some more info on the game added. There's a narration of the game's backstory, a world map and some info on the weapons you will find during the game. The site is still being worked on so keep checking back regularly for updates. You can find the site here. As most of you know, Drakan: The Ancient's Gates is the sequel to Drakan: Order of the Flame; fortunately for PS2 owners, you don't have to play the PC game to understand it as there is a great narrated backstory on the official site that explains everything. Your task in the game is to free the Mother Dragon, leader of the Immortal Spirit Dragons; the ancient ancestral spirits of the dragon race which are being held captive in the fabric between dimensions. To accomplish this, you must open 4 rune gates originally used by the people of Drakan to quickly travel from one part of the world to another, now used to trap these spiritual leaders. Only then can the last dragons of the Order be brought back from eternal sleep to help defeat the Desert Lords and restore civilization. Drakan: TAG is already a highly talked about game in any PS2 forums and it has received good reviews everywhere and it isn't even released outside of the US yet! It looks like it will take the market by storm and will be an instant classic. 08/02/02 - Arokh's Twin I found another screenshot of Andrey's upcoming character mod. You can view it here. The mod should hopefully be out soon. 07/02/02 - Arokh's Twin Underground Online passed on some info that they have interviewed Alan Patmore, CEO of Surreal Software about Drakan: The Ancients Gates. You can read the interview by clicking here. I think there are one or two things wrong with the story though, the bit where it mentions that Arokh had been summoned by the Order of the Flame is wrong. I thought the Order was gone for centuries and that Rynn was the first person to re-establish it by bonding with Arokh! Also Rynn knew her village was destroyed at the beginning of Drakan: OOTF rather then finding out after they defeated Navaros and returned home. Going by what people who have played it say, the beginning of the game starts off with a storybook like presentation of what happened in Drakan: OOTF and then shows a cutcene of Rynn and Arokh returning to Rynn's village to bury the dead. They are then informed by Lady Myschala, the leader of the last human stronghold in Drakan that their presence is required up north in Surdana. Rynn chooses to stay in her village for a while and tells Arokh she would meet him in a few days, so Arokh goes on his own. The game actually starts with you outside the gates of the city of Surdana with your first task to find Arokh and Lady Myschala. 26/01/02 - Arokh's Twin Steamteck let me know that his daughter is working on a single player level titled 'Dromonia'. I mentioned this before a while back but however its now almost complete. Just the lighting and a few other bits and bats need to be done then it will be beta tested. After that, it will be ready and the review should follow a few days later. I don't have any more details on it yet such as whether it will be ground or air so we will have to wait and see on that one. Also for those of you who haven't visited PlanetDrakan for a long while, its worth you checking it out because thanks to Lady Slag, Tiamat and others the site is now being regularly updated. There is a new forum which is much better than the old one where you can find news of new levels, find tips and help and generally chat with other Drakan fans. A few employees of Surreal software regularly drop by to answer questions fans may have and to generally join in with the game's community. The PS2 Drakan section has been updated with some screenshots, they are old but LS is working with Surreal Software to try and get some new ones and some more info on the game. There is an exclusive interview with Todd Clineschmidt of Surreal software for you to check out at the moment but much more will come in the near future. Finally there is a new level editing page for those of you who would like to make add on levels for Drakan. You can go directly to the level editing page here http://www.planetdrakan.com/editing/index.shtml 20/01/02 - Arokh's Twin I have put up some previews of two upcoming single player add on series, one is by Assassin and the other by Hammer. Both are set during the Dark Wars - the conflict between the Order of the Flame and the Dark Union which took place many centuries before Rynn's time. Of course they will be based around new characters rather than Rynn and Arokh which makes a change. (Everyone seems to be making sequels to the PC game!). You can find then on the SP previews page. 16/01/02 - Arokh's Twin Mick has let me know that he has cancelled his upcoming single player level series 'The Breaking of the World'. The reason is simply due to lack of time (you know how long it takes to make a Drakan level!). This is a bit of a shame as it was certainly one of the best levels out there, I wonder if it could be incorporated into one of the other PC Drakan2 series? At least it wouldn't have gone to waste, hmm I might suggest that. Also I will do some more detailed previews of Assassin's RPG mod and Hammer's level series, so keep an eye out. 13/01/02 - Arokh's Twin Assassin has informed me that he is working on a mod for Drakan. This will be more of an RPG than a series of add on levels. The mod will be based around new characters and will be set during the conflict between the Order of the Flame and the Dark Union some many centuries before Rynn's time. Here is a brief introduction to the series. 11/01/02 - Arokh's Twin I have updated all the single player level previews recently to let you know what's happening with them and what their progress is. I haven't been able to get any info on the series, 'The Breaking of the World' - this looks like it has been cancelled. Its not all bad news though, Hammer has sent me a beta version of his upcoming 3 level series which is set during the Dark Wars. This looks like its going to be a huge enjoyable series. You can read more about it here. 05/01/02 - Arokh's Twin I added some info on the level previews page about an upcoming 11 level series called 'World in Peril' which is developed by Deprofundis and his team. Its set a few months after the PC game so I guess you could say its his own version of Drakan2. That brings the total of so called 'PC Drakan2' series that are in development to 3. These are 'Journey to Azerena' (a direct continuation), 'Joaxin's Relic' (direct continuation) and 'World in Peril' (a few months later). I haven't mentioned the series The breaking of the World as this could be looked on as Drakan3 seem as its set 5 years after the game. Unfortunately all of the storylines contradict each other except for 'The breaking of the World' so it depends on which one you like best or what you would prefer to happen after the PC game ended. 04/01/02 - Arokh's Twin World of Drakan is returning! The German fan site that closed down some time ago is now back under the control of a new webmaster. The site is still being designed but the basic design along with the forum is up and running. You can visit the site here. Also I stumbled across the official game site for Drakan: The Ancient's Gates. From what I have seen, this game looks stunning, its sure to kick butt when its released later this month. I noticed that the Ancient Gates themselves featured in the intro video; Stargate SG-1 anyone? The only thing that lets it down is the voice acting and of course what on earth have they done to Arokh?!! You can find the site here. There are some videos of the game here. Finally, I have set up a webring for Drakan fan sites, see the bottom of this page for further info. If you want to join and have not had an invitation, please email me and Ill add your site. 02/01/02 - Arokh's Twin A new year and Drakan: The Ancient's Gates (Drakan2) is almost here! People in the US should see it in shops from the 15th of January and the EU should see it sometime in March 2002 - the exact date is not known yet. On to other things, Mage150 emailed me to let me know that he has changed his mind again and will continue with his version of 'Drakan2: Joaxin's Relic' for the PC after all (see news story below). Work will not continue on it though for a good few weeks for various reasons but we should hopefully see it sometime this year if Mage does not decide to scrap it again. 27/12/01 - Arokh's Twin Mage150 has let me know that development on his single player level series he was working on which was going to be his own version of 'Drakan2' for the PC has been halted. The series has not been worked on for a while and the project is far from complete. The exact details on why this decision has been made is not known yet but I will let you know if I hear of anything. Development may even continue yet but like I say at the moment, this does not look likely. However, the existing work has not gone to waste as Mage150 is planning to make some sort of 2D side scrolling game which would incorporate some of the things from the series. I can tell you though that this will be a completely new game and will not be based around Rynn and Arokh, its not even set in the world of Drakan. It will, however be set in a fantasy world similar to Drakan but there will be no connection with the PC or PS2 games. As soon as I get more info on this Ill let you know. In the meantime, check out Mage150's web site by selecting 'Mage150's levels' from the menu on the left. Also you may like to check out an interview regarding the possibly cancelled series. You can find it here. Details of other upcoming single player levels and series can be found in the SP level previews section on the left. 17/12/01 - Arokh's Twin I just heard that De Profundis, the creator of the SP level Knight of Alnar, is working on a 11 level series called 'World in Peril'. It sounds like its going to be a cool series with lots of NPC's to interact with and some STOMP (cut) scenes to help the story along. The first level should be out in a few weeks. There's no details on the storyline yet but as soon as I hear anything Ill mention it here. 11/12/01 - Arokh's Twin Another story from Assassin! He's wrote a lot of fan fiction recently, this one, called 'Changetime' was written in only a week. Its a good story, set just before the Order of the Flame was established - the time in Drakan's history when the warring races of Dragon and Man were finally beginning to cooperate with each other. You can find it in the Lore / fan fiction section on the left. Another SP level was released called 'Knight of Alnar', its a small short level where you have been offered a reward if you kill a knight or something. You can grab it from Planet Drakan's level downloads page. 05/12/01 - Ade Assassin has sent in another Drakan story called 'Dortenne: A beginning and an end'. This one is centered around an assassin who joins the Order of the Flame just as the Dark Wars were starting. For those of you who haven't read the game manual and don't know about the game's background story, its set around 600 years before the PC game started. If you haven't read Drakan's backstory, I'd recommend you read it first; you can find it here. Assassin's story can be found on the Lore / fan fiction page by using the menu on the left. Also, the GameGossip forums (the old Drakan.net forums which were moved when the site closed) has been shut down due to the site being too expensive to run and lack of visitors. A bit of a shame but all things must come to an end eventually. I can assure you that this site will still be around though... well at least for the next 18 months anyway. 30/11/01 - Arokh's Twin I have added a new piece of Drakan fan art to the desktops and fan art section. Its a black and white line drawing of a Dragon and its rider drawn by Firetalon. You can view the image here or see it along with the others in the fan art gallery. Also Lady Slag found Hugh Jamieson's web site which has lots of Drakan concept art and paintings, there are some really good ones of Rynn and Arokh. Hugh works for Surreal software as an artist working on all of Surreal software's games. The web site is here. 24/11/01 - Arokh's Twin Douglas442, the creator of the single player add on level, The Fortress of Unreasonable Darkness has launched a web site that features his upcoming level, 'The Suns of Drakan' which is the prequel to TFOUD. Anyway, for those of you who have played his level, you will have noticed the new textures and models, breakable glass and other new things that were found in the level. The web site is currently under construction and eventually it will have mods, models, textures and more available to download for level editors to use in their levels. Judging by the stuff that was in TFOUD, it looks like there's going to be a lot of cool stuff. Level editors take note. The site can be found here. You can find the review of TFOUD in the SP level reviews section. 17/11/01 - Arokh's Twin Assassin has sent in the 3rd and final part of his trilogy - its a series of stories spanning from Heron's days to a year after the PC game ended. You can read it along with the other two parts in the fan fiction section. Also for those of you who are interested in the PS2 sequel to the game, the final game title has been announced; its 'Drakan: The Ancient's Gates'. Don't ask me what the ancient gates are but I would guess it has something to do with a portal between worlds through which the Aliens (the Desert Lords) came through. There has been conflicting info regarding the game's storyline but its confirmed that the aim of the game is to find and awaken the other dragons of the Order that still remain in their caves so they can help you defeat the Aliens (the Desert Lords). There's no mention of Navaros, the Runeblade or Delon however but I would imagine the game has a backstory explaining Heron and the Order of the Flame and then the events of the PC game. I would also guess that Navaros was actually transported to the alien world when he was defeated by Heron rather than being trapped in the rift. He has obviously been planning a mass invasion of Drakan for a long time... Drakan: The Ancient's Gates is out on the 2nd of Feburay 2002. Gamespot preview: http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/previews/0,10869,2825018,00.html 10/11/01 - Arokh's Twin The review of Steamteck's single player level, Winter at the top of the world is done, you can read it in the SP level reviews section. Winter is a large level where you play as Lady Winter who is a member of the Order of the Flame and uncovers a plot to take over the surrounding lands... Also from reading the various forums, there are at least 2 more single player levels that are in development that aren't listed on the previews page. There isn't much info on these yet other than it will be a few months or more before they are done. I will add these to the previews page when I get more info and / or when its nearer to the expected time of completion. 03/11/01 - Arokh's Twin The review of Owl's single player level, 'Trouble in Town' is done; you can read it in the reviews section on the left or you can go directly to it here. Note: this level is very slow in places and requires a fast machine. 31/10/01 - Arokh's Twin Another new single player add on; Owl has finished his level, Trouble in Town that he has been working on for a while. I have played it and like I mentioned before, there are some cool new buildings, especially the city. Oh and the castle at the end is awesome! You can download the finished level here. I should be able to get the review done over the next week or so. Owl is now working on another Drakan level where you play as a thief; gameplay will more sneaking around un-noticed rather than killing things which should make an interesting change. This level won't be released for a while but as soon as I get any more information, Ill mention it here. Steamteck has also let me know his single player level series, 'Winter at the top of the world' is now finished. I haven't reviewed it yet but I should get it done in the next week or so. You can download it here.