Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands
| Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands | |
|---|---|
| Studio | SSI |
| Publisher |
Total Entertainment Network SSI |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1996 |
| platform | Windows |
| Game engine | Dark Sun engine |
| genre | MMORPG |
| Subject | Dungeons and Dragons |
| Game mode | Multiplayer |
| control | Mouse & keyboard |
| system advantages preconditions |
|
| medium | Floppy disk , CD-ROM , download |
| language | English |
| Current version | 2.8 (March 18, 1999) |
Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands is an MMORPG released by SSI in 1996 . It takes place in the Dark Sun campaign world of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying set of rules and uses the same technical basis (so-called Dark Sun engine) as the previously published titles Dark Sun: Shattered Lands and Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager . Along with Neverwinter Nights, it is one of the earliest graphic MMORPGs before the genre was permanently established with the successes of Ultima Online and EverQuest .
Game world
Dark Sun (dt .: Under the dark sun ) set in the world Athas. The scenario is described, among other things, as a “post-magical apocalypse”, as the use of magic has transformed the country into a desert that is hostile to life (see post-apocalypse ). The world is ruled by sorcerer kings and is characterized by great brutality. Dark Sun differs from usual fantasy worlds in the design.
Gameplay
The setting for the game is once again the surrounding area and urban area of Tyr. Unlike in Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager, the player character cannot be imported from one of the single player titles. Instead, it is recreated from eight available races and classes, the selection corresponds to the scope of Wake of the Ravager . In total, the player could create up to four characters with one account, but only one character could be used in the game. The game already included numerous MMO standard game functions such as guilds, chat windows, group formation and penalties for the death of a character. The game allowed PvP battles in most game areas , which were still turn-based. The death of a character was punished with the loss of a character level and some equipment. The level limit for player characters was, depending on the specifications of the AD&D rules for the respective classes, at level 15. The game regularly generated new quests with the help of a random generator to provide the players with content. A core function was the chat option, which, similar to purely text-based online role-playing games of the Multi User Dungeon type, represented a strong social component through which text-based role-playing games and live events were carried out.
development
Considerations for the game began in the summer of 1994, originally on behalf of the telecommunications company AT&T , which was looking for a product to compete with Neverwinter Nights for its own closed online network Interchange . Development work finally began in October 1994, but in November 1995 AT&T decided to discontinue its network, thereby also giving up the development of Dark Sun Online . The rights to the game reverted to SSI. Since a large part of the development was already funded at this point, the company decided to continue the game on a low level and to look for a new partner for the publication. With the Total Entertainment Network (TEN), a new partner was finally won and development work was fully resumed in January.
The development team was given the task of developing an MMO for thousands of players and with a server / client structure based on the existing program code of Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager . However, due to aggressive cost planning, the project suffered from permanent cost pressure. The team had only one graphic artist with 50% of his working time available to generate urgently needed graphic content. The remaining graphics either had to be recycled from the previous parts or taken from other SSI developments such as Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse . The same was true for the audio area, where sounds from the title World of Aden: Thunderscape were reused. With the restriction to the technologically outdated program code base and the few new graphic content, the focus was on the gameplay and the non-graphic content. The multiple workload of the graphic artist, who was also involved in other projects and was involved in the completion of other titles at crucial times, made things even more difficult. Therefore, the support of external service providers had to be used both in the area of graphics and the programming of the online functions. One consequence of this was the deletion of all film sequences with the exception of the intro video.
Cooperation with external service providers turned out to be problematic. For one thing, the external graphic designers did not always provide the desired service. On the other hand, there were coordination problems with the external programmers. Since the code base was not designed for an online game, large parts of the program code had to be rewritten again and again during development. Previously created content often no longer worked in the desired way and had to be adapted or rewritten. Due to the change from AT&T to TEN, the server / client structure also had to be revised. Since the costs were to be kept low, the service provider was able to prevail with its demand for a switch to a peer-to-peer model. This laid the foundation for the game's later vulnerability to hackers. Another problem was the attempt to leave the program like its predecessors as a native DOS program and to establish communication with the provider network based on Windows 3.1 . After several unsuccessful attempts, the game was finally converted into a native Windows program.
In order to exclude program errors as best as possible, SSI carried out a closed beta test with voluntary helpers at the end of the work and met with a great response. In addition to 500 copies on physical data media, the quota was therefore supplemented by download versions. The finished game was offered for sale in retail outlets in a version on physical data carriers including an intro film sequence, game music in CD audio quality and a printed manual, as well as a version that was reduced to the necessary game files for free download. Additional fees were charged to access the game.
reception
Although Dark Sun Online already included some game features that were popularized with the Ultima Online released a year later, the title was largely unsuccessful. On the one hand, the restriction to the closed Total Entertainment Network prevented greater distribution, and on the other hand, the title was technically not up to date due to the short development time and the associated recourse to existing content. A further complication was the vulnerability of the game to hackers, who led to character manipulation. Since the game was run on the user's computer instead of on a central server, developers and operators were unable to adequately counteract the manipulation. There were also program errors. The TEN business model eventually shifted in favor of the company's own browser-based gaming platform Pogo.com , which TEN eventually merged. In 1999 Dark Sun Online was discontinued. In a retrospective for games magazine Joystiq, writer Justin Olivetti described Dark Sun Online as "a triumph of ingenuity over limited resources and a lack of experience with MMO developments".
successor
On December 19, 1997, TEN announced a successor to Crimson Sands under the title Dark Sun Online: The Age of Heroes , which, however, never appeared. The goals were, among other things, a modernized platform that is better protected against manipulation and a more detailed implementation of the AD&D rules. In contrast to Crimson Sands, the game was primarily developed by TEN.
Web links
- Dark Sun Online at MobyGames (English)
- Dark Sun Online ( Memento from December 5, 1998 in the Internet Archive ). Official website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Allen Rausch: A History of D&D Video Games - Part III ( English ) In: GameSpy . News Corp. . August 17, 2004. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
- ^ A b Justin Olivetti: The Game Archaeologist: Dark Sun Online ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . May 15, 2012. Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
- ↑ a b c d Andre Vrignaud: Postmortem: SSI's Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM plc . October 24, 1997. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
- ↑ Allen Rausch: A History of D&D Video Games - Part IV ( English ) In: GameSpy . News Corp . August 18, 2004. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
- ↑ Garth Chouteau: TEN Unveils the Future of AD&D Dark Sun Online ( English ) In: Official company website . Total Entertainment Network . December 19, 1997. Archived from the original on January 15, 1998. Retrieved on December 11, 2012.
