Arokhs Lair – A Drakan fan site

Thanks to our Discord and Forum member, Deltwin there is an updated community patch which fixes several bugs and issues. Link is same as before on the downloads page, just the file has been updated. The download file is password protected – the password is listed on the downloads page.

Deltwin also hosts a full time game server and this patch will be required to be able to play on his multiplayer server. It does not affect single player save games, your existing saves from the previous patch will work on this version.

Thanks to our forum and Discord member, Deltwin he is hosting a Drakan multiplayer server which can host up to 60 players and is running 24/7. You will need the community patch installed on your copy of Drakan (game version should show 377/447 if installed) for you to be able to connect. You will also need the updated multiplayer map pack; both are available on the downloads page. The server lists automatically in the in-game server browser after about 10 seconds. You can check the server status at Drakan Serverlist :: 333networks masterserver at any time. If you would like any specific maps or want to know when to play and organise matches please join our Discord server.

On a side note I have re-enabled forum registration but it requires admin approval for account activation. I do not get time to check the forum regularly but I will check once a day at least. If all goes well we might re-activate the forum fully or consider moving to a new platform using Zenforo.

XTX from our discord server has shared high quality scans of the Drakan Comic which released in Germany. Unfortunately it wasn’t translated into other languages but if you want to view the comic it can be downloaded below. It’s around 55Mb in size and is in the PDF format.

https://www.arokhslair.net/downloads/Drakan_Comic_scans_by_xTx.pdf

As it’s drawing close to the end of the year and the deadline for forum closure I have decided to clarify exactly what is closing as there is some confusion as to if it’s the whole forum or just the BoD section.

Here is what has / will happen:-

The whole forum (Drakan and BoD) is now members only. No new members can register but existing members can still post and contribute.
The BoD section has been made private so you have to be logged in to view it. This keeps it hidden from public view but still allows existing members to participate.

I was going to make the BoD section (not the Drakan and general forum) read only at the end of the year. I have decided to extend this by 6 months unless I get further trouble from our Chinese scamming friend. An email has been sent out to all members.

Please join our discord server (link above) which is where the Drakan community is the most active.

The main website isn’t going anywhere at the moment and will continue as-is.

Finally, the dedicated multiplayer server will be running over the Xmas and New Year period so we can play some multiplayer together and catch up on old times. Don’t forget to install the community patch and the MP pack update.

Have a good Xmas and New Year everyone!

Hi guys the multiplayer dedicated server has been retired as its not economical to keep it going anymore. Hardly anyone plays the game now and to have a PC sat there 24/7 wasting electricity isn’t viable. Furthermore there are constant issues with windows 10 and now it keeps dropping off the network. I’ve tried to fix it but short of a total reinstall I’m stumped at what else I can do. It just seems to be a constant stream of issues. I’m sorry but it’s not worth my time and money investing in it further.

However if you have your game patched with the community patch you can host a game and it will still register with the master server. Other players will be able to see your server via the in game browser. If you have any questions about that please visit our discord server. Link in the menu bar above.

I have changed the community patch installer to be packaged inside a password protected .zip file as Microsoft Smartscreen filter sees the file as malware and prevents downloading the file. I have submitted the file to Microsoft to be removed from their database but they refused. The patch is being recognised as malware because it is not a signed application but as this is community made this isn’t really possible to get it signed. Other AV companies have removed it from their blacklists but Microsoft refuse to budge. The password for the community patch .zip is arokh.

Just a quick heads up. As you all know this game is no longer being sold and copies are only generally available on eBay or if you are lucky second hand game stores. The developer; Surreal Software are defunct but the game is still owned by Sony and therefore still copyrighted. It is not abandonware and sites hosting the game for download are doing so illegally. However some players have resorted to downloading from dodgy websites and we can confirm that the version that is on myabandonware does NOT work so if you have tried to get this working you will find that some files are missing and some are much larger in file sizes than the original legitimate files. Alarm bells should be ringing there!

Unfortunately the only way to get Drakan OOTF is keep hunting on eBay. Beware copies tend to sell for silly money! Drakan: TAG is more readily available though and is easier to find.

I’ve been through the site and updated any dead / broken links as a forum user mentioned that the link to download single player maps no longer works. I have updated this and they are also available from the drop down menu (hover over Order of the Flame) also I have updated the description of the Community Patch which replaces the 445 patch enabling game compatibility with Windows 10 amongst many other fixes. This also installs a selection of single player and multi player maps. Current supported languages are English, German and Spanish. Thanks to our Discord members for the German and Spanish translations.

Yangez93 has made some changes to the “Bloodland” map which had some bugs which caused a game crash. This has now been fixed and added to the map pack so if you find the game server is running this map you will need to update your player made map pack by downloading it from the downloads page.

Secondly there is a Drakan tournament taking place this weekend (19-20th June 2021) where three ground maps are played on the 18th followed by three air maps on the 19th. For more information please join our discord server if you want to take part.

Thirdly, this website has been blacklisted again for hosting malicious files; as some of you know MalwareBytes and other anti malware software incorrectly identify the game files as malware. This has caused the site to be de-listed from Google and blacklisted by several web browser protection software. So if you have McAfee or MalwareBytes browser guard enabled you won’t be able to download any files from this site. Please disable or bypass it until this issue is resolved. You can also download the map pack from our discord server if needed.

Lastly the comments now work properly. This was because of a change in WordPress since version 5.5 causing older themes to not display the comments even though they are enabled. A simple line of code change in the site theme was required and all working now.

I received a takedown order notice for this site as it was identified as spreading malware. It turned out to be a few files (the Drakan 10th anniversary patch and the memory allocation tweak patch) that have been on this site since 2013. However several antivirus programs now identify these files as viruses / malware and as no-one has taken any notice and is linking directly to files on this server it is been mis-identified as a malware host. Someone has been emailing with a direct link to the memory allocation patch and it has been found on several foreign forums.

I have removed these two files even though they are identified as false positives. I can understand why though as they alter the memory location where the .exe files are stored. They are mostly obsolete now anyway so it’s no real big issue but I will be going through the logs and seeing which files are being directly linked to and will try and stop this from happening. This will obviously stop people downloading any game patches directly from links in discord etc so moderators please direct users to the downloads page on this site rather than the files themselves.

This should prevent the site from being taken offline but if the site disappears you know why. If this does happen I will appeal the decision.