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Unreal World going Freeware!

About Unreal World:

Quote:

UnReal World, or UrW, is a unique graphical roguelike RPG taking place in the Far North long, long ago. It brings you a realistic game world rich with historical atmosphere in which northern folklore, knowledge and way of life play an important part. The atmosphere and game features are highly original and compelling. The world of the game is based on the ancient Finland in the late Iron Age.

As a member of one of the nine different cultures you'll enter a very realistic and enchanting game world:
- find excitement in surviving everyday life and the quest for success in the harsh ancient wilderness
- play freely or complete various game tasks in a huge randomly generated world
- skill-based system including dozens of skills from COOKERY to HIDEWORKING
- keep in touch with the indigenous spirit world and the supernatural guardians of nature
- packed with intuitive graphics and pictures, original music and sounds

..there are infinite ways to play the game: as a fisherman, a hermit searching for the peace, a brave adventurer, a rough hunter, a trapper or a tradesman etc. Everything is up to you.

The game has been in development for twenty years, as shareware.
But the developer just release it as freeware, hoping to switch to a "donationware" model for future development.

Quote:

Donation-based UnReal World
Posted: 25th-Jan-2013 (updated 14th-Feb-2013)

In the near future we'll start a period of free, donation-based UnReal World releases. This will be launched in february 2013, starting with version 3.16. In the past the game has been available as a shareware with an ultimate licensing option of lifetime membership which grants access to all the future releases and upcoming additional benefits with a single payment. That is not going to disappear, ever, and will be available also for the future donors. Anyhow, going for free of charge donation-based releases is a thrilling and puzzling change which may arise some questions. I'll try to cover some of them below and will happily answer the rest either by e-mail or in associated forum thread. The following FAQ will be updated according to your questions and feedback. Contact/thread information can be found at the last question.

Q: So these free versions are completely free? And they are full versions? Free and full?
A: Yes. Completely free and full versions.

Q: And I really don't have to pay anything?
A: That's correct. You don't have to pay. Donations are important though, so consider sending a few squirrel hides this way. Read on.

Q: Why, oh why, you do this?
A: Foremostly to keep up hasty release pace. Massive AI, end-game and graphics improvements are underway and I'd like to keep releasing new versions whenever substantial new features are up and running. Shortly: less licensing, more development.

Q: You mention this being a period. For how long this free period will last, and will some sort of licensing system return afterwards?
A: For now I leave this for the donors to decide. Keeping UrW completely free of charge and continuing donation based development would be sweet, don't you think? I can't affect to anything else but the development aspect of this deal, but each donation of yours is considered a signal to keep the game free and donation-based. I hope to be able to cover at least versions 3.16-3.19 this way. That's long way ahead, and I'll keep you updated along the way.

Info Link:
http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw_donation-based.html

Download Link:
http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw_downloads.html

Thought I'd give you guys a :D heads up...

Sounds like all this Indie Bundles, but for long run... :) Sounds good, but we'll see how it will be handled in reality. :)

Ooo! This is actually fantastic! Unreal World is a excellent Rogue-like game and I wholeheartly recommend everyone to try it!

I hope they'd get some better exposure and be able to work on a better payment plan for this game. The original was bit messy, and paying for 50€ for a indie game sounds quite steep, no matter if its been getting new updates ever since it was released.

I always thought this game was very cool, but never tried it. Wasn't it freeware already long ago, then it was made for pay? Didn't I find it in Reloaded? It's not over there now.

I'm finally playing the tutorial :)

Anyone has tips to share on this one? I find it impossible to earn a living by hunting.

Consider alternatives: fishing, cannibalism and berries. Especially berries. One fistful feeds you little, but many fistfuls can keep you well fed.

I know there are alternatives, that's the reason why I haven't died. :) But are you conceding that hunting is an inferior way to get food? That looks kinda unrealistic, and a huge turnoff for a game with this setting...

I did kill an elk, but I met it by chance, tracking looks useless otherwise. I also killed a hare because I sneaked on it while it was sleeping, otherwise it's impossible to hit small animals with missiles; and they leave no tracks, at least without snow (I haven't reached my first Winter yet). I also killed a squirrel because it kept escaping in circles, I don't know if that was because there were no more trees adjacent...?

I've read about trap fences, I'll try them... But I'm very disappointed if hunting by itself is so difficult. Actually I tried a small trap fence using trees instead of fences, I thought it should have worked...

About plants and mushrooms, is there a way to know if they're poisonous? I've read somewhere that it may be better to boil some.

Tracking is not as useless as it seems. Same goes to bows (in fact, bows are the most deadliest weapons in the game, which give you possibility to take down anyone from a distance with just one arrow). You just gotta have high enough skill and for tracking, you just gotta keep trying to use it on different locations. Also, when making traps, dont forget to throw-in some bait. I dunno how that works really, but game suggest doing that so I guess there is some effect. But yeah, hunting is hard. It makes for a neat challenge, but overall I dont recommend using hunting as your only source of food.

I have never tried making any sort of food out of mushrooms. In fact, I only eat mushrooms if Im very desperate or just want to screw around with my character. Mushrooms are quick way to screw your game and it seems like most of them are poisonous or require some sort of additional work before you can eat them. So yeah, I guess only way to find out which one's are poisonous is to try to eat them.

I thought this was going to be the Unreal Tournament franchise and I was super excited, but this is cool too I guess :D

@Lulu that's got to have been a puzzling realization :p

@TC man I have 70% in bows. I should think that's not bad? I'll try to get a better bow, but I have a short one, not a crummy primitive one.

By trying to track in different locations, you mean on the zoomed-out map, right? I spent whole days doing nothing but tracking every other tile while traveling, and I got nothing. And my skill is 95% with a ritual (without it would be 90%)! By contrast I have found many animals by pure chance--but by far not enough to rely on that for a steady food supply.

There's simply no way. I have to try trapping, but it looks that in order to work it needs a bigger capital investment than a steel mill. :-/

The help says bait is absolutely necessary to capture carnivores, and has no effect on herbivores.

In this first game I'm now hack-loading, so I've tried different mushrooms (that came out weird). Before I had eaten some leaves just to try and I spent days poisoned at -11%, no biggie, I recovered.