Drifting Souls 2

## Overview

Drifting Souls 2 is a free indie browser game set in space, which has its origins in the year 2001. The game is based on the narrative of the Freespace computer games. Meanwhile, with the help of the players, the game has continued its story on its own. It combines PvP and PvE as well as building, strategy and role-playing into a special gaming experience that is second to none.

*Link to the game: https://ds2.drifting-souls.net/*
## Game details and content

At the beginning, the player has two selectable races to choose from: The Vasudans and the Terrans. After choosing a race, you start with a small base on a barren asteroid and a few spaceships. Gradually you have to construct buildings, trade, build spaceships, colonize more asteroids, research and explore, mine raw materials, build a stable economy, fight wars and write your own story in the so called *Com-Net*, the center of the in-game writing role-playing game.

In Drifting Souls 2 there are thus various possibilities to pursue peaceful, but also warlike play. Several large star maps, on which you can navigate ships in real time, offer space battles and the exploration of foreign territories.

Not often you have to interact with NPCs and other colonists (players) and enforce your own interests as well as the interests of allied alliances or factions. Variety is always provided by new quests, which are orders given by the NPCs.

The game runs in ticks. There are seven ticks per day, which only last a few seconds. During the ticks, raw materials are produced, battle rounds are calculated and research is advanced. Between the ticks, the player has enough time to manage his account. Due to the ticks, the player has the possibility to better determine the time invested in the game. Being online around the clock is certainly possible, but not absolutely necessary.

Resets are avoided in Drifting Souls 2, and the game continues to run endlessly. The game progress and all com-net contributions are therefore permanently preserved.

The player is free to set his own goals. For example, many players consider expanding their own account, competing with other players, building their own alliance, supporting a faction and collecting loyalty points, as well as participating in role-playing as goals.

## Development & Operation

Drifting Souls 2 is developed exclusively by volunteer and unpaid team members. The programmers ensure that the game is constantly being developed. Even the NPCs that appear in the game are controlled by volunteer team members. So you don't fight against bots or computer opponents, but always against real people, which makes for a special variety. For more information, see the Drifting Souls 2 team (German article).

Basically everyone can participate in the development, because the source code of the game is open source. Via Github ([1]) the source code can be viewed and changes can be suggested. The game is based on the programming language Java and the scripting language JavaScript, the stylesheet language CSS and the markup languages HTML and BBCode.

Anyone who would like to support the game in other ways, e.g. as an NPC player or in public relations, can contact the team.

The maintenance costs of the game (server maintenance) are financed by *guzman*. Therefore, the game comes completely without advertising, paid content or regularly paying contributions. Participation in Drifting Souls 2 is unrestricted and free of charge.

## Game Story

*You can find more detailed information under History of Drifting Souls.*

Drifting Souls 2 has been a hobby project from the beginning, driven by different developers and supporters. The game itself has its beginnings in 2001 / 2002 and was initially developed by Ra. The team of Drifting Souls 2 has been subject to constant changes over time. Even today, different volunteer developers and team members work on the game.

## Awards

*All awards and prizes given since 2018 are listed here.*

* Best Presentation, 2nd place (Pewn [2])
* Best game, 2nd place (Pewn [3])
* 8 out of 10 points in the game test (HitPointGaming [4])

## Other

For the exchange of the players and for the promotion of the game there are meanwhile a lot of media appearances, see these list in the German wiki.

The source code of the game is open source, which means that it can be viewed by anyone. The source code can be viewed here on GitHub. Anyone who wants to can thus participate in the development of the game.

Info about the terms and conditions can be found here. For the game rules, go here.

See here for the German main wiki of Drifting Souls 2.

Please pay attention to the legal notices.