I think it's a big shame to just sit here and watch how this community is dead. I feel like someone has to try and do something about it.

I'm a big fan of another old time classic: Knights & Merchants. It's very different in terms of gameplay so why am I bringing this up?
A few years ago, The Knights & Merchants community was in a very similar situation as this one. There were only a few players and there was a fansite with a forum where about 10 users visited and posted messages...

Then two fans of the game started a very ambitious project. They would write the complete K&M engine from scratch, since the original game was programmed in a way that they could barely change anything.
They named their project "KAM Remake", and just a few years later, they succeed in their initial goal: They wrote their own engine from scratch, matching the original game as closely as possible, AND they added a fully working multiplayer mode complete with lobbies, chat rooms, and more. One thing to know: the original game didn't even have a stable multiplayer mode...!

From that point on, the sky was pretty much the limit. Since they had written their own engine, they could finally start modifying the game in ways that was never before possible. They started improving the AI, improving the gameplay, adding buildings and other things, improving graphics, ... in an upcoming patch they will even allow the game to use dynamic scripting.

The community sites started flourishing like never before. Dozens of new players downloaded the KAM Remake, started playing online on a constant basis, ... because the game became succesfull once again, publishers have even started selling it again, AND they have even included the KAM Remake in their game! This is impressive because it's just an unofficial fanproject. They don't even have official permission to make the KAM Remake, there's no agreement between publishers or anything.

The reason this works is because KAM Remake is a free and standalone program, but it requires your computer to have the original game installed. On the Remake homepage, they link obviously enough to the sites where KAM is legally on sale, and so the publishers look at it and say: "what they're doing is actually good for us." and so it is allowed

Take a look at the KAM Remake website: http://www.kamremake.com/
You can see how many players are constantly playing.
And here is the forum: http://www.knightsandmerchants.net/forum/index.php

It's a very active place with constantly new people showing up and discussing the game... it's awesome!

Now all this makes me wonder: could the same thing happen here? If we can get the right persons to work on a project like this, anything should be possible. Now I don't know anything about programming. I assume that KKnD is written in a different programming language than KAM, and that might make it all the more complicated.

But say:

How complicated can it be to add, for starters, a multiplayer lobby to the game?

or

How difficult would it be to rewrite the entire KKnD2 engine from scratch, like the KAM Remake guys did?

If it's done the same way: as a free program but requiring installation of the original game and linking to sites where you can legally purchase it, this can be done. We could even ask the current licenseholders for permission, to be a little bit more certain that we don't get shut down all of a sudden :P. But first of course, there need to be people who can and want to do this. I'm willing to do what I can and I want to try programming, but I will need someone who is experience to help me get started.

I hope someone sees this message, and I hope something can be done. Maybe in a few years time, we can be where the KAM Remake is now. Maybe this community can come back to life, and players will be able to play KKnD2 in multiplayer... we can dream, right?

Send me a mail on krisdw87@gmail.com or just respond to this thread, I'll regularly come looking here, even if there aren't any replies for months! I don't plan on disappearing!

[ April 25, 2013: Message edited by: Kris De Winter ]