Needs more Descent 3

[Smidge204]

I'm trying to gather up players for an SFGHQ Descent 3 netgame. If you have not played Descent 3, you are a chump. Watch this video:

Disclaimer: This game is notorious for causing nausea and disorientation. You have perfect 6-degrees-of-freedom movement (L-R strafe, U-D slide, F-B slide, pitch, roll and yaw) in a highly detailed 3D environment. I advise sitting back away from the monitor to prevent vertigo. I'm dead serious.

Join up in #descent3 on irc.rizon.net and we can probably get a netgame or two going. Don't have the game? I can help with that, too.

Recommended system requirements: Pentium 300MHz. Windows 95. 64MB RAM. Video card that supports Direct X 6 and has at least 4 MB of "texture memory"

(I think it's safe to assume most of you have pocket calculators that meet those requirements... don't let that fool you, it's a tough game to master.)

=Smidge=

[TRD]

It's an awesome game, I've played Descent 1 before so I'm kinda experienced.

Though Smidge, is teh master.

[Andrew]

I guess I'm a chump

[Aerosol]

oh, Descent. I always thought of it as an FPS with a moonjump cheat or something.

[Kain]

Been kinda adjusting myself towards a new school semester. I'd love to join-up again at some point, but I'd love it even more if we can get more than 3 players.

It's a great game. Definitely pick it up whether you're interesting in space shooters or just complex control schemes. Kinda gives me motion sickness, but not in a well-lit room with an interesting multi-player match and sitting a couple feet away from the screen. I'd say I get motion sickness a good deal more than most, so most should be fine with those precautions.

[Aaron C-T]

I was actually wondering if anyone knew of any good games- I'll most definitely have to try this out and maybe I can play some of you guys. Please tell me it supports gamepads? I'd love to use my wired X360 controller.

[Smidge204]

I have yet to see a gamepad that has enough controls on it to be adequate, IMHO, but it does support joysticks.

=Smidge=

[tentril]

I have yet to see a gamepad that has enough controls on it to be adequate, IMHO, but it does support joysticks.

=Smidge=

Not even Steel Battalion?

[Smidge204]

I think you just barely make it with the pedals.

Right stick: Pitch and yaw control. Primary, secondary and flare.

Left Stick: Roll control.

Left stick hat switch: Slide up/down/left/right.

Pedals: Forward, Reverse, Afterburner.

There's just enough buttons for all your weapon select / countermeasure / inventory / automap / accessory use, too, I think.

=Smidge=

[Aaron C-T]

. . . Eh, riight. How often do you actually use everything there, though?

[LarkSS]

My computer must be worse than a pocket calculator as it displays graphics as if it was torn into tiny pieces and then scattered across the screen when I try to run it. =/ ( Funny thing though that the old Demo 1 runs fine on my comp, but ever since Demo 2, they changed something in the engine that makes my computer screwy. )

[Smidge204]

I'll admit I don't use countermeasures that often, and automap is generally useless on multiplayer maps. Rolling isn't that popular either.

However! It is not uncommon, for example, circle-strafe a target by using the forward, slide up, slide left, turn up and turn right controls simultaneously. You can move 73% faster by moving in all three sliding axis at once, which is a good advantage (Faster if you use the afterburner!)

Weapon select isn't that critical, however switching form short to long range weapons and various missile types in a hurry can make the difference between kill and being killed.

Here's a full rundown of the controls as I configured them (Keyboard + Mouse):

1 - Laser / Super Laser

2 - Vauss Cannon / Mass Driver

3 - Microwave Gun / Napalm Cannon

4 - Plasma Cannon / EMD Gun

5 - Fusion Cannon / Omega Cannon

6 - Concussion Missile / Frag Missile

7 - Homing Missile / Guided Missle

8 - Impact Mortar / Napalm Rocket

9 - Smart Missile / Cyclone missile

0 - Mega Missile / Black Shark Missile

Q - Roll Left

W - Slide Up

E - Roll Right

R - Afterburner

A- Slide Left

S - Slide Down

D - Slide Right

F - Forward

G - Reverse

H - Headlight

Backspace - Automap

[ ] - Next / Prev inventory item

Enter - Use Inventory Item

, . - Next / Prev countermeasure

R. Shift - Use countermeasure

Space - Flare

Mouse - Turn Left/Right and Up/Down

Left Button - Fire Primary

Right Button - Fire Secondary

Wheel click - Flare

Wheel up - Cycle Primary

Wheel Down - Cycle Secondary

=Smidge=

[Kain]

I never could get my mouse to work nicely with D3. Either it was too sensitive or turned too slow. I opted for a full-keyboard approach, but you have to be real careful with the keys and not have a completely hopeless keyboard or else you'll get screwed on the amount of things you can do at the same time. (Only thing I have trouble is I can't turn up/down when boosting, strafing left/right, and turning left/right. Though, I did find it amazing that my crappy Standard Dell Keyboard could handle 8 keys simultaneously given the correct combination of controls, but it doesn't love me using the directional keys.)

Q/E - Roll

W/S/A/D -Turn Up/Down/Left/Right

Numpad 8/5 - Forward/Reverse

Numpad 4/6 - Strafe left/right

Up/Down - Strafe up/down (probably the one thing I'm not comfortable with)

Right - Afterburner

Caps Lock - Fire Primary

Numpad + and L. Shift - Fire Secondary (I can never find it when I really need it, though)

0-9 : weapon quick-select

Numpad 7/9 : Cycle Primary

Numpad 1/3- Cycle Secondary

F - Flare

Space : Headlight

[,],\ and ;,',Enter - Cycle and use countermeasures and items.

Even though you technically only need 6 keys to move in 3D, to effectively maneuver and aim, you really should use all 10 all the time (roll isn't that important most of the time, since there's some degree of auto-orientating).