If Descent 4 Came Out Today...

[Aggressor Prime]

Although the future of Descent 4 is still unknown, I would like to get the feel of what the Descent community would expect from a Descent 4 game if it came out today. Basically, what kind of features would you want to be in the game so that it would feel like it was worth the wait? Here are some topics to discuss:
*Descent 1/2 gameplay? Descent 3 gameplay? Something new?
*Level of Character/Ship Customization?
*Should players be able to leave and fight outside of their ships for either SP or MP? Should other vehicles be included? If so, how would you put the emphasis on the classic Descent ship?
*Level of realism (graphics and physics)? Would Descent 4 need to be on the forefront of gaming realism?
*Linear or open storyline?
*What kind of MP gameplay would you like to see, and how many players should be allowed in one map?
*What do you think of an MMO version of Descent?
*Would you like to fly underground? On the surface? In space? All 3 seamlessly?
*Would you expect a map editor to be included with the game to meet or exceed the player-made level count we saw in the previous Descent games?
*Would you want the single player to tell the story previous to Descent, after Descent 3, a remake of a Descent game, a pilot other than the Material Defender during the D1-D3 conflict? What kind of events would you look forward to in the story?
*Would you want pre-rendered cut-scenes, real-time rendered cut-scenes, real-life cut-scenes?
*Keep it on the PC? Allow a console version? Focus on PC or console?
*Keep it first person shooter, or allow third person options?
*Anything else you can think of to make Descent 4 the best game ever.

[Isaac]

I think it should be in 2d:

jk jki!!!!

I think descent 4 could follow the model of TF where you have different classes of ship with specific weapons and abilities, which are all balanced. There should also be just 3 or 4 diverse classes. For example, I envision Plasma, Ballistic, Spacetime, and Swarm as 4 diverse classes.

Out of those four classes, here's a draft I made of the Swarm class using the ODF ship, showing how you target with a beam to direct your swarm:

The idea is your swarm is your shield, which can be focused directly in front of you to take all the damage from the attack:

However, it takes time to rebuild your swarm, which is your only weapon and defense. But I imagine there being options to build more advanced swarm units.

Another thing, I really wish the afterburner didn't run out. It should behave as it normally does except, in addition, increase your speed as you hold it down, which could be forever. The trade-off would be a lack of control and accidental death by collision. In fact, at a certain point the speed should be so great steering has no effect and the only way to slow is to fire the afterburner in the opposite direction.

The head lights could also just either be on or off, with out draining energy.

Also, the ship shouldn't run out of power. Instead it should be able to charge itself. It could have "capacitors" that recharge to 50% by default. You can also force a charge 100% for a super version of your weapon and risk exploding.
For the plasma class (shoots the classic Lasers), if you super charge your primary weapon:


Also, being able to mount/attach to surfaces would be cool, especially if you could attach to your enemy and plow him into the ground with your afterburner helping you slam harder.

The cockpit view should be what you're restricted to when you're hit by an EMP and your pyro's computer has to reboot, so your other point of views cameras are disabled.

Though I think the ship design could stay as is (for at least one of the classes), here's an untextured alternative I made a while back, inspired by the F22 and various sports cars:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-6wzV ... yro_a1.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-2nMa ... o_AAa7.jpg



I hope the ideas posted above aren't so different that they're unlikable.

[Avder]

Didnt we already do this thread somewhere else? I think the thread is "if descent were remade" or something.

[Isaac]

Uh... then title this "if descent 4 came out today 2011".

[Burlyman]

future unknown? Nice try, but d****** is dead.

[Sirius]

IMHO, YMMV, etc.

Gameplay: Somewhere between D1 and D2. Afterburners added an interesting dimension, but D1 had better weapons all-round.
Characters/ships: Should mostly apply to single-player, in which case sure, why not? I'm not sure multiple ships improves the game in multi-player, except in modes more akin to Battlefield/TF2. Or CTF.
Leaving ships: In single-player, it depends what kind of story you're aiming for, but I wouldn't be against it. In MP you could experiment but I don't think it'd really work well.
Realism: Not really. I'd hope for "good" graphics but the selling point is the gameplay, so it doesn't need to break new ground. Same goes with physics, plus doing Lander-esque stuff is going to prevent the game really being any fun outside of a very niche audience. (I wouldn't play it.)
Storyline: Don't care - it's the quality that matters, not what kind of story it is.
Multiplayer: Going to have to suggest aiming for multiple, distinct, well-defined game modes. Anarchy and team anarchy are pretty much essential; past that a couple I would be interested in are CTF (D3-style, the original D2 CTF was bad) and some kind of ground control mode (Battlefield, UT3 Warfare, that kind of thing except with some ... um, tweaks so it would actually work with flying ships). And co-operative, must not forget that.
MMO Descent: Interesting, but you'd need to be careful to prevent it from turning into a circus. There are many places it can go wrong. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be tried, though.
Underground/surface/space: Multiplayer works best underground in most cases - I think that has been pretty well proven by now. Single-player could use a mix, but you'd want to be careful with the space stuff - this isn't Freespace where you have restrictions on movement - there's a great risk of it being utterly trivial.
Map editor player-made level count: Being realistic, there's no way it'll pass D1/2's level count per capita. D3 it could because the level editor was like scrubbing your deck with a toothbrush, but if the levels are as complex as I'd expect them to be they won't be a two-hour job each.
Story premise: Again, don't really care, but I would point out I wasn't really crazy about the Descent saga. I wouldn't object if they threw it out entirely.
Cut-scenes: Sci-fi story? Probably talking pre-rendered stuff here. Real-time is OK if the engine is up to it, pretty meh otherwise. Live action requires a huge budget so I don't see it happening.
PC vs console: Obviously I prefer PCs because consoles have had plenty of games already and are basically just a poor man's PC, but realistically you'd probably need to shoot for both to get decent sales these days on a title with the not-so-insane appeal as Descent. Thankfully the current controllers may kinda be up to it. If they do that I'd want them to use a cross-platform engine like UE3 so we don't get the mediocre leftovers though. That would be annoying.
First-person vs third-person: Hey, if someone really wants to see their ship from behind, more power to them. I can't say it would help my flying to have that though. I'd want an option if third-person is supported at all.
Other stuff: It'll be a difficult balancing act to make a Descent 4 worth bothering with for people like me, yet worth trying for people who aren't used to the dizzy stuff. But that needs to be a big focus; the game needs to be easy to start. It might need flight control "training wheels" to prevent people getting disoriented too - and I don't mean auto-leveling, I'm thinking more of making the ship move more like a FPS character that can also move up and down. For beginners. People who want to take the plunge would be able to turn that off and play the real game. Mixed thoughts about whether to allow both in the same game or not.

[Top Gun]

From what I understand, there was a level in the latest Red Faction game (the last game too, I guess, since THQ is apparently pulling the plug on the series) that was essentially "Descent in 2011." Volition even used the D1/2 targeting reticule for it.

[Burlyman]

That makes me cringe. >_<

[Duper]

hehe, I caught some of the footage of that a number of months ago. Looked pretty tight. too bad they took it out.

[PsiStorm]

What descent really needs is a reboot (i.e. like they did with Prince of persia).

[Avder]

What descent really needs is a reboot (i.e. like they did with Prince of persia).

Why, exactly, does it need to be rebooted?

[Thenior]

Because it doesn't appeal to the current market. You plop Descent into todays market, and it'll flop faster then a fish on land. I know you're going to say you don't care, and that Descent is made to appeal to the current market. But I think if you took Descent I or II, and polished it a bit, you'd have an awesome game.

Personally, I hate how slow Descent weapons are. Lots of levels get dogfight areas, where the entire area is filled with blobs of lasers and homing missiles. I prefer fast, precise weapons.

[Isaac]

x2 Thenior


Another idea if continuing the series is, I would like Descent 4, or a later sequel, to be from the perspective of the robots taking over. Meaning you can be a new type of robot fighting off hoards of pyros and other types of ships. On some levels you have to make it to the reactors, infecting them with a virus to claim an area. Other times you defend it against pyros trying to destroy the infected reactor. You could also create a bunch of typical robots to follow you and aid you in attacking the human invaders. As a twist can be competing colonies of robots that don't like each other and try infect and kill your colony, or aka "network".

[Sirius]

As odd as the slow-moving projectiles in Descent may be, they're what gives it most of its combat depth. Remove them and you drastically dumb down the game.

[Isaac]

Descent 4 ending credits theme:

[PsiStorm]

As odd as the slow-moving projectiles in Descent may be, they're what gives it most of its combat depth. Remove them and you drastically dumb down the game.

I agree. The problem is though that first person shooters over the last 10 years have been eating up all other genres. This happend recently to mass effect. Mass effect 2 was basically gears of war /w a tiny bit of rpg elements thrown in and mass effect 3 will probably be even closer to gears then even ME2 was.

Vehicular combat is now really a "subset" of first/third person shooters (fps with vehicles). One only has to look at Halo, Battlefield, Unreal 2004, etc, to see the trend.

Descent's biggest weakness was it's single player. Since most people buy games for single player campaign outside of maybe MMO's and FPS games, but even with FPS a lot of people only play single player.

It's a shame how we saw this begin when what began as descent 4 became red faction and Volition went on to make first/third person shooter games exclusively over the years and outrage was disbanded.

[PsiStorm]

x2 Thenior


Another idea if continuing the series is, I would like Descent 4, or a later sequel, to be from the perspective of the robots taking over. Meaning you can be a new type of robot fighting off hoards of pyros and other types of ships. On some levels you have to make it to the reactors, infecting them with a virus to claim an area. Other times you defend it against pyros trying to destroy the infected reactor. You could also create a bunch of typical robots to follow you and aid you in attacking the human invaders. As a twist can be competing colonies of robots that don't like each other and try infect and kill your colony, or aka "network".

Neat idea. Descent peaked with Descent 2. The full motion videos of D2 made the universe "feel right". D3's story and FMV's went all oddball. I really liked the asteroid/mothership at the end of D2 and the cliff hangar ending. It's too bad Outrage had no idea where to take the awesomeness that was D2.

Descent 3 left a real bad taste in my mouth. All the weapons felt off and the "diverse ships" weren't. I think it's better to attain diversity through powerups/items. Descent 1 and 2 were so compelling because everyone was equal but you could fight over who got powerups which kept it interesting.

[Thenior]

As odd as the slow-moving projectiles in Descent may be, they're what gives it most of its combat depth. Remove them and you drastically dumb down the game.

That's probably fair. Definitely requires a lot more talent to be good at it. Maybe that's why it doesn't have as much of an appeal.