DescentBB

What about HEAT.net?

It was .net, wasn't it?

Joking aside, PXO going down helped me stop playing D3 so much. If it were back, I might end up on more.

snoopy wrote:What about HEAT.net?

It was .net, wasn't it?

Joking aside, PXO going down helped me stop playing D3 so much. If it were back, I might end up on more.

More than that it was the egos in chat that made me not want to play anymore.

Definitely bring pxo,rankings,chat!

<< Votes yes with rankings.

X5 to Sheep's comment.

So, what's the status Kevin?

Every couple of years or so I dust off my old half-working joystick, play some Veins (most likable level for me that people still play), then after a week or so.. I retire the stick again for another year or two. Don't get me wrong, I love Descent 3. Descent 3 multiplayer is still my favorite game of all time, and the only game I ever played for any length of time.

Although I've already been playing for about a week recently, I may have to postpone my intermittent retirement. After reading the news here, I'm actually considering fixing my joystick. If I can fix it, it will be the first time I've had a working joystick in about 4 or 5 years! LOL. (But even if my half-working stick severely hinders my dodging skills, I can still put the hurt on - believe me. So don't get any ideas about hunting me down for an easy kill. This is the DBB - ideas of any merit are frowned upon. Ferno moderates here.. nuff said. :p Besides, I use an alias when I play.)

Kevin, and the other D3 developers - I can't thank you enough. A poll as to whether or not to bring back PXO? LOL. Do you really have to ask? I have no doubt that it is the ONLY part of your patch that will have a meaningful effect on this game. Don't get me wrong, if your patch gets rid of silent invisible megas killing me in Veins, that's great too - but seriously, having one convenient location for newb and veteran alike to hang out in and join games from = more players 'hanging around' and actually 'joining games'. It's stupid simple.

I tried to argue on the DBB all those years ago how badly we needed PXO, while the other side fervently argued that the death of PXO meant that 3rd party game trackers etc would cause hoards to come flooding into the mines. LOL. At least they meant well (I think). If PXO could have been revived back then, it would have saved us from losing a lot of players (even though we had already lost the majority of players before PXO's demise).

Will hoards start playing D3 again if PXO is brought back? Of course not. But we may get some veterans to rejoin the ranks or hang around a little longer - along with a few new players if they can easily patch D3.

As for PXO rankings - that all depends. Does anyone know if Warpig is/was a stat whore? Because that 20-something-ping tramp camps way too much in that Veins flag base as it is! Just kidding Piggy, we still love ya. Honestly, I really don't care one way or the other about rankings.

Sorry for the long post, but I hardly ever post here - especially these days - and I wanted to get some things off my chest. I feel better now. Carry on.

-One

TA One wrote:Does anyone know if Warpig is/was a stat whore? Because that 20-something-ping tramp camps way too much in that Veins flag base as it is!

Doubt it, he doesn't need it

Hey, Grendel, I went to that site and searched for my name S13driftAZ, and all that showed up was this:

Hey, are the stats on d3stats compiled from any games currently hosted? or only from a specific server?

Secondly, I'm always in favor of stats lol. It was probably the main reason me and xecutive stopped playing. Things went pretty much downhill it seems when PXO went down.
However, I am a stat freak, so thats my main reasoning. But I agree with a few other posts in that it might start a surge of either older players coming back or newer gamers wanting to give the game a try.

Hi Illest,

Yes, the popular currently running game servers keep track of stats. Valhalla, Descent Retirement Home, DescentForum.Net, Rockies, Vex, Grisly Den, etc.

You can read more here: http://d3stats.de/index.php/faq

And here's a list of servers: http://d3stats.de/index.php/servers

I'm with you, in a lot of ways stats bring the competitive out of us and make us want to play more.

S13driftAZ wrote:Hey, Grendel, I went to that site and searched for my name S13driftAZ, and all that showed up was this:

The search function looks like it's broken. I'm guessing the D3Stats admin left some test code in; I'll mention it to him.

I voted Yes with stats - knowing *precisely how much I suck* sounds so attractive

and X5 (or 6, I lost count ) on bringing PXO back in order to attract the n00bs - just so long as there's some nursey slopes and other n00bs for them to cut their teeth on before they run into the grizzled vetrans brigade.

Might be a good thing to name the servers like:

Skybox - Amateur
Skybox - Average
Skybox - Pros

This way you enter in a level that suits your exp.

Okay, there needs to be some clarification here:

\"Stats\" and \"Rankings\" are two different things.

If we were talking about \"PXO with Stats\" (hard data - kills/deaths/flags/etc.), I would have no problem with it. My own Rockies servers upload stats data to the D3Stats system periodically, and I think it's a good objective measure of one's game.

But that's not what's being talked about. The question is about \"PXO with Rankings\" (promotions/demotions, sergeant/ensign, etc.), which I personally believe only served to detract from the game, for reasons I've already spelled out.

Bring back PXO by integrating our trackers and stats. But don't revive rankings; they died for a reason.

I voted yes with stats.
I fail to see why stats/rankings would detract from the game, especially in its current state.
If it makes 5 more peeps play the game and 4 of them employ unsportsmanlike behavior or whatever, that's still 5 more peeps to shoot at.

Some people take rankings to seriously and will do anything to get them higher(aka cheat).

weird thing is we didn't see much of that in D1/D2 days. There were ranks and such, but it wasn't THAT important.

btw, for those that get tired of the rank change notices in game, turn them off. That is what the option is for.

CDN_Merlin wrote:Some people take rankings to seriously and will do anything to get them higher(aka cheat).

Even without cheating, there are people who will try to boost their ranking by, say, only playing against weak players, or playing in VV and sitting in the spawn point getting the occasional kill with blues while not doing anything productive.

Stats are good. Rankings, not so much.

I voted ‘Yes – Without Rankings’, but after reading some of these posts I’ve changed my mind to ‘Yes – With Rankings’.

A ranking system can - and will - induce some abuse/poor sportsmanship. But I don’t believe the majority of those who want rankings back are poor sports - judging by the way the votes are adding up. Either that, or the majority of players who post on the DBB are INDEED poor sports. Just kidding (I think).

Seriously, I don’t think the majority of those who liked rankings in the past were poor sports, nor will the majority in the future be poor sports. And those who are bad sports can be hunted down (and believe me, that’s fun – I’ve done it a bunch). So, since bringing back rankings will result in more players playing, it’s a no-brainer, Kevin - please bring back rankings!

-One

It only takes one poor sport in a game of 10 to ruin it for all.

...especially in team-oriented game modes.

I recently tried my hand at camping in VV, I can see where Pig gets that %

I agree, Grendel. But in order to ruin a typical game of D3, that ‘one’ poor sport normally has to be very good, or a hacker – or both. That is, unless it’s just an average player beating up on newbies. If newbies are getting beat up on, they can go into PXO chat (keeping my fingers crossed on that coming back) and complain - and believe me, that player will be dealt with eventually.

As for team games, all you need is a few good players to get on one team to make things lopsided and ruin the game. But that occurs NOW, without a ranking system – and it happens often.

When I join a game of Veins, for example, I look at the list of players in the game and their kills vs deaths. Say there’s 12 players in the game with 5 out of 6 players on one team having more kills than deaths, and only 1 out of 6 on the other team with more kills than deaths. Regardless of the current score, it’s a foregone conclusion which side will win.

There are some players who will change sides, or ask a newbie on the other team to switch with them in an effort to help balance the game – but that is usually the exception, not the rule.

When I join a game, I try to keep things balanced and join the team that’s taking more damage. I know full well that if it’s just me and one other good player with 5 not-so-good players, we’re going to lose (and probably get slaughtered) by the team with 5 good players. It happens all the time. Do I wish some players would switch to balance things out – yes! But I don’t ask them to switch. I don’t fault the other side – I think they’re just ignorant of the fact that things are lopsided.

If some players who are normally good sports just want to do some slaughtering from time to time, I understand that too.

I also see players who are good join the game, find themselves on the losing side, and immediately leave. I’ll be the first to admit, if I see things totally lopsided and I’m not in the mood to get slaughtered, I might leave too. But the overwhelming majority of the time, I stay. Call me a masochist.

The point is, with or without rankings things are never going to be perfect. And it looks like bringing back rankings will result in more people playing this game – so I think you have to take the bad with the good. Players and server ops can find ways to deal with the bad sports.

-One

Once there are 4 Phoenix's on one side in CTF, it's pretty much game over. I hate that the most.

You guys need to stop banning people just because they are good pilots. :P

I think what Grendel is referring to is being a Team Player in a team game. For instance, if the flag carrier needs more shields you will sacrifice your ship & the death for that blue orb for your teammate. Or you will block the enemies fire for your teammate with the flag. If you are focused on your stats/ranking, your more & likely not to do so. Correct me if I am wrong Gren.

We sure are a patient bunch. Did we lose Kevin again?

Why does every topic on the DBB have to degenerate into posts about phoenix whining, black pyro whining, tank whining, airbus whining, unbalanced-teams whining, I-hope-Chuck-Norris-doesn’t-start-playing-D3 whining, easy-camp-kill whining, spew-stealing whining, spawn-killing whining, Ferno-is-a-butthead whining, massdriver whining, fusion whining, my-ISP-sucks-and-yours-doesn’t whining, haxor whining, Megan-Fox-has-man-thumbs whining, you-have-a-supercomputer-and-I-don’t whining, why-does-everyone-play-this-level whining, server-op whining, I-spent-3-years-creating-a-level-with-5000-polys-in-view-at-all-times-dropping-your-framerates-to-negative-10-fps-but-no-one-wants-to-play-my-level whining, and whining-about-people-whining whining?

Seriously, let’s try and stay on topic.

-One

Whao there Cadet, I think someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Besides, with that post you just added yourself to that group.

X2
TA falls under the category of whiner-whiner

edit: gotta dump your rocks somewhere, and it better be the multiplayer forum right TA?

SirSamII wrote:I think what Grendel is referring to is being a Team Player in a team game.

Exactly.

The way rankings are written -- based primarily on kills and deaths -- they encourage people who care about them to be bad teammates in certain game modes. I don't mind a ranking that encourages high efficiency in anarchy (or team anarchy), but encouraging high efficiency in CTF is a bad idea.

So, how's this compromise: if you include rankings, don't use CTF kill/death stats for them.

When I typed ‘and whining-about-people-whining whining’ – I was intentionally including myself in that pseudo-rant.

You guys are the swift! LOL

Lothar wrote:So, how's this compromise: if you include rankings, don't use CTF kill/death stats for them.

I think that would be acceptable.

P.S. Need to exclude stats from other non-anarchy team modes as well (Assault, Guardian, BreakOut, etc.)

i like rankings!

Behemoth wrote:i like rankings!

Says the player I could never kill...

Foil wrote:

Lothar wrote:So, how's this compromise: if you include rankings, don't use CTF kill/death stats for them.

I think that would be acceptable.

P.S. Need to exclude stats from other non-anarchy team modes as well (Assault, Guardian, BreakOut, etc.)

This would be awesome... then we wouldn't have people like showerfox (if you remember him :P) base camping in CTF to pad his rank... either that, or Kevin Bentley could replace the Mass Driver Cannon with the Rail Gun. :P

CTF either hurts rank or hurts teamplay. :P So excluding the games where killing isn't the object of the game would r00L :P

The Mass driver IS a rail gun. It's just called that because Quake had it.

Burlyman wrote:This would be awesome... then we wouldn't have people like showerfox (if you remember him ) base camping in CTF to pad his rank...

thats no different than wut the guys are doing in vv right now, just different intentions

Duper wrote:The Mass driver IS a rail gun. It's just called that because Quake had it.

...um, rail guns are comprised of a series of high-powered magnets propelling a steel ball bearing at extreme velocities. The MD fires bullets via drum clip.

*sigh*

That is EXACTLY what it is.

Read HERE

The rounds are held in the drum clip.

Back when D3 was being developed, the guys at Outrage opened up a \"request forum\". Everything under the sun was asked for (including chainsaws iirc a UT weapon at the time) but the railgun and a napalm gun were the high bidders. So that's what we got. They weren't about to Call it a rail gun because, as I said before, Quake had a railgun first (which iw why everyone wanted one) and as Descent was originally made to basically thumb it's nose at ground pounders, it would be silly to be obvious with a move like that.

Iirc, the Mass Driver depleted uranium slugs an propelled by a high energy gauss system. So basically this is a single action, high powered gauss cannon from D2.