D3 Mod: GroupC v3.0

[sushi.h.a.]

GroupC 3 is here!

Overview:
GroupC 3 is a total rework of all the ships, weapons, and countermeasures. The wide range of ship and weapon behavior allows for the use of a multitude of combat strategies and styles. Fast and close, agile and stealthy, all out power, seclusion veiled sniper, etc... The main focus of GroupC 3 is to make every weapon and ship strategically unique and deadly in its own distinct way, and by extension, to make combat fierce and varied, as well as visually and aurally atmospheric.
I hope you have as much fun with it as I have.



GroupC3 Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPzu2nCEkXE



Download GroupC 3...

Pictured above is an in-game screenshot of the Fang. (Scroll down for more images)



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Table of contents

s1: Download
s2: Installation
s3: FAQ
s4: Ships & Weapons
s5: Images
s6: Levels
s7: New Features in v3.0
s8: Misc Info




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s1: Download GroupC:

>>> GroupCn3 - r140307.zip 13 MB (Dropbox)

To Install, extract the zip, and place the "GroupCn3.mn3" in your Descent3 missions folder.



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s2: Installation::

Drag the "GroupCn2m.mn3" file to your "Descent3\\missions\\" folder.
DONE

Playing::
Run D3, "Group C 3rd Gen - v2.0" will appear in your multiplayer or single player missions list.
(see the "GroupC Tables.txt" document for a list of the levels)

Removing previous versions:: (optional)
This optional step will prevent previous versions of GroupC from showing up in the missions list in D3.
I recommend that if you have a prior version of GroupC already in your missions folder, that you change the prior version's filename by adding ".bak" to the end of it.
e.g. if your old version was "GroupCn.mn3" then rename it to "GroupCn.mn3.bak"



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s3: GroupC FAQ:

FAQ page



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s4: Ships & Weapons:

D3 Ship -> Group C 3 ship:
Pyro-GL -> Pyro-GLx2 Variant (A ship with a multitude of disparate specialty capabilities, and scoped artillery.)
Phoenix -> SwiftWing Phoenix Variant (A lightly armored but highly flexible multi range combat fighter.)
Magnum -> Hawk (A heavy assault craft, with the armor, mass, and firepower of a flying tank.)
Black-Pyro -> Fang (A fast and stealthy craft, good for surgical strikes, and close-in skirmishes.)

Note: This is just an overview. Many of the weapons have more new characteristics than are mentioned.





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s5: Images:

For more imagas click here...

















































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s6: Levels:

1 Apparition
2 Geodomes
3 HalfPipe
4 InfernalBolt
5 Insomniac

6 Monster Arena
7 Paranoia
8 Plutonium
9 Polaris
10 PowerHouse

11 Quadsomniac
12 QuadsomniacNoWind (Without wind in the wind tunnels.)
13 Taurus
14 TheCore
15 SteelVapor

16 Veins
17 level4 (with trains)



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s7: New Features in v3.0: (some of them anyway)

New Features in v3.0:
A large part of this newest release is the improving to the sound. In Descent 3 it always seemed to me like the sounds were quiet and washed out. (In particular explosions.) So, I have created, modified, and stitched together many new sounds.
So the partial feature list.
Firstly the Pyro is now faster and more maneuverable. (FASTER PYRO!)
Much of the sound has been altered or completely redone. Everything from boosting and brightening volume to building totally new sounds from scratch.
Explosions sounds are now sharp and percussive.
Black shark sound matches GroupC behavior (for both the Grav Shark and the Split Core Shark)
The Fang's Repeater Mass Driver now has an accurate fully automatic fire sound.
Magnum raygun damage Increased
Impact Mortar Camera (The Impact Mortar now has the camera enabled for the Phoenix & Fang)
Phoenix's Ballistic-Cyclone life extended. (You can now fire it straight up outside, and it will come down nearly 20 seconds later and hit the ground!)
New Red Fang Splash Screen.
Red Fang Group-C 3 Desktop Image (1600x1200) Included in download package. (Just for fun.)
The New Splash screen with includes a note about the classic Descent 3 engine flaw and how to work around it.
All included are now documents are now in html format.
Documents Included: Installation, Levels List, mini FAQ, Ships & Weapons.
(more of the new features will be listed soon)

New Features in v2.0 M:
2.0M Is exactly the same as 2.0, except 2.0M has the following improvements.
In 2.0M now all the Base D3 multiplayer missions are included. All level scripts, (wind tunnels, switches etc...), are fully functional. The problematic D3 level 3 & 15 have been removed. D3 level 4 has been added and works just fine (and it has the trains).
The "M" stands for "Mission set improved" (so I could tell the files apart)

New Features in v2.0:
All ships can use all weapons.
Each ship has multiple unique weapons and weapon behaviors.
Ship behavior tweaked. (e.g. Phoenix is now faster.)
Game balance refined.
Added more new special weapons.
All weapons have been reworked some a little, most a lot.
Game stability greatly increased for computers that had problems with crashing.
Table file restructured to eliminate the crash on exit that occurred on some computers.
Added to weapon visual effects.
Added more new trail textures.
Some new projectile models are being used.
Several missiles now leave sparks in their trails.
Hawk and Fang have their own ship icons in the HUD.
Each ship has a signature flare type.

Ships:
Each ship has modified handling, and extremely modified weapon use.
Each ship has multiple "Favored Weapons" it can use in a uniquely powerful way, and multiple special weapons that are unique to the ship only.
The Magnum has been replaced by the Hawk.
The Black Pyro has been replaced by a totally new ship called Fang. It is a completely new model and is fully textured. The Fang has no engine glow and leaves no afterburn trail making it well suited for shadow.

Note, Typing "byemonky" will give you a 3rd person view. You may want to try this if you selected the Hawk (Magnum slot) or the Fang (Black Pyro slot).

Weapons:
The weapons now function very differently. All the weapons are faster, more lethal, and aimed at strategic use. e.g. Use the drastically modified Napalm Rocket to snipe a pillbox instantly rendering it an inferno, (you have to see it...). Unleash a blizzard of the violet trailed homing cyclone missiles with the new Swarm EMD, (again, this is just beautiful to watch, but very difficult to describe...).

Counter measures have been replaced by robots and specialized Gunboys. You can deploy them and they will autonomously operate on your side.

Game Play:
Group C 3 is packaged with 17 D3 levels, so it can be played immediately with anyone else who has it.



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s8: GroupC Misc Info:

Q: What Versions are there?
A: VERSIONS:
GroupC 3 v3.0 --- (Current Version)
GroupC 2 v2.0m
GroupC 2 v2.0
GroupC 1 v1.0


Q: Where did this come from?
A: Initially I built GroupC just for fun, and played it exclusively on my LAN network with friends. My friends and I had a blast playing GroupC, and so I figured I would finally release it, and hopefully others will have as much fun playing GroupC as I do. The encouragement and positive feedback I got was far more than I ever could have expected, and so now I find myself releasing version 3. I am very grateful to all the wonderful people of DBB and elsewhere who have been so supportive and encouraging.


Q: Why was the first release named "Group C 3rd gen" and the second release called "GroupCn2"?
A: Before I made GroupC I began experimenting with table modding in D3. I stored all the weapons I modified in a folder named GroupA. After becoming familiar with the table modding system, I began building my first playable table mod, the contents of which I placed in a folder called GroupB. GroupB was quite a bit of fun, but it was mostly just designed to see if a largely modified playable table-mod would work. At that point I began work on a new mod. This was to be a fully playable total rework of all the weapons, ships, and game mechanics. It was simply named "GroupC". At the time I finished the first playable beta version of GroupC. The next major step towards the full working version of GroupC was called "Group C 2nd gen", for the 2nd generation rework of GroupC. Finally came the third rework "Group C 3rd gen". At that time, I had a wood burning 56k modem, and no hope of releasing this near finished version, so I simply played it on my LAN with friends. At long last, I finally got cable internet, and suddenly had the opportunity to release GroupC, which until then had never seemed like a real possibility. I released what was essentially version 1.0 with its full name, "Group C 3rd gen". I was amazed when I got so much positive feed back. So I set forth on expanding all aspects of GroupC and after much work, I finished and released GroupCn2, (Technically this was "Group C 3rd gen v2.0") but to avoid confusion I decided to omit the "3rd gen" part of its original name. Note it's now up to version three (“GroupCn3”).



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[Kilarin]

WOW this looks big!
Downloading now...

[Space-Invader Klein]

Some people think its stupid because they aren't used to the weapons or tactics, but I love this mod. Its just as easy to stay alive and pwn if you know what your doing, or how to use each ship... Great job, if only you could do the same to the 'Best of D3 #1' 'Best of D3 #2' Cluster levels, that would be awesome!

[Testiculese]

I like the weapon effects/designs, but the weapons are just too much. Super-duper-wowee overloaded weapons are just obnoxious.

Very pretty though! It's pretty sweet that a little bit of playing around can make this game still look just as good as the newer ones.

[Pumo]

Wow! It looks just sooo good!!

Even if i'm not a multiplayer fan, this looks superb!

As Testi said, maybe the weapons are a bit too overloaded, but it doesn't mateers, this deserves a try!

(Downloading right now.... )

[Kaboo Hahahein]

Hey,

Just wanted to say many thanks for this mod, me and some friends have been playing this non-stop. It's so much freaking FUN.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[grizz]

Just downloaded it. Looks like fun. Thanks for the work.

[sushi.h.a.]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I am glad that people are enjoying it, and again, I am always happy to receive feedback. In fact, had it not been for the great feedback I got from GroupC 1 and 2, I probably would not have made GroupC 3, and as I enjoyed making and playing it, I am vary thankful to all the people on DBB who have shown interest.

In regards to the weapon power, I understand the concern, and appreciate the comments. When I first started play testing GroupC 3 I was primarily concerned with that very issue. Before releasing GroupC 3, I built a few watered down variants of it for play testing and comparison purposes, so that I could get a feel for the game play differences between various weapon power levels. While I was initially more comfortable with lower power levels, I found that after my friends and I had played for quite a while, we all became much more familiar with the types of evasive strategies and tactics unique to GroupC 3. At that point the watered down weapons started to feel watered down, and battles, while beautiful, felt like they were fought with spectacular Nerf guns. So, I switched back to the full power weapons, and found that they now felt far more balanced than they initially did. Now, I definitely wouldn’t be able to go back. One of the things I think took the longest to adjust to, is that the weapons, and certainly the ships, are faster in GroupC 3. (...especially fusion.). Taking advantage of the speed and maneuverability of each ship took me quite a while to master, especially for the Hawk (magnum slot). For almost a year, we all swore that it flew so heavy that it would have to be changed to become as combat effective as the other ships. However, one of my frequent LAN compatriots demonstrated that he could consistently win matches with the Hawk after mastering its unique handling. What’s more, the supreme mass and armor of the Hawk made it a frightening adversary when played effectively. I began using the Hawk exclusively for a while to see if I could replicate that success, and found that after a bit of familiarization, I could. In many respects, it’s issues like these that make balancing GroupC 3 so tricky and counter intuitive at times.

With regard to releasing a version of GroupC 3 using the “Best of D3 #1” and “Best of D3 #2” level packs, I would be perfectly willing to do that, however my main concern is that I do not want to use custom levels in a GroupC release without permission from the level author. If I do acquire custom levels, and the appropriate permissions, I would include an html level-credits file in the archive of the final version. This way, I could include links to the author’s websites, and if they request, a feedback email address. I just think an html file would allow for greater flexibility and functionality than the usual plain text file.

That said, I am going to soon begin work on GroupC 4. Some of the major additions I plan to implement are high detail custom ship models, and hopefully weapon and projectile models as well. (I have actually already begun on the custom ship models.) I also hope to build several additional levels specifically for GroupC 4.

At any rate, thanks again everyone, your comments are much appreciated.
Take care everyone.
-sushi

UPDATE: (04/04/08)
I am nearing completion in a major stage of another descent related project (the Descent 1 Lunar Outpost Recreation in Unreal 2004). I have already begun work on GroupC4, and will step up work even more after releasing the first major version of the D1-UT2004 level.
Take care every one.
-sushi

[Gekko71]

...hey, anything that makes D3 and 6DOF fresh again is a good thing in my book. Besides, with all teh delays in getting CD to market, this looks like a bloody great idea to me.

Downloading now ....are there any web-servers running C3 yet?

[Kaboo Hahahein]

UPDATE: (04/04/08)
I am nearing completion in a major stage of another descent related project (the Descent 1 Lunar Outpost Recreation in Unreal 2004). I have already begun work on GroupC4, and will step up work even more after releasing the first major version of the D1-UT2004 level.
Take care every one.
-sushi

I love you.

[Spidey]

NICE!...I wish I still played!

[Alter-Fox]

How do I use it to play single-player missions?

[Red_5]

K, I just played this with my buddy last night, here's my feedback:

AWESOME!

I haven't had this much D3 fun in a long while...

Love it!