Descent 3: Ultra? Go or no go?

[[]V[]essenjah]

Well, I have been working on a mod for the past few weeks for Descent 3. The idea was originally to replace all in-game ship and weapon models along with corresponding weapon effects with new meshes and textures. The problem with this, is that it is an enormous amount of work, if you wish to do this well and without all the nasty clutter. One problem I have found, is that the modeling for the game is relatively simple but the texturing is a huge pain. Why is it such a pain? Because we are stuck, splitting our textures up into 64X64 and 128X128 textures when it is much easier and much more organised to have them on a single 512X512 or even a 256X256 texture. I've also been trying to name the new textures with all the old file names, but sometimes, there are more textures on the new meshes than the old, which complicates things by quite a bit. I'm finding that it would probably be much easier to pack it all into a single HOG file and running the game off from the new HOG file. But then it would only be multiplayer compatible.


My other thought, is that after playing some D2 recently, I have discovered that the old weapons were far more balanced and fun to use. Yes, D3 gives you the AB right off the bat, but that is about the only thing that is improved. You can no longer shoot out lights, play in the dark, and no one includes cloaks in their levels these days. D3 is faster but the weapons are very different from older generations and it just doesn't have that edge. The game is also far brighter and everything is nice and round, where D1 and D2, everything had sharp metal edges that somehow added to the game's overall feel.


This made me wonder, what if I went in a different direction with this? Rebalanced the weapons and replaced a few of D3's lesser weapons with D2 weapons. Minus any extra fluff. What if in this new HOG file, I only included the GX? The problem would be separating people who play this from those who play default Descent 3. I know this has been done before in Inferno, but too many weapons were added by it's creators that had nothing to do with any of the Descent games. This mod, would simply stick to what makes the Descent series fun in the first place.


The other problem, is that at the moment I have so little manpower to help complete this, that it is unreal. I do have DizzyRox and Zangarath but Zangarath really can't help a lot as of yet and Dizzy hasn't replied to me in a couple of weeks. So, I am posed with a question as I am still chugging along on my part.



So, at that, I leave it up to this community:

1. Should I just pretty it up and make a HOG file for people to play D3 with?
2. Should I combine it with D2 weapons and use just the GX for more of a D1-D2 feel?
3. Is a mod such as this, even really worth the time and effort?

[heftig]

Rebalancing the weapons would be good. However, for me, D3 is D3 and the game would lose something if you would mix it with D1/D2 (be it the GX or the weapons).

[Gold Leader]

Hi all
I know this is an old thread, but I am interested if D3Ultra did get any progress, if so i am willing to beta test

better late than never right

[vitosky]

Hello Gold Leader visit this site for D3 Ultra developement http://3d-get.de/metalbeast/

[Hunter]

Keep D3 weapons as they are. Improve the way they look, change their sound even - but don't start messing with the balance.