How do I play in 2013

[Birdseye]

HOW
d1, d2, d3
contact me on AIM: snuffprawn
to play a game of descent with me

[Duper]

The current D1 and D2 mods have UDP capability. there are a couple of sites that offer chats. Vortex still works for D3. There's also various trackers for. I think you'll find most of those links stickyed above.

Welcome Back Birdy! good to seeya!

[Birdseye]

Grax showed me: http://www.descentvalhalla.com/tracker/

I figured out how to join a D1 game, but still couldn't start one even after trying port forwarding.
I need copies of D2, D3

Also the mouse control seems weird in d1x-rebirth, and there are new sensitivity controls. I did turn down my polling rate of my mouse to get closer feel but its definitely still pretty off. Hopefully D3 will feel more like it used to.

[Sirius]

I recall it definitely taking getting used to, and you do need to tweak Windows vs. game sensitivity to optimize it in any case. A lot of players are using mouse in D1/2 now though, so I'm sure you can pull it off
D2/3 can be found from GoG.com if you've lost your discs but have a few bucks spare...

[Ferno]

Birdswhore, you should get into the rebirth forum and talk to zico about mouse handling. Your input would help a lot.

[Money!]

The thought of seeing you in a game of D3 is pretty exciting Birds! I'll do what I can to catalyze that event..

As Sirius said, you can buy D3 from gog.com for $10. Once you install, the No CD Patch works well - credit to Gren for that link.

To look for games, there's Vortex, it has an automatic level download feature. Once you've downloaded most of the levels, Ryujin's tracker (that Grax showed you) let's you join games faster.

Hope that helps! Don't have AIM, if you post the times when you can usually play I'd be honored to come get killed.

[Birdseye]

I got someone sending me D3, no way I am paying for a game I own over 150 copies of (In theory, never cashed in my fking interplay bucks)
So far it just crashes a lot, sadly. I have windows 7 64 bit

I guess I would just tell/ask the d1x rebirth guys that it feels like junk and there are a lot of strange options I've never seen. Honestly though I was super picky about my config and I don'tr have my fav keyboard and I'm using an optical mouse instead of the old PS2 ball mouse. Optical mouse were out when I was playing,I always felt they controlled terribly.

So far in D1 I can't get accurate without losing my ability to move.

I am kinda considering buying a mouse that is close to my old favorite PS2/ball mouse so things will get closer.

[Top Gun]

Optical mice today are a long way from where they were 7 or 8 years ago, but that aside, have you tried using a laser mouse? You'd get much higher DPI with it, for one.

[Behemoth]

the problem is no laser or optical can replicate the natural smoothness of a ball mouse

[Duper]

lol ..yeah, like the crap that would build up on the rollers and make the thing jump all over the place.. BOY I miss that.

Some of the "strange options I've never seen." are options to set sensitivity and deadzone for your mouse and stick. Be patcient and look through the menus. You're going to get new sets of instructions regardless of the mod you use.

I use a RAT 7 and I don't have a problem with it in D1 or D2. I never played D3 with a mouse and I've never cared for it even when it first came out. Infact, right now, I'm having an issue with D3 and my mouse. I touch my mouse and the ship does something like 200 revolutions inside a second. I'll use my stick if I ever play again.

What mouse are you using Bird?

[Behemoth]

And higher DPI doesn't make a mouse better, what matters is executing fluid smooth controlled movements.
If that were not true then other being a good mouser would boil down to having the latest new mice that come out every so often.

[Duper]

oh i know. The rat7 is one of the higher end mouses that uses a laser. (two actually). It also weighs about 25 grams. ^_^ well.. due to the weights I added.

iirc, going back to a discussion I had with Bubba, the polling have more to due with "speed" than DPI. DPI just gets you precision (resolution). So if you want to digi-paint with a mouse then I guess 5600 dpi would do pretty well.

...but I assume you know all this.


(btw Bubba, my apologies. I was way wrong on the the whole LED / laser thing. *palmface*)

[Krom]

Modern laser gaming grade mice are more accurate, more consistent and lower latency than ball mice ever were. But perhaps the best example I can point out is when I changed from an old logitech 3 button ball mouse to a microsoft intellimouse optical, I was able to improve my aim a fair amount in fps games, and then when I replaced that with a logitech mx512 my aim dramatically improved almost immediately, especially in "twitchy" shooters. So basically you should try out a logitech g500 weighted to match what you are used to for a few days before you dismiss modern laser mice for old mechanical mice.

[Ferno]

Seconded on krom's opinion.

I have a G700 and it's just amazing. It has a nice weight to it, big pads that slide well on just about anything, wireless with the option to leave it wired (which I think you'd like, Birds) and adjustable report rate. My personal setup is medium sensitivity, fine tuned through windows mouse rate, with no acceleration on. I can tell exactly where I am with it with these settings.

[Behemoth]

Well, i HAVE tried several different types of opticals and never really had the right "feeling" as my fav mouse, nothing else has come close, i actually have two mice plugged up right now, i use the optical for browsing and my old mouse for playing.
I don't disagree about the accuracy, but it feels less natural to me, who's used to the way it feels.

[Top Gun]

The physical ball mice I remember didn't feel "natural" so much as "oh hell it's not picking up moving left there must be goddamn gunk all over the roller again."

[Behemoth]

Sounds like someone needed to take better care of their equipment then ;p

[Sirius]

Yeah, I never started mousing on a mechanical one - optical at first, moved to a G700 somewhere around a year ago I think. It's worked OK.

[Krom]

Kids these days... When I grew up, overclocking meant peddling harder!

[Duper]

Kids these days... When I grew up, overclocking meant peddling harder!

and super processing meant you were wearing Red Ball keds! The red ball made you go faster! ...before there was running with a knife

[Behemoth]

Honestly i don't hate optical mice, i think they work well, just not as good as my old mouse, if they made good opticals with less useless buttons all over them then maybe i'd be willing to try some different ones, i've tried the G5, G7, and G600 among other less known ones, but i find my old logitech better.

[Top Gun]

Sounds like someone needed to take better care of their equipment then ;p

We had a family of four boys, and I was the oldest at about 10 when we got our first Windows computer. Tell me how you don't wind up with a gunked-up mouse in that scenario.

Seriously though, I still get gunk build-up on the slider pads of even my old crappy optical mouse. Hand sweat has to leave something behind when it dries.

[Behemoth]

I agree, just bustin your chops lol
nah, keeping the rollers clean is just the price you have to pay for having a better mouse

[Top Gun]

You've yet to give any real reason why such mice would be "superior" in the first place.

[Krom]

The term for it is: Placebo effect.

[Behemoth]

i don't really need to name a reason, compare anyone on an optical mouse to someone like me or Birdseye, and theres your answer.

[Top Gun]

That's not really an answer, unless you're trying to suggest that your equipment is the only reason why you're that good...which isn't exactly flattering toward either of you.

[Behemoth]

no, it's implying that our equipment helps

[Sirius]

Does optical include laser? Both MD and I use one or the other... can't recall what Jedi uses
I forget whether Ryusei normally uses joystick or mouse, he's pretty accurate either way though.

[Sergeant Thorne]

So to sum up, would it be correct to say that Behemoth and Birdseye have got balls, while everyone else has traded their balls in for the latest in high-tech gadgetry?

[Sirius]

Yep.

But I insist it still works.

[Ferno]

Does optical include laser?

"Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation" The first word should answer your question. ;P

[Duper]

Actually Sirius, there is a difference. (as I found out later myself )

Optical uses a "simple" focused LED. Different companies used different kinds of LEDs with different colors for whatever reason they seemed necessary.

Laser mice use an actual LED laser (see Ferno's post ) instead of a LED offering higher fidelity and greater accuracy of the device. As was discussed earlier, this really only matters when you're shooting 1 or 2 pixels or working on graphix.

[Ryujin]

Pros in highly competitive games use equipment they've used for 5 or sometimes 10+ years. They use what they're most comfortable with. There's nothing wrong with ball mice as long as you maintain them. People are going back to old school mechanical keyboards because they are higher quality and provide functionality that many modern keyboards don't such as n-key rollover, individual circuits, no rubber dome, etc.

Both sides have valid points. Behemoth's argument is familiarity, comfort, and perhaps quality of ball mice helps his game. Krom and others argue modern mice have more precise technology which is true but it doesn't necessarily make it better overall in everyone's case. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference.

[Sirius]

Yeah, keyboards you have to go to specialty equipment these days or you get garbage that ghosts at the drop of a hat. I recall hearing of people who were still using 1980s-vintage keyboards because they built those things like tanks

In recent years the Sidewinder X4 seems to have become a bit of a favorite, since it performs just fine for games and doesn't actually cost all that much. Most of the people who went to DKH's LAN last year had one.

P.S. Behe subsequently told me that there is a trick with ball mice (or at least the one he uses) that helps with turning; after you lift it, the ball can keep on going. This doesn't happen with optical mice. Didn't happen with the ball mice I remember using either, but maybe a little Teflon spray would do the trick...

[Behemoth]

Sometimes depends on the ball you use, not every one of em can do that trick.
I've tried several different optical mice and regular ball mice work best for me.

[Sergeant Thorne]

Let's be serious... You people who pilot a ship in the mines with a solitaire clicker are a disgrace! You gave up the realism of piloting a Pyro with an honest-to-goodness stick like nature PTMC intended for a few measly extra percentage points on your kills/deaths ratio, and you've lost your humanity in the process! The best explanation I can come up with is that your hand was already so tired from working in that position too much to begin with, that you decided to do something different for Descent!!

This mouser roast is performed by a trained professional. Careless use of razor sharp wit, and perfect comedic timing can result in severe injury or death. Do not try this at home.

[Duper]

Myself, I played with a Precision pro II to start with (after a super cheap stick), then a Siatek 3D Gold (awesome stick) and then to a Saitek X52. Still sits here on my desk. .. a bit more dusty than it used to me..

[Sirius]

Yeah, I went through a few. Early days, I had a 3D Pro - it broke a few times, eventually reached the point it couldn't be repaired properly. Replaced that with a Precision Pro until that gave out too; then a Logitech Wingman Extreme or something, which only lasted six months; then a Precision 2 which I think at least had a good innings. I recall it did eventually fail as well, and when I got a new stick for MW4 it was a Saitek Cyborg Evo. That actually hurt to use in Descent because they decided to stabilize it with a bed-spring, so I started alternating that with mouse in D2 so I could play for longer. It took a while until I was able to get things working so that the mouse wasn't trading down though.

But... yeah, mice are definitely cheaper and less hassle.

[BUBBALOU]

I have a plethora of different joysticks for different games , when it comes to mice I'm very reluctant of change. I have been very comfortable with a Logitech G500 optical Laser mouse for the past 3 years, on the fly adjustable DPI just works awesome when disabling windows acceleration