DescentBB

I was bored and downloaded the demos for Descent 3, to see how they differed from the final retail.

I only got the first one to work, and I am really... I just don't know.

1) I must say that I do prefer the darker lighting over the current lighting in Descent 3, it just fits better with the Descent I/II dark lighting theme.

2) That blocked off area that you could go to into the demo was kind of cool!

3) What the hell is the deal with the spaceship, and the story in general? Do they refer to you as someone else other than MD-1032 or am I just confused.

You are a different pilot in this scenario. And you are collecting a sample of the alien virus that will later be experimented with Dr. Schwitzer and his team. Yeah, it's Picco station, but the ship is at the end rather than the lab.

I remember the feeling of playing that demo the first time. It was great. I remember thinking \"WTH\" when I saw a tail bot for the first time.

hmm.. might just go get that myself.

I never connected Demo 1's crashed saucer with the alien virus in the main game, although I guess it makes sense. I wished Descent 3's tone was a lot darker. Man, you look back on it now and it's like watching an overly bright cartoon.

lol Yeah NOW; but 6 years ago, this was great. The funny thing is Kyo, i remember some folks complaining that D3 was TOO dark in some areas back then. And I would reply \"That's what the headlight is for!\"

Lighting for D3, as you know, is difficult to control like we are used to today. I think UT3's builder has gone down that same road. While it has some neat and VERY cool features, there are some very critical tools and controls missing where lighting is concerned.

In CODd3, it was very difficult to get the lighting i wanted; either it was TOO dark or Too light. Moderating some very mild ambient light seemed to smooth things out a bit, but it seems cheesy to me as I prefer a realistic touch. ... but that's hard to do when your light sources don't throw light in a realistic fashion.


Oh, btw. it's also 640x480 max res.

Piccu station has been ported as a D3 mission. Get it from PD here.

IMHO D3 Demo 1 had better balance than pretty much everything after as well. Only a handful of missiles, none of them were too strong really, and the guns were excellent as well.

Just goes to show, more is not always better... heh!

Ah, complaints about the Napalm Cannon being overpowered.

Wow, I've never played the demo before.

1) I like the afterburner MUCH better, starting off slow and getting faster. It actually gives use to the whole bar, now, if you use afterburner past 20% use, you go the same speed as normal speed.

2) All the weapons seemed very toned down, I kinda liked it.

3) I like dark lighting much better. In fact, I'm surprised noone has made a totally pitch black level yet.

Spaceboy wrote:3) I like dark lighting much better. In fact, I'm surprised noone has made a totally pitch black level yet.

Actually I think there is one (single player) level that is totally dark. Let me see if I can find it...

Here: Lunar outpost MN0019.

I got really far into that level until my game crashed and I hadn't saved.

Through it I was just thinking how fun a pitch black skybox or faded rose or indika or veins-- etc would be. It would create a whole different level of strategy.

...ok.

You'd memorise the layout, and use sound to work out where the fights were. If you couldn't see the fireworks anyway.

Would still be the same old missile-boat-fest.

Sirius wrote:...ok.

You'd memorize the layout, and use sound to work out where the fights were. If you couldn't see the fireworks anyway.

Would still be the same old missile-boat-fest.

oh come on. how long have you guys been playin this game?? If secondaries are an issue, the for gawd sakes.. GET RID OF THEM! You can disallow them when you set up a game or server.

Sirius wrote:...ok.

You'd memorise the layout, and use sound to work out where the fights were. If you couldn't see the fireworks anyway.

Would still be the same old missile-boat-fest.

There would be alot more stealth involved. Turn on a headlight to see if someone was there, and risk exposing yourself to everybody, or shoot off occasional shots until you set off somebody's shields. Much more could probably be there too, but it would be kinda fun. I've also never seen a level that's full of cloaks.

Problem is, generally \"you\" don't set up a game or server, someone else does... usually someone who doesn't worry too much about that sort of thing.

Missiles don't grate on me as much as some others, although I would prefer it if there was a little more emphasis on primaries. Hence why I prefer D1/2 by far...

(P.S. Or D3 Demo 1. That had a good balance between the two as well.)

Spaceboy wrote: I've also never seen a level that's full of cloaks.

Level 6 of Wolfpack 3, Cloak War. It was all about the cloaks.

Spaceboy - I notice now that you're talking about a level with no lights, as opposed to a level with black textures. That makes things slightly different, but there are ways.

Leaving behind flares is one of them. It's easy enough to move to a different angle so that it's not obvious who left them.

The other thing is, I'm not sure how close you can get a level to pitch black... wouldn't the ship itself cast a small amount of light? Pretty sure it did in the first two Descent games.

I think the only the only light the ship casts is from the engines.... but don't hold me to that. I HAVE been in some black areas that required a headlight before I could even see a wall directly in front of me.

One thing I will say is that they changed the light settings a great deal between 1.1 and final. (I couldn't get 1.2 to work) I run a light setting in D3 at 1.14 and in the demo, that's nearly black. It looks pretty good at 1.56 or so.

As I recall, there was a DirectX change during this time which threw a curve ball in the whole lighting thing, that and Matrox and their bumpmapping.

D3 demo 2 is more or less exactly the same as the full version.

DarkHorse wrote:Ah, complaints about the Napalm Cannon being overpowered.

I think the Napalm cannon is cool, Great short-range weapon. But it dosn't make much sence. I think it was only included because other FPS games had Flame Throwers.

Your in a "Space Ship". I mean, the materials it is made out of should protect it from things hotter than Napalm. When the shuttle comes out of orbit it is subjected to way hotter temps.

Sure you can argue that the Tiles protect it, which they do. But in the future, with some new materials (I dunno, like - from another planet maybe) the entire ship could be made with something that withstands vast ammounts of heat.

Napalm cannon was cool, but didn't really fit the story in my opinion.

Argh! Confusing memories!

I remember playing D3 for the first time at a friend's house long ago, and the Piccu station virus-collecting level was in it, same one as the demo, and I couldn't beat it! But in my version, it's the dumb one with the lightning rods and the superthief at the end. What the heck, I'm so confused!

Plasma cannons aren't feasible in anything like the form exhibited by Descent 3 either, and lasers simply don't work like that in real life.

It's a game. You have to leave reality behind at some point, and the fact is the Napalm is a fun weapon.

Sirius wrote:IMHO D3 Demo 1 had better balance than pretty much everything after as well.

I could swear Demo 1 had only the huge Polaris level for multiplayer so after much compaints The Core was added but my version says 1.0 and already comes with both

D3 Demo 1 always had both Polaris and The Core multiplayer levels and the different version of level 3. D3 Demo 2 had an identical level 1, and only Tarus as the multiplayer level.

DarkHorse wrote:Plasma cannons aren't feasible in anything like the form exhibited by Descent 3 either, and lasers simply don't work like that in real life.

It's a game. You have to leave reality behind at some point, and the fact is the Napalm is a fun weapon.

Ohh I know - I didn't say I didn't like them, just said they didn't make sense. Fun as heck though, unles of course your on the other end of the Napalm