DescentBB

I made this poll because I'm curious as to what people think is the most dangerous normal robot in D1 and why.

I just realized...I forgot to include the Cloaked Driller.

I have to say class 1 driller. If he gets the jump on you your gonna take damage no matter what.

Wow, everybody voted for the driller? He's not too bad. If you know where he is, one homer takes him out. Keep them hot if there's one in the area, and things don't get too bad. Yeah, he's nasty if he gets the drop on you, but so are half the robots in the game.

My #1 bad guy is the homing missile guy. He's the only bot that can routinely get me for multiple lives. I'm probably biased, though -- I play a lot of cold start games on level 11 and 20. There is nothing in the game like a homing missile guy loose on level 11, if you have no idea where he is. He's crazy fast and very quick on the draw. The green tri-missile punks on level 20 are nearly as dangerous when loose, but I find they're trivial in the open and not too bad even in tight spaces, once you're used to them.

Here's how I'd categorize the bots.

Tier I - these bots I actively fear. No holds barred tactics are authorized. Invulns and cloaks authorized. Suicide runs / large stacks of missiles may be worth it if they're in a bad spot and I can be assured of shutting them down.

• Homing missile guy
• Fusion bot

Tier II -- watch out for these guys. Cheap tactics authorized--sniping, shooting around corners, missile shots they can't respond to. I won't go up against them in a fair fight unless I'm pretty sure I can win.

• Green platform guy -- the tri-missile punk.
• Driller/cloaked driller

Tier III -- kinda dangerous. I mostly scrap with them / let them shoot at me, but I still prioritize them.

• Plasma guy
• Concussion missile guy / cloaked concussion missile guy

Honorable mention -- the proxy bomb layers. Gophers, I think they're called? Very dangerous in large numbers.

Hey, MD...wasssup?

I voted for the driller, because that scream leaves you senseless...

I chose the missile platform bot. Yeah the driller is fast and
aggressive and good at doing some damage even if you're
cautious, but one homer will kill it and its damage is limited.

The missile platform on the other hand can completely screw
you over for making one single mistake.

BTW, what's the point of including the medium hulk when the
platform is already on the list?

I forgot about the fusion bot. he is a nasty sob too.

Seemed every time, by the time I heard the class 1 driller's shriek, it was too late to avoid its vulcan barrage.

Hey Spidey...been forever since I've last talked with you, ever since the golden Descent 2 days. What's up?

Well, as for your question, I'm busy working, learning new stuff, and not being able to play much because there is no one on the D server on Kali with whom I may play (except for Warlord, Flip, Ashes, NuclearTomato, sometimes Sirius---the only people I see playing D1 and D2 who are left). If there were more games I would be playing more. I still come online to Kali, but even if there were games being played, I find myself playing less because I have an increasing need to interact with and learn and do stuff that matters more to reality.

I don't know if the people who I *don't* see anymore have quit playing D1 and D2 and have moved on with life or have become too busy to play, or if they moved from Kali to a different place. I'd like to know where these D1 and D2 players have moved (if they have) to so that I can play more games again. Anyone know where the majority of them have gone to if they have moved somewhere else?

I stopped playing multiplayer regularly in 2001. These days I play MMOs like everyone else.

Ah come on man. Descent is all game and no fluff. Just admit you got tired of getting spanked and went to something easier.

Definitely the vulcan driller. I remember when I first started playing the D1 shareware demo, and I could never get past level 6 even on trainee because there are like 30 of them in there. Fast forward a decade and a half and it's still my most feared. Sure, heavy hulks, fusion hulks, and platform bots will ruin your day if you screw up, but if you play well and know where they are you can dodge their fire. I play on insane mostly with a cold start like Drakona, and the drillers Never miss, so you lose a large chunk of your shield even before the homer can reach them.

That's why you fire homing missiles around corners. Other thing that works well is blind-side them and duck for cover before they can turn (it's not instant).

Driller - need I say more? I originally thought my D1 copy was bugged because I didn't think such a common bot would be too crazy...

Sirius wrote:That's why you fire homing missiles around corners. Other thing that works well is blind-side them and duck for cover before they can turn (it's not instant).

Problem is that the majority of the time they already seem to know which way I'm coming from.

Yeah after you've played the game 100 times and know where their at Sirius has the right idea, but a driller will take a noobs lunch every time

I voted for the Class 2 Platform robot; that thing is a very nasty bugger on anything rookie or higher.

On insane, the vulcan guys can rip off a few shields if they get the drop on you and you don't put a homer right on them. Meanwhile, a roaming homer guy can rip off a few LIVES.

On lower skill levels, vulcan guys are nastier, but as you go up to the highest ones, it's no contest.

The red hulks are probably more dangerous, especially in groups, but I find the Drillers far worse. Those guys aren't just brutal, they're scary as heck - I can think of *nothing* in video games half as frightening as when they start shrieking and rip my ship to pieces.

I voted for the Fusion Hulk. One shot and you're gone. I think that Missile Platform, Super Hulk and Class 1 and 2 Drillers are a great nuisance, too.

Having played more of these guys, the super hulks are worse than I remembered, the vulcan drillers are a little easier, and the fusion hulks and green platform bots are significantly easier. Neither have instant-hit weapons, and neither have homing capabilities. Also, the fusion hulk is really slow moving.

Class 1 Drillers aren't too bad if you know where they are, but if they see you first, your toast. As for the cloaked ones, for some reason I didn't find them as bad. Maybe it's because they don't have the eeire scream.

I don't have the extremities to count the times I've almost pooped my pants when you hear the driller shriek and vulcan attack after long moments of silence... Those robots scare the crap out of me. Every time.

Yeah I agree with the Driller.

I can see what Lothar is saying about the homer guys. Most people favor the driller because of it's god awful scream, and I agree with that. Once I hear that scream even now i still cringe because I know I'm about to lose shields. The reason I think the driller is more dangerous than the homer guy is because the driller is never alone. You never see them in groups of less than two, and usually there's a cloaked one there too. If you don't have homers or are trying to snipe them from far away, they can still shoot you and instantly hit you, whereas you can pop shoot at a homer guy from another room over and over again and get out of the way before the missiles come close.

Also if I'm in an open area, the homing missiles never even come close to hitting me and I turn him into scrap metal pretty easily, even if there are a group of 2 - 3 of them, whereas the vulcan guy continues to peel shields off if you don't kill him before you even enter the room.

Is he the most deadly? In my book, yes. He has the speed, the ability to quickly strike you and take down a good portion of your shields, and that horrible shriek. So I vote him the most deadly, even though he plays the role of a support robot (especially the support of the homer guy) instead of a \"show stopper\" which are usually slow moving and easy to dodge.

flip wrote:Ah come on man. Descent is all game and no fluff. Just admit you got tired of getting spanked and went to something easier.

hahahah

Who is this?

Although I must say the subtle buzzing machine noises from the hulks is pretty intimidating in a strange way too.

I picked Fusion Bot for the eery feeling of life being sucked out of you & the bloodish light when the fusion rips through your hull.

DarkHorse wrote:hahahah

Who is this?

MMOHorse

I think flip was a Ranger when they were still going... don't remember much before that though.

I'm the resident noob Yeah Rangers games were fun I got about 8-9 months of good games when I started. Missed the boat I guess.

Ah. I'd probably already stopped playing Descent online by the time you started, then.

Well, I know this is old but I don't come on here much! I voted for the green platform bot. There was a level (20?) where they were hid in recesses, so the first time you played it, they blew you to pieces as you passed by.

Every time since, I try to peak around and kill it... but they sense you quickly, and the concussion blasts give you damage no matter what. Shooting half of a level 1 laser around the corner takes a while to kill it... and it always does at least some damage, if not killing me!

The vulcan guys on (level 22?) were nasty... had to sneak around killing one at a time before even thinking of entering that main room. Of course, the red guys upstairs were crazy too... without the invulnerability in the center, that would have been game, set, match!

On single player I tended to play very cautiously. I also liked to play in a sort of doom-esque style, where if I died, at all, I would revert to my last saved game, which was always at the start of the level. This meant that I would use every advantage I could and take out most of the really dangerous stuff like the red hulk and missile platforms at range or around corners. In most cases you can find a way to set yourself up to dodge, and out in the open you can even manage to keep the red hulks homers off your back.

Not the Vulcan bot.

Because I played without allowing myself to die, by the midpoint and near the end of the level I would usually be low on shields. A red hulk I could dodge and avoid if I needed to, but the Vulcan bot could easily land the finishing blow if I didn't get him first somehow.

My d1 threat priority list:
Vulcan Bot (cloaked)
Vulcan Bot
Red Hulk
Brown Hulk (cloaked)
Missile Platform Bot

Ive never really had a problem with a fusion bot. They're just too damned big and slow.

I can dodge drillers from a distance (serioulsy!), but for some reason it's hard for me to see a fusion shot from the minibosses.

The mini-gun robot is one of robots which is very dangerous, more than brother (I mean Class 2 Platform Robot because there are pink and green robots look like same shapes.)

Alter-Fox wrote:I can dodge drillers from a distance (serioulsy!)

Yeah, I do like that but not always because depend on size of room.

D2X-XL makes it easier because it gives vulcan tracers. You can actually see how much Drillers miss . Most of their shots actually don't hit you. (But the ones that do are dangerous).

Oh, BTW: Welcome back. I remember seeing you around here a long time ago (I think before I started posting).

Alter-Fox wrote:D2X-XL makes it easier because it gives vulcan tracers. You can actually see how much Drillers miss . Most of their shots actually don't hit you. (But the ones that do are dangerous).

Oh, yeah. But D2X-XL made me felt not playing the original game. I prefer old textures and models more that I use Descent Rebirth, I love that one.

Alter-Fox wrote:Oh, BTW: Welcome back. I remember seeing you around here a long time ago (I think before I started posting).

Thank you, Alter. I guess descentbb.net is more polite than other community forums.

Paskiewicz wrote:
Oh, yeah. But D2X-XL made me felt not playing the original game. I prefer old textures and models more that I use Descent Rebirth, I love that one.

Well, I personally love D2X-XL and everything it brings to the table, but regardless, to each their own. Welcome back.

The vulcan driller is dodgeable at long range if you are moving fast enough, since vulcan does have some travel time.

I've played Descent 1 last night... Got too many kills from drillers in level 22... I hate it a lot.