DescentBB

Hey everyone, I recently started up a LP channel which I'll post the link to here and potentially in another topic in General Entertainment. I plan on playing old games I've loved over the years growing up from the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 1, Playstation 2 and the PComputer. To add to the unique nature of my LPs so they aren't just 'another' playthrough is to impose restrictions on all my runthroughs to make things interesting not only for myself but for my viewers. Games in the line-up:

Legend of Zelda - 1st quest: 3 heart run, no potions. (Complete)
Quake II: Limited gear (shotguns, machineguns, grenades only, with armor, health pick-up limitations). (In Progress)
Beyond Good & Evil: No health usage.
Descent 1: Shareware arsenal with no picking up of death spew.
Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past: Minimalist run w/ no potions.
Smart Ball - Perfect Run.
Final Fantasy VII: Materia class-based run.
Contra 3 - The Alien Wars: No death run.

That's just starting off and I don't claim to be able to complete any or all of these challenges, I'm just attempting them for fun. And you are more than welcome to join along with me in trying them out and suggesting future challenges when I request ideas for upcoming games. I post all this here because I am doing Descent 1, with the intent to do Descent 2 and its Vertigo add-on in the future. That is not to say that custom user-made missions are out of the question either! Feel free to subscribe, I plan on releasing videos at minimum twice a week if not every other day during active playlists. (So far, I've been doing every other day) Here is a link to my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/retrochallengegamer You can also follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RetroChlngGamer

As for me, I have been playing Descent for quite a long time but have never really gotten into the whole multiplayer, community side of things. I've also explored various editing programs such as Devil or DLE-XP. They are amazing programs, I've dabbled in a few level making attempts, but its a bit beyond me. So I'll just stick to playing. Any recommendations for me? Good to meet you all and hope the community is friendly, it seems so from what I've seen! Have a great day everyone!

spam.

Eh, its a real person, even if the content might be mildly spammy and something they may have posted in a dozen other forums. They are just doing a "Lets Play" on Descent at some point and want more youtube hits, so mostly harmless. Its basically similar to Avder's going rambo in D1 thing, but not as extreme.

Moving to single player.

Yep. I advertised my Why Don't We Play of Descent 2 Vertigo on Ace in the gallery. Not that it got me more than one or two extra views, only on the first video.

At least it's nice people still know we're here.

I can understand where you could consider it spam. But I am currently recording a Let's Play of Descent 1 right now with utilizing nothing but Shareware weapons and accessing all secret levels. And if I die, unless its in a 'must-pass-thru' hallway, I'll do my best to avoid picking up my death spew just to keep things interesting and harder for myself. Once I've finished the recording and Quake II and Beyond Good and Evil have played themselves out on my channel, Descent 1 is the next one on the list. I'll then move onward to Descent 2 soon as well.

As for me, I have always loved this game and I'm in awe over some of the stuff you guys have churned out in single player. I just felt it cool to let you guys know that there would be a Let's Play if anyone would potentially be interested in viewing such things.

Well, when you're started with the LP, I'll probably take a look-see. Do you record commentary as you go? If so, how to do it the easiest way? I have been unable to add real-time commentary and still retain the in-game sounds using FRAPS.

I have a interesting setup that. I record the video from one computer completely with FRAPS. And at the SAME TIME, I have my headset with mic hooked up to ANOTHER computer recording with FRAPS that only gets my voice. So in post editing, I link the two audio streams together. So what you are hearing is my actual reactions, but off of another computer than the one I'm playing it on! lol

I never liked the idea of death spew in singleplayer. I always felt like Descent should have used the Doom death model: you die, you lose all your stuff and start the level from scratch with a level 1 laser and some concs. Whenever I play through any of the Descent games, I never permit myself to advance after a death. I always reload my most recent save, no matter how low my health was at this point. It really forces you to think your way through some difficult situations if you were, for example, sitting at 15 shields after a bad run-in with a vulcan bot and you had to get past a couple red hulks to get to the next key. Turns it into a much more strategic game really.

I also restrict my saves to up to 4 points in a level: final hostage rescued and one each immediately after obtaining a key and clearing out the immediate area.

Deaths allow you to just fly around nilly-willy because of how plentiful one-ups are and how frequently you get a bonus one from racking up points, especially on higher difficulties when the skill bonus starts to get rather large.

Already there have been two instances of spew white carding. I was killed in the entry way of the level 7 boss room. So there was literally no way I could get around picking up my death spew. So alas, I had to bite the bullet and white card that one.
Another had me dying near the end of level 10, however, I accidentally picked up the Vulcan Cannon on the way out to the exit. I am not white carding this one but will be playing it straight: Yes, I have the cannon in my inventory, but I will not be using it until I acquire a Vulcan proper in a subsequent level.

How did you die in the entryway to the level 7 boss room?

Are you doing this blind or have you played descent before?

And what skill level are you playing on?

Avder wrote:How did you die in the entryway to the level 7 boss room?

Are you doing this blind or have you played descent before?

And what skill level are you playing on?

Random smarts? Happened to me once, but I couldn't even strafe back then and I just sat in the tunnel like a scared mouse.

Sounds tasty. But small. Needs bigger portions.
Otherwise how would you make the boss kill himself?

I just gave myself an epic idea for one of the boss fights in Sol Contingency.

Well, I was poking my head out of the entry way and sniping some Super Hulks and Class 1 Drillers when the boss literally spawned right in front of the entry way exit, I couldn't even see his entire body he was that close. Least to say backing up into a locked door didn't help when three smart missiles were shot into the entryway = no win situation.
I am not playing it blind and I'm on Hotshot. Since I intend to 'finish' this game with my challenge not get an inevitable game over! lol

RetroChallengeGamer wrote:Well, I was poking my head out of the entry way and sniping some Super Hulks and Class 1 Drillers when the boss literally spawned right in front of the entry way exit, I couldn't even see his entire body he was that close. Least to say backing up into a locked door didn't help when three smart missiles were shot into the entryway = no win situation.
I am not playing it blind and I'm on Hotshot. Since I intend to 'finish' this game with my challenge not get an inevitable game over! lol

Why didn't you save the invuln for entering the boss room?

Ah because that's part of my challenge: no invuls.
I'm already on level 11 and by the time I get around to uploading the videos, I will have completed the entire game and will be on my a new game already. But first I have to finish uploading my Quake 2 Limited Gear Run and then Beyond Good & Evil No Health Run before I get Descent up. After that, I'm looking at Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past Minimalist Run and then Final Fantasy 7 Materia Class Based Run (which is shaping up to be QUITE interesting since I've limited characters to what each one can use. The first Midgar section is a lot harder due to my restrictions, but its a hell of a lot more interesting! lol) I might sneak in the original Super Mario Bros. No Hit and No Coin Collecting Run somewhere in there.

EDIT: Also, speaking of which, I have a very interesting idea for a Let's Play of Oblivion...anyone know of a voice changer that can reliably make me sound like a Khajiit?

LPs Done:
Legend of Zelda (fully posted), Quake II (two more videos before fully posted), Beyond Good and Evil (wrapping up post editing).
LPs in Progress:
Descent 1 (level 11 is being evil), Final Fantasy 7 (still in Midgar, this one is going to take a while), Link to the Past (just started), Oblivion (just started and already figured out what I'm doing with my voice for that one).
LPs for future:
Super Mario Bros. (No hit, no coin collecting), Super Ball (perfect run), Mega Man 1 (Buster, no death{maybe} run), Klonoa (Perfect run).
And that's just starting off. I got over 100 games I'll eventually do, and it'll probably be 5 years or more before I finally get it all done. So for anyone who subscribes, you are probably in for a long, wild ride.

The level 7 boss room should be doable without invulns. The trick is to lob homers to take out the vulcan bots nearest the entry tunnel, and then trichord in and take out the vulcan bots. The Red Hulks, believe it or not, are of little consequence because of all the maneuvering room you have. you can outrun a homing missile by trichording and pick off all of the red hulks on the fly. There are plenty of homers to do it inside the boss chamber. There is also a cloak which allows you to go head to head with a red hulk like it was a brown hulk.

And the boss himself is cake on any difficulty.

Yeah, that is the tactic I used, it was unfortunate that he spawned right in front of the entryway. Oh well, bad luck.
Anyway, I take back what I said about level 11, level 12 was FAR worse. Working on 14 now. I'm doing okay. Sucks to have to keep falling back down to level 1 lasers and concs due to deaths and not being able to pick up spew, but alas, I chose this challenge, so I must stick with it!

The way you do it is hang out in the door way so it cant close on you, and lob homers until you register 1000 points, indicating you killed a vulcan bot. Then just tricord like a bat out of hell and keep that speed while lobbing homers at the remaining vulcan bots. Then you can either keep circling and slowly picking off the red hulks since they can't hit you while you're at full speed, or go for the cloak so you can kill everything much faster.

I can perfectly and easily do that without trichording... I even did it on Insane.
Besides, that room has so much space you just need to listen for the vulcan and change direction slightly when you hear it!
This is what I mean when I say trichording is like an addiction. Even in the way you talk.

The level 7 boss used to be so hard to get past, it took me hours to beat him the first time on trainee mode.

Then I started reading the DBB, picked up a good joystick in anticipation of Descent 3 and changed my control layout considerably, then I got involved in multiplayer in D3 Demo 1. Now I save the invulnerability and cloak power ups for the vulcan and homing bots in the boss room which give me more trouble than the boss does by far. That room really does make it easy because it is so huge and you can just circle (you don't even have to fully trichord) around the center structure and the smart plasma seekers will never catch up to you.

I'm currently recording secret level 2 right now, level 21's reactor room was terrible. But I managed it.

As far as what will be posted in the meantime:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... JDQxSvo6ZD
We have Beyond Good & Evil No Health Run! Hope you all enjoy the game and let me know your comments about it and the particular challenge I picked.

Alter-Fox wrote:I can perfectly and easily do that without trichording... I even did it on Insane.
Besides, that room has so much space you just need to listen for the vulcan and change direction slightly when you hear it!
This is what I mean when I say trichording is like an addiction. Even in the way you talk.

You have to trichord to outrun a homer.

But not to get it to smash into the central column of the room.
And that's probably skillier than simply trichording.

Does... this really matter?

No. Alter-Fox is just touchy about what he sees as an over-emphasis on trichording skills.

YOU PEOPLE NEED PSYCHIATRISTS!

Everybody expects me to jump in when they talk about trichording like that. I try not to disappoint.
[/silliness]

noted

Alter-Fox wrote:But not to get it to smash into the central column of the room.
And that's probably skillier than simply trichording.

It also leaves you blind as you circle the room, puts you in the sight of a vulcan bot at near point-blank range meaning you can't dodge, and leaves you open to a random smart missile getting lucky.

I always circle closer to the outer edge of the room so I have better sight as to where everything is, and I'm generally far enough away from any stray vulcan bot that he can miss. Going at full trichord speed means I'm traveling about about 1.7 times the normal speed of a pyro, where a homer can only hit 1.5, so it renders me effectively invulnerable to red hulks as long as I choose my flight path correctly.

Also the only reason a smart should ever hit you in that fight is if it's fired at you at point blank range, and that only happens when you are in very close to the central column.

You underestimate the skills I have.
The room is big enough to see anything that's coming (except for a possible surprise boss teleport) far in advance.
And I have enough experience dodging smarts in multiplayer -- and D2, Puuma Sphere! -- to be able to dodge anything farther than the boss's cannon slamming into my face.
I can dodge homers other ways too. I'm pretty decent at it.

The point is I've pulled it off far too many times for it to be blind chance. You can go to lengths to prove how hard that would be without trichording, but that doesn't change the fact that I've done it lots.

I once flew between the boss's smart missiles, and even I had a demo recorded of it. But I lost it somewhere in a box of hard drives.

*Ahem* Back to the topic...I'm on secret level 3...its...pretty bad. The worst I've seen so far. Anyone else remember this level?

...yeah.

It's, as you say, pretty bad.

Either Secret Level 3 or Level 26... and for the longest time, I mixed up the two in my head. There's some parts of both that struck me as similar as a kid, and having the same music didn't help. At least Level 26 has more of a fixed path, though. Secret Level 3 tries harder to surround you, making it harder to progress, so take it slow and approach it methodically.

I had no problem with secret 3 on my ace playthrough, which is kind of odd because I've always had problems with it when I was playing on the lower difficulties.
But then again I knew where all the matcen triggers were by then! And all the best spots to take out the bots...

I look forward to seeing you fail .

Then I won't disappoint! I failed....several times in the main first room alone! Some of my deaths were...quite funny. Anyway, recording (trying) level 26 now. Once Beyond Good and Evil is finished, I'll roll right into the Descent videos.

Secret level 3...ah i have fond memories of that one.

As a kid I would, on occasion, stay up all night playing through Descent, start to finish. The goal of course being getting through the game without dying and without saving. Doing this is what allowed me to discover that I do my best work when so exhausted that my sleep deprived mind has trouble holding conscious thought. I literally would go through the game, starting around secret level 2, on my brains own autopilot. And I would be, during that time, nigh-invulnerable. Nothing could stop me. And I would fly around quite differently in that state than I did normally. Normally I play pretty conservatively, inching my way around corners and what not. During my sleep deprived sessions? Well I played more like that video I posted of me going Rambo on Level 6 or the other one of level 20. Extremely in-your-face. By the way that video of level 6 is extremely outdated. If I can ever get past level 9, I'll start posting those demos. I'm quite eager to show those off.

Anyway, the reason I know I flew that good is whenever I would do one of these all-night sessions, I would demo it. Every so often I would watch part of them and in the later levels I would always wonder "who the hell is this guy and how the hell did I do that?".

Coincidentally, when I competed on the IDL, several of my best matches were played with myself in that sleep deprived state.

Avder wrote:Anyway, the reason I know I flew that good is whenever I would do one of these all-night sessions, I would demo it. Every so often I would watch part of them and in the later levels I would always wonder "who the hell is this guy and how the hell did he do that?".

It sounds like you're a much better pilot than you think you are and when you're not thinking about how good you aren't, you take risks you wouldn't normally take. I'd bet you could match it in a non-sleepwalking state if you actually tried to play more agressively.

Yeah, I don't think I actually became good at Descent till after I abandoned the idea of playing cautiously.

Even his avatar looks sleep deprived!