Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Grizzly on September 19, 2014, 04:48:17 pm
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So, the Rock Paper Shotgun Book Club is doing "Descent" this month.
So here's the first shocker: I have never played that game.
So, obviously, I now really really want to play it, and as I understand there's several ports and sorta thing for it. Which are the best ones?
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Playing the original on dosbox is actually not a bad experience. The ports have to change the graphics engine and the push you get off weapons feels different. I think we used DescentXL, not sure about other ports.
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If you want a more "authentic" port (as opposed to a maximum bells-and-whistles deal like D2X-XL), I've heard DXX-Rebirth (http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/) is good for that. I haven't tried it myself (on PC, anyway; like Cyborg17, I play the originals via DOSBox on my PC, but I have played DXX-Rebirth on my Pandora), but the screenshots (http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/screenshots/) certainly seem to be in keeping with the original.
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DXX-rebirth? Is that just a shortened way to say "D1X and D2X"?
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Well, D1X and D2X were technically much older coding projects for each title, which kind of became stagnant after a while. The respective "Rebirth" projects for each were started by one community member with the goal of generally staying close to the original retail experience, whereas D2X-XL was a separate project by another user that concentrated more on feature-addition. It's generally a matter of preference which you pick, though the dedicated multiplayer community seems to stick with Rebirth.
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I got the original to run, while for Descent 2, I used D2X-XL. It was a really fun and addictive experience. :) The visuals are dated, sure (though D2X-XL helps with that), but it's really, really fun. Descent 3 and Mercenaries should run normally, as they were Windows games.
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Now I'm reminded (again) of the Descent playthrough I abandoned some time ago now. I still haven't made it all the way through. I always seem to get bored for a while around the Mercury levels and forget to go back. I think this time I dropped it in one of the 'bonus' levels with fusion hulks ****ing EVERYWHERE (how the hell is this a bonus?). I actually had 2 playthroughs going simultaneously. One vanilla from GOG - packaged with dosbox right out of the gate, no assembly required, and one with rebirth. I started with rebirth for the updated graphics, but a ways into that playthrough the nostalgia hit me HARD and I decided I wanted to go through it completely retail. Having done that back to back, rebirth really does preserve the original. Higher resolution and higher quality (but not changed) models. It plays smoother as well. I would call that the most significant difference from retail. The ultra smooth feel to all the movement broke the original feeling a little.
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DXX-rebirth? Is that just a shortened way to say "D1X and D2X"?
No, it's a shortened way to say "D1X-Rebirth" and "D2X-Rebirth". :P
Or you could have just clicked on the link...
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Derp, that's what I meant. And I did click the link, but a) it took more than ~10" to figure it out, and b) I cba poking around links from links, so I just asked instead.
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dxx is certainly more stable and its not hard to find players for multi. d2xxl is better for single player, but save often because its crashy. the best descent experinece is running the glide version of d2 on a vintage 3dfx card under dos, because fast as **** framerates.
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I use D2X-XL, but it does take a little effort to set up correctly. I use a customized build for singleplayer with various minor changes, and a fix so it uses the Yamaha SYXG50 synth for midi music. XL can be configured to look identical to Rebirth, although I like some of the new effects, and it has some new features that several of the modern (and best) custom mission sets require. The custom levels are the main reason to keep playing D2, with several hundred excellent ones out there.
I'll have to check out Rebirth for multiplayer though. I have never seen anyone on XL, and only see people playing D3.
I always seem to get bored for a while around the Mercury levels and forget to go back. I think this time I dropped it in one of the 'bonus' levels with fusion hulks ****ing EVERYWHERE (how the hell is this a bonus?).
Yeah, the "secret" levels were more of an additional challenge rather than a reward for the player, in line with other games back then. D2 has much more interesting secret levels, although I think D1 levels are better and more memorable otherwise.
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if the rebirth trackers are still up perhaps we can get some scheduled games going.
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I use D2X-XL. I play Descent and Descent 2 through about twice a year. Grew up playing it so it's pretty much a tradition. Bloody great game.
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I go through a rotation of D1, D2 and numerous custom level packs every 5 or 6 years. I think I have around 400 levels in total now, many of which are better than the original ones. I'm currently playing a mission for the first time called Project Hydro, using my modified build and the custom music from another mission, Black Prophecy.
It would be fun to schedule some games. I think I still have some demos from the regular D2X-XL games we used to hold here a long time ago.
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There are certain pre 1995 games everyone should play.
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Was going to ask if anybody knew the name of the D2 level pack that had multiple "dimensions", each with a couple of levels... it started with a "water" dimension which where the "mine" was a huge cubic lattice.
But then I thought "maybe the name was 'Dimensions' "... and Google found it for me: "Encounter at Farpoint 2: Dimensions"
That was a good little level pack, that was.
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i tended to frown on hyper-dimensional levels. they always felt like dirty hax.
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EAF2 was a great campaign, but the "dimensions" are just different worlds in it. There are water levels, lava levels and so on as usual, not 4D or anything.
Check out Dimensional Intersect. It has 9 separate worlds that are all part of the same level, and a hub room that lets you teleport freely between them. It's probably the biggest Descent level ever created.
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What repository(ies) do you guys use?
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Repository? What?
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Where do you go to get all of your Descent mods? It's been a while since I've done that. Like for FS2 we have FSMods for most of our stuff.
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DMDB (http://www.enspiar.com/dmdb/) has just about everything, although it can be hard to figure out what's good there. The D2X-XL site has a list of what are probably the best level packs (under "singleplayer" on the side bar).
Among the classic campaigns, my favorites are Obsidian, Entropy 2 and Project Mandrill. Pretty much all the modern era stuff is also excellent; some that come to mind are Enemy Within, The Sphere, Pumo Mines and Boiling Point. Dimensional Intersect and Anthology are single levels that are bigger than some level packs. The modern, XL-specific stuff really takes the game to a different level in terms of level design and detail.
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Sweet, thanks. :yes:
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I remember making levels but not great ones. I made about 4 that were worth playing and a lot more that weren't. One of those four is in that repository, but I can't remember what it's called. Oh well, it was Descent 1 level.
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Same here. I made at least 20 levels back in the day, although several were never finished and only three or four were any good. One is supposed to be in space (before FS came out) and has a bunch of enemy ships that strafe and move very quickly.
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What did you guys think of the D1 Levels of the world.
I once tried to get through all of them on insane, and most of them were enjoyable. There was one with a lot of helixes, and there was a trigger to get to the red key that I could never find. I never looked in DMB because I wanted to find it honestly (but I obviously never succeded).
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I think about a third of them are very good, and but there are quite a few mediocre or multiplayer-only ones. I put together a 40-odd level mission with what I thought were all the good singleplayer ones.
You're probably thinking of Corkscrew, which is probably the most complex level in that pack. D1 didn't have switches and only had pass-through triggers, so it can be hard to figure out what you're supposed to do. Some of my favorites are Gamefreak's Realm, Apple Pie, Operation Res-Q and Turncoat. The Cycloid is another good D1 level, which is not part of that collection but has a pretty unique design.
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i used to make levels but i dont think ive ever made one that i was happy enough with to put online.
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just wait for Sol Contingency to come out. It's a remake of Descent.
http://preparefordescent.com/
EDIT: It's supposedly coming out this month.
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just wait for Sol Contingency to come out. It's a remake of Descent.
http://preparefordescent.com/
EDIT: It's supposedly coming out this month.
FTFY (Don't put the entire URL in [yt][/yt] tags, just the video's tag [the part after v=], in this case, avPeGfIQnw0)
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^^ sex