im pretty sure all the descent 1 and 2 weapons could be replicated with existing table tags and/or scripting weapons like the spreadfire and helix could be done with lua (look for shots of a crtain type of weapon and spawn the rest with script based on the original's position and direction), gatling type weapons can be done with ballistics tags, phoenix would be pretty trickey. most other weapons wouldnt need much but existing table tags. since i didnt like d3 all that much (the lack of destructible lights, and the cuteness of the robots took away from the dank dark feel of the older mines), im not familiar as with the weapons there. the flamethrower could maybe be done with lua. and weapon pickups / selections, well im sure theres ways around that if it means scripting the whole thing from scratch.
the main problem is levels, they would have to be very large, very complex pof files. since freespace is not an fps engine, it does not have the lighting or portal systems needed to make good looking, fast running levels. you might be able to accomplish something similar to descent 1 or 2, but nothing like descent 3 (which i thought had really ugly levels). that descent 3 mod for doom 3, into cerberon i think, had some really awesome levels, what d3 should have had. lighting could be possibly generated with a high end modeling program like max, which would allow you to 'bake' your shading right into the textures. however this means youre allowed zero reusage of uv spave making texturing a nightmare. also the lighting would not be dynamic. no shooting out lights like you had in descent 2 (which made it the coolest decent out of all 3). portals (not the kind you fing in prey or hl games), are what make fps games fast while looking totally awesome. they essentially define contiguous spaces which should be rendered all at once. anything not in the space you are in is culled from the render lists and textures for adjacent rooms are precached (freespace precaches everything at mission start so the quality of the environment must be reduced). freespace does not have this. so its impossible to make good looking levels. if perhaps it becomes possible to create hardware lights from scripting, well maybe something can be done. things like doors, switches, destructable objects could all be done. also the speed/quality of collision detection with the level may be an issue.
as far as ships and controls go, already there, just a matter of tweaking stuff till the physics feel right. really low damp and rotdamp values and slower speeds would work well. someone, i forget who, converted the d3 player ships to pof and i used them in a test of flying in a level (which i slapped together with a quake level editor and ran through several conversions). combat was aqward, colision detection glitchy, and ai didnt know what to do with itself, just kept running into walls. i slapped together a few descent weapons for nostalgia, but it just wasnt the same. into cerberon is more fun.
