Slashdot Mirror
"Descent" Goes For a Crowdfunding Reboot (and a Linux Version)
New submitter boll writes A bunch of Star Citizen alumns have taken it upon themselves to resurrect the hit game franchise Descent, backed by a Kickstarter campaign. If you are a semi-oldtimer on the PC gaming scene, you may fondly remember how the original Descent was among the first to provide 6 genuine degrees of freedom during intense late night LAN gaming sessions."
Reader elfindreams adds: It will be released as a PC/Mac/Linux game and will include a single player campaign and multiplayer with up to 64 combatants on a map! They are working with a number of members of the current D1/D2 community to make sure the flight/gameplay feels "old school" and they are updating the technology and game to a new generation.
For maximum bazooka barfing!
There was no game more puke inducing than Descent 2 on the VR headsets of the day.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Just remembering that game gives me nausea.
Why not 128 player maps?
FPS's have been stuck at this 64-player server limitation since 2002. 13-years, move it to 128 player-servers.
... a steaming pile. The original makers of descent didn't know what made descent great and Descent 3 was not well received.
I remember long, cozy nights hunting robots through complex mine systems. This, though, seems like just another cheap multiplayer arena game, making yet another ever-broken promise of truly "destructible environments".
Why such games get priced the same as things with 50+hr single player campaigns - and moreso if you look at how much it costs to fly more than the base ship - is beyond me.
This is truly the best news I have heard in a long time. I so want this to happen. The best multiplayer game EVER!
Reason I ask is simple: Only pure 64-bit game I know of that's free is Hexen II http://sourceforge.net/project...
* It'd be great IF it were both OpenGL supporting AND more importantly (imo @ least) that it's a 64-bit port...
(I do recall this game being fun & it would be great IF it "fits the bill" on those accounts too...)
APK
P.S.=> Speaking of which (on gaming/being a "semi-old time PC gamer" in my time): Just HOW MANY & which games ARE pure 64-bit nowadays? A "little help" on that note gamers (been "outta the loop" gaming for a LONG time now, since oh... Doom II/Quake 4 really) - I truly do NOT know & perhaps you gamers "of today" will know... thanks on that note (trivia related more than anything)... apk
...with my Spaceball Avenger?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
"Peterson has big plans for Descent Underground, which will be both single- and multiplayer and will be set as a prequel, telling the story of how the games' Post-Terran Mining Corporation came to be. "
Would they touch a dookie at the $10 pledge level?
>> If you are a semi-oldtimer on the PC gaming scene
Yeesh...I guess those of us who played Zork should be in a nursing home.
THIS *may* have answered it for me though http://hardcore-games.azureweb... since SOME of those, I actually liked (Wolfenstein one for example).
(See subject, & again - thanks!)
APK
P.S.=> Been wondering it for a while now - & your points ARE ones I will "look out for" etc. if/when I get into some of those in that link & what you mention too (not into World of Warcraft here though)... apk
Three word commands, luxury.
When I was a kid we played in squashed dodecahedral maps, and we liked it.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
There was another version - Descent: Online - that was featured on one of the first online game services, ENGAGE Games Online, launched by Interplay in 1995. That was my second IT job. I think we supported up to 32 players in a single game, divided into two teams.
I was more into Rolemaster: Magestorm (a multiplayer FPS/RPG from Mythic Entertainment, same studio as Dark Age of Camelot),.
Edith Keeler Must Die
FreeSpace (and expecially FreeSpace 2) were the better games.
Pssh in my day we watched the dot an' we liked it
How the fuck can you be an "alumnus" of something THAT ISN'T EVEN RELEASED YET?
Seriously, the dizzying anticipatory (or desperately self-justifying, depending on how you view people pouring $70+ million into the kickstarter) hype has now apparently even crossed the bounds of 'pedestrian' chronology.
Any day now I'm expecting the nostalgic articles about how "great" Star Citizen was, along with triumphal marketing videos about how it redefined an entire genre and 'set the standard' for all the games that followed.
-Styopa
It seems to focus on multiplayer, which is exactly what Descent wasn't focused on and exactly what that game wasn't about. Call my enthusiasm severely dampened. Especially about including "modern gameplay" elements. That sounds like "HEALTH REGEN BECAUSE IT'S TOO HARD" to me.
Man, can you imagine how AWESOME a Zork reboot would be? Think of what you could do with it these days. User-selectable fonts, boldface *and* italics, and... dare I dream?... SUB-PIXEL RENDERING! How spooky would it be when your torch goes out to have your text dim turn by turn until you're finally eaten by that grue! To have subtle changes in typeface be a clue in the maze of twisty passages, all alike? To bask in the awe-inspiring majesty of Flood Control Dam #3 as represented by 72pt text?
Damn, where's the Kickstarter page? I wanna pledge NOW!
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
I found answers to it here also http://hardcore-games.azureweb... - to wit:
"DICE's Rendering Architect Johan Andersson has warned that some of his company's 2013 games using the Frostbite engine will need the extra bits as a matter of course. The developer points to memory as the main culprit, as going 64-bit guarantees full access to 4GB or more of RAM as well as better virtual addressing of VRAM"
* Oddly enough, from a DICE person (assuming it's the SAME 'dice' that owns /. now perhaps? Or is it some game company called "DICE" also?? I don't know, found THAT odd though!)
APK
P.S.=> There's more points there that make sense too, so enjoy the read... apk
Now, please get off my lawn.
See subject: You're much like myself, only playing a FEW games etc. & @ least YOU knew of more than I did, that's certain (lol - man, I have been "out of it" gaming, for a LONG time now imo).
APK
P.S.=> Perhaps I'll get back into it this summer, as I am looking to upgrade my system to a BRAND-NEW 'state-of-the-art' system vs. the older one I have now (Core I7 920 CPU, 4gb DDR3 RAM, & GeForce 470 GTX) - from what I've seen? TODAY's CPUs & Vidcards DUST mine... & I would like to keep my system as "64-bit" as is possible, including games ... apk
Where? Answer these questions - Can adblock do 16 things hosts do for speed, security, & reliability:
1.) Protect vs. malicious sites/servers (beyond malicious ads: See 2-10 next)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnets + stop communication to C&C servers
3.) Protect vs. dynamic dns botnets + stop communication to C&C servers
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnets + stop communication to C&C servers
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (adds reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS redirect poisoned dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam
9.) Protect vs. phishing
10.) Protect vs. bandwidth caps
11.) Get you past a dnsbl
12.) Keep you off dns request logs
13.) Speed up websurfing by adblocks & hardcoded fav. sites
14.) Work on ANY webbound app (think stand-alone email programs) multiplatform.
15.) Give you easily texteditor controlled data for the above
16.) Do all that & block ads (better than addons) more efficiently in cpu cycles + memory usage
* ANSWER ="NO" to each above on AdBlock doing it as well or at all!
APK
P.S.=> AdBlock does FAR less than hosts do & FAR less efficiently - hosts by way of comparison, do MORE w/ less + Hosts start w/ the IP stack before REDUNDANT inefficient addons BEGIN to operate (as 1st resolver queried):
AdBlock's 4++gb & 100% CPU usage flooring inefficiency -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth... + ClarityRay defeats it + it 'souled-out' & is crippled by default paid off to not do its job http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/... & ABP too http://finance.yahoo.com/news/...
AdBlock adds complexity/room for breakdown/exploit + from a slower mode of operations (usermode = more messagepassing overheads vs. hosts in kernelmode).
For the BEST hosts file?
APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-1 32/64-bit -> http://start64.com/index.php?o...
MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus http://www.av-test.org/en/news...
... apk
It's why he trolls ac. Ya done him in before so he can't use a registered user account or you will show the times you've crushed his dimwit ass before.
It's fun seeing ac trolls like him "squirm" & run vs. http://games.slashdot.org/comm... though... lol!
* How such absolute WORMS like that ac troll trolling me can sit there telling lies and live with himself is TOTALLY beyond me...
APK
P.S.=> I'd hate to be such a lowly douche as that worm personally (flacid, effete, & WEAK)... apk
I loved Descent, I look forward to the return of 3D controllers again.
However, one item concerns me about this Kickstarter - under the platforms they support, they point out all the platforms Unreal 4 supports.
Well that doesn't really say what platforms they WILL FOR SURE support if the project is backed. Also it does not say what platforms the betas will be available in. You can guess just Windows, but who knows?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm not particularly a fan of what they're doing with this new Descent game. Tech trees? Mining? Monetization? I know they're trying to bring it to the "Modern Age," but if they're going to change so much, I'm not so sure it will be a Descent game to me.
Sol Contingency, meanwhile, looks great and seems to be a lot closer to a proper Descent game, being made by fans who really know what they're doing. Sadly, although Interplay showed initial interest in them early last year, it seems they weren't enough of a "AAA" developer. So Interplay sent them a Cease and Desist. Fortunately, Sol Contingency is still being worked on, albeit with changes in the assets so that it doesn't infringe on the Descent IP. I'm a lot more eager to see what comes out of that game.
to make sure the flight/gameplay feels "old school"
I don't want it to feel old school. I want it to feel modern, innovative, up-to-date. And yes, I played Descent 1 and 2 and loved them. But times a'changin' and technology allows for sky-limit innovation.that's what i want, an old game reinvented, not "let's make the same thing but in HD".
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
"DICE's Rendering Architect Johan Andersson has warned that some of his company's 2013 games using the Frostbite engine will need the extra bits as a matter of course. The developer points to memory as the main culprit, as going 64-bit guarantees full access to 4GB or more of RAM as well as better virtual addressing of VRAM" FROM http://hardcore-games.azureweb...
The LATTER point being quite interesting & 1 I wasn't aware of it until I posted it to others here earlier...
* There IS also the fact you don't have to marshall/summon the WoW emulation for 32-bit libs either (not as big as the VRAM part I noticed in the quote above though) so, that's less overheads in & of itself also...
APK
P.S.=> That page shows a few more, but that one stuck out as a fairly "BIG" benefit... apk
So are they building on Win32 freeware like 'Descent 1 rebirth' and 'Descent 2 X-XL'? Because there's no point starting from scratch. It's seem they should use the money to pay for a Win64/linux port and to improve the LAN play.
So who will own this software and new artwork? It's on track for a 'Winnie the pooh' ending: Where Disney privatized what was public and common property.
From: PTMC Headquarters
To: MD1032 [Inactive]
Sbj: Further Career Opportunities at PTMC!
Material Defender!
It is our greatest pleasure to inform you about a new job opportunity at the Post-Terran Mining Company.
We at PTMC strongly believe in securing our extraterrestrial operations. Safety is one of our core values, and as such we have always made the greatest efforts in securing best relations with our respected mercenary partners. Please find attached the draft version of your new Standard Mercenary Agreement.
Yours faithfully,
Dravis, CEO
Post-Terran Mining Company.
I could see it working on the Oculus but in all honestly Decent was a boring, overly complicated game.
Pointed out the same here (with OTHER bigger bennies imo)
"* There IS also the fact you don't have to marshall/summon the WoW emulation for 32-bit libs either (not as big as the VRAM part I noticed in the quote above though) so, that's less overheads in & of itself also..." - http://games.slashdot.org/comm...
APK
P.S.=> The "emulation" is marshalling/summoning the entire 32-bit subsystem, creating overheads in & of itself, in doing THAT alone (along with creating the entire environs for it too) so, you were MORE than "close enough" imo @ least... apk
They are working with a number of members of the current D1/D2 community to make sure the flight/gameplay feels "old school" and they are updating the technology and game to a new generation.
Which I hoped Firaxis would do with the X-COM series. Imagine, after the initial joy of seeing my shiny HD troop transport land, seeing that my guys can't pass, drop, throw or pick up an item, or do whatever the hell they want within their time. Which reminds me, I should check up on UFO:AI.
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
See subject, you're right of course: Just though it ironic & shows how LONG I've been "outta the loop" on gaming in general!
* There WAS a time I knew most of the game production houses out there, but that was a long while ago (as I said, haven't really been 'into' gaming since, oh... Doom III/Quake IV era, if that is any indicator here!)
APK
P.S.=> Thanks for pointing it out though since, heh, even I found it "odd" that DICE (/. dice) would be into game development (but you never know how companies diversify) - they're a "headhunter" site for jobs afaik, @ least mostly so (unless others here can show me different)... apk
We just played with ourselves and were quite content.
Kids these days...
After Descent 3, loads of groups wanted to work on new games in the series, but interplay weren't having any of it.. What changed their minds?
That was one of the reasons why Descent 1 was such a breakthrough; Even Doom 2 still required synchronized clients so if you had one of your 4 maximum players on a slow machine, the whole game would slow down. Descent allowed 16 players and they communicated in an non-synchronized fashion. A player on a bad connection did nothing to other players' performance.
I played the game for hundreds of hours, I never experienced motion sickness. Only one data point, sure, but people I have encountered that have this problem have it with all 3d shooters.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I loved playing LAN games with the Gravis, even though most mouse/keyboard players were superior.
Unless someone resurrects the "Space Orb" controller, I can't see any version of Descent as being much fun. It was my old Space Orb that made the game at all *playable*.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Back in the mid 90s, I worked at a company that built protocol analyzers. During lunch break we would sometimes play Descent (2?). One day, a couple of us took a protocol analyzer and figured out which packet to push into the network to cause more mega missiles to appear (normally, there was only one or two in existence at a time).
When we played at lunch that day, we had a hilarious time when the biggest super weapon in the game became the primary weapon. Once the other players figured it out it became a grab/shoot/die fest.
One of the guys we pulled this on afterwords: "I picked up one mega missile and was like 'cool' then I got another, and another and another then I thought 'Holy Crap! These things are like water!"
Good times. Now, get back to work.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Parallax released the source, and various source ports have kept Descent 1 / Descent 2 playable on modern hardware. See DXX-XL, DXX-Rebirth. If you lost your CDs and need the game data files, you can buy them cheap at Good Old Games. In my opinion, that's a better choice than betting on the Kickstarter, and much cheaper.
sure it matters. you can start having new gameplay modes like turf war.
but the real important question would be to ask do they have the license for descent or is this just a descent like game? there were couple of clones of descent back in the day.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Where? Answer these questions - Can adblock do 16 things hosts do for speed, security, & reliability:
1.) Protect vs. malicious sites/servers (beyond malicious ads: See 2-10 next)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnets + stop communication to C&C servers
3.) Protect vs. dynamic dns botnets + stop communication to C&C servers
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnets + stop communication to C&C servers
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (adds reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS redirect poisoned dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam
9.) Protect vs. phishing
10.) Protect vs. bandwidth caps
11.) Get you past a dnsbl
12.) Keep you off dns request logs
13.) Speed up websurfing by adblocks & hardcoded fav. sites
14.) Work on ANY webbound app (think stand-alone email programs) multiplatform.
15.) Give you easily texteditor controlled data for the above
16.) Do all that & block ads (better than addons) more efficiently in cpu cycles + memory usage
* ANSWER ="NO" to each above on AdBlock doing it as well or at all!
APK
P.S.=> AdBlock does FAR less than hosts do & FAR less efficiently - hosts by way of comparison, do MORE w/ less + Hosts start w/ the IP stack before REDUNDANT inefficient addons BEGIN to operate (as 1st resolver queried):
AdBlock's 4++gb & 100% CPU usage flooring inefficiency -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth... + ClarityRay defeats it + it 'souled-out' & is crippled by default paid off to not do its job http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/... & ABP too http://finance.yahoo.com/news/...
AdBlock adds complexity/room for breakdown/exploit + from a slower mode of operations (usermode = more messagepassing overheads vs. hosts in kernelmode).
For the BEST hosts file?
APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit -> http://start64.com/index.php?o...
MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus http://www.av-test.org/en/news...
... apk
I agree from 1st hand experience (albeit for procedure/function calls w/ "register" passing) in my APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit here http://start64.com/index.php?o...
* E.G./I.E.-> The 32-bit version can ONLY pass functions or procedures up to a LIMIT of 8 of them that way (& they're FASTER that way) vs. the 64-bit version being able to pass them that way up to a LIMIT of 16 of them thus...
(Yes - it is a BIG difference if you have heavy processing being done in them (looping ones especially)).
IIRC, from "C/C++ speak"? Object-Pascal's "register" calling convention corresponds to "fastcall" in those languages (could be wrong/off though - been years since I kept "details" of THAT nature, between languages, "readily handy & accurate" here...)
APK
P.S.=> Even though the code is the EXACT SAME, line-for-line, there IS that single difference in them between 32 & 64-bit versions (how many functions &/or procs I can pass using "register" calling conventions, which are quicker)... apk
Kali is still alive even though outdated. Very fun!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Life always sucks when you go past the summaries:
Retail cost: $50
Pay to unlock ships.
In game currency for ship upgrades.
Forum subscriptions.
Map subscriptions.
Ship subscriptions.
Live design meetings (are they going to turn development into a reality show? Hopefully they completely ignore the camera and users.)
They claim no DRM, but there's in-game paid content... I don't see anywhere where they say the game can be played offline. Single-player != offline play.
Single-player is listed as a mini-campaign prologue. A full-blown single-player adventure is only planned if they can grow the studio and raise more money.
The money they're asking for is to boot-strap development, not fund the entire thing.
No mention of a demo.
Original games: Shareware, meaning the first few levels were free and you were encouraged to make and distribute copies.
Somehow I think the original Descent games will be better than their Descent 4. (Now where's the Magic Carpet remake?)
That was the description of those times. We would code in 6809 or 68HC11 assembler, produce some boards, schematics and play Descent on lunch breaks. I still remember the sound of pounded space-bars... time to fly and hide in case the missiles are coming your way!...how times changed...
The big problem for me when I try to play Descent is that analog joysticks without "dead zones" are seemingly no longer manufactured.
I've tried playing in dosbox using modern controllers. It's pure torture. When I move the stick a little and nothing happens, it assumes it's because that movement was way too small and so it makes a much larger one to correct for that. So when I'm almost aimed at something and I just need to make a minor adjustment, I move the stick a little, but nothing happens, and so I instinctively move the stick a lot more and suddenly I'm turning at full speed. Eventually I give up and find something else to do as it just isn't any fun when I can't properly input my desires to the computer.
Resolving the problem seems to be hopeless. The controllers implement a dead zone, then the OS implements one as well, then sometimes the games implement one, and the result is that an analog joystick has essentially no advantage over a direction pad.
It's too bad they seem to be building it as a 3rd person perspective.
This would be such a great game to play 1st person in 3D-stereo on the Oculus Rift, with maybe a force-feedback controller of some kind.
"Eat your words" Dave420 or prove me wrong http://slashdot.org/comments.p... (which you've failed TONS of times @ & you always ran from that completely FAIR challenge to you, just like the trolling weasel you clearly are...)
* Tell us: How do those words of yours taste flavored with the "bitter taste of SELF-defeat" & washed down with your foot in your mouth ramming them down your throat? R O T F L M A O...
APK
P.S.=> You called me ALL KINDS of names: Well, since you're technically incompetent & the above link will just prove it again? Live up to a fair challenge put to you (of course, a TROLL WEASEL like yourself never will - & as usual, I win - getting to make a FOOL out of you publicly, yet again also, "bonus"... lol!)... apk
You ran from a fair challenge coward vs. http://slashdot.org/comments.p... He's no troll. You are, clearly projecting you're a homosexual also.
You've also been called out for trolling & ran? Hahahahaha (loser). Proper sentences also don't start with conjunctions like "And" either stupid. You're obviously an illiterate public dole case too.
Glad I still have my copy!!!
See subject: Your mouth's full of your words you're eating http://slashdot.org/comments.p... after you were fairly called out and RAN. You *really* need to change your diet Dave420! Eating your words != GOOD NUTRITION!
Tell us, how does eating your words taste, flavored with the bitter taste of SELF-defeat, rammed down your throat since your foot's in your mouth?
(Amazing you can still talk your gibberish bullshit, actually, considering your mouth's full, as you "eat your words" (lmao))
See subject + this (which says it all about you, punk) -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
Do Nothing Dave420 - take a read http://slashdot.org/comments.p... and you don't fool anyone but yourself vainly trying to defend yourself posting by anonymous coward now either Dave420. It's got to be a horrible life for you being such a "ne'er-do-well" trolling fool, lol, on your end.
* I sort of understand you now, after seeing what others think of you... quoted in THEIR OWN WORDS.
APK
P.S.=> You're just plain shit, online & otherwise, and it really shows... apk
See subject: Keep "running", Forrest -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
* :)
(Especially considering you're just another "ne'er-do-well" ac troll, doubtless Dave420 again, who everyone here has "such a HIGH opinion of" here (lol, not) -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... )
APK
P.S.=> You're welcome to prove me wrong, but it's obvious you can't (since you're a flacid, effete, & technically weak incompetent in the field of computing) - all you have now is your b.s. & that only makes ME, look GOOD... & yourself, by way of comparison? Well... lmao, "not so good" (see the 2nd link above, Dave420 - read 'em & weep, while you "eat your words" being totally held in check by truth & facts I post you can NEVER, ever overcome validly - I love it!)
... ak
I assume by 6 degrees they mean the 3 ways of sliding/strafing (forward-backward, up/down, and left-right), + the 3 ways of rotating (pitch, yaw, roll).
It just sounds funny to hear "6 degrees" - it makes me think of 1/60th of a circle - not exactly freedom.
(Loved using the University's networks to play with a few friends late at night.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/...
WINGMAN is doing an AMA http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/c...
I feel the need ... the need to tweet "Drop the bird!"
Plugh!
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"