Descent 1 vs. Descent 2

[Tomasz Tarchala]

Sabine Rother-Scholz wrote:
>
> Hey all :)
>
> I would like to know why most people are playing Descent 2. Can anyone
> give me some arguments for this game? (BTW: I have it, I played it)
> In Descent 1 you need much more skill to escape from an attack, you don't
> have so much strong weapons and the textures are better (that's what I
> think :) - and ! - you can see your opponent much better than in Descent
> 2 - wether you highlight the pyros or not.
>
> I would like to play Descent 2, but I see no really better argument for
> this game than to d1. Maybe someone can halp me in this case :)
>
> Have a nice day (or night)
> Sabine
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Sabine Rother eMail: rot...@schwaben.de

I play D2 and not D1 because of many more tactical possibilities in the
second version. For example, think of many new maneuvers and tactics you
can apply with:
- afterburners
- smart mines
- phoenix cannon, bouncing off the wall... the perfect weapon for
weenies hiding behind a corner for too long
- guided missiles
- omega cannon - a weapon that's very strong but of very limited range.
I myself consider a combo of omega+afterburner the most deadly
assassination manner there is... of course, you need a lot of skill and
reflex to apply it properly. Unlike standard dogfighting and circling,
which depends highly on the statistical hit ratio of all the fire you
generate, omega+afterburner require highest concentration from the pilot
for only 1 or 2 seconds.

D1 now seems slow and simplified. Yes, a better "pilot" in the standard
meaning of this word has more to do there, but Descent is not a flight
simulator, and your killer instinct should count more than your pilotage
skills. Therefore I think that D2 was a move in the right direction... I
hope that Parallax will be adding more and more weapons, ship extensions
and other tactical variances to choose from and to make the player
styles even more variable.

If you think there is too many different weapons in Descent, then try
the solution I often apply when doing sparring sessions with one of my
buddies (he is quite a good pilot, but we have a very different taste
for weapons; I like omegas, afterburners, gauss and other "fast"
weapons, I like to make traps, hide in corners, stab in the back etc. He
prefers fighting in the open, circling, "jousting" as we say, with
helix, lasers and plasma cannons). We just throw a coin for each weapon
when setting the options of the game... this produces very different
games, even on the same levels.

Hope you find some amusement in D2 after all,
Tomasz

-><-
Tomasz Tarchala, chld...@ibmmail.com
http://bull.mimuw.edu.pl/~tarchala

[Sabine Rother-Scholz]

[Marcus]

> Sabine Rother-Scholz wrote:
> > Hey all :)
> > I would like to know why most people are playing Descent 2. Can anyone
> > give me some arguments for this game?

I assume you are talking about playing over the I'Net. The reason for
D2's popularity are the short packets and packets per second options.

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[Andy Briggs]

Sabine Rother-Scholz <Sabine.Rot...@schwaben.de> wrote in article
<1.5.4.32.1996102...@mail.seicom.net>...

> Hey all :)
>
> I would like to know why most people are playing Descent 2. Can anyone

> give me some arguments for this game? (BTW: I have it, I played it)
> In Descent 1 you need much more skill to escape from an attack, you don't

> have so much strong weapons and the textures are better (that's what I
> think :) - and ! - you can see your opponent much better than in Descent
> 2 - wether you highlight the pyros or not.
>
> I would like to play Descent 2, but I see no really better argument for
> this game than to d1. Maybe someone can halp me in this case :)

10. Rear View on the Cockpit
9. High-Res
8. Viewable Marker Points ('cameras')
7. Moving Water/Lava
6. Boss Monsters
5. 16bit sampling vs. 8bit sampling
4. WingNut!
3. Better AI
2. Guided Missiles
1. More strategy involved with more varieties of weapons/options.

If you don't like the heavier weapons, you can disable them in multiplay.

[Derek Merrill]

Given all of the benefits of D2 posted already, you can also play many
D1 levels in D2. Such as:

ftp://ftp.PooterMan.com/descent2/levels/
- D1CONV all of the D1 original levels converted to D2
http://www.goodnet.com/~derekm/games/downloads/Descent2_Maps/bestd1.zip
- BESTD1 three D1 levels converted to D2 for anarchy/flag play.
- There are screen shot of it on my downloads page..
etc..

Derek
http://www.goodnet.com/~derekm/games/downloads/download.htm

Sabine Rother-Scholz wrote:
>
> Hey all :)
>
> I would like to know why most people are playing Descent 2. Can anyone
> give me some arguments for this game? (BTW: I have it, I played it)
> In Descent 1 you need much more skill to escape from an attack, you don't
> have so much strong weapons and the textures are better (that's what I
> think :) - and ! - you can see your opponent much better than in Descent
> 2 - wether you highlight the pyros or not.
>
> I would like to play Descent 2, but I see no really better argument for
> this game than to d1. Maybe someone can halp me in this case :)
>

> Have a nice day (or night)
> Sabine
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Sabine Rother eMail: rot...@schwaben.de

--
=========================================================================
Derek Merrill, der...@goodnet.com http://www.goodnet.com/~derekm
Computer Science & Engineering Dept's Phone Dept's Fax
Arizona State University, Tempe AZ 85287-5406 (602) 965-3190 965-2751
=========================================================================

[Andreas]

Sabine Rother-Scholz wrote:

> think :) - and ! - you can see your opponent much better than in Descent
> 2 - wether you highlight the pyros or not.

With "bright playerships" enabled you won`t say so.
For you can only play d1 with low resolution it is almost impossible to
see you opponent in a huge room. 640x480 makes it much easier.

> I would like to play Descent 2, but I see no really better argument for this game than to d1. Maybe someone can halp me in this case :)

Gauss, afterburner, SMART MINES!, rear view, cameras from markers...

[Mikey]

Andreas wrote:
>
> Sabine Rother-Scholz wrote:
>
> > think :) - and ! - you can see your opponent much better than in Descent
> > 2 - wether you highlight the pyros or not.
>
> With "bright playerships" enabled you won`t say so.
> For you can only play d1 with low resolution it is almost impossible to
> see you opponent in a huge room. 640x480 makes it much easier.

You can play Descent 1 at 640x480...did I misunderstand something here?

[Kerryann Pankhurst]

Sabine Rother-Scholz <Sabine.Rot...@schwaben.de> wrote in article
<1.5.4.32.1996102...@mail.seicom.net>...

> Hey all :)
>
> I would like to know why most people are playing Descent 2. Can anyone
> give me some arguments for this game? (BTW: I have it, I played it)
> In Descent 1 you need much more skill to escape from an attack, you don't

> have so much strong weapons and the textures are better (that's what I

> think :) - and ! - you can see your opponent much better than in Descent
> 2 - wether you highlight the pyros or not.
>

> I would like to play Descent 2, but I see no really better argument for
> this game than to d1. Maybe someone can halp me in this case :)
>

> Have a nice day (or night)
> Sabine
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Sabine Rother eMail: rot...@schwaben.de
>

Personally I think that D1 is better in the point that it is hard core
action,
on exception to D2, which I hope to buy this Christmas, has all of these
features that you have to control while robots are blasting the hell out of
you.

All these new features also make it too easy to beat, eg energy to shield
converter, headlights ECT.

I have only played the interactive demo of this game, in spite of us buying
the
full version of it with no CD in the box.

With happy contribution to this argument

Andrew Pankhurst