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% AN UNOFFICIAL DESCENT PRIMER FOR BEGINNERS %
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V 1.2 7/2/96
Written By Steve Davis, aka MR MEGA
So you're tired of getting stomped on by other players? Can't make
a kill to save your life? This primer is for you. I am a "good"
Descent player, not great but good enough to hold my own with most
other players.
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WHAT'S NEW?
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v1.1 5/8/96 - TACTICS - #12
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v1.2 7/2/96 - TABLE OF CONTENTS
REFORMATED & CLEANED UP
FORWARD
KALI - #13
A WORD ON LAG - #14
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1) IT'S ONLY A GAME !
2) KEEP MOVING!
3) GET A GOOD CONTROL LAYOUT
4) SLIDING IS THE KEY !
5) SUPERIOR AGGRESSION
6) WEAPONS OF CHOICE
7) HAVE A GOOD MEMORY
8) USE WEAPONS TO THEIR BEST
9) LOOK AHEAD
10) LISTEN
11) PRACTICE ADVANCED MANEUVERS
12) INDIVIDUAL TACTICS
13) KALI - MULTIPLAY OVER THE INTERNET
14) A WORD ON LAG
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FORWARD
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What is this document?
***********************
This FAQ / Primer is not how to beat Descent in standard play but
rather a list of hints and techniques to help you to become a better
player in mutilplay, either over a local LAN, modem or the Internet.
It assumes that you have DESCENT up and running and are playing on
either an IPX LAN (Novel) or over the Internet via Kali (which is
discussed in detail in section 13). This is the third version of the
Primer, I welcome and additions / corrections, please email them to
sda19@net-link.net.
Why did I write this document?
*******************************
Reading through the user groups I became aware of a pretty small but
persistent group of people asking for "hints" or for "lessons" . A
lot of the responses to these pleas were typically , "Just hop in and
fly around a while, you'll learn just like we did" - well some CAN
learn this way and many more just end up as fresh meat for seasoned
players. Don't get me wrong, it takes PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE,
don't expect to become and ace overnight. I hope this document will
be short and sweet and that by reading it you can pick up on what
other Descenter's are doing to score so many points.
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FINALLY - THE UNOFFICIAL DESCENT PRIMER FOR BEGINNERS
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1) IT'S ONLY A GAME !
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The first thing to remember is that it is ONLY A GAME, yeah you're
getting pounded to smithereens or if you're scoring like nobodies
business. What NOBODY want's to hear (see actually) is you pissing
an moaning about loosing, or worse yet gloating constantly about
scoring. Try and keep the comments to a minimum and when you do try
and make them with a basis of good sportsmanship. The vulgarity and
constant name calling are unwarranted , unneeded and unwanted. Keep
them to yourself or if you must to the KALI chat or private email.
And don't take it out on the wife or the dog either. If you can't
handle it then quit, it will do you all some good.
BTW, comments are broadcast via the F8 key, HIT F8 and then type in
your comments, there are also some stock comments accessible with the
f9 through f12 keys too, but again don't waste everyone's bandwidth
constantly putting the same comments on the screen over and over.
Relax and enjoy it, IT'S ONLY A GAME !
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2) KEEP MOVING!
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The number one mistake to be made is to STOP in your tracks, keep
moving constantly, only when a room is empty and clear of `bots can
you afford to sit still, even then YOU'RE STILL A SITTING TARGET.
In a Mission like Megadeath, it is imperative to constantly be on
the move, use the vertical shafts a lot too. Master the sliding
technique (see section 4) and use it to circle a room in a constant
state of motion. MOVE MOVE MOVE and then MOVE some more, and did I
mention MOVE? I have won more game over guys that just sit there and
wait, moving can get you out of trouble and keep you out.
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3) GET A GOOD CONTROL LAYOUT
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Get a comfy layout of the keys / mouse / joystick combo and KEEP IT,
practice, practice, practice with it. Which leads me to the "which
is better the keyboard, mouse or joystick" question. The answer is
WHATEVER YOU'RE COMFORTABLE WITH". I've seen some kick butt
keyboarders that got totally lost with a mouse, I personally HATE a
joy stick and others will use nothing but the most button studded
joystick there is. YOU make the decision and again STAY with it.
There are very few players out there that stick with the stock kb
layout, find what suits you and stick with it.
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4) SLIDING IS THE KEY !
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So you've seen those dudes seemingly flying sideways. They ALWAYS
beat you to the invulnerability globes, the mega's and what have
you. What gives? Well for one thing they are SLIDING, and better
than that they are going forward AND sliding at the same time. I call
it "CRABBING" - it's a bit different then the problem you have when
you first get out of bed though. Be sure that your players has a
keyboard control setup for SLIDE RIGHT and SLIDE LEFT somewhere' near
your FLY FORWARD button, by using it AND the FORWARD button you can
fly about 20% percent FASTER, the thing you have to watch for is to
always CRAB to where you want to end up, that is, point the ship on a
diagonal towards the target. This is by far the "best" secret I can
point you to. Every great player does this, with it you can sidestep
missiles, initiate turns more rapidly and line up on targets more
efficiently. By crabbing you can maintain a constant circling motion
around an axis that is several ships lengths ahead of you. It takes
a LOT of practice to perfect but once your on to it you can really
zoom. If your real clever you can slide UP and DOWN too and really
dodge those mega's. This is where one of those 3d sticks has an
advantage, you end up running out of fingers with a keyboard, these
sticks you can assign twisting and pulling up and down as well as the
the normal 4 left, right, front and back motions. They're expensive
but maybe it will do the trick for you.
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5) SUPERIOR AGGRESSION
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You enter a room and out of the corner of your eye you see the
ghostly figure of a cloaked ship waiting in the corner, your health
is down and you only have 2 megas , doomed again you say, NO you CAN
beat him. By carefully anticipating where he might go to you can
launch a mega in that vicinity and hopefully he will be there when it
touches off. BE AGGRESIVE , if he kills you all you're going do is
hand over you weapons to him right? USE `EM INSTEAD! Why should HE
get all your hard earned work for nothing? Launch as much stuff as
possible at various points around the room while STILL moving, spray
his vacinity with weapons fire, the plasma or vulcan cannon is good
for this. Avoid your own stuff though. Is there a free standing
shaft he is ducking around (like in MEGA DEATH) ? Launch a mega on
the LEFT side then on the RIGHT side, he may reverse track to fool
you. POUND, POUND, POUND, be a geniuine SOB. Use your primary
weapons too, don't just rely on megas. I have won I don't know how
many seemingly impossible situations just by pumping the most
missiles and laser shots out, you got weapons - USE 'EM.
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6) WEAPONS OF CHOICE
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This is a lot of personal choice here but I believe the best weapons
in a typical Descent game against another player is the PLASMA CONNON
and of course MEGAS. The green gun and the red missiles are the best
for all around defense (barring the earthhakers and other new D2
goodies not usually found in deathmatch games). Grab them FIRST as
fast as you can. The strengths and weaknesses of each weapon are
discussed in section 8.
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7) HAVE A GOOD MEMORY
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There are a limited number of player starts and weapons positions,
try and memorize them and keep going back there. In a game over
KALI eventually theses weapons places get all used up an weapons
start appearing all over the place due to lag, if that happens swoop
up all you can and start chuckin' them megas!
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8) USE WEAPONS TO THEIR BEST
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Each weapon has it's advantages and disadvantages, learn and use
them to your benefit. Following is a quick breakdown for the basic
weapons (sorry I don't have Descent II YET, so I can't comment on the
weapons).
LASER - low power consumption but doesn't pack a very hard punch,
grab as many laser powerups as you can though, there is a BIG
difference in level 1 lasers as opposed to level 4 lasers, the QUAD
laser is a big step up too. Don't look down your nose at it chump.
VULCAN CANNON- It's unique that you can't see where it is being fired
from, use it while lying in shadows. Somewhat limited in hit power
and does not draw it's power from the power bank - you have to find
ammo to shoot it.
SPREADFIRE - Very rapid fire and quite often overlooked. When stuck
between the FUSION CANNON and this, I would fire this.
PLASMA GUN - Perhaps THE best gun, rapid fire and hard hitting, Grab
it while the grabin's good.
FUSION CANNON - Maybe the biggest joke Paralax pulled on us :) .
Packs a wallop but takes so long to fire up, just DON"T HOLD DOWN THE
BUTTON TO LONG, it is surprising how rapidly you CAN peel off shots
with a light finger, but still not as good as the plasma gun, alas it
take too much energy too.
CONCUSSION MISSILES - Not the greatest, you have to really pummel a
guy to bring him down
MINES - Quite often overlooked, I call them "mouse turds". Can
really piss off and slow down another player, use them often.
HOMING MISSILE - Not any more punch than the CONCUSSIION, just better
at finding its target, invaluable down long halls where you can
pepper his tail without worrying abou aim quite as much.
SMART MISSILE - Perhaps my favorite, even though I like how the
mega's work. These are great for flushing out enemies. Ever wonder
if someone was in the escape tunnel approach on level 4 of TOTAL
CHAOS ? Fire a smarty down the hole, if the green balls all go ONE
way then you more than likely got 'em. Fly near the ceiling in a
long hall and before you enter a room fire a smarty into the floor
just AFTER the hall changes into the room, the smart balls will seek
out your opponent and you will have that extra instant to turn (crab
as described above) to face off. Also, see someone coming at you at
high speed down a narrow hall, perhaps fleeing another opponent? Drop
one of these just before you pass, guaranteed to do 'em in. And my
favorite pastime - being chased and fire one into the floor ahead of
you and your opponent runs into the balls, love that sound! Also
useful for hitting the backs of halls leading off in 90 degrees in
another direction, this is the only weapon that will hit another
player at a right angle and hidden from you.
MEGA MISSILE - It is a toss up between these and Smarts, these
destroy so well that quite often just the concussion against a close
wall will knock 'em out. One trick to use is to fire one ahead of
you down a long hall opening into a large room, if the missile veers
toward one way or the other when it enters the room at the end,
that's the way your opponent is, again you have that little bit of
time and the knowledge which way to face coming out of the hole, that
is if the mega doesn't get him first.
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9) LOOK AHEAD
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Look ahead, even to what your opponent is picking up. Did he just
pick up a smarty and a few mines? Well don't announce your presence
by shooting him in the butt with your dinky little laser, if your out
gunned rig for silent running, it's surprising what you can get away
with by being quiet. I've followed guys for MINUTES at a time not
firing a shot until they picked up something I wanted and I knew I
could kill them. See a invulnerability sphere ahead and you're out
gunned? Don't shoot, run for it, beat him to it THEN wipe his butt
and pick up his goodies.
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10) LISTEN
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One of the best pieces of advice I can give you - SHUT OFF THE MUSIC!
YEAH it's cool and sometime rocks, but it distracts you. Use your
ears and you can hear a cloaked enemy slurping up goodies coming down
the hall just screaming "HERE I COME - SHOOT ME - SHOOT ME !", doors
make sounds that diminishes over distance. You can visually cover
your front and relay on your ears to cover your rear. Even hearing
the reactor blasting away can clue you in to the fact that someone's
in that area. USE YOUR EARS.
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11) PRACTICE ADVANCED MANEUVERS
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Again practice makes perfect. Practice the slides most of all.
Don't hesitate to use your REVERSE key too, and use it to crab too!
It's great to watch a guy pump away with 2 megas and I dodge 'em both
while he sits there like a dead duck and soaks up mine. A quick
sweep to the right followed by a reverse and sweep to the left will
turn you around right quick (known in driving as a 3 point turn
around). Use the BANK KEYS TOO, they can help sweep around corners,
picture some of the moves you see in air shows or in old WWII movies,
it is surprising how much emulating some of these moves can help you.
Remember COMBINE MOVES. BANK ( spin), CRAB and REVERSE away from a
player and many times they will just sit and watch the pretty
maneuver, while your smarts fired into the wall are picking him off.
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12) INDIVIDUALTACTICS
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So you keep falling for the same old tricks? Don't you wish you
would at least know what they are so you can avoid them? This is NOT
by all means a comprehensive list but here are a few favorite tactics
(some have already been covered):
A) DOORWAY DODGE - Act as if heading into a door to get your
opponent to follow you, then BACK OFF with the reverse key, hopefully
he will continue on and now be ahead of you - BLAST HIS TAIL!
B) ROUND AND ROUND SHE GOES - After learning the "crab" maneuver the
first thing a player does is get caught in circular fights, around
and around and around. After a while you learn to lead you opponent
so that your blasts will be where he is going by the time he gets
there. Change this tactic slightly by REVERSING the rotation. All
of a sudden crab the OTHER WAY or come out of the crab and head dead
nuts in your opponents face and drop that smarty. Above all DON'T
BE PREDICTABLE!
C) SWEEPING MISSILE CHUCK - Sweep by a door or opening by crabbing or
sliding directly sideways and shoot a missile in the opening, you're
out of THEIR range quickly.
D) OPEN AND CHUCK - Pop a door with a laser that you have just seen a
player enter - pop it with a gun anyway even if it IS already open,
it may close before the next step ( a good example is the reactor /
exit door the wall above the lava in Total Chaos level 3), now
hesitate a bare instant and follow up with a mega - race away
crabing. I've had megas follow them down the chute through the 2
doors and almost to the reactor. Great comments usually follow.
E) INVULNERABILITY FEINT - act like you are NOT invulnerable when
you are (hope they don't hear the tell tale buzzing sound), back off
and act like you're trying to get away, lure them into a closed or
smaller room and have lunch!
F) MEGA INSURANCE - While in a Kali game where megas abound, why not
load up and just pop a few off? They are plentiful so just sit
there and send one down a hallway every second or so even though you
don't see anyone coming (good example MEGADEATH). You'd be
surprised how many times they will round the corner just in time to
meet face first with your mega. YEHAH!
G) HIDE AND SEEK - Get a cloaking powerup and then hide behind a mega
that's floating just in front of you, preferably you should have your
back to a corner. Opponent comes in sees and wants the mega and
heads right your way, hold your fire till he's too close to escape
but far enough away that the blast won't kill YOU. What fun!
H) ULTIMATE INSULT - That is to kill someone after the reactor blows,
you may be mega points BEHIND but kill the hot-dog before he can get
out the exit and it wins you some esteem.
I) SMARTY BARAGE - Smartys don't seek after cloaked players but
launch 3 or 4 of them in an enclosed space (not so hard in a Kali
game) and the resultant fog of balls is hard to avoid.
J) SELF SACRAFICE - NO *NOT* KAMIKAZE, that is known as a lamers
tactic. Your health is down and shields non existent, find a dark
secluded corner and kill yourself, use a missile in a wall or
something, go back and collect your own goodies with renewed health
and shields.
K) ROTATE AND ENTER - Sound kinky? NO just enter a chute / hallway
BACKWARD. Just before entering a hallway or chute rotate around and
enter backwards, this allows you to pop off any newly found weapons in
your pursuers face - careful he's not behind you though!
L) COME RIGHT BACK - Run like hell out of a fire fight and then turn
around and come right back! This works great in MEGADEATH where the
guy usually concentrates on picking up more stuff and doesn't expect
you to come right back - the element of surprise!
M) ACT KILLED - This is hard to pull off, and doesn't usually work,
but nose up and rotate just a bit like you are ready to explode in
death, the pursuer usually backs off a bit not wanting to get hit with
your death concussion, rotate around enough to fire at him. This is
great in a game over a LAN where the guy is in the same room -"Dang,
you got me again - NOT!".
N) TURN OFF OUR SPEAKERS - I already mentioned about turning of the
music but when in a LAN game with other players in the same room try
and set up your speakers so you can reach the power switch easily. I
had some speakers that had the button right dead center on the front,
I moved them so that the button was just in front of the mouse pad,
an index finger extended straight could poke it. See an
invulnerability globe ahead? Switch OFF the speakers just long enough
for the invul wail to pass and right back on. While this doesn't
help in a modem or Kali game it is really sneaky when your opponent
is in the same room and can hear you running over the invul globes.
Some consider this cheating.
O) FLY HIGH OR LOW - it seems every newbie flies down the halls smack
dab in the middle of the hall. Try flying against the ceiling or the
floor or wall - it sometimes makes your harder to hit and allows other
to pass with out damage, sometimes they may not even see you!
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13) KALI - MULTIPLAY OVER THE INTERNET
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KALI, the old many armed goddess of oriental origin. What does it
have to do with Descent? Well the goddess hasn't got anything to do
with it but the game utility by the same name does. KALI is written
by a dude name Jay Cotten and he will be cannonized as a saint upon
his demise, he has done a lot for game playing over the internet and
provided a wonderful utility for a mere 20 bucks - with LIFETIME
upgrade privileges. What a guy!
Mutilplayer games are usually written to use a protocol that is
typically used over an office LAN, that is the IPX packet protocol.
What this means doesn't really matter except for the fact that it
doesn't work over the internet - which uses the TCP/IP protocol.
It's kinda' like the game is speaking one language and the Internet
is speaking another, those not fluent in either will here something
that sounds similar and wonder why they are not comunicating. The
game and media over which it flows need to agree on the same protocol
or language to speak. KALI traps and repackages the IPX language and
wraps it into a TCP/IP package and sends it to a server (there are
many running) The KALI server basically emulates what a server on a
LAN does with IPX packets - it redirects them to the other players
playing your game and WHALLA! You have a mutilplayer game over the
Internet.
The requirements for KALI are not that bad, you of course need a
registered version of KALI, a copy of the game you want to play, a
PPP account for the Internet and a modem, 14.4 works but not well.
28.8 or more with an ISP that can handle it is better. KALI is
avaliable in 2 forms, DOS and Win 95 versions. The DOS version
requires a DOS PPP driver which is another shareware package you
should purchase. The Win 95 version is a godsend, it allows you to
have a normal Win 95 dialup session going and works over it. Want to
jump out of a game, check your email and then jump back in where you
left off? KALI 95 is your bet then. The only hinderance is the fact
that you need a bit more horsepower in your PC since you are running
Windows 95, the Internet dialup, KALI and a DOS game all at once - it
tends to be a bit slower than the DOS version. Neither version is
that hard to setup either, instructions are included.
KALI is avaliabe at: http://www.axxis.com/kali/ - get it and register
it, it's one of the best investments I have ever made.
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14) A WORD ON LAG
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One of the most fusterating aspects of playing over the Internet is a
problem called LAG. Think about it, you are playing a game that
sends out IPX packets, KALI is repackaging them and sending them
through your modem, MA Bells equipment then through your ISP's
equiment (which sometimes makes several "hops" (connections)) to the
internet to a KALI server who in turn sends the packets to a player
to their ISP's equiment via MA Bell again, FINALLY to the other
players modem and KALI again translates the packets and the game
interprets them. All this may involve phone lines, satalites,
optical lines and a host of other cool stuff to numerus to mention,
It's a wonder it works at all. All this stuff eventually adds up to a
problem called LAG, every step of the way add's its little delay in
and eventually it could add up to SECONDS of time that your game is
behind. Because of it, guys won't die, you can't make hits, and real
slow guys can literally get away with murder as their game "drops"
damage packets and the guy goes away unscathed while you die a
pitiful death. Usually it is not a problem if you stick to local
guys and a local server on 28.8+ dialups, add some overseas 14.4 guys
and all hell breaks loose, you can't kill them to save your life.
It may seem like guys are cheating but usually they aren't. In my
many moons of play I have only seen a real cheater ONCE, maybe twice.
I knew he was cheating because he entered a MEGA DEATH game with the
FUSION CANNON, VULCAN CANNON nad MINES, none of which are in the
normal game. Luckly he didn't cheat regarding invulnerability and I
wiped his tail all over the place. Most of the so called "cheating"
can be blamed on lag. If you suspect lag is giving a player an
unfair advantage either live with it or quit the game. I have
personaly played against laggers and it isn't that hard to anticipate
where they WILL be and fire there. A KIND comment ("Are you 14.4?",
You seem to be lagging the game") can usually do wonders, sometime a
lager just has a bad connex and by jumping out and back in can solve
it. If you run accross a real cheater don't waste your time harping
at him during a game, quit and go to the user groups and register
your post there. Most guys like to use one sig all the time so by
warning others they can avoid the dude, eventually they get the
message.
LAG also adds one other interesting phenomena - I call it WEAPONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT DISAGREEMENT, the way I interpret it is that due to
lag all the games can't agree on where to place a lost or fired
weapon quickly enough, so your local game places it only to have the
PLACEMENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT packet to later arrive placing the weapon
in a different place, Descent solves this by allowing the weapon to
be in BOTH places, multiply this problem by the number of players and
you end up with lots more stuff than the level was designed for.
Multiple MEGAS, more INVUL's etc. This is a bug / feature that really
has no solution, it does not usually happen on a LAN based game where
the communication and acknowledgment can take place faster. It
eventually takes all the skill out of a game as it usually
degenerates into a "who can pop off a mega first" battle. Call it
quits an blow the reactor to end the game.
I hope this helps you to become a better pilot.
Please forward any comments, additions or corrections to me at
sda19@net-link.net.
Thanks for reading this FAQ.
MR MEGA
