Descent 1 & 2

[Anonymous No.3295010]

I played Descent 3 at release back in 1999. It was quite good, but I preferred Forsaken (64 and PC).

For some reason I never really looked into 1 and 2. I bought them on GoG and installed Rebirth (sourceport). I have to say, I am fucking amazed by how good these games are.

I was playing them simultaneously, got to around 3 levels in on both, and decided that they were good enough to try from scratch on Insane difficulty. I hate save scumming in games, so I aim to only save at level start.

These games are very tough on Insane. I am using a flightstick but wonder if an xbox 360 controller might give me more aiming precision. Any thoughts on this?

Does anyone know how I can check remaining enemies and remaining secrets in a level? There aren't really any online guides and I feel like I need every bit of help I can get. (I've beaten Doom episodes 1 - 3 without saving on Nightmare!, and these are basically only possible for my skill level knowing exactly what secrets are where).

[Anonymous No.3295016]

While playing with a flightstick might be more fun in some way, playing it with keyboard and mouse is way way way easier. If you think about it, it plays more like a FPS than a flight game. You aim exactly like in fps and you dodge projectiles exactly like a fps. You basically just have noclip on.
I personally use the flight stick but only because i have one and want to use it cause its cool.

[Anonymous No.3295025]

>>3295016
Interesting, didn't think of KB&M due to very limited button/axis control. The 'coolness' factor of a flightstick wears off quickly when you're getting your shit pushed in for the 20th time due to lack of precision aiming.

[Anonymous No.3295426]

>>3295016
>>3295025
The other problem is you need to control 6 axis's and a flight stick only has 3.
This means you need either 2 flight sticks or a 6dof joystick.

2 flight sticks can be fun but unwieldy, and 6dof joysticks are expensive.

[Anonymous No.3295465]

>>3295426
>you need to control 6 axis's and a flight stick only has 3
back in the days on my Sidewinder 3D Pro
I mapped vertical and horizontal strafing to the coolie hat, pitch and yaw to the stick itself, rolling to the 3D axis (twisting the stick) and used the throttle slider to move forward/backwards. Primary and secondary fire did what you'd expect, I think the two additional buttons on the top of the stick were weapon cycling. The four base buttons were utilities like the light.
The whole thing felt miles ahead of any keyboard, and almost "natural"
A flightstick is massively more capable than that old dinky stick, so I'm pretty sure you can map all motions quite well to it.

>>3295010
>I am using a flightstick but wonder if an xbox 360 controller might give me more aiming precision
stick is massively more precise than any controller. If you can map the controls to a stick, you're good

[Anonymous No.3295490]

>>3295426
>>3295465

I have a flightstick that I can swivel. It also has a hat, so I can do forward - back and left - right with the WASD keys, I can roll with swivel, look around with the stick and then slide up-down with the hat.

That's fine, just the accuracy thing is killing me. Maybe I have dead-zones on the stick, is it generally considered bad to have these enabled?

[Anonymous No.3295502]

>>3295490
You want dead zones enabled, albeit small ones. They allow you to maintain stability. The purpose of the deadzone is to counter the mechanical weakness a joystick has around the center. Without a deadzone practically every stick, including and especially thumbsticks, will drift ever so lightly, either because of mechanical wear, or because the hand holding it has an effect. So you tune a deadzone just enough that the stick is stable when left alone, or when held in neutral, and that's it. On thumbsticks 10% or higher deadzones are not uncommon, because the tolerance for movement is so tiny. On real joysticks you can go lower

[Anonymous No.3295521]

>>3295502
Surely a deadzone of anything other than a few % means that you have no aiming sensitivity? I just checked and my deadzone is 15%. I am massively overcompensating when I need to aim because I have to move the stick far enough to actually get movement, so for fine aiming I overshoot.

I just removed it completely, fired up descent quickly and it seems to be fine. There is no drift in neutral. I slightly pull the stick in one direction and get immediate on screen creeping of the viewpoint, which is excellent.It means that when I need to shoot something in the distance a few pixels from the cross hair I can actually do so.

[Anonymous No.3295527]

>>3295521
right, 15% was too much, especially for a joystick. Might still want to check out 1 or 2% or so. It still means you get that gradual creeping motion when you want it, but you also get a bit of leeway to maintain stability when things get hectic. But yeah, if your stick rocks, and stays stable all the way to the center, including when you rest your hand on it, by all means, drop that dead zone all the way to zero. If there's nothing broken, there's nothing dead zone can fix, and fixing is about all dead zone is for

[Anonymous No.3295550]

>>3295521
>Surely a deadzone of anything other than a few % means that you have no aiming sensitivity?
completely correct. Also, you do have no aiming sensitivity on a thumbstick. Just picture the motion of your thumb between neutral and max, then picture the motion between neutral and "just barely". That's in involuntary motion territory. Sticks are precise because of the large range of motion. They're also a bit slower going from one extreme to the other, for the same reason, but precision is often what you really want. So, if you can, do stick with the stick. A pad's unlikely to give you any joy in that game

[Anonymous No.3296616]

>>3295465
I have pic related and have a similar setup to you (the precision pro has a usb adapter that comes with it) I just get hand fatigue pretty quickly compared to other flight games as i'm mostly swivelling the stick and frantically thumbing the hat and fingering the slider but not actually wiggling the joystick much

[Anonymous No.3296629]

>>3296616
makes you wonder what controls the material defender himself had. Probably also included some pedals and stuff somewhere

[Anonymous No.3297194]

Do any of you guys have experience with the Mechwarrior games and flightsticks? Seems like Descent is a better fit, but I have Mechwarrior 2 and Mechwarrior 4 lying around somewhere and might give them a go this weekend.

Due to location damage, precise aiming is essential in those games. Would be good to hear your feedback.

[Anonymous No.3297212]

>>3296616
I've been playing red baron 3d campaign with this stick