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Descent Dogfight Tactics
The creative Descent Multipayer Tactics Site
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Introduction
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Contents:
About this Site
Low-Level-Tips for Newbies
Netiquette
Welcome to the world of Descent multiplayer!
The Descent series are now quite a while on the market. Like a lot of games Descent got his own fan community. Those who get into first contact with this great game get:
- totally confused by the controls and
- motion sick because of the real 3D
but lots of people get totaly addicted to this game. Most of the people that I know had quite a long career of different computer games. Descent was the one that never let them get away...
The cover for Descent 3 should say:
"Youīre going down... still"
because this game give a long time motivation that has no comparison. After defeating the robots a whole new world opens up: Descent multiplayer. This site concentrates on the different aspects to play against real intelligent opponents.
I did not concentrate on the graphics (well, I worked a lot on them but they are less important), instead of that you will find (from my pointof view) the best background for improving your performance in Descent multiplayer games.
The hints and strategies are intended to make you fly better and use advanced tactics. You will not find tricks to make cheap kills (well, for other players this may appear like this but you will find out the difference).
There are lots of people out there that have really great skills in Descent matches. It is very hard to compare with someone who practices Descent now for more than 2 years. But this is really true, there is a huge number of players that regularly meets to play Descent - since years. So donīt give up if your efficiency moves around somewhere in the low twenties - keep flying and improve your performance with the following tricks.
The one and only thing that always works is practice, practice and practice.
Whenever you steer your PYRO-GX you will learn something. Playing Descent
is pretty easy (after you find out how to fly without thinking about it)
because there are just two things to do: dodge your opponent's attacks
and shoot at your opponent. That's it.
If you fly against the built in robots you will learn how to dodge incoming
shots. DO NOT EXPECT to learn how to dodge incoming attacks from human
opponents. The only other thing that you will learn by flying against the
robots is how to steer your Pyro GX.
To become a better multiplayer pilot you will have to fly against other
human players. After a while you will find people who are much better than
you. Flying against them is just frustrating and you won't even find out
how they killed you (Sometimes you find some demigods who start to teach
you or who kill you with elegant maneuvers. Stay in these games and LEARN!).
Search for opponents whose abilities are similar to yours or are just a
little better. Clean up your harddisk and make Demos of the flights. Later
you can analyze the demos and find out what was good and what was wrong
with your actions.
So, before you start your first competitions ensure that you really know
the level you will fly in. You need to know where the upgrades and goodies
are and how to reach them from anywhere. Knowledge about the Level is very
important and can determine who will win. Someone who has lost his orientation
is easy to kill.
- NEVER EVER STAND STILL except when you are flying with a guided missile
(and only then from a concealed position). As a sitting duck you have no
chance to avoid being hit. Don't think that you won't be seen while hanging
around doing nothing. As long as you don't move you are an easy target
to hit. It's no fun making it that easy for your opponents...
- Find out how the weapons work. The different weapons are for different
tactics and different distances. But more about that later.
Learn to lead while aiming. It is like flying these Flight Simulations
like Red Baron, Pacific Air Wars and that type of game. As long as you
shoot directly at your opponent he will have moved away until the bullets
appear where he was before. So you have to shoot where he will go to instead
of where he is. The angle of leading depends on the weapon that you are
using. Fast weapons like the vulcan have a very small leading angle, slow
flying shots like the laser have to be placed far in front of the opponents
ship (as long as he flies forward).
- Keep in mind that dodging is more important than aiming. You will not
be able to kill your opponent when you die before he does. (Yeah! thats
logic!).
- Try to avoid battles with bad weapons when you know that there are
still some more damaging things around. You may feel very brave while fighting
with laser 1 against quad laser 4 but you won't have a chance (unless you
are a much better pilot than your opponent).
Multiplayer Descent is a great chance to meet other people. The way the other guys fly say a lot of thing about their personality. Besides I think that Descent is more something like a sport, not a game (but itīs not a Sony). So here is a list of things that you should do:
You are a great Descenter if you:
- give people that just materialized a chance to get a real weapon instead of bark bark Laser Level 1
- drop some weapons in case of an unballanced game
- try to avoid to shoot on people that obviously hang around to type something
- show newbies some tricks and moves
- say "hi" when you come and "cu" when you leave
And way more important a list of things that you should avoid:
- mine starting points with smartmines
- accuse other guys of cheating
- start verbal attacks if you loose
- concentrate your force on one opponent in multigames
- join "cadets only" games as expirienced pilot
It happens very often that good pilots are accused of cheating. In a way this started to be a compliment, but it doesnīt feel that good if you get in tune with your Pyro and someone comes around and says such things about you. While a cheater can really ruin a great game, there are lots of effects that are caused by "Ping, Lag and Loss".
While a small number of very good pilots can reach an efficiency above 90% only cheaters manage to stay without any death. Signs of real cheating are use of weapons that are not in the specific level, huge amounts of smartmines or earthshaker missiles and people that NEVER die. There are also cheats for firing quad missiles or rapid fire. These can very fast be mixed up with effects of loss.
Nevertheless there are ways of cheating that are very hard to detect. There is just one way to stop cheaters: donīt cheat. For no reason! There is no fun in cheating, wether for you nor fo the other guys.
[intro] [flying Pyro] [basic flight situations] [weapon selection] [advanced flight tactics] [Proīs part][democontest][personal]
Send questions or comments to lhoppe@iname.com