Power Game Pak 2

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╔═════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ RELEASE NOTES FOR ║ ║ DESCENT 2 ║ ║ INTERACTIVE DEMO v1.0 ║ ║ ║ ╚═════════════════════════╝ ─────────────────────────────────── THIS DEMO IS FREELY DISTRIBUTABLE FOR NON-COMMERCIAL PURPOSES see section 13 for full details ─────────────────────────────────── ╔═══════════════════╗ ║ TABLE of CONTENTS ║ ╚═══════════════════╝ 1. VERSION CHANGES 2. DESCENT 2 FEATURES a. Feature List b. Notes on New Features 3. MANUAL ADDENDA 4. PLAYING DESCENT 2 a. System Requirements b. Installation & Setup c. Descent 2 under Win95 d. Menus e. Powerups f. Doors g. PTMC Mine Centers h. Keylist 5. MULTIPLAYER DESCENT 2 a. Features/Rules b. Modem/Serial Games c. Network Games 6. DEMOS & SCREENSHOTS 7. TIPS for NEW PILOTS 8. COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS 9. USING SPECIAL JOYSTICKS & CONTROLLERS 10. VR HEADSET INFORMATION 11. TROUBLESHOOTING & COMMON PROBLEMS 12. TECHNICAL SUPPORT 13. DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔════════════════════╗ ║ 1. VERSION CHANGES ║ ╚════════════════════╝ DESCENT 2 INTERACTIVE DEMO 1.0 - Original release See following section for Feature additions since Descent 1. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔═══════════════════════╗ ║ 2. DESCENT 2 FEATURES ║ ╚═══════════════════════╝ ╔══════════════════╗ ║ 2a. Feature List ║ ╚══════════════════╝ The following is a somewhat-complete list of full-version Descent 2 features. NOTE: Many of these features are not available in the Interactive Demo. Major features: ─────────────── 30 new levels 30+ new robots, including new bosses 10+ new weapons/powerups afterburner full-map powerup ammo rack powerup energy->shield transfers flash/stun missiles guided missiles smart mines headlight powerup more! Redbook CD soundtrack featuring Ogre from Skinny Puppy full motion, high-resolution cinematics new anarchy levels flowing water, lava, and seismic disturbances advanced AI including thieves, snipers, and escort robots 640x480 support with high resolution cockpit, as well as other hi-res modes enhanced lighting effects (blastable lights!) new multiplayer features: option to disallow any weapon play by kills or time limit player handicapping flexible player limits improved slow-packet handling restricted game mode Minor features: ─────────────── new redbook, MIDI, FM soundtrack with new digital sound effects automap markers w/text descriptors minefields new control boxes, forcefields and triggers multiple HUD camera views including teammates, missiles, and markers custom weapon autoselection priorities advanced secret level system ability to drop weapons Robot AI bahaviors: GuideBot Thief Snipers Energy Drainers More advanced Brain behavior Robots which fire two different kinds of weapons Robots which attempt to get behind the player in battle More dynamic robot behavior, more complex strategies based on the player. ╔═════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 2b. Notes on Descent 2 Features ║ ╚═════════════════════════════════╝ THE GUIDE-BOT ───────────── New to Descent 2 is the Guide-Bot. He's an automated scout robot that has been smuggled into the mines to help you. He's small, blue, and can be found on each of the Demo levels. He's usually imprisoned in a little cell near the entrance of each mine. You can choose to free him by blasting open the door to his cell and use his help, or leave him be (you will not be penalized). Once the Guide-Bot has been released, you can bring up his command menu by hitting SHIFT-F4. The following Guide-Bot commands are available: 0. Find next goal 1. Find Energy Powerup 2. Find Energy Center 3. Find Shield Powerup 4. Find any Powerup 5. Find a Robot 6. Find a Hostage 7. Stay away from me 8. Find my Powerups (Powerups you dropped after dying) 9. Find the Exit T. Suppress messages All of the numbered commands can also be issued during play by pressing the shifted number of the command. For example, SHIFT-1 for "Find Energy Powerup." The "Suppress messages" will only work from the menu. Once you issue a command, the Guide-Bot will attempt to follow it until another is issued, or you have achieved the goal. The "Find next goal" is his default behavior. Under this behavior, he will help you locate any access keys needed, find the reactor, and then help you find the exit. While the Guide-Bot is small and fast, he will die if exposed to enough combat. If you fall far behind the Guide-Bot, he will come back looking for you. He will not open secret or restricted access doors to attain a goal, but will do so in order to find you. THIEF-BOTS ────────── Not all new robots are designed to help you. Thief robots are fast and evil robots, designed to steal your weaponry when you least expect it. If you kill a Thief robot, he will drop items he has stolen from you. If he's stolen more than a few items, however, there is always the chance one or two have been destroyed. GUIDED MISSILES ─────────────── Guided missiles can be a great weapon in any single- or multi-player game. When you fire one of these, your pitch/bank controls will control the flight path of the missile. Remaining controls (throttle, sliding) will still control your ship. You will continue to control the Guided missile until it runs out of fuel (30 seconds), it hits an object or wall, or until you hit the fire key again (at which point the Guided missile will "home" like a Homing missile). By default, the Guided missile view will be displayed in the secondary weapons display. The view can be enlarged by using the appropriate toggle in the Options/Toggles menu. THE AFTERBURNER ─────────────── New to the Descent 2 display is the Afterburner. In Cockpit mode, the new gauge appears as a red energy bar on the left side (the key display has been moved to the right side). This new energy bar will only activate if you are currently carrying the Afterburner. In Status Bar mode, it appears below the main Energy Gauge. In Full Screen, it appears as a percentage above the Energy/Shield display on the left (if Afterburner is available). The Afterburner uses a separate energy bank, which charges from your main Energy. AUTOMAP MARKERS ─────────────── Also new to Descent 2 are Automap Markers. You may drop these by hitting 'F4' from the game. In single-player games, you have a limit of 9 Markers. In multiplayer, you have only 2 markers. When dropped, you will be prompted for a short message to place in the Marker. In the mine tunnels, Markers appear as glowing green icons. If you collide with one, it will show you its message. In the Automap, Markers appear as glowing numbered dots. Hitting the 1-9 keys will allow you to select the Markers on the map. CTRL-D will delete the current Marker. In Multiplayer games, you have the option of allowing Marker Camera Views (used with the SHIFT-F1/F2 displays). Automap Markers cannot be destroyed in Multiplayer games, but will delete themselves to make room for newly placed Markers. AUTOSAVE/RESTORE BACKUPS ──────────────────────── New in Descent 2... When you save over an existing savegame, it will copy the old one to a backup file. This allows you to restore the old one in case you accidently overwrote it. The backup game appears as "[autosave backup]" at the bottom of the Restore Game list. Likewise, whenever you Load a saved game, the game will save your current game in the backup slot. This will allow you to "undo" the restore in case it was accidental. Thank Mike for this welcome addition to Descent 2! MULTIPLAYER HANDICAPPING ──────────────────────── Also new is Multiplayer handicapping! If someone wishes to handicap themselves, they may use F8 to send the following message: "handicap:xxx" where xxx is a number from 10-100. From that point on, the player who sent the message will have xxx shields when they reappear after dying. When a player changes his/her handicap, a message is sent to everyone to announce the fact. BOMB DISPLAY ──────────── A new ProxBomb/SmartMine display has been added to your screen. It appears as a red or gold "B:xx" counter somewhere on your screen. In Cockpit mode, it appears in the lower right corner. On the Status Bar, it's in the lower left of the Secondary Weapons display. In Full Screen, it's above your current weapons display on the right. If you have no ProxBombs or SmartMines, this display will be blank. This display tells you what weapon will be dropped when you hit the Drop Bomb key (default is 'B'). If the display shows a red-colored "B:04" it means you have four ProxBombs ready to be dropped. A gold-colored display indicates SmartMines. Note that this does not indicate that the weapon is "armed" as a Secondary weapon, and only refers to the Drop Bomb key functionality. NOTE: This display will reflect the ProxBomb/SmartMine positions in the Secondary Autoselect Ordering menu, even if they appear below the "Never Autoselect" line. Example: Both ProxBombs and SmartMines appear below the "Never" line, but ProxBombs appear higher. The "B:xx" display will change to ProxBombs over SmartMines if you have some of each. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔═══════════════════╗ ║ 3. MANUAL ADDENDA ║ ╚═══════════════════╝ The following are supplemental items/changes to the Descent 2 manual. If your you can find no information regarding a problem you're having, Section 11 below lists several sources of Descent 2 support. DESCENT 2 and KALI ────────────────── Descent 2 has several new features that allow playing games via KALI easier. This includes improved powerup handling. While high latency connections over KALI will always be problematic, gameplay should be generally smoother with Descent 2. Useful features include the Max Players slider, and the Restricted Game mode, and a system to help control the "reproducing powerups" problem seen in many KALI games. While Interplay and Parallax cannot provide technical support for KALI and similar tools, more information can be found at the Official KALI homepage at http://www.axxis.com/kali. See Section 11 for additional ideas and suggestions. DESCENT 2 and INTERNET HEAD-TO-HEAD DAEMON (IHHD) ───────────────────────────────────────────────── While playing Multiplayer Descent 2 through the IHHD software is possible, it is not recommended. The delay in packet delivery will almost certainly lead to strange results. You may see players jump around suddenly, or even disappear for several seconds at a time. You may also witness players not dropping powerups when killed, staying cloaked too long, or other unfavorable results. See Section 11 for additional ideas and suggestions. CTS/RTS HANDSHAKING IN MODEM/SERIAL GAMES ───────────────────────────────────────── In shareware 1.2 and registered Descent, CTS/RTS handshaking was added as the default. We have had several people report problems with modem/serial games after upgrading to shareware 1.2 or registered Descent, so we took it out and added it as a command- line option (-CtsRts). So, if shareware 1.2 and registered Descent worked fine for you, but registered version 1.4 doesn't, then try using the -CtsRts command line. DESCENT AND NOVELL'S NETX ───────────────────────── When playing network games, all players should either have NETX loaded or all players should not have NETX loaded. If one player has NETX loaded and the other player doesn't, this will cause noticable slowdowns and delays when starting netgames. DESCENT and OS/2 ──────────────── To get Descent to run under OS/2, just increase your DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT to 8 megs or more. Descent should then run perfectly with full sound. If your joystick behaves strangely under OS/2 try using the "-JoyPolled" command line option. Keep in mind that Descent does not officially support OS/2. DESCENT and Windows 3.1x ──────────────────────── Use the following settings in your PIF file: Optional Parameters: -JoyPolled EMS Memory: KB Limit -1 XMS Memory: KB Limit -1 Display Usage: Full Screen Execution: Exclusive If you use a joystick, the -JoyPolled option uses an alternate method of joystick reading that should increase performance under Windows. Keep in mind that Descent does not officially support Windows. SCREENSHOT VIEWER ───────────────── Included in your game directory is PCXVIEW.EXE. This is a standalone utility that allows you to view any .PCX screenshots taken in Descent 2. PCXVIEW.EXE is public domain and freely distributable. See your Descent 2 Manual for more information on screenshots. PLAYING NETGAMES OVER ROUTERS ───────────────────────────── If you want to play someone that is on a different network branch or across a router, then you need to tell Descent 2 how to find that person. The simplest way is create a DESCENT.NET file that contains all the networks that people will be playing on and have everyone that wants to play put that file in their Descent 2 directory. You can find all the network numbers by running Descent 2 with the -showaddress command line switch or by running the Novell utility, userlist, with the /Address parameter. Do this for each user so that you can find all nets. The network address will be an 8-digit number. It is usually shown as XXXXXXXX/YYYYYYYYYYYY, where the X's are the network address, and the Y's are the node address. Here is the one we use at Parallax: ; DESCENT.NET -This can contain up to 64 networks. Semi-colons comment. 00000002 ; West Side (Matt,Mike,Adam) 00000003 ; East Side (Jasen,Mark) If this doesn't work for you, then do the same thing as the above, only create a DESCENT.USR that contains the full addresses of all the people that you want to play Descent 2. Here is an example based on the above Parallax example: ; DESCENT.USR -This can contain up to 64 users. Semi-colons comment. 00000002/0001e8c49bb8 ;Matt 00000002/0002e8c49bb8 ;Mike 00000002/0003e8c49bb8 ;Adam 00000003/0001e8c49358 ;Mark 00000003/0002e8c49358 ;Jasen ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔══════════════════════╗ ║ 4. PLAYING DESCENT 2 ║ ╚══════════════════════╝ So you thought Descent 1 was the ultimate in edge-of-your-seat action? You thought it couldn't get any better? You thought wrong. Sit down, disconnect the phone, send the kids to bed. You're in for quite a ride. ╔═════════════════════════╗ ║ 4a. System Requirements ║ ╚═════════════════════════╝ REQUIREMENTS: - IBM PC compatible 486-33 or faster - 8 MB RAM - DOS 5.0 or later STRONGLY RECOMMENDED: - Pentium processor - 16 MB RAM - stereo 16-bit soundcard with General MIDI support - a quality joystick - lots of spare time SUPPORTS: - Microsoft compatible mouse - Sound cards: Soundblaster Pro/16/AWE32/compatibles, ProAudio Spectrum Plus/16/Studio, Gravis Ultrasound/Max, Roland MT-32/LAPC-1/SCC-1 (MIDI music only) - Joysticks: 1 or 2 as well as Thrustmaster WCS/FCS/FLCS/TQS, Gravis GamePad/Phoenix, Logitech Cyberman/Wingman Extreme, CH Flightstick Pro/Throttle, Microsoft SideWinder/Pro - VR support: VFX-1, CyberMaxx, Virtual I/O i-glasses, and 3DMax ╔══════════════════════════╗ ║ 4b. Installation & Setup ║ ╚══════════════════════════╝ To install Descent 2, use PKUNZIP to unzip the distributed files into a temporary directory. From that directory, type: INSTALL <ENTER> The Installer will uncompress the needed files. It will then run SETUP to allow you to configure your sound card(s). To change soundcard configuration at any time, you can also type: SETUP <ENTER> Follow the prompts to configure your sound device(s). Be sure you test the sound and music! If soundcard settings are incorrect, Descent 2 may not work properly or even fail. To start Descent 2 type: D2 <ENTER> After starting the game, you will be prompted to enter your PTMC pilot name. This will be the name Descent 2 uses to store your control configurations and for tracking you in Multiplayer games and in high scores. ╔═══════════════════════════╗ ║ 4c. Descent 2 under Win95 ║ ╚═══════════════════════════╝ Descent 2 will run great under Win95 in a DOS box, as well as Win95 DOS mode. If you are experiencing any problems running Descent 2 under Win95 (sound, netgame difficulties, etc.), see Section 11 for troubleshooting tips, or contact Interplay Technical Support. ╔═══════════╗ ║ 4d. Menus ║ ╚═══════════╝ Use the arrow keys to move around menus in Descent 2. Unless otherwise noted, hitting <ESC> will accept the current menu's settings and return to the previous one. Some menus contain radio-type switches and checkboxes that can be toggled by hitting <SPACEBAR>. From the game you can always hit the <F1> key to bring up a list of keyboard commands. Hitting <F2> from the game will bring up the Game Options menu. Certain menus have special control keys, and will be noted as such on the menus themselves. DESCENT 2 MENU ────────────── NEW GAME - Start a new game of Descent 2. You may begin on any level you have reached in previous games. LOAD GAME - Resume a previously saved game. Saved games are stored in your pilot file, so be sure the proper pilot is selected. MULTIPLAYER - Allows you to start a game of Multiplayer Descent 2 using a modem, serial cable, or IPX network. See Section 5 for details. OPTIONS - Takes you to the Options Menu (see below). CHANGE PILOTS - Allows you to change the current pilot or create a new one. All control configurations and saved games are stored in your pilot file. VIEW DEMO - Lets you play a recorded demo file. See section 6 for details. HIGH SCORES - See Descent 2 High Scores. ORDERING INFO - Shows how to order the full version of Descent 2! CREDITS - See the list of people who created Descent 2. QUIT - This will return you to DOS. OPTIONS MENU ──────────── FX VOLUME - Changes volume of sound effects. MUSIC VOLUME - Changes volume of the music. REVERSE STEREO - Allows you to reverse the stereo sound channels. This is sometimes necessary for earphones, speakers, or extension cables that are wired incorrectly. BRIGHTNESS - Some monitors are darker than others. If you have trouble seeing details on your game screen, try adjusting this slider. CONTROLS - Takes you to the Controls Menu (see below). DETAIL LEVELS - Allows you to adjust the Detail Level of Descent 2 (see below). CALIBRATE JOYSTICK - If your joystick drifts, you probably need to calibrate it. Also available in the game by hitting <SHIFT-F7>. TOGGLES - This menu contains several togglable options for Descent 2 (see below). PRIMARY AUTOSELECT ORDERING... - see below SECONDARY AUTOSELECT ORDERING... - see below CONTROLS ──────── The Controls menu allows you to choose your prefered controls for Descent 2. If you are using a Thrustmaster stick, the Gravis Phoenix, or a Logitech CyberMan, see Section 8. By choosing Customize Keyboard you can change the default keys to your preferences. Any changes are saved in your pilot file. If you use a Thrustmaster WCS, FLCS, or Gravis Phoenix, you should keep the keyboard configuration in its default setup and alter the appropriate downloadable device file. JOYSTICK SENSITIVITY - Adjusts the responsiveness of your joystick controls. DETAIL LEVELS ───────────── If you are running on less than a 486-50 with 8 MB RAM, you may wish to lower your detail level to achieve better performance. There are several preset detail levels available to you, as well as a Custom Detail Level. The following is a list of options availble under the Options/Details/Custom menu: OBJECT COMPLEXITY: This affects the number of polygons used by objects like robots, player ships, and other 3D objects. Lower values will increase speed, but simplify the shapes of many objects. OBJECT DETAIL: This determines at what distance an object changes from flat-shaded to texture-mapped details. Setting this slider to a lower value will cause robots to be flat-shaded much closer. WALL DETAIL: This option determines at what distance walls appear flat- shaded vs. texture-mapped. It also affects the accuracy vs. speed of the texture mapper. If you notice wall textures "sliding" or "jumping" a little in the distance, this slider is set too low. WALL RENDER DEPTH: This will change the maximum distance you can see. Lower settings will increase the speed of Descent 2, but will cause flat-colored "walls" to appear across long hallways. These boundaries do not affect weapons or other objects, only your visuals. AMOUNT OF DEBRIS: Changing this slider will determine how much debris is made when robots explode. Setting this to a low value will make fewer pieces in heavy combat. SOUND CHANNELS: Sound can have an affect on the speed of your game as well. This slider will change the maximum number of sounds that can be played at once. NOTE: To speed things up, you should also disable any/all secondary camera views you may have when playing (rear view, GuideBot view, missile view, etc.) TOGGLES ─────── SHIP AUTOLEVELING - If this is on, your PyroGX ship will attempt to align itself with the curvature of the mine tunnels. This is useful for first-time Descent 2 players, but may be turned off once you're accustomed to full 3D flight. SHOW RETICLE - Allows you to turn the targeting reticle display on or off. MISSILE VIEW - When enabled, this will show a "missile cam" view in your secondary weapons display. When a missile is not in the air, the weapons display will work normally. This option is enabled by default, but can be disabled for a small framerate increase. HEADLIGHT ON WHEN PICKED UP - self explanatory. SHOW GUIDED MISSILE IN MAIN DISPLAY - If enabled, this will show the Guided missile view in the main display (showing your ships view in the small window). If disabled, it will work like a normal missile view. AUTOSELECT ORDERING ─────────────────── These Primary/Secondary Autoselect Ordering menus allow you to choose the 'preferences' of your weapon Autoselection. Items higher on the list will be autoselected over lower items. Weapons appearing below the "Never Autoselect" line will not be autoselected, and must be manually selected. When you use the 'B' key to drop ProxBombs/SmartMines, the game will prefer the higher one on this list, even if they both appear below the "Never" line. ╔══════════════╗ ║ 4e. Powerups ║ ╚══════════════╝ ACCESS KEYS: These access keys give you access to the different security levels of the mines. They are color-coded to the doors they open. ENERGY BOOST: This will give your energy banks a boost, up to 200 units max. Energy Centers can deliver recharge up to 100 units. SHIELD BOOST: This will give your ship's shields a kick. By getting shield powerups, you can get your shields up to a maximum of 200 units. CLOAKING DEVICE: Gives your ship cloaking ability for a limited time. * INVULNERABILITY: Makes your ship invulnerable for a short time. * EXTRA LIFE: Gives you a bonus life. AFTERBURNER: This gives your ship turbo-boosted thrusters. Afterburners operate off of a separate energy reserve that charges itself from your normal energy banks. The default Afterburner key is 'S', but can be modified. LASER: Laser cannons have six power levels. The laser powerup will give you the next available level. SUPERLASER: These beauties will give you an additional 2 levels of laser power. QUAD LASER: This powerup will modify your existing laser system to fire four bolts instead of the standard two. HEADLIGHT: Helps illuminate nearby mine walls. Also makes your ship more visible to surrounding robots (and players!). The default key for the headlight is 'H', and can be defaulted as ON or OFF in the Options/Toggles menu. NOTE: While ON, the headlight will drain energy from your main energy reserve. The headlight will not operate if you have less than 10 units of energy. ENERGY->SHIELD CONVERTER - When you have more than 100 units of energy, this device will allow you to divert it to your ship's shields. The default key is 'T'. Every shield unit costs 2 energy units to convert. VULCAN CANNON: This weapon rapidly fires explosive-tipped shells. VULCAN AMMO: This gives you more ammunition for the Vulcan Cannon. GAUSS CANNON: Similar to the Vulcan, this weapon fires fewer, but more massive and devastating bursts of ammo. SPREADFIRE CANNON: This fires a spread of energy at your target. HELIX CANNON: The newest model of the Spreadfire line, this brings a shower of destruction down on anything in your path. PLASMA CANNON: Fires bursts of supercharged plasma. * FUSION CANNON: Fires destructive blasts of energy directly from the ship's fusion reactor. Capable of punching through large crowds of robots before running out of power. * PHOENIX CANNON: A turbo-charged version of the Plasma cannon, the energy bursts from the Phoenix will ricochet off walls. * OMEGA CANNON: Casts an ultimately powerful beam of energy to your target. CONCUSSION MISSILES: All-purpose dumbfire rockets. Come singly or in packs of four. HOMING MISSILES: Same size warhead as Concussion Missiles, these are equipped with a tracking device that can follow a target around most turns. Come singly or in packs of four. GUIDED MISSILES: These missiles are guided by the pilot until detonated or until the fire key is pressed again. At that point, they become normal homing missiles. PROXIMITY BOMBS: These bombs are launched behind your ship, waiting to explode when something gets near. Can be armed as a secondary weapon, or dropped directly by hitting the default key "B". SMART MINES: devastating defensive device. Spews forth globules of energy that track nearby targets. SMART MISSILE: When this missile detonates, it sends bomblets of heated plasma after the surrounding targets. * MEGA MISSILE: Stand back when you launch this earthshaker. * MERCURY MISSILE: ??? * EARTHSHAKER MISSILE: The ultimate in mine-rocking destruction. Treat with respect. * Only available in the Full version of DESCENT 2. See ORDERFRM.TXT for ordering information. ╔═══════════╗ ║ 4f. Doors ║ ╚═══════════╝ Doors in the mines can be opened by shooting them or bumping them. If a door is locked, it needs the appropriately colored access key. If a door is not color coded and cannot be opened, it is a special door that may open by a motion sensor or control box somewhere in the mine. ╔═══════════════════════╗ ║ 4g. PTMC Mine Centers ║ ╚═══════════════════════╝ ENERGY CENTER: Designed for "on the fly" replenishing of robot's power cells, it will also recharge your own. These will charge your ship's energy banks (up to 100 units). ROBOT GENERATOR: Automated centers that determine a mine's needs and assemble robots from surrounding minerals and metals. Very dangerous. Identifiable by its violet color. MAIN REACTOR: The power generator of the whole mine. Usually in a secluded place away from day-to-day mine mishaps. ╔═════════════╗ ║ 4h. Keylist ║ ╚═════════════╝ Following is the full keylist for Descent 2. GAME OPTIONS KEYS ───────────────── ESCAPE Main menu/Abort game 1-5 Select Primary weapon (hit twice for D2 weapons) 6-0 Select Secondary weapon (hit twice for D2 weapons) F1 Help screen F2 Options F3 Cockpit on/off F4 Drop Automap marker F5 Demo recording on/off F6 Accept incoming player (multiplayer only, when prompted) F7 Cycle kill list display (multiplayer only) F8 Send typed message (multiplayer only) F9-F12 Send taunt macros (multiplayer only) ALT-F2 Save game ALT-F3 Load game ALT-F4 Toggle teammate/player ID display ALT-F6 Toggle teammate IDs (team mode only) SHIFT-F5 Drop primary weapon SHIFT-F6 Drop secondary weapon SHIFT-F1/F2 Cycle camera views (Rear view, GuideBot view, Teammate view, Marker view) SHIFT-F4 GuideBot Command Menu SHIFT-1 thru 0 Issue GuideBot Menu command x SHIFT-F7 Calibrate joystick SHIFT-F9 Define F9-F12 taunt macros (multiplayer only) thru SHIFT-F12 PAUSE Pause game (disabled in multiplayer) +/- change window size PRINT SCREEN save screen shot SHIFT-ESC Quick exit DEFAULT CONTROLS ──────────────── The following assignments may all be modified in the Options/Controls/Customize menus JOYSTICK: dive /\ | Button 1: fire primary | Button 2: fire secondary ---------- | | | | | -- | turn left <-- | |XX| | --> turn right | -- | | | | | ---------- | | \/ climb KEYBOARD FLIGHT ─────────────── ARROW KEYS ship rotations A forward Z reverse S afterburner (when acquired) Q or PAD 7 bank left E or PAD 9 bank right LEFT ALT slide on PAD 1 slide left PAD 3 slide right PAD - slide up PAD + slide down R rear view TAB automap H headlight on/off T transfer energy->shields (if converter acquired and energy is over 100 units) WEAPONS: CTRL fire primary SPACEBAR fire secondary B drop ProxBomb/SmartMine (if available) NOTE: the color and count of the "B:" display on the cockpit/statusbar/HUD indicates the type and availability of ProxBombs/SmartMines. WEAPON SELECTION ──────────────── Each selection key will switch between its main and alternate weapons. Descent 2 will remember which of the two weapons you last selected, and will return to that one when you return to that entry. Certain weapons are not available in the Interactive Demo. key main alternate (D2 weapon) --- ---------- --------------------- 1 Lasers/SuperLasers (used as laser levels 5 & 6) 2 Vulcan Cannon Gauss Cannon 3 Spreadfire Cannon Helix Cannon 4 Plasma Cannon Phoenix Cannon 5 Fusion Cannon Omega Cannon 6 Concussion Missile Flash Missile 7 Homing Missile Guided Missile 8 Proximity Bomb Smart Mine 9 Smart Missile Mercury Missile 0 Mega Missile EarthShaker Missile , cycle primary . cycle secondary NOTE: The two cycle keys will select the next available weapon of that type. The order of the list can be changed under the new Options/Autoselect Ordering menus. AUTOMAP ─────── Flight controls Rotate/zoom map +/- Change display distance from ship 1-9 Select Automap marker CTRL-D Delete selected marker DEMO PLAYBACK CONTROLS ────────────────────── UP ARROW play DOWN ARROW stop RIGHT ARROW single frame forward LEFT ARROW single frame reverse SHIFT-RIGHT fast forward SHIFT-LEFT fast reverse CTRL-RIGHT go to end CTRL-LEFT go to start VR HEADSET OPTION KEYS ────────────────────── ALT-F5 toggle VictorMaxx mode ALT-F6 cycle VR resolution ALT-F7 switch left/right eye displays ALT-F8 cycle head tracking sensitivity ALT-F9 cycle headset type ALT-F10 toggle HUD ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔══════════════════════════╗ ║ 5. MULTIPLAYER DESCENT 2 ║ ╚══════════════════════════╝ NOTE: DESCENT 2 multiplayer games are incompatible with DESCENT 1. Therefore, DESCENT 1 network games will not show up on your DESCENT 2 join screen, nor vice-versa. ╔════════════════════╗ ║ 5a. Multiplayer: ║ ║ Features/Rules ║ ╚════════════════════╝ >> NOTE: ONLY ANARCHY MODE IS AVAILABLE IN DEMO VERSION. << >> SEE ORDERFRM.TXT TO RECEIVE THE FULL DESCENT 2 EXPERIENCE! << There are several features available to players of Multiplayer Descent 2 not used in normal single player games. Here is the rundown: Multiplayer Keys ──────────────── ACCEPT PLAYER ENTRY (F6): Available only in Restricted games. When a new player attempts to join, an in-game player is given a message and the option of hitting 'F6' to accept him/her into to the game. If no acceptance is made in 5 seconds, the new player is denied. TEAMMATE ID DISPLAY (ALT-F6): Available in Network Team games only. If enabled, this will show a teammate's name if he is in your sights. Hitting ALT-F6 will turn this on/off. KILL LIST DISPLAY (F7): This toggles the Multiplayer Kill List on/off. In Network Team games, this alternates the display between Player Kills, Team Kills, Efficiency Scores, and no kill display. The efficiency score is defined as KILLS/(KILLS+DEATHS). Therefore, a player with 5 kills and 0 deaths would have a perfect 100% Efficiency Score. Someone with 5 kills and 2 deaths would have a 71% Efficiency Score. SEND MESSAGE (F8): Lets you type a message to other player(s). Addressing the message to specific player(s) can be done by using a colon. For example, sending the message "ST:YOUR TIME IS NEAR!" will send the message "YOUR TIME IS NEAR!" to any players with "ST" as their name or first characters. This would include the players STEVE or STACY. If there is no address, the message will be sent to everyone. If there is an address but no match, it will not be sent. In Team Anarchy, addressing messages to "1:" or "2:" will send them only to Team 1 and Team 2, respectively. TAUNT MACROS (F9-F12): This works the same as above, but lets you send one of four predefined messages with one keypress. By using SHIFT, you can define or re-define what F9-F12 will send. For example, hitting SHIFT-F10 will let you change what F10 will send when you hit it by itself. Message addressing using ":" is available in macros as well (see above). Taunt Macros are stored in your pilot file for future games. MARKER CAMERAS (F4): In addition to the normal Automap Marker functionality, these double as a serveillance technique. After dropping a marker in a Multiplayer game, you can view from it's location by selecting it with the SHIFT-F1 or -F2 camera views. These may be disallowed in the Start Netgame/More Options menu. Multiplayer Rules ───────────────── Some special rules apply to Multiplayer Descent 2 Games. Here is the rundown: o NEW TO DESCENT 2: Multiplayer handicapping! If someone wishes to handicap themselves, they may use F8 to send the following message: "handicap:xxx" where xxx is a number from 10-100. From that point on, the player who sent the message will have xxx shields when they reappear after dying. When a player changes his/her handicap, a message is sent to everyone to announce it. o When players are killed, they drop their weapons and powerups! This also means that if there is only one Spreadfire Cannon placed in a level, only one player can have it at a time. If you want a certain weapon, you may have to beat it out of someone! o When you fire secondary weapons in a multiplayer game, a new powerup of that type is created randomly somewhere in the mine. This keeps the number of weapons in the game constant. If you see a weapon suddenly appear in front of your ship, consider yourself lucky! Cloak/Invulnerability replacements are created when these effects wear off of a player. Concussion Missiles do not replace themselves. o Bringing up a menu in Multiplayer Descent 2 does NOT stop the action. Your ship is still vulnerable to attack. If you need to spend time in a menu, find a place to hide. If you're attacked while in a menu, the game will automatically return you to the game so you can defend yourself. It will also return you from menus if the reactor is about to explode. o After finishing a level in Multiplayer Descent 2, there may be a waiting period while other players escape the mine. Everyone will then enter the new mine together. The waiting delay may be up to 60 seconds. If you wish, you can exit the game entirely by hitting <ESC> at this screen. o Reactor Invulnerability - A new slider has been added to Descent 2. It allows the person starting a multiplayer game to keep the reactor indestructible for a predetermined amount of time. ╔════════════════════════╗ ║ 5b. Multiplayer: ║ ║ Modem/Serial Games ║ ╚════════════════════════╝ >NOTE: If you experience any problems, see Section 11 for troubleshooting tips and solutions. Modem/Serial Setup ────────────────── Before attempting to start a Serial game, both users should check the Com Settings menu to verify that the options are correct. Any changes are saved for future games. NOTE: Games using a null-modem cable require that both machines use the same baud rate in the Com Settings menu. Modem games, however, do not require this. If your machine has a 16450 UART, you should choose 9600 or 19200 baud. The higher the baud rate, the better Descent 2 will perform. If your computer has a 16550 UART, you can use 38400 baud rate for optimum performance. If you are unsure what type of UART your machine has, you can try selecting the 38400 baud rate option. Descent 2 will tell you if it does not detect the 16550 UART required for 38400. For modem users, note that changing the baud rate in the Com Settings menu actually sets the rate of communication between the computer and the modem. Even though many modems do not support actual baud rates above 14400, it is still better to choose a 38400 baud rate in the menu. This will allow Descent 2 to spend less time communicating with the modem, and will increase game performance. Modem Descent 2 requires at least a 9600 baud modem with an error correction protocol (preferably v.42). Data compression is also helpful, and should be enabled in the modem (v.42bis is preferable). The modem should respond to a drop in the DTR control line by hanging up. Fortunately, most modern modems have adequate factory settings for playing Descent 2. If you receive good performance at 9600 baud or above when using your modem for things like on-line services, no special initialization string should be necessary to run Descent 2 ("ATZ" will do nicely). If your modem is something more exotic, you may wish to use an init string of "AT&F" to reset it to factory defaults, which should work great with Descent 2. Connecting ────────── >> NOTE: If you are using a serial port with a non-standard IRQ, you will need to use the Custom option in the Com Settings menu. Pressing return on this checkbox will allow you to change the settings. Starting a game of Serial Descent 2 is a two-stage procedure. First, a link must be established between two machines. This is accomplished differently depending on what type of game you are playing. If you are establishing a null-modem cable link, both players must select "Establish Null-Modem Link" from the serial game menu. After the two computers have established a connection over the null-modem cable you will be returned to the menu and should have new options available to you. If the two machines fail to achieve a link, check the serial parameters on both sides. The baud rate settings must be identical on both sides for them to communicate properly. After establishing the null-modem link, one machine is designated as the master and the other is the slave. This is not visible from the menu, but when you go to start game, only one of the two machines will prompt for the game settings to use. See Starting a Game below for more information. If you are starting a modem game, one person must select Dial Modem from the serial game menu and the other must select Answer modem. After the modems connect, you will be returned to the serial game menu and new options will be available to you. Starting ──────── You should now see the "Start Game" option on your menu. The blue line should indicate if you are connected or not. When selecting Start Game, one player will be offered a menu of game options such as start level and game mode. If a modem is being used, the person who dialed will need to choose the game options, while the other waits for him/her to start. In null-modem games the starter is randomly determined. After this, both players will be placed in the mine and the game begins. After the game is finished or if one of the players decides to leave the game, both players are returned to the serial game menu. The communication link is STILL ACTIVE, however. If you want to play another game, perhaps with different settings or a different starting level, just select Start Game once again. If you want to hangup the modem or release the null-modem connection, select Close Link. Another feature of the modem game is the ability to send messages back and forth between connected players before they are in the game. You can do this by selecting Send Message from the Serial Game menu. This option is only available once a connection has been established. This is useful if you do not have an extra phone line for voice communication while playing and you need to negotiate the terms of the game. Another feature is automatic notification when a game is starting. If one player selects start game but the other does not, the person who didn't start will be informed that the other player is ready. If the user isn't prepared to start yet, the first user will be notified. Make sure you select Close Link or exit the serial game menu if you're finished with the modem game. If you do not, the modem will remain connected to the other player. Phone Book ────────── A small phonebook is available from the dial menu of the serial game menu. This lets you store the names and phone numbers of your 8 most frequent opponents. To edit the phonebook go to the Dial menu and select Edit Phonebook. ╔═══════════════════╗ ║ 5c. Multiplayer: ║ ║ Network Games ║ ╚═══════════════════╝ Netgame Requirements ──────────────────── Descent 2 is designed to run on networks using the IPX protocol. To use IPX protocol on your LAN-connected PC, you must be loading the IPX.COM driver provided by Novell, in addition to lower-level drivers required by your particular brand of network card. Netgame Setup ───────────── Descent 2 supports up to 12 simultaneous network games on a single socket. If you need to run more than 12 games on a single LAN, players can use the Socket option in the Start Netgame/More Options menu. Joining players will need to change to the same socket from the Join Netgame menu. Descent 2 uses a default socket number of 5110(Hex). This option can be used to avoid socket conflicts with other network services should they arise. Also, if you are on a large network with many games playing, you can use a different socket to run the game from. Hitting PGUP/PGDN from the Join menu will allow you to find such games. One person playing must select Start Netgame from the Multiplayer menu. The starting parameters are explained below: Starting a Netgame ────────────────── START NETGAME MENU: DESCRIPTION: The name of the game, literally. This is merely for other people will see this when they are choosing games to join. LEVEL: The level the game will start on. Play may progress to other levels during the game. MODE: Determines type of game to be played: ANARCHY: A human-only free-for-all battle to the death. The goal is to accumulate the most kills. * TEAM ANARCHY: Same as Anarchy, but with teams. * ROBO-ANARCHY: Same as Anarchy, but with robots thrown in. The goal is still to kill your human opponents, but the robots have their own agenda... Robots are also a good source of powerups. * COOPERATIVE: Humans vs. the robots. Save humanity! * Only available in the full version of Descent 2. See ORDERFRM.TXT for details. OPEN GAME: Open games allow any new players to join the game in-progress. CLOSED GAME: Determines whether or not new players will be allowed to join once the game has started. If you have checked the Closed Game box, only the starting players will be in the game. Note that even in Closed games, the starting players are allowed to leave Descent 2 and rejoin at any time. RESTRICTED GAME: This new Descent 2 mode operates the same as Open games with one change. When a new player attempts to join a Restricted game, one of the current players will be sent a message, giving him/her the option of hitting 'F6' to accept that player. If the acceptance isn't given within 5 seconds, the player is denied entry. Denied players may attempt to join as often as they wish. MAXIMUM PLAYERS: This slider allows you to limit the maximum number of players allowed in the game. Cooperative Mode only allows 4 players max. MORE OPTIONS MENU: DIFFICULTY: This determines many factors from robot awareness and deadliness to time for mine destruction countdowns. If the slider is to the left the game will be easier, to the right it will be harder. REACTOR LIFE: Determines how long, in minutes, the reactor will be invulnerable. Until this time limit has expired, no one may advance the level. * MAX TIME: Determines the time, in minutes, each level will be allowed. At the end of this time period, the reactor will detonate itself and advance the level. * KILL GOAL: Determines how many kills to allow before advancing the level. Once a player has achieved this number of kills on a level, the reactor will detonate and advance the level. The player that reached the kill goal will be given a shield bonus at the beginning of the following level. ALLOW CAMERA VIEWS FROM MARKERS - This toggle will enable/disable the players' ability to use the SHIFT-F1/F2 camera views from markers he/she has placed. INDESTRUCTIBLE LIGHTS - prevents players from blowing lights out. SHOW ALL PLAYERS ON AUTOMAP: self explanatory. SET OBJECTS ALLOWED... This screen allows the person starting the game to disallow any Descent 2 weapons and objects. Disallowed objects will be replaced with shield powerups. NETWORK SOCKET - This allows you to start the netgame on a different socket number. NOTE: joining players must change to the same socket number in the Join Netgame menu. PACKETS per SECOND - This will change how many network packets each machine sends per second during the netgame. If your netgame appears slow or suffers from problems related to lost packets (players jump around, hits not registering, removable walls not disappearing) lowering this number will help. You can raise this number (to a maximum of 20) if all players are on the same subnet and you desire a smoother game. The default value is 10. * Only available in the full version of Descent 2. See ORDERFRM.TXT for details. Once parameters are set, hit <ENTER> from the Start Netgame menu. The next screen is player selection. As each player selects your game from the Join Game screen, his/her name will appear on your list. By default, all players wishing to join will be selected, but you can deselect them by pressing the spacebar on their checkbox. Press <ENTER> to start the action. Team Selection ────────────── If you've chosen Team Anarchy mode, the next screen will be Team Selection. Team names can be modified in the text boxes. Pressing <ENTER> on a player's name will move him/her to the other team. Team 1 ships will be colored BLUE and Team 2 ships will be RED. Press <ESC> to accept the teams and start the game. Team play is unavailable in the Descent 2 Interactive Demo. Joining a Netgame ───────────────── Choose Join Netgame from the Multiplayer menu. The next screen will show you all active netgames on that socket. Below each game is listed the current level number, number of people playing, and game status. Netgame status can be: FORMING: Game is in player-selection phase. Anyone may attempt to join a forming netgame. OPEN: This means the game is in progress, and you may join at any time. CLOSED: The game is playing, but closed to new players. This is because there are 8 players in the netgame already, or the game was started as Closed. BETWEEN LEVELS: The game is in progress, but the players are rushing for the escape tunnel. If you wait for the level to advance, it will change to JOIN and you can then hop in. Closed netgames will never show this message. NOTE: If the game you're joining is being run on a non-default socket, you will need to use PGUP/PGDN to match that socket number. Rejoining a Netgame ─────────────────── If you leave a netgame for any reason, you may rejoin the ongoing game when you're ready. Although you lose accumulated items, you will retain your ship color and kill count (unless you've been gone long enough for someone new to have taken your spot). Make sure you rejoin from the same computer using the same pilot name so the game knows you as a previously-joined player. The person who started the game is also free to leave and re-join the game at will; there are no special restrictions for this person once the initial parameters have been chosen. Anarchy Summaries ───────────────── At the end of each level, an Anarchy Summary screen will come up. This shows a Kills matrix, with the Total kills and Efficiency Score on the right. The efficiency score is defined as KILLS/(KILLS+DEATHS). Therefore, a player with 5 kills and 0 deaths would have a perfect 100% Efficiency Score. Someone with 5 kills and 2 deaths would have a 71% Efficiency. Players with no kills will show N/A in this field. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔════════════════════════╗ ║ 6. DEMOS & SCREENSHOTS ║ ╚════════════════════════╝ Sorry, DESCENT 1 Demos are incompatible with DESCENT 2 playback. Demos ───── Descent 2 has a fully integrated demo recording and playback system. This recording will work in single or multiplayer games, so you can have a permanent record of blasting your friends to pieces. Hitting F5 in the game will turn on recording. Hitting it again will turn it off and prompt you for a filename. If you press <ESC> from the filename box, the demo will NOT be saved. The demos will record the advance from one level to the next; however, the escape sequences will be skipped in playback. Demo files are saved in the Descent 2 directory and have the filename extension ".DEM". Of course, Descent DEM files may be distributed freely. >>NOTE: Descent .DEM files can become quite large on disk. This is especially true when recording heavy combat. Make sure you have adequate disk space before recording. If you have less than 500k free on disk, you won't be allowed to record a demo. To view a recorded demo, choose View Demo from the Descent 2 menu. During playback, the following keys are available: Arrow keys: Also: SHIFT-LEFT ARROW = fast reverse SHIFT-RIGHT ARROW = fast forward CTRL-LEFT ARROW = go to start play CTRL-RIGHT ARROW = go to end /\ || PRINT SCREEN = save screenshot rewind <= => forward || \/ stop Certain gauges and other trivial items won't display accurately in demo playback in order to minimize the space needed for demo files. Screenshots ─────────── Hitting the PRINT SCREEN key will save a screenshot. The files are written to the Descent 2 directory with the name convention SCREENxx.PCX. The number xx will automatically increment as long as you're in Descent 2. If you leave the game, then return, the numbering will start over and overwrite existing screenshots. The pictures are in .PCX format. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔═════════════════════════╗ ║ 7. COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS ║ ╚═════════════════════════╝ The following DOS command-line options are available in Descent 2. Upper/lowercase is not significant. NOTE: Some options pertain to features not included in the Interactive Demo. General Options: -Verbose Shows initialization steps for tech support -LowMem Lower animation detail for better performance with low memory -NoLowMem Force high animation detail even when low memory -NoMemCheck Disables memory requirement checking -NoDOSCheck Disables DOS version checking -NoVesa Disables VESA linear frame buffering -NoFileCheck Disables the file handles check -Missions <dir> Search the specified directory for add-on missions Input devices: -NoMouse Disables mouse drivers -NoJoystick Disables joystick support -JoyPolled Poll joystick w/ counter. Use for Windows, OS/2 -JoyBios Use the system BIOS for joystick. -JoyNice Joystick poller allows interrupts to occur -GamePort Use Colorado Spectrum's Notebook Gameport Sound & Music: -Volume <v> Sets sound volume to v, where v is between 0 and 100 -NoSound Disables sound drivers -NoMusic Disables music; sound effects remain enabled -NoLoadPats Disables patch loading for Gravis UltraSound VR Devices: -Iglasses Enables Virtual I/O Iglasses! stereo display -VioTrack <n> Enables Iglasses! head tracking via COM port n -3dmaxHi Enables Kasan's 3dMax stereo display in high res -3dmaxLo Enables Kasan's 3dMax stereo display in low res. 3DBios must be installed for 3dMax operation. -CyberMaxx Enables CyberMaxx helmet display -MaxxTrack <n> Enables CyberMaxx head tracking via COM port n -VFX Enables VFX helmet stereo support -VFXTrack Enables VFX head tracking (VFX1.COM must be resident) -LCDBios Enables LCDBIOS for using LCD shutter glasses Network & Modem: -CtsRts Enables CTS/RTS handshaking during null-modem games -NoNetwork Disables network drivers -NoSerial Disables serial drivers ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔════════════════════════╗ ║ 8. TIPS for NEW PILOTS ║ ╚════════════════════════╝ Here are a few things that help new players adjust to the fully 3D world and intelligent robots of Descent 2. Heed these tips and you'll soon be blasting robot hordes (and your friends!) with ease. o Use a quality joystick. Thrustmaster, Advanced Gravis, and CH Products provide full lines of controls well suited to 3D flying. o If you use a two-button joystick, try keeping one hand on the A and Z keys to control your FORWARD and REVERSE. o If you're up against a wall, try using REVERSE to back away instead of turning around. o Learn how to SLIDE well. Using vertical sliding instead of pitching will help keep you upright. If your joystick has a Hat Switch, use it to slide. o Rescue the hostages! If you rescue all hostages in a mine, you receive a full rescue bonus. But be sure you make it out after picking them up - if your ship's destroyed, so are they. o Try clearing a path to the exit before you attack the Main Reactor. You may run out of time if you're battling hordes of robots on your escape! o Look for secret doors. Weapons and ammo are often behind them. They can be a different color, or have small seams running down them. Keep in mind, Descent 2 is fully 3D, and secret doors aren't only in the walls... o DON'T SIT STILL. The best way to stay alive is to keep moving. Using SLIDE to circle a target while you're firing is very effective. o Learn to use your ship's Automap. It can reveal things your eyes may miss. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 9. USING SPECIAL JOYSTICKS & CONTROLLERS ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝ Thrustmaster, Gravis Phoenix, CH, and Logitech controls are fully supported by Descent 2. The device control files (DESCENT2.ADV, DESCENT2.M50, D2WCS.M50, D2TQS.M50, DESCENT.PHX, and DESCENT.KEY) can be found in the \CONTROLS subdirectory. If you have a Wingman Extreme, Flight Force Pro, or other FCS-style stick, you should use the "Thrustmaster FCS" option. Thrustmaster FCS: Choose "Thrustmaster FCS" under Options/Controls. This is for players NOT using the WCS. If you use the WCS throttle with the FCS, follow instructions for the WCS below. * Thrustmaster WCS: Load the DESCENT2.ADV file into your WCS. In Mark II Descent 2, choose "Joystick" under Options/Controls. Now choose "Configure Above" and change the THROTTLE entry to respond to the WCS (the Y2 axis). * Thrustmaster FLCS: Load the D2FLCS.B50 file into your FLCS. If you also use a WCS throttle, no program should be loaded into the WCS. * Thrustmaster TQS: Load D2TQS.B50 into your FLCS. This will automatically configure your TQS for Descent 2. Follow directions above to configure your throttle entry in Descent 2. Gravis Phoenix: Load the DESCENT2.PHX file into your Phoenix. In Descent 2, choose "Joystick" under Options/Controls. Now choose "Configure Above" and change the THROTTLE entry to respond to the throttle slider (the Y2 axis). Logitech Cyberman: You must have the Cyberman MOUSE.COM driver loaded before you run Descent 2. If you have a standard mouse connected as well, you will need to use the "/dual" option when you load MOUSE.COM. See Cyberman docs for details. NoteBook GamePort: Run Descent 2 with the -JoyBios command line switch and everything should work like normal. Make sure that you have the joystick TSR installed. Calibration Note: When using one of the analog throttles listed here or the CH Flightstick, you will be prompted to calibrate your throttle as well as your joystick. * >> NOTE TO WCS and FLCS USERS: Because these devices intercept the keyboard signals, your ship may fly strangely when you also hold down keyboard keys (like 'A' and 'Z'). If you keep the WCS or FLCS on your system, it's recommended that you use those devices for throttle control and sliding, not the keyboard. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔════════════════════════════╗ ║ 10. VR HEADSET INFORMATION ║ ╚════════════════════════════╝ Descent 2 fully supports most VR Head Mounted Displays. To enable support for a given VR device, use the SETUP program. During the game, the following keys are used for VR settings: ALT-F5 toggle VictorMaxx mode ALT-F6 cycle VR resolution ALT-F7 switch left/right eye displays ALT-F8 cycle head tracking sensitivity ALT-F9 cycle headset type ALT-F10 toggle HUD If you have questions about the headsets, the manufacturers can be reached at the following numbers: - VFX-1 Head Mounted Display, by Forte Technologies, Inc. tel: 716-427-8595 fax: 716-292-6353 - CyberMaxx HMD, by VictorMaxx Technologies, Inc. tel: 1-800-279-6880 fax: 708-267-0037 - i-glasses!, by Virtual I-O tel: 800-646-3759 fax: 206-382-8810 net: vio@vio.com - 3D-Max shutter glasses US: Chinon America: tel: 310-533-0274 x570 fax: 310-533-1727 Europe: Kasan tel: 011-46-18-187777 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 11. TROUBLESHOOTING & COMMON PROBLEMS ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝ Regardless of configuration, you should have no trouble running Descent 2. But in the unlikely case you do have problems, here are some helpful pointers: General Problems ──────────────── => Q: I CAN'T GET SOUND TO WORK PROPERLY UNDER WINDOWS95. A: Make sure you have a sound device installed under Win95. Check the System Control Panel, or Multimedia Control Panel for your sound card (if there's no Multimedia Control Panel, Windows 95 doesn't know you have a sound card.) Also remember that if your sound card isn't supported by D2 for DOS, the same is true for running D2 under DOS mode or in a DOS box. D2 isn't a Windows95 game, but it has been tested under Windows 95. On some systems, the Multimedia Control Panel's volume slider has an effect on the volume of digital sound, on other systems it has no such effect. If problems persist, try running Descent 2 from full DOS mode. => Q: I CAN'T PLAY MY FRIEND OVER A NETWORK WHEN RUNNING UNDER WIN95. WE ARE BOTH ON THE SAME NETWORK, BUT DESCENT 2 JUST WON'T FIND HIM. A: Only IPX games are supported in Descent 2. Make sure you have the Network Control Panel in your Control Panel window. Check it to see if you have an IPX network installed (it should read "IPX/SPX compatible protocol" or "IPX-ODI protocol"). Win95 will load the appropriate network drivers when booting up. The network should then be available to a DOS box then, and Descent 2 will recognize it. If you're running from DOS mode, you need to edit your DOSSTART.BAT file in your Windows directory and load in the DOS network drivers (LSL.COM, NE2000, etc). => Q: I GET "CANNOT FIND MOON01.BBM" (OR OTHER FILE) ERROR WHEN I RUN DESCENT 2. WHAT'S WRONG? A: Descent 2 requires that you specify FILES=15 or higher in your CONFIG.SYS. If you are having problems saving/loading games, then make sure that you're not doing a clean boot by holding down the F5 key during the Loading DOS process. Adding FILES=15 to your CONFIG.SYS should clear this up. => Q: DESCENT 2 DOESN'T SEEM TO HAVE SOME OF THE COOL SOUND EFFECTS IT USED TO. FOR EXAMPLE, MY FLARES MAKE LASER FIRING SOUNDS. WHAT HAPPENED? A: If there is less than 5 MB of available physical memory, Descent 2 "recycles" sound effects to save memory. Increase your available physical memory above 5 MB, and all sound effects will be loaded. Another option is to run with the -NoLowMem command line option. This forces Descent to use all sound effects regardless of available memory. However, Descent may run slower with this option. => Q: I HAVE LESS THAN 10MB OF RAM, AND I'M LOW ON DISK SPACE. DESCENT 2 HANGS/CRASHES ON ME. WHAT CAN I DO? A: If Descent 2 doesn't have enough free RAM available, it uses hard drive space instead of RAM. If this is the case, make sure you have plenty of free disk space (at least 8-16MB free). => Q: MY MUSIC SLOWS DOWN SOMETIMES WHEN THERE'S A LOT OF DISK ACCESS UNDER WINDOWS95. A: Machines with less than the required amount of memory will use virtual memory. This may produce a conflict between Descent 2 and Win95's virtual memory usage. To solve this, you will need to run Descent 2 in DOS mode. => Q: DESCENT 2 RUNS SLOWLY ON MY MACHINE, ESPECIALLY IN LARGE BATTLES. WHAT CAN I DO? A: Try one or all of the following: - Using F3 and +/- to shrink your 3D window size - Lowering any/all of the detail level sliders in the Options/Detail level screen. - Use SHIFT-F1/F2 to remove any secondary views you may use. => Q: I HAVE A SMALL GAME WINDOW AND A LOW DETAIL LEVEL, BUT DESCENT 2 STILL LOADS AND RUNS SLOWLY. A: Check your sound card settings in SETUP. Incorrect settings can cause significant slowdown. => Q: THE WALLS IN MY GAME SEEM TO JUMP AROUND IN THE DISTANCE. WHY? => Q: I GET A COLORED WALL IN THE MIDDLE OF MY TUNNELS. WHAT IS THIS? A: These are due to the Detail Level being set below the highest setting. Consult your Descent 2 Manual. => Q: MY COMPUTER HAS 4 MEGS OF RAM. THE GAME IS SLOW AND ACCESSES THE HARD DRIVE ALL THE TIME. A: Descent 2 requires 8 megs of RAM to run. If you have less than 8 it is unlikely you will be able to run it well. => Q: DESCENT 2 LOCKS UP WHEN I RUN IT. A: Try running Descent 2 with the "-nosound" option. If this works, then chances are it's a sound card problem. Run SETUP and make sure your card settings are correct. If you don't hear digital sounds or music when you test them in SETUP, try Autodetection. If this doesn't help, refer to your sound card manual for troubleshooting instructions, or call Interplay Technical Support. => Q: MY COMPUTER LOCKS UP WHEN AUTODETECTING SOUND CARDS IN SETUP. WHAT'S WRONG? A: Due to hardware conflicts, autodetecting for sound cards is a risky process. If you know the brand, port address, IRQ, and DMA of your sound card(s), it is recommended that you manually configure these items. Lockups are also common when autodetection is used when no sound cards are installed. => Q: I CAN'T SELECT THE RIGHT PORT/IRQ/DMA FOR MY SOUNDCARD IN SETUP. A: If the proper selections don't appear in the SETUP, then you can always select them manually by editing your DESCENT.CFG file located in your DESCENT 2 directory. While we tried to account for every possibility, some of the more exotic configurations may not be listed. Contact Interplay if your setup is not listed. => Q: WHY DON'T I HEAR ANYTHING WHEN I TEST MY SOUND IN SETUP? A: You may have the wrong sound card selected, or incorrect port, IRQ or DMA settings. Volume may be set too low in your sound drivers (or the volume slider on the back of your sound card). Hardware conflicts or loose cables may be to blame as well. => Q: MY JOYSTICK ISN'T RESPONDING IN THE GAME. WHAT'S WRONG? A: Be sure you have JOYSTICK selected in the Options/Controls menu, and that it's calibrated. If your joystick connects to your soundcard, make sure the joystick port jumper is ENABLED on the card. Some soundcards have this disabled by default. => Q: HEY! SOME OF MY POWERUPS DISAPPEARED. WHAT HAPPENED? Certain powerups will remove themselves from the game if they have been around 4 or 5 minutes. This only happens to Concussion Missiles, Energy, and Shield powerups dropped by a dead player. => Q: WHY DOES DESCENT ACT STRANGELY WHEN I RUN IT UNDER WINDOWS? A: While Descent 2 may run under Windows, it isn't recommended. You will probably get odd behavior and slowdowns due to timer conflicts. GUS users may get no sound at all under Windows. If you are having joystick problems, try using the -JoyPolled command line option. => Q: I HAVE A THRUSTMASTER WCS HOOKED UP WITH A JOYSTICK. WHEN I USE THE STICK TO FLY, AND THE 'A' AND 'Z' KEYS TO MOVE FORWARD AND BACK, I START FLYING OUT OF CONTROL. WHY? Holding down keyboard keys will produce erratic results when the WCS or FLCS controls are installed. See note in Section 8 for details. => Q: WHY ISN'T MY MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON WORKING IN DESCENT? A: While Descent 2 supports three-button mice, you still need to load a mouse driver that supports three buttons. Typically Microsoft mouse drivers support two and Logitech drivers use three. => Q: I HAVE A GATEWAY 2000 P75. THE COLORS IN DESCENT 2 ARE COMPLETELY MESSED UP. WHAT CAN I DO? A: Do a hard reboot of your computer and enter the BIOS setup. Find the "VGA Palette Snoop" option and disable it. This should fix the problem. => Q: DESCENT 2 LOCKS UP AT THE TITLE SCREEN. A: Turn off the "Hidden Refresh" option in your BIOS Advanced settings. Also make sure RAMBIOS.SYS does _not_ appear in your CONFIG.SYS and that "Hardware Video Shadowing" is turned off in BIOS. Modem/Serial Problems ───────────────────── => Q: WHEN PLAYING A MODEM/SERIAL GAME, MY GAME FREEZES ON THE "WAITING FOR OPPONENT" SCREEN. WHAT GIVES? A: This screen will appear if you have died in/escaped from an exploding mine. If the other player is still flying there can be up to a 60 second delay. This is normal. However, if your game sits at this screen much longer, chances are something is wrong. Likely culprits: opponent is having technical difficulties, interference with unshielded serial cables, loose cables, baud rate set too high, or uncorrected errors in the modem transmission. => Q: MY MODEM GAMES ARE MUCH SLOWER THAN NORMAL ONE-PLAYER GAMES. A: Try using a higher baud rate in the Com Settings menu. If your computer does not have a 16550 UART, acquiring one will allow up to 38400 baud when communicating with the modem. Consult your Descent Manual for details. => Q: STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN IN MY MODEM/NULL-MODEM GAMES. WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP THIS? A: This may be a result of dropped serial characters. Some examples of "strange" things: players not dropping powerups when killed, ships jumping from place to place on screen, or ships flying through doors that appear closed. If you get error messages during play or during the "waiting for opponent" screen, this could be the cause as well. These problems may occur for several reasons. Serial play adds an additional burden to the CPU when playing the game, so a computer capable of playing the game in single-player mode may have difficulties with modem or serial play. If you are using a 4-megabyte machine, the disk activity needed to run the program in a small memory space can cause lost characters. A lot of sound activity can also cause lost serial characters. Increasing the RAM for the game or reducing the number of sound channels in the detail settings menu can sometimes help. Of course you can also reduce the baud rate in the Com Settings menu to slow down the game somewhat while improving reliability. Also try setting your music volume slider to 0 in the Options menu. The best thing you can do to improve serial performance is to equip your machine with a 16550 UART. However, even with this UART 38.4k baud rate can still be problematic if you have the burden of low RAM or heavy sound activity, so don't be ashamed to run a 16550 UART at 19.2k baud if need be. Netgame Problems ──────────────── => Q: STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN WHEN PLAYING DESCENT 2 UNDER KALI/IHHD. HITS DON'T REGISTER ON MY OPPONENTS, THEIR SHIPS SEEM TO "JUMP" AROUND A LOT, ETC. WHAT CAN I DO? A: While Descent 2 isn't really designed for slow connection games such as these, you may be able to improve them. One thing that may help is starting the netgame with a lower Packets per Second value (under Multiplayer/Start Netgame/More Options). => Q: I HAVE A ZEOS PANTERA P60 WITH A SOUNDCARD AND WHEN I TRY PLAYING A NETGAME IT LOCKS UP. WHAT CAN I DO? A: Instead of doing a full login to your server, try loading only the IPX drivers. Descent Netgames only require this to function properly. => Q: I'M GETTING AN ERROR SAYING MY IPX DRIVERS AREN'T LOADED PROPERLY. WHAT DO I DO? A: First, make sure you have a reasonable amount of low memory available. Although Descent 2 uses a DOS extender to avoid low- memory hassles, some low memory is still needed for network buffers. If this fails, make sure your IPX.COM and other network drivers are loaded properly. A good way to test this is to logon to a network server, if one is available. => Q: MY NETGAMES SEEM SLOW AND UNRELIABLE. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT? A: Try using a different socket number. It's possible that some other application on your computer uses socket 5110h and this is preventing Descent 2 from opening a proper network connection. Try large values for the socket number (like 32 or 100). Remember, your opponents will need to use the same socket you do. Also try lowering the Packets per Second value in the Start Netgame/More Options menu. => Q: DESCENT 2 TELLS ME MY NETWORK CARD IS MISSING PACKETS. WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT MEAN? A: This can be a result of a slow network card, heavy traffic on the network, or software conflicts in your system. If you get this message, you can rejoin the game and try again. If the problem persists, one of the following could be to blame: - Too many packets being sent. Descent 2 is optimized for play over LAN-based networks. Slow LANs or WAN-based games (like KALI or IHHD) may be too slow to guarantee processing of all packets. Lowering the Packets per Second value in the Start Netgame/More Options menu (to a number less than 10) may improve things. - Loose cables. Happens to the best of us. Check the plugs on the back of your computer, specifically the ones running to/from your network card. - Too many players. While 8 players is offered as the maximum in Descent 2, it's possible that your LAN or computer configuration can only support 4-6 players reliably. - Bad network card. Some cards drop IPX packets even without heavy loads or interference. If you suspect your LAN card, try swapping it with one from another computer. - Software conflicts. Other drivers may be running that cause problems with the network interrupts. These conflicts may not emerge when performing other LAN tasks that either don't use IPX or have layers of error-checking. Try removing unneeded drivers from your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. - Router problems. Playing Descent with players on different sides of a router may cause lost packets or delays. Playing this way is not recommended because it creates a significant load on the router that may disturb other LAN users. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔═══════════════════════╗ ║ 12. TECHNICAL SUPPORT ║ ╚═══════════════════════╝ => Q: I CAN'T GET DESCENT 2 TO RUN PROPERLY! THE NEIGHBORHOOD KIDS ARE TAUNTING ME. WHAT CAN I DO?? A: Don't panic. Interplay Technical support is happy to help with with any problems you have. Help is available 24 hours a day through our Automated Customer Service system, with representatives available during normal business hours. Here's how to contact us: ╔════════════════════════════════╗ ║ Interplay Technical Support ║ ║ & Customer Service ║ ║ ║ ║ 714-553-6678 ║ ╚════════════════════════════════╝ Please try to have your system information available and be near your computer if at all possible. Other ways to get help: Interplay Productions Interplay Web Page: http://www.interplay.com attn: Customer Service email: support@interplay.com 17922 Fitch Avenue Interplay BBS: 714-252-2822 Irvine, CA 92714 America Online: keyword INTERPLAY or email to "IPTECH" For UK, write to: GEnie: type "M805;1" Customer Support CompuServe: GO GAMBPUB, under INTERPLAY Harleyford Manor Prodigy: email to "PLAY99B" Harleyford Henley Road Marlow Bucks SL72DX England UK telephone: +44 (0) 1628 423666 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ╔══════════════════════════════╗ ║ 13. DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION ║ ╚══════════════════════════════╝ See Software License below for specific distribution information on the Descent 2 Interactive Demo. The DESCENT 2 INTERACTIVE DEMO (as well as current updates) can be found at the following locations: ──────────────────────────────────────────────── Interplay web page: http://www.interplay.com Parallax web page : http://www.pxsoftware.com ──────────────────────────────────────────────── - Interplay BBS: 714-252-2822 - CompuServe: GO GAMBPUB, under INTERPLAY - America Online: keyword: INTERPLAY - Software Creations BBS: 508-368-4137 or telnet to swcbbs.com - Redeye BBS: +49.89.5460535, Munich, Germany - some Internet sites to check: (please notify us with site changes) ftp.wustl.edu in /pub/msdos_uploads/descent janus.library.cmu.edu in /pub/msdos/descent ftp.cdrom.com in /.5/descent ftp.gatech.edu in /pub/dos/games/descent ftp.uwp.edu in /pub/incoming/games ftp.funet.fi in /pub/msdos/games/interplay csc.mc.edu in /pub/games/descent bell.ecs.soton.ac.uk in /pub/pc/games/demos ftp.uml.edu in /msdos/games/temp ftp.demon.co.uk in /pub/ibmpc/games/misc ftp.leo.org in /pub/comp/platforms/pc/games doomgate.cs.buffalo.edu in /pub/descent ftp.prairienet.org in /pub/software/descent Check the following locations for other Descent/Descent 2-related goodies: the alt.games.descent & alt.binraies.descent newsgroup, the #descent IRC channel, or: http://www.eskimo.com/~jhroyer/ http://www.eskimo.com/~stickman/descent/ http://doomgate.cs.buffalo.edu/ http://www.primenet.com/ http://fiction.isdn.uiuc.edu/~jeske/descent/ http://www.prairienet.org/~jslagel PLEASE notify us with site location changes or additions. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SOFTWARE USE LIMITATIONS AND LIMITED LICENSE This special 3-level preview version of Descent 2 (the "Software") is intended solely for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use. You may not decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the Software, except as permitted by law. Interplay Productions and Parallax Software Corporation retain all rights and title in the Software including all intellectual property rights embodied therein and derivatives thereof. You are granted a revocable, nonassignable limited license to create derivative works of this Software solely for your own personal noncommercial home entertainment use and may publicly display such derivative works to the extent specifically authorized by Interplay in writing. A copy of this authorization, if any, will be provided on Interplay's World Wide Web site (http://www.interplay.com), and may also be obtained by contacting the legal department at Interplay at (714) 553-6655. The Software, including, without limitation, all code, data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game play, derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be copied (except as provided below), resold, rented, leased, distributed (electronically or otherwise), used on pay-per-play, coin-op or other for-charge basis, or for any commercial purpose. You may make copies of the Software for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use and to give to friends and acquaintances on a no cost noncommercial basis. This limited right to copy the Software expressly excludes any copying or distribution of the Software on a commercial basis, including, without limitation, bundling the product with any other product or service and any give away of the Software in connection with another product or service. Any permissions granted herein are provided on a temporary basis and can be withdrawn by Interplay Productions at any time. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. DESCENT COPYRIGHT (C) 1995 PARALLAX SOFTWARE CORPORATION ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ALL TRADEMARKS ARE PROPERTY OF INTERPLAY PRODUCTIONS, INC. INTERPLAY PRODUCTIONS IS THE EXCLUSIVE LICENSEE AND DISTRIBUTOR. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── -END OF FILE-