WEAPON SELECTION
There are 20 weapons available for you to use. That�s a lot! In fact, it takes a long time just to figure out which weapon is which numeric key! The best thing is to put a strip of paper between the numeric and Function keys with the names of the weapons on each key. I found this helped me a lot � until I knew off by heart which keys were which weapons.
Levels are designed with specific weapons available. Virtually never all of them. The supply quantity varies too. Some levels have too many weapons � others have virtually none! Plus, weapons can be banned from a level by the person who "ups" (or "Hosts") the game!
Additionally, the time it takes for weapons to reappear (The "respawn rate") can be set from 15 seconds upwards. Games with slow respawn rates (60 seconds or longer) can be very slow and dominated by primary fire. If respawn is slow, make sure you really look after your secondary weapons and use them only when you have confidence in a hit. After making a kill, make sure that you get all the concussion missiles dropped by the dead player ("spew" or "shit" depending on the player!) as well as the shields, energy and any other weapons too!
If weapons supply is low, (as in Veins) make sure you use your concussion missiles! These little babies are under-rated as a killing tool! They have extremely high speed and high fire rate which means fast kills up close. Tricky to see and avoid, the concussion should be one of the choicest missiles in your rack!
Having the right weapon handy at the right time is the difference between living and dying! Many people new to Descent 3 have grave difficulties achieving this! There are several solutions. The first and easiest is to get some voice control over your weapons. Go check out www.gamecommander.com for the low down on just asking for a weapon and have it pop right up!
Secondly, take a close look at your weapon priority list in your D3 configuration. For newbies, we recommend disabling any weapon you feel uncomfortable with! This would normally be frag missiles, guided missiles, vauss cannon and mass driver. Until you get good with the other weapons, you are more likely to kill yourself or get yourself killed by trying to use these weapons.
Thirdly, configure your weapons priority so that your favourite weapons are at the top of the list, and switch auto-select on.
Fourthly, try cycling your weapons with spare joystick buttons if you have them. Some pilots use the hat switch to select weapons - and for them, it works very well. Whatever method you use, you must be able to switch both primary and secondary weapons whilst in the heat of battle. Hunting round the keyboard for the right weapon will kill you.
