EarthShakers in Descent3

I first want to give credit to Schplurg and StarKiller for designing and programming an  Earthshaker for D3.  Not only does this shaker play great, but it is very simple for level designers to add to their levels.  No MOD is Required.  Check out Gameedit.com

I want to thank {WC}Roncli for making the mission "Bama's Revenge" a great fast playing re-make of the D2 mission Gigadeath2.

 I wish to thank all the Pilots who hang with me in shaker games and never complain.  These Pilots will be the most feared someday, because they have committed themselves to learn the shaker game.  The day will come when your teacher will become the student.

Playing the new Earthshakers in Descent3 is very similar to playing them in D2. Most of what I wrote back in 1997 &1998 still apply in the new Earthshakers of Descent3. The biggest single change in D3 besides the eye-candy is the client/server mode, where the server does all, it tells you when your hit and when to die. Problem with C/S and shakers is the large one hit your dead packets, which ten to get dropped by the server.  When this happens you get hit by a Earthshaker which you never saw. Sucks!  We all have been killed by the invisible Smart missile in C/S mode, well, Earthshakers are 100 times as worse.  Secondly in C/S mode the Pilot with the best connection and if he is half way skilled can dominate the game regardless of his skill level.  Client/Server is not for Shakers.  No C/S here.  the only way to play Earthshaker is in Peer2Peer server mode.  P2P is as fair as it can get on-line.

Peer2Peer
Both D1 and D2 use a Peer2Peer mode of play which does not use a server like in D3.  Who ever started the game was the server and if he left the game another player became the server. There was no advantage being the server.  If you dropped a packet in this mode of play you just never saw it, like it was never fired.  Descent3 uses a suito Peer 2 Peer, simpler but not exactly like D2.  In D3 you can have a P2P dedicated server running a D3 game. A server in P2P mode will handle the power-up's and doors, and all level stuff.  Most D3 Pilots do not understand P2P.  There is no ping advantage, if anything the players with the highest ping seems to have some what of an advantage if they know how to use it.  When you check your ping you will see a "0", but if you F7 you can see all other players ping, as they can see yours.  If you see player "X" at 400ms he will see you at 400ms. So there is no real ping advantage.  Many times someone will complain that I am pinging 1000ms or I'm skipping all over, and I am the one at fault. What he does not realize is the connection between our two computers is the same and it sucks for both of us, and it may be his connection between us only..  I may have a great connection relationship with all other players in the game, but him.  I have learned to live with it, and I just lead this guy a lot more.

Lag & P2P
The biggest complaint from people who do not understand lag and P2P is seeing a hit on another Pilot and nothing happens.  (I hit you with 2 shakers!!!)  Remember in a  P2P game both your computer and the other guy's computer are talking direct, all the server does is dish out power-ups and open doors. If he drop that packet or your  send packet never reached the game then he will never see the shaker you fired let alone get hit by it,  as far as he is concerned  it was never fired.  If he did not drop your shaker packet then on his computer he may have simply dodged your shaker.  Remember Lag.   I don't know how many times I have been called a cheater, or a hack, and mainly because people just don't understand lag or how P2P works.  With P2P the high-ping-bastard is much better off playing with Low-ping-bastards.  Also for you who do not understand how some can fly faster than you can please read the section on Tri-cording.

Dancing With Shakers 
Dog Fighters call Shaker Pilots Shaker-Heads and think they are totally nuts.  They're probably right.  I did nothing but Dog Fight levels for over a year before I was introduced to Shakers by several of my Wildcard buddies.  I had not been in a Gig 2 game since I was a Newbie and thought there was no survival once a Shaker was fired in your general vicinity. I had heard that there were Pilots who could dodge the Shaker God, dance with Shakers it was called, but me do it too?  Nooo!!  Well, I was wrong.  Assasin took me down in a Gig2 one day and showed me the correct way to dodge a Shaker and I was hooked from that time forward.  I actually dodged 6 in a row, that was last July 15th and the Demo is here to prove it.  Well I worked hard with Targa, Ender and Uncle Smitty, Wildcards who are some of the best Shaker Pilots alive. They spent time with me showing me the in’s and out’s of playing Shakers in Gig2.  One thing, it is not all dodging that makes a good Gig2 Pilot.  Dodging is only about 20% of the game.  Tactics and pilot skills "Flying Ability" make up the other 80% of the Game.  So a good Dog Fighter has the edge on most others playing a Gig2 Game.  So if you are getting a little bored with the same old Dog Levels, try something totally new and different.  But remember you'll never learn if you don't die a lot.  Never take an ass wooping personal. It is a learning experience.  The Kings of Shakers are  Smity, Boomer, Ender, Targa, Dewd, Blackjack, Warp, Juice, and Bane when he plays.  If you find yourself in a Gig2 game with any of them beg for an ass wooping and pay very close attention.  You will learn from the best.