Design Underground/Ships overview

Robert "Designopatomus" Irving and Eric "Wingman" Peterson discuss the ships and how they fit in to Descent: Underground.

* 0:49 - Descent: Underground is a balanced game. Every ship has a purpose in the game and one function its the best at.
* 1:39 - The different ships support different play styles, similar to the archetypes from fantasy RPGs.
* 2:20 - The stalactites are going to be destructible, and items may pop out of them.
* 2:47 - Just because a ship is good at one thing, it can still perform the functions of other ships, just not as well.
* 3:53 - The ships are actually drones, and then somewhere the robots came to be.
* 4:15 - The Auger is best at digging. It can still fight, but it's specialization is digging.
* 5:27 - The Warlock falls somewhere between a scout and a "special categorization". Each ship will have some engineering properties, and each ship will specialize in one of those engineering property.
* 6:16 - The Predator is a scout, and has a smaller profile and can get into smaller areas. The ships with larger profiles may have to fly more carefully.
* 7:13 - You can go Torch vs Torch, or you can go Goliath vs Torch "just to prove that you can". Rankings may be affected by the type of ship you use.
* 7:57 - In games where there are a number of ships working together in different capacities, everyone on the team is going to get paid based on more statistics than just kills. It will be weighted by your ship role.
* 9:19 - The Wasp is the basic, starting ship for everyone. It lets you learn a little of everything. It's not the "baby" ship that you advance to other ships with. "It's like your first crack rock. Your first crack rock is free."
* 11:08 - Some maps may only allow one single ship type, or with no tech trees.
* 12:02 - The Torch is the light assault craft, and will feel a lot like the Pyro GX in the way that it maneuvers.
* 12:30 - Descendent Studios has a license from Interplay to be derivatives of the game, but they cannot use assets from the original game.
* 13:13 - The Typhoon is the heavy assault craft. It's not meant to be sneaky, and it's not very defensive, but it packs a punch.
* 13:55 - The Panzer is the tank. It's slow and not very maneuverable, but it can take a beating. Ships can have different velocities such as vertical movement, banking, pitch, etc.
* 15:05 - The Predator is the fastest and most maneuverable ship. It can help spot opponents, scout mines to find where resources might be, and can transmit data to the rest of the team. It is like a manned guide bot, plus it has more abilities, and is really hard to hit. It can also drop relays to relay map information and enemy positions. The relays can be destroyed.
* 16:28 - An engineer-type can turn out lights without shooting them. Both mine lighting and player lighting can be turned off.
* 16:57 - The Shaman is the best at repairs. It also has a few engineering abilities. It is okay at combat, and helps to get your team back in combat.
* 17:29 - The Warlock has all kinds of engineering abilities. It can mess with enemy shield rechargers, lays traps, defuses traps, and will have some of the most interesting set of engineering abilities.
* 18:48 - There will be 1v1 games as well as team-based games.
* 18:53 - When you are playing a team game and you set your team up, you can change your strategy by switching over to a different ship in the middle of the map.
* 19:38 - "And there might be some things dropped into the map in the middle that you're not aware of."
* 19:58 - They are working on powerups, such as shield orbs. Powerups are going to tie back into the tech trees.
* 20:25 - Tech trees will tweak your abilities a little bit, but not in the same increments like switching ships. Not every tech tree is available to every ship.
* 21:13 - Tech trees are like built in powerups. If you get blown up, you will drop those powerups.
* 21:38 - You will have a very small advantage. Scouts may be able to identify if you have tech tree powerups.
* 22:55 - They are balancing so they don't have a case where one ship will always win.
* 23:13 - The wings, noses, and tails will be customization to be able to identify them. They will not alter the balance of the game.
* 25:23 - An organization will be able to choose a style for their members.