After browsing the boards for a couple hours, it seems that most people have similar feelings about very few things, but being a huge fan that wants to see this (meaning a fourth complete Descent title) come to fruition, I want to attempt a "hold" on the broadest points made so far, in descending order of importance:

1. MECHANICS: Descent's primary navigation should be through the traditional 6 degrees of freedom - it is what the game is "about" and is built around - regardless of story or balance of weapons. If Descent backs down from this, it isn't Descent.

2. ACTION: Weaponry, ships, missiles, power-ups and style of destruction have much nostalgia attached to them and in the interest of balance, there must be some honor paid to that style of military-industry-fantasy as well as updates to that style and "feel" of arsenol. If for some odd reason the Pyro-GX is not an option, its replacements should be faithful to the first Descents and Outrage's exploration of the world.

3. STORY: Descent I and II had a beautiful mood constructed by weak but engrossing story and what was essentially the honor and enhancement of a glorified arcade formula. Descent 3's story traded semi-hollow characters for engaging intrigue that reflects the relationship between timeless organizations in our own world: empire, corperatocracy, rebels, spies, conspiracies, mercenaries, flawed heroes and speculations and anxieties about technology's path to First Contact. Additional depth on these matters should be accessible to players who are interested.

4. PHYSICS: physics issues which contributed to constant "clunking" into objects in Descent 3 must be addressed. In addition, the obvious difference between navigating mines, navigating outdoors and navigating space (as suggested by cutscenes) must be reconciled. It has been suggested that the success with which mines were navigated in Descent I and II can be reproduced for different models (outdoors, space, orbit, hyperspace, etc.) as long as gameplay continues to focus on weightlessness in the mines.

5. COMBAT: Descent enemies are traditionally robots and fellow players. Single-player against robots and AI should present the same creepy frights that Descent I and II did rather than the often cartoonish, cute and well-lit Descent 3 robots. It is a bonus to keep to a minimum of gore as has been the tradition. Multiplayer has been Descent's most successful and long-lasting emphasis, and it should remain as full of options.

6. FORMAT: As a result of the increasing standardization of entertainment, the challenge of offering a game with the unique needs of Descent must be addressed as a serious consideration. Past solutions have been to release complete PC versions and "summarized" console versions. Although portals like PC, Mac, Linux and Nintendo Wii have enough buttons and axes, any console with the right "bundled controller" or "suggested controller" has potential.

I hope this is helpful and not overly presumptuous or overly vague, and I hope that this summarizes much of what long-time fans are realistically hoping for.

I'm glad to see someone who I can agree with entirely. You have covered almost everything that I would have talked about. I especially appreciate the idea of returning to the dark, creepy, and claustrophobic atmosphere of Descents 1 & 2. Have you looked at http://www.moddb.com/mods/into-cerberon? They have the right idea.

I have one thing to add. This is the only radically new and different element that I would like to see in a Descent game. I wish that in between missions you could walk around a home base fps style and interact to at least a limited degree with other characters. you could receive assignments, and loadout in this area of the game. Something like this would also give you the opportunity to actually see the Pyro from the outside, something I always looked forward to in old cutscenes (imagine walking around a hanger full of them). the other thing a base would provide is a stark contrast to dark, frightening mines, making these all the scarier.

There have been a few games that had a resting area such as I have described; Mass Effect, Thief Deadly Shadows, even Freespace although that was limited to a graphical main menu. I feel that for a mission based game such as Descent, a central area from which to deploy would provide a helpful link from one mission to the next.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I am unanimous with your perspective about what a new Descent title should include in every major subject.

MD1032, I agree with you in entirety. If Freespace 3 were to have such an interactive environment for its flight deck, it would make things all the more interesting.

Glancing over everything, I agree.

Without trying to become a request for gamesas to limit its personal vision of a new Descent, I am glad to help. Ultimately, they make the choices, but I just wanted to show that there was some true consensus in the fan base and it wasn't just hard-to-please people asking for this or that special feature.

Having said that, I agree with your waiting room idea (and wouldn't mind a bit more outside ship action) and I completely agree that Into Cerberon has one excellent understanding of "look-and-feel" for certain mines!

It's nice when everyone agrees.

I do think that you hit it perfectly with your list of necessary elements, Defcon_X. that said, I don't think that these need be limitations. They should be a starting point. once gamesas has the basics implemented, then they could add any number of new things. I wouldn't mind at all, for instance, if Descent 4 had some outdoor levels as long as they were separate missions from the underground ones. I found that in Descent 3, the transition from one to the other broke dramatic continuity and was distracting.