[Klaustrophobia]

can it be done without cheating?  i'm on the TAG mission now, and alpha 2 always gets herself disabled outside of beam range from the warspite.  she won't call in a repair ship herself, so she just sits there with most of the shivans happily blasting away at her invulnerable 1% hull.  which means i have to take down pretty much the rest of the ships in the mission by myself with crap primaries.  irritating mission is even MOAR irritating.  and then it ****ing crashed.

i tried calling in a support for myself and then using the "capture my target" command, but no dice.  this time i'm just going to tell alpha 2 to protect the warspite from the beginning and hope for the best.  and try to remember not to rearm and crash again.

[arjuna 1]

You should fire the tag missiles and then get out of there. Let the Lucidity deal with the tagged shivans while you stay away from the beams. Try to tag shivans as many as you can and then tell your wingmates to follow you ( Form on my wing command ) so you lead them to safety from the beams.

[Klaustrophobia]

problem with that is it takes 3 or so tags to kill a shivan.  at least the maras, but the others are much easier to kill with primaries.  a tag won't guarantee a kill unless you're in flak range, which is really rare.

[BengalTiger]

The GTCv Warspite is the ship with beams, the Lucidity is an AWACS.

Ordering wingmen to escort the AWACS might be a good strategy to keep them near the task force.

Waiting until the Shivans come to 2000 meters before leaving the Warspite will nearly guarantee they will be in beam range when they get tagged.

[haloboy100]

Because the warspite is using a specialized beam for the mission with really long range, the shivans will always be within beam range. But the problem is on medium difficulty it takes a minimum of two TAGs each to kill them.

Just use cheats and make Alpha 2 invulnerable at the beginning of the mission. IIRC subsystems are immune to damage as well as the hull with the invuln flag turned on; the problem here is that alpha 2 becomes invulnerable after she's disabled because of ship-guardian.

[Goober5000]

The weird thing about this mission is that it plays much differently on FSO than on retail.

That is obviously a problem with FSO, but I'm not sure where the problem might lie.

[Klaustrophobia]

how so?  i don't remember it much differently on retail.  granted it's been a LONG time since i played retail.

[deathfun]

Honestly, I've never had an issue with this mission...
Ever

[Mongoose]

Honestly, I've never had an issue with this mission...
Ever

Neither have I, which is why these sorts of complaints about it always puzzle me.  I wonder if something has changed in however many builds it's been since I last played it.

[Klaustrophobia]

i remember this happening in retail also.  it's not that it's all that hard to beat, it's just annoying as ****. 

so if the answer to the original question is "you can't," can this maybe be a future FSO feature?  it would be nice to be able to take care of the stupid AI a bit better without having to cheat and halt progress.

[Mongoose]

It would be nice.  It doesn't really make any sense how you can magically call for a repair ship even with your comm system disabled, yet your wingmen can't.

[Kie99]

i remember this happening in retail also.  it's not that it's all that hard to beat, it's just annoying as ****. 

so if the answer to the original question is "you can't," can this maybe be a future FSO feature?  it would be nice to be able to take care of the stupid AI a bit better without having to cheat and halt progress.

Cheating hasn't halted progress since 1998.

[Droid803]

I hate this mission.
I am of the persuasion that it is impossible to actually save the Lucidity on any difficulty, and impossible to pass on any difficulty higher than easy.

****ing friendly beam fire.

[Goober5000]

That is consistent with my experience.  I can't save the Lucidity on Medium in FSO, yet I can save it on Insane in retail.

[deathfun]

I'm inclined to go back to this mission and try it on each of the difficulties

[Goober5000]

It would also be good to try it on each of the official FSO releases.

[Klaustrophobia]

i have never once lost the lucidity, in retail or FSO.  i'm on easy right now, and played as high as medium in retail.

[deathfun]

It would also be good to try it on each of the official FSO releases.

That's a helluva lot of times I've got to do that mission
I'd probably go insane and kill a coworker

"Can I get the large bowls through the mach-"
"INCOMING JUMP SIGNATURE HOSTILE CONFIGURATION"
"Wha-?"
"WE'VE LOST THE LUCIDITY! DIE YOU SHIVAN BASTARD"
*stabs server with knife*

[jr2]

I would love an option to repair wingment.  However, that would alter game balance a bit, wouldn't it?  I guess it would have to be a flag?  I don't know.. I try to save my wingmen by telling them to depart when they get around 5%, but that is an almost guaranteed way to kill them also, as it makes them an easy kill while they attempt to warp out.  I wish they would look for an 'opportune' time (like when they don't have a Dragon on their tail) to warp out; which could be overridden by another command or something.

Yeah, I know.  Getting attached to AI is stupid.  But sometimes I like to pretend I'm an actual commander trying to take care of my subordinates. 

[el_magnifico]

I would love an option to repair wingment.  However, that would alter game balance a bit, wouldn't it?  I guess it would have to be a flag?  I don't know.. I try to save my wingmen by telling them to depart when they get around 5%, but that is an almost guaranteed way to kill them also, as it makes them an easy kill while they attempt to warp out.  I wish they would look for an 'opportune' time (like when they don't have a Dragon on their tail) to warp out; which could be overridden by another command or something.

Yeah, I know.  Getting attached to AI is stupid.  But sometimes I like to pretend I'm an actual commander trying to take care of my subordinates. 

As for me, I would love to be able to customize the wings' names so they could suit their role better...

"CannonFodder wing! Cover me while I make my bombing run. DeadMeatFlying wing, attack that Aeolus cruiser!"

Ah! The possibilities are endless...