[Snail]

Yes, because he totally wants to destroy the ship he's trying to protect.

What about ~+U?

[Renegade]

Again Blue Planet is a excellent Campain but in any Missions to hard.
I playing on very Easy first time i play a new Campain and in follow Missions i had to Cheat (I hate this - but too many try´s are frustrating)

- Forced Entry
- Preserving the Balance and
- Keepers of Hell

I think the 3 Missions are to hard for a non FS Pro. Particularly in Very Easy diff. This missions need a bit more balancing.

But at all BP is my Favorite for now. I like this plot - but i don't like the ending - it was shocking.

Greetings Peter

[blowfish]

All are very much possible given the correct loadout and careful planning...   Forced Entry and Keepers of Hell have several varying walkthroughs posted under spoiler tags in this thread.  As for Preserving the Balance:

Spoiler:

Divert all energy to your engines and go for the Ravana's main beams.  If you're quick, precise, and use your hornets to help you destroy them, you should just be able to destroy them before they fire.  If you can't do that, definitely try to destroy one before it fires and the other before it fires again.  Then go for the bombers attacking the Tempaire.  You may want to destroy the Demon's port LRed too.  Eventually, the destroyers will go down, and three new ones will jump in.  You can ignore them; they will be destroyed pretty easily by the Vishnans.

[Jadehawk]

After trying for over 20 times playing this one mission, I gave up on this due what in my opinion really is too much for the average Joe. Don't get me wrong here, this campaign up to this point was fist class and very well done. But now all of a sudden you have stiff constraints for this one mission and can't advance at all which I think is odd.

Having designed many missions for several different games and flight sims, I can say this one mission will make it difficult for plenty and they may end up wanting to quit and try something else for the lack of making any progress. I think the conditions given are too strict and I cant understand the goal for this one mission in the overall campaign makeup? From a tactical standpoint, why send the GTD to make a stand at the other node when all the others are trying to make a run for the this node? It's apparent they are out numbered to begin with and when your up against the wall, it's far better to make a straight shot and get your butt where you need to be in my opinion.

The Gauntlet mission is constructed very good, timing is good, but weapon and fighter ship selection is bad. I cant understand why they would want to go to Sol with the best ships the GTVA has and use weapons and fighters that are in this case, nearly 50 years old? Exception for the two new fighter and Recon ships which are done well!
But the weapon selection is just totally out of what you would expect from the GTVA sending a battle group to make first contact with Sol. They should have just about everything you can think of and then some and be very well stocked to boot to deal with the unknown. Remember, always go prepared for the worst!
 
However, If you have to live with the mission as it is, then OK, but give the user a better selection of weapons and ships to choose from if you must have the goal constraints as they are for this mission.  I would like to see more use of the later ships that should have been in wide use by this time line such as the Ares and Erinyes for example. Doing this would have given the average Joe a better chance to succeed in this one mission.
As for Alpha 1, I personally would have liked to use a Bomber as the Artemis with cap-ship loadout as the Bomber force is kinda weak.

I may end up editing this myself just so I can get on with the campaign as I really want to complete this one

[blowfish]

If you could maybe provide some actual mission and ship names, maybe that post would make more sense.  For instance, what ship is "GTD" referring to?

[Mongoose]

I'm presuming he's talking about Forced Entry, which is the one that gave me a lot of trouble.  Jadehawk, the best advice I could give you is to use your wingmen intelligently; out of all the missions I've ever played, this might be the one where commanding your wingmates is most important.  I'll list what I eventually wound up doing to win in spoilers:

Spoiler:

First off, I'd heavily recommend grabbing a ship that can carry Trebuchets; the Aurora is able to carry 5 in one bank and makes for a good all-around fighter to boot.  I found that the best start was to order your wingmen to engage the enemy to take care of the Maras in a hurry; call in Delta immediately and get them on one of the Rakshasas, too.  With any luck, you'll clear the area just as the Duke arrives.  Immediately get everyone on protecting the Duke to fend off the incoming Aeshmas and their Hornets; once the Cain shows up, get Delta on destroying it.  When the Terran corvette (whose name I can't remember) jumps in and comes under bomber attack, I usually headed over there myself and left my wingmen to take care of the Duke.  As soon as the Duke jumps out, get all your wingmen back on protecting whatever you're not on; I remember there was a second cruiser that jumped in soon afterwards that seemed to come under attack.  When the Lilith jumps in, immediately head over and take out its main beam with your Trebuchets; get Delta on destroying that, too.  Keep alternating Alpha and Beta wings on covering whichever ships jump into the area.  When the Sanctuary jumps in, I usually found that tasking its own fighters on protecting it worked best, since they were right next to it to start with.  When the Terran destroyer whose name I can't spell jumps in at the end, get everyone and their mother back to protect it; everything else should be home free by that point.  Stay back there yourself, too, since you'll need to disarm the Ravana as soon as it arrives; I found that taking out the rear-mounted beam cannons after the front LReds was a good idea.  After that's taken care of, you should be home free.  It's a very fast-paced mission (and the music makes it seem even more so) that requires you to keep tabs on what your wingmen are doing at all times, so it presents a substantial challenge.  I was able to get it after several tries by tweaking when I ordered each wing to protect each new ship.

Y'know, one more thing I forgot to mention in all this is that I freakin' love the Balor.  It's like a Rapid Gun o' Doom.

[General Battuta]

Yeah, Jadehawk, the mission's really easy if you just use your wingmen. I got it on the first few tries on Medium (Hard, maybe?)

Spoiler:

You need to have Trebuchets to take out the main beams on the Lilith and Ravana. That's really the only trick -- oh, and you don't need to protect the Solace, either.

Once the Temeraire jumps in, have all fighters protect it, because the Shivan bombers will only attack it.

[Jadehawk]

Fellas, thanks for the tips and I'll give them a spin. 

Honestly I think it's a good mission, just too restrictive for my taste and I was thinking of the masses out there who may not be as versed and well seasoned as you guys are.  I remember making a mission once for a flight sim and I felt it was one hell of a great one to boot, but was told too many Enemy E/A were targeting the Alpha player and was not realistic for a combat sim. While I really did not have too much of a problem with it myself, I should have considered the average Joe who may not have the experience I did flying that particular aircraft. From that point on, I was critical toward my work and made sure it was playable for everyone from the set go.

I pretty much did what you all suggested and got down to where the Caine? Shivan destroyer warped in and was shooting away when it always nailed the Tam...whatever it's named. I think the bombers were too slow and too far away. Just a matter of monkeying around once again to see if I can get past this.

Again, thanks for the help fellas

[General Battuta]

You need to take out the Ravana's (the Abel, I believe) two forward beams with Trebuchets.

You can do this by putting your reticle over the lower two of the ship's four forward 'spikes' and pressing V to target the beams there. Two Trebuchets each should be more than enough.

[blowfish]

I pretty much did what you all suggested and got down to where the Caine? Shivan destroyer warped in and was shooting away when it always nailed the Tam...whatever it's named. I think the bombers were too slow and too far away. Just a matter of monkeying around once again to see if I can get past this.

The Shivan destroyer is called Abel, and it is Ravana class.  The GTVA destroyer is called Temeraire

Spoiler:

What I usually do is start heading back towards where the Abel will arrive as soon as the Temeraire jumps in.  It will always jump in behind the Temeraire, so I just head back there at full burners with all energy diverted to engines and order my wingmen to defend the Temeraire against the bombers.  Once you get in range, attempt to take out the Abel's main beam turrets with Trebuchets.  You need two Trebuchets to take out each turret.  If that fails, just go up and destroy them with your primaries.  If you're fast, you can do this before it fires.  Then go destroy its rear beam turrets (the two spikes on top).  They pose a significant threat to the Temeraire.  Hopefully the Basilisks won't give you too much trouble while you're doing this...  Once you do that, destroy the Basilisks and you should be home free, assuming you don't accidentally get caught in the blast of one of the Temeraire ship to ship missiles

[Droid803]

The Shivan destroyer is called Abel, and it is Ravana class.  The GTVA destroyer is called Tempaire

Its Temeraire.

[blowfish]

The Shivan destroyer is called Abel, and it is Ravana class.  The GTVA destroyer is called Tempaire

Its Temeraire.

My bad

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Why does the Solace need no fighter cover? I've played the mission three times, and among all the ships, it's the only one that needs absolutely no escort. I mean, the Duke needs protection from the two Rakshasa cruisers, the Bretonia may get its engines blown up from time to time, and the Sanctuary cannot survive four LReds from a Lilith, but the Solace...

[Aardwolf]

Stilettos are good against subsystems too (but they can be shot down).

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Stilettos are good against subsystems too (but they can be shot down).

They have the "bomb" flag on them?

[Aardwolf]

Oddly (and somewhat annoyingly) yes. (Unless my memory has died after eating too much white albacore tuna... damn mercury)

It's funny because in the FS1 description of the Stiletto it says it has a shield system on it (which would prevent it from being shot down so easily)!

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Oddly (and somewhat annoyingly) yes. (Unless my memory has died after eating too much white albacore tuna... damn mercury)

It's funny because in the FS1 description of the Stiletto it says it has a shield system on it (which would prevent it from being shot down so easily)!

probably wanted to balance the game out, because if there was no "bomb" flag on Stilettos, you can disable anything and pound them to death slowly.

[General Battuta]

Stilettos are good enough as it is. They're pretty much the only thing that gives most fighters a chance against larger capital ships (corvettes and above.)

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Stilettos are good enough as it is. They're pretty much the only thing that gives most fighters a chance against larger capital ships (corvettes and above.)

Unless if you count the Trebuchet in, of course, which is an invincible, disposable Maxim and Stiletto in one package.

[General Battuta]

I thought of 'em, but most fighters can't carry Trebs, and you can't carry nearly as many.