[Cpt. Ritter]

It took me long enough to work my way through the campaign, but I was hooked on it from the first moment. The feeling of shininess (for lack of a better word) is all over this campaign. The cutscenes add a depth to it that isn't there in of others. Also, the new music is as hyped, incredible, I especially love the music for when the

Spoiler:

Sathanas goes down.

Honestly, I didn't beat Keepers of Hell, I keep wondering what I did wrong in going through it but I couldn't beat it. Maybe its a technique issue, maybe not. Either way, Blue Planet is the best campaign I've played in a long time, a long time.

Wonderful work, to creator, and to everyone who created models, music, and anything that was used in this campaign.

[Dark Hunter]

As to Keepers of Hell, what I liked to do was sic all the friendly fighters on guarding the Keeper, then run around to the Ravanas, disable beams, run to Liliths, disable beams. With full power to engines it goes a bit faster. And the fighter you are provided with can easily mow down any Shivan fighters you run into.

I can consistently win with this strategy, though the Keeper usually has something like 10% health left when I'm done.

[Jeff Vader]

True that. The first time I was playing the mission I really goofed up since I didn't take into consideration that those were Liliths. I ignored them and went after the Molochs. That is generally known as a bad idea.

But using the same strategy as you, I also passed the mission, even though the Keeper is seriously on the verge of destruction at the end.

[Cpt. Ritter]

Except my guys keep getting consistently wasted by the Maras. I can generally plow through the fighters, provided I give them all individual attack orders, but Vishnu wing catches up and does a number. Hmm... something to try anyway I guess.

[MP-Ryan]

Except my guys keep getting consistently wasted by the Maras. I can generally plow through the fighters, provided I give them all individual attack orders, but Vishnu wing catches up and does a number. Hmm... something to try anyway I guess.

I had the same problem.

I ended up setting all of my fighters on protecting the Keeper (and make sure you tell them to ignore the Ravanas), and then taking a Missionary myself and dodging the Maras to beat the snot out the Ravana beam cannons.  Then you whip around and crank your engines back to one Lilith while sending your "bombers" after the other one.  You'll meet the Mara mess halfway back to your Keeper, so you either need to keep your engines maxed and evade until they get within range of the Keeper's defenses, or engage them.  Trouble is, by that point there's at least 8 Maras after you so trying to shoot them down individually is pretty much suicidal.

Generally, I found it was better to mop up the Maras after the various beam threats were wiped out, and do it in close proximity to the Keeper.

[Hellstryker]

8 maras is nothing... 8 dragons would be somthing to piss your pants about though 

[Cobra]

You mean in like mission 3?

I had 10% integrity left after that, but I'm using a keyboard until I get my x52 back from Saitek. It's not half bad, really. I can do some crazy **** with my fingers to do crazy rolls 'n stuff.

[Hellstryker]

I was using a keyboard too. and i made it back at 39 percent 

[Objekt]

Still can't finish "Forced Entry."  Knocking off the two cruisers and keeping the Duke - and other ships - alive isn't the problem.  The problem is that a Shivan destroyer shows up right behind Temrarie (or however you spell it) and toasts it.  I've tried every stinking tactic I can, including shooting off its beam turrets with Stiletto IIs.  But there's simply no way I can get there in time to keep it from frying the T.  My wingmen certainly aren't going to get there any faster (and don't).  What's the secret?

[Dark Hunter]

You sure you're shooting the right beams? I think the front two and maybe the two on the big spines near the aft of the Ravana are the ones to annihilate.

If you're stopping to shoot at some fighters along the way, don't. Order wingmen to guard you if it's a problem; they're not going to be of any help anyway.

If it's getting there that's the problem... divert all power to engines. Then hit Alt-D when in range to re-equalize everything.

[Hellstryker]

just go there as soon as the T jumps in. dont wait for the destroyer to come

[Mad Bomber]

You should be in an Aurora or something faster, with one bank full of Trebuchets (the other with Harpoons of course). Stay about 3-6km away from the portal once the initial Rakshasas are down; you don't need to get any closer once the Duke and Bretonia have gone through.

Delta and Sanc-Beta are helpful when that Lilith shows up. So are Maxims, for that matter, but I don't remember offhand if you can get them in that mission.

As soon as the Temeraire shows up, go full burn for it, and then completely past it. (If you have enough time to sidetrack a little, you can take out a Seraphim as you fly by.)

Double fire Trebs at one Ravana forward beam, then at the other. One pair each ought to do it (unless you have terrible luck) but keep burning towards the Ravana anyways, so you can finish off the turrets just in case. Standard Prom-S/Balor guns ought to be enough to take out the SReds on top.

After that, you can just burn back to the Temeraire and let its anti-cap torpedoes take care of the Ravana. Feel free to shoot up a Basilisk or two on the way.

[azile0]

I Finned it. (Late, I know) I loved it.

Spoiler:

I hope you tie in the Vishnans, and more importantly, Eriana, or her Descendants.

[Objekt]

Something really nasty happened to my SCP install lately.  I get really, really crappy performance, no matter what the mod, anytime I use the media vps.  See this thread for more info:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,50718.0.html

I first noticed it when playing Blue Planet. 

I've exhausted the easier options, so the next thing I'm going to try is a fresh download & reinstall via Turey's installer.  That will take a while, but it may fix the problem.  My current SCP install is SCP over retail FS2, plus a zillion customizations (HTL Apollo, Lightspeeds nebulae, et al), so I can't be sure what's causing the problem until and unless I try a reinstall.

[Jeff Vader]

I wouldn't call my experiences severe, but I also sometimes get some lag. It is usually caused by either one of two options: either there are terribly many ships in the scene, or someone has been applying too many LightSpeed's Nebulae in the background. Some Blue Planet missions have quite a few ships -> lag. The version of Into the Lion's Den that takes full advantage of LS Nebulae, having virtually no black space visible -> lag.

[Cpt. Ritter]

Still can't finish "Forced Entry."  Knocking off the two cruisers and keeping the Duke - and other ships - alive isn't the problem.  The problem is that a Shivan destroyer shows up right behind Temrarie (or however you spell it) and toasts it.  I've tried every stinking tactic I can, including shooting off its beam turrets with Stiletto IIs.  But there's simply no way I can get there in time to keep it from frying the T.  My wingmen certainly aren't going to get there any faster (and don't).  What's the secret?

As much as I love the Balor, I ended up dropping it in this mission in favor of a maxim and trebuchets. You need the range to pick off those turrets, especially the Trebuchets. And of course, don't stop racing for it to fight, but that's been said.

[Herra Tohtori]

You should be in an Aurora or something faster, with one bank full of Trebuchets (the other with Harpoons of course). Stay about 3-6km away from the portal once the initial Rakshasas are down; you don't need to get any closer once the Duke and Bretonia have gone through.

Delta and Sanc-Beta are helpful when that Lilith shows up. So are Maxims, for that matter, but I don't remember offhand if you can get them in that mission.

As soon as the Temeraire shows up, go full burn for it, and then completely past it. (If you have enough time to sidetrack a little, you can take out a Seraphim as you fly by.)

Double fire Trebs at one Ravana forward beam, then at the other. One pair each ought to do it (unless you have terrible luck) but keep burning towards the Ravana anyways, so you can finish off the turrets just in case. Standard Prom-S/Balor guns ought to be enough to take out the SReds on top.

After that, you can just burn back to the Temeraire and let its anti-cap torpedoes take care of the Ravana. Feel free to shoot up a Basilisk or two on the way.

My ship of choice for this mission was actually an Artemis with 5+8 Stiletto 2's, 8 Trebs and a Maxim.

I parked my ship at a comfortable distance from the Rakshasas, put all energy into weapons (IIRC I was playing on Medium or Easy; on harder difficulties this might not work as well because the Maxim eats so much more energy on higher difficulties - or rather your energy storage drains faster and replenishes slower), then started firing at one of them while targeting enemy fighters and ordering all wingmen to attack the fighter targeted until it died, then targeted next fighter, ordered wingmen to destroye it et cetera, all the while firing the Maxim at the Rakshasa. When all the enemy fighters were down, I ordered the wingmen to attack the Rakshasas as well, at this point the first one usually had about 20-30 hull left from my Maxim so it went down pretty soon, and then ordered wingmen to attack the other as well, starting from any beam turrets of course.

Then (if I remember correctly) it was just a case of taking care of Lilith's beams with Trebs and/or Maxim, ordering wingmen to destroy any bombers (and use any of my own remainging Trebs on bombers as well) and fighters attacking the ships, and in the end blast towards Temeraire and behind it and use the Stilettos to destroy the beams. I find Stilettos better against turrets than Trebs, mainly because you don't need lock to fire them and they too have quite a big range.

The only problem with this tactic is that with Artemis' single primary bank you have no real offensive capacity against shielded enemy targets when you go out with a Maxim only, but I didn't have much problems with that, the wingmen were quite efficient at killing enemy fighters.

The most difficult thing seems to be getting the correct beam turrets targeted from the Ravana, they are a ***** to go through...

[blowfish]

The most difficult thing seems to be getting the correct beam turrets targeted from the Ravana, they are a ***** to go through...

Use the "Target Subsytem in Reticle" control (by default the V key) it saves lots of time.

This campaign does weird things to me.  Firstly, no matter how many patches I download, the HRed still does not have its glow, and after playing a standalone mission I created, I discovered it does the same thing to the BVas beam.  Also all missile launchers appear as beam turrets when you target them.  I have no idea where these problems are coming from, and they have never appeared before for me.

Other than that, this is by far one of the best campaigns I have ever played.  The music is amazing.  I was surprised that you managed to finish this alone in 10 months, while other mods are struggling to make progress within our lifetimes.

[Hellstryker]

Its called not having a life, somthing we nerds are quite proud of 

[azile0]

My life was long lost, to Freespace and Counter Strike.