[throwaway4]

Man...  I've now played the port and FS2 all the way through on Medium for both.  But, this mission... Man.  I just cannot keep the Haulian alive.  I finally did it using the Morning Star and Tempests for the entire wing, but it still only survived with 3%.

Any help on this one?  This is the first time since starting Freespace that I've had to bump the difficulty down to finish it.  Also, what forum is appropriate for usermade campaign gameplay questions?

[Vindicator]

this one is right missions and campaigns


how do you get to work delrelict btw can u see my thread a second? BR_derelict.vp im using

[Dark Hunter]

I hated that mission too. 


The key, I found, is too kill those Lokis as fast as humanly possible. There is a finite number of them... about 80. If you can get rid of most of them before they start attacking the Haulian, the mission becomes much, much easier.

[throwaway4]

It is just frustrating to me, because of the difficulty ramp.  The first couple missions are cakewalks, but this mission is ABSURDLY difficult.  If saving the Haulian was secondary, then it's no big deal.  It's still difficult to do all of your objectives, but possible.  Like I said before, I did FSPort and FS2 all the way through on medium getting all of the secondary and bonus objectives (the obvious ones anyway).  Some, I had to do multiple times, but I could always see the light at the end of the tunnel.  This one mission, I've only been able to complete by pure luck and only once with the Haulian escaping with 3%....  AND, that's keeping it completely healthy (97%) for the first 13 minutes.

I'm new to the Freespace universe, but as far as stuff that I've played to completion, this is the most difficult thing I've ever tried to do BY far in the game.  Taking out the Loki's isn't hard, but those Herc's show up and it's game over.

It doesn't help that the beginning of the missions is a 1:30 burn out to the ships, and you have to kill 40 drone Loki's.  In general, I'm not into a mission that is 15 minutes long with the impossible part occurring at 13:30.

Is this an exception to the campaign?  Overall, I would rate it higher than both FS1 and 2 for all of the neat stuff that happens, but if there are going to be many more 15 minute missions when you have to get to 14 minutes and fail over and over, I might have to take a pass...

Again, if I'm missing something obvious, let me know, but I don't know where my room for error is...

1.  I'm using Proms, Morning stars, Rockeyes, Tempests and Hornets for the whole wing.  There doesn't seem to be any superior loadout to this.  Given that you're stuck with a Myr.  We take the Morning Stars because you can easily knock around a fighter that goes after one of the Transports.
2.  I assign my entire wing to the Haulian as soon as we catch up with it.  We can keep it a 97% health the entire mission until the 6 Loki's and however many Hercs show up at the very end.
3.  Even with all three Wingmen concentrating on the two wings, it only takes 3 ships (2 if they're both Hercs), one pass to destroy the Haulian.

[Dark Hunter]

Yes this is an exception to the campaign. No other mission (in ANY campaign) even comes close to this one in terms of sheer stupid outnumbering.

Like I said, kill the Lokis. If you can finish them before the Hercs show up, you're home free. Turn the difficulty down if you absolutely must, just for this one mission.

If you still can't, you can always take the cheap way out and rearrange things in FRED so it's a little more balanced... like get rid of half the Lokis... Don't know why Blaise Russel didn't balance that mission a little better when he re-worked the campaign. 

[throwaway4]

Thanks for the tips!  Like I said, I have actually gotten past it, but I don't think I'll ever be playing this mission again.

[Blaise Russel]

If you still can't, you can always take the cheap way out and rearrange things in FRED so it's a little more balanced... like get rid of half the Lokis... Don't know why Blaise Russel didn't balance that mission a little better when he re-worked the campaign. 

Not really my place to. I was about fixing bugs (and introducing new ones  ) and adding sparkly effects rather than rebalancing and significantly changing the missions.

Don't know if you're doing this already, but take advantage of the AI's touchiness - if you're on an intercept mission and a wing of fighters is headed for your target, fire a few shots at each and all of them. They'll all turn around and start chasing you, allowing you to dispatch them at ease without worrying about that stupid freighter or whatever.

Also, don't use Prom-Rs - Subachs are better.

[throwaway4]

I do bait them into coming after me.  The problem is that it just happens so fast, SO late in the mission that it is frustrating.  I kinda forget that the Hercs are jumping in...

I never seem to run out of juice with the Proms.  I'll try the subach's if I ever try this again.

[Goober5000]

Yeah, I hated this mission too.  Especially the stupid comment from one of the wingmen: "Is this me, or does this feel like a turkey shoot?"  Um, hello, the Lokis may be lemmings, but they're still a huge threat to the freighter, you idiot.  Ugh.

If the mission gives you Myrmidons or Hercs, then use those, since both those fighter classes have a four-gunpoint bank.  Try to fire only from the four-gunpoint bank, instead of linking the cannons, so that you fire faster.  And use Subachs, like the guy said.  Finally, don't let the Ares fighters distract you.

[Mongoose]

Maybe I've just gotten lucky every time I've played this mission, but I don't remember ever having any real troubles with it.  In fact, from what I recall, my wingmates and I were usually able to pick off the Lokis before they managed to do any damage to the freighter.  Then again, it's been months since I played through Derelict, so my memory could be on the foggy side.  If anything, I'd list a certain future mission that involves protecting escape pods as the most frustrating mission of the campaign; that particular one always took me some twenty or so tries before I finally managed to pull it off right.

[spartan_0214]

I can't remember if Kaysers were available, but if you got them, then use those. They're really quick WMAD (weapons of mass anti-fighter destruction).

[Javito1986]

Really? I just played that same mission on Hard earlier today and I agreed with the AI wingmates that it was a turkey shoot. The Loki's went down pretty easily I thought. Though yea, the Haulian got pretty badly damaged and barely escaped but I didn't think it was impossible or anything. Different strokes. Anyway, lower the difficulty if you want but don't give up on it. The very next mission is pretty impressive :-).

[spartan_0214]

The thing is, the Lokis are easy to kill, but are large in number. And yes, the next mission is awesome.

[throwaway4]

I never die on this mission.  It's keeping the Haulian alive that is the problem.  I just seem to have bad luck on this, I guess.  It only takes one pass from a couple of Hercs to nuke it.

I didn't like the next mission so much.  It was fine.  But Rites of Passage?  OMFG.  That is literally the best space battle I've ever played.  I actually completed it and went back into the tech room to keep trying different things.  After playing all of the Wing Commanders, Tie Fighters, XWings, and FS1 and 2, this is my favorite mission of all time.  My gosh.  So awesome.  Bravo!!!

[neoterran]

Yes, Rites of Passage Ruled.

[Tahna Los]

Naw, the best mission of the entire campaign has to be "The Number of the Beast", if only because of the voice acting, story plot, and the chaos that ensues after that Lucifer Class ship comes in.  Sure, protecting the Sai is hard, but it is an excellent mission nonetheless.

And Alpha 2's golden line: "Looks Like the Defecation is about to hit the Ventilation".

Back to the Time for Pennance mission, it would have been a turkey shoot if the difficulty of that mission was set to "Very Easy".  Even on "Hard" its hard to keep up with the Lokis.

[spartan_0214]

Ah Lieutenant Mackey and duct tape..... a classic