[AlexG]

So, I went out from posting about problems with FSC to posting something in the MSPaint thread, and am now back to asking questions. One day I shall find something to do here apart from beg other people for help. But not today.

Anyway. I am getting really frustrated with the mission where Kappa Wing comes in, Alpha 2 says they're rogue, and we have to defend the convoy against 3 Fenris class and a Deimos. First, I died on this mission like 5 times. 3 Fenris ships firing anti-fighter beams are way more of a threat than one, I found. So, I switched to a less maneuverable fighter with better armor, and I survived. All's quiet on the Western Front, right? So the Capellan shuttle goes to dock with the Vasudan warship-turned-station.

I therefore have 3 questions.
1. Who designed this crappy station in such a way that the docking ring is built over the fighterbay?
2. What kind of dumb shuttle pilot, upon not getting into the bay, will fly away from the docking ring, turn around, and fly smack into it, losing 5% hull every time, again and again until his ship explodes?
3. Are the person from 1 and 2 related? Or do they at least know each other? Maybe they met at this year's Terran/Vasudan stupid convention.

So, yeah. Anyone have this problem, and is there thing one I can do about it? I tried ramming the shuttle with my ship to push it to a vector where it could reasonably get into the bay (it has to come from the side, not the front), but it wouldn't budge.

[Slime]

Well, the simple way is to use cheats to make the shuttle and surroundings invulnerable and then destroy the docking ring. For me the shuttle always flies right into the fighterbay, though..

[AlexG]

BAH! No cheating! Well, I mean, if there's no other way, I will... but will the game let me go on to the next mission if I do? A lot of game are like, "Oh, no, you cannot move forward! HA HA HA HA HA!"

[Wobble73]

BAH! No cheating! Well, I mean, if there's no other way, I will... but will the game let me go on to the next mission if I do? A lot of game are like, "Oh, no, you cannot move forward! HA HA HA HA HA!"

Yeah, if you fail the mission five times you can skip to the next mission.

[Slime]

Well, I wouldn't call ending a bugged, impossible situation cheating, but that's just me... And there's always the die-5-times option, but I personally like to finish the missions, see the debfriefing etc. if it's possible.

[G0atmaster]

Yeah, speaking of bugged missions, there was a mission in some campaign, I think it was JAD1, where when you go through the knossos portal, there's a destroyer or corvette there you have to kill, but can't damage below 32% hull.  Yet the mission won't advance unless you enable cheats and kill it.

Maybe I haven't gotten to that point in derelict yet.  I've already seen the typhon with the docking ring, but never had any issues with stuff docking.

[AlexG]

I've noticed a few things don't quite 'line up' ever since I enabled the 1400X900 resolution that I have on my monitor. It's alway objects in the distance, but I notice that the square outlining my target actually doesn't fall with the target inside at the edges of the screen. The same thing happens with the distant Sathanas fleet in the final Capella missions. This is the first time I've had issues with a non-docking ship, but could this have something to do with it?

Anyway, I looked up the cheat codes and I do admit, it will be fun to take on those Fenri with Green Beams. So, off I go to cheat.

[MP-Ryan]

Two solutions:

1.  Open FRED, remove the docking ring (hard).
2.  Use 3.6.7 (easy).

Something in 3.6.9 affects the positioning of that ring on some installs.  God knows why.  It's been in mantis for quite some time now.

3.6.7 is unaffected, so just play that mission in that build.

[AlexG]

Hm. Interesting. I think it would actually be easier just to use cheats and then Kill the ring, though. You can't destroy it, apparantly it's a Hero Ring, because I fired four salvos of double Green Beams from my fighter at it and it didn't lose any hull at all. But I can use ~+K. Plus I have decided I like that cheat for playing through the game once I have beat it. Makes me feel like God!

"Heads up! We've got visitors!"
*snaps fingers* "No, we don't! HaHA!"

[Game_Master64]

careful with it though, you can sometimes screw yourself over like that

[Slime]

Yeah, I didn't mean cheating in the way of changing weapons, but just clearing the blocking ring out of the way with the killing code. And I didn't mean using the cheats in the rest of the mission, just with the Ganymede!  If missions problems are too small to bother using notepad, the cheats have some useful commands, such as killing and disabling/enabling invulnerability on ships. I remember one mission where protecting a ship was impossible as at one point a destroyer arrived in the mission and, following it's AI, blasted the escorted ship into oblivion with it's beams, causing a failure. As the destroyer was there for a completely another reason, it clearly was a small FRED mistake. The easy fix for this was just to make the escorted ship invulnerable, destroy the beam cannon quickly, and then make the ship mortal again. The beam was an LRed and the escorted ship a Triton, so you may see what I mean...

[G0atmaster]

LOL on Transcend, whne the Generation corvette is following us, I gave myself shivan super lasers and killed it EVERY SINGLE MISSION.  And it appeared again.  It was fun killing something that was already dead, and by the end of the campaign, I was a Commander from the points all 30 or so corvette kills gave me.