[Vertigo 7]

I noticed some things in my recent replay through of the main fs2 campaign. On the first set of SOC missions, they are damn near impossible to complete every single goal in on medium or higher difficulty. I say damn near impossible cuz one time i did complete them but the game locked up before i could accept the outcome

So anyway, heres why i'm saying that.... There's of things in those 2 particular missions that are way beyond your control. In the first mission where you escort the Icini through the asteroid field, the vasudan corvette jumps in a set amount of time after the last ship of the first wave of vasudan attackers is destroyed.

Depending on where the Icini is at the time of the corvette jumping in will determine the outcome of the mission to a point. if it jumps in slightly ahead of the icini, it over shoots it and turns its main turrets on the science ship and 1 shots it. Doesn't fail the mission but an objective is lost. If it jumps in behind the icini, chances are the vette will B-line straight for the Icini and pound it with its beam turrets. The Icini has very poor aft gun coverage and wont last long against it. Seeing as you have no control over the NTF pilots, you stand a very slim chance against the vette with your HL-7's and rockeyes Chances are you will fail the mission. It is possible to take out the turrets of the vette but at its rate of speed it makes it very difficult to get in position long enough to destroy them. But bear in mind you're doing this while taking out asteroids and dodging AAA beams and flak.

If the vette jumps in and rams the Icini, it will turn parallel to the Icini and they will broad side each other. The Icini has better beam coverage on the sides than the vette so the vette looses.

On the 2nd mission where the NTF blows your cover and you steal the freighter... Towards the end of it an NTF Diemos vette jumps in and tries to take out the freighter and the AWACS. Shortly after, a GTVI diemos jumps in and engages the NTF vette. Now the stupid thing is the freighter and AWACS path goes right between the two vettes. So usually the NTF vette targets and 1 shots the AWACS. Won't fail the mission but also wont allow you to take on any other SOC missions throughout the campaign. Some times it takes out the freighter. Again you have no command over any of the other ships in the mission so if you wanna take out the beam turrets on the NTF vette, you're on your own and once again you're limited to HL-7's and crappy missiles.

The way I see it, no matter what my involvement in the missions are, i have a 25% or less chance of completing all goals. I can fly way off and just let the AI play or get in the thick of things and the out come is the same.

Am I the only one noticing this or do my dog fighting skills just suck so much that I shouldn't be playing?

[Black Wolf]

Well, the point of the SOC missions is that they're hard. You're special ops, you don't get milk runs. That's also why we have secondary and primary objectives. Secondaries are what Command would like you to do, Primaries are what you must do. And if it wasn't hard on the "Hard" difficulty, it would be rather redundant, wouldn't it?

[BengalTiger]

I've noticed that when you use Rockeyes against a ship that's charging at you, they usually hit. They don't need you to lock on the target, so you can launch while doing a frakkin' Split-S if you get the target in your sights. And take a Loki to decide which Herc you want to fight, and not the other way around.

The second mission becomes much more fun than being chased by 10 Hercs and not being able to outrun or outhandle them.

And in the third mission- don't participate in the initial assault, let your wingmen die in it.

[Rodo]

I played it some days ago... It was hard but after a couple of tries I could win it with both the Iceini and the Hinton, just load tempest and ram the Vasudan CV from the front until you get the main beams, and then focus on chasing bombers and asteroids.

but the thing is that maybe the IA was a little modified, or the Myrmi table was modified because it doesn't seem to turn as fast as I recall... I remember playing "but hate the traitor" an having no trouble at all avoiding alpha and beta damage but now it's like hell to get through that mission, I replayed it 4 times on medium just to survive the early engagement

[Vertigo 7]

well on the 2nd and 3rd mission i blast my wingmen before they change iff

Oh and as far as charging the vette... i tried and tried, know how many times i got smacked by the main beams? 

what really gets me is when i run and hide behind the icini to recharge my shields and i get hit by a stray beam from the vette.... makes me an unhappy traitor