[Sagi_FS]

Sigh...ok, I've done this mission (sicilian defense) a billion times and I can't beat it, not even on easy.  What the hell is wrong with me?  If I don't die a bunch of times in insane mode, I easily get to the last ship, get it to about 10-12% and then it bolts.  How the hell do you disable a ship from jumping to hyperspace?  Take out nav?  All engines?  More boom less vroom?

PS:  Is there a FS2 Open 3.6.13 beta or just the nightly builds (if so, point me in right direction please) so far?  I'd like to use that so I can try the latest furyAI.

edit:  I found the nightly builds.

[General Battuta]

Try using Stiletto bombs on the engines of all the ships. Disabling nav won't do anything.

[PsychoLandlord]

Yeah, you want to be knocking out the engines of every ship that comes in, just to be safe. Stilettos will certainly help in that regard, but I can reliably do it with regular bombs on normal, though I haven't played that mission on a higher difficulty yet.

[Sagi_FS]

Try using Stiletto bombs on the engines of all the ships. Disabling nav won't do anything.

So once ALL of the engines are down, there is no hyperspace ability?  The damn thing seems to jump just as I'm pounding that last engine; but I guess, technically, it's still operational.

[Shivan Hunter]

Destroy Vindicator beams. Ignore the Hyksos, one of your wingmates usually lobs a bomb at it (IIRC). If the beams (or the Vindicator) is/are down once the Hyksos arrives, there's very little that can damage it.

After that, attack enemy ships in the order they've arrived (I dunno if some stay longer than others, but this usually works for me).

I generally go in an Ursa. Boa is a crappier bomber but it can hold more bombs in the lower two banks. Alternatively, get in a Persie and load it full of Stilettos, going after the Vindicator's beams and then the other ships' engines. You will likely have to reload several times so keep a support ship handy (as in, tell it to reload before you actually need it so it'll be right there when you do. This is a dick move to your wingmates but they're AIs so no one cares).

PS:  Is there a FS2 Open 3.6.13 beta or just the nightly builds (if so, point me in right direction please) so far?  I'd like to use that so I can try the latest furyAI.

SCP doesn't really do "beta", that would probably convolute the system too much. There's only the nightlies and Antipodes builds (for huge new features like the new pilot code). Nightlies are usually pretty stable though, and there are always epic new features in there.

[Sagi_FS]

Destroy Vindicator beams. Ignore the Hyksos, one of your wingmates usually lobs a bomb at it (IIRC). If the beams (or the Vindicator) is/are down once the Hyksos arrives, there's very little that can damage it.

After that, attack enemy ships in the order they've arrived (I dunno if some stay longer than others, but this usually works for me).

I generally go in an Ursa. Boa is a crappier bomber but it can hold more bombs in the lower two banks. Alternatively, get in a Persie and load it full of Stilettos, going after the Vindicator's beams and then the other ships' engines. You will likely have to reload several times so keep a support ship handy (as in, tell it to reload before you actually need it so it'll be right there when you do. This is a dick move to your wingmates but they're AIs so no one cares).

PS:  Is there a FS2 Open 3.6.13 beta or just the nightly builds (if so, point me in right direction please) so far?  I'd like to use that so I can try the latest furyAI.

SCP doesn't really do "beta", that would probably convolute the system too much. There's only the nightlies and Antipodes builds (for huge new features like the new pilot code). Nightlies are usually pretty stable though, and there are always epic new features in there.

I was starting to lean more towards the stilettos but I do love the big bombs as well. 

Antipode builds?  That is a new one to me.  What is that about?

[Shivan Hunter]

Whenever SCP has a gigantic feature that requires a huge amount of testing (Antipodes 6 is code that makes some parts of the engine much more efficient, Antipodes 7 is a near-complete refactoring of the HUD code so it's more customizable, and Antipodes 8 is a long-awaited rewrite of the pilot code so you can store progress on multiple campaigns, and reliably switch between them, on a single pilot), they put it in an Antipodes branch to develop and test it and eventually merge this branch with the main builds (Antipodes 6 and 7 are now available in nightly builds). They're a testament to how awesome the SCP team is .

Anyway, using bombs on engines is your best bet IMO- if you have to disable them you might be able to but you do just as much damage. Or just load up your first bank with Stilettos or Trebs (which do as much damage as Stilettos).

[headdie]

Never really had a problem with this one. 

GTB Artemis works but the Ursa is by far the best heavy bomber in the Terran inventory and the mission is really a heavy bomber mission with an Orion a corvette and 2 cruiser to hit.  If you take the Ursa rebalance your ETS with 2 key presses on engines and one on shields to boost engine performance while maintaining shields, once you are near the orion taking one off the engines might be worth while to add to weapon and shield recharge rates.

Start of killing the heavy beams on Orion's nearest side (the one the Vasudan corvette appears on) with the Cyclops, for turret killing the torp is overkill but the damage transfers to the destroyers hull so you get two for one, remember to release the torps near the ship's hull to minimise the chance of the warheads being intercepted and use your 'buners to get clear before the shockwave hits you.  Weapons on the other side of the destroyer will not come into play during the mission so just hit the hull as often as you can.  Also remember you can bypass the lengthy cooldown timer on the cyclops by switching banks so if you have banks 2 and 3 with Cyclops, fire a volley from bank two then manually switch to bank three, so you can quickly reacquire the target and fire before bank 2 finished resetting.  Also when torpedo bombing regardless of how you use secondarys while dogfighting double up the fire mode (shift - /) to maximise damage but unlike cannons there is no effect on the cycle time iirc.

[Scotty]

Also, switch banks right after you fire.  There is no reload time for switching banks, and the 16 second reload for the bank you just fired from counts down even when not selected.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Well, actually I tend to fly a myrm in this mission and let my wingmen and the hyksos blast the capships' hull while I cover them

[Sagi_FS]

Whenever SCP has a gigantic feature that requires a huge amount of testing (Antipodes 6 is code that makes some parts of the engine much more efficient, Antipodes 7 is a near-complete refactoring of the HUD code so it's more customizable, and Antipodes 8 is a long-awaited rewrite of the pilot code so you can store progress on multiple campaigns, and reliably switch between them, on a single pilot), they put it in an Antipodes branch to develop and test it and eventually merge this branch with the main builds (Antipodes 6 and 7 are now available in nightly builds). They're a testament to how awesome the SCP team is .

Anyway, using bombs on engines is your best bet IMO- if you have to disable them you might be able to but you do just as much damage. Or just load up your first bank with Stilettos or Trebs (which do as much damage as Stilettos).

Sweet, I just read up on some of the antipodes posts, very nice.  Is antipodes 8 intended to be included in the final release of .13?  If the nightly builds are pretty stable, I'll start using them and be sure to archive my players folder, just in case.  Thanks for the responses; such an active and wonderful community around an excellent game!

PS:  Are there any other old school games that have similar projects to update and restore them like FS open does for FS2?  I didn't game much when I was younger so I missed out on a lot of stuff; I only recently tried starcraft and this game.   So now I'm wondering what else is out there that I'm missing :-)

[Shivan Hunter]

Whenever SCP has a gigantic feature that requires a huge amount of testing (Antipodes 6 is code that makes some parts of the engine much more efficient, Antipodes 7 is a near-complete refactoring of the HUD code so it's more customizable, and Antipodes 8 is a long-awaited rewrite of the pilot code so you can store progress on multiple campaigns, and reliably switch between them, on a single pilot), they put it in an Antipodes branch to develop and test it and eventually merge this branch with the main builds (Antipodes 6 and 7 are now available in nightly builds). They're a testament to how awesome the SCP team is .

Anyway, using bombs on engines is your best bet IMO- if you have to disable them you might be able to but you do just as much damage. Or just load up your first bank with Stilettos or Trebs (which do as much damage as Stilettos).

Sweet, I just read up on some of the antipodes posts, very nice.  Is antipodes 8 intended to be included in the final release of .13?  If the nightly builds are pretty stable, I'll start using them and be sure to archive my players folder, just in case.  Thanks for the responses; such an active and wonderful community around an excellent game!

First off, development version are odd numbers like 3.6.13. Even numbers (3.6.12) are releases/release candidates.

As to your question, that depends. The next release will either be 3.6.14 or 3.7; if the pilot code (antipodes 8) makes it in by release time, it'll be 3.7 because of how epic an update it is (along with Antipodes 6 and 7).

PS:  Are there any other old school games that have similar projects to update and restore them like FS open does for FS2?  I didn't game much when I was younger so I missed out on a lot of stuff; I only recently tried starcraft and this game.   So now I'm wondering what else is out there that I'm missing :-)

Descent has a project (D2X-XL) that does pretty much this IIRC, although I don't know much about it- prefer old-school Descent on DOSbox for the nostalgia.

[Sagi_FS]

Understood thanks much.

Last thing that I can think of:  If I wanted to play thru the time line, chronologically, leaving out freespace 1, which mods should I be going for after I finish the FS2 campaign story?  The blueplanet stuff and beyond?

[General Battuta]

There is no canon timeline after FS2.

Good post-Capella mods include Derelict, Blue Planet, The Procyon Insurgency.

[The E]

Blue Planet, Derelict, Vassago's Dirge.... There are lots of post-capella mods to choose from. One thing you should really play though is silent Threat: Reborn, even if you leave out the port.

[Kie99]

Just ran through this now, found it very easy in an Ursa with two banks of Cyclops.  I immediately ordered Alpha (in Artemis) to destroy the Vindicator and went after the Argo myself, it was already on it's last legs by the time the Hyksos arrived.  After that, simply ordering the Hyksos & Alpha to attack any warships which arrived seemed pretty effective.  I did join in on the bombinb runs, but I didn't bother disabling anything.

[Sagi_FS]

simply ordering the Hyksos & Alpha to attack any warships which arrived seemed pretty effective.  I did join in on the bombinb runs, but I didn't bother disabling anything.

I completely didn't pick up on the fact you could order the hykos.  I finally did beat the mission, btw.  Thanks for all the good info :-)

[Scotty]

Blue Planet, Derelict, Vassago's Dirge.... There are lots of post-capella mods to choose from. One thing you should really play though is silent Threat: Reborn, even if you leave out the port.

Uh, technically Vassago's Dirge isn't post-Capella, it's Second Shivan Incursion.