[sparr]

I have replayed this mission over a dozen times now.  The very first time I got a scan of the Eva easily then died before my subspace drive came back up.  Every time after that I can barely, if at all, find the "sweet spot" to scan the Eva, which is now moving at 85+m/s the entire time and virtually impossible to keep up with.  Any advice?

[Snail]

Why is the Eva moving at 85 m/s?

[Jeff Vader]

Yeh, it should slow down after succesfully jumping in.

As a side note, hitting Alt-S (I think it was Alt) can be useful, since it disables the subsystem targeting. Which means that you can't be on the wrong side of the Eva, when trying to scan it.

[Droid803]

You scan the Nav, IIRC. That's under the head. Stay a little ways away from the node and you'll be fine. I figured that out after the Eva jumped out on me the time before.

[Jeff Vader]

I still prefer the no-subsystems-targeted way, since that way the game isn't too nitpicking about where you are pointing at when scanning.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Don't beam me now!

I always run into a lot of problems when I play this mission. The Eva jumps in so fast that parking at the jump node is the stupidest thing to do.

What I usually do is to fly 4000 metres away from the jump node. When the Eva jumps in and slows down, it should have slowed down far enough about 4000 meters away from the jump node for you to get a nice long scan of it.

[Mongoose]

If you're near the node and it blows by you, you can always just, y'know, chase it.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

It shoots out of the node at over 400 m/s. How can I chase it and expect myself to have sufficient time to scan it before it jumps out?

[Jeff Vader]

As it has been said. Don't hang around isnide the node. Be at a proper distance from it. Disable subsystem targeting.

[Mongoose]

From what I remember, the thing jumps out of the area a good minute or two after it enters through the node, which should be more than enough time for you to catch up to it enough to scan it.  Like Lobo said, if you disable subsystem targeting (which didn't automatically happen in FS1 to begin with), you should only have to be some distance off the ass-end of the ship in order to trigger the scan.  I think I'd usually wind up completing some portion of the scan as the Eva jumped in, having the scan pause as it pulled away from me, and then finishing the rest once I got close enough to it.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Disable subsystem targeting, eh? Good tip; I shall bind that key when I reach that mission.

By the way, how do you scan the cargo surrounded by the sentries and fighters? Every time I play Playing Judas, I'm reduced to using ~ + K.

[Akalabeth Angel]

       Just stay in that area between the sentry guns. I don't know why people would go to the node, when the sentries in front of it can detect you. I dunno, personally I've never had a problem scanning the Eva on Playing Judas. But I've never played it on the FSPort so maybe it's slightly different even though it shouldn't be. The problem is always staying alive once idiot Command tells you to fly into the fighter bay.

[Droid803]

I hung away from the node the second time I played it, and the Eva was perfectly scannable

[Akalabeth Angel]

By the way, how do you scan the cargo surrounded by the sentries and fighters? Every time I play Playing Judas, I'm reduced to using ~ + K.

       The idea of that mission, for me anyway is to enter that area.
       Okay, the mission set-up is basically this. There's two sentries at the node. There's two sentries at a warpout point a way from the node. And between those sentries is basically a "road" if you will that the ships all warp into and follow. Also the cargo is on that road as well. The enemy fighters, don't really enter this area. They fly around it, sometimes they get close enough to detect you but in general, that area is safe. So all you have to really do, is get into that area, undetected and stay there. Get in, scan the freighters, scan the cargo, etcetera and so on. But you only have a small window to scan each ship, if you take too long they'll get too close to the warp-out sentries. Other than that you should be fine.

[Mongoose]

If my memory hasn't completely failed me, flying almost directly toward the general region in front of the node (though stopping some distance before actually entering the node space) always worked just fine for me, at least on Easy difficulty.  Command would give me the occasional warning about one of the sentries getting a bit too close, but moving in the opposite direction for a few seconds solved that quickly enough; I don't think I ever had to bother with observing their flight paths.  I'd sometimes receive a message about getting too close to the node sentries, but backing off a bit solved that just fine.  From that position, I was able to nab each of the ships as they jumped in, and I usually managed to scan the cargo even before the freighters got around to docking with it.  My only caveat is that parking yourself slightly above/below the plane of the node is advisable, lest you wind up windshield fodder for a Demon or Lucifer.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I see. I never looked at it as a road. I was thinking it was more of a storage depot set up beside a jump node.

[Akalabeth Angel]

I see. I never looked at it as a road. I was thinking it was more of a storage depot set up beside a jump node.

       Well, whatever word you want to use. Road's kinda a dumb word to use but it illustrates the idea. It's like the "protected area" basically, where the fleet and cargo enters but doesn't really venture outside of. Just get in that area, and you'll be nice and protected too!

[Trivial Psychic]

I've found that the best way to scan the Eva was to sit ahead of the node in the "safe zone", while facing away from the node.  When the Eva jumps in, I hit the burners and let it pass over top of me.  As it does, I use the "target nearest subsystem" feature and start scanning.    Doing this ensures that I'm closer to it already when it reaches a low enough speed for me to sustain a scan.  As for the Lucifer, for some reason its always non-collide just after it jumps in, so I kinda pass through it... coulda been a bug though.

[Stormkeeper]

You could always just skip this mission. S'not like you'll miss out on anything...

[Droid803]

You miss out on Command being an idiot and telling you to fly into the Lucifer for some god forsaken reason.
Oh yeah, and what if it works and I get to land? I'm not getting out of the Dragon. The Shivans will kill me once I do.