[InsaneBaron]

I just finished War in Heaven! I have a couple plot-related or gameplay-related questions, some random, some not-so-random.

1. The GTCv Marcus Glaive. Yes, I get the Silent Threat: Reborn reference. But why would the GTVA name a ship after a high-ranking GTI rebel?
2. Post Meridian. I heard that you can disable/destroy the Meridian. Wouldn't that effect the future plot? As late as Tenebra the Fedayeen describe the destruction/capture of the Carthage as the first time a Tev destroyer was eliminated.
3. In the techroom, by hitting Ctrl-Shift-S, I discovered some techroom entries of interest. Some were obviously hidden plot data

Spoiler:

The Great Darkness

, while others made me curious, like the SC Asura (no description, odd model) and the Gef Frigate. Any remarks? Anyone?
4. I noticed that not even half of the UEF's strikecraft were made available to the player; in particular I never got to fly a bomber. I assume these ships are for the next release?
5. Aristeia. How do you save the Dea Bricta and Auxerre? Any suggestions?
6. Her finest Hour. I hear that under certain conditions Serkr Team will enter the battle. I replayed the mission four times (see why below) and they never showed up. What triggers their arrival? And can they be destroyed?

Sadly, I also discovered numerous bugs in two of Tenebra's missions.
Her Finest Hour: Firstly, after a few minutes of gameplay I lost the ability to designate targets for the Vikrant and Toreador. I could still switch them between Free-Fire and Designated-Fire. I had to modify my strategy for the mission to account for this, specifically by designating the corvettes and minelayers at the beginning of the mission.

Second, I replayed the mission four times, and each time I got the"total losses" debrief. That includes one playthrough where I sent everything home as soon as the Carthage was disabled and let the Vikrant, Toreador, and Toutatis finish the job, and one playthrough where I KNOW had had only light losses because I was keeping track. On my final attempt: I smashed all three corvettes, killed the minelayers, killed the Awacs, infected the sentries, hit the Carthage's radomes, trashed Pices wing, and even knocked out the Carthage's Weapons and Sensors, BEFORE declaring the attack, I hit the Carthage so fast I didn't even have time to call the Toutatis, I used the friendly target key to check, and almost all the fighters were still there, I didn't send them home for fear that it would trigger the bug, and I STILL got "total losses". I'm pretty sure there's a debrief bug here, but it has me worried. Apparently that debrief will effect the availability of forces in Act 4, but I'd rather not have to choose between having lost the whole Toutatis strikecraft complement and having to replay all of Tenebra.

Eyes in the Storm: This one became almost unplayable. Frequently, while in Turret selection mode, I would suddenly be catapulted into the void at several thousand klicks per second. Axem made an alternate version of the mission that I used, but it had its own problems: Unlimited ECM pods (I must have dropped a good dozen) and no repair pods (which made the mission a LOT harder, esp. since for some reason I load my Kentauroi with UX accelerators for kicks.)

Any answers? Solutions? Comments? Discussion?

[The E]

1. The GTCv Marcus Glaive. Yes, I get the Silent Threat: Reborn reference. But why would the GTVA name a ship after a high-ranking GTI rebel?

Did you notice that there is a rift developing between Humans and Vasudans? This is an expression of that.

2. Post Meridian. I heard that you can disable/destroy the Meridian. Wouldn't that effect the future plot? As late as Tenebra the Fedayeen describe the destruction/capture of the Carthage as the first time a Tev destroyer was eliminated.

Pretty sure that that's impossible.

3. In the techroom, by hitting Ctrl-Shift-S, I discovered some techroom entries of interest. Some were obviously hidden plot data

Spoiler:

The Great Darkness

, while others made me curious, like the SC Asura (no description, odd model) and the Gef Frigate. Any remarks? Anyone?

No.

4. I noticed that not even half of the UEF's strikecraft were made available to the player; in particular I never got to fly a bomber. I assume these ships are for the next release?

Yes.

5. Her finest Hour. I hear that under certain conditions Serkr Team will enter the battle. I replayed the mission four times (see why below) and they never showed up. What triggers their arrival? And can they be destroyed?

Serkr can arrive if Toutatis is on the scene and Third Fleet losses have been catastrophic. Seeing them is pretty much a failure condition.

Her Finest Hour: Firstly, after a few minutes of gameplay I lost the ability to designate targets for the Vikrant and Toreador. I could still switch them between Free-Fire and Designated-Fire. I had to modify my strategy for the mission to account for this, specifically by designating the corvettes and minelayers at the beginning of the mission.

We know. It's a bug somewhere in the sexp execution code that we haven't been able to fix yet.

Second, I replayed the mission four times, and each time I got the"total losses" debrief. That includes one playthrough where I sent everything home as soon as the Carthage was disabled and let the Vikrant, Toreador, and Toutatis finish the job, and one playthrough where I KNOW had had only light losses because I was keeping track. On my final attempt: I smashed all three corvettes, killed the minelayers, killed the Awacs, infected the sentries, hit the Carthage's radomes, trashed Pices wing, and even knocked out the Carthage's Weapons and Sensors, BEFORE declaring the attack, I hit the Carthage so fast I didn't even have time to call the Toutatis, I used the friendly target key to check, and almost all the fighters were still there, I didn't send them home for fear that it would trigger the bug, and I STILL got "total losses". I'm pretty sure there's a debrief bug here, but it has me worried. Apparently that debrief will effect the availability of forces in Act 4, but I'd rather not have top choose between having lost the whole Toutatis strikecraft complement and having to replay all of Tenebra.

This is also a known issue.

Eyes in the Storm: This one became almost unplayable. Frequently, while in Turret selection mode, I would suddenly be catapulted into the void at several thousand klicks per second. Axem made an alternate version of the mission that I used, but it had its own problems: Unlimited ECM pods (I must have dropped a good dozen) and no repair pods (which made the mission a LOT harder, esp. since for some reason I load my Kentauroi with UX accelerators for kicks.)

Any answers? Solutions? Comments? Discussion?

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85081.0

[InsaneBaron]

Thanks E! 

1. The GTCv Marcus Glaive. Yes, I get the Silent Threat: Reborn reference. But why would the GTVA name a ship after a high-ranking GTI rebel?

Did you notice that there is a rift developing between Humans and Vasudans? This is an expression of that.

Interesting. I noticed the rift, but I wouldn't have though that the Tevs would be that blatant about it. I wonder what Admiral Recamai thinks about that.

2. Post Meridian. I heard that you can disable/destroy the Meridian. Wouldn't that effect the future plot? As late as Tenebra the Fedayeen describe the destruction/capture of the Carthage as the first time a Tev destroyer was eliminated.

Pretty sure that that's impossible.

Ok then. Must be an inaccuracy in the wiki article

3. In the techroom, by hitting Ctrl-Shift-S, I discovered some techroom entries of interest. Some were obviously hidden plot data

Spoiler:

The Great Darkness

, while others made me curious, like the SC Asura (no description, odd model) and the Gef Frigate. Any remarks? Anyone?

No.

4. I noticed that not even half of the UEF's strikecraft were made available to the player; in particular I never got to fly a bomber. I assume these ships are for the next release?

Yes.

Ok, fair enough. I'll just wait till Part 3. I'm dieing to try the Izra'il; it looks like a "wish granted" fighter with my name on it

5. Her finest Hour. I hear that under certain conditions Serkr Team will enter the battle. I replayed the mission four times (see why below) and they never showed up. What triggers their arrival? And can they be destroyed?

Serkr can arrive if Toutatis is on the scene and Third Fleet losses have been catastrophic. Seeing them is pretty much a failure condition.

So that's why they didn't show up...
Serkr vs. Toutatis. NOT a good ending.

Her Finest Hour: Firstly, after a few minutes of gameplay I lost the ability to designate targets for the Vikrant and Toreador. I could still switch them between Free-Fire and Designated-Fire. I had to modify my strategy for the mission to account for this, specifically by designating the corvettes and minelayers at the beginning of the mission.

We know. It's a bug somewhere in the sexp execution code that we haven't been able to fix yet.

Second, I replayed the mission four times, and each time I got the"total losses" debrief. That includes one playthrough where I sent everything home as soon as the Carthage was disabled and let the Vikrant, Toreador, and Toutatis finish the job, and one playthrough where I KNOW had had only light losses because I was keeping track. On my final attempt: I smashed all three corvettes, killed the minelayers, killed the Awacs, infected the sentries, hit the Carthage's radomes, trashed Pices wing, and even knocked out the Carthage's Weapons and Sensors, BEFORE declaring the attack, I hit the Carthage so fast I didn't even have time to call the Toutatis, I used the friendly target key to check, and almost all the fighters were still there, I didn't send them home for fear that it would trigger the bug, and I STILL got "total losses". I'm pretty sure there's a debrief bug here, but it has me worried. Apparently that debrief will effect the availability of forces in Act 4, but I'd rather not have top choose between having lost the whole Toutatis strikecraft complement and having to replay all of Tenebra.

This is also a known issue.

Eyes in the Storm: This one became almost unplayable. Frequently, while in Turret selection mode, I would suddenly be catapulted into the void at several thousand klicks per second. Axem made an alternate version of the mission that I used, but it had its own problems: Unlimited ECM pods (I must have dropped a good dozen) and no repair pods (which made the mission a LOT harder, esp. since for some reason I load my Kentauroi with UX accelerators for kicks.)

Any answers? Solutions? Comments? Discussion?

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85081.0

Well, at least they're known bugs. I found Axem's revised mission for Eyes in the Storm, and I was able to complete the mission that way, but the revision has it's own bugs.

About the Her Finest Hour bug: I accepted the Carthage's surrender all four times, if that has any connection. It seemed to happen whether I called the Toutatis or not, and sending wings home/leaving them on the battlefield didn't seem to make a difference.

Anyway, thanks for the answers, and I'm looking forward to Act 4, whenever it's done. (yes, I'm well aware of the BP policy on release dates) 

[Axem]

Gee, Axem. Don't you think you should test your missions fully before putting them out into the wild?

(In any case, 2 people with reports of flinging in that mission. This has gone from freak occurrence to defs weird.)

[Arpit]

2. Post Meridian. I heard that you can disable/destroy the Meridian. Wouldn't that effect the future plot? As late as Tenebra the Fedayeen describe the destruction/capture of the Carthage as the first time a Tev destroyer was eliminated.
 
4. I noticed that not even half of the UEF's strikecraft were made available to the player; in particular I never got to fly a bomber. I assume these ships are for the next release?

5. Aristeia. How do you save the Dea Bricta and Auxerre? Any suggestions?

5. Her finest Hour. I hear that under certain conditions Serkr Team will enter the battle. I replayed the mission four times (see why below) and they never showed up. What triggers their arrival? And can they be destroyed?

Sadly, I also discovered numerous bugs in two of Tenebra's missions.
Her Finest Hour: Firstly, after a few minutes of gameplay I lost the ability to designate targets for the Vikrant and Toreador. I could still switch them between Free-Fire and Designated-Fire. I had to modify my strategy for the mission to account for this, specifically by designating the corvettes and minelayers at the beginning of the mission.

Second, I replayed the mission four times, and each time I got the"total losses" debrief. That includes one playthrough where I sent everything home as soon as the Carthage was disabled and let the Vikrant, Toreador, and Toutatis finish the job, and one playthrough where I KNOW had had only light losses because I was keeping track. On my final attempt: I smashed all three corvettes, killed the minelayers, killed the Awacs, infected the sentries, hit the Carthage's radomes, trashed Pices wing, and even knocked out the Carthage's Weapons and Sensors, BEFORE declaring the attack, I hit the Carthage so fast I didn't even have time to call the Toutatis, I used the friendly target key to check, and almost all the fighters were still there, I didn't send them home for fear that it would trigger the bug, and I STILL got "total losses". I'm pretty sure there's a debrief bug here, but it has me worried. Apparently that debrief will effect the availability of forces in Act 4, but I'd rather not have top choose between having lost the whole Toutatis strikecraft complement and having to replay all of Tenebra.

Eyes in the Storm: This one became almost unplayable. Frequently, while in Turret selection mode, I would suddenly be catapulted into the void at several thousand klicks per second. Axem made an alternate version of the mission that I used, but it had its own problems: Unlimited ECM pods (I must have dropped a good dozen) and no repair pods (which made the mission a LOT harder, esp. since for some reason I load my Kentauroi with UX accelerators for kicks.)

2. How can you disable a destroyer with 4 engines in a extremely hostile environment alone? I also heard that its engines are guardianed.

4. You will be on the Toutatis now. Start imagining which ships you will be flying!

5. I don't know really, but an additional ECM ship (friendly) jumps with them (don't know its name). It is attacked by Herc II fighters with Maxim. So protecting it MIGHT be the key. Although it self-destructed on every playthrough, so I was never able to protect them. 

6. Wrong numbering. 
    Following conditions are required for Serkr team:
   
    a) Skill level must be at least Easy.
    b) You must lose the entire Toutatis Air wing, i.e. there should be high casualties.
    c) Vikrant and Toreador both must withdraw or get destroyed.
    d) I am not really sure about this one, but delaying the destruction of turrets of manuevering Mjolinirs (Charlie and Delta) after the arrival of Toutatis upto the arrival of Serkr.

And as for the bugs I really think I am the odd one out. 

Except for the artillery bugs I have NEVER encountered the other bugs.

And as the artillery bug, I rarely encounter it now. I mean that I just now played the mission and after declaring attack, calling gunships and ordering them to depart, I could still TAG the Carthage.  I also switched artillery modes many times and then tried to TAG Carthage and was still able to TAG it. Don't know how. 

In all, I have experienced that bug 2 times from about 20 playthroughs. Quite rarely I encounter it. 

So, InsaneBaron, if you can tell me how do you consistently reproduce the artillery and Eyes in the Storm bugs then I may attempt to fix them through FRED. (Yes I know advanced FREDders haven't been able to fix them, but it's still worth a try)

[X3N0-Life-Form]

5. Fly a Kent; pack some Paveways; disable the Medea's starboard beams; afterburn to the Hood; destroy the big beam; fly back to the frigates'n'cruisers; call the cavalry.
That should do it.

[InsaneBaron]

2. Post Meridian. I heard that you can disable/destroy the Meridian. Wouldn't that effect the future plot? As late as Tenebra the Fedayeen describe the destruction/capture of the Carthage as the first time a Tev destroyer was eliminated.
 
4. I noticed that not even half of the UEF's strikecraft were made available to the player; in particular I never got to fly a bomber. I assume these ships are for the next release?

5. Aristeia. How do you save the Dea Bricta and Auxerre? Any suggestions?

5. Her finest Hour. I hear that under certain conditions Serkr Team will enter the battle. I replayed the mission four times (see why below) and they never showed up. What triggers their arrival? And can they be destroyed?

Sadly, I also discovered numerous bugs in two of Tenebra's missions.
Her Finest Hour: Firstly, after a few minutes of gameplay I lost the ability to designate targets for the Vikrant and Toreador. I could still switch them between Free-Fire and Designated-Fire. I had to modify my strategy for the mission to account for this, specifically by designating the corvettes and minelayers at the beginning of the mission.

Second, I replayed the mission four times, and each time I got the"total losses" debrief. That includes one playthrough where I sent everything home as soon as the Carthage was disabled and let the Vikrant, Toreador, and Toutatis finish the job, and one playthrough where I KNOW had had only light losses because I was keeping track. On my final attempt: I smashed all three corvettes, killed the minelayers, killed the Awacs, infected the sentries, hit the Carthage's radomes, trashed Pices wing, and even knocked out the Carthage's Weapons and Sensors, BEFORE declaring the attack, I hit the Carthage so fast I didn't even have time to call the Toutatis, I used the friendly target key to check, and almost all the fighters were still there, I didn't send them home for fear that it would trigger the bug, and I STILL got "total losses". I'm pretty sure there's a debrief bug here, but it has me worried. Apparently that debrief will effect the availability of forces in Act 4, but I'd rather not have top choose between having lost the whole Toutatis strikecraft complement and having to replay all of Tenebra.

Eyes in the Storm: This one became almost unplayable. Frequently, while in Turret selection mode, I would suddenly be catapulted into the void at several thousand klicks per second. Axem made an alternate version of the mission that I used, but it had its own problems: Unlimited ECM pods (I must have dropped a good dozen) and no repair pods (which made the mission a LOT harder, esp. since for some reason I load my Kentauroi with UX accelerators for kicks.)

2. How can you disable a destroyer with 4 engines in a extremely hostile environment alone? I also heard that its engines are guardianed.

4. You will be on the Toutatis now. Start imagining which ships you will be flying!

5. I don't know really, but an additional ECM ship (friendly) jumps with them (don't know its name). It is attacked by Herc II fighters with Maxim. So protecting it MIGHT be the key. Although it self-destructed on every playthrough, so I was never able to protect them. 

6. Wrong numbering. 
    Following conditions are required for Serkr team:
   
    a) Skill level must be at least Easy.
    b) You must lose the entire Toutatis Air wing, i.e. there should be high casualties.
    c) Vikrant and Toreador both must withdraw or get destroyed.
    d) I am not really sure about this one, but delaying the destruction of turrets of manuevering Mjolinirs (Charlie and Delta) after the arrival of Toutatis upto the arrival of Serkr.

And as for the bugs I really think I am the odd one out. 

Except for the artillery bugs I have NEVER encountered the other bugs.

And as the artillery bug, I rarely encounter it now. I mean that I just now played the mission and after declaring attack, calling gunships and ordering them to depart, I could still TAG the Carthage.  I also switched artillery modes many times and then tried to TAG Carthage and was still able to TAG it. Don't know how. 

In all, I have experienced that bug 2 times from about 20 playthroughs. Quite rarely I encounter it. 

So, InsaneBaron, if you can tell me how do you consistently reproduce the artillery and Eyes in the Storm bugs then I may attempt to fix them through FRED. (Yes I know advanced FREDders haven't been able to fix them, but it's still worth a try)

Well, let's see...

2. You're probably right. I think there's a mistake in the Wiki article, which claims that the Meridian is destructible. I destroyed it's escorts, but The Meridian's engines seem to have invul.

4. Looking forward to it! Izra'il+UX Accelerator+Sidhe+Gattler+Jackhammer+Slammer+Javelin= One Happily Insane Baron.

5. Ya, it Self-Destructed on me too. The Medea seemed to destroy Torpedo Two before Laporte could log into fleetnet.

6. Tpyo on my part. I never did badly enough to trigger Serkr, thankfully.

Bugwise, you seem to have gotten lucky. The thing about the artillery bug: I could sit back with the Frigates and give artillery commands, and it would work fine. But if I left the frigates and joined the battle, and THEN tried to designate targets, the bug would kick in. A random idea just hit me- could it have been tied to infecting the sentries? That's normally what I was doing about the time I lost artillery control, and I played the whole mission four times, plus several quit/restarts when I messed up or real life called.'

With the debriefing bug, it might have had something to do with accepting the Carthage's surrender, which I did all four times.

With the Eyes in the Storm bug, it always happened while I was in Turret Drop Mode, usually right after dropping a turret. Not completely sure, but it might have been tied to dropping ECM pods.

[InsaneBaron]

5. Fly a Kent; pack some Paveways; disable the Medea's starboard beams; afterburn to the Hood; destroy the big beam; fly back to the frigates'n'cruisers; call the cavalry.
That should do it.

I'll try that. I tried three times but wasn't able to save Torpedo 2. All three times I flew a Nyx with a bank of Stilletto IIs, and I hit the starboard beams, but the Dea Bricta just went down before Laporte finished logging into Fleetnet and the Auxerre didn't last much longer. Is there any way to call in the Cavalry faster than waiting for Laporte to finish typing?

[niffiwan]

I *think* the debriefing bug is something to do with campaign persistent variables not being reset correctly, but I haven't devoted much to time to testing / proving that theory.

[Aesaar]

One of the reasons why the Terrans named a ship after Marcus Glaive is the same as why the US Navy named a sub after Robert E. Lee.

[InsaneBaron]

One of the reasons why the Terrans named a ship after Marcus Glaive is the same as why the US Navy named a sub after Robert E. Lee.

Good point, I guess it happens in the real world too. I didn't realize Glaive had become such a popular historical figure.

[Husker]

Fascinating. At least I'm not the only dude who got launched into a land far, far away. I had the same thing with artillery not designating targets. I had the total losses debrief. Possibly because I lost almost everything but the Toutatis. Which I didn't call in so I didn't get it Serkr'd. Though I guess playing on VE makes that impossible now that I'm reading it. I am not the best at directing fleets of fighters.

[Lunadance]

5. Fly a Kent; pack some Paveways; disable the Medea's starboard beams; afterburn to the Hood; destroy the big beam; fly back to the frigates'n'cruisers; call the cavalry.
That should do it.

I'll try that. I tried three times but wasn't able to save Torpedo 2. All three times I flew a Nyx with a bank of Stilletto IIs, and I hit the starboard beams, but the Dea Bricta just went down before Laporte finished logging into Fleetnet and the Auxerre didn't last much longer. Is there any way to call in the Cavalry faster than waiting for Laporte to finish typing?

Stilletto IIs have 'bomb' tag, thus can be intercepted easily. Try Paveways, these cannot be intercepted. You have to destroy the Medea's starboard beams in the first few seconds(fire two Paveways on each beam, then directly go for Hood without waiting the actual hits) then burst in full speed to destroy the Hood's two main beams.

[InsaneBaron]

5. Fly a Kent; pack some Paveways; disable the Medea's starboard beams; afterburn to the Hood; destroy the big beam; fly back to the frigates'n'cruisers; call the cavalry.
That should do it.

I'll try that. I tried three times but wasn't able to save Torpedo 2. All three times I flew a Nyx with a bank of Stilletto IIs, and I hit the starboard beams, but the Dea Bricta just went down before Laporte finished logging into Fleetnet and the Auxerre didn't last much longer. Is there any way to call in the Cavalry faster than waiting for Laporte to finish typing?

Stilletto IIs have 'bomb' tag, thus can be intercepted easily. Try Paveways, these cannot be intercepted. You have to destroy the Medea's starboard beams in the first few seconds(fire two Paveways on each beam, then directly go for Hood without waiting the actual hits) then burst in full speed to destroy the Hood's two main beams.

It worked!

The reason I kept flying the Nyx before was that I was under the impression that Stiletto II's and Paveways were about equal, and therefore since the Nyx could carry 10 Stiletto versus the Kent's 6 Paveways, the Nyx was better for disarming. Checking the Stats more carefully, I realized that a single Paveway does noticeably more damage than a dual-shot of Stilettos. Combined with the fact that they take up less room in the missile bay, a Kent-sized bank of Paveways does 1.5-ish the damage of a Stiletto II bank twice its size. And they do it with fewer shots, more accuracy, and no danger of interception.

Anyway, I loaded up on a Kentauroi with Rapiers, Paveways, and Javelins. I dogfought normally until the "break", when I rearmed and then took up a close escort position near the Dea Bricta. When the Medea showed up I nailed each starboard beam with a pair of Paveways, then afterburned a couple klicks and used my last two Paveways on the Hood's BGreen. I raced back to the convoy in time to call in Strike Bombers to trash the Medea. I spent the last point on an Interceptor wing. From there it was easy: brief dogfight with some Kulases (Kulas? Kulai?), wingmen dogpiled the J. E. Hoover, Hood gets pummeled and runs, and so on.

[Mars]

S2s are a joke in WiH, and even by the end of FS2

[Aesaar]

Yeah.  They may have 5km range and high speed, but they'll be shot down long before they hit.  They can work pretty well as short range weapons on a Draco, simply because the Draco moves fast enough that it can get in and out where slower fighters will get shot down. 

Trebs are usually a much better choice, but you can't take them in Aristeia.

[InsaneBaron]

S2s are a joke in WiH, and even by the end of FS2

Yeah.  They may have 5km range and high speed, but they'll be shot down long before they hit.  They can work pretty well as short range weapons on a Draco, simply because the Draco moves fast enough that it can get in and out where slower fighters will get shot down. 

Trebs are usually a much better choice, but you can't take them in Aristeia.

Yeah, my first thought and Aristea was, YA! New GTVA ships, plus my favorite Kaysers, Maxims, Tornadoes, and Tebuchets! Only to find out there were no Maxims of Trebuchets. Cool mission anyway!