[potterman28wxcv]

I used to switch to Hard to get this mission. But I'd like once in my life to finish it on Insane !

I managed to get a good previous mission ; 9/11 of my mates alive, I got around 60% hull integrity (even though I got hit quite hard thanks to these Flails near the end ; never put a Flail in a AI's hand, most deadlier weapon ever against players). Yet I just can't beat this mission on insane no matter how hard  I try.

The problem is, no matter the strategy adopted, my mates die at the third/fourth wave of enemies. Heh, I guess you can't expect it to last forever when matched against 3 dragons + 3 or 4 manticore at each wave.

I manage to take out the Lucifer's weapon subsystem most of the time, but then my bombers die because there's no more mate to protect them. And if I order my mates to protect the bombers, well first turrets take down the bombs, and second my mates die as well.

I also tried to be a real troll, sitting in the Fighterbay. But the missiles fired by the missile launcher go through the Lucifer's hull to hit me 

I might try tomorrow to stay with the bombers, and acting like one with my teammates (C-3-7 then C-3-9 upon approaching the shivans). Once the bombers get close to the lucifer, I might try to take out some turrets so these bombs can land, but there may be too many of them to take down. I have no idea how effective my mates can be at taking out turrets, I will have to test that too.

I may also try the Quantum Delta's way : completely ignoring the weapon subsystem, and focus on reactor 5, commanding my mates to disarm the Lucifer when there's no enemy around. Though, in his video, his allies seem to stand much longer than mine.

I might also try this Fury AI Quantum Delta seems to be using. If it improves the AI, I'm up for it ! But maybe this would make the mission easier, and I'm so close to the end of this full insane campaign that it would be being a coward to stop in the middle and try with a new AI 

Who managed to beat the full FSport campaign on Insane so far ?

[Goober5000]

Actually this mission is close to unbeatable even in FS1.  I remember playing through the main FS1 campaign on Insane several years ago.  It took me many frustrating replays over several days to beat the mission, and when I finally did beat it, I ended up dying about ten seconds before actually winning.

I remember that I slumped back in my chair thinking I had come so close to destroying the last reactor.  The death window popped up and I steeled myself for another try, when all of a sudden the reactor exploded and the game switched to the cutscene.  It turned out that one of my wingmen managed to do the last little bit of damage to the reactor... and the end-campaign sexp is not affected by the death pop-up.   It was funny to realize that it is therefore possible to beat both the FS1 and FS2 campaigns despite dying in the last mission.

I don't remember whether I've played the FSPort version of the FS1 campaign on Insane, but I imagine that it would be somewhat easier due to the upgraded AI and missile behavior in the retail FS2 engine.

[wardog300k]

I managed to beat entire FS1 on insane difficulty,it wasn't too hard.The hardest one was,most likely one with Beta Aquilae comm terminal,i kept screwing up.While attacking bombers,fighters took down my wingman and then charged onto the Faustus,and it didn't take them long to make some cruiser debris.

[potterman28wxcv]

I managed to beat entire FS1 on insane difficulty,it wasn't too hard.The hardest one was,most likely one with Beta Aquilae comm terminal,i kept screwing up.While attacking bombers,fighters took down my wingman and then charged onto the Faustus,and it didn't take them long to make some cruiser debris.

"Protect my target" is clearly not a good idea on such missions. I just C-3-9 and kill the bombers myself.
Otherwise, they don't kill the bombers fast enough (they do not really intercept them ; they attack them only when they are already quite close. And when they do, either they prioritize the bombers and get shot by the fighters, either they prioritize the fighters and the bombers land their bombs)

I don't remember whether I've played the FSPort version of the FS1 campaign on Insane, but I imagine that it would be somewhat easier due to the upgraded AI and missile behavior in the retail FS2 engine.

I was too young when playing retail FS1 to remember how hard it was. I think I tried Insane on the first mission, realized that this Anubis ship could actually damage my subsystems, and then went back to medium. You don't really think of clever avoidance moves when you're 8

But if the AI is better, I think it might be situational whether it is easier or harder. If you're the only guy left on a mission, then an improved AI will make things harder for you.

[potterman28wxcv]

I finally managed to beat this ! I did it the most trolling way possible.

I took a Valkyrie, and I ordered my wingmen to stand gently near the Bastion while I was just heading towards the node. This ensured that 100% of my mates were alive and healthy 

Well, OK, there's this part when I arrived too early at the node, and I had to wait for the Bastion to launch the last wing before I enter it. I just continued circling the node, then going in the opposite direction I should go. Once the last wing was launched, I had to turn (to actually go into the node this time), avoid 3 Manticore (they were chasing me from the beginning. Poor folks, they didn't even landed a shot at me), and this is it, I was into the node. No flailing vasudans, as I didn't kill the first Manticores.

Once into subspace, upon approaching the Lucifer, I chained C-3-7 followed by C-3-9 when around 2500 meters from the enemy wing. Insta kill everytime 

I continued my C-3-7 C-3-9 routine (well, C-3-8 when i was beneath the Lucifer because it gave my fighters more space to maneuver the turrets), until we arrived near the Lucifer weapon's subsystem. C-3-4 was appropriate there.

I couldn't afford to stop at each new wave of fighters, so I C-3-4ed until there was no weapon subsystem. It took me maybe 3 or 4 ships lost.

Afterwards, it was a real piece of cake. C-3-9 all the time to kill the fighters before they even dare touch the bombers, and C-3-3 to disarm even more the Lucifer when there's no fighter around.

I maybe had 4 or 5 kills in this mission, and that's pretty much all. Being a Valkyrie, I didn't have enough firepower to do things myself. But at least I had a full squadron 

EDIT : Trying Operation Templar. Now this is something impossible on Insane.