I'll make this a freebie

Mission 3 I thought was pretty hard (4 and 5 were IMO easier). The key is not to get hit (obviously)

Things to do at the various waypoints:

1.During the transport run, once you come up to waypoint 2, the transport will hit a mine and drop out of cruise speed. Once this happens, immediately do the same and you should be about 2K back of the rest, meaning you won't be in the middle of enemy fire once they arrive on the spot. Try to stay out of it at least until the reinforcements arrive, and fly in an evasive way, minimizing the risk to get hit. A good way to do this is to use the afterburners, to give repeated short bursts, so that your ship will never have constant speed, and becomes much harder to hit ( This technique is vital to survive when the odds are against you, which happens rather often to say the least). Sharp turns and side- strafing should helpas well, as will the occassional mine thrown at the fighter on your tail. Of course also use countermeasures to evade missiles.

2. Once you get to Willard, dock, and obviously replenish your shield batteries/nanobots, since you will need them. On your way from Willard, you will encounter a small group of Rheinland Valkyries. Using the afforementioned techniques, you should be able to destroy them.

3. You will receive a distress caal from Willard, who mention they are under heavy Rheinland attack. Fly back (together with Walker) to save the station. This will be a very large battle, including several gunboats. Again make sure you don't get hit a lot, while picking off fighters when you have the opportunity. The first thing you should go for is the Gunboat. If you use enough evasive maneuvres, it will have a very hard time hitting you, since it can't maneuvre as quickly as you can. Then 3 torpedo bombers will jump in, and it is a good idea to finish them first before they blow up Willard. Finish of the remains and land again.

Good tactics, if you are sure your wingmen can handle the fight you can also engage your cruise engines and do loops around the transports, at 300 they can't catch you, and have a very difficult time getting any weapons fire on you. Down side is that you cannot fir eyour weapons. But you will live. At least till they get cruise disruptors later on.

Professor,

Being an English major myself when I was in college, I can sympathize. Here is another tip that might help.

The weapons that you use are of utmost importance. My friend, Mr. 4, found out that plasma-based weapons wreak havoc in the Brettonia system, more so than other systems (he's got a Barracuda) so it's all about your guns.

Perhaps the only thing that saved me in the aforementioned fight was the fact that I carried a stunpulse cannon, mk. III. It took me little more than three to five direct hits with that cannon (and my other weapons) to wear down the shields to nothing. Or, if you have a missile launcher, then Eraser missiles will reduce their shields to nothing in one hit (make sure you launch them as they approach on a direct flyby). That extra time you save by more or less "short-circuiting" their shields helps plenty.

Hope this helps. Also, don't be afraid to burn out to the edge of combat and then fight from the outside, and then dive in again when you can handle it. And if your shields go from Rheinland firepower, just lat, burn and reverse and make yourself a hard target until your shields are restored... try to save your shield batteries.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

Judge7

Being a middle-aged Management Professor myself, I advise you spend the $16-20 for the Strategy Guide (get it at most bookstores) and consult it when you need help. Having the information about a particular mission doesn't necessarily guarantee your success - you still have to fly the mission. Just use the book when you need it and you won't spoil any surprises.

I greatly appreciate the helpful advice each of you has given, and I will give each one a try (I ordered the strategy guide from Sybex on Saturday) once I get home.

Admittedly, I have been rushing in like "The Charge of the Light Brigade" because it seems the noble, heroic thing to do, and my evasive strategies are altogether lacking, like using strafing, seeker mines, and improved countermeasures. I'm also very encouraged to take the "Red Badge of Courage" approach and ride it out on the tailfins of my squadron. All glory and no guts.

IF I survive, we should archive your collected wisdom and create an in-house guide: "Freelancer Strategies for the Galactically Challenged."

I shall report back carrying my shield or being carried on it. Thank you again.

Damn it, Juni[[! I'm a Professor, not a Pilot[[!

Sebastchen, once you finish off the SP story line, we should start up an "Aging Professors' server and all fly together in MP.

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I've read about a PerfOptions possibility, but I can't find such a file.

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just in case:
The file is somewhere in C:\My Documents\Freelancer (don't remember the exact location but if you do a search in Windows Explorer, you'll find it.)

With you being a middle-aged professor, I have a feeling you might meet a person in the near future you can really identify with

Cavok 7,

An aging professors multiplayer game would be worth televising. I didn't realize what a stir I'd cause among the halfway-to-retirement crowd, but it is fun to see how many of us are engaged in the type of gaming I only imagined when I was young. (We used to run around my neighborhood with transistor radios and flashlights for tricorders and phasers.)

However, if you wait for me to finish the single player mode, we would likely be dead professors. In fact, I already anticipate questions on Mission 04 and so forth. Freelancer is a difficult game when one has spent most of his time with turn-based strategies and sims, like Civilization II, SimCity X, Tropico, and Startopia.

Regardless, I find Freelancer compelling in terms of graphics and overall diversity of scenarios, which makes it worth the trouble.

Kudos,

Sebastchen

PS: Thank you, X-Lancer. I found it. What a well-disguised little file in a completely separate directory from program files, where the game loads. Clearly, this is a Microsoft product.

Edited by - Sebastchen on 25-03-2003 23:35:48

The best way to turn down the AI is to make a modification to the PerfOptions.ini file. In the INI file locate this line:

DIFFICULTY_SCALE = 1.00

Change the 1.00 to whatever you want. I believe it works as a damage modifier for the damage that you receive.

To decode the INI file you can download the FreeLancer INI uncompressor (command line, v1.1) from the Utilities section.

Edited by - Ketzal on 26-03-2003 21:42:56

I used a lot of missles and mines on this level. I loaded them up and as soon as the mine drops the transport I got a lock on the incomming ships. These things are insanely hard for their level, however, I used the erasures and the missles that do 700 damage. I was able to take down 2 ships after I got ahold of how they were going to fight. The rest was as stated. Missles are the name of my game.

Done and done.

I basically used Mikeys Toyz's suggestion in addition to adding a heavy thruster and stunpulse for the dodging about. It took several attempts, and if I ever truly die, I hope to use the "Load Saved Game" option to give things another go.

Frankly, I'd have never made it if I didn't keep tractoring new shield batteries, and the Rhineland Cruisers are a nightmare of dodging. Without the layover at Willard Station, I'd still be trying to complete the mission.

Thanks, all, for the helpful information, and I'll be checking back almost certainly for what seems to be a very difficult Mission 06.

Sebastchen