All I can say is that you have to keep moving. Make strafing runs at the generators, and whatever you do, don't stay still for a moment . Otherwise, you'll be reduced to a charred mass of twisted alloy in a matter of seconds.

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Get yourself under the arch, between it and the asteriod, facing up from the bottom. If you position yourself corretctly, you should only have the deal with the occasional turret shot and if any fighters come your way, which they probably won't, dive down deeper into the hole beneath you, then come back up. This tactic worked a treat for me.

Nil Illegitimi Carborundum

Your weapon loadout is a bit problematic - it contains guns with very different projectile speeds and this makes targetting difficult. Also, you have only low-level weapons that cannot really put hurt on an enemy; the powerplant of the Barracuda can support bigger guns that will let you have more fun blasting your targets.

The Tanto guns are mediocre (if not worse) and while the Lavablades are basically okay - they are energy-efficienct and have a bonus against the graviton shields of Tekagi's forces - they are still a bit on the weak side for this late in the campaign.

I just flew missions 8 through 10 in a Barraduda with 4 x Lavablade Mk III and 2 x Magma Hammer Mk I, and the guns were adequate for the job. But there was a specific reason why I was using these low-level guns instead of the many decent or even excellent class 5/6 weapons that are available: I wanted to beat the campaign as fast as possible, without freelancing and without losing time by making detours to buy decent weaponry. I bought the class 5/6 Reapers when they became available a bit later; they were very satisfactory despite their somewhat mediocre stats and it was certainly fun to use them - I wish I had used Reapers instead of the bl**dy Death's Hand kit during mission 11 (JFTR: post-campaign savegame shows total time played just shy of 5:52 h ).

So I would recommend that you go back to an earlier savegame - Kyushu will do nicely. Then do two things: get stinking rich (around a quarter of a million but at the very least $100,000 credits; Juni will wait forever if need be) and get some decent guns for your Barracuda. Even the standard issue class 5 Scrambler or Sunfury guns will give you a much more satisfactory experience than your current loadout. If mission 9 gives you still problems after that, then buy the class 6 graviton shield at Kyoto before the mission. Advanced Thruster and Advanced Countermeasure dropper are recommended; Heavy Thruster and normal countermeasures are adequate for the job but the advanced thingies might give you a little edge.

Now specific tips.

Try to preserve a couple of nanos and batts during the initial skirmish with the patrol - you'll need them later. Afterwards, when you are cruising towards Tekagi's Arch, point your ship about halfway between the surface of the planetoid and the top of the arch. Then listen to the chatter; as soon as you hear something about incoming hostiles kill your engine. If you are lucky then the incoming enemies will not fire cruise disruptors at you. If you get a warning about incoming missiles then drop a couple of countermeasures (the disruptor missiles can disrupt a kill-engine slide). If you get disrupted then you can still try a standard thruster + engine-kill getaway. The purpose of this is to buy you a little time during which you are alone with the four shield generators and the battleship nearby.

When you are at the Arch, target the generator nearest to the battleship first. This one is the hardest to take out because you do have little or no cover, but when you arrive your shield is fully charged and you'll have less problems dealing with this generator. When you work on the other gennies, try to put the shield sphere between you and the battleship; if the battleship doesn't see you it won't fire guns and missiles at you. Also, if you hear a warning about incoming missiles then do not ignore it; if you are flying at normal or thruster speed then you can drop a flare but if not then you have to get moving. When you fly a pass at a gennie, watch your rear while you are firing guns and torps; if there are no enemy fighters firing at you and no incoming missiles then you can backpedal a bit with the 'X' key while the good opportunity lasts. This way you have to fly fewer passes.

Last but not least, once you have dispatched the gennies do not dock with the Arch unless your shield has at least half charge, especially if your hull has taken damage that you cannot repair for want of nanos. There are high-powered missiles flying about that can take out an unshielded Barracuda in one or two hits. So, if your shields are low then fly a wavy evasive pattern until the shields have recharged a bit (do this also while you are working on the gennies - if your shields fail then break off and let them recharge). When you are ready to dock, select the Arch and fly close to the docking bay before issuing the Dock command. The docking bay is on the upper side of the Arch but it is not in the center.

I beat tegaki's arch with a crusader, loaded with 2 skyrails, 1 adv. skyrail, 1 ripper, 1 adv. ripper, 30 slingshots, 25 torps, 10 nb's and sb's, and 50 adv. countermeasures. I never had to use evasive manuevers. I destroyed all the gennies after making 2 bombing runs around the damn thing.

This made the mission easy.

Mission 12 is the mission that is really hard. I thought it was all over, then a stupid nomad fleet destroyed me outside the jump hole.

Edited by - Blah2000 on 06-07-2003 01:08:03

Blah. I beat the mission in a Starflier with 2 x Scorpion plus 1 x Adv. Scorpion and used fewer nanos than you. So what's the point of your post, how is it supposed to help cacbawh or other people? The easiest ship for beating this mission is the Drake, the second easiest is the Barracuda; the Bretonian guns are adequate but there are plenty better choices (and also plenty worse ones ), and many people will get better results avoiding loadouts with mixed projectile speed.

BTW, mission 12 is not the toughest of the lot and to me it seemed to be one of the most fair, even the skirmish at the jumpgate; if you get low on shield batteries then you can easily replenish them by shooting the Nomad Interceptors which drop batteries pretty reliably.

thanx guys ive now completed that mission and the game because of your help!

beware of the leopard
bill gates is watching you

Hi

Im on this mission as well using a barracuda with 6 skyrails plus torpedos and mines and missiles and i keep getting killed by the damn patrol b4 i even get near the damn arch

Help would be appreciated

One of the safest places in the battle is directly above the Kusari battleship. None of the battleship's turrets can hit you there, and the ship's bulk will guard you from most of the smaller enemy ships. Whenever the fighting gets too hot for you, you can use that as a safe spot to let your shields and gun energy recharge.

Reaper: $200,000,000.
Rockets: $100,000
The look on that pilot's face when you launch a full pod of screamers up his tailpipe: priceless

Lt. Murdoch, thanks very much for confirming my tactical choice. I flew from the bottom of the base and then made a series of torpedo and missile runs at the generators, keeping the arch between me and the outlying ships. All I had to fend off were some weak turrets. Each time I scored some hits, I turned around and fled back down the cynlindrical opening just enough to evade fire and then again made a run and took out another generator.

However, now I am truly having a problem tactically speaking. On mission 11 I am to take out that blasted satellite. There is no cover and the platforms are killing me -- or the fighters are, or both. I have destroyed the satelitte several times using different approaches, but each time at an excessive cost in shield batteries and nanobots. I haven't enough defense left to take on the fighters afterwards.

I took two variant approaches to this mission: first with the Barracuda, which is fairly maneuverable. But it is no match for the incoming missile fire.

Then I "went back" to Osiris and took the Order up on its bargains: I bought an Anubis and had enough cash to max out my torpedos. I've got mostly those rapid fire Order guns (the 8.33s) because they are so valuable in taking on ships.

The Anubis flies poorly, despite the Order thruster. But the better flying Barracuda similarly equipped did no better -- there is just no cover and you must be fairly close for the slow torps to be effective.

How did you get past mission 11?

I suppose I erred in coming too soon each time Juni called and not exploring on my own enough to find a ship more advanced than the Anubis or the Barracuda. So far I don't much like the heavy fighters.

I really liked the 17K light fighter I got on Leeds, though. Great fun ship to ship. But much too light for these missions against protected fortifications and heavy armor, etc.

Not very realistic, I must say. Even today, flying an F-18 I could take out just about anything you like from a very great distance away using all sorts of interesting high-speed smart missiles. The missiles in this game are simple not even as good as our present technology.

They should have left out much of the static target missions in favor of ship to ship action where missiles are not as sporting. I prefer to take on all comers using guns alone -- much more fun.

Take out the fighters first and try to stay away from the weaponplatforms. Be advised... the enemies have nomad weapons mounted, so try to avoid their fire when you're low on your shield and take your time to let it recharge.

Next take out the weaponplatforms. that shouldn't be to dificult.

After that the scanner/sensor/thingy is defensless and you take it down.

I did it with an Anubis and Death's Hands several times.

The trick is not to take them on head on.

Edited by - Nickless on 08-10-2003 15:32:55

Damn your tactics!!!
no need for tactics anyway just keep firing!

come on guys the missions in FL are a joke, they are so easy.......Kids game, huh??
try the TNG1.6 mod and check out the missions now.....thats more like it...especially when you hit that Rheinland(<--german spelling!!) Fleet

Take it easy, not everyone is as skilled at this as you are. In my opinion the missions were hard the first time I tried and got easier as I replayed the game 3 or 4 times.
It's probably this guy's first time he playes the game, so let him try, fail and try again until he makes it.

everything is difficult the first time...

Playing computer games is something I used to do more than I do now. I got quite good at games where real aircraft were simulated. I used a joystick that was as close to the real thing as I could buy. FLying using a mouse and a bunch of keys is not really like flying at all -- so just moving my hand and firing all the time is, you will pardon me for saying so, just a bit boring. This game has the attraction of being able to move about a fully formed virtual universe that has some interesting features. One is tempted to do without the cartoon story line altogether, but I haven't figured out how I can be "eligible" to buy what I want unless I complete these silly "missions."

I'd really like a game, like this one, with all these complicated inter-relationships but WITHOUT a story line at all -- just me and a ship to start and let the "game" be about my own ability to use strategy and tactics to get what I want.

Sorry, old man, but when you fly about with weapons in the real world the subject of tactics is rather a good one about which to know something. I didn't know there was a faction among Freelancer players who style themselves as Mugwumps . . .

hehe, I'm not quite sure I understand the "ambiance" of your post, but I can say, practice makes skill...

When you're done with the story line, try some mods. some will make the game "harder", like letting NPC's actually regenerate their shields.

There is also a mod (a few actually) wich delete the storyline missions and yes, you have to follow them to advance...But after the story, the game isn't over.
You can play along as much as you like. trying out all sorts of ships and their different handeling and loadouts.

A lot of systems need to be explored and a lot of secrets need to be discouvered after the storyline missions.

Again mods come in handy as most add new ships and weapons to the game. Even complete systems and factions.

Edit: what are Mugwumps?

Edited by - Nickless on 09-10-2003 00:23:05