your main problem is probably the massive capital ship parked next to the arch. taking that one out will save you allot of trouble

I'm actually wondering how you managed to get as far as you did in the starflier...
Musta taken a hell of a lot of patience...

Ah yes, Tekagi's Arch. Best adrenaline rush in the Starflier campaign.

I have posted a number of tips in the thread tekagi's arch, so I won't repeat them here. The stuff about shields and missiles is especially important for the Starflier - one hit with shields down means fireball (and being down is a pretty normal state for a class 3 shield in that environment ).

Here is how I learned about the relation between Starfliers, low shields, missiles and docking:



But having gotten that far during my first attempt I knew it must be possible, and so I tried again. And again. And again.

For shooting the gennies I used two different approaches (depending on the number of enemy fighters in the vicinity). The first was to throttle the engine to near zero speed and then tap the thrusters lightly every half second or so; this made enemy gun fire from far away hit the spot I wasn't in anymore but gave me plenty of time to plinker away at the genny with my pea shooters and homing mines. These mines work pretty much like torpedos or missiles when you are near enough to the target. Here is a screenie that I made for my brother (mission 12 but same principle):



The second approach was to fly a strafing pass at normal speed and to use the X key (brake and reverse) to extend the time of shooting at the target whenever there was a lull in enemy fire; the advantage was that I did not have to crank up the engine to achieve the normal afterburner speed of 200 m/s during evasive manoeuvres (this is easy to forget but if you afterburn at 120 m/s you will get toasted).

I got it! Thanks to several of your suggestions and a bit of luck.

When someone in the "Light or heavy fighters" thread suggested Ripper mines, the latest Starflier save that I had that could go get them was at Kyushu, meaning I had to do the Tekagi's Transport mission again. Having to kill those Weapons Platforms again (remember that's the one ya gotta do fast or you fail) made me realize again that the fastest way to deliver damage is keep your guns trained on the target and shooting; don't muck around with strafe passes or mines when you don't have to. But when the powerplant and shields run down, get away with a thruster engine kill and let them recharge.

I also had to re-do the freelancing period at Kyoto. Flying random missions, I happened to get both wings shot off. Thanks to your suggestion I left them unrepaired, and it did make a noticeable amount of damage I took in dogfights, especially the Tekagi patrol before the arch.

I won the Arch mission on my third try this time.

Someone else in the other thread mentioned to pay attention to the Kusari battleship - an excellent point. As soon as possible, I flew right up to each of the two generators on the opposite side from it, parked (using reverse and thrusters to move around slightly), and unloaded the Scorpions and Drillers into them, and they went down easily.

The two generators nearer the battleship were harder - and by then most of the Dragon ships were down and the entire enemy fleet was shooting me and Ozu. I couldn't sit still now; had to keep flying gun runs punctuated by a couple Driller mines as I passed the generator, then engine kill, turn, and repeat. The most important of your suggestions here was to use missile countermeasures liberally and often. I banged on the C key two or three times whenever the incoming-missile sound came, or if I was drifting backwards at the time, shot down the missile. Only got hit by about 5 missiles during that sequence, and most of them hit a just-restored shield, taking it out again but because they hit the last bit of my shield delivering much less than advertised damage.

Made it into the arch with 5 nanobots to spare.

Then in mission 10, thanks to the Driller mines, I scored a battleship kill in the Sigma-13 fleet battle. In the battle outside Bruchsal, I actually died once due to carelessness (one enemy ship left and I whacked myself with my own mine.)

The experimental battleship was much easier than I expected. Just kept flying back and forth along the length of the target, shooting it on the way in until the powerplant ran down, then dropping 4-5 Drillers along the length of the battleship. The minefield on the way out had me much more nervous than the earlier part, with finger poised over the shield battery button the whole time.

I'll try Mission 11 tomorrow; this one will be a doozy too, although during most of the fights you can pretty much circle around and let your allies take out the targets.

Ok, I'll let the pictures tell the story:







Actually, that second one could use a bit of explanation. I found a ridiculously easy way to kill the power generators on the very last space station. Just fly around in circles in the crack and drop mines as fast as you can. They all hit instantly, and plus any enemy fighters and even weapon platforms around you are hitting the power generator as well. Those generators took about 25-30 seconds each to blow up.



And you can see the "Find A Job" text on the info screen with the Starflier.

Congratulations! But you forgot to put the wings back on for the final run.

Nice screenies and nice tips. At the last set of gennies I used a similar tactic - I flew along the surface pelting it with guns and mines, but the rest of Alpha wing and the Nomads with their powerful guns did probably most of the damage.

I had considered using Slingshots, too, but a full load of ammo represents just 37k of damage and this is not very much compared to the hitpoints of all the gennies. I thought having 3 guns would make it easier to shoot Nomads in order to replenish shield batteries and so I tried the all-guns loadout first (no danger of running out of ammo at an inopportune time).

Did you find the last two missions easier or harder than during your first run through the campaign?

Naw, I left the wings off on purpose, both to have the ship be a smaller target and to get my own distinctive screenshot to prove I didn't copy yours.

Slingshots didn't matter for the last section, but they were pretty helpful against the shield generators in mission 12 (against the time limit - got the 2-minute warning while in the jumphole on the way out) and the first set of gennies in mission 13 (before the barrier). The Starflier's power plant can't even sustain two Scorpions indefinitely, so its long-term damage output is the same with two guns or three. I wasn't interested in attempting Nomad ships for extra shield batteries - seemed like a losing proposition with regards to total damage.

Mission 12 was easier in the Starflier than in my first time through the campaign, since I knew where to go, and the Driller mines made the gennies easy enough. The first set of gennies in 13 was harder (took a lot of damage and had to fly away to recharge several times), but the last section was cake with that mine tactic.

Now where do I go from here... maybe I'll try the campaign in a Rhino? Starflier-level shielding, powerplant, and guns, though it has more of the latter, but it turns like a boat. I've done missions 2-5 in a Rhino before, before changing to a Dromedary that went the rest of the way.

--

Holy **** dude, you actually did it, you should get like an award for that

The sig is a nice idea, like a badge of honour.

As regards the Rhino - if it is possible at all then it will be very, very hard. The reason it was so easy with the Starflier (excepting missions 8 and 9 where there are so many powerful missiles flying about) is that it is the second-most manoeuvrable ship in the game. Even the Dagger seemed more difficult to me, despite its class 4 shield.

Speaking of difficulty - did you notice the empty outer defense perimeter at the Barrier? I'd like to get my hands on a copy of the original game, before it was watered down by Micro$oft marketing droids ...

One thing that might interest you is trying to do the campaign as fast as possible. This will bring a different set of constraints because funds will be slim and you have to make do with equipment that you can get along the path of the campaign. There you can have fun while doing the planning and then while executing the plan.

And lets not forget the Rebalance mod ... I'll load it real soon now. But first I have to learn how to fly a heavy fighter in the unmodded game, because I found my skills a bit wanting in that regard during the HF path of the maximum-fun campaign.

that's great...
in fact, i just gave up when fighting in takegi's Arch in a starflier in 2 Lavablade MKII and 1 Slingshot missile and also Tedpole Mine....
getting killed everytime when i am about to succeed...

Pylon - Sherlog's done it too, and before me, and if it wasn't for him having done it I'd've given up.

One thing that might interest you is trying to do the campaign as fast as possible.

BTDT. Not strictly going for it as fast as possible on the clock, since I'm incapable of leaving a base without poking around all the corners of the equipment dealer and the bar. But I've done it while spending zero time on the freelance parts, always going directly between missions, and just getting whatever equipment was available. Did the campaign in about 7:30 that way.

Rebalance mod - bleh, my idea of balance in the FL universe definitely does not involve Star Wars ships...

Flying HFs involves two simple rules. If the enemies are in front of you, shoot a torpedo. If the enemies are behind you, engine kill and turn. It's all about the torpedoes.

I'm definitely going to try it in a Rhino next. Should be quite interesting to manage that ship's setup, since it can fire forward with six class-3 slots but has a powerplant barely better than the Starflier's. Already thinking about its loadout; it can easily spare one slot for Slingshot missiles all the time. Paired with some Stunpulse action in the turret slots, it might even be able to hold its own in fighting enemy ships on the two Tekagi missions.

Too bad there aren't any really good class-3 turret options (if only the Pyros turret was one class lower...) The Rhino looks to be all about power efficiency; only the Lavablade Mk2 turret has any better than 3.5 (and it's an excellent 4.. But matching that up with guns is problematic; only Lavablade guns have the same projectile speed, and that rules out any pulse weapons. I guess it's either all-Lavablade all-the-time, or a combo of Scorpion guns and Stunpulse turrets. Probably best to use the latter during the early missions especially when pulse/Slingshot can score easy kills, then swap over to the Lavablades starting at mission 8.

If only the Sweeper EMP missile was class-3 instead of 4, pairing that with a Lavablade loadout would work very well. Unfortunately the only EMP missile that fits on a Rhino is the class-1 Eraser, and only 660 pulse damage won't take out the shield of anything past mission 2.

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Edited by - T-hawk on 12-07-2003 08:16:05

Edited by - T-hawk on 12-07-2003 08:23:50

Sherlog, T-hawk,

A quick question about this wingless deal.
My wife's done this with her Drake ( as if a Drake was easy to hit )
She hated the bat wings too. Does this change the manuverability or total
hull strength in any way? If anyone knows, you guys do!


"Got anything for me?" - Trent, A.K.A. 'Mr. Eloquent'

Doesn't appear to affect either maneuverability or hull armor. Of course, you can't do this in all ships, only ones that don't need the wings to mount guns on (I'm not sure if that's the case for the Drake.)

Also, AFAIK, it only affects your ship's susceptibility to armor hits. If your shield is not down, it still has the same spherical-ish profile. Many times during the Starflier campaign I saw my shield instantly deplete but then little damage hitting the hull and many shots flying past my ship.

I concur with regard to manoeuvrability and hull armour, I could notice no negative effect whatsoever. As regards the shield, before the wings were gone I noticed shield depletion from hits on the wings, but afterwards I did not notice shield depletion from hits where the wings would have been. But my attention was focused mostly on all the Nomads buzzing around, so this observation (or lack thereof) does not count for much.

The Drake can easily afford to lose its wings, as can the Dragon. I am not sure about the Hawk - I have flown it only briefly since the Drake is so much better.

There were only two occasions where I lost the wings of my Drake (excepting a fireball in hostile Omicron Alpha, after slaying 15 Sabres). The first time was when I jumped into Omega-41 and caught a stray shot because my friends the Corsairs were trading shots with my friends the Bounty Hunters. The second time was when I went to Omicron Theta during the LF path of maximum-fun campaign (in order to loot the wrecks ) and had to wade through more than two dozen Hammerheads while clad only in a class 5 shield. The Drake is really amazing; the only ship that is even more amazing is the Patriot. Pity that neither can mount a torpedo launcher.