Fly away from them. I don't think they pack cruise disruptors, so in the time before they start shooting, hit Shift-W and get your cruise engine running. The computer ships can't hit a target moving at 300. Just fly around for a few minutes, and soon you'll find out that this fight isn't so hard after all.

Running is probably the best way to get past this part. If you start blowing them up before they turn hostile, make sure you hit the "B" key and tractor in any nanos or shield bats they might drop. It could make the difference between death or survival.

i destroyed about 3 fighters before they all r hostile in a defender, about 1 or 2 u can kill in a patriot...

if u can't fight anymore just go to cruisespeed and turn a lot around them...

Thanks everyone!

It was late last night (for me), so I wasn't even thinking to run. Makes sense though. I'll make sure and blow a couple of them up just for revenge before I rocket out of there though.

-E

DragonBreath, I think you have confused ships here. It is easier to get all eight Piranhas with the Patriot than with any other ship, including the Defender. Even in a Dagger or Bloodhound you can easily lose one or two to the Lane Hackers, the more so in the sluggish Defender. The Defender can hit harder than the other fighters but it has more trouble hitting anything, IYKWIM.

The Piranhas carry cruiser disruptors and they do use them. Still, you can get past this skirmish without firing a single shot if you are so inclined - just fly a wavy pattern at afterburn speed and try to get to the edge of the battle rather than parking your ship right in the center. You'll have to dodge a little more before the Lane Hackers arrive but that is just a few seconds. Have your countermeasure flares ready, especially when your shields are down.

Okay, this is getting rediculous.

I can't get my booster to work (the icon is only being lit up every once in awhile). As soon as I see that I have available boost and I try to click on it, I can't. By that time I've been completely obliterated.

I can do away with about three ships before they start to attack, but that's it. Any other ideas. I'm losing my patience with this game.

Thanks again for the help folks,

-E

Another update...

I finally was able to flee the battle. Unfortunately, I failed the mission because I'm supposed to stay and fight the Bounty Hunters. What!!?? There's no way in the world I'm gonna beat these guys. Period.

I'm so freakin' frustrated with this game it's driving me crazy.

Help!

-E

a few missiles can help
if your using all guns try mounting a launcher
it will help i reckon, it was what i used a lot in sp
just a bit extra fire power and you can dodge while the missiles home

Okay if you must know how to make it easier....

This deals with editing a file in the my documents/my games/freelancer/ folder.

In that folder, open the file named prefoptions.ini with a text editor, wordpad.


Scroll down untill you fiind this line.

change whatever number is there to 0.00 for invinciblity.

0.50= 50% of enemy fire hurts you
1.00= 100% of enemy fire hurts you
2.00= 200% of enemy fire hurts you

EDIT: lol that was fun. Just seeing if I could put it in terms that my mom could understand. I hope it dosn't hurt those 56kers.
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Edited by - Xenocideforme on 13-08-2003 05:53:16

Edited by - Xenocideforme on 13-08-2003 05:55:34

Once again, thanks y'all.

I'll give it another crack tomorrow.

-E

Do not click any icons while in combat, ever. There are shortcut keys for everything important, only "Free Flight" is missing (for getting out of "Go To" or "Formation" modes) but you can easily bind a key for that yourself, or a combo like SHIFT+SPACE. Use mouse flight during combat, not the click-and-die style of manoeuvring that is called 'Free Flight' (this name is a bit misleading, I think).

If you do not use the keyboard shortcuts then you are fighting a losing battle in the long run. In order to click those icons you basically have to stop steering and shooting, this makes you vulnerable.

As regards thrusters: the standard thrusters run out of juice rather quickly, compared to the 'Heavy' version that you can buy on Station Willard (California) and a few other places. You can get around this problem by applying thrusters only intermittently, so that they can recharge a little between uses. Some people swear on engine kill for this but it takes a bit of getting used to. On the other hand, engine kill is by no means necessary - I never use it in dogfights and I have beaten the game in ships like Starflier, Patriot and Bloodhound. Only some advanced techniques for heavy fighters against AI (NPC ships) require engine kill during dogfights, otherwise it comes down to preference - you can be as successful with it as without.

Also, unless you are flying a Patriot you have to dodge a bit during the scene (the Patriot does enough dodging if you try to stay on the six of an enemy). A single Piranha does not hit very hard but three or four of them can incinerate your ship quickly.

P.S.: Xeno, could you make the folder picture a bit smaller, please? It plays havoc with the layout engine of the forum, and your image could easily be as expressive if it were only 600 pixels wide or less. As it is it makes the text in this thread hard to read.

Edited by - Sherlog on 13-08-2003 13:09:56

There is a key for free flight, it's esc

And I don't know how you were trying to use thrusters if you were clicking, hit the tab key.

Using a startracker instead of a defender will make it easier, because you can dodge better. It also has more armor.

Don't completely fly away from battle, just fly around the fringe.

Is that a pocket of volatile gas?
No, that's a jumphole...

hows that?

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What got me throught that mission was the weapons that I got off of killing the outcasts in the mission escorting the two transports full of artifacts.In which,the daggers just happened to drop 3 Lv.4 tachyon weapons coupled with two drails made,lv. 3 gravitron & heavy thruster made it pretty easy in fact since BH use molecular based shields with positron based weaponry.