If you saved before you left manhattan, go back to that save. When the liberty navy tries to take you on, don't engage immediately, run around a little and try to escape their fire. Don't use your shield batteries/nanobots until you're within an inch of your life. I think the key to a lot of the storyline missions is to make sure you have a plentiful supply of batteries.

I remember finding that mission quite hard too, but the key is learning how to fly evasively as well as aggressively....this is a skill you will need a great deal in the future.

Don't give up though, its early days for you yet, the game just gets better and better from here!

Moved to Spoilers.

Perhaps my combat needs more practice. What are the best techniques? Ive tried turret and I suck at it. Currently this is my main approach:

When enemy arrive I go to auto mouse move. I Then speed into range and try to keep 100m or so by reversing when he comes at me and accelerating as I turn when he flies past. This way I usually end up right on his ass. If he has friends I drop mines and countermeasures (if needed). One of my guns is stunplus and so his shield usually isnt an issue at this point and I finish em off pretty quickly.

Ive tried using reverse view and turret weapons to finish off ships that fly by or ships that are behind me but it hasnt worked.

One trick that has worked is to have reverse vies as one of the mouse buttons and if I have someone on my tail I switch to reviers, hit reverse thrusters and let him shoot past.

Most missions are too easy. But the story ones are greasing me. Perhaps im in the wrong ship? Im in the defender heavy fighter.

Yes, you definitely need more combat practice. You can 'win' mission 4 simply by being there and surviving because it is not required that you take out any enemy fighters or other targets. That is why this mission can be flown without problems in any ship whatsoever, even Starflier or Rhino with class 1 shield and 0/0 nanos/batts. The only required skills are evading enemy fire and fast docking with trade lanes, which are two of the most basic skills.

I don't have the time to write a 'Basic Combat 101' lesson into this post, so look around a bit in this forum and also on Microsoft's Freelancer website (linked from the Reactor home page) which has a nice combat techniques overview called 'Sybex Strategy Guide' or something like that.

One effective way of learning how to dodge is to take a Starflier or Patriot into the Silverton Asteroid Field in Colorado and to tangle with the Xenos there until you got to the point where you don't consume nanos/batts faster than you can loot them back, on average. It does not matter whether you patrol the field or besiege the Xeno base, there should be plenty of enemy patrols in any case. I recommend a class 2 shield for the Starflier, though, because it cannot dodge as well as the Patriot can. Other good spots are the area around Buffalo Base and the Texas Jumphole in the New York badlands, the Cortez Jumphole in California, perhaps also Alcatraz Depot in the same system. Elsewhere in Liberty the enemies are simply too weak to provide good training.

Replayed mission, managed to get to outpost with 9nano and 4 shield. Played that part 3 or 4 times and managed to survive the last time by running in circles with thrusters on max until I could escape. FInally get through to the other sector and bounty hunters were on us. I had 2 nano and 0 shield left.

I almost quit right there. Managed to survive by running in circles until the cavalry arrived and survived with about 2% left on the ship hull and no shield.

Many more missions like that and im finished with the game. Wasting several hours playing the same thing over and over and over is the first sign of a bad game.

Its like thos games that dont have saves mid way through mission and so you have to go back to the beginning and .... oh wait ....

@morgan don't give up on it, its easy once you learn how to survive, get lots of practice inbetween story missions - don't trade for now, run missions until you find them easy. Oh and by the way, the game does autosave during some of the larger missions which most people find very useful.

@ff sorry, I wasn't sure if I was saying too much or not, hence why I tried to give combat tips rather than "this is how you do it" walkthroughs. Won't do it again

The problem is I find the other missions way too easy. And its boring doing so many, when all you get is cash and you cant spend it on anything because your level is locked.

Ill keep trying I guess. Ill checkout that guide.

Keep trying!

I tried for 50+ hours... and finally managed to get it! If had my savegames left, you could have one but... my computer crashed and all my saves are deleted .

Keep trying, and don't give up. You will get it!

I agree, the random missions that you can get in singleplayer mode are often too easy and so they do not give you much incentive to improve your skills, try & develop new tactics, and so on. In multiplayer mode the mission difficulty is more varied and so you can pick the missions that provide the best balance between profit and challenge. Given that you can get excellent fighters like Starflier, Patriot, Dagger and Defender while still in Liberty they should offer missions up to difficulty 20 or thereabouts ...

I think the best missions in Liberty are out of Willard and perhaps San Diego.

However, you could always set yourself a mini-mission like 'buy Mule, equip it decently, and then trade engine components from Cortez Jumphole to Los Angeles', for example. This side quest requires you to fix your rep with the Liberty Rogues temporarily (until you have the Mule) which is a mini-mission in itself. Or you could try the Rhino instead but it is weaker than the Mule and so it is a bit more challenging to prey on pirates in this ship.

Ya, that mission was hard when I first did it. I just went into cruse and went in circles, people hardly hit you that way.

Life: No one gets out alive.

One thing which takes a bit of practice, but almost always helps you evade fire- thrust, then engine kill. Just leave your engine off, using the thruster only to change direction and speed. The AI's will not hit you as often, so you will survive a lot longer. The only major problem is that you must know where you're going, because in some of the missions it can be all too easy to accidentally smack into a planet going backwards. Other than that, tap your thruster rather than holding it down- it will take longer to run out of charge if you aren't using it constantly.

This probably goes without saying, but make sure your ship is as good as it can possibly be before accepting a story mission. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to buy the best ship, but why not equip it with the best shields, thruster, and weaponry available? Of particular importance are the thruster and countermeasures- the second best of each is available in the New York system before you even leave Liberty(more specifically, at the Junker Rochester base in the Jersey debris field)!

----------------------------------------
"Although I do not consider myself a member of the Bounty Hunters' Guild, I find that their goals and mine often follow the same path. I will aid them when I can...if they give me a percentage of the salvage from whatever they frag along the way. Hell, they were even so kind as to sell me a ship after one of my jobs with them, and I've been flying her ever since. But god help them if someone puts a bounty on THEIR heads, for I don't care who I hunt for, as long as their live capture(or untimely death) can get me enough credits to buy a decent sized mug of my favorite drink."- A Freelance Bounty Hunter.

Ok started practicing already. Got a much more agile ship after that mission anyway. A few things ive found:

1) I find it easier to dodge objects whilst shooting in the outside view rather than in-cockpit view.

2) Setting hotkeys for CRUISE, GOTO, DOCK and NEXT TARGET seriously help in escaping whilst having MOUSE LOOK on Ive been practicing running in circles and strafing whilst targetting a jump point, activating cruise and then docking when im almost inside the green light ring.

3) Engine off seems useful, but hard to master. I keep instinctively pressing the up and down keys immediately after. Bad habits

4) One technique that works is instead of doggedly following one target, I use a mouse button set for rear view to glance behind me when i recieve damage, i then hit reverse thrusters and target nearest whilst strafing sideways. So far ive had 90% success in getting the bugger dead center. My original target is usually 1k away at this point and certainly not on my ass.

Im now doing difficulty 8 missions in my sleep. Im even playing just to get my skills up for the next story mission. i.e. sometimes i dont fire a shot for a few mins, or ill go into debris fields and just play hide and seek. Or my favourite is now rodeo I try to get on the enemies back and see how long I can stay there without him shaking me off. I usually do this last enemy in a pack.

Perhaps when i finally feel up to the next real story mission I may not be as frustrated

Um,

Am I the only person here who thinks the game was TOO easy? I mean, I whipped through the game in 10 hours and then found myself searching for the Difficulty Meter. I pick up games fast, so maybe thats why. My advice for that mission is simple.

1)Always stock up on Nanos and Batteries. Flying low may be easy on your money, but it's not as good as being dead.
2)Stay moving, you can't hit what is zooming around.
3)Don't fight unless Juni barkes "Engage".



PunkZombie,
He hates EA,
He hates WestWood's choice to join EA,
EA can burn in F^&^#*! Hell for all I care.
I will be waiting for the game "Who Wants To Beat Up A EA Employee".

PunkZombie, 10 hours for the first run through the campaign is about par for the course (if you rush instead of exploring, trying things, and generally enjoying the game - there is only one first time and if you waste it by rushing then you irrevocably deprive yourself of a lot of fun).

However, if you're up for a challenge then you might find something to your liking in the thread Life after level 38 - campaign fun overview. In particular, we're still looking for people who can challenge T-Hawk or me in any of the FLDQ modes, especially T-Hawk's $1 million challenge (aka 'Good-bye million credits'). I think the latter can just barely be done in less than 4:15 hours but for lack of challengers I have not tried this yet.

Also, it seems that so far nobody is on record for beating the game in a Mule, Clydesdale or Piranha, although several people have indicated their intention of doing those ships ...

P.S.: Hey MorganB, if you continue in this vein then you are in danger of finding mission 4 rather boring the next time you try it - unless you try maximize your kill stats during the mission and perhaps even bag the odd battleship kill or two, of course.

Edited by - Sherlog on 17-09-2003 00:56:28