Poor Francis Drake

S

Sharpshooter

Rear Admiral
I noticed while playing 'Back Route To Sirius' that whether you win the episode seems to depend solely on the number of fighters you have left, not on whether you saved the Francis Drake. Does that mean the Drake isn't good enough to be of any use to the Firekka or what? :p
I first killed the fleeing Krants, destroyed the Fralthi, saved the Drake, destroyed the Ralatha, and saved the Drake again - and I still got the musing (and splash screen) for the losing path.
Then I let the Krants escape, played through the scramble mission, and went through one last mission where you have to destroy both the Ralatha and the Fralthi. The Drake, of course, got destroyed during that last mission. On the other hand, I managed to save more fighters, and got the winning path music (and splash screen).
So it would appear that saving the Drake AND winning Back Route To Sirius is *nearly* impossible. :eek:
That said, it's still a very fun path to play. And you get to fight Shok'lar in the simulator afterwards!
 
Whether you win on that path depends on how much damage the Firekka takes, actually (that is, whether any of its main components have been destroyed) - the Drake does indeed have no influence on the result. There might be some other factor involved, but I don't remember at the moment.
 
Oh. Thanks, Quarto. That explains why I got confused - after all, the Firekka is less likely to take damage if you have more fighters. :)

EDIT : Hmm. None of the Firekka's main components had been destroyed at the end of the last mission, the Drake was still alive, and I still ended up on the losing path. Odd.
 
BTW, after I got home, I checked again what the conditions are. If you're on the winning path (within the losing path :p), then you must save both of the Firekka's engines in the fourth mission (note since the Firekka doesn't have that much in the way of ship components, we usually don't transfer damage between missions). If you're on the losing path's losing path, then you have save the Firekka's engines twice - first, in the scramble mission, and then in the run for the jump point. The bridge doesn't matter, though - it's always the engines.
 
Thanks! That fourth mission is the Ralatha one, isn't it? That's pretty odd, because I'm 99% sure that the Firekka had all of its engines at the end of the mission. On the other hand, one of the Firekka's engines did get destroyed in the third mission (the Fralthi mission) because I had to 'sacrifice' one engine (the left one) in order to save the Francis Drake. However, it had all of its engines in the fourth mission - damage wasn't transferred, as you said. I guess I'll just have to try that Ralatha mission again during my next vacation (hopefully in a month). I'll let you know if it works. :)
 
Eder said:
Also, the Drake is my favorite "Firekka's Sidekick" so far, but we've got some promising little ships coming in the next episodes.
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...Including the Drake, if it manages to survive episode 3.

I think episode 4, especially its losing path, is going to be even better than the losing path of episode 3... we just have to get the damn thing going again, already :p.
 
Eder said:
It's my favorite path in the game so far...

Also, the Drake is my favorite "Firekka's Sidekick" so far, but we've got some promising little ships coming in the next episodes.
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The Episode 3 losing path would probably be my favorite if I wasn't having so much trouble beating it (torpedo count bug mentioned in a previous thread, and saving the Firekka's engines on the winning path within the losing path). I especially liked the scramble mission, it is really well done (Gothri appearing behind the Firekka... that's just evil :) ).
And you just might get to ground Spoons and talk to Sparrow about it, too. :p

That Fralthi mission on the winning path in Back Route To Sirius can be really hard - I found it to be somewhat easier to *win* in the Gladius, but then saving the Drake becomes much harder than if you were flying a Rapier.

I think it's funny how people tend to think the winning missions are more 'important' than the losing missions. That Snakeir mission seems to be much more 'famous' than the Fralthi one. And this isn't true for Standoff only : I mean, there were countless pleas for help about Kurasawa 2, but who complains about Hubble's Star 2? or Hell's Kitchen 2? Or Hell's Kitchen 4?
 
Sharpshooter said:
I think it's funny how people tend to think the winning missions are more 'important' than the losing missions. That Snakeir mission seems to be much more 'famous' than the Fralthi one. And this isn't true for Standoff only : I mean, there were countless pleas for help about Kurasawa 2, but who complains about Hubble's Star 2? or Hell's Kitchen 2? Or Hell's Kitchen 4?
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Well, I suppose people don't complain as much about those because they generally assume higher difficulty on losing path missions is par for the course - after all, you are losing, so you can't expect things to get easier ;).

I remember the first time I played WC1, I ended up spending most of the game on the losing path, getting back onto the winning path at the very last opportunity. Most of those losing path missions I failed dismally, since the game just kept getting harder (a pity about those TCSO girls, I suppose...). The funny part is that I actually ended up liking the Scimitar, even though I should really have been vomitting at its very sight after all those losing path missions.

Anyway, when it comes to the importance of the losing path, one of my goals is always to make sure that the losing path is more interesting than the winning path, in order to give everyone a reason to actually bother exploring alternative missions. So, people who only play the winning path really do miss out on a lot. This trend will definitely continue in episodes 4 and 5, though I daresay the winning path won't be boring either ;).
 
Sharpshooter said:
The Episode 3 losing path would probably be my favorite if I wasn't having so much trouble beating it (torpedo count bug mentioned in a previous thread, and saving the Firekka's engines on the winning path within the losing path). I especially liked the scramble mission, it is really well done (Gothri appearing behind the Firekka... that's just evil :) ).
And you just might get to ground Spoons and talk to Sparrow about it, too. :p
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What? Scramble mission? Did I miss something during my numerous Standoff playthroughs? When was their a scramble mission! Dangit, now I have to go back and play again... it was because you let the Krants go didn't you? I bet that's what it is. *goes to play Standoff and let the Krants ecape*
 
I'd like to know the losing path but I have a hard time losing. I guess I'll wait for the FAQ so I can check out all paths without losing any unnecessary missions.
 
Delance : Getting to the Ep. 3 losing path isn't very hard. In Episode 2 Mission 4, don't even go to the Ralatha nav; when you reach Nav 1, just kill the Sarthas and autopilot back to the Firekka (you'll need to use the nav map to manually select the Firekka nav). Then you'll do Mission 5, and after winning that you'll play Back Route to Sirius.

Falcon : Yes, you have to let the Krants go. Then you go through the scramble mission, and then you have to destroy both the Ralatha and the Fralthi in the last mission.

Quarto : Can't say I thought the WC1 losing missions were more interesting, though I did like Gateway and Cheng-Du a lot. On my first playthrough I beat every mission except for Kurasawa 2 and some Venice missions. On my second playthrough I beat every winning mission (including Kurasawa 2) and got the Medal of Valor in Venice 4. On my third playthrough (non-linear this time), I beat every losing mission except for the Hell's Kitchen missions. I though winning Hubble's Star was somewhat easier than winning Port Hedland. Port Hedland 3 is quite hard, and you can't afford to lose it if you want to win the series. Hubble's Star 1 and 3 aren't *that* tough, but Hubble's Star 2 can be ungodly hard if you want to save both Draymans. In fact, it's in my opinion even more difficult than Kurasawa 2. And on my fourth playthrough I beat Hell's Kitchen (never was able to fully beat it on my own portable computer, though; it was too slow, and I had to use another computer with a real mouse). Hell's Kitchen 2 was HARD (you fight 4+2 Grathas in a Scimitar, for pity's sake!) and I can't say Hell's Kitchen 4 was easy either. Interestingly enough, I managed to win a Medal of Valor in Hell's Kitchen 4 (which was pretty odd), but I never was able to do it again. I can't really remember how I did it... I think every single ace was still alive, and I somehow managed to take all of the fighters down without letting any escape. Never been able to do it again, maybe I'll try it again one of these days. I even tried cheating, but no medal... Apparently you can't get the medal if you cheat. For those interested, I'm using an old DOS copy. I can't really play Secret Missions, though... I'll have to take a look on Ebay one of these days.

EDIT : About the Scimitar... I agree, one can end up liking it. It's still a pretty bad fighter in my opinion, but at least it has decent armor and shields, decent firepower, and a pretty good missile loadout. Of course, it still handles like a 'Centaurian mud pig'.

Back to Standoff : I did find the Ep. 3 losing path to be more interesting than the Ep. 3 winning path, but the winning path was very fun also (especially the Sau Paulo... Oh, wait, that's a losing winning mission :D ).
The Ep. 1 losing path... can't really remember, as it's been quite some time since I last played it. The one thing I can remember about it is that I found it to be harder than the winning path.
 
Lt.Death100 said:
So is the episode only gonna take 5 minutes to finish but you could spend 100 hours trying to get all the side-paths? :p
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Quite the contrary - in the case of both episode 4 and 5, it takes 6-7 missions to finish an episode, so that's twice as long as episode 3.
 
Sharpshooter said:
...........but who complains about Hubble's Star 2? or Hell's Kitchen 2? Or Hell's Kitchen 4?
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Isn't Hell's Kitchen 4 the one where you can fight ALL of the Kilrathi aces in the same mission if you don't kill them previously in the game? I loved showing them up in my crappy old Scimitar.

On a side note, the title of this thread is quite fitting considering how he died.
 
McGruff : Yes, Hell's Kitchen 4 is the mission where you can fight all aces.

By the way, I've been playing Hell's Kitchen 4 again and again and again and I managed to get the Medal of Valor on a few playthroughs. I'm not sure what triggers this. Maybe it's a bug. Anyway, I noticed a few things each time I managed to get it :

1) Hunter was dead. I was never able to get the medal when I sent Hunter home.
2) I had used all of my missiles.
3) I had killed all of the aces during the course of the mission (except, sometimes, for Bhurak Starkiller; it would appear that you can let him flee and still get the medal) as well as most 'regular' enemy ships.

Tips :

1) Try to save the missiles for the Jalthi and Krants.
2) Save as much AB fuel as you can for the Krant battle. The Krants can and will kill the Tiger's Claw if you're not fast enough.
3) Kill enemy fighters as fast as you can. You're heavily outnumbered and the longer the battle lasts, the more likely you are to lose.
4) If the Krant battle seems to last way too long, you can try ramming a Krant, but be careful.
5) Don't use the 'instant ship kill' (or Finger of God, whatever) cheat or you probably won't get the medal.
6) On the other hand, invulnerability doesn't seem to interfere, so use it if you want.
7) While it is possible to get the medal without cheating, it is pretty freakin' difficult. :p
 
Sharpshooter said:
Thanks! That fourth mission is the Ralatha one, isn't it? That's pretty odd, because I'm 99% sure that the Firekka had all of its engines at the end of the mission. On the other hand, one of the Firekka's engines did get destroyed in the third mission (the Fralthi mission) because I had to 'sacrifice' one engine (the left one) in order to save the Francis Drake. However, it had all of its engines in the fourth mission - damage wasn't transferred, as you said. I guess I'll just have to try that Ralatha mission again during my next vacation (hopefully in a month). I'll let you know if it works. :)
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*Bump*

Tried it again, and it doesn't work. I still got the onto the Ep.4 losing path even though the Firekka hadn't been damaged. Just to be sure I also checked what happens if you fail to destroy the Fralthi the first time, and I got another mission, but I still can't win the episode overall.
On an unrelated note, I tried some more Ep.1 losing missions and one mission kept crashing : it is the one where you fly a Gladius and are flying ahead of the Lionheart (the mission starts with a jump sequence). I tried disabling everything - visual effects, comms, gamma correction... But it still kept crashing. So I tried disabling music and SFX, and finally it worked, although it got a bit laggy at times. Pretty odd. :eek:
 
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