RichardCranium

That's very interesting. I'll have to replay to watch for some things, but I can say that I've never had the two aggressor gunships (g1 and g2) launch during this scenario. [Thank god for small favors; I think this will turn into another deathtrap if they do.] I've also never seen the Gammulan intruder (a1) that flies in to drop off the load of infantry take off after doing so. (Is it really supposed to fly to ESCAPE1's exact location after dropping off the Gammulan fireteam?) I've also been flying ESCAPE1 at scenario end with all my squad mates on board without triggering the upassed signal.

That pretty much describes all the other ground combat instant action scenarios. This is the only one that I've had a chance of completing successfully since there aren't any aircraft around.

Amusingly, the most consistent way that I've found to win is to not take out the target GDN, but just get everyone into the escape craft after taking out the two launch pads with grenades. The "you win!" message pops up if there aren't any enemy infantry out to play. I don't really consider that a win, since you didn't really complete your main task. I only found out about it when I intended to use the missiles on the escape craft to take out the target when I almost ran out of time to complete the mission (for some reason, it was like I had kicked a fire ant mound; there was a steady stream of enemy infantry coming out to kill us). I've had much better luck (which will go away immediately after I post this, judging from the last time) doing the following as Lucas: Jet pack to the south towards the supply station. Give all your squad mates search-and-destroy commands (F4 on the command menu) while you are flying. On your way to the supply station, arm yourself with frag grenades and fly over the launch pad on the way there. Drop the 2 frags you've got on the launch pad and keep going to the supply station. That'll take out one of the two launch pads. When you get to the supply station, get profile #6. Re-arm and re-fit. Leave the station, lie down, and use your DTR4A to kill any infantry that you can see. (Vanguards still get the priority killing.) Always kill any infantry that you can see with your sniper rifle with Vanguards being the priority targets. I won't keep mentioning that. When there's no infantry available to kill, run over to the other launch pad and toss 2 frags on it. Run/jet pack over to the building that is to your north with the convenient east-west walkway that gives you a nice sniping roost. Take out the LADMK1's that are by the barracks, since they will hurt you at the most inconvenient moment. When there's only green dots on the TRP radar, tell your squad mates to go to the supply station. Here's the tricky part: after your squad mates have resupplied, fly down to the little area to the south of the barracks that contains all sorts of supplies as well as a YN99MK1. You can get killed here, since the barracks may spawn someone who doesn't like you. Get more grenades (can't have too many, I say) and check the long, flat container that contains weapons. If you're lucky, you'll find a rocket launcher in there. If you aren't so lucky, you can try to use the YN99MK1 to take out the target but you'll have to expose yourself more that way. If you did find a rocket launcher, there is also a container of missiles in the same little area. Grab them. Start running for the escape craft. Change your radar mode so you can select it, target it and tell your squad mates to go to it (via cycling through F9, c, F9). (The first one to get to the craft will reset the other two fellow's commands to do something else. So get ready to command the remaining two to get their butts on the chopper.) While they are running over to the escape chopper, there is a large square building to the south of the comms center. Jet pack up to the top of it; you can see the target GDN4 from there. Use your rocket launcher (if you're lucky) or your YN99MK1 (if you're not, since that doesn't provide a missile lock) to take out the target. There's another GDN4 to the ENE of you, towards the nuke plant. You should try to take it out too. (Easy with rocket launcher, hard with YN99MK1.) After you take out the target, more infantry shows up to your N and NNW. Use your sniper rifle to kill them all. Jet pack down to the escape chopper. Climb into the pilot's seat. You should have around 9 minutes left on the clock. Get off the ground and arm your missiles. Select EAD radar mode. Start flying WNW. Select the nearest SAM/SAL that wants to kill you and do unto them first. There's about 3 or 4 of them on that side of the starbase that you'll probably have to take out on your way out of the AO. Stay low and head towards the hills. If nothing locks on to you, you should get the coveted "MISSION SUCCESS: YOU WERE SAFELY EVACUATED FROM THE BASE" message fairly soon. Any aircraft that scrambled to your south, unfortunately, will probably get a lock on you. Hit the jammers and pray.

After further experimentation, I'm not sure what the success criteria actually are. I've since toyed with destroying both launch pads on the base (Helix base, for those who would like to know) and flying off to the north or north west. No matter how far away I go to the north or northwest, I don't get the magic message indicating mission success. For that matter, I've grabbed a shuttle and used the tractor beam on the escape aircraft (while Steve is sitting in it) to haul it with me while flying to the east and south east. No magic message. Every other time after posting this, I've been splashed by aircraft originating from the bases to the south after destroying the objective and flying the designated aircraft out of the area of operations.

On further thought, I don't think that you should get into the escape craft until there is ~2 minutes left on the clock. You want to be in the air and far enough away when the scenario timer pops, but not in the air long enough for the scrambled aircraft to get within the 30km or whatever required to get a missile lock that will splash your butt. Leaving early does not appear to work in your favor, as I found out today when I tried again. [EDIT: Leaving late doesn't work either, as I found out today (that's a different today than the one in the original message). So you have to get some distance from the base without getting shot down. I've been flying due south to get away; I'm now thinking that you need to fly to the SE in order to increase your distance from the center of the base as fast as possible.]

(Please note that the words "every time" and "often" aren't anywhere in the title. That's for a reason.) For those of you who haven't played any of the Instant Death Action scenarios, IA0204 is where you (playing as Lucas) and your squad mates are on the northwest corner of an mzone that contains a Starbase, barracks, communications center, and a GDN4 SAM that you have to take out. Oh, and a vehicle that contains a fireteam of Gammulans who aren't real happy to see you that is to your west. And an inbound assault gunship with even more annoyed Gammulans that is going to land to the south west of your starting position. Your ticket out of there (well, the one the scenario wants you to use versus the DJP) is to the southwest of your current position. The only way I've ever won the damned thing (i.e. seen the message "MISSION SUCCESS: YOU WERE SAFELY EVACUATED FROM THE BASE") was to do the following: Immediately use your jetpack and fly due south. There is a supply station down there and you'll be better off with something other than the assault rifle you're holding. Leave your squad mates in escort mode; hopefully the Vanguards that are coming to kill all of you will be more interested in them. When you get to the supply station, re-equip yourself with profile 6. That gives you a DTR4A, which is slightly less powerful than a PL12 (wow, I've misidentified that all over the forum) but has a higher rate of fire than the PL12. Given that you will be almost swimming in Gammulans in a few seconds, the higher rate of fire will save your butt. Select "weapons" while you are there to top off your ammo. If you feel lucky, you can select "health" but that might eat time that you don't have. Hit "k". If the range to the nearest bad thing is less than 200m, jetpack to your WSW as far as you can to the building. You would like to hide from the things coming out of the comms center and barracks. Equip yourself with your DTR4A. Zoom in and kill things as fast as you can. Your squad mates will help to some extent. Kill Vanguards as soon as you can identify them. You will have enemies coming at you from 270 degree arc; your SW quadrant is the only direction that's safe. After you've killed everything that came out of the gunship and vehicle, you have a strong chance of making it the rest of the way. Kill anything that's coming out of the barracks or comms center. You should be able to have a few seconds where there are no Gammulan troops on the radar. When there aren't any Gammulan troops on the radar, send all of your squad members to re-supply via the command menu (F9 to look at them, "c" then F8 to tell them to re-supply). I have had them do some weird stutter-step freeze-in-place dance while they attempt to re-supply. Run over to them and bump them to knock them out of their funk. After each troop has resupplied, give them a SAD mission ("c" then F4). Don't worry, they will find something to do. To your ENE (more or less), there is a building between you, the radar jammer, and the barracks. Jetpack to the top of it. There will be more Gammulan troops coming out of the Starbase, barracks, and/or comms center who would like to kill you. They pretty much come out in pairs, so from your vantage point on the building and your squad mates on the ground, they should not live very long. The building that you should be standing on has a walkway running east-west. Go to the east end. Look to your ESE by the barracks. You'll see a square area that contains all sorts of goodies, such as a YN99MK1 and LADMK1 turret. Zoom in with your sniper rifle and destroy the LADMK1. (It will probably kill you if you don't.) Leave YN99MK1; you'll need it in a minute or so. Kill any Gammulan troops that have come out to play. The jammer that is to your east has a convenient place to stand that's high off the ground. (Some type of beam that holds the radar reflector. In this case, it's oriented north-south.) Jetpack over to it. Kill any Gammulan troops that have come out to play. Look for another square area to the north of the barracks that contains goodies, such as a YN99MK1 and LADMK1 turret. Zoom in with your sniper rifle and destroy the LADMK1. (It will probably kill you if you don't.) Leave YN99MK1; you'll need it in a minute or so. Honest. Kill any Gammulan troops that have come out to play. (Yes, they keep coming. We are about to do something about that.) Equip yourself with your frag grenades. Fly over to and over the barracks. Throw down 3 of your frag grenades on top of the barracks. Fly towards the square goodies area that's to the north of the barracks. The barracks should blow up, which removes one place that generates Gammulan infantry. See if there is a rocket launcher available in the north goodies area. Resupply your grenades. Kill any Gammulan troops that have come out to play. (They can come from the Starbase and the Comms center.) When there aren't any Gammulan troops on the radar, use the nearby YN99MK1. Hit the backspace key to arm it, hit "t" once or twice, aim it at the Comms center to your SW and hit the "/" key to make the diamond stop. Pump all the missiles it has towards the Comms center; that should suffice to blow up that building. Hit ctrl-E to step back from the YN99MK1 and then grab it. Fly over to the south goodies area. We are about to exploit what I'm pretty sure is a bug. Drop the YN99MK1 that you have near the other YN99MK1 that is already there. When you use one YN99MK1, the other one will immediately re-arm. You can walk back and forth between the two that you have and pretty much destroy everything that you can see. Such as the Starbase that's to your east. Walk to a YN99MK1, use it, press "t" to change the radar mask to EAD, face the Starbase, press backspace to arm, press "/" to select something in the line of sight, depress the muzzle so you can hit the Starbase, and hit space until the diamond goes away. Walk over to the other YN99MK1, rinse and repeat until you see the mushroom cloud of glory instead of a Starbase. Use your YN99MK1s to take out the MFB, the Command and Control building, the air defense shield, the nuclear reactor, and the jammer in the same fashion. Give your squad mates the "defend me" command. You're about ready to destroy the GDN4 and get the hell out of there. Use your YN99MK1s to take out the GDN4 that you were sent there to take out. As soon as you take out the GDN4, more Gammulan infantry will show up to your west to say hello. You, on the other hand, had better be jetpacking towards your escape aircraft to your SSE. Select your sniper rifle and stop on occasion to kill any Vanguard that is convenient to kill. They may have missile launchers, so you really don't want them within 500m of you. When you get near the aircraft, go prone and kill anything you can until your "what's a jetpack?" squad members get within 100m or so. Use the pilot position. Let your squad mates get on the aircraft. Stay as low as you can without actually taxiing and haul ass to the SE. Jam as needed. If you get far enough away from the smoking crater where the Starbase used to be, you'll get to see the lovely message "MISSION SUCCESS: YOU WERE SAFELY EVACUATED FROM THE BASE". Good luck! You'll probably die in step 4 (bullet to the head or Vanguard missile) or 23 (aircraft missile), but it's really possible to succeed without cheating. I don't think that it's possible to succeed often without cheating, but you may be able to if you are a better shot with an assault rifle than I am.

Did Steam tell you to pound sand?

And while I'm whining, it would be nice if the GLE22 had some type of indicator to tell you what type of grenade it was going to launch when you pull the trigger. Versus finding out after you launched one. I guess that I could write down on a piece of paper how many times I've pressed the "M" key, but you'd think the combat suit's systems could tell you. [Given the other GLE22 issue, this is kind of a moot point for AAW/AoA (nobody in their right mind would attempt to use one). It Would Be Nice if LoD (assuming that it also has the GLE22 as part of it's arms list) had some type of indicator. That also includes the ZS10 assault rifle, which has a grenade launcher with all the drawbacks of the GLE22.]

How do I cancel their pre-existing command? Or does giving them the HALT command suffice?

(OK, I'll mention this is all run under the latest version available via Steam, which is 1.00.37.) Well, that's technically true in that I can always just drop the grenade at my feet. However, I spun up a sandbox game with Brad armed with a GLE22. I made him run over to the launch pad near the MFB to run the test. His back was against the launch pad when he fired the GLE22 at roughly a 45 degree angle. The scorch mark on the ground is the furthest distance a GLE22 was able to propel a grenade before it blew up: From what the display told me as the grenade was on the way, that's around 16 meters. I was able to throw a frag grenade at least 18 meters away. I'll also mention that smoke grenades also burst at that range. The shrapnel from the GLE22 managed to destroy the launch pad that was behind me as well as the containers that would normally have been on the right hand side of the picture. I've stood on a building using a GLE22. The GLE22 destroyed the building I was standing on by exploding grenades long before they struck the ground. I'm always prone when I fire a machine gun. Old habits die hard. (If you want to be picky, I used to be in a tank when I fired a machine gun. Since that's one of the fastest ways known to die in any of your games when there's a chance of enemy aircraft to be in the area, I rarely fire vehicle mounted machine guns while playing. But whenever I fired an M-60 machine gun in meatspace, I was prone.) Since I rarely have an idea where the enemy really is (other than the rather large target box) and have absolutely no idea where my rounds are actually going relative to the enemy, having a tight shot group while essentially shooting in the dark doesn't help very much. When the enemy gets within the 300m or so when you get the green dot, I can spray in front of said enemy and kill it with ~8 bursts. Of course, if I'm shooting at a Vanguard with a rocket launcher then odds are very good that I'm already dead prior to getting the green dot. While I personally think that 30th century military technology would allow better integration between a soldier and his weapon than we have today, I'd be surprised that it would be worse. Today, you'd have one visible-to-the-person-firing-the-machine-gun tracer round followed by 3 or 4 invisible rounds. In the 30th century, we don't get even that?

This is for AAW. I haven't played AoA and don't really intend to. As Derek has mentioned in his tutorials, your fellow Terran infantry assets are skilled. Put them in your priority list (if they aren't there already) and tell them to escort you (F1) and then search and destroy (F4) in that order. Your team mates are also amazingly skilled at not getting killed, as long as they have been resupplied. However, they aren't always smart enough to resupply when there is a lull in fighting. Ensure that you cycle through them via Alt-P and command them to proceed to the nearest supply center (F8) when things are safe enough to do so. If you are playing for the very first time, select the Lucas character and then select the loadout that has the PL12 sniper rifle. Ditch the shotgun as soon as you can and pick up a rocket launcher. Get smoke grenades and a personal shield or personal cloak device prior to the start of the 3rd mission. Your first priority in any firefight is to kill any Vanguard infantrythings that are more than 500m away from you. A rocket launcher equipped Vanguard will get a missile lock on a target that is 500m or closer to it. If the Vanguard infantrything decides that *you* are the best target in that 500m radius, you're dead. Count on it. So kill them before they get that close. The other Gammulan infantrythings can't shoot for cr*p, especially when they are running to you to kill you. You can kill most of them before they get close, but your team members can normally get the rest. With a PL12, you can kill enemies that are 1000m away. (Actually, you can kill out to around 1.05km away but it is hard to tell where your rounds hit when you miss so that you can hit with the next round.) With the PL12, you only need to hit twice to kill. If your mission requires you to operate near (within 500m) of an enemy barracks, destroy the barracks as soon as possible. That reduces the number of spawned enemy marines that you'll have to deal with. Comm centers and Starbases also spawn marines. You really don't want to be caught in a pincers attack between multiple forces. Starbases are very difficult (but not impossible) to destroy, so you'd be better off destroying barracks and comm centers first to ensure that all your enemies come from one direction. A PL12 can take out LADMK1 turrets with a couple of hits. Stay out of ground vehicles in enemy areas. They are missile magnets. An ACAV near your starbase is useful since it is faster than you can run. Build as many GDN4 SAM sites as you can during the game. That's one every ~15 minutes of game time. Smoke grenades are useful. Flash grenades are annoying, which is why the Gammulan infantrythings throw so damned many of them. (They blind everybody, including the nitwit that threw them.) APMs can really hurt those that are chasing you. 3 frag grenades dropped on top of a barracks will destroy it. That leaves you one grenade so that the next time you use a supply station, you will be given 4 frag grenades. If your initial loadout does not include frag grenades and you use them all up, you won't get any more when you hit the supply station. Sometimes your team member think that the quickest to get to you is to run 100km or so to some other mzone so that they can teleport back to the current mzone to get to you. They even think that when they push your ass out of the way to get to said mzone. Sometimes, sending them to a supply point snaps them out of that delusion. Sometimes, it doesn't. If you climb into a vehicle, however, they appear to realize that you're really 200m away from them and will run up to the vehicle and stand by it. Once you leave the vehicle, they revert back to the overland trek. If you have a sniper rifle, you don't have to DJP into the part of the mzone that has the barracks, comm center, and starbase. Go to one of the other locations and run/jetpack to the objective, killing Gammulans that are 1km or closer to you. Flying in aircraft gets you killed. Do as little as possible. When you do have to fly, stay as close to the ground as possible. River canyons are your very best friend. (Edit: Use the correct sniper rifle name.)

A LADMK1 can destroy any vehicle, aircraft or building within range, but a ZS10 or ZS12 assault rifle cannot damage any of them even though both use Type 3 clips? For that matter, no first person weapon other than rocket launchers or grenades can damage non-infantry targets. The type of tracer used in Type 3 clips is useful only to alert the enemy where you are versus helping you to see where your rounds are striking? The only weapon that provides tracer rounds that the person firing them can actually see is the aforementioned LADMK1. Even if you use the 3rd person view when firing the M310, SP911, ZS10, and ZS12 the individual tracers are very difficult to see. The GLE22 and ZS10 in grenade launcher mode cannot project a grenade further than you can throw it by hand? In fact, the grenades projected by those two have a range that is much less than what you can do by hand. (To be precise, the grenades projected by a grenade launcher arm and blow up just out of self-inflicted-wound range.) The MK330 and PX42 machine guns have no tracers, nothing beyond iron sights, and horrendous scatter for each round after the first. There's no way that you can engage a point target (even when prone) at ~800m which is within the capabilities of mid 20th century machine guns.

From what I've seen, once I give them a command to do anything other than halt then I cannot stop them from following me through a DJP via a subsequent halt command; the halt command works as long as I am in the same mzone, but when I teleport out they follow. (Or try to, but that's another issue.) So I will have to tell them to escort something else to get them to stay. Is that correct?

Well, I had tried it again prior to my last post. Try this, which I just did and wrote down: Select Game->Story Mode Select Lucas and set his profile to Profile 4. Select mission C0102 (or CO102; it's hard for me to tell the difference) Start the game. Wait for the three stooges to come to stop in front of you. Give each one the command to go to the nearest supply station (select each one via "/" or "." and then "c" followed by F8) Jet over to the stash by the barracks and equip yourself with a rocket launcher. Jet over to the MSB and heal/repair yourself as well as re-arm. Wait for the three stooges to finish the same at the supply station and line up in front of you. Give each stooge the "Halt command" just like you told each stooge to go to the supply station (replacing F8 with F7). Jet over to DJP3 and teleport somewhere else (like the northwest corner of Starbase Beta). Move away from the DJP. Use F9 to watch the stooges run over to Alpha Base's DJP3 to teleport over to where you are. Now, if I don't tell the stooges to resupply/rearm themselves via the F8 command and tell them to halt instead, they will actually stand there. (I tried that tonight first, since I thought that might have been your test.) I also tried telling them to escort me via F1 prior to telling them to halt via F7 (instead of the "go to the supply station" deal). Nope; they still follow me through the DJP. Now, I was a beta tester for AAW. Is it possible that there is some registry/config file entry from the beta test that could cause this weird behavior?

Since when? Every time I give those tools a "halt" order, they will still follow me through the DJP and just stand around that. (I just tried it on v1.00.37) I've also lost count of the number of times the various NPCs become absolutely convinced that I'm in an enemy base that's 100km away and proceed to run overland to join me there. Despite my teleporting back, jetpacking in front of them and re-issuing the "escort me" order.

Well, the Steam version is still at 1.00.37.

Sorry, but no. Oh well, guess I'll be forgetting this game then. Yah, you do that. Hmm. I guess that I'll be forgettting it too for a while. *raises hands* No need to go on a rant; XP is doing the Cheyne-Stokes and I get that. I spend 99% of my time at home booted into Linux and I know that you aren't going to support *that* anytime soon (if ever). But for me, that's an additional $80 (or thereabouts) for me to play a new game. And I'll have to jump through flaming Microsoft hoops to be able to play the games that I've already got after I do the upgrade from XP to Windows 7 because Microsoft didn't think it was worth the effort to support that direct upgrade path, despite the fact that nobody in their right effing mind used Vista in the first place. Oh well. I might upgrade to 7 when 9 comes out or so. Or I feel like spending $80 plus the couple of hours that it'll take to reinstall everything. Despite my whining, you are making the correct business decision. I can still visit the site and see what you're up to. Maybe that'll make it worth the upgrade cost(s).

Is this UCCE 2.0?

Get the O.R.B. and you'll get to see hunger factors that are over a 1000 with no ill affects.

You do not want to steal one and take it back to the CC. You Will Not Like The ResultsTM

The comms unit in one fighter is displayed in red (11%) and I can't replace it either. I'll see if I can break it a little more so the system engineers can figure out what to do with it. Sometimes the system engineers have troubles with complicated modern devices, such as doorknobs. Well, I had some convenient enemy types damage that fighter even more. The communications module is now at 5% and I can neither replace nor repair it.

The dork will work his engineers to death, if you let him. They appear to only get to eat or rest if he isn't on station. (Now that his AI is over 50, they at least get to sleep when we are docked in a station.) So, when he's in the brig, he isn't on station. The Medical Officer is about as bad, but the medics can at least heal themselves when their LF drops due to hunger.

The comms unit in one fighter is displayed in red (11%) and I can't replace it either. I'll see if I can break it a little more so the system engineers can figure out what to do with it. Sometimes the system engineers have troubles with complicated modern devices, such as doorknobs.

That's what I do. You have to disengage cloaking to actually capture the station, but you probably already know that. I have an annoying habit of blowing up the station instead of capturing it. Yep.

Well, two of them, actually. Both are X22 Aurora fighters; one has a comm unit at 11% and the other has a navigation unit that is at 84%. I've docked in many stations (I'm TER/MIL) and started repairs on the two. The "repairs" take a game minute to do but the units remain at 11% and 84% (the fighter's aggregate readiness levels are at 98% and 99%, if I remember correctly). I get continuous messages about losing communications with one of my fighters when I send them out, so I'm pretty sure that the game really believes those units are at those repair levels. I'm about ready to park my CC, jump into one of the two, fly it to a planet, blow the damned thing up, and just buy a replacement. That's rather expensive, but I haven't found any X22 Auroras parked where I can just steal one. Any better ideas out there?