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ToD1-2/5 Help


Mitchell
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Hey all,

After enjoyong "Roaming" for a week or so I decided to start a career with Galcom HQ and so am trying to run the 'protect the diplomats' scenarios. I need a clue for teh second mission, tho - I keep loosing it because Terran Diplomat 4 doesn't make it to Majoris station before time runs out. I am protecting him all the way, be he just seems to be too slow . the other Dips make it there on time.

I've tried this scenario a number of times, and have basically been camping out near Tulon station (Raiders) in Arima. They send interceptors to the Dips as they pass through, so I protect the Dips, and they always make it through and head to Alpha Majora. I do get a message that Terran Diplonat 4 is "Handing over to Majoris..." with about 4 minutes left, but then the scenario always ends before he actually completes docking. There are NO hostiles in Alpha Majora to hinder him, nor are there any in Xylan. Any ideas concerning what I might be doing wrong?

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I must have played that mission 20 or 30 time during the Beta then spent hours trawling through the debug files to find out what was happening, sometimes it docks, sometimes it doesn't.

You'll find your tight for time on a lot of the missions,

My advice would be to stay with your CC in Earthz for the first two missions trading between Galcom and Genesis while towing Dip1 to Majoris with a shuttle you'll have to give the shuttle a new jump to command each time it changes zones, then use the deliver order once in Majoris to "Dock" Dip1.

There is no real need for you to escort it.

Use the same procedure for dip4 in missions 2 this time you should be able to give the deliver order to the shuttle in Earthz as Majoris station should be in the priority list, The shuttle towing the dip should out run any hostiles by the time they detect it, but if your really unlucky it may run over a mine.

By the end of the first 2 missions you'll have a few hundred million in the bank.

I know others out their will give better trade routes but this one is very fast less than 2 mins a run, 20% profit both ways and if you place your AE as shuttle pilot and trade with the shuttle you can do a trade run in around 1 minute, Remember to sell all those stores on the CC even the missiles, mines and probes loaded on the CC, FC's and OC's for the start up trading cash.

Don't bother to go for the Alien Artifact on the UCV-MOLONOK in Obsidia, item 331 is a SAM-ACM in BCM not the HSD of BC3K and in any case you can raise much more money by trading in the time it would take you to get to Osidia so simply trade and buy one.

Another thing you'll notice is if you collect cargo from these ships they will be removed from the game so if the NPC is needed for the mission to play out correctly don't collect its cargo.

CYA

[ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: Pugwash ]

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quote:


Originally posted by Pugwash:

Don't bother to go for the Alien Artifact on the UCV-MOLONOK in Obsidia, item 331 is a SAM-ACM in BCM not the HSD of BC3K and in any case you can raise much more money by trading in the time it would take you to get to Osidia so simply trade and buy one.


oh, now he tells me.

Fixed

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Thanks, much, Pugwash, for so detailed and helpful a reply. On only one of my tries was Dip4 actually destroyed enroute, but I do usually get a report that he under attack somewhere along the way. I will try leaving him to his own devices and see what happens...

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quote:

Originally posted by Pugwash:

My advice would be to stay with your CC in Earthz for the first two missions trading between Galcom and Genesis while towing Dip1 to Majoris with a shuttle you'll have to give the shuttle a new jump to command each time it changes zones, then use the deliver order once in Majoris to "Dock" Dip1.

There is no real need for you to escort it.


I would label that a bad idea - the one about not running the actual escort. While that was fairly kosher in BC3K, I ended up with -4950 EP in BCM, after the EP were awarded for successful completion of the TOD, because I ignored those two words: Patrol Zone. Now if you aren't worried about the EP, then don't worry about the partrol zone.

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr

oh, now he tells me.

Fixed


well I did sort of mention it in passing in the beta GBS (post 30 page 2) in my version of the original script I've added a lot more attackers to prevent staying in earthz, a lot of time adjustments and a few more events but I never managed to get Dip 4 to dock consistently?

quote:

Originally posted by Tyrn

I would label that a bad idea - the one about not running the actual escort. While that was fairly kosher in BC3K, I ended up with -4950 EP in BCM, after the EP were awarded for successful completion of the TOD, because I ignored those two words: Patrol Zone. Now if you aren't worried about the EP, then don't worry about the partrol zone.


This is for the first 2 missions of tod 1 only (I normally set off for Majoris before the end of mission 2 to be there to escort the Diplomats back in mission 3) I just rechecked what I had said and it works fine unless the SC changes the script to plug that hole.

The script does not check if you are in a particular region at the end of these missions before awarding the points.(BETA v1.0.02 RC3)

I scored the 500 points (250 for each mission) and never left earthz

You didn't kill some friendlies did you? I had a habit of doing that and finding my self with negative points.

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quote:

Originally posted by Pugwash:

You didn't kill some friendlies did you? I had a habit of doing that and finding my self with negative points.

Now that you mention it, that might have been when I took a trip to <censored> and tried to convince a certain neutral nightstar to hand over it's artifact (this was before that particular problem with the script was fixed). I'll have to try it out again.

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Thanks for the various bits of advice, all.

I have completed the scenario successfully and with no losses, despite having to battle through a few engagements and deal with intruders beamed aboard my Firestorm. I experimented with many approaches, and finally found that a combination of the things posted to this thread worked best. The coolest thing, though, is that there are so many different ways to perform any given mission - I cannot think of any other computer game I've ever played (and I've been playing them since 1980!) that allows, let alone encourages, such freedom of action (geez, I love this game!).

For anybody starting out with BCM in campaign mode, I offer the following experience from these experiments in hopes it might help you on your way:

1. You can sit out the first scenario and just trade between GALCOM HQ and GENESIS stations as suggested upstream. I was able to make about $6M during the time alloted. Dip1 regularly made it to Majoris on time and unmolested with no escort.

2. So you can monitor what's going on during at least the first three scenarios, it helps to deploy probes to the regions between Pluto and Xylan. With probes in place you can monitor the Dips in TacOps and give orders to FCs or SCs you send to help where needed.

3. In the second scenario, however, Dip4 is likely to be attacked along the way and possibly killed. Even if he's not killed, he is likely to get there too late. In fact, he was too late on at least two attempts even though he was never attacked along the way (at least, I never received a message from him saying he was being attacked). This makes me wonder whether there is enough time in the scenario for him to make it without physical assistance (see below).

4. To help Dip4 out, I sent an SC out to travel with him (similar to a suggestion upstream in this thread). When he got to about Treas I noticed he started taking a long time to leave the jump point where he entered. This may have been due to existing real or potential threats in the region. Anyway, that's when I decided to order the accompanying SC to tow Dip4 (time was running short, too - only ~12m to make four more jumps and dock at Majora). By giving the SC specific 'Jump to' orders, as suggested, and then a 'Deliver to' order, Dip4 finally docked on time at Majora and I was awarded a success for the mission.

I had a GREAT time playing this out several times, and learned a number of valuable lessons, I think. Playing BCM in Campaign mode is very different from roaming, IMHO, and requires some special tactics if you are to be successful. For example, the first 'Tour of Duty' (maybe they all do - I just don't know yet ) takes place along a specific sequence of regions which, if you have probes stationed in, can be accessed using the TacOps system. Intel like this is vital, as is the ability to give commands to your support assets in regions where you are not, and the TacOps computer works beautifully for this. One of the reasons this is so important to me is that, although I love my Firestorm, it's a huge beast and about as slow as molasis - there's no way my CC can keep up with the Dips in these missions. Therefor I have to rely on my FC, SC and probe assets, and the TacOps system provides a fabulous interface for seeing what needs to be done and ordering the assets to do it.

For anybody that hasn't tried the Campaign mode of play, I highly recommend that you give it a shot. It is challenging but not constraining, and very rewarding when you finally get it right.

[ 12-05-2001: Message edited by: Mitchell ]

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quote:

Originally posted by Mitchell:

I was able to make about $6M during the time alloted.


Is that a typo 60 million not 6 million?

At the end of the first mission I normally have 40 - 50 million and a few upgrades to my Megaron, that's with out using a shuttle to tow the CC.

If I tow on every trip I can have all the upgrades and 80 - 90 million in the first hour.

If you start at Genesis you will have 5 million (starting asset Megaron) when you have sold everything but for 80 fuel, with which to buy your first cargo.

You must resist the temptation to buy any upgrades until you have a large amount of credits, spending 3.5 million on upgrades will cost you 18 million profit at the end of 10 trading trips.

Don't forget to use the SC's. OC's, Transporter and Cargo pod for extra storage areas when the need arises.

The Cargo pod is particularly good as it stores 500 items, not items up to the volume of 500 this is very usefully if you want to take a few spare FC's or SC's with you later on, the only down side is that you need to have at least 1 item of whatever you have loaded into the cargo pod in one of the bays to unload it.

The times I've been stuck with a full cargo pod not knowing what I put in it.

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quote:

Originally posted by Pugwash:

The Cargo pod is particularly good as it stores 500 items, not items up to the volume of 500 this is very usefully if you want to take a few spare FC's or SC's with you later on, the only down side is that you need to have at least 1 item of whatever you have loaded into the cargo pod in one of the bays to unload it.

The times I've been stuck with a full cargo pod not knowing what I put in it.

You can deploy the cargo pod from the bridge and then retreive it like any other to avoid the problem you describe.

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quote:

Is that a typo 60 million not 6 million?

He he... na, no typo - I only made a few runs. I like to spend time playing around with other things, too, like deploying a drone or two, sending off probes to track the Dip on their journey, etc. I find it hard to focus on just one thing, like making money, when this game offers you so many interesting things to do. You are right that the income compounds fast (and at 20%+ it should!), though, so it won't be hard to build up a nice bankroll soon. I guess I'd better do so, too, since I'm sure the missions will only get harder and I'll need the better stuff .

quote:

You can deploy the cargo pod from the bridge and then retreive it like any other to avoid the problem you describe.

Good trick, Tyrn - thanks for the tip!

See you all out there...

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quote:

Originally posted by fallengod:

i don't get how u trade in the game.... do u buy something and resell it.. if so what do u buy?

Yes, buying and selling is commonly known as trading. Anything in the TradCom list tends to be both sellable and buyable and so tradable. Mining minerals is also a lucrative activity as is scavenging. As to specifics, RTM and search the forums.

Welcome to BCM.

Note, I keep seeing people without their system info linked.

REGISTER and LINK YOUR SYS INFO people.

[ 12-11-2001: Message edited by: Tyrn ]

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quote:

Originally posted by fallengod:

so what is the best thing to trade that will get u the most money..(i need names)

As I said,

quote:

As to specifics, RTM and search the forums.


Learn to use that search function up there, this topic has been discussed in depth already.

And fix that sig

[ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: Tyrn ]

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