HELP with XWA on HARD mode - has anyone done it?

[wealthistime]

Thanks to this resource, I'm going back through XWA on HARD mode (without skipping missions). I felt like I was doing pretty good, but now I am stuck on Tour 3, Mission 6: Rendezvous with Defector

Has anyone beaten this level on hard mode? If so, how?

I am finding it so overwhelmingly hard I'm convinced no one's ever beaten it on hard mode without cheats. Just getting to the second phase of the mission is a challenge, but once I do its a complete bloodbath. I've tried ever strategy I can think of to no avail. Also, twice now the game went buggy on me. In one instance the Liberty never arrived, in another 2+ hr play neither the Frigate nor the Liberty ever arrived.

[Det. Bullock]

Sincerely I'm not really sure the game has ever been playtested on hard, even when the mission fails the debriefing hints seem to assume you can destroy target subsystems when the shields are still up which cannot be done on hard.

That mission is buggy even on medium, the first time I managed to make it to the end the Liberty just up and disappeared into hyperspace instead of returning to the fleet.

[wealthistime]

Thanks. I switched to Medium to complete that mission and then back to Hard for subsequent missions. I've found subsequent missions to be passable but extremely challenging so far (all family missions in Hard mode are still pretty easy). What I've noticed for sure is that in Hard mode you're wing men will die ALOT faster when up against a big threat- it's impossible to preserve them sometimes. Once that happens, ALL remaining enemies target you unless you are a long ways out.

If there is no time constraint, no craft to protect, and no TIE Advanced/Defenders, then you can defeat all the fighters on your own if you're willing to spend hours doing it. You can dump power to engines, go on a long chase, then slow down and go into a spin...ensuring at least two fighters will be in firing range. Since all of the fighters will fly behind you in a direct path, they will destroy themselves one by one via friendly fire. Then you again dump power to engines, get separation, recharge shields, and repeat the trap. When the last fighter or two is left, then you can take it directly. Alternatively, if reinforcements are available and you're in "chase mode" and they'll take out all the fighters chasing you one by one. I've found that none of the enemy fighters will break off to engage the new rebel craft, but it only works on the last wave. New waves of enemy fighters will target and quickly destroy them.

But all that said, I'm 100% convinced the game is not beatable in Hard mode all the way through. It simply cannot be done in my opinion- and I think that's a shame.

[Det. Bullock]

Thanks. I switched to Medium to complete that mission and then back to Hard for subsequent missions. I've found subsequent missions to be passable but extremely challenging so far (all family missions in Hard mode are still pretty easy). What I've noticed for sure is that in Hard mode you're wing men will die ALOT faster when up against a big threat- it's impossible to preserve them sometimes. Once that happens, ALL remaining enemies target you unless you are a long ways out.

If there is no time constraint, no craft to protect, and no TIE Advanced/Defenders, then you can defeat all the fighters on your own if you're willing to spend hours doing it. You can dump power to engines, go on a long chase, then slow down and go into a spin...ensuring at least two fighters will be in firing range. Since all of the fighters will fly behind you in a direct path, they will destroy themselves one by one via friendly fire. Then you again dump power to engines, get separation, recharge shields, and repeat the trap. When the last fighter or two is left, then you can take it directly. Alternatively, if reinforcements are available and you're in "chase mode" and they'll take out all the fighters chasing you one by one. I've found that none of the enemy fighters will break off to engage the new rebel craft, but it only works on the last wave. New waves of enemy fighters will target and quickly destroy them.

But all that said, I'm 100% convinced the game is not beatable in Hard mode all the way through. It simply cannot be done in my opinion- and I think that's a shame.

That's because on Hard your wingmen and your fleet in general have the same AI the enemies have on Easy and viceversa, essentially they are a bunch of morons against a bunch of superaces.
On Medium instead the AI is balanced, there are still occasionally moments where your wingmen will die in droves but otherwise they are much better at basic self-preservation.
The system largely carries over from X-wing vs Tie Fighter, apart from a small detail, there already on Medium you couldn't take out shield generators when the shields themselves were still up.

[Javier Lopez]

Hard mode was made for multiplayer.. like 8 player multiplayer..

Not being able to destroy ship components its the smalest of the problems. The friendly AI becames totally useless and the enemy AI becames seriously bumped up and also becames specially obsessed with you. Its funny becase for one side it shows how dangerous even a few TIEs can be as you cant posible go head on them .. and if they get near you they will bust your shields and vaporice you in a couple of seconds.. its like a wall of green instant dead .. shields became nearly pointless as the priority is to not being hit at all..


Even if they dont go after you first being idiots your AI pals will be erradicated really really fast and then every single enemy AI thing will have you as their target

Its a shame but it seems like the game for single player was clearly enginered to be played on medium