[B7M2] Battle 7 - Mission 2: That thing's operational

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[B7M2] Battle 7 - Mission 2: That thing's operational

Implode
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Post by Implode » Sat Dec 19, 2020 5:28 pm

Which shield generator towers do we actually need to take out? As far as I can see there's 6, two raised on the tower, two in front, two behind. The mission goals say "The towers on the bridge" but I killed these and nothing happens. A video I watched actually said you need to kill the 4 towers except the ones on the bridge. Nothing in mission goals goes up to say 25% or 50% to let you know how many you actually need to kill.

I keep failing because running out of the 10 minute timer, if it wasn't that I could manage. Most I've managed to kill so far is 3, so just wondering how many you have to kill and whether it matters specifically which towers you kill or not to pass this mission? Thanks.

Implode
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Post by Implode » Mon Dec 21, 2020 2:13 am

Finally managed this, but it still seems vastly more difficult than videos I find on youtube (which were either using vanilla XWA or older XWAUP patches). Noticed if you fly really low to the deck that most of the guns can't hit you since they're mounted on the sides or on the "buildings", also helps if you're attacking the shields from the back above the engines rather than front on, and can match speed with the SSD. From there you can hit the lower 4 generators from (relative) safety... except when the T/Fs and T/Is sneak up on you, and the two up on the tower are more difficult to hit without exposing yourself to the SSD's guns. Hardest part is still the 10 min timer. Finally managed it after probably 20+ tries :kopfwand:

Luke_Skywalker
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Post by Luke_Skywalker » Wed Jan 13, 2021 4:44 pm

The AI is, miraculously, very good at assisting with taking out the shield generators. Focus on destroying the TIE fighters attacking Gold and Gray.
When 900 years old you reach, look as good, you will not. Hmm?" -Yoda

PMB960
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Post by PMB960 » Sat Jan 30, 2021 4:26 am

I'm having the same issue on this mission, on Medium difficulty. It seems the B-Wings and Y-Wings all get destroyed less than 1 minute into the mission leaving me to try to take out the shield generators myself. I tried to babysit the B-Wings and Y-Wings, but they end up getting obliterated by the SSD's lasers once they finally get close to the generators. Parking in a location where the SSD can't shoot you seems to be the only way to complete the mission, and even then its hard to get it done within the time limit.

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Will T
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Post by Will T » Sat Jan 30, 2021 12:22 pm

Hey guys, this probably won't do much to help out the allied fighters, but in an effort to use the tools we have at our disposal to re-balance the mission a bit closer to the original, I've made modified versions of the SSD.

These don't have official approval, so @Vince T if there's a problem with this let me know and I'll remove the files.

Basically, I've made versions of the SSD opt at both sizes which only have the two Shield Generator meshes of the original. I then use the Mission Objects hook to replace the SSD with the modified version for this mission only. Vince and Dragon's SSD is completely untouched and as they made it by default, but for this mission you get a two Shield Generator version.

I've tested it, and it makes the mission way easier. Probably easier to the point that the mission should be edited again to give the Falcon missiles back instead of Adv Torpedoes (but I'll wait on more testing before I do that). I've also moved the shield generator meshes up the order, so you can target them without needing to cycle through so many components.

Link for download is here.

Just extract the contents of whichever size SSD folder is your preference into the X-Wing Alliance base directory and confirm yes when it asks to overwrite the mission ini file.

Let me know how you get on with it or if anything doesn't work.
Formerly known as The 95 Headhunter

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Forceflow
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Post by Forceflow » Sat Jan 30, 2021 3:40 pm

Honestly I find that mission is really hit and miss. It really seems to come down to your wingmen. I had playtests were they took out 2 of the 6 generators and drew more than enough fighters for me to easily get past it. I also had other playtests were I had no help at all were it is really hard to destroy the generators in time. (Up to a point were it is almost impossible) All in all I don't find the mission hard since there are several approaches that make you safe from the SSDs fire, bit it still takes a lot of time to destroy them.
I think the easiest fix is to simply change the mission to allow a bit more time. I think when I played it last adding 2 minutes to it proved to be adequate. Still need to hurry but making it much more doable even if you don't get any help.
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Vince T
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Post by Vince T » Sat Jan 30, 2021 3:42 pm

Hmmm that springs an idea to mind: I don't think there's any necessity to remove any Shield generators from the OPT. Instead one could just make a mesh profile where the additional ones are removed.
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Will T
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Post by Will T » Sat Jan 30, 2021 6:14 pm

Vince T wrote:
Sat Jan 30, 2021 3:42 pm
Hmmm that springs an idea to mind: I don't think there's any necessity to remove any Shield generators from the OPT. Instead one could just make a mesh profile where the additional ones are removed.
Ah, I should probably clarify that I didn't remove the meshes themselves. I just set them to MiscHull instead. They're still visibly there on the opt, just non functional. You might have already assumed that, I just realised the language of what I said I'd changed was pretty vague.

An object profile would probably work better as it doesn't require a whole separate opt file, but I wasn't sure if the functionality extended to not counting things like Shield Generators mechanically.

If a Shield Generator mesh is hidden by an object profile, does it stop counting as a mesh that needs to be destroyed for the shields to go down?

I guess I can just test this myself....
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LPhoenix
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Post by LPhoenix » Wed Mar 13, 2024 9:01 pm

This mission is impossible to complete on hard difficulty, because you have no time to bring down the shields of the SSD, even from 50%, as on hard you can't take out the generators without first removing the shields. Maybe this can be addressed in the future with some hooks.
In other news, I've found a few really minor things to fix.

1B7M2W.TIE

Changes:
- Changed Global Unit of FALC M. Falcon from 3 to 0, so the Y-Ws start their numbering from 1 instead of 2. The mission briefing says FALC M. Falcon leads gold group, so this could be the reason why it was how it is, but I still don't see the point of screwing up the numbering, so I changed it.
- Changed the Global Unit of all T/I Beta groups from 2 to 10, as 2 is already used by T/I Alphas
- Changed the Global Unit of all T/F Delta groups from 4 to 11, as 4 is already used by T/F Gammas
- Changed the Global Unit of all T/F Theta groups from 6 to 8, as 6 is already used by T/F Etas
- Changed the Global Unit of all T/I Iota groups from 7 to 9, as 7 is already used by A-W Greens
- Changed the Global Unit of all T/I Zeta groups from 7 to 12, as 7 is already used by A-W Greens
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JeremyaFr
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Post by JeremyaFr » Wed Mar 13, 2024 10:25 pm

Hello,
Here is a WIP version of the mission tie hook.

Suppose that the mission is "[MissionDir]\[Mission].tie".
To override the mission data, create a file named "[MissionDir]\[Mission].txt" or create a section named "[mission_tie]" in "[MissionDir]\[Mission].ini".
To define if the ships can shoot throught the shield on hard difficulty, set "CanShootThroughtShieldOnHardDifficulty = 0". The default value is 0. It is 1 for the mission 50 (Death Star Phase 2).

xwa_hook_mission_tie_WIP_2403132323.zip
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