Replaying X-Wing (not from GOG, albeit I will get them too at some point for the 1998 versions). Damn some of the missions are hard, but still doing fine. Now on mission 9 of Tour of Duty 1.

Mission 8 was a real bitch (you have to identify, deactivate and protect two transports, and optionally destroy rest of the 12 transports), until I found (or remembered) a way to trick the game logic.

The thing is, after you deactivate the two transports, the game apparently keeps sending a pair of TIE Interceptors against one transport at a time, ie. four in total (two pairs against two transports). If you destroy both of the TIE pair, a new pair will appear. In the end I was able to protect both transports, and even destroy all the rest of the transports, this way:

1. Using my Jedi powers, I knew already beforehand that the transports containing prisoners are #4 and #11 (when you keep pressing the T button), as they apparently never change. So first I quickly destroyed all the other transports (1-3, 5-10 and 12). I disregarded the TIE Fighters on my tail, no time to fight them.

2. Right after that deactivate (and identify) the two remaining transports (#4 and #11), which are the ones to protect. The rescue transports, and a bit later TIE Interceptors wanting to destroy the rescue transports, appear.

3. Of each TIE Interceptor pair, destroy only one ASAP, so that each pair has only one remaining TIE Interceptor.

Then you are pretty much done with the mission. One TIE Interceptor (per transport) doesn't apparently have enough fire power to destroy the transport (regenerating shields I guess), so the transports are safe now as there is only one TIE Interceptor after them. So do what you want, fight the neverending supply of TIE Fighters if you want, or just fly around until you get mission accomplished.

That's one thing I don't like in some of these space combat games, the more you kill enemy fighters, the harder it comes (as new fighters appear only if you destroy the old ones). I would have liked e.g. this mission more if new TIE Interceptors would appear on certain intervals, so the faster you destroy them, the better you are doing.

Now I just feel I won as I was able to outsmart the game design, almost like cheating.

That is the one mission in X-Wing I'll never forget. I remember that the longer it takes you to disable to target transports, the longer it takes for your transports to dock with them. With that in mind, like you,I also remembered which transports needed deactivating and just beelined for them straight off the bat so my transports could take them over pretty quick.

I remember finishing the mission this way but not sure if your way is easier. I haven't played X-wing for like13 years now so I forget exactly what happened during that mission when I actually finished it. I really gotta get a new joystick and play that game again. Good times :)


Edit: I remember the first time I played X-Wing, i finished one of the first missions but before I could jump out, all my wingmen from 4 directions all crashed into me at once (causing me to lose the mission), don't suppose that ever happened to you did it? I was only ever to get that to happen once.

I don't recall either how exactly I finished that mission back then, and whether I was e.g. able to destroy all the other transports, like the briefing suggests (but then it may be optional, only granting you extra points).

Anyway, it seems that as long as you keep only one TIE Interceptor alive per transport, then it is a free homerun, as the game will not send any more TIE Interceptors, and one Interceptor cannot destroy a transport apparently. So at that point it doesn't matter anymore how long the docking takes. A silly trick, but it seems to work.

I remember something else as well. Whatever ship you disabled first, your transport would dock with that ship (I accidently had them dock with the wrong ships this way). After you disable your two target transports, you should be able to disable the enemy TIES afterwardsl without jeopardizing your mission objectives :)

Hey, that sounds neat! Maybe I should replay the mission. :) Then again, using the ion cannons on TIEs seems a bit hard, as it seems to be slower than the laser cannons. Doable if the TIEs run in a straight line, I guess.

Ion cannons are slower than the lasers, but it's still not too hard to hit them. TIEs are unshielded, you only need 3 hits on them to disable them. Also, sometimes they have a habit to running at you head on, not smart in an unshielded craft. If they do that, accept their chicken challenge, fire off a few shots when they get in range and turn out of the way. Just gotta make sure your wingmen don't get overzealous ;)

Rushed through the last third of Two Worlds and played through Chaser. Now I'm going to start Shadowrun Returns.

I'll start Baldur's Gate again later. It's about time i finally play it a bit more, so far i've only played it for an hour or so. :D

Playing Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic for the first time, almost to the end...

And doing a first playthrough of Diablo II (with the Lords of Destruction expansion). :)

This War of Mine - After some initial mistakes i'm on my third playthrough and actually having some sucess, i already welcomed one new character to my house and my stock is... manageable, but i'm starting to get what i should craft first and grab/stock.
The game by itself it's kind of simple and it's one more to add to the "i wish someone made something like this, with these elements but with a bigger budget".

Valkyria Chronicles - God damn the game is hard. I was used to some other rules (like having my soldiers deployed immediately and without costing 1 AP) from the other games but now i kind of have to relearn the game. It's a bit unfair since it judges you (score) by how quick you finish the battle and yet you need to be carefull otherwise you will lose your soldiers, so it kind of pushes the gamer to use rush tactics and i'm more of a "clean up" guy and want to eliminate most of the enemies on the map.

Braveland - This should be on the "What did you finish in 2014" but meh, just to say that i played that on my phone (thanks for the free game Amazon) and it was kind of neat, i wish it was bigger, i think i finish it in 3 hours maybe. Still, i do enjoy this kind of games (turn based strategy) and since i'm bad at those it was nice of them to include the easy setting where i don't need to backtrack to get more soldiers.

Played Hammerwatch today, cause I bought it in the sale here. It`s a nice little Gauntletstyle game with a hard difficulty, even on easy!
In a few minutes I will play Civilization IV. Beyond the Sword BASE-Mod again. I love the building of an empire.

VTMB with new patch.

NWN Diamond.

Are you using the Unofficial Patch and if so, Basic or Plus?

The last one in this thread :

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/vampire_bloodlines_unofficial_patch_update

The Unofficial Patch Version 9.2 just basic nothing added.

Ah, okay. If you were using the Plus version I was gonna ask how you liked it, I haven't used the Plus version since (I think) two full versions ago (7.2 I think). Since then they've apparently restored an entire level that was cut from the base game.