The quiet musings of an SFB/SFC vet:
I found my SFC Gold disc, went out on a limb and installed it on my win7 x64 laptop. I don't know which Trek deity has smiled on my little ol' lappy, but the thing works. BEAUTIFULLY. I spent hours (very literally) between Technicals (you remember those, right?), campaign missions, and the boards here in between sessions to keep my mind from going nuts. I think I may have slept somewhere in there, two. Its been a very happy and productive 3 days
and yes, I patched to 1.03; thanks to D.Net for having that readily available.
But then, I had a problem. In SFC:EAW and OP, I hate flying with AI wingmen. Just hate it. I spend more prestige keeping them up and going than I should, and the AI enemy usually just targets me anyway. I totally forgot that for SFC 1 it is almost a requirement to have at least one escort to complete some missions favorably. I remembered that after my 4th or 5th attempt at everyone's favorite mission, "Dancing With Myself".
Before I get too far along, I have to post this:
Posted by Czar Mohabon Mar 28, 190 at 18:56:37:
In Reply to: Dancing with myself.... posted by Captain Denzel on Mar 28, 190 at 18:45:05:
First, take in a CLH as you Command ship. This gives you counterpart a CLH. Take a cruiser and a Destroyer with you(or bigger if you prefer).
Transfer command to the cruiser as soon as mission starts.
Tell the CLH (yes, the Hospital ship) to stay pu. you no longer need her.
Destroy the two frigates or whatever that are circling the orion base. the base is not needed to be destroyed.
Your counter should appear. capture him, slap on a tractor and drag him to nearest Rommie bastard or Klink or whatever.
HAIL them, they should say how sorry they are and some crap.
That is it.
You are done.
Czar Mohab U.S.S. Mohab's New Pride (BB) NCC-6969-A
Follow Ups:
Little ship & Big Ship - Klink 12:28:33 4/03/0 (0)
How do you get a hospital ship? - Antiwolf 09:16:07 3/29/0 (1)
They are usually at the borders N/T - Czar Mohab 18:41:44 3/29/0 (0)
That's right. 11 years ago (younger, much more cocky and ... young!) I wrote up the cheater's way. This was just one of many similar posts. By me. Eventually I sat down and wrote a real, semi in depth report (long lost to the digital graveyard... sad.) that covered other viable tactics (note: I don't recall if the year format was that bad back then or is just because of the way it was archived, but "190" and "0" are supposed to be "2000" or "00")
Preposting edit: Found what I was lookin for:
Posted by Czar Mohabon Apr 19, 190 at 19:37:07:
In Reply to: Some help please... posted by Jack on Apr 19, 190 at 18:15:00:
I. Base rules for this mssion:
A. DO NOT hail the enemy fleet.
B. DO NOT worry about the Orion crap that is there.
II. My Tactical advice:
A. Fleet selection:
1. Take a fleet with you, a small ship (CLH works best, but only as the command ship) and at least a CA/CC/BC type hull. If you can afford it, take a Drone cruiser (NCD or CAD(R/+).
a. The CLH and others fleet works as such:
1. make the CLH the command ship.
2. load up other ship(s) with drones, etc.
3. transfer command to any other ship at begining.
a. Tell CLH to go "over there" and wait. Your counterpart will be in a CLH. Easy kill.
4. kill first 2 imperials with tactics covered in Single Ship, below.
5. your counterpart.
a. down one of his shields and capture him.
b. Order wingmen (if any) to go "over there". they will inadvertantly kill him.
c. drag him in a tractor to waiting baddies.
d. Hail them. you are done
B. Single Ship
1. Take any ship you feel will survive, however a CA or better works best.
2. Load with stuff CAUTIOUSLY.
a. Your counterpart will have same stuff.
3. Find the smaller imperial.
a. Charge weapons to O/L and start sending drone waves at about 20 or so away.
b. set ECM/ECCM to around 1-2 each, 3 if you have the power.
c. set a tractor to 1.
d. reinforce #1 shield.
e. set speed to best while charging stuff up.
f. Tractor locks on, alpha him, he should die, you take minimal damage.
4. find other imperial.
a. he is traveling at 31 in circles. wait in one spot, tractor him.
b. repeat as above.
5. The Counterpart
a. He will arive shortly after you kill last imperial.
b. lower speed for more power to systems.
c. set tractor to 3.
d. mines
1. you may want to set up a small mine field with your transporters and run away from you counterpart, the mines between you. Ask Adm. Z and others for best usage
e. down one of his shields
1. set phasers to "stun" (only 'cause I cannot recall what it really is rifgt now).
2. Mizia him until 6-7 or less marines abord.
NOTE=> If you fear that continued attacks will kill him, then just start sending in several waves of marines.
3. Order wingmen (if any) to go "over there". they will inadvertantly kill him.
4. send in marines.
5. capture, and drag him over to waiting baddies. hail them. done.
Hope this helps.
Czar Mohab, who will probably now save this in Word so he will not have to keep typing it out..
Now why did I go looking into the past to figure out the solution to my problem? Well, for one thing I knew it was out there waiting to be found (thanks to the wayback machine! WOOT!); but more than that, despite
dominating this game over and over and over again 11+ years ago... I forgot how to play it. I've been keeping myself going with OP for so long (one day I'll find my EAW discs...) that, well, I've been spoiled. I won't go into how here, its a topic for another day.
Since reinstalling SFC Gold three days ago, I've only had one crash, and I think it was my own fault. I don't remember the game playing this smoothly or crashless. Probably the result of increased processing speed, or speed of the machine overall, but when hardpoints get flashed, the flicker quickly, not the slow off/on yellow flashing... The missions I remember as being buggy are still buggy, but I guess that is to be expected; Win7 fixed some things, wasn't even thinking it would fix a program of, in PC terms, ancient age.
I remember at one point someone commenting that if you threw enough RAM at SFC, the memory leak wouldn't be an issue. I also remember playing the game on a Win98SE P3 366MHz, 96MB RAM, $400 box from Best Buy. I remember slowdowns and crashes so hard that
unplugging the machine from the wall was the only way to reset. Now, on an AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile M520 (2.30GHz), 4 GB RAM, $400 laptop... Well there's a HUGE difference in performance.
One other thing that I have forgotten over the years is that I absolutely need to save after every mission. Lost a couple of Legendary Officers because i didn't.
But, ultimately, reloading SFC1 for the first time in 11 years - its like playing the game again for the first time, but with the skills (well, most of them) that I've gathered since playing it for the very first time. It has become a familiar, yet new, game.
Oh well. Its time for me to step out of the "hey listen to me" ring. I've to get back to dancing.
Topic: Dancing with myself... 11 years later. (Read 4175 times)