Having problem with Campaign 1 first mission

[Din Ahmed]

Basically I just started the game I (1st Campaign) and I am supposed to collect 50,000 from a system by using the Merchant Guild and then return to a planet (no III me thinks) on that system.

Fine, I thought I went around doing the trading missions, and mercenary missions and killing tons of pirates and I end up with about 300,000 with about level 10. So I return to the planet but there's no one at the Teran Contact. What am I supposed to do?

How do I trigger the event?

Secondly, when they say get 50,000 from the place, do they mean just the Merchant Guild on that one Planet or any other Planets count as well. I just thought that they would consider the total creds I have versus making certain amount from a Guild. Heck I 've done nearly 30 Merchant Mission, some from the Merchant Guild and Neutral Traders as well.

Does killing tons of pirates have an effect on the story? How about those Fazrah (spelling?) ships that attack me in the Barton system. I got even and accidently killed quite a few of them...

Off topic:- Why the heck do the beam weapons miss so much. I mean I'm like 10 ls distance from the ship (almost kissing) and both beams miss... Who fires the damn guns, they must be blind!!! Somehow those ultra weak bolt weapons at start of the game have a heck of a lot better chance to hit... I even bought one of those combat sensors +60 attack but it didn't help much.

Also, anyone wonders why you can't fit Light weapons at the Heavy weapons slot. I preffer bLasting rather than missles/torps cause they get shot up like water.

[Phoenix-D]

Bolts oddly never miss unless the target changes course; beams are affected by combat sensors, ECM, etc.

As for the first mission, just get 50,000 credits any way you please and go to Yorkshire III. Sure you went to the right system?

[Stone-D]

Agreed re the light on heavy points. That's why I created a new weapon, called the 'Antimatter Stream'. It's basically a suped up antiproton beam with shorter range but with strength similar to sithrak gear. Changed the beam colour & audio to white flashes and the ripper wav. Sweet.

Phoenix: No way? ECM for beam weapons? Weapons which go from A to B in next to zero time? Surely it should be the other way round, they should affect missiles?

[David E. Gervais]

Originally posted by Din Ahmed:
Off topic:- Why the heck do the beam weapons miss so much. I mean I'm like 10 ls distance from the ship (almost kissing) and both beams miss... Who fires the damn guns, they must be blind!!! Somehow those ultra weak bolt weapons at start of the game have a heck of a lot better chance to hit... I even bought one of those combat sensors +60 attack but it didn't help much.

I agree, playing a game where spaceflight is common life, I would expect any ships to have some kind of automated targeting system. I think all 'Beam' weapons should hit allways. It's the amount of damage that should be randomized. Having ECM would reduce the max damage.

..my two cents, cheers!

[Din Ahmed]

I am certain I'v been to Yorkshire III and clicked on the Terran Contact. I've been to the system so many times I've memorized to location of the 2 interactable planets.

Yorkshire III is near the middle of the system somewhat in the North East (in the space map) and the other is Yorkshire VIII that is near the South East.

I've checked my quest/log book and it shows only the trade missions that I've done. I also checked the "Failed Mission" just in case but found nothing (no entry at all, empty).

What was supposed to be the follow up to the first mission, I read there is a cheat to trigger events, anyone know how to trigger the next event.

Regarding the Beam vs Bolt weapons... Your right. The Bolt weapons rarely miss. The shot seems to be a projected shot at where the target will be if it follows its current speed/direction, so it never misses unless sudden change of direction. The Beam weapon I'm using forgot name (something about 'focused beam through a crystal' in the description... ) misses like once every 2-3 shots.

Also, I find the missles/torps kinda useless since the baddies shoot it down a lot. Anyone created a mod that allows Light weapons to be mounted on Heavy slots yet...

[Stone-D]

AFAIK, the light/heavy is hardcoded into the game executable. Therefore, nocando. I'm not going to bother looking into that - like I did with add/remove items in flight(1) - however, you can do what I did.

Open "Main_PurchaseShipsPlayer.txt" in the campaign you're playing. Locate the ship you wish to use light on heavy, then copy and paste that at the very end, before the *END* indicator. Leave a single blank line after the Last "Num Starting Configuration Slots := 0" entry. Rename it to something funky, like "Terran Cruiser Mark IV". Modify the stats as you wish. Now find the line that says, eg :

"Component Configuration Slots Name := Pirate Miranda Class I"

Change to whatever you want, but make a note of it.

Now open "Main_ComponentConfigurationSlotsPlayer". Find the entry that matches the ship you copied. Do the cut/paste thing, and change the name to whatever you specified before.

Last step, search(2) for "weapon". Change accordingly.

code:

---

Slot 3 Xpos := 171

Slot 3 Ypos := 263

Slot 3 Group Name := Weapon (Heavy) 1

Slot 3 Comp Type Allowed := Weapon (Heavy)

Slot 3 Comp Type Abbreviation := W(H)

Slot 3 Comp Box Color Index := 1

Slot 3 Ship Section := Hull

Slot 3 Ship Side Facing := 0

Slot 3 Weapon Firing Point := 2

Slot 3 Weapon Arc Start := 225

Slot 3 Weapon Arc End := 315

---

Changed, that would look like :

code:

---

Slot 3 Xpos := 171

Slot 3 Ypos := 263

Slot 3 Group Name := Weapon (Light) 1

Slot 3 Comp Type Allowed := Weapon (Light)

Slot 3 Comp Type Abbreviation := W(L)

Slot 3 Comp Box Color Index := 1

Slot 3 Ship Section := Hull

Slot 3 Ship Side Facing := 0

Slot 3 Weapon Firing Point := 2

Slot 3 Weapon Arc Start := 225

Slot 3 Weapon Arc End := 315

---

The NAME doesn't really matter. The W(L) is what shows up on the game's interface. The 'allowed' is what matters.

If you're wanting to change ALL to light, easy. If you want to change only some... good luck... or, get yourself a copy of Slot Modder.

HTH.

(1) For this, change the bytes at these HEX locations :

000A1E5B: 75 becomes EB
000A1EF8: 75 becomes EB

(2) To make this easier, copy/paste into a new document. Search/change there, then paste the result back into the main file.

[Phoenix-D]

The light/heavy is by no means hard coded. Go to components.txt, and find the weapon you want to make heavy mountable. Simply add a comma, a space and then Weapon(Heavy) after Weapon(Light), and it will be mountable in both..

As for ECM affecting beams, I think it should affect bolts AND beams. Beams may go from point A to point B really fast, but you still have to aim the thing in the first place, and ECM could make that difficult..(keep in mind that the scale is, er, exaggerated).

On the Yorkshire mission: look at your Completed Missions tag. What does it say? If you still can't get it to work, try triggering Event General Haynes 1 Finish.

[Stone-D]

/me gives himself a resounding smack on the forehead. Then runs away to cower in corner somewhere.

[Suicide Junkie]

When I made the weapons placable in multiple slot types, the AIs seemed to get confused. That was quite a while ago though.

The way I do it in P&N is that there is a duplicate component that fits in a heavy slot, plus has the bonuses of an SE4 large mount. (+50% size, double damage, more $$$)

The stores sell a third type, which is the same as the light one, but also fits in heavy mounts.

The AIs end up using the Light-only or the Heavy-only.

[Din Ahmed]

Okay... So lets assume I just made this Terran Cruiser IV with the weapon changed from Heavy to Light. How do actually purchase this ship from the game?

Or do I have to kinda cheat to get (after all modding the game that extent would sure be considered 'cheating' anyways...).

Another question is if I make changes to the Campaign files, the changes wont appear in existing games and only appear in new games that I start fresh after making the changes, right?

So how do I make changes to current games...? Or is it not possible...