Proxima 1

Please post any problems or comments specific to this mission here.

Just something minor: In the Command Briefing, it says "Laconda" instead of "Locanda".

Well spotted. Fixed. 😉

FekLeyrTarg wrote:Just something minor: In the Command Briefing, it says "Laconda" instead of "Locanda".

Favorite mission from the early days of Saga testing. Not too much has changed with this mission but I don't think that's a bad thing.

I like how the mission progresses. It's very typically Wing Commander and whereas some Saga missions break out of the mold (also a good thing) this one is classic to start off with and then gets much bigger than was possible in the old days.

Play by play... first nav point we found the medical ship under attack. The Kilrathi pose a threat but not a substantial one. This part of the mission is fairly easy I found.

Second nav point with the Corvette poses a real challenge to your escorting skills. I knew what to expect so I began to target the launcher on the Corvette as soon as I could. Still it managed to get two shots off and one was a VERY close call saved only by afterburner and gliding into place. This nav can be easy but it can also be exceptionally challenging... it's all how you play it.

Third nav takes things up a notch. I like how the transport hides out and the real concern is now defending the Destroyers. I was feeling pretty cocky through the first part of this battle up until the second wave hit. One of the destroyers went down... hit by a Pakhtan once or twice and ultimately finished off by a Corvette's cap ship missile. It does get a little hairy at this point.

Still completed the mission. Every bit as fun as it used to be.

I must say, I got a few goose bumps when I read about a ship called "TCS Victory" supporting the retreat of the Confed forces. Nice crossover!

In general I agree with Ice, there isn't much more to add. Mission works well. But I've got the feeling that the arrows resistance against collisions and shockwaves is a bit too weak. I know, the arrows armor and shields should be a bit weaker than the hellcats but I doubt that the difference is this big. If you look up the WC4 specs the arrow still got 4/5 of the hellcats armor

Hellcat's and Arrow's shield strength is actually very similar, Arrow's armor is slightly less durable.

yep, but 2 out of 3 times my fighter got destroyed by secondary explosions (missiles (like pakthans torpedos),ships) or "light" collisions with enemy fighters, which were no problem when flying the hellcat. One time I had 70% hull strenght and intercepted a missile while afterburning. I was instantly killed by the shockwave when it exploded in my flight path. Did this with the hellcat in other missions before and wasn't realy harmed at all.

But perhaps this was just by accident.

I will give it some more tries later.

It is possible to save both destroyers? I take out the Bombers and most of the Capshipmissiles but always both destroyers blow up and then the station. The Arrow is for an Intercept of one Corvette enough but against Bombers, Fighters and Corvettes useless crap!

I try it again (the 7 or 8 time..)

In the original iteration you could save both destroyers. Changes to the AI might have rendered the mission 'slightly' more difficult.

Yes that corvettes vs destroyers battle will be tweaked further. i didn't have the time to test it properly.

alex1975 wrote:It is possible to save both destroyers? I take out the Bombers and most of the Capshipmissiles but always both destroyers blow up and then the station. The Arrow is for an Intercept of one Corvette enough but against Bombers, Fighters and Corvettes useless crap!

I try it again (the 7 or 8 time..)

I'm playing at medium.

Now I've done it!!! After 20 Trys or so 😁 And I bite several time in my joystick!

And very close...

[Image: http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/4550/screen0054.th.jpg]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us Take a look at the Braunschwaigs Status: 1!!! %. I've lost the Sachsen. Perhaps you should give the destroyer a better armor, that he need 2 capshipmissile hit to blow up. Like in the Prologue.

The Other missions are easy and now I'm done with Beta 4. Try now some features and search for bugs. The only ones yet was the different speech but Tolwyn says that will be fixed.

Nice to fly with Assasin again (though no fun remarks this time from him, I bet he have to have Ninja company to start blasting jokes). Noticed that he used slides while attacking the first Corvette. Thought that was locked in Saga. So went to options and mapped a key to GLIDE and it makes big difference while attacking large vessels. Of course the priority is to eliminate Corvette launchers ASAP or you will have trouble.

The only thing that looked weird was at the last navpoint when defending Fort Pegasus - the Corvettes just flew into place by Pegasus side, stopped and were waiting to be blown away (the turrets of course fired at the Fort but not for long 😉 ). It would looked better if they were still moving while attacking and when disarmed they would just disengage and run.

Failed this mission at first try (was blown away by explosion) so at second try I just reduced the engine energy by one notch I was able to finish the mission with 99% of hull integrity. Both destroyers were toast however.

The Arrow is a nice craft to fly. At one time I was on killing spree taking out 4 or 5 Kilrathi fighters in less than 30 seconds.

Hey dudes,

I've been recovering from a serious accident, and I still got some memory loss and undergoing therapy, but I'll do what I can to contribute.

Proxima arc is quite a different scenario isn't it? New fighter, new squadron, new missions, new challenges. I had some specifics when I wrote the script for Proxima 1.

1) Meant to throw our WC veterans a curve ball. As WC fans know, fighting in Proxima is the "lose" campaign in WC3. Makes one question if there was truly any way to beat the last Vega arc, or if they were going down the "wrong" path in WC Saga towards the bitter end.

2) The "routine" mission, that's a staple of all Wing Commander missions. As you testers saw, it doesn't end up being routine in the end.

3) Meant to challenge our players who thinks the escort mission will be a total cakewalk, and make them think. The players who concentrate on killing the corvette but totally forgetting about the capship missiles being launched at the transport are in for a nasty surprise. Sometimes it takes multiple times for them to truly get it. Crafty. 😈

4) Show the status of the War. If the system right next to Earth is being raided like this, this is what we call "a clue". Also, shows that the Kilrathi, ever the adaptive opponent, have learned a few lessons from the Terran's previous Recon-in-Force campaigns. Nasty taste of our own medicine.

5) Show the player that being on the defensive side of a War really sucks ass. That's what the Proxima arc is all about, fighting defensive missions, trying to hunt down the crafty infiltrators, and appreciate when it's truly time to go on the offensive.

P.S. As far as I know, it is quite possible to save both destroyers. I can't remember if it's a bonus objective or not.

nickh46 wrote:P.S. As far as I know, it is quite possible to save both destroyers. I can't remember if it's a bonus objective or not.

Maybe it was doable in the previous iterations of the Beta, but after bomber AI improvement you just don't stand a chance intercepting all the capmissiles thrown at the destroyers by 5 Corvettes and number of bombers alltogether. Maybe if you lucky...

I'll try and make this mission a bit easier to do. Please file a Mantis ticket.

On my second play through on this mission I lost the transport at the second battle area where the Corvette closes in on the transport. The bug I think I sighted is that at the next waypoint where the Confed Starbase is under attack the two destroyers do not depart dock until after the mission is over.

Has that happened to anyone else?

File a Mantis report on this please.

KeldorKatarn wrote:File a Mantis report on this please.

Can anyone confirm whether the Rapier wing in this mission actually shows up?

I don't remember seeing them. I'll need to replay this mission.

Edit: Yes, Rapiers do show up in this mission. [Image: http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6533/rapierraffi.th.png]

KeldorKatarn wrote:Can anyone confirm whether the Rapier wing in this mission actually shows up?

Commenting on the new missions now, meant to get to it last week. 😡 I will try to get my impression of Proxima II in tomorrow.

Anyway I have finally played the first mission of Proxima. The command briefing really struck me hard. I almost always stopped the Bio-Warhead missile fired at Loconda in WC3. However given the story you are telling and if I remember the WC3 Book then this take on the story fits. Now on to the the mission itself.

Right off it was good to fly the Arrow again but also a little frustrating. When one goes straight from the Hellcat into the Arrow it is a little like learning to fly all over again. It took me awhile to get the hand of how best to employ it properly and I will say that I don't think this mission is something a new player would want to fly straight away.

Quite frankly this mission is hard. I would not say that any one stage of the mission is that bad but when you string them together it is another matter entirely.

When you first rendezvous with the Medical Transport and take on that Squadron of Dralthi and Darket it is not that bad if you know how to fly the Arrow and employ its guns properly. Just coming off the Hellcat with rust light fighter skills I think I took 80% damage just from collisions my first time through due to the grater speed and acceleration.

Defending the Tranquility from the Corvette was harder than I ever remember it being in WC3. The total force you faced at that way-point is not actually that big if you were attacking however keeping track of the Anti-ship missiles being launched at a medical transport while fighting off the Corvette fighter escort is a different matter. It would help a lot if the Tranquility would make a "Vampire!" brevity code call whenever a missile was launched at it.

Next is defending the station from attack from the Kilrathi Corvette force and its attacked bombers. I wish someone would give be some tactical coordination because it feels like the Confed defenders are running around like a chicken with its head cut off. It was a mess my first time trying it. On second thought though I think due to the size of the engagement I lost situational awareness of the bomber wings which is what I am fairly sure killed both of the destroyers. I wish I had about 20 Trebuchet missiles. 😂

As I said above each of these encounters is not bad on its own but when strung together they can produce a level of accumulative damage that can make it hard to survive by the end of the mission. Add on top of that the possibility that a player may be coming in straight from flying Hellcats with this being almost like a first time in and Arrow all over again and you have a recipe for a very tough mission.

Now on the flip side I also know that it is possible to produce missions that just happen to give certain individual players fits. I think that just might be the case here. It is now one thing. I love the mission design but its is one of those that Makes me have to play it over and over and over in order to both survive and achieve all mission objectives.

Light wrote:When you first rendezvous with the Medical Transport and take on that Squadron of Dralthi and Darket it is not that bad if you know how to fly the Arrow and employ its guns properly. Just coming off the Hellcat with rust light fighter skills I think I took 80% damage just from collisions my first time through due to the grater speed and acceleration.

Remember to manage power of your fighter, you can always decrease power to the engines giving more to guns and shields, so basically the Arrow flies slower and with less acceleration, and the shields regenerates faster so you have more protection.

Light wrote:Defending the Tranquility from the Corvette was harder than I ever remember it being in WC3. The total force you faced at that way-point is not actually that big if you were attacking however keeping track of the Anti-ship missiles being launched at a medical transport while fighting off the Corvette fighter escort is a different matter. It would help a lot if the Tranquility would make a "Vampire!" brevity code call whenever a missile was launched at it.

It all comes to the appropriate tactics. During the first attack there is only one Corvette and no bombers, so you have to deal with the biggest threat first - destroy the torpedo launcher on the Corvette and it's a milk run afterwards.

Light wrote:Next is defending the station from attack from the Kilrathi Corvette force and its attacked bombers. I wish someone would give be some tactical coordination because it feels like the Confed defenders are running around like a chicken with its head cut off. It was a mess my first time trying it. On second thought though I think due to the size of the engagement I lost situational awareness of the bomber wings which is what I am fairly sure killed both of the destroyers. I wish I had about 20 Trebuchet missiles. 😂

This navpoint is really tricky, it's a nice furball with all the fighters, bombers and corvettes. When the bombers arrive and with five corvettes on the attack you have basically no chances of intercepting all the torps thrown at the destroyers (remember the 'B' key to target nearest torpedo/bomber). I never managed to save any of them. Last navpoint is hard, but you don't have to save the destroyers to pass the mission. And given the situation - 5 corvettes with bomber support and fighter cover, the outcome of the mission is acceptable in my opinion.

Also, what I've noticed on the first run is that, after the Transport's destruction, the Arrows still fly slowly during the Autopilot sequence.

The balancing on this mission is worse than usual. I didn't have much time on Beta 4 to work on this mission more. It will be balanced a lot better in Beta 5.

Played through this one in Beta5 and I have few things to share.

First of - the balancing is much better. Now the destroyers at Fort Pegasus really do their job (was the bomber wave reduced?).

I don't know if it was intencional but when you target the corvettes the launcher syb-system is already targeted (it wasn't in Beta4) so you have less work to do in cockpit since this is the first place where you want to aim your guns at - nice feature.

And the last but not least the horrible bug - you CAN'T finish (win) this mission! Tried it twice. After destroying all Kilrathi at Fort Pegasus nothing happens. The objective "Rendevous with transoprt at Nav1 and escort it to Naval Base at Nav 3" is marked incomplete in objective screen (F4). Maybe this is due the fact that the Nav 3 lies in close proximity of the Hermes Battle Group instead of Fort Pegasus? 📎 [Attachment: beta5-proxima1.JPG]

But even when you fly to it (I flew to it manually, no autopilot available - 4 min trip btw 😉 ), nothing changed - even tried to land in Hermes. 📎 [Attachment: beta5-proxima1-2.JPG]

On the side note: while flying slide/glide capable craft you can save your afterburner fuel by accelerating to max speed and activating glide - you maintain your speed without burning fuel. This should go to the WC Saga Strategy Guide (TM). 😁

Filing a mantis ticket. Edit: ticket #342

Interesting and good description of the problems you encountered; however, I have not had those problems and have been able to finish the mission all twelve times I've flown it. Not sure what the difference is between what you did and what I did, is it possible you lost the ship you were escorting (destroyed before getting to the fort, or while the fort was under attack)? As the primary goal, that would make the mission impossible to complete.

Thor wrote:Interesting and good description of the problems you encountered; however, I have not had those problems and have been able to finish the mission all twelve times I've flown it. Not sure what the difference is between what you did and what I did, is it possible you lost the ship you were escorting (destroyed before getting to the fort, or while the fort was under attack)? As the primary goal, that would make the mission impossible to complete.

I haven't lost any ships along the way. Did you flown this mission twelve times in Beta 5(?), because I'm referring to the newest release. In previous releases I was able to finish this mission without any issues.

I asjusted the nav points here and probably screwed something up. Can't be anything big, probably just a trigger bug. We'll put out a small patch within the next few days so mache sure you can complete the campaign if you are going for a full playthrough. Sorry for the inconvenience

To clearify: Nav 3 is supposed to be at the Hermes battlegourp (check the briefing). That was a mistake in previous versions. The base is at nav 2. The interim battle with the one corvette happens between Nav 1 and 2 now. I probably just messed up the updating of the mission goal and trigger of Nav 3.

A hotfix for this issue is online. Please check the first post of the Beta 5 release thread.

KeldorKatarn wrote:A hotfix for this issue is online. Please check the first post of the Beta 5 release thread.

Thanks for the quick fix Keldor. ➡️

My prior comment about the 12 runs through Proxima 1 were for the last version 4 of the Beta. I have tested the new version with the hot fix and can confirm it resolves the issues Damson reported.

I also can confirm this mission is fair now, bombers can be shot down fast enough now, missiles seem to be less frequent. Still you have to be carefull that none of the missiles and torps hit the cap ships...

beta8 playthrough:

Still everything is good. It seems like the terran destroyers always behave in the same way. last time the cap missiles hit the cat corvettes before they could launch a wave of missiles, this time two corvettes reached the fort and started circling, even though their fighter escort was already gone and their missile launchers destroyed.

I've noticed only this: The Braunschweig's Undocking-Line (the voiced one) is delayed by about 1.5 seconds.

Beta9:

Don't know if you've changed something but this time the gameplay was much smoother than in my last replay. After finishing the first waypoint I arrived at the station and immediately had to intercept the bombers and some cap ship missiles launched from the corvettes. Took the bombers down in a couple of seconds (double missile hits + some shots from the primary guns) and helped my wingman to finish the fighters. After this I only had about 30 seconds to intercept the first wave of cap ship missiles (good thing, creates some pressure). In my previous runs through this mission I always destroyed the corvettes' missile launchers first and then took the fighters which always resulted in at least one torpedo hit on one of the friendly caps. After I took down all bombers, fighters and cap missiles the corvettes got shredded in about 60 seconds. Still a nice mission and full of great action.

Updated greenlight report.