Pilot Archive
Thread: Storm Squadron; A Young Pilots Diary of Tier III missions -- Solo
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HewerofWood
Sat Aug 06, 2005 4:48 am
#1
I had meant to make this a simple, step by step guide to soloing Storm Squadron Tier III missionsfor New Pilots. Doing these missions changed my outlook. They are a challenge, I will not say otherwise. Long, Intense,and, at times, the potential for them to be overwhelming is clearly there. Failures for me came in many guises. From a Server Shutdown, to assumptions about handling specs that prejudged what a Loadout should be, to merely being distracted, and, in one case, Docking with a hostile ship that was not fully disarmed, resulting in watching a ship slowly being blown apart one piece at a time.
As I write this I am waiting for Server Restart in order to do the Final Tier III mission for the third time, surrounded by sheetafter sheet,bearing time stamps, listing wave after wave of attackers, broken down in Part after Part. In doing Four Lines of Pilot, two to Mastery, one to 4/4/4/4 and one to 4/3/3/3 I've never done a Pilot branch such as this. Very doable, even solo, but, where One or two long, seemingly endless escorts were involved in the others, All of Tier III is commitment. I won't say tedious, for, they are not. A commitment seems to sum up my impression far better. Each Mission is a series of events waiting to unfold. The Markers I came to associate with an ending -- Gun Platforms poping out, a Long escort followed by a battle / sneak attack -- these didn't hold true with Storm. In the final mission you disable one Tier IV Nova Courier, with it's host of escorts, only to later face another, with a much larger screen, and, I'm not even sure that is the end.
Sometime into one of these missions I realized that I could not produce a step - by - step guide that wouldwalk a Brand New Pilot through these missions. The first Tier III mission I did as a pilot was done in a Y-Wing, Crimson Pheonix. I am staring at 4 waves of 3 Tier III A-Wings, and notes for Tier IV Interlopers, A and B - Wings, with further notes for Tier IV Z's mixed in. Fast ships, lots of them, A first mission that begins at 6:05:32 and Fails with a Server Shutdown at what Seemed to be the Final stage but, turned out to be still 20 minutes from Completion. This is much more difficult than anything I faced in my Y - Wing, and, at a time when I was yet to discover the joys of Droid Commands (Edit a Link in here), and was still hours and hours of stick - timeaway from even rudementaly being able to make my ship do what I asked of it. A new Pilot doing Storm as their very first Branch is... not unlike a salary man walking intoa Haunted Fun House, late, tired, in the dark of night, all the while, mistaking it for home. Cudos to those of you who have the tenacity and perserverance to solo this.
HewerofWood
Sat Aug 06, 2005 4:49 am
#2
I had meant to make this a simple, step by step guide to soloing Storm Squadron Tier III missionsfor New Pilots. Doing these missions changed my outlook. They are a challenge, I will not say otherwise. Long, Intense,and, at times, the potential for them to be overwhelming is clearly there. Failures for me came in many guises. From a Server Shutdown, to assumptions about handling specs that prejudged what a Loadout should be, to merely being distracted, and, in one case, Docking with a hostile ship that was not fully disarmed, resulting in watching a ship slowly being blown apart one piece at a time.
Sometime into one of these missions I realized that I could not produce a step - by - step guide that wouldwalk a Brand New Pilot through these missions. The first Tier III mission I did as a pilot was done in a Y-Wing, Crimson Pheonix. I am staring at 4 waves of 3 Tier III A-Wings, and notes for Tier IV Interlopers, A and B - Wings, with further notes for Tier IV Z's mixed in. Fast ships, lots of them, A first mission that begins at 6:05:32 and Fails with a Server Shutdown at what Seemed to be the Final stage but, turned out to be still 20 minutes from Completion. This is much more difficult than anything I faced in my Y - Wing, and, at a time when I was yet to discover the joys ofDroid Commandsand was still hours and hours of stick - timeaway from even rudementaly being able to make my ship do what I asked of it.
As I write this I am waiting for Server Restart in order to do the Final Tier III mission for the third time, surrounded by sheetafter sheet,bearing time stamps, listing wave after wave of attackers, broken down in Part after Part. In doing Four Lines of Pilot, two to Mastery, one to 4/4/4/4 and one to 4/3/3/3 I've never done a Pilot branch such as this. Very doable, even solo, but, where One or two long, seemingly endless escorts were involved in the others, All of Tier III is commitment. I won't say tedious, for, they are not. A commitment seems to sum up my impression far better. Each Mission is a series of events waiting to unfold. The Markers I came to associate with an ending -- Gun Platforms poping out, a Long escort followed by a battle / sneak attack -- these didn't hold true with Storm. In the final mission you disable one Tier IV Nova Courier, with it's host of escorts, only to later face another, with a much larger screen, and, I'm not even sure that is the end. A new Pilot doing Storm as their very first Branch is... not unlike a salary man walking intoa Haunted Fun House, late, tired, in the dark of night, all the while, mistaking it for home. Cudos to those of you who have the tenacity and perserverance to solo this.
Message Edited by HewerofWood on 08-06-2005 08:40 AM
Message Edited by HewerofWood on 08-06-2005 08:44 AM
stillnotforgotten
Sat Aug 06, 2005 4:53 am
#5
heh busy doing SS as my 1st ever pilot prof.
and boy is it fun had to get help in on the first 2 missions of tier 3, had tried them umpteen times and fried through 3 tie/in's
i have now after 2 weeks of searching and forum whoring managed to get a heavy tie last night so im hoping with the better components i can now use due to previous mass issues i can give the remaining 2 a real shot at solo'n if not back to the EPA for a imp aces help.
HewerofWood
Sat Aug 06, 2005 5:58 am
#6
I seem to have made a Duplicate thread, yow!
Grats man.I started Tier I, Storm with a Heavy Tie. Had 21K, or so in Mass in it, at that point. Moved to the Tie/In As soon as I was certed for it and found that I didn't have the Mass issue I was worried about. Mostly using RE'd parts, and a crafted DI. good ships, but, aye, tough missions. I am finding that Tier III is taxing a great many skills, Targetting has been key. Those waves where lead is judged well go smoothly, and quickly. At that point it becomes mainly situational awareness... being able to quickly more from a disabled vessel to a active one, and, taking out the interlopers as they come in. With the amount of red dots on the radar in some locales, identifying hostiles which Don't have a box around them can be a challenge at times, particularly when hitting next enemy often lands a reactorless ship.
I like disabling the reactors. For some reason when you disable a vessel this way it seeks the company of others of it's kind, resulting in large clumps of ships just waiting for you to clean them up. 
NicePlus when wave after wave is coming in and you're getting behind a bit.
NicePlus when wave after wave is coming in and you're getting behind a bit.
SomeUser
Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:05 am
#7
**Double Post**
Message Edited by SomeUser on 08-06-2005 02:06 PM
Vezek 
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