Pilot Archive

Ok, I've seen a number of posts (old and new) where pilots are having problems with Escort and/or hold the fort type missions (those where you sit near a WP and fight off waves of attackers). I haven't seen this posted anywhere else, my apologies if I am repeating anything that has been said before. I've done a few squadrons now and thought I would share the following technique to enable people to get through these missions a bit more easily.

I have observed through many missions that only 2 spawns will be live at the same time when doing an Escort or Stay near this WP mission - I've actually never seen 3 mission spawns live at the same time on any mission. This got me thinking.. what if those two spawns were never totally destroyed? I put this to the test on the Black Epsilon Tier 3 and 4 missions last night and my plan worked perfectly.

When the first spawn appeared I destroyed all but one ship and only damaged the armour/shield and sometimes I also damaged the engine of the remaining ship (got to be careful not to destroy the engine, but if you get it down to around 20% the target ship has big problems with speed and manoeuvrability) - if you disable or destroy the last ship it will eventually blow up and cause another set to spawn. Then I flew around waiting for the next spawn and took out everything but the last ship from that spawn too - having damaged the last ship from the first spawn I could tell whether I was targeting the correct ship to destroy. I then damaged the last ship of the second spawn in the same way - then spent the rest of the escort flying rings around these 2 ships with nothing else spawning mission wise! Exactly the same thing happened with the hold the WP mission, I left one ship alive from each wave then flew around near the WP and nothing else spawned, happily watching the % completed until it finished.

The main drawback I see here is if you have problems dealing with these 2 ships, if you do I suggest you bring a friend and make sure they know the plan before you start the mission. Another possible problem is that you miss all the nice XP that you would get from the additional mission spawns, but I've never had a problem getting XP outside of these missions - try Kessel if you are in the later Tiers or Duty missions for all Tiers. Duty missions are very effective for collecting loot and XP and you can cancel the mission anytime it gets too much for you.

Hmm, gone a bit off track towards the end but hopefully you get the idea and helps

i'd have never thought of that. i'll try that out to confirm when i get home from work. this does make alot of sense, provided you don't bork yerself by popping those last 2 ships. another problem i can see is that in most escort missions, the enemy fighters will not only go after you, but also the ship you're escorting. but if you can get their attention and draw their fire away, you should be able to avoid your escort getting blown up.

Escorts are boring enough as it is...

Gilack Mehoipou [Bloodfin]

Quintuple Master- Marksman/Squad Leader/Rifleman/Vortex Pilot/Politician

Made it before all hell broke loose.

This works really good...in fact, I've been using it for weeks before it was mentioned here. Just a slight addendum...

If you're careful, shoot an enemy starfighter's drives down to 20% or less and then clear your component targeting. Take one or two more shots and, if you're lucky, the drives will blow up. If you disable the starfighter that way, by not specifically targeting the component, it won't self-destruct.

Halyn Lance -- Rara Avis Flight School
Common sense is highly uncommon.
...has mastered the Pilot profession.
"I'll type this slowly so even Imperials can understand..."--Michael Stackpole, RS IRC

/agree with psiko

The only thing that makes these missions from being utterly and completely boring is the fact that you get to kill stuff for a few seconds before it is back to snoring... er waiting for more to kill.