Constrictor Mission (*Some Spoilers*)...

[jonnycuba]

Good luck Commander!

[Rxke]

Good luck indeed...

Was hot on its tail, but the trail went cold again...

'reported at XYZ,' so I go there, but no follow-up messages

I'm thinking about going to rename the Constrictor to Wild-Goose, so I can chase it in the right mindset...

[Star Gazer]

So...Rxke...have you found it yet...?

You should find a system that says 'there's a really dangerous pirate out there'...

I won't say where unless you are really frustrated!

[Rxke]

A-Ha... "I hear a weird looking ship was seen at XXX"

Though I've already been there... A gazzillion times.

We'll see.

[Rxke]

Well... At last I found the system, but Mr. Constrictor must be chicken...

Guess I'll hang around a bit... Waiting for him to show up.

Ta..dum...dum...tum...ti-da...dumm..tum...tum...

[stevesims]

I seem to recall Giles saying that there was initially a delay for when the Constrictor turned up. As a result if you did the typical thing of hyperspacing to a system and then flying to the planet you'd never come across the Constrictor.

The delay has now been removed, but I'm not sure whether this was done for the 1.20 release or not.

[Rxke]

Got 'im!


And he's there almost rightaway after a Hyperspacejump... Although I did some to and fro jumps to that particular system. Don't use the 'j' rightaway, or you possibly miss him. I think cops got him at one point, lots of debris, lots of cops, no Constrictor, so I restarted the game, and Bingo!

But what a sissy, kept fleeing *very fast* everytime I all but had him on its knees.
I guess after awhile the witchspace fuel runs out, b'cause all of a sudden he didn't zoom away anymore. Tried to, though. But NO MERCY!

To be honest, I think Fer-de-Lances are harder to pin down, esp. with then new speed-parameters under 1.22

Now... What to do with all that money, heehee...

BTW: how many kills before you go up one notch? Seems like I'm being stuck in being 'dangerous' for ages....

[Star Gazer]

Congrats Rxke.

I agree about the Fer-de-Lances, they are mean dudes. Nasty habit of firing missiles at point blank range just as you are about to zap them, excellent bit of AI on the part of the game. Mind you, some of those Asps are pretty nifty, too. Good sneaky tactics circulating around waiting for their opportunity!

I think I'm about to go up from dangerous (at last) - the game has been really nasty to me with 5-7 pirates all attacking at once, I keep on almost making it, then one missiles me at a crucial moment and my 57 year-old reflexes aren't quick enough to get to the E key before...'Hit space bar...'....sigh

This v1.22 really is very playable, it's transformed the game by cutting down the travelling time and livening up the ships' movements.

[Rxke]

Yeah, the darn 'e' key...

When they launch at point blank range, you just don't stand a chance... Nothing to do with reflexes, I think.

And I agree, 1.22 is a *huge* improvement, the speed of the ships in dogfights make it a lot harder. infuriatingly so, sometimes, heehee...

If I get attacked by a big number, I usually start by trying to take down the ones w/o ECM, the Mk I's and Sidewinders, for instance, and just ignore the other ones. 3 or 4 down, it makes it a lot easier to retaliate.

[Jaybee]

Yep, the speed has made the game much more playable. Could do with the ECM system powering up a little quicker though. After getting involved with 5 squadrons of GalCorp Vipers at the same time I was more or less a sitting duck! Thank God for fuel injectors otherwise I'd have been a gonner!

About to tackle the Constrictor mission myself and I am on my way to Xeer to follow the trail. I've read the bulletin board regarding bugs etc and I'll let you know how it went.

Looking forward to the other mission too!

[Rxke]

The bugs involving the Constrictor mission have been eliminated, so it should work allright.

Be sure, though, if you happen to save half-way (to go to sleep or something) to write down where you were heading.... I lost track that way, because i thought the saved game would've saved that info. It didn't, an I couldn't remember the name of the system last mentioned, Aaarg!

The other mission is a real money-earner, IMO. Lots of bounty !
Be sure to have a scoop installed.

[Jaybee]

SPOILER ALERT!! PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO COMPLETE THE CONSTRICTOR MISSION WITHOUT ANY HELP!!!!

Just an update to the progress I made with the Constrictor Mission.

I was told to go to Xeer. Saved the game. Came back the next day and made my way there. Sure enough, the lead took me to Reesdice then Arexe. At Arexe I was told that the strange ship bought a galaxy drive and used it. Pretty straight forward.

However, I had already purchased a galaxy drive before getting to Arexe. So, when I got the message in the Arexe system about the Constrictor using the galaxy drive I then activated mine (before getting to the space station), and ended up in galaxy 2. On arrival there was no message.

So I reloaded the commander file and proceeded to the space station at Arexe, saved the game, launched, and activated the galaxy drive. Again, no message in galaxy 2.

Not to be outdone I thought about it logically. Even though I had a galaxy drive I hadn't purchased one after arriving at Arexe. So I looked for the nearest planet with a suitable tech level where I could get one. Sure enough, there was one to the top right of Arexe (the name fails me at the moment), so I went there. I saved the game, then I used my existing galaxy drive and, hey presto, there was the Constrictor waiting to have it's butt kicked.

I don't know if this helps, but it may provide some clues about what's going on in the code.

Now for the Thargoid Mission!

[Rxke]

Jaybee,
congrats w/ the mission completion! What did you think of the Constrictor itself?

good thinking about how to get to the Constrictor directly... But now you're you're making it too easy for the people following in your footsteps!

[NoSleep]

Perhaps a spoiler alert on the title of this thread would be appropriate

[Jaybee]

Spoiler alert added to my last post on this thread. Ooops!!

Thought the constrictor itself was a beast to destroy. Looked good too. Loved the way it flew off, recharged then sped itself straight at you guns blazing. Took me ages (and with no reload). Phew!!

Looking forward to trying the 1.24 patch.