At some point early on in either the Empire or Weave strings you are given a mission where you are offered Free Coffee which leaves a strange taste in your mouth.
Clearly it didn't have much discernable effect so I guess that answers my question.
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Its amazing how "tsk, tsik, nik" can mean anything from "There's a bomb in the bus, get help!" to "I'm hungry, feed me"
In case of ambiguity about anything I say - choose the nicest interpretation.
Quote
Originally posted by Skippy the bush kangaroo:
**
Finally, I have one question for all of you: What do you think of the Free Coffee interlude? (It's not in the original but serves a deep purpose in Empire for EVO)
**
Do you mean the rather obnoxious alien in the bar on Sauron? I says to meself "Ack".
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"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
I don't remember fixing the location to Sauron but that sounds about right - obnoxious, hyperactive and clearly highly caffinated.
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Its amazing how "tsk, tsik, nik" can mean anything from "There's a bomb in the bus, get help!" to "I'm hungry, feed me"
In case of ambiguity about anything I say - choose the nicest interpretation.
Skippy, while you are here, I have a problem with the "Mafia Technology Grab" mission from Evildrome. I am supposed to leave from Evildrome and head to Ruby to intercept weapons. But two jumps from Ruby I get a Time Limit Exceeded. I only stop once at Sirius. I am in the Weave Prototype, and I have a one day jump. I have aborted and tried this twice, but still time runs out. Note: when I get the mission, and in the active mission log, there is nothing about a time limit. Am I missing something?
Also: Plasma emitter = phhht.
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"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
Quote
Originally posted by wondergirl:
**But two jumps from Ruby I get a Time Limit Exceeded. I only stop once at Sirius. I am in the Weave Prototype, and I have a one day jump. I have aborted and tried this twice, but still time runs out. Note: when I get the mission, and in the active mission log, there is nothing about a time limit.
**
Perhaps its messed up because you attempt to do it in a Weave ship? Probably youre only supposed to do one string. Getting the Weave Prototype reguires to play the Weave string, and the Pirate one is two. That was just a humble suggestion, since I cant check up. But to fix the problem, just open ResEdit or similar editor, and change the TimeLimit field in the mission to give you as much extra amount of time as you want. I jave a question, too: how do I start the Pirate string in War Without End (E1)? Do I do a lots of Mission Computer missions on Pirate planets and then check Evildrome?
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I am eager to try to answer mission questions
"There is nothing certain but and taxes"- Benjamin Franklin
I will attemt the mission a few more times, then if no successs, under duress and with extreme put-outness I will cry: "UNCLE! Off to ResEdit I go".
I started the Mafia String after I joined the Weave. Not sure if EV1 is the same. It seemed I was approaced by "Suits" on Evildrome after I had accepted a Murder Contract from their Mission Comuter, they asked me to do an Assasination in the next system, and the string went on from there.
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"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
(Bangs head on desk} Each time I attemt this mission, the Time Limit Exceeded gets shorter, or, farther away from Ruby. Is there some type of freakish, twisted penalty? I am not that accomplished with ResEdit, so if I don't have to use it, well then....
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"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
Quote
Originally posted by wondergirl:
**(Bangs head on desk} Each time I attemt this mission, the Time Limit Exceeded gets shorter, or, farther away from Ruby. Is there some type of freakish, twisted penalty? I am not that accomplished with ResEdit, so if I don't have to use it, well then....
**
This souns so odd that it might be one of those funny emulator bugs. Are you using a emulator? Thats the only thing I can think of, I havent had this bug myself. Perhaps for some freak reason the game thinks your Cruiser is several day jump ship despite the fact your upgrades make it a one jump one. Try a lighter ship- such as a Beam Cruiser. Or perhaps this is the consquence of first trying to play the Weave string, then the Pirate one. I checked it up in ResEdit and its 14, meaning that its simply too short. Remember, you have to go from the most distant Pirate base avaible to the other edge of the galaxy. I suggest you abort the mission, land to save, and edit the mission with ResEdit. Its not really that hard. Some things (such as flags) can be hard, but time limits are about as easy as it can get. Open ResEdit and click the splash screen away. A open dialog will automatically open. Navigate to the folder which contains the plug. Open the file Empire 2.0, this is the plug. Double-click the misn resource, this contains all missions in the plug. Scroll down to ID number 266, this is the Mafia Technology Grab mission. You can make it more easy by selecting by Name in the View menu. Then scroll down to M and find it, its near the bottom. Open the Technology Grab mission by double-clicking and scroll down near the bottom. Find a field called TimeLimit, this is how many days you have to do a mission. Then edit it to whatever number you want, in days. 50 should be enough to make it Ruby. Close the mission and the misn resource. File --> Save. It wasnt that hard, was it?
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I am eager to try to answer mission questions
"There is nothing certain but and taxes"- Benjamin Franklin
General Cade Smart: Kudos to you! You have saved me a lot of frustration! I went in to ResEdit (somewhat nervously) and fixed it. It worked! I am using a Mac with OS X, not an emulator, so isn't the problem. 14 days for the mission. Is that even feasable? Did Skippy intend for it to only be 14 days? Even if I had a ship with enough fuel to reach Ruby and back without stopping, the time is still off. I don't think there is any conflict in joining the Weave first. I have never run out of time on any other mission.
Thanks again,
wondergirl and her wondercat
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"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
Quote
Originally posted by wondergirl:
**General Cade Smart: Kudos to you! You have saved me a lot of frustration! I went in to ResEdit (somewhat nervously) 14 days for the mission. Is that even feasable? Did Skippy intend for it to only be 14 days? Even if I had a ship with enough fuel to reach Ruby and back without stopping, the time is still off. I don't think there is any conflict in joining the Weave first. I have never run out of time on any other mission.
Thanks again,
wondergirl and her wondercat
**
Yippee! Thats the first time somebody has said kudos to me! I felt good reading those words. Why did you feel nervous if I gave you exact instructions? 
I gave you instructions so detailed (explaining what misn means etc.) it was unlike my style, because I saw you were afraid of ResEdit. No, it isnt feasible. You cant get to to the other edge of the galaxy from the other edge in two weeks. This must have been some kind of oversight. Is Skippy the developer of the EVO port? :eek: Oh. I didnt think he could be it. So the EVO port wasnt done by Tim. So you can do the Weave string first and then the Pirate one? Interesting. I thought the Pirate string was exclusive. I thought that you had to do with a Kestrel (which is pretty weak vs Terrans) before you got the Tyrant Cruiser. A Prototype Cruiser would make it easy. So you have a cat? Cute! I like cats slightly too.
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I am eager to try to answer mission questions
"There is nothing certain but and taxes"- Benjamin Franklin
Quote
Originally posted by General Cade Smart:
**Why did you feel nervous if I gave you exact instructions?
**
I've read way too many posts from people that did too much tweaking in ResEdit, and I didn't want do something wrong. Your details helped tremendously. So much so, I gave myself 20 million credits for that Mafia mission! Hmmm, using ResEdit could be quite addicting...so much power, but so little knowledge! About Skippy, I know it is Tim Isles who created it. I just figured Skippy was involved...sorry, assumptions based on improper speculations....And I just finished the Mafia string, but am still in the middle of the Weave string. And yes, I have two cats. One is dumber than a bowl of pudding. The other is Arnie The Wonder Cat. He is very wonderous, indeed.
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"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
It looks like you have solved your problems and found a bug that needs to be fixed.
The 14 day time limit would be from Tim Isles' original design. The plug is 95% his work - I guess that my "beta testing" wasn't as thorough as I hoped. In the original plug you couldn't even get the Mafia sequence so it wasn't thoroughly debugged in the 7 years it has been out for EV. The original was designed and released by Tim well before I started playing EVO. I did the port more or less independently for my own benefit and then got Tim's OK to release it.
I have designed the plug so that you can't start the Mafia sequence after a certain point in either Weave or Empire strings. Basically, too many systems change ownership for it to work properly once the war gets going properly. Thus, its best to do the Mafia sequence early on - but it is not exclusive of either the Weave or Empire strings. If you start it early and finish it late things are very unlikely to work properly due to system changes with the war though.
Also, General, to start the Mafia sequence you need to do the various Mafia missions that you get at pirate worlds, exactly as you surmised. There is a random probability that the mission you take will 'bring you to the notice of the suits' (i.e. set the right mission bit).
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Its amazing how "tsk, tsik, nik" can mean anything from "There's a bomb in the bus, get help!" to "I'm hungry, feed me"
In case of ambiguity about anything I say - choose the nicest interpretation.
(This message has been edited by Skippy the bush kangaroo (edited 07-18-2004).)
Skippy, thanks for replying. From your posts, I figured you had a hand in Empire, somehow.
Now I started the Alien string, and when I landed on New Antigua, all the missions were for New Antigua. So I accepted them, landed, made lots of cash, and noticed all the missions were again for New Antigua. FYI, not that I'm complaining....
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"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
Quote
Originally posted by wondergirl:
**Now I started the Alien string, and when I landed on New Antigua, all the missions were for New Antigua. So I accepted them, landed, made lots of cash, and noticed all the missions were again for New Antigua. FYI, not that I'm complaining....
**
That would be because the missions have random destinations and it looks like the list of eligible destinations is very short. I may have a look at at it and see if anything can be done. Mind you, at that stage money should not be your primary concern.
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Its amazing how "tsk, tsik, nik" can mean anything from "There's a bomb in the bus, get help!" to "I'm hungry, feed me"
In case of ambiguity about anything I say - choose the nicest interpretation.
Quote
Originally posted by Skippy the bush kangaroo:
**Mind you, at that stage money should not be your primary concern.
**
Quite right. One Starship is hard enough to eliminate, but an ENTIRE FLEET? This will take some "strategery".
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"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
Quote
Originally posted by wondergirl:
Quite right. One Starship is hard enough to eliminate, but an ENTIRE FLEET? This will take some "strategery".
(/B)
I know you are reluctant to use cheats, but if a mission is so hard it it no fun? The Starships (Correct spelling Star Destroyer) are too perfect to be beaten. Trust me, Ive tried. The Star Destroyers have too much shields, regenerate too fast, have Seeker Drones to dodge to the point of irritation, and have enough Alien Fighters to reguire use of my Neutron Turret- Tractor Beam- ram trick, and are even fast. The thing that makes them completely impossible to beat is a megauberdestructo weapon called "Alien II Disruptor". This is a beam that does 300 damage, which means even the strongest ships will melt in seconds. And I think its a turret (though I am not sure), so you cant even get on its back. I tried with a Prototype Cruiser with 4 Neutron Turrets and Tractor Beam in its front. I got critically damaged within seconds, the Star Destroyer almost undamaged. I died countless times trying to take them out with primaries. They cant be taken from long range either- 3 launchers with 94 Nukes could only drop it to 17%. For reference, you should only ever need one launcher and never 94 Nukes even in the largest of fleet fights. I could only beat these things by Forklifts so quick my fingers got numb. First try to get on their back to avoid the beam- perhaps it is not a turret. If it is, feel free to drop the amount of damage this Alien Disruptor causes to 30. Then it is still challening (about the same damage as a Alien Cruiser does), but it is possible. I can give you exact instructions. If youre afraid of ResEdit, you can download a more userfriendly editor such as Mission Computer; I will provide a link.
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I am eager to try to answer mission questions
"There is nothing certain but and taxes"- Benjamin Franklin
Quote
Originally posted by General Cade Smart:
**I could only beat these things by Forklifts so quick my fingers got numb.
I can give you exact instructions. If youre afraid of ResEdit, you can download a more userfriendly editor such as Mission Computer; I will provide a link.
**
Cramped, sweaty, achy...I am certain I will never again be able to straighten out my fingers. So, there isn't even a glimmer of hope of completing this mission without cheats! Bah! I will either use Resedit or get the Forklift. If I need help, General, I will let you know. As always, you have been most helpful.
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"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
The mission can be completed without cheating of any kind (unless you consider the Monty Python to be a cheat).
Trust me, I have done it.
You should have a ship that is faster than the Aliens. Destroying Alien Fighters should be simple for you by now, but deal with them first. Then... Monty Python the Star Destroyers to death one at a time. I found that using the X-Ray Laser as a repulsor beam helped (by keeping them just out of range for their beam). However, I crossed from one side of the sector to the other for each Destroyer I took out - it took that long (so turning around at the boundary is a bit tricky).
And, based on (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum6/HTML/003084-2.html")this(/url) topic, it would seem that I'm an old fart compared to you so it can't be that I've got better reflexes.
Best of luck. My fingers cramped from holding down the fire buttons and auto target for so long, but it wasn't all rapid fire.
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Its amazing how "tsk, tsik, nik" can mean anything from "There's a bomb in the bus, get help!" to "I'm hungry, feed me"
In case of ambiguity about anything I say - choose the nicest interpretation.
(This message has been edited by Skippy the bush kangaroo (edited 07-21-2004).)
Quote
Originally posted by Skippy the bush kangaroo:
**The mission can be completed without cheating of any kind (unless you consider the Monty Python to be a cheat).
Trust me, I have done it.
You should have a ship that is faster than the Aliens. Destroying Alien Fighters should be simple for you by now, but deal with them first. Then... Monty Python the Star Destroyers to death one at a time. I found that using the X-Ray Laser as a repulsor beam helped (by keeping them just out of range for their beam). However, I crossed from one side of the sector to the other for each Destroyer I took out - it took that long (so turning around at the boundary is a bit tricky).
And, based on this topic, it would seem that I'm an old fart compared to you so it can't be that I've got better reflexes.
Best of luck. My fingers cramped from holding down the fire buttons and auto target for so long, but it wasn't all rapid fire.
**
You've convinced me, I'll wait to use a cheat. I am up for the challenge. I am in a Weave Prototype Cruiser, it is faster, and I can take care of most of Alien Fighters, but by then my shields and armor are gone! I also have been reling on some nukes, running out of them way too quickly. Soooo, I will attempt with beam weapons. Wish me luck. Death or glory awaits!
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"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
Quote
Originally posted by wondergirl:
**I am in a Weave Prototype Cruiser, it is faster, and I can take care of most of Alien Fighters, but by then my shields and armor are gone! I also have been reling on some nukes, running out of them way too quickly. Soooo, I will attempt with beam weapons. Wish me luck. Death or glory awaits!
**
Patience is a virtue. After you deal with the fighters hide in a remote corner of the sector until your shields are back up. If you do it right you shouldn't get hit by the Star Destroyers but I never managed to do it without getting zapped once or twice (hit the afterburners and bug out ASAP if they start firing).
I also think that I used turreted neutron cannons or similar as my main weapons (because of their range and damage).
Oh, I almost forgot, luck.
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Its amazing how "tsk, tsik, nik" can mean anything from "There's a bomb in the bus, get help!" to "I'm hungry, feed me"
In case of ambiguity about anything I say - choose the nicest interpretation.
(This message has been edited by Skippy the bush kangaroo (edited 07-21-2004).)
