Help with Frozen Heart asteroid dodging, please

Hello,

I'm playing Frozen Heart for the second time after several years, and am having serious problems with the Kidnapping II mission. I've found the system I need to jump into in order to rescue a pilot from an already disabled ship. The problem is, there seems to be something wrong with the asteroids in the system - instead of just bouncing about the place, they actually fly straight at me the second I enter the system. There's no way to dodge them, and I get exploded almost instantly.

Is this a bug in the game? I'm playing the most reason version.

I actually tried using a cheat plug-in to really bulk up my ship in terms of armour and shields... which I felt really bad about, but there didn't seem to be any other way of getting past this mission. Anyway, when I was using the plug-in, the asteroids actually behaved themselves as normal, weirdly, and stopped coming straight at me. But the plug-in crashed the game, so I dunno what to do now.

Anyone else had this problem, or have any idea how to fix it? Thank yoooou.

I don't actually remember this in FH, but maybe I can help a bit anyway. If the asteroids head straight for you, they aren't really asteroids as far as the game is concerned -- they're either ships or (less likely) missiles. Try thinking of them that way. If you start running away from them right away, you may be able to outrace them and then make a big circle or triangle to get back to the disabled ship before them. You also might be able to destroy them, or distract them with escorts. If you've got a cloak, use it. If all else fails, try taking a long route around the system so that you enter it from a different angle -- that could conceivably make a difference in Nova; I don't remember whether those tricks work in Override.

I remember those 'asteroids' - most annoying thing in Frozen Heart. Like Dr. Trowel says, they're not asteroids but ships with a very short range weapon which does huge damage. Which wouldn't be a problem, except that they're extremely fast, can turn, and chase you - which is just a touch un-asteroid-like So annoyingly illogical This is how they're meant to behave though. That was the effect Martin settled for to make those systems suitably lethal.

How to get past them? Can't really remember what I did, but I don't remember cheating. Probably just: get in and out as fast as possible!

Hello Dr Trowel and pac,

Thanks for the replies... I was hoping someone would tell me there was an asteroid-related bug, instead of the problem being that I'm just not good enough. How depressing. It's exactly the way pac describes it - the asteroids are like ships that target you and fly directly at you. So it's funny for about two seconds - there's this Indiana Jones-style moment where you have these huge big rocks rolling after you. Then you blow up and it doesn't seem so funny.

They seem far too fast to outrun! They're on top of me the instant I jump into the system. But I'll practise and see if I make any progress. Thanks very much for the tips.

Fly away from them, and they will follow (this is because your gravitic generator and shield combination has a strange effect on this type of asteroid). When you've gone a suitable distance, change course at right angles, fly away, and then head back. They will take an elliptical orbit, and it should give you enough time to do what you have to do.

Hope this helps

Martin Turner

Oh, hello Mr. Turner. How is FH2 coming along, among other questions?

It is nice to see you about, and helping the newbies at that! Good man.

Asteroid storms have very high 'strength' and very weak shields (one laser blast drops its shields, the second kills it). If you can outdistance them, you can blow them away mercilessly and get an Ultimate rating.

And if you can disable one, I highly suggest you try to capture it. The latter should be easy since it has no shields (b0rks capture formula), although the former could prove difficult. Once you have an asteroid escort, park it somewhere safe then board some ships you would ordinarily have a difficult time capturing (gas clouds, for instance). You will immediately discover that your capture odds have shot through the roof, because your new asteroid pet has such a high crew count.

I'm sure that in FH2, Turner will have remediated this...exploit.