New Home Plot (Page 1 of 3)

Written by Spike





Several mods are known to cause some problems with this plotline. All mods not updated for 2.6 are suspect and even if they have there's still no guarantee that they're compatible. If you have a plotline problem with a modded game, you are requested to go to S&M and ask which mods might be the culprit, and then ask in that mod's forum thread for possible solutions.

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Freedom's Reach

The plot begins when you are between 2 and 6 sectors away from Danna's Chance, after you've completed the Terran and Goner plots. You'll get a message to respond to.

You can tell them that you're busy; the mission will disappear for 30 minutes and will reappear the next time you get within the right range of Danna's Chance. However as of 2.6, it seems that if you do this, then every time the plot start message is triggered the game will duplicate all of the plot critical ships that it adds at the start. It is recommended by myself that you accept the first time and complete the first mission; it is not hard or particularly time consuming if you have more than 5 million Credits and will leave you at a point where you can forget about it indefinitely without being bothered by a message every 30 minutes.

I believe that as of V3.0, the repeated spawns problem has been rectified.

Anyway, to the message;

You get a message from a guy named Jeff Marxon, who is in Danna's Chance chasing down a Terraformer CPU ship. It's heading for Freedom's Reach with the apparent intention of blowing the Teladi Trading Station there to smithereens; you will need to get your mitts on a TM to go save the hapless souls onboard. This TM also requires at least one docked fighter as a mission requirement (though it doesn't have to be used). The recommendation is that you also stock a few missiles that can deal with M5s and M4s, along with a Docking Computer. When you arrive in Danna's Chance, the CPU ship jumps out. Time to get in your TM if you're not already in it.

The CPU ship is now blocking the gate on the other side. If you try to jump through to Freedom's Reach using the sector gates, you WILL die, whether you fly through the South gate of Danna's Chance or use your jumpdrive. You can't even use escorts, as they'll be automatically blown to bits by the CPU ship's influence. You have to use the UFJD to get past, beginning anywhere other than Freedom's Reach...

The UFJD usage is not normal. You're used to it taking you to a randomly generated sector before dumping you back where you started (or occasionally, in the middle of a random known sector). In this plot, it can do something else; dump you in a predetermined place. It takes between three and six jumps to get to the right place at this part of the plotline, and as I said before, it's the only way of getting to your destination without being blown to pieces.

The 'right place' for me was 108km ventrally from the trading station in Freedom's Reach. The exact location might be different for you, but it seems that it is always a range of 108 km.

The station is under attack by a few fighters but unless you're flying an Aran then you'll get there in plenty of time to save it, especially since the station is invulnerable. The tricky bit is getting there before there are too many fighters for you to deal with. I did it in a Chokaro, and didn't even need to launch the fighters I had docked. It is possible (if you leave the TM out of range) to take a docked fighter and blow the attacking fighters up that way, but as more fighters will arrive from the CPU ship in time, speed is of the essence and the Chokaro has enough killing power to take down the fighters, as do several other popular TMs. Stay with the station, don't go chasing off after the cloud of fighters surrounding the CPU ship, you don't get points for blowing those to bits. Keep your reticle on the eight or so fighters swarming the station for a quick conclusion to the mission.

Be very wary of accidentally hitting the station with your turret fire. It's game over if you do. The missiles that you were instructed to bring can be used to pick off the attacking fighters without accidentally landing PAC fire on the Trading Station.

Repeated bug here; If you have a large complex or presence in Freedom's Reach before beginning the mission, then collision avoidance algorithms can dump the CPU ship right on top of the Trading Station. If this happens, reload and hope it finds somewhere different the next time you jump in.

Once you've destroyed three of the attacking fighters, and after a time limit, you'll get a message to dock with the station. If you're flying a fighter around, then DON'T just call in the TM. The CPU ship is transmitting some sort of virus on the comm bands that causes ship systems to fail; any ship not player-piloted will blow up if it gets too close to the CPU ship. You have to fly back out of range and transfer to the TM by docking. When you are ready to dock with the station, make sure that you have enough cargo space for the 100-odd passengers, as it seems that glitches can (but not always do) occur if you don't. You need almost 600 cargo units worth; you'll get the civvies transferred (and you'll be given a free CLS if you didn't already have one) and then you just need to jump back to Elena's Fortune using standard jump and dock at the Military Outpost. As of later varsions it will give you the Energy Cells if you don't have enough. Section complete.

Second common bug; The passengers do not always appear in the cargo list. Nevertheless, if the mission guidance points you to Elena's Fortune, go there and the mission should complete successfully.

Now dump that TM and get in something quick.