Elite / Frontier Time limit on starting hand-coded missions?

[Digital Prawn]

Hello All,

I've just started playing FFE again after a gap of many years. First time round I just did military missions and trading, but I never got involved in the hand-coded missions back then.

This time around I want to play the hand-coded missions.

So I started a new game last night. First of all, I'd forgotten just how challenging combat is! Nevertheless I stuck with it and after a couple of hours of play I'd somehow regained the ability to outrun three missiles and deadly oppponents in manual propulsion mode, before turning on them and obliterating them with my puny 1MW pulse laser. I certainly had to reload the game quite a few times before getting it right.

So that's all well and good and I'm already up to "poor" rating and so continuing the game, hopefully this evening I want to run the Wiccan Ware Race, but think I'd be better off with a Class 2 military hyperdrive. I'm doing the Soholia Medical relief to earn the needed money.

The question I have is, can the "Wiccan Ware Race" mission only be started in Jan-Feb 3250?

If I don't get enough money to buy the class 2 military hyperdrive until March or April 3250, can I still do the Wiccan Ware race, or will the mission become unavailable by that time?

If I know there is no time limit on starting the missions, then I can take it easy and explore a little more, but if there is a time limit, then the race is on to get enough credits for the drive upgrade before starting the race before the end of Feb and I will solely concentrate on that aim.

Thanks for any possible info!

 

[potsmoke66]

yes there are time limits to all the missions, but best is i think, go to hoopers page and start right here after you'll be a "ace" in just two months (game time).
owning a asp and 800'000 credits, without cheating*, hacking or smuggling (just a bit of time acceleration bug use).

personnaly i don't recommend to do the wiccan war race, there's a very tight time limit to it, as i remember but read hoopers mission guide if you wan't to spoil your first games. i didn't do so, even if i had the files ready, i started like you no idea what's behind, except that i know frontier well since almost 15 years. but not ffe, so i stepped into many traps david prepared for us
i won't spoil your game and shut my mouth, download the files, but don't read them all, or forget what you have read then. especially the missions guide it's comprehensive but, a spoiler.

the starting guide is that what you (we) need. to get a good start in ffe.
anything else find out for yourself at best.

there is only one thing, and that's no spoiler it's a big help through the missions. perform so called game resets before you do important things, especially when it comes to contact with the thargoid. a "game reset" as hooper mentioned, is to save a game before a docking sequence i.e. quit the game (exit) and then restart the game and reload the saved file (unloads data or fragments of old data, flushes mem). this is vital in the handcodet missions and becomes handy in many other situations. a similar trick i used in frontier often, when there was to many pirates in my target system, or when i was not satisfied with my entry point in target system (wrong side relative to planets pos on ecliptic, this has worked for me only with the amiga version) or i wan't simply get rid of that courier waiting for me (following me) in my target system.

 

[Digital Prawn]

yes there are time limits to all the missions, but best is i think, go to hoopers page and start right here after you'll be a "ace" in just two months (game time).
owning a asp and 800'000 credits, without cheating*, hacking or smuggling (just a bit of time acceleration bug use).

Thanks for the reply. I'll check out that site. Indeed, without doing something cleverer than what I'm doing now, the timeframe of starting the initial missions does seem a bit tight, factoring in warping and sublight travel times. It'll be spring 3250 before I've made much cash.

EDIT: Thanks also for the extra hints and tips - As you suggest, I'll avoid excsessive spoilers and I will probably retain the enjoyment of working many of the mission-related things out for myself. If things go wrong, I'll just start a new commander. It's very easy to do this in the early stages. I'll learn more through further playing no doubt. Regards.

 

[scowie]

I've restarted a few times recently too after doing a bit of tweaking of the exe. Btw, if you wanna fix the unarmed attackers issue, download my ffe editing package, it includes instructions on how to do that.

I am pretty sure you have to do the Wiccan Race at the very start of the game. According to the news articles, you have to get to Old Curie on Hope by midnight on the very first day. You can do it in the Saker by doing 2 jumps, via Soholia. You may not expect to be the fastest ship, but you can win it doing it that way. It may help to fly manually, which I tend to do myself when time matters (i.e. full thruster half way to your destination, turn around, full thruster in opposite direction to slow down). According to the news article that appears at the end of January, the winner only wins cos the leading ships wipe each other out in a massive battle (whether you win or not). I am not sure how it determines whether you win or not. I have done it by 16th Jan in a Saker and won, but failed when I have done it in the faster Eagle Mk2 by 14th Jan (There is one of these at Turner Town on Hope).

Btw, there are 3 delivery missions from Hope to Alioth that you can do at the same time as the race. One for about 2500 credits at Old Curie and another two at Turner Town, one of which nets you 11,000 credits! You get the attention of some Mafia enforcer for taking the 2500c one, but no one seems to come after you for the 11K one, even though you are acting against the military on that one.

The other hand-coded mission that's available at the start is the Achenar to Beta Hydri "removals" service. This one has such a tight time limit on it that you probably wont be able to do it if you do the Wiccan Race, unless you do it this way...

At the start of the game there is a Falcon, on Hope at the Turner port (not to be confused with Turner Town). This is the fastest ship you can buy and will get you to Alioth in one jump, but even after selling all your Saker's upgrades you will still be nearly 2000 credits short of the money you need. But don't worry, you don't need to cheat. You can make this money by trading certain goods between ports on Hope. You can take Nerve Gas from Turner Town and sell it at Old Curie for profit. Then take Precious Metals back to Turner Town, and repeat. When the Nerve Gas runs out you can take Luxury Goods instead. In a few hops you'll have the 5200 credits you need (I think) for the Falcon and a tonne of Military fuel. You should sell all your upgrades except Atmospheric shielding before doing this trading, so that you get enough capital to work with.

You can then get to Wicca World by 9th/10th Jan (manual flight), and you should be able to get to Achenar by 18th Feb to collect the Duval artefact. You even have time to do some federal delivery missions from Eta Cassiopeia to AC+97^3888 on the way. It is then 3 more jumps (via Epsilon Eridani) to Achenar.

Btw, don't fly into Eta Cassiopeia with just a single tonne of military fuel, as you are likely to get stuck there, as military fuel is a major import and they probably wont have any to sell to you!
Oh, and remember to dump your Radioactives in space when you get to Achenar, since they are illegal.

 

[Digital Prawn]

Thanks scowie for the detailed reply. Lots of useful info there! I grabbed your utility. As it happens, I did not get the opportunity to play again last night. But, I'm pretty sure that when I do, I'll start over again with a new commander and attempt the Wiccan Ware race immediately.

I'll also try some of the stuff you mentioned, seems like a lot of fun! Best Regards.

 

[potsmoke66]

i'm not shure about the wiccan ware race, i think last time i tried i't didn't worked out, even with a cobra i wasn't able to win, i always get the message returned that i failed. maybe i'm stupid, or somethings partially wrong with the missions, anyway wiccan war race is not so important, you only gain character points to get the 10% extra on each delivery/transport you complete (i think, the money's not worth to talk about). if you do later on some successful deliveries, you will gain the same character pts.. other mission worked well out, except in the thargoid quest i got stucked on polaris, they simply don't recognize me, even when i shout or bang at their door with my actual game i'm not yet that far, just started.
there are some linked missions, like the thargoids, but most standalone.

digital prawn, have you read hoopers starting guide allready?

 

[Digital Prawn]

digital prawn, have you read hoopers starting guide allready?

Unfortunately not yet. What happened was, I played the game initially on Sunday night and found that I'd got really into it again.

My plan was then to play it further this week. But alas, it turns out a work colleague is absent this week and as such I have to work extended hours and I'm getting home really late at night every day this week.

So, I'm not having any available time this week to follow this up as I'd originally hoped.

Next week I'm away on holiday, but the week after that I should be back to normal again and hopefully I will finally be able to get back into the game again.

Sometimes real life just gets in the way I guess!

Thanks again for your further replies though, which I will return to for future reference. Regards.

 

[Steve]

According to Jades' mission guide, the program only takes into account the actual travel time when deciding whether you've succeeded or not. The date you take the mission doesn't seem to come into it, which strikes me as a bit odd, but as long as it's being offered on the bulletin board you should be able to complete it.

Ah, Birkenhead. The town of my birth. The Athens of the North

 

[Digital Prawn]

According to Jades' mission guide, the program only takes into account the actual travel time when deciding whether you've succeeded or not. The date you take the mission doesn't seem to come into it, which strikes me as a bit odd, but as long as it's being offered on the bulletin board you should be able to complete it.

Thanks Steve for the further info. Yes, you'd think given the nature of the mission, there'd be some absolute deadline on it, rather than relative to when it is started. I also read somewhere that the outcome can be random and a player who failed can then reload, try again and win it. As I say though, I have as yet no experience of playing it.

Ah, Birkenhead. The town of my birth. The Athens of the North

Yes its funny, like most people I go on quite a few various forums around the Internet. Sometimes I end up chatting to people for a while before I find out they live in a nearby street. Seems its a small world!

 

[Digital Prawn]

OK, well as things turned out this week, I did get a chance to play First Encounters further on my laptop!

Firstly, I did scowie's ideas mentioned above i.e. buying the Falcon at "Turner" by doing trading in the initial Gateway system. That was good fun to do and it only used up around about an hour of game time.

In addition to Nerve Gas (profit ~ 35 credits per tonne), luxury goods (~ 54) and Precious metals (~ 51) , I also traded Computers (~ 22) and Liquor (~ 15) between "Old Curie" and "Turner Town". As can be seen, profits on the latter items were less per tonne, however, I could for example buy 8 tonnes of Computers instead of 2 tonnes of Precious metals when money was tight as those items were much cheaper. IIRC this speeded up things slightly until cargo space became the limiting factor rather than cash.

Anyway, once I had the Falcon with its class 2 military drive, I grabbed some military fuel then saved the game. I then accepted the Wiccan Ware mission and jumped to Alioth in one jump as per scowie's suggestion. Using Autopilot I would arrive at "Ghandi" around the 10th or maybe the 11th of Jan 3250 IIRC. However after multiple re-loads and re-attempting the misison I soon realised that it would invariably fail. I would always get the message to the effect that I was too late. So, I started trying the "manual flight" method mentioned above by doing a full manual burn till almost at 50% distance and then turning the ship around and decelerating using the main thruster, until almost upon the target planet. Using this method I could arrive as early as the early hours of 8th Jan 3250 IIRC. But again, to my surprise, the mission still always failed! I could not think how any player could get there much faster than this.

So, I restarted a new game from the begininng, just accepting the Wiccan Ware mission immediately and trying it in the Saker. I'd arrive after two hyperspace jumps on or around 17th Jan (around nine days later than with the Falcon). The mission unsurprisingly still failed. Overall I think I attempted the mission at least twelve times, and it never succeeded. Sometimes the docking bays at Ghandi were full.

I then realised the verison of JJFFE I was using was out of date. It was version 2.8 (just plain 2.8) - not version 2.8a7. I was using 2.8 with the original 3.5" floppy release I had from years ago.

So, I re-installed the later Shareware release of FFE and then extracted the newer JJFFE 2.8a7 into it.

I then launched the newer 2.8a7 version and immediately started a new game. Straight away I did the Wiccan Ware mission in the Saker, arriving at Ghandi around the 17th Jan. To my surprise, the mission succeeded. I then played it several more times. Sometimes even taking longer than this to arrive. The mission succeeded every time.

So in conclusion, it could be that if you are running an older version of JJFFE then the mission may not be winnable. However it is winnable in 2.8a7.

Either that or there's a random element at play, but overwhemingly seems to me to be tied into the JJFFE version. Also, I think the mission has to be accepted under 2.8a7 as when I accepted it under 2.8 and then reloaded the save under 2.8a7 it still failed. But whatever the underlying reason, it's fixed for me now.

Also, I now have read George Hooper's excellent FFE starting guide, mentioned by potsmoke66. I think it's very useful for anyone who wants to do all of the hand coded missions. It includes the Wiccan Ware Race and also the Sohalia medical relief. Also because it fits everything in the first two game-months. There's also apparently enough time to pick up the Imperial artifact in March 3250. (I haven't done this one yet) Then of course you end up with a very versatile ship and in a position to crucially improve your Eilte rating.

So, I'll be starting yet another new game and will be playing along those lines at next opportunity. I don't mind reading hints this second time around because years ago, I previously played the game without any hints for weeks, just working things out for myself becoming successful at trading and military missions.

This time though, I just want to see all that the game has to offer. I'll be doing the Wiccan Ware race again in the Saker - knowing that it can succeed even with a travel time of more than 16 days because I've now updated to JJFFE 2.8a7. I know the mission is not important, but I just like to do them all for completeness. I think because of the time limits on mission availabilty in this game it's very easy to miss some of the missions as I did the first time around. (Unlike for example the GTA3 games, where time is effectively infinite and you can always re-do a failed mission).

Thanks again for all of your help!

 

[Steve]

The scripted missions in FFE have always been a bit fickle. I remember I couldn't finish the Thargoid missions in JJFFE, no matter what I did. Once I got there in FFED3D, the whole thing worked perfectly (including the vaccine mission in Hotice which so many people have problems with).