- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - S T A R W O L V E S 3 C I V I L W A R General FAQ v1.0 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Put together by Trucidation. Version 0.7 - 26-29 April 2010 Version 0.9 - June 2010 Version 1.0 - July 2010 release This guide can only be posted on GameFAQs. Period. Yes I know GameSpot overlaps, they're the same place, sortof. If you need to get hold of me, I always keep an eye out on this mailbox: "truecidation [at] gmail". Replies may take a while but I do check that mailbox at least once every 2-3 days. Please use an appropriate subject line, and try to be coherent. Non-native english speakers are fine (I'm not one either). Also there's a difference between giving constructive criticism ("You're wrong about X, it is actually Y...") and being plain outright rude ("Why no myspace, ur st2pid"). Insert obligatory copyright notice here. This guide is intended for personal use, not for dicks to sell to the unsuspecting (if you're still buying gaming magazines in this day and age for the reviews, you're Doing It Wrong). Only GameFAQs can host this, I never post stuff elsewhere. Not interested in your advert-ridden hobby site or slick corporate portal. ===== [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] ===== - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [INT] - Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [OVR] - Misc Game Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [INF] - Reputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [REP] - Mothership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [MTH] + Gameplay Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [GAM] - Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [WEP] - Missiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [MIS] - Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [SYS] - Ship types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [SHP] - Mercenaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [MRC] + General Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [GEN] - Skill advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [SKL] + Cache locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [CAC] + Mods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [MOD] + Bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [BUG] + Misc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [---] + Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [CRE] This isn't one of my longer guides so you can probably just scroll though to find what you want, no problem. For ease of navigation, though, just look for the appropriate section tag listed in the table above. ===== [ INTRODUCTION ] ===== . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [INT] Star Wolves 3 is set in the same game universe as it's predecessors. It is a strategy-RPG-space sim hybrid which in my opinion does it pretty well. The protagonist is a new character in the story. The role is of a small-time businessman who scored a lucrative contract to bring a shipment of electronics to Beta Lethera 1. There your convoy was attacked by an unknown group and destroyed. You had to sell off your company and give up your planetbound lifestyle to compensate the families of your men and settle things with the creditors. With your few remaining credits and a tiny cargo transport you return to space at the helm of a ship after three years. Much has changed, and a restless wind seems to blow through the various major political factions. It has not always been peace and you are not unfamiliar with it (see events in Star Wolves 1), but the disaster which killed your men and destroyed your company really drives it home that the war which ripped through the Empire is not over, and that the rumours and speculations that things will be getting much worse may come true sooner than you realise. After the introductory video cutscene the game begins in the system of Corrina where you are on your way to meet an old friend named Alex Koshevoy who has written to you and given you a little hope. Thus begins your search for the answers to the questions burning in your heart... - Canonically, the game follows through the events from the "corporation storyline path" in Star Wolves 1. There, the now legendary group of mercenaries known as the Star Wolves apparently counted the heir of the former Emperor among them. They wrested control of the alien Precursor weapon - the "Star Hammer" - from the grasping hands of the Empire and the warring corporations, and forged a new order. In the systems of Llanowar the new Empress Astra declared a New Empire, and many other systems have since joined. It took a while before the Empire took her seriously but by that time she had marshalled her forces and now commands a significant number of inhabited systems. In Star Wolves 3: Civil War, as the name implies, civil war has erupted. The forces of the Empire and the New Empire, already at each other's throats, are mixed with the forces of the corporations who were merely thwarted in the events of the original game. They were not destroyed, far from it. Wandering the systems are also various predatory pirate clans, preying on traders. There is also a large organized trading outfit named the Free Traders Union, who seem to be the only large faction not directly embroiled in the conflict. As they say, without the lifeblood of trade, humanity would die. Finally, there are also groups of hotheads and guns-for-hire, mercenaries who sell their skills providing protection in these dangerous times. It is into this explosive mix that the game's beginning throws you into. You have very little; your skills, never the best, have atrophied by the years spent planetbound running your company; you are near-penniless, having scraped all that you could to pay for the aftermath of the disaster; the only ray of hope you have, your sole remaining lifeline, is the letter from Alex. Hopefully he can help you get back on your feet and discover the secrets behind your men's mysterious deaths. - - - [ OVERVIEW ] - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [OVR] Star Wolves 3: Civil War ("SW3") is a blend of strategy, RPG, and space sim. Although you start with only one character and his little ship, you will soon command a mothership and a team of pilots. In this game you do not "fly" the craft directly. Instead, like in strategy games, you assign your pilots destinations or targets and they will carry them out. Therefore your pilots' stats and skills will be a major factor in your success, as you will not be able to directly pit human ingenuity against the AI like in first- person shooting games or traditional space sims. This means it is vital that you constantly improve your pilots' skills by using the experience they earned to unlock more skills in their skill trees. There are plenty of skills, mostly passive, but some of them are active skills as well and may at times seem to border more on magic than outright technical wizardry. Pay attention to these skill trees as they are not the same; even though everyone bases their skills of off 4 general archetypes ("pilot", "gunner", "missiler","systems engineer"), each character will usually have a certain specialisation and different characters take different skills. So for example characters A and B may both be "gunners" (since their skills are mostly from the gunnery skill tree) but character A may have missile skills as well while character B mixes a little bit of piloting and systems engineering. When you first start a new game, you are given the choice of which specialisation the hero will have. ---[ Specialisation: Pilot ]--- Pilots with this specialisation are unmatched in their dextrous control of the ships they fly. They may not have the additional technical skills of other specialists, but these pilots can pull impossibly tight turns and fly rings around everyone else. Master pilots are ace fliers, adept at turning the tables on pursuers in combat. Their superb flying skills can and will often turn the tide of battle in their favour, as it is all but impossible to get the jump on them. Not exactly a bad choice but compared with the other specialisations piloting lacks the extra oomph it needs to stand out. Sure, a master pilot hero is a pretty damn good flier but flying skill alone doesn't win battles. ---[ Specialisation: Gunner ]--- The average pilot only needs to know which trigger button fires which guns. These aces go beyond that. They thrive in combat and have more than a passing interest in their ships and those which oppose them. Their understanding of ship structures helps them seek weak points in their targets, giving them the deadly ability to inflict critical hits. Master gunners are even more fearsome; their understanding of their guns and the mechanics which underly them allow them to actually override the normal firing rate. Due to the stress doing this places on the guns it is only possible to do this only for a short period and only for a limited number of times per flight, but usually this is more than enough for a pilot of this calibre to shred the target. This specialisation appears to be a favourite among most players. You get to choose which gun type the hero excels at, between light / rapid fire guns or heavy cannons. If you go this route it is highly recommended to pick the latter, as gun type distribution follows ship types quite closely: support craft tend to pack light guns while heavy combat-oriented ships carry heavy guns. Finally, all of the medium-high to high end guns are all heavy guns. ---[ Specialisation: Missiles ]--- Most pilots treat missiles as "fire and forget", hoping that the locking mechanism doesn't get jammed by countermeasures or the missile shot down by antimissile flak guns. Missile specialist pilots have a better understanding of their 'birds' and tend to fire at more opportune moments, resulting in better hit and kill ratios. A missile specialist can also launch multiple missiles in a deadly salvo, overloading the target's countermeasure systems and ensuring that several of them hit the target. This skill requires a lot of concentration and can only be done by experienced pilots several times per flight. Finally, like gunners, missile specialists also know to seek out and aim at a ship's weak points, causing their missiles to fly true and inflict more damage than usual. Missiles have been beefed up from their gross underusefulness in the original Star Wolves game, but they're still pretty weak. To make the most of this specialisation you'll need to ensure that your stock of missiles doesn't run out - early in the game, I'd recommend sticking to the 32-pack unguided missiles since their sheer numbers usually means you won't run out of ammo too fast. Later on the 6-pack scorpions would be a better choice since they're guided and inflict good damage. Long range missiles are not a good choice since they require someone equipped with a radar unit to expand your detection range otherwise you might as well mount regular range missiles. However, you can take advantage of the fact that radar among your entire team is 'shared'. That is, what one pilot sees can be aimed at by another pilot. Thus you might pack a radar module on a support ship, and other pilots can take advantage of that extra scan range to find more targets. If you can't afford to stock up on missiles this specialisation really isn't what you want - pilots taking this are limited to light gun mastery, you can't expect to have the advantage in guns as well. The bonuses this mastery gives to missiles are pretty good but imo the price you pay is fairly steep since you'll be limited to support-type craft unless you don't care whether your gun skills match or not. Basically if you're going to take this specialisation then stick your hero in ship with 4 rocket slots - go all the way, don't hold back because compromises rarely work well. ---[ Specialisation: Systems ]--- Who doesn't love a good engineer? Most pilots just trust their craft to do what it does, but these guys don't leave things to chance like that. Systems specialists are master engineers who've learned the ins and outs of ships' systems. Their skill means that they can tweak things like shield recharge rate, antimissile fire, and even max engine speed. These guys are also usually prized for their skill at repairs, and with their jacked-up repair rate they are usually put on team repair duty. Even with a teammate shot nearly to ribbons they can patch him up so fast that his ship might even be as good as new by the time he docks back into the mothership. So, even if these guys aren't so hot in battle, make sure to take care of them because they take care of your team. In my opinion system specialists are pretty good - especially if your team already has dedicated gunship pilots to spearhead the attack. The main game protagonist - the hero - is especially prized in this role, as he can learn a skill that hacks the target and makes it shieldless and stationary for several seconds! The target can still fight back, however, so its use is more strategic than it appears at first glance. There are also limits to how often you can do this, so you can't simply freeze targets at will. It does remain a decent fallback though, especially when you drop that nasty capital ship's shields in one blow, leaving it naked for a devastating torpedo salvo from your missile specialist teammate. Of course, for most of the game he'll be rather so-so, since he won't have the strengths of the other specialists - this *is* a rather defensive specialisation after all. It doesn't mean he's totally useless in a fight, though. Do remember that his system skills also affect some piloting stats such as max engine speed and shield repair rate. He might not be a top ace hotshot but he'll generally hold his own during fights - just try not to get into the habit of sending him out first. - - - [ MISC GAME INFO ] - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [INF] Star Wolves 3: Civil War has a universe map comprising 113 star systems in 7 sectors. They are colour-coded according to which faction is in charge: - Green - New Empire - Blue - InoCo corporation - Orange - Old Empire - Yellow - USS corporation - Red - Triad corporation - Black - neutral, controlled by either pirates or separatists These tidbits were taken from the game manual: - Safe sectors: Phoenix, Centaur, Unicorn, Sagittarius - Lots of pirates in: Aquarius, Capricorn - Border sector separates inhabited area from so-called Wild Space, where man has never set foot. [ Old Empire ] Subfactions: - MSF - Military Space Forces - Imperial Security - Patrol The Old Empire is a major faction in the Star Wolves universe and has a storyline in this game. [ New Empire ] Based in Llanowar (the system which the player retires to in the original game if you took the corporation path). Ruled by the Empress, who claims to be the daughter of the previous emperor and thus the only rightful heir to the throne. Allied with InoCo. Subfactions: - NESF - New Empire Space Fleet (supported by InoCo) - NESO - New Empire Special Operations (led by Red Corsair) Similar to the Old Empire, the New Empire is also a major player in the Star Wolves universe and thus has a storyline in this game. [ InoCo corporation ] Focused primarily on technological progress, is possibly the strongest corporation. Managed by the stepbrother of the ruler of the New Empire, hence the alliance. [ USS corporation ] A manufacturing giant. [ Triada corporation ] Ruled by the Triumvirate, this group of clans controls the entire black market. Sides with the USS corporation since it's structure isn't well-suited for large-scale conflict. These three corporations are also major players in the Star Wolves universe. InoCo, despite being closely allied with the New Empire, has a storyline of it's own. Triada also has a unique storyline. USS Corporation is the only one which appears to only have several missions tied into the storyline of other major factions, most notably along the Triada path; there is no "USS Corporation" ending. [ Pirates ] Not a true faction, but rather a multitude of warring clans. [ Scavengers ] Often mistaken for pirates, scavengers loot junkyards and battlefields. [ Mercenaries ] Hired guns whom the New Empire wants to regulate, but most prefer to be freelancers. Usually eager to help traders with protection and escort. Mercenaries also possess a faction of their own even though they are not technically operating as an organised body. WARNING: the mercs you can hire from trade stations are also affected by your relationship to the overall mercenary faction - this is one of the design oversights the developers made. Therefore if you are currently hostile with mercenaries, do not attempt to hire any mercs from trade stations as they will show up hostile and attack you. [ Rebels ] Or Separatists, as the Empire calls them. Never siding with the Empire or Corporations, these people just want to be in control of their lives. [ Border Guards ] Border Sector militia who've had to fend for themselves. [ Free Traders Union, aka the FTU ] Practically the only reason inter-faction trade still exists. [ Traders ] The mainstay of mankind's exploration. There are apparently many traders not affiliated with the FTU or other organizations. I suppose these would be really small outfits, like those which only run in-system. Given what we know of the Star Wolves game universe it makes sense to join the FTU - they don't tell you how to run your business, it's more like a loose guild. In return they can provide you with info and perhaps a few contracts here and there. No huge benefits but no real drawback to joining either, might as well sign on. All that is simply background information, however. In the actual game you are considered a member of the FTU, it is true, but you don't really have any interaction with guildsmen. [ Neutrals ] Not a true faction, but certain communities such as station security forces. [ Aliens ] (Refer to events in the first game.) Have abandoned imperial space and broke off contact with humankind. There is a main storyline mission arc where you do meet with these guys. Other than that there's no interaction with aliens, unfortunately. They're simply not as important to the story as they were to the original Star Wolves game. [ Precursors ] An ancient and extinct race, which left behind a lot of artifacts. - - - [ Reputation ] - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [REP] There appears to be faction-dependant reputation. For the most part, your main concern appears to be the two empires, the three large corporations, and mercenaries. There are places where you can pay to get your reputation fixed (for an extortionate fee) but I've never seen any other factions mentioned. There's no real way to check how well you are versus any particular faction, the only warning you get is when they actually start turning hostile on sight. Faction dynamics are also a large question mark. For the most part they tend to be mostly neutral to each other with the exception of pirates, which most dislike. Hostility appears to be largely scripted - if faction A was butchering ships from faction B somewhere, it doesn't appear to affect their relationships in other systems. For most of the game you will be travelling in mostly neutral / friendly territory. Most of the hostiles you encounter will be either part of the mission script or a few random pirates here and there. The main concern for reputation comes into play is when you take a break from the storyline missions to go exploring on your own. It is possible to "repair" your reputation with a particular faction. All it requires is paying a bribe to the appropriate person. This is accomplished simply by visiting a station which a "rep fixer" is located at. The storyline missions do this several times for you automatically, but there are several places where you can visit which will clear your reputation - for an extortionate fee, of course. The max appears to be $900,000, although I haven't really attempted committing genocide and seeing whether this can push up the fee. I've also had to pay $750,000 once which surprised me as that faction wasn't auto-hostile to me yet. So be warned, just because a faction isn't auto-hostile to you doesn't mean they didn't care about those ships of theirs which you blew up. Here is the list of places where you can get your reputation fixed: - Dalled : Kuzmich, at Kosma's Workshop - Debris-1: Mining Paradise hidden station (only available after the mission for the miners - if I'm not mistaken, it's on the Alex storyline path. A friend of his has a debt which he tries to clear; depending on which choice you take, he may offer that mission.) - Elinor : at Headquarters - Elio : at Vector-3 (only available after the mission where Charles relocates here.) - Pandora : at Hamish (only available after the mission for Elion(?) ) - Prien : Mechanic, at CosmoDrive Plant - XT-20 : Slippy, at Kamchatka Military Station - XB-13 : Jah, at Jah Rastafari Hookah Bar - - - [ MOTHERSHIP ] - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [MTH] The mothership is your base of operations, it contains your inventory of items, it is where your assemble and launch fighters, and is generally the "quest trigger" for missions (i.e. if the mission says you have to reach location X, flying a fighter there will usually not trip it, you will have to move the mothership there). Your pilots' fighters are launched from the mothership's hangars; but not all types of motherships have enough room. Some may only have several hangars while some of the smaller transport types may even lack them altogether - but this only holds true for the first few missions, for the rest of the game the motherships you get all have hangars. Fighters docked in the mothership will automatically be repaired - shield and armor will be "regeneration" at a steady, if slow, pace. Missiles will also be automatically re-armed provided you have sufficient replacements in your cargo inventory, so reloading missile ships is nothing more than a quick dock-then-relaunch operation. In fact, you can reassemble entire fighters while at the mothership interface screen, just as you can while docked at a station (however, the mothership itself cannot be modified unless docked). This means you are able to quickly change a pilot's role by assigning him to a totally new ship the moment he docks. The game's storyline missions are not *that* punishingly hard that you will be forced to do this in mid-mission, of course, but just be aware that this flexibility is available to you at all times. The mothership comes with a built-in AI "pilot" which you can upgrade by purchasing improved AI modules at any maintenance station. Alternatively you can assign a pilot from your team to the mothership. Unlike fighters, the mothership cannot use a pilot's active skills. However, passive skills will always be in effect. Only one AI or pilot can be in control of the mothership at any one time, AI modules cannot stack - any new firmware you purchase will overwrite the existing firmware. When you obtain a new mothership, the existing firmware is automatically transferred to it just like your pilots and items (technically the game handles the firmware as a special kind of pilot). According to the manual, "no firmware can replace a skilled pilot". This isn't really true; an unskilled pilot is nowhere as good as a decent firmware upgrade. In fact, the base default firmware handles the mothership better than a fresh untrained pilot. Only a highly skilled pilot who has nearly maxed out his skills can be considered a match for the better firmware. Even then it would be a waste since his/her active skills will remain unavailable - your team would be better off having that pilot in a fighter. The high end mothership firmware upgrades are fairly good and you should aim to eventually purchase one of them. The only barrier to that is the high cost. ===== [ GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS ] ===== . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [GAM] Star Wolves 3: Civil war has several key gameplay elements which you need to consider. Most of them are your RPG-style equipment, but I'll also explain mercenaries. - - - [ Weapons ] - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [WEP] Often simply referred to as guns, they come in two versions - light guns and heavy guns. Additionally, there are mothership-only turrets as well as major calibre guns (which are really just another class of mothership-only weapons). There are also several types of guns: - kinetic cannons - lasers (high accuracy) - plasma cannons (unrivalled power, low accuracy) - particle accelerators Kinetic weapons are basically traditional projectile weapons, or in other words, ye olde machineguns. They have the highest firing rate of all weapon types. However, their range is the lowest and their accuracy leaves quite a bit to be desired. Still, for low-skilled pilots the "spray-and-pray" method of shooting which these guns encourage may suffice especially in encounters with light opposition. On the other end of the spectrum are plasma guns. They deal the most damage per shot but have an extremely low refire rate and slow projectile speed. An unskilled pilot will miss a lot. However, plasma guns can be deadly in the right hands - a single volley from several guns can rip right through a previously untouched opponent and turn the fight in your favour. In a somewhat middle zone we have lasers, which were the broken kings of previous games in the series. They deal decent damage and they do it faster than plasma guns. There are technically three classes of lasers: the original lasers, particle accelerators (they deal "laser" damage), and burst-firing combat lasers. There isn't much difference between the first two other than cosmetics; they both hit the target (or not) at the instant the gun fires, which means projectile speed is thrown out of the equation altogether, and accuracy is usually high. Combat lasers are a new and deadly addition - they fire several laser pulses in a burst, similar to the bullets of kinetic guns. Herein lies the problem. True, there exists system modules which absorb and weaken laser damage fairly well. However, there aren't that many ships which are configured to carry such protection. Not to mention the fact that, overall, ship armor feels fairly low in the game. In my personal experience - having finished all the games' storyline modes (there are multiple paths and endings) and on hard difficulty - there never seemed to be any margin of "tolerable" armor damage. Usually when armor starts taking hits it was either get someone to repair it pronto or prepare to get blown apart. This is among the balance issues which I had with the game. Sure, destroying opponents fast is fun but unrealistic, and when it also applies to yourself it just becomes annoying. - - - [ Missiles ] - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [MIS] In the Star Wolves game universe missiles are fairly underpowered, with a few exceptions. Still, enough ships pack missiles that you'd want to have a wingmember on anti-missile defence duty or simply pack ECM units on your team's ships. The AI is broken with regards to distance attacks though; if you have a long-range radar equipped, it is possible to "snipe" enemies from afar. Just launch your missile ship, select the target, and click "rocket attack" to fire your missiles. Generally the AI never retaliates when the source of damage is out of range. Be warned, however, that doing this CAN break certain missions! Some encounters are scripted to occur when you reach the target (dialog triggers, etc). If you kill the targets before the mission script can trigger what is supposed to happen, you will break the mission and screw up your game. So make sure to ALWAYS SAVE YOUR GAME before you try any "interesting tricks". The game allows you to save nearly anywhere, anytime, so take advantage of that. I can't believe I'm still giving out this kind of advice, but judging from the complaints in various games people STILL need the obvious pointed out to them. The game generously allows unlimited save slots, as long as you give a different description a new save file will be created. So ffs DON'T name your saves "slot1", "slot2", "slot3" (yes, I've seen people do this). You may accidentally overwrite an earlier "slot" and screw yourself. Personally I use a " - description" format, e.g. "msf23 - mission to escort X to system Y". So even if I don't remember the mission exactly at least I know that it was my 23rd save in the MSF storyline, so I have some idea of when it happened. ...back on topic, unguided missiles are generally a waste unless you take care to toggle them off and only activate them when facing slow enemies you know you won't miss. I wouldn't waste my money on these, however. Guided missiles are slightly better. Most players apparently like the long range missiles. I've never been a fan of chickenshit sniping though, because you'll never know whether your team can handle those enemies in a straight fight. After all, sometimes the ambushes happen TO you. It wouldn't do to rely on sniping all the time, and get your ass kicked when the enemy brings the fight to you. Then again, I guess you could always abuse save reloading, so it's up to you. - - - [ Systems ] - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [SYS] The game allows you to equip your ships with a variety of different gear which can drastically alter a ship's function in the team. Systems range from passive anti-missile (ECM) devices to maneuverability boosters. There is a large array of different equipment that you can equip on your team's ships so you'll need to evaluate the role of a pilot carefully instead of simply chucking some random gear on his ship because it looked cool. No. Generally, support-type ships are the ones featuring light guns and more than 1 or 2 system slots. Attack gunships generally have fewer slots, but this is not a hard-and-fast rule. Pilots with good system skills can do well in a support role, so modules like team repair and active anti-missile defence suit them well. On the other hand, some pilots have a skill called "lone wolf" which means they perform better by themselves (and the bonus is substantial enough to leave them to fend for themselves instead of assigning them a defensive wingmember). To protect these loners you may give them shield boosters and passive anti- missile modules. Modules such as maneuverability and speed boosters aren't anything to sneeze at either. Since you can't fly ships directly, the pilot's skill is vital in determining if he/she can survive a fight. Therefore any bonuses to their ship's performance is always a plus. A bonus to maneuverability can give the edge to an otherwise clunky gunship. Some players have experimented with extreme designs, such as 4x team repair modules on a ship, so it can regenerate from quite a lot of damage if the ship isn't outright destroyed in an attack. Or high-stealth designs (4x cloaking devices) because stealth effects actually stack, and from my own testing I've confirmed this basically renders the ship invisible to enemy scanners: you can fly right up a hostile target's tail and he still won't see you. Of course, the downside is that hostiles will be all the more concentrated on the rest of your teammates, and that you can't stack that much stealth on the mothership itself. However, this design is extremely effective for support craft: 3 stealth devices and 1 repair module means that this pilot can repair teammates safely without worrying about getting attacked himself. (Of course, you need to sacrifice 3 slots to stealthing modules, so you judge for yourselves if this is worth it.) Finally, don't forget that stealthing only works against ships; missiles home in just fine on supposedly "invisible" ships. True, this isn't normally a concern as missiles tend to be spent quite quickly during the opening stages of a battle. I've created a mod (posted on the 1C forums) which enhances missiles, though - imho missile spam looks very nice in this game especially since it has support for multiple missile launches and MIRV designs. The former doesn't actually exist in the base game and the latter is limited to only 2-4 warheads; in contrast, I've modded missiles to look like mech anime missile spam (lol) so they're actually more than just a nuisance now. - - - [ Ship types ] - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [SHP] Fighter types: - reconnaissance: quick and maneuverable; low protection and armament - special-purpose: many systems; often poorly armed - light: quick and maneuverable, moderately armed; poorly protected - heavy: well-armed and protected; sluggish - missile: carries missiles; almost no regular guns These archetypes are merely what the manual says; functionally, it doesn't really matter to the pilot - in fact, the game makes no distinction between types of ships (other than mothership/fighter). Fighter ships do have different catagories, which are called generations. As the name suggests, early generation ships were produced before later ones. There are five generations altogether: - 1st gen: usually obsolete but popular among pirates. - 2nd gen: able to oppose 3rd gen craft; popular among mercs and pirates; 3rd grade pilot skill required - 3rd gen: basis of military fleets of all factions; 2nd grade pilot skill required - 4th gen: used by military and rich mercs; 1st grade pilot skill required - 5th gen: fighters of the future, fresh out of the labs; ace pilot required Each successive generation ship requires an additional level of piloting skill before a pilot can fly it. It is generally worth it to get up to grade 2 (can fly 3rd gen craft) as soon as possible, because the early generation craft are heavily outclassed by later generation ships. Throughout most of the game having a piloting grade of 1st will suffice; the highest tier ships are hard to obtain and very expensive, and a pilot would be better served improving his other skills once he is able to fly at least 3rd generation ships. Equipment doesn't care about ship generation though; you can still mount a badass experimental plasma cannon on a dinky 1st gen ship. This mitigates the differences a bit. However, smart players will then be asking the obvious question: if equipment doesn't care about ship generation then what does? Simply, it's just the ship's stats. Shield/armor rating, maneuverability, and speed. You will then note that pilots also have skills which improve on these same type of stats - maneuverability, engine max speed, things like that. This means that a pilot with some bonuses in these skills can take a mediocre ship and make it perform quite a bit better than an untrained pilot could. So you don't necessarily need to fly uber ships to finish the game. In fact many players have completed the game with merely 3rd generation ships, the supposedly average type. Of course, having a top-of-the-line ship doesn't hurt, but bear in mind that the piloting skills needed to fly the last two generations of ships are fairly costly, points which you could spend in other skills you want. - - - [ Mercenaries ] - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [MRC] Any hired mercs will stay with you so long as you're in the system. Once you jump through a portal, they will appear with you in the new sector as well, but they will request payment again. This means you can keep a team you've hired for as long as you want them (and have the money). Their payment will go down as they lose wingmembers, but this doesn't seem to affect their relationship with you. You can also have them all killed in combat and they'll simply reappear at the hiring screen later. To dismiss a mercenary team, either don't agree to pay them when you jump to a new system, or hire another team to place them (you'll be asked for confirmation whether you want to do this). Mercenary hiring fee appears tied to the number of wingmen they have on offer at that particular station. If you like a particular team, for example, but they are only offering to hire out 3 people, you can travel to a different station and possibly see them hiring out more people there. Bear in mind their fees aren't too cheap if you plan to have them around for more than a few systems. In fact, it gets pretty expensive quite fast. Despite their advertising blurb, mercenaries don't really seem to care if you engage in rampant piracy or even blowing up stations. They simply hang around you and shoot at hostiles. Stations don't have "reactions" so they don't hostile you as you shoot at them, hence mercs won't aid you in the destruction of a station - but they won't say anything either, they'll just idle around your team as normal. One final note regarding mercs: if you can, you shouldn't hire them. Oh, they're not all bad. However, they aren't all that good either especially since it costs money to hire the better ones. Not only that, the kills they make are essentially "stolen exp" from your team. After all, if your team killed those enemies yourselves you would've gotten all the exp. They're more of a last-resort option if you feel that a story mission is particularly tough and that you can't survive without the extra firepower. However, if this happens to you, take heed that this is one of the warning signs telling you that your team needs to improve (either more skills or better equipment). I've personally finished all storylines on hard mode (not to mention the mods which make the game *harder*) without having to hire mercs so I know it is doable. If you're really short on cash, go take a look at the "hidden caches" section. ===== [ GENERAL TIPS ] ===== . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [GEN] I originally planned to write a walkthrough for each mission. Considering that there are multiple storylines, however, taking notes for all of them became a pain in the ass, so I decided that I'd just throw out some general tips instead. The mission scripts are pretty much explicit in where you need to go next, so there's no real chance of getting "lost". The only variations occur all really depend on what answers you give to several of the "key" decision points in the game. This makes it relatively trivial to draw up a mission list, kind of like the first game in the series. With that in mind, I figure it'd be more beneficial to list down the various gameplay tips I and many others have discovered instead of merely writing down a dry "mission 1, mission 2, mission 3" walkthrough. - You start in the system of Corrino. The portal to Tira is right behind you but the game script conveniently disables it temporarily. Very early in the game you are flying what amounts to a helpless bullseye with engines so you really don't want to deviate from the first few storyline missions. You have no way of fighting back, no money, no gear, and very few skills. While you're tooling along the game's first few introductory missions, now is a good time as any to point out the "game speed" multiplier buttons. When you're flying to a destination, switch to 4x (or 8x) game speed, and things will move along MUCH faster. It's recommended to keep the game at normal speed when an encounter occurs and there's some dialog onscreen, though. You may be tempted at times to speed up battles; that's fine if your team can handle it, but try not to get too used to it: wingmembers only carry out their current command, they don't stop to defend or patch up teammates unless you explicitly change their orders to. - Just follow the mission arc until you reach Elio where you exchange the mothership you wrested from the pirates for a "clean ID" model. Ternie will ask you whether to go back through Hephaestus or through Empire space (Gredos), choose either one it doesn't matter. What matters is that the story will only continue when you reach the station in Aurora - this is your earliest chance at roaming free. Granted, there are only two of you (Hero and Ternie) and you have only the most basic of stuff. It should be enough though. My advice is to start roaming around and fighting off pirates - it's a slow start, but you need to amass some wealth and get your team, such as it is, up to speed. You don't need to go on a hardcore grind just yet though, after a couple more story missions you'll obtain your next teammate. Still, it's not a bad idea to get some exp and money NOW, as the upcoming (optional) corporate escort mission involves quite a bit of combat. At the very least, make sure both pilots have learned enough piloting to fly 3rd generation craft. - When you've got yourself some decent mid-tier equipment and a few good skills under your team's collective belts, it's time to do a little more serious grinding. If you haven't noticed before, attacking a station will, within the first shots fired, make it launch a whole whack of defending ships. The station itself has no gun emplacements or any other way of defending itself, by the way. This makes for good battle practice: find a pirate base and provoke its defenders into coming out. Pirate bases are generally safe to attack, they are almost always labelled clearly as such and will almost always refuse to allow docking. Finally, pirates aren't counted among the "large" factions which you have a reputation with - the various clans which make up the main body "pirates" aren't really in alliegance with each other - and most other factions hate / don't care about them, making them extremely convenient targets of opportunity. Note that blowing up a station is itself not worth the trouble. They don't give exp and I'm not certain of the repercussions of destroying a station. (E.g. who knows if the storyline script will later choke when it says you need to go to a particular station but it doesn't exist anymore since you torpedoed it into oblivion...) It takes far too much firepower to destroy for basically no reward at all, so there's really no reason to bother. - Once you've "graduated" beyond pirates (i.e. they cease being a challenge altogether), you may set your sights on one of the large factions. As I have mentioned above, you can fix your reputation with a faction - no matter how bad - merely by paying a bribe to one of the fixers. This means that you can now prepare to launch an assault against them, provided you have your exit strategy in place - i.e. enough money to pay the rep fix bribe, which is generally a little less than a million dollars iirc. Unlike pirates, the major factions sport larger forces, are generally more skilled, better equipped, and will set up "portal ambushes" in systems which are under their control if they are hostile to you. This means that you should be prepared to expect a LOT of abuse when attempting to farm a faction for experience and wealth. The payoff can be well worth all the trouble: all that fancy gear in play means your looting will net decent items, and money will soon cease to be a problem. - In all storylines you'll embark on the Precursor mission arc - this marks the maturation of the mid-game after which the endgame arcs will proceed. When you reach X297 a short encounter will notify you of a 'hermit' named Joseph, and when you reach the neighbouring X203 you'll see that besides the mission rendezvous point you'll also see a location marked as Joseph's. Go visit him and persuade him to join you, not only is he an extra hand you can use on your team (even if only temporarily), he's the only pilot in most storyline paths who has access to the Alien Technology adaptation skill. Having picked him up, DON'T proceed west to the rendezvous point: that is a point of no return where you'll need to go through the entire mission arc before being allowed to leave the area, and you'll also lose Joseph to boot (he's only available for this mission arc). Hence if you want to get some mileage out of him NOW, turn back to X297 once you've picked him up. Joseph already has most skills learned, but you can still throw in some points there. His default ship, a border systems Black Stormcrow if I'm not mistaken, isn't bad but you can do better. You'll probably already have enough gear to kit him out so all that's left is grinding him some exp to use the tier 5 ships (he starts as a Grade 1 pilot) and filling in the rest of his skills. He appears to be a gunner and has a choice between specialising in heavy guns or machine guns. You probably don't want to be reliant on a temporary support guy so I'd recommend to set him up in a gunship (hence heavy gun specialization). - You may, in your travels, have come across mention of 'Strange portals'. I'm not certain whether you have to be told about them for them to be activated, but once a mission sends you through one, they'll all become available (as far as I know). Apparently the destinations are somewhat randomized - I've never been killed while using one unlike what the NPCs caution - so just take note of the systems I ended up in and bear in mind you could end up in any of them. The one in XT54 threw me to Proserpine once (wasn't a quest jump, but was after I used the Gaeon-->XT54 pair for a quest). Portal was in NW area, high above the plane. Jumping back into that one lead me to Prosperpine-->X244! So *this* was the portal in X244 that guy used to "smuggle" Joseph out of berserk territory in the Precursor mission arc. It's in the NE area, above plane, approx at the SW corner of the grid 4 in 4 down from the NE corner. Jumping back into that one lead from X244-->Pegasus, 5 in 4 up, above the plane. Jumping back into that one lead from Pegasus-->Eridan, 5 in 4 up, above the plane. Ouch, MSF auto-hostiles. Well, iirc this *is* supposed to be a protected no-go system. UPDATE: Loading a different save and trying out these portals got me to nearly all the same ones, except that Pegasus threw me back to Gaeon instead of to Eridan (I was psyched for a likely-suicidal epic battle with MSF forces camping that portal so imagine my disappointment when it didn't happen...). - - - [ Skill Advice ] - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [SKL] Skills vary quite a bit from pilot to pilot - they each have unique skill trees, although if you take a closer look they're actually based on the four specialization archetypes. You'll see skills for piloting, gunnery, missiles, and systems. In addition, there are the pilot rank skills (which allow a pilot to fly better generation ships), and the Hero has a few unique skills, to unlock access to FTU warehouses (in previous SW games this was the "black market access" skill) and intuition to reveal additional decision choices. Early in the game, equipment plays a huge role since your pilots will have very few skills. Make sure that they get the ability to fly at least 3rd gen ships as soon as possible - the earlier generation craft are simply too flimsy to serve your purposes. Many of the game's battles pit you against superior numbers so you need to make sure you can take some hits. However, do take the time to put in those 2-5 points in the first tier most basic of skills - without them the pilot is actually operating under a handicap. - Now that your pilots can fly better ships than merely the 1st/2nd gen deathtraps, take a look at their skill trees. You'll see that most of the skills are passives, with a few active ones thrown in. The active skills can be quite good, but they are generally limited to several uses per flight and for a limited duration at that. You're better off quickly getting some decent passive bonuses under your belt. Gunnery pilots' strengths lie in attack, so get those accuracy passives. The critical hits are nice if you can afford them since they actually deal 5x (!!) damage when they trigger. Actually, all pilots have at least a few of the lower-tier accuracy passive skills. Get these, they'll save your team a lot of grief. Sadly, the system skills, although good, don't quite match up to the average damage output. Base shield regen rate is low so that even a 100% boost (twice as fast) doesn't really tilt fights in your favour much. It's more of a "patch up faster between fights" kind of deal rather than "I regen so fast so don't bother shooting me unless you've got a really huge or really fast gun" kind of deal. Armor repair speed is somewhat better, since it stacks with the repair modules, and the high end team repair module is already pretty good. Remember
the "4x repair modules" extreme ship design example mentioned earlier? Now
throw a pilot with boosted repair skills in that ship and you'll see him
literally rebuild ships back to max from the brink of destruction.

   Missile skills, especially the active ones, are generally not worth it,
unless you've got my souped-up missile mod active. True, the passives do
increase missile damage a hell of a lot - boosted torpedoes are overkill
beyond all heck - but generally the low missile ammo count is a large
factor in their relative uselessness. Sure, missiles do lay on quite a lot
of hurt. But unless you stock up on huge quantities and are not shy to
quickly re-dock your missile specialists to replenish their supply, you'll
find that they often deplete their stock moments into the fight and spend
the rest of the time relying on their pathetic one or two light guns.

   This imbalance is not visible at first: you see the AI enemy ships use
missiles against you often enough. And THERE lies the key: "often". Enemy
ships come against you in droves and are expected to die. Hence it doesn't
matter if their missile ships only pack 2-4 missiles each. There's always
another missile ship to harass you when you blow one up.
   On the other hand, the low missile count hurts YOU, the player. You of
course don't expect to die, in fact you expect to win every encounter (if
you die you get the game over screen...). Therefore only having 2 missiles is
useless since you'll notice that they're often used up within the first 10
seconds of a 3-minute battle. Sure, you might take out a couple of ships
with a lucky well-placed shot against a wing of hostiles, but that doesn't
happen often.

   This is why I modded missiles to drastically increase the amount per
"pack" and scaled down the damage to compensate: the increased count doesn't
hurt you too much since the damage total comes to about the same, but the
increased number of weaker missiles is better for you since your missile
boosting skills apply to ALL missiles.
   A missile specialist pilot isn't getting any help when the existing
missiles are already strong enough to blow enemies apart: increasing the
damage of said missiles is a waste (a kill is a kill, no matter how much
extra damage you deal). However, with a lot of weak missiles, his skills
will turn them into a lot of decent missiles, which is the whole point of
the mod.
   Thus even if the AI gets to use the improved missile count, it doesn't
affect the player too much - it merely means the damage is spread over more
missiles. On the other hand the player gets the advantage of more missiles
to boost due to skills. This provides the necessary boost for missile
specialists and makes them actually fun to play instead of only good for a
few situations and mostly worthless the rest of the time.
   Actually, I didn't merely quadruple the missile count, I jacked it up to
freaking anime missile swarm levels. It's both hilarious and exhilarating at
the same time. If you want to get ahold of my mod, it's available on the 1C
publisher's Star Wolves forum at the following URL:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/forumdisplay.php?f=138
Just search for my username (Trucidation), I've linked to my mod in my sig.

-
   Next you'll notice most pilots have a gun-type specialization, and some
pilots even get to choose between two. These are good, they boost your damage
by quite a bit. The survival type skills are also quite strong, not taking
any damage in one out of 4 shots does add up and can be a lifesaver.

   Finally at the top of the skill tree every pilot has "elite". This is a
huge boost. Huge. And it applies to multiple categories, from accuracy to
piloting to damage. The cost is on par with the high end skills too, but the
main problem in getting it usually lies in the fact that you need to master
multiple skill subtrees to reach it. It's totally worth the effort, though.



===== [ CACHE LOCATIONS ] ===== . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [CAC]


   Somewhat like in Freelancer, in SW3 you can find "hidden" caches of
equipment through the simple expedient of blowing up the appropriate flagged
asteroid. Below is the list of caches I've gotten from the forum and veried
personally where I could.
   Before you start, here's a very helpful tip: press  to toggle on
the height displacement display, it really helps make navigating and finding
asteroids much, much easier.

Tarrot (1) - keep close to the horizontal as the A2 Station, and go east to
   the grid 5th box from the left. Blinking red light on asteroid (yeah I
   thought real caches supposed to be white and the decoys red). I got a
   Mortar big calibre gun, among other stuff.

Vaudille (2) - first one's roughly 2 grid boxes down, 9 grid boxes in from
   the topright corner of the sector. Blinking white light at a ship hull
   wreck. You can get a Trident (4th gen ship) here, tested after several
   reloads. You can also NOT get it if your luck sucks, so save before
   blowing the debris up.
   Second one's in the southeast corner of the grid 3 down and 9 left, this
   time from the topleft corner. Asteroid with a blinking red light. Dropped
   some guns for me, reloading netted a major calibre gun (the Basilica), a
   fighter (another Trident!), and repeated like the first time, a Daga
   and Armageddon. All in all not a bad sector, but searching through the
   maze of rocks was nerve-wracking. I blew up dozens of asteroid groups
   just to improve visibility.

X220 (1) - approx 6 grids west of portal to X203. Asteroid with blinking red
   light. Yeah, can get the Wyvern Mk 2 (5th gen ship) here, I usually score
   some Shivas and Parallaxes as well.

Fronn (1) - approx 3 grids S and 1 east from the Triada trade station. Fairly
   close to it, and down the Z-axis a bit. Tends to drop Smog (active anti-
   missile), Topaz (laser resistance), some of those 1-use repair items, and
   occasionally a major calibre gun (Jingal) and a Wyvern (5th gen ship).
   Not a bad haul.

XB-19 (1) - on the southwest grid of the destroyed Pirate Station (the
   wreckage in the southwest, not the southeast one which would be the
   junkyard). Can get a Gunslinger (4th gen ship) among the other stuff.

Charon (?) - could not confirm. Asteroid with blinking red lights exist in
   the stated southwest corner, but none yielded any drops. There was one in
   the northwest corner but no drops either. No asteroids with lights in the
   southeast or northeast corners. You don't really want to give this system
   a miss though, as it's the only system where the unique local patrol
   faction "Templars" is based and has ships for sale. Their modified ships
   are the best to be found and you don't need FTU access at their stations.
   Be warned that the game's overall plot has a mid-point somewhere which
   renders this system a no-go zone due to an MSF blockade - you may be able
   to smash through though, I don't think it's an actual physical blockade,
   but the MSF certainly won't appreciate that. The best place to visit this
   location would be early in the game, but you'll need some money to buy
   those sweet Templar ships, so get your cache-hunting done first to ensure
   that you have enough dough when you come here.

Solncevka (1) - northwest asteroid/dust field, southwest section of grid 5 in
   and 4 down from the northwest corner. Dropped me a Gunslinger (4th gen
   ship), a major calibre gun, and other stuff. Said to drop a Wyvern Mk 2 (a
   5th gen ship), reload until you get one if you want it.



===== [ MODS ] =====  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [MOD]


   Telling people how to mod their games is usually a DIY recipe for disaster
but some things really are simple enough.

   Veterans of the franchise (the English-language version, at least) will
remember that in previous games pilots had a few voiced parts - mostly stuff
like acknowledging player orders. This time apparently their budget didn't
cover English voiceovers; the voice files are in the folders but they only
contain silence.
   Each pilot appears to have around 16 voice triggers, and these sound files
appear in the \Data\LocData\English\Voice\ folder, where you will find more
folders, one for each pilot. The voice files are in wav format and the names
are hardcoded (i.e. you cannot put in any randomly named wav file and expect
the pilot to use it). The names of these files and a brief description of
when they are used is listed here:

 (name)_R_hear.wav             - select acknowledgement
 (name)_R_yes.wav              - select acknowledgment
 (name)_R_accomplish.wav       - order acknowledgement (move-to)
 (name)_R_I'lldoit.wav         - order acknowledgement (move-to)
 (name)_R_enemy.wav            - hostile spotted
 (name)_R_enemy_2.wav          - hostile spotted
 (name)_R_attack.wav           - rightclick on a hostile
 (name)_R_defend_attack.wav    - rightclick on a hostile
 (name)_R_target_locked.wav    - rightclick on a hostile
 (name)_R_he'll_get.wav        - rightclick on a hostile
 (name)_R_enemy_down.wav       - target destroyed
 (name)_R_target_destroyed.wav - target destroyed
 (name)_R_I'm_hit.wav          - ship armor starting to take damage
 (name)_R_ship_damaged.wav     - ship armor drops below 50%
 (name)_R_ejecting.wav         - ship was destroyed
 (name)_R_no_rockets.wav       - missile ammo depleted

   They're mostly self-explanatory. "Hear" is a typo, it should be "here"
(as in, "yes, I'm here") - it's basically a pilot acknowledgement when you
select him/her. Well, I guess you *could* read it as the pilot saying "Yes,
I hear you," and one of them actually does say that, but the intent is to
acknowledge being selected.
   When you replace the files make sure to use MONO wav files - stereo files
will not be played. If you have stereo voiced files you can use Audacity, a
popular open source audio manipulation tool, to create a mono mix.



===== [ BUGS ] =====  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [BUG]


   As a whole, the game is pretty bug-free. The standard of English used in
the game isn't the best, but it isn't all that terrible as some people
complained. However, the game's heavy reliance on scripting means that typos
made there WILL break the game, unlike typos in flavour text which merely
annoy readers.


- - -[ Bug 1 ]- - -

Bug type: flavour text typo
Impact  : low
Fix?    : yes (available DIY here)

   One of the more visible typos affects the descriptions of the AMS modules,
that is, the active anti-missile countermeasures items for fighter craft. If
you read them, all four of them state that they give the same effectiveness,
i.e. rating 10. This is incorrect - just like modules in all other categories
they range in effectiveness from worst to best.
   The rating of 10 is correct for the first level of AMS, the Boxer. Secound
would be Gladiator at 20, third the Berserk at 30, and finally the Cerberus
at 40.

   These typos can be easily corrected yourself. Browse to the game folder
and go to \Data\LocData\English\. Inside this folder is a file named
"m_modules.loc". It is in plaintext - as a rule, all ".loc" files used by the
game contain text descriptions - which you can open in a simple text editor
such as Notepad (or use Wordpad if you're afraid of accidentally messing up
the line breaks).
   Search for the commented line beginning with "; AMS". Immediately below it
you will see, in order, the descriptions for all four AMS modules. What you
need to edit are their descriptions, the lines beginning with #M_LDesc_AMS.

i) 2nd item, Gladiator -> line beginning with #M_LDesc_AMS2. Read along the
  text until the part which says "Missile intercept efficiency: 10." Change
  this to 20.

ii) Similar to above: 3rd item, Berserk, line beginning with #M_LDesc_AMS3.
  Find the same text, and change the 10 to 30.

iii) Similar to above: 4th item, Cerberus, line beginning with #M_LDesc_AMS4.
  Find the same text, and change the 10 to 40.

Save the file, and that's it. You've just successfully performed a simple
modification to the game. Of course, it's just a text description, but hey
that's still a change.


- - -[ Bug 2 ]- - -

Bug type: mission script typo
Impact  : high (game breaking in a few specific storyline paths)
Fix?    : yes (available player-made download in publisher's forum)

   A few more serious typos occur in some mission scripts, effectively
breaking the game because the script can't process past the error.
Fortunately we have discovered them all, and they all happen to occur
along the InoCo storyline path (so if you're playing the other storylines
you wouldn't notice anything amiss).

   These fixed scripts can be found on the publisher's forum at the following
URL: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/forumdisplay.php?f=138
Look for the thread named "InoCo Path Fix" started by Goblin Wizard.

   In a previous iteration of this FAQ I actually detailed the fixes here,
albeit I only got 2 of them (there are 3). The explanations were starting to
get very technical though, and I felt that wasn't in the spirit of this FAQ
so I decided to leave them out and simply point users to the forum.
   In the (extremely unlikely) case that the forum becomes unavailable, you
may email me for this fix. It's only several kb in size and I have the long-
standing habit of saving patches and fixes for all games I play (because I
tend to replay them again later). It may take me a while to respond because
I usually transfer stuff out to storage if I'm not currently playing that
particular game.


- - -[ Bug 3 ]- - -

Bug type: faction-related
Impact  : low
Fix?    : no

   Be aware of a subtle bug involving mercs: the hireable mercs actually
share the SAME rep as the "mercenary" faction - this is important to note if
you've been going around shooting up mercenaries and subsequently having them
turn hostile on you. If you do this, then any mercs you hire will appear as
hostile. So to avoid this, either don't hire mercs or don't go around
shooting mercs.

   Normally there isn't any reason to shoot mercs: most of them are generally
found performing the role of local system patrol. If you shoot them up for
fun then you get what you deserve.
   The exception appears to be one side trip (optional) where you can choose
to NOT pay a bribe, which will automatically make the mercenaries in that
system hostile. It's possible to salvage the situation, however: simply visit
one of the rep-fixers listed in the section below and pay the bribe to
restore your standing with mercenaries.

   This "bug" shouldn't affect most players and it even has an in-game fix,
hence why its impact is classed as low. Someone on the forums was whinging
about it, but as I explained above, there's no reason to make mercs hostile
in the first place: he brought it down on himself. It's not like the game
forces you to attack them. If you start shooting at un-hostile ships, don't
be surprised when they fight back.



===== [ MISC ] =====  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [---]


   ...and that's it. I know some people would prefer a blow-by-blow mission
list, but it was a bit tedious replaying every story branch so I decided to
just go with a general list of the more important missions only. Really, the
storyline missions aren't that many, you can be done with the game in a short
while especially if you don't take any detours (although it's going to be
painfully difficult later in the game).

   There's a whole lot of detail left out, but I don't think that padding my
FAQ with lists of stats for weapons and ships etc would be that useful,
especially considering that all this information is already available in the
game's manual - which, coincidentally, comes with the game.

   If there are any inaccuracies or mistakes in this guide please don't
hesitate to contact me with the corrections. Your contributions are greatly
appreciated!


   I put this thing together in PSPad, a kickass freeware text editor,
while listening to various Touhou remixes and the Tokyo-3 Middle Daughters
on Winamp. My laptop uses a Koa2Duo processor - Koakuma is just so cuuute.



===== [ CREDITS ] ===== . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [CRE]


   Thanks to the people who posted on the GameFAQs/GameSpot board.

   Major kudos and thanks to the regulars on the 1C Star Wolves board; many
of the tips were obtained there, especially the bug fixes and hidden cache
locations. Thanks also to the guys on the StarRover Russian forum. Also to
lolgoogletranslate, it's actually possible to understand the translations at
this point even though the grammar may be horribly wrong.

   A shout out to the assorted anon on Danbooru. Countless hours were wasted
trawling the Coaching and Slightly Naughty Expressions Practice image pools.
Also, hi! to fellow Moriya Shrine worshippers. Remember brothers and sisters,
our faith is the only thing keeping Suwako-sama and Kanako-sama around <3

   My humble apologies if I forgot to mention anyone.



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                     *   Hakurei Reimu's mikopits <3   *



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