HQ Mission Capture Orca impossible in 1.4 - How to get around this ?

[apricotslice]

I'm doing the mission to capture BalaGi's Orca in the HQ plot.

The voice commands said it was to be found in Light Water or Shore of Infinity. Its not, its in Kingdom End.

I used a M7M with pods, and as soon as the pods connect with the Orca, it aborts the boarding and you lose your marines or it just tells you the marines are all killed. It doesnt even begin to allow boarding.

I try to command the M7M remotely to board, it has no boarding option.

I bring in a scabbard, and command it to board and it does nothing.

I go on the scabbard, and I get a boarding option, but all the ship does in autopilot is sit 3km behind the Orca getting shot at. In desperation I turn off the autopilot and used Cycrows boarding hotkey, and the first marine to hit the hull crashed the game to windows.

Obviously something is very very wrong with this mission.

How does one get around this ?

Also, someone else is reporting that he has 5 ships all trying to board and none of them ever launch any marines. The Orca is also jumping sectors, which mine hasnt started doing.

[Kor'ah]

Sheilds on the Orca under 10%? At 10%, or greater, all marines are instantly killed if they are still in the hull cutting phase of the boarding operation. TPs will just fly around doing nothing if the sheild are over 10%.

[apricotslice]

Thats basic boarding 101.

No sheilds on any of the senarios.

In the TP, I had my M7 doing attack shields, keeping them at zero.

Extra Info :

The first time I did this, I followed the verbal instructions, and jumped to Shore of Infinity, and followed the arrows into Light Water. Searched in there, no Orca. Then I get a message saying the Orca has been spotted in another sector, and instead of naming the sector, in the mission briefing, it shows a director code variable name. However, the arrows still showed Light water as the destination. At this point, I figured the mission was broken somehow and reloaded in Kingdom End. As above.

[apricotslice]

I tried again. Reloaded after being given the mission.

The Orca is wandering aimlessly around Kingdom End without a Pilot and therefore without a race.

I assume that means that I've found it before the Yaki take it. If so, am I supposed to wait forever for a Yaki to turn up and take it from under my nose ?

Or is the mission broken by the Orca still being here ?

Anyone know if this worked in 1.3 so I can go back to it ?

[apricotslice]

Update :

Its not technically broken, BUT it has to be the worst put together mission of the entire plot.

To activate yaki, you have to enter Shores of Infinity. Why ? The Orca is still in Kingdom End !

Kingdom End is so chock full of roids and ships, that getting a TP to autopilot into boarding range is a huge sick joke ! It was only after the first batch of 10 marines got left 50 kms behind and I used Cyrows boarding script to launch the next lot after the AP sat 4 kms behind the Orca for 10 minutes doing nothing, that the damned thing jumped out.

Even in the Hole, where it went, pretty empty space, the AP on the TP sat 3kms behind the Orca for another 10 minutes until in total disgust I used the hotkey again. This time it worked and mission over.

But I have to say, boarding is yet another great idea that has been so poorly implemented in the game that I wont ever use it again.

As a mission, this was a tear your hair out kind, solely because the autopilot boarding from a TP DOESNT WORK ! Maybe it does with some ships, but I suspect that collision avoidance makes it almost impossible for the AP to find a boarding position for a ship shaped like the Orca.

Honestly, why couldnt the ship have been stationery with no pilot and we just go shoot the Yaki before he can get it and then suit accross to claim it, mission over ! Much simpler and more satisfying. imo.