phewie I'd forgotten how hard this game was (classic)

[Leper Messiah]

Dayum I'm trying like mad to get as far as I can in each version and so far classic is killing me. I also remember that my hatred of "protection" missions in ANY game stemmed from this one! LOL.

so far in TOD 1 I'm stuck on M8, TOD 2 M5 and I can't even get past TOD 3 M1!!

Elite Dangerous is easy as hell compared to this!!

[sir_derlin]

If you want spoiler, hover below. I wrote this up years ago, and forwhatever reason, didn't have much trouble with T2M5 or T3M1.

• TIE Fighter Eyeball
  
• TIE Bomber Dupe
  
• TIE Interceptor Squint
  
• TIE Advanced Bright

T1M8 Rescue Sullustan Tech Staff (Y-Wing): The trick here is knowing what to shoot. There are twelve transports (two sets of six), and you need to disable two. Hit T four times for the first transport, and save it to a memory slot. Now, hit T seven more times, and save this one to a memory slot. Now, go back to the first slot, and disable it. You can use one torp if you like, but I recommend ions the whole time just to be safe. As soon as it’s disabled, floor it to the second target. Slowing down so as not to smash into the transports can be difficult, so I recommend slowing down before 0.8 kilometers. It can be helpful to save the Rebel transports as they arrive too. Now you’ll be ready for some T/F’s and T/I’s. Between waves feel free to dump two torps into the transports, but be careful not to let any interceptors past you. You can’t catch up to their speed, and by the time they come around for another pass, it could be too late for the rescue team. Killing transports is not required, so stay focused on the TIEs. When your transports leave, feel free to mop up whatever is left. If you engage the frigates, an elite wave of T/I’s will launch for each one. You’ll be in for quite the challenge if you take them on in your old Y-Wing. Still, if you survive a few waves, you’ll be earning another piece of the Kalidor Crescent.

T2M5 Protect Captured Satellites (A-Wing): I really can’t say I had any trouble with this one, even though I imagine Totally Games made an “easy” version for a reason. You have to protect the freighter from last mission, and it is essentially disabled since it won’t move, but at least it has shields. Take out all the TIEs. It’s odd, but kind of nice that the TIEs typically come out one by one, so you really don’t need to concentrate too much except at first. You must take the TIEs out quickly though, since there are few waves; if you sit around too long they might all launch! After seventeen fighters consisting of eyeballs, squints, and dupes, the ISD actually leaves! Just sit around, and wait for the mission to finish sometime after the Maximus arrives.

T3M1 Guard Military Equipment Transfer (A-Wing): You need to protect both freighter Sidral II and corvette Frazier until they dock and hyper out. This is another fairly easy mission. Take out the eyeballs nearby then head for the dupes. The TIEs may take out a container; it doesn’t matter. The bombers are the dangerous ones, but they are so far away, it shouldn’t be a major concern, and there is only one wave of each! Take them out and you can shoot the additional TIEs at your leisure. You can take out the ISD at your pleasure as well, and another mission glitch prevents a half dozen squints from coming your way if you do.

[sir_derlin]

I do remember T1M8 being a tough mission though!

[Leper Messiah]

Many thanks for the suggestions!

Ah I was trying to kill all the transports in TOD1 M8, not doing that will make it easier, but I'm 46, not got anywhere near the hand eye coordination I used to have, jstick calibration sucks too (yeah I know blaming tools!! ;) ). I can spend quite a while just getting one TF to die!! Especially in the craptastic YW!!

Also I really miss the extra targetting commands you get from TIE onwards like targetting a targets attacker and targetting a new ship etc etc.

Classic XW is just old school damn hard!! ;) If I had any hair left it'd be gone now!!

I'll be moving on to CD and SE soon and hopefully the "easier" missions option will help a bit (of course as long as the ones I'm stuck on have been adjusted!)

[sir_derlin]

TIE Fighter was indeed a great leap forward in controls. That game also had Easy, Medium, and Hard versions of missions and I recall them being measurably different. In X-Wing, while the Collector's CDROM added an Easy mode for certain missions, I never noticed them being any easier, or even all that different at all. (In one, I think it was harder, since additional waves of TIEs were added or fixed!)

[Leper Messiah]

Oh well thanks for that heads up as well! LOL I'll wear a wig to pull hair out.

Sometimes I wonder what Laurance Holland is doing now and pray for a remake..although XWVM looks amazing and all done in spare time! Can't wait for that to be finished!

[Bob of Mage]

Personally I can't even beat the first missions..... Who knew killing a bunch of freighters was harder then dogfighting A-Wings?!?!?

[El Rushbo]

Call it on obsessive compulsion, but I rarely start out a Tour of Duty until I've completed all the training missions (B-wing being the exception, I'll wait until that is available in the storyline to run them) I think my best run was completing tour I and II, and being midway through III. As of yet I have not beaten this game in its entirety. Frustrating as that is at times, it still doesn't deter me from thinking this is one of the greatest games of all time.

[Destroy]

After finally getting X-Wing up and running, I too have failed the very first mission and still haven't beat it. I'll often kill the enemy craft but I end up running into the debris and my X-Wing gets torn up.

This is a very difficult and unforgiving game.

[bgrubz]

Still have problems running this game, graphics glitches and such, but remember when I got my first computer this was the first game I got and spent months playing through it. Haha...the few brief moments I can play through the nausiationg graphic flashes I get now does bring back fond memories. Specially after I learned to how to make my own missions and such, can't remember the old programs name, back in the win 3.1 days. Really would like a remake of the X-wing series. Need more good Space Sim games that tell a decent story as well.

[Cryptic]

In the X-Wing series of novels by Michael Stackpole, one of the training missions they send Rogue Squadron on is an escort mission lifted directly out of this game. All the pilots (who are the absolute best the Rebels have to offer, including a prospective Jedi) agree that it's absolute hell and basically the Star Wars version of a Kobayashi Maru.

So yeah, don't feel bad. There's a perfectly good reason that limited ammunition, vulnerability, and clipping are all "optional toggles" as opposed to "cheats" in a game this brutal (especially in the dark days before in-mission saves, where you could lose 30-45 minutes of your life if you ran into a stray asteroid at the end of a particularly grueling mission).

[bgrubz]

Originally posted by CrypticReference:

In the X-Wing series of novels by Michael Stackpole, one of the training missions they send Rogue Squadron on is an escort mission lifted directly out of this game. All the pilots (who are the absolute best the Rebels have to offer, including a prospective Jedi) agree that it's absolute hell and basically the Star Wars version of a Kobayashi Maru.

So yeah, don't feel bad. There's a perfectly good reason that limited ammunition, vulnerability, and clipping are all "optional toggles" as opposed to "cheats" in a game this brutal (especially in the dark days before in-mission saves, where you could lose 30-45 minutes of your life if you ran into a stray asteroid at the end of a particularly grueling mission).

Or try to Hyperspace under the guns of a Star Destroyer if I recall....

[sir_derlin]

Reading the first X-Wing: Rogue Squadron book and recognizing the X-Wing TOD 1-4 game mission was a great thrill back in the day!