S Rank -Mission 16

[Sagittarius A*]

I have S ranked from easy casual to Ace on every mission. Except for 16. I have completed this mission in under 16:30 and got an A. I have gotten over 20k in 21:00 and got an A.

What does it take to S this mission?

[King Fossil]

I don't know the exact numbers, but you're identifying everything before shooting, right? If you kill an unidentified enemy you get no points. Have to look at them first.
Also, you can hold the change target button and it'll aim the camera directly at whatever you have targeted, so that makes identifying things way easier. Or maybe you already knew that.

[pilipalaliu]

In Ace difficulty, you have to finish the mission within 18 minutes and get 19800 destruction points at least. After 18 min., you'll lose 40 time points per second.

[deathspeed]

Originally posted by King Fossil:

I Also, you can hold the lock on button and it'll aim the camera directly at whatever you have targeted, so that makes identifying things way easier.

What sorcery is this? What is the Lock On button?

[King Fossil]

Originally posted by deathspeed:

What sorcery is this? What is the Lock On button?

The change target button. Triangle or Y or whatever it is on keyboard. Not sure why I said lock on instead of change target since that's a stupid way of putting it. I'm stupid I guess.

[Sagittarius A*]

Originally posted by King Fossil:

Also, you can hold the lock on button and it'll aim the camera directly at whatever you have targeted, so that makes identifying things way easier. Or maybe you already knew that.

I am also wondering what sorcery this is and will try this. I also feel like I'm losing out on a lot of points once I've escorted the guy to the chopper. A lot of targets drop out.

[Sagittarius A*]

Originally posted by pilipalaliu:

In Ace difficulty, you have to finish the mission within 18 minutes and get 19800 destruction points at least. After 18 min., you'll lose 40 time points per second.

I'll aim for these numbers in my next attempt.

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by King Fossil:

Originally posted by deathspeed:

What sorcery is this? What is the Lock On button?

The change target button. Triangle or Y or whatever it is on keyboard. Not sure why I said lock on instead of change target since that's a stupid way of putting it. I'm stupid I guess.

The specific button is called "Highlight Target" for keyboard configuration. What it does is focus the camera on the currently selected target and keeps it there. It replicates real world target tracking by the pilot via turning the head and eyes, like the cutscene of Mihaly doing the VR simulation. Camera controls are quite poor for most flight sims so they just give you this as toggle auto camera-lock feature.

It should've been called "Visual Target Tracking" (Visual Tracking) which is the real world equivalent skill pilots and specialist officers have to implement, or something along those lines to be less confusing ("Camera lock", "Tracking", "Visual") . Most likely just another casualty of the rushed state of this game.

Actually doesn't make that much of a difference in multiplayer. In singleplayer it can be used for large offset flyby identification I'd assume.
Controller players don't even have this option separately. Game is a mess heh.

[Sagittarius A*]

Originally posted by Shockwave:

Controller players don't even have this option separately.

I play with a Xbox controller and it actually does work by holding 'Y'. It does help quite a bit. That said, I've still not S'd this mission!

[Rastrelly]

Originally posted by Sagittarius A*:

Originally posted by Shockwave:

Controller players don't even have this option separately.

I play with a Xbox controller and it actually does work by holding 'Y'. It does help quite a bit. That said, I've still not S'd this mission!

You S-rank it on higher difficulties more or less like this:
0) Take AA SpW, QAAMs for example
1) Clean sweep the map in the first part, make sure to take down ALL, so that the Ace would spawn
1b) Do not allow Labarthe to stop for too long. Memorise his stopping point and take down obstacles as soon as they appear (ID them, fo course)
2) Move to the point of enemy fighters spawn to ID them ASAP
3) As soon as they are marked as targets, take down at least several while they are still in formation and vulnerable
4) Remove the drones ASAP

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by Sagittarius A*:

Originally posted by Shockwave:

Controller players don't even have this option separately.

I play with a Xbox controller and it actually does work by holding 'Y'. It does help quite a bit. That said, I've still not S'd this mission!

Yeah some friends informed me how awkward it is with (Y) / Triangle and King Fossil also pointed it out in this thread above too. What I meant is that it's double bound-- as it is exists with another feature. hence: You can't bind it or have it on a single button separately to avoid accidentally switching targets. And don't even get me started on the lack of robust custom controller map bind settings

[Sagittarius A*]

Originally posted by Shockwave:

Originally posted by Sagittarius A*:

I play with a Xbox controller and it actually does work by holding 'Y'. It does help quite a bit. That said, I've still not S'd this mission!

Yeah some friends informed me how awkward it is with (Y) / Triangle and King Fossil also pointed it out in this thread above too. What I meant is that it's double bound-- as it is exists with another feature. hence: You can't bind it or have it on a single button separately to avoid accidentally switching targets. And don't even get me started on the lack of robust custom controller map bind settings

Ah, okay. I get what you're saying now and did run into that problem. Further update though, it did help me to finally S that mission on Normal. Now off to Hard and Ace!

[Sagittarius A*]

Originally posted by King Fossil:

Also, you can hold the lock on button and it'll aim the camera directly at whatever you have targeted, so that makes identifying things way easier. Or maybe you already knew that.

I did not know this and it actually sped things up in eliminating targets which got me under the time requirement. Thanks!