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- 1. Programming
- 2. Tips
-
- 1. Programming:
- ==============
- Here is a nice little cheat that gives you oodles of credits:
- Load up the game and watch the intro sequence. Use the computer at the main
- concourse to save the game. Call it START (although it doesn't matter a great
- deal what you call it). Quit out of the game and return to DOS. Open the file
- with a hex editor.
- Look for the hex address 306 and change the value there to 40 4B 4C. Save the
- file and load up Privateer again loading the START saved game the moment you
- can. When you load the game up you will find that you have 5000000 credits!!
-
- 2. Tips:
- =======
- Combat guide:
- ------------
- The most important thing to remember is that in general most combat strategies
- that work in Wing Commander 2 also work in Privateer.
- At an early stage of the game in the Troy system you run into a huge bunch of
- Retros. An effective attack play is to fly at about 150kps - this encourages
- them to attack you head-on. Retros tend to fly directly at you and because you
- are flying slowly the approach takes a while giving you time to blast them to
- bits with a pair of mass drivers. Alternatively a couple of well placed dumb
- missiles also take them out. A different approach is to use Torpedoes as dumb
- fire missiles; they're cheaper and more powerful.
- If you use the IR missiles with two missile launchers most enemies in Talons can
- be taken out easily. Simply get close to the arget and slow down to enable your
- enemy to draw away and then fire two missiles at him in quick succession. The
- first missile brings down his shield while the second one should kill him. This
- tactic requires two missile launchers to enable you to fire two missiles at once
- without waiting for the launcher to reset. Against tougher opponents you may
- need to do this more often. Here the advantage of twin missile launchers is that
- you can carry 20 missiles so you never start a mission without a full complement
- of missiles.
- When fighting five or more hostile ships use missiles to reduce their numbers
- quickly then take out the remainder with your guns.
-
- Choice of weapons:
- -----------------
- Tachyon guns provice the best power consumption and recharge rate as well as the
- damage capacity of all the guns on sale. Early in the game you should use Mass
- Drivers and then build up to the more powerful Meson guns.
- Make sure that you never have more than two guns of the same type firing
- forwards otherwise you end up with a large drain on your available energy per
- shot.
- Don't bother with turret guns. In Wing Commander 2 there's a turret gunner who
- uses these guns when you aren't using them; in Privateer you have to use them
- yourself and since you can't steer your ship from the turret you won't last long
- The turret is best used for mounting a tractor beam but since none of the
- missions requires the use of the tractor beam and there's little revenue to be
- had retrieving the cargo found after most battles it's only useful if you intend
- to pirate cargo ships.
-
- Fight dirty:
- -----------
- If you have a ship with good shields and armour you can do a lot of damage to
- weaker ships by flying close to them and 'nudging' them. Done properly this can
- badly damage or kill them immediately without doing too much damage to your own
- ship. Nasty but this is space and who's going to see?
- A repair droid soon pays for itself so it's advisable to get one at the earliest
- opportunity. Whenever you sustain any major damage to your craft you can then
- stop it for about five minutes and allow damaged systems to be repaired.
- Running away is a very effective strategy - it won't win you any medals but it
- keeps you alive. It's worth remembering that most hostiles won't chase you very
- far from the navigational point where you encountered them.
- Unless you're on a mission that requires you to kill the enemies you encounter
- it's best to run whenever you can. Use the mission option on the navigation
- screen to determine whether you need to destroy the hostiles you encounter.
- (Objectives listed in red must be met.) In general - bounty and defend missions
- require you to fight while you patrol and recon only requires you to visit nav
- points.
- For a quick escape it pays to invest in an afterburner - but running away is
- difficult if you are flying through asteroids. It's best to kill all hostile
- ships within the asteroids rather than trying to outrun them and ending up as
- space-paté.
- In some of the story-line missions the hostile ships simply follow you - this
- can result in having far too many opponents to handle at once. In these cases
- it's best to kill them as you encounter them.
- When flying cargo missions or simply travelling from A to B you may arrive at a
- jump point crawling with pirates or Retros. You can speed into the jump point
- using your afterburners and engale your jump drive without slowing down. This
- does however expose you to several hits just before you jump - but hopefully
- your shields will absorb most of the damage.
- *EOF*
-