'A Lady in Trouble' by Quaker2k9

[Christian Knudsen]

Download

Description: Inspired by Privateer 2, the Kilrathi Hunt mission and the Flyboy missions. This quest, if not ended prematurely, lead the player to four (or is it five?) different bases. Enjoy.

Difficulty: Average

(The difficulty is based on completing the quest in a well-equipped Centurion.)
 

[Quaker2k9]

Since I don't want anyone to get frustrated over my quest, I'll later post a (spoiler-marked) FAQ/Walkthrough. The plot is a little messy (though overall I'm quite happy with the story) so you may get into a situation where you think you're "stuck."

Feedback to my first attempt at being a mission author is very welcome. I'm thinking about writing a Part 2...
 

[Matt_S]

I'm not quite done, but it wasn't as challenging as I'd thought. My main criticism is that you need to clear the nav points where you'll place ships. I never thought I'd be able to do that in a Tarsus, but it was surprisingly easy. The ground combat was a real pain though. On a related note, please tell me there's an autodoc on Chi-Chi Two.

Edit: I can't even make it to Chi-Chi Two before I die. Do critical wounds do damage to the area where they are located? Because I'm supposed to have 5 hours before I die. I think maybe my torso is getting destroyed.
_________________
"So I went to the librarian in the biology section and asked her if she could find me a map of the cat."
- Richard Feynman
 

[Quaker2k9]

With my autolaser gun, shooting proficiency about 2/3 of maximum and some kevlar armour, I managed to win the fighing every time I tested it. I think one could also use some clever tactics (hiding behind one's own ship / throwing grenades / whatever) to win this fight.

Don't know if there's an autodoc on Chi-Chi One, but you're free to land whereever you want before you go there.

About the space fighting... Well I only fly a Tarsus too and think with the standard ship, it's quite difficult yet beatable. I didn't clean up the nav points on purpose because I wanted to give newbie players (like I am one myself) the chance to get some random assistance or ships that distract the enemies.

Thanks for your feedback! I agree that for an experiences player, the space battle may not be much of a challenge, while the ground combat isn't too easy really.
 

[Quaker2k9]

Here's a FAQ/Walkthrough:

For your own fun, please consider only reading it after you've finished the quest or in case you're stuck somewhere.

First location (Manurhin):

Spoiler:

Q: Where's that Sandrine person I need to meet? A: She's at the place with the most bystanders / witnesses so she won't get attacked. Q: So I did what Sandrine asked me to do. Now was that already it? What a lame quest! A: Maybe you should consider giving the stranger a chance to tell his side of the story before you casually kill him.

Second location:

Spoiler:

Q: Deckard isn't at the bar! Now what? A: If you wait for just a few seconds, you'll notice someone's running towards you.

Third location:

Spoiler:

Q: The enemies are too strong! A: Sorry, can't help you there. Try wearing some armor and make every shot count. Q: Where's Deckard? A: He's being held, wounded, at the bar.

Between third and fourth location:

Spoiler:

Q: Sandra isn't anywhere, now what? A: She's not there. Just check out the Nav point (get very near to the jump point) and you'll be done for this place. Q: The three enemies are too strong! A: Reload and hope for some random confed assistance or try and race straight to the jump point and jump out, destroying the enemies isn't a mission objective.

Fourth location:

Spoiler:

Q: My quest ends here, but I thought there's also a fifth place to go to? A: You may only go to the fifth location if you've done something the "right" way before. It's a bonus objective.

Fifth location:

Spoiler:

Q: I've done everything but now I think I'm stuck! A: If you've recieved the "special item", then the quest is over. However the "quest finished" message will only appear when you take-off the next time. That's because I wanted to give you some time to enjoy yourself and look at that sweet item you got.

 

[Matt_S]

The random assistance in my case was for the enemy. A random pirate was at the same nav point

I'm presently on Chi-Chi One and dying. I managed to barely get to Chi-Chi Two, and there's no autodoc there either. Christian, I'll go ahead and email my save to you so you can work your magic on my torso to keep me from dying so quickly.
_________________
"So I went to the librarian in the biology section and asked her if she could find me a map of the cat."
- Richard Feynman
 

[Christian Knudsen]

Ooops, I guess the game only takes the overall health into account when calculating how much time you've got left. I'll fix that for the next release. And I've sent you a fixed save game.
 

[Quaker2k9]

If I "only" got the 4 of 5 points rating because my mission isn't straightforward enough, then you guys are gonna HATE my second quest
_________________
Retros tick me off!
 

[Flyboy]

Here's what I think: gameplay/plot/etc. wonderful. 5 star rating. Language: way too rough. This is a great quest, except for the language. Remember, there are children that play this game, including the quests, and if the parents find out what kind of language is being used at times, it gives the whole Ascii Sector community a bad reputation. And besides that, some people like myself just aren't comfortable when bad language starts getting used. Don't get me wrong here, I'm most certainly NOT trying to chew you out, I'm just saying what could be improved in your future quests. The only reason I gave it 4/5 is because of the bad language. Other than that, this quest is like, 6/5. I absolutely loved the plot, the characters, and the plot twists. A quest that's too "straightforward" just isn't very exciting, but a plot that keeps you wondering "is this guy going to turn out bad too?" "what's going to go wrong next?" is very exciting. This quest had just enough plot twists to be interesting, without over doing it.

As to a Part 2... can't wait.
 

[Quaker2k9]

Thanks, Flyboy. I really should have waited a little longer before publishing it... In the last scene, I should have used a timer and a little more balancing wouldn't have been bad either. I'll try to make Part 2 much smoother (I'm about 50% through with writing it at the moment).

About the language, you're absolutely right. That's me being immature. A good story doesn't need rude language. I'll do better next time.
_________________
Retros tick me off!
 

[Flyboy]

Thanks for being understanding. I can't wait to see Part 2...
 

[Brokenstein]

I played it great quest, I really liked the ground combat. I have only one criticism, isn't the last scene a little um...unnecessary?
 

[Cort]

[Quaker2k9]

[Quaker2k9]

I've revised my quest and submitted it to Admin.

There are no substantial changes to it, I've only made some minor improvements. If you've already played the earlier version, then there's no need to re-play it since there's nothing new to see there (and still no "Achievement" to get).

Part 2 is underway and will be done when it's done.
_________________
Retros tick me off!
 

[Cthulhu]

Now that I finally completed my quest, I thought I should play the ones in on this page, since I didn't want to get too "inspired" by them while writing my own. I just finished your quest, and I have to say, you gave me quite a scare! When I saw that duds name was Rick Deckard I panicked! Here I've been writing a quest for weeks (on and off) based on that movie, and you beat me to it, so imagine my relief when I realized that it was just the name that you borrowed from the movie. (unlike me that ripped off entire scenes and lines.)

I really enjoyed the quest. It was fun, that riddle was unexpected, and the difficulty level was perfect (was killed the first two times in the rescue attempt). You made me realize something I hadn't thought of, namely that you don't have to have a text to go with the "achievements" in the Quine5000. This was fun, and I'm looking forward to your sequel.

(I played the original version)
 

[Quaker2k9]

[WorkerDrone]

I just noticed. I downloaded this quest off of the quest page, because I've beaten all the others except for part two of this one, and it turns out that I can't play it because I need 0.6.

Is that going to be fixed, or am I downloading the wrong file?
_________________
The bugle sounds as the charge begins!
But on this battlefield no one wins.
The smell of acrid smoke and horses breath,
As you plunge into a certain death!
 

[Christian Knudsen]

That should have been fixed a few minutes after it was first uploaded. Try downloading again.
 

[WorkerDrone]

There you are good sir. Hrm?
_________________
The bugle sounds as the charge begins!
But on this battlefield no one wins.
The smell of acrid smoke and horses breath,
As you plunge into a certain death!
 

[Quaker2k9]

Yeah, I'm getting the same error when I use the file from the quest database.

WorkerDrone, until this is fixed, you can also download the 'source' textfile and compile it yourself with the questmaker in your game's main menu.
_________________
Retros tick me off!
 

[Christian Knudsen]

Ah, sorry. I read this as 'A Lady in Trouble - Part 2'. This one should be fixed as well now.
 

[WorkerDrone]

Thank you!
_________________
The bugle sounds as the charge begins!
But on this battlefield no one wins.
The smell of acrid smoke and horses breath,
As you plunge into a certain death!
 

[CheeseshireCat]

I had to give score of 3 mainly because of the way hostage location puzzle is made. Three problems with it:

1) Technically, the right answer is not exactly correct.
2)

Spoiler:

You don't really need to calculate it yourself as it's spelled out for you if you accept

.
3) It is version-dependant, as if a new base starting on A would be added to the sector, it'd point to the wrong place.

Another notch down for the extra-hard combat at destination. Coming out of the ship even on the far side gets you shot at by at least two enemies, which you can't shoot at back without taking a move due to LoS issues, so even fully pumped (max shooting training at the range + one kill mission, 2 kills by 2 headshots each before) and best equipment, I still take at least three point-blank shots only from the first two of the thugs. After that, two more move in, and that's at least nine more shots, even if I kill one right away. And they don't miss at all.

The vest and helmet help only so far as I don't get *any* shots to the limbs.
 

[Quaker2k9]

Thanks for your feedback, Cat.

You make some very good points about the "riddle"... If new systems / bases are added, I'll probably have to edit the quest, and the way it's handled now (with the Quine entry) is not very satsifying. But then the whole point of this 'ingredient' to my quest was to reference a very entertaining mission from Privateer 2 - The Darkening. I like this reference very much and despite all the imperfection of my integrating it, I don't want to abandon it.

About the ground combat... I'm sorry if it's too hard for you, but I'm quite pleased with it. The combat is intended to hurt the player somewhat - if you have very bad luck and get injured too heavily or even killed, you can always reload it and try again, this will only cost you a few minutes at most.
_________________
Retros tick me off!