LucasForums - Death Star Run (repost from Moonstar)

Hey look what i found on my HD....

Its Moonstars : Death Star Run: survive with sanity II

Quote:

You have problems with the last mission? You are getting torn to pieces every time by your mates or by crashing into pipes? Then read this! Some of this information has been published before (tribute to the original authors!), but after I had a hard time winning this mission even AFTER I've read through all posts in this forum, I decided to write the ultimate walkthrough. So get yourself a drink, keep away from your computer and read this: Please read through the entire walkthrough first! You can also press "ESC" or "Alt + P" to pause your mission.
PREFLIGHT NOTES
First of all, get the update to version 2.02: all Death Star (DS) firing problems (that is, DS killing your entire fleet in a minute rather than in 20 minutes) have been fixed. You want to get the flight recorder with this update to tape your battle through DS II (to show your kids someday! :-).

Phase ONE: Entrance to first Container rings Slow down to 50, but not slower than 34 or your collegues crash into you! From the very start you are way too fast. To reduce speed increase both laser and shield recharge to maximum. With full throttle you should go at 50 now. Immediately after, turn on the flight recorder by pressing SHIFT + F. Make sure you see "REC" flashing in red letters on your Head-up-Display. You will find this left of the speed and throttle indicator in the top part. Furthermore make sure you're lasers are linked to flight path rather than be set to defensive mode (use "X"). For what is coming up you will need all the laser power available of the Falcon. Train those keystrokes above. You have about 5 seconds till you hit the first blockades. If you have problems identifying where the path follows, increase brightness of your monitor or gamma correction of your graphics card. Without clearly seeing the borders of the tunnels you are going through, you will have a hard time. After quickly punching in those keystrokes above to set speed and laser/shield correctly and start the flight recorder, soon the first obstacles arrive in your path. Learn to distinguish between pipes that are in the tube and pose as obstacles to your flight path and pipes that are just marked as textures on the tube's walls. All those pipes inside the tube can be shot to clear the path! Make sure you get nearly all of them as you will be going through this part at high speed on your way out! Remember, the cockpit of the Falcon is on the right side; don't go to close to either the wall on the left side or any pipes in your path. Soon you will hear that the main route to the reactor is blocked. You will see that the path splits in front of you: you could either go straight following the tube you are currently in or you could hang a turn (left or right, depending on your position :-)). Straight ahead is the blocked way (yes, it is blocked! You don't believe me? Go check it out!); the tube leaving the straight tunnel is the alternative route which you will have to take. Before that, go shoot as many pipes as you can in the straight tunnel in front of you and then turn at the last moment into the tube leaving the main route. As you will not be returning the alternative route, you actually need to shoot only those pipes which are in your way, but you get points for each pipe destroyed. Make your way through the tunnel. Watch out for vertical or horizontal changes in the tube design: rotate your ship as needed to fit into the tube! A little while later you will hear something about containers in front of you and that you have to go through the transportation system. This is where phase two starts.

PHASE TWO: from the container ring area to the second path splitYou will see rings staging up in front of you in a large hall. Containers come flying from the side, get sucked into the rings and then pushed through at hyperspeed to another container area some distance away. You like that? Ok, let's go through the pre-ride flight check. Slow down to 34 by setting throttle to 2/3, but not slower. Watch the containers., leave as much space as possible to the one in front of you coming from the side. If you feel, you have left too much space, speed up a little bit. Don't crash into a container or you'll get stuck. Plan ahead! If you have left enough space, aim for the center of the first ring and all consecutive ones. Line up with them; don't steer any more than absolutely necessary. Once you get sucked into the device, don't touch the joystick or you will get out of the transportation beam. If you did everything right, you will be torpedoed at 999+ to the next container area. When arriving there, make sure you don't bump into the container in front of you! Steer a little bit out of the rings, but go straight down to the tunnel below the last ring. This tunnel is in one line with the rings. [If you get stuck, toggle to your laser outlooks and back to the cockpit by pressing "G" three times. This should free you.] You are wondering, how many TIEs are on your tail, now is the first time to find out and get rid of them. Quickly target the nearest enemy tie by pressing "R" and then switch on autofire by pressing "F". Repeat this until either no fighter is left or you have entered the next tunnel below the rings. If you don't get them all, don't worry, you will have another chance later. When you enter the next tunnel below the last ring, link your lasers back to the front using the "X" key; you will need them for what is coming up in front of you. Fire hard, there are a lot of pipes in front of you and they are tight to each other. It gets better though. Set your speed back to 50 with both laser and shields recharging at maximum rate. Shoot every pipe you feel necessary. Before you reach the next path split ahead, which is a real intersection, you need to store to targets to your presets. Cycle through your targets/contacts using "T". When you see a large odd looking ball titled unknown, stop. This is the reactor. Use SHIFT + F5 to store this target to your first preset. Cycle through your targets again. Now, you hear Admiral Ackbar complaining, that the Alliance is loosing too many ships. After that you hear your wingman tell you something about the path to a laser power generator or something and that you should disable it. Cycle through your targets again; you will find another unknown target which looks like a cube. Store this to your second preset using SHIFT + F6. So, here's the story behind the scenery: as long as the laser keeps firing the Alliance is losing too many battlecruisers and you are loosing the chance to win this mission, because when the Independance (the last ship) is destroyed by the DS laser, you will loose this mission. Now, do yourself and Ackbar a favor and stop the laser first before you go for the reactor. Use F6 to target the laser generator (if you have stored it).

PHASE THREE: from the 2nd path split to the laser and back. At the next path split (a real intersection) look where the laser is on your radar, and go for that direction. You will go through another tunnel and eventually arrive at the laser. Slow down to 34 again, aim the laser generator, link your cannons and blast this thing away. By the time you get close, it should be history. You will enter the laser firing shaft. If you are lucky, fly across the shaft, hug the wall, turn over your head, hug the wall again and watch out for the little square hole in the wall. This is where you came in and you should take this way out. If you are not so lucky, the laser just fires as you are flying in the center of the shaft. To avoid this, hug the walls immediately after entering the shaft. With the laser of the DS now disabled, you have nearly all the time of the world. If you have any TIEs still sticking on your tail, go get them with autofire while you are flying through the shaft. Don't try to get them when you are in the tunnel again. X-Wing Red 1 is just behind you and shields all laser shots you are aiming at the TIEs and vice versa. X-Wing Red will not blast away (it's immortal!), but you might hit other alliance spacecraft behind him (they are not immortal). Don't worry, you will get another chance to kill those TIEs. Follow the tunnel back to the second path split. Use F5 to target the reactor and to find the right way.

PHASE FOUR: from the 2nd path split to the hall with zero-g-troopers Shortly after you have passed the second path split again the pattern of the tunnel changes. Instead of a square wide tunnel you are facing a tunnel bordered by huge pipes. Notice the size differences of the pipes. Two of them are smaller than the rest. You will find it easiest if you keep those two small pipes always to your left where your ship is also much larger. These two small pipes make the tunnel to get an oval form rather than a circle with regards to the diameter. Keeping those small pipes straight on your left side will help you use the oval form of the tunnel to get through it much easier. Anyway, for safety reasons I would recommend hugging the right wall anyway. Also, plan your turns ahead and make them smooth. Later during this flight more of those tunnels will appear, use this method to get through them without touching the pipes. Make sure you are still going at 50. When you come to a huge hall with a strange red dome structure in the middle (no, it is not the reactor), quickly get rid of any remaining ties on your tail using the R + F method. Then you should finish off the next threat quickly: target all zero-g-troopers you can find. They can be found setting up a turbo laser on one side of the hall, pretty close to a corner. In between those zero-g-trooper swarms, target the turbo laser itself (use "T"; as it will not appear on your screen using "R") and destroy it. Then blast away the rest of the troopers again. The waves will stop after a while. Park your ship right next to the hangar exit in front of the pipe tunnel and wait until your shields are fully recharged. You have got plenty of time, if you disabled the DS laser earlier. After your shields are recharged to 200% go for the pipe tunnel towards the reactor. Verify that your path is correct by targeting the reactor. It should be in front of you and appear on your forward radar.

PHASE FIVE: Blow up the core and get the hell out of here! Now leave the huge hall and follow the narrow pipe tunnel towards the reactor. Always keep the two smaller pipes straight to your left; it makes maneuvering much easier. The pipe tunnel here is much tighter than the one before, so be careful. Also, don't go below 34 or Red 1 will complain. After the pipe tunnel you will get into a square tunnel with shootable pipes blocking the way again. Very shortly you will merge into a another tunnel. Notice the tunnel that comes from behind: this is the way out. You are now returning to the straight route, coming from the alternative route. On your way out, just go straight here, don't turn! Now, as you will be going back this way at high speed, make sure you clear the path ahead of you of nearly all pipes. Shortly thereafter you will go through through a fascinating black & white rhombic tunnel with brown barrs on the side. Keep flying right in the center, aim for the exit at the end and SPEED UP! When you here from Red 1 "There it is!" you should go at 100, because he speeds up too. Use F9 and F10 to redirect all power to the engine and warp through the tunnel into the reactor chamber. Once you got turn right to clear the path for Red 1 following closely behind you. Redirect all power to laser/shields again. You will need 200% shields to get out. Now target the reactor and cycle through its components by using "," (comma). Red 1 will take out the power regulator in the north tower and then hyperspace out. If he doesn't, you should do it for him using two torpedoes. Make sure you have "power regulator" on your target information screen. Usually Red 1 is a good lad and leaves you with the reactor at 75% hull. Now cycle through the components again until you have targeted the core which is a small thing in the foggish blue area right in the middle of the structure. Don't target the shield generator (the fat boy on one end!). Now get back to the exit of this chamber. Line up perfectly with the exit facing the exit and park a little bit in front of it. Now set the throttle to 1/3, turn again over your head towards the reactor (make sure you only use up and down on your joystick in order not to loose your perfect line up position with the exit), park and switch to torpedoes (and link them).

Ok, last pre-escape checklist:
shields fully recharged?
shield / laser charge at normal rate?
torpedoes linked?
reactor "core" targeted?

Now step away from the computer for a moment, take a deep breath, tell yourself it's just a game. Ready? Let's go! Only two minutes part you from victory!

Set throttle to 1/3, fire two torpedoes at the reactor, turn 180° over your head, aim for the exit and then punch it. Set throttle to full power going at 100 through the diamond shape tunnel. Keep up with this speed even after you hit the square tunnel. Now watch out when you see the path split! Go straight, don't turn or you will find yourself in a black "nowhere". Just in case you missed that: Go straight at the path split! You need to take out some blocking pipes if necessary. Do not try to slow down and take out only pipes which are absolutely in your way. Soon you will get to a pipe tunnel. If you want you can slow down to 80 (recharging your lasers is a good idea!). Do this only if you have bought yourself extra time by going at 100 up to this point. Remember to keep the small pipes always to your left; this will make life easier. After the pipe shape tunnel you will get back into a square tunnel with blocking pipes again. This is the route that was blocked on your way in. Shoot pipes if necessary. Don't go below 80 or you'll be roasted by the firewall of the exploding Death Star which is tailing you closely! Soon you'll arrive at the intersection where you took the alternative route on your way in. Go straight, don't turn. In ten seconds from that point you have made it and you will find yourself outside the Death Star where the mission ends.

I will leave you now. Don't forget to type in a file name after the mission ends for the film you have taped. I am sure you want to watch it right now. Get yourself a drink and enjoy the show. Make sure to turn the view to behind the Falcon to find out what was going on behind you. X-Wing Alliance is definitely the best game I have played so far. It was captivating as hell. No mission did happen as planned during the briefing. The story was fully packed and staged like a movie. It was just great! Only one thing bothers me, what happened to Uncle Antan and why did he betray his family? Well, maybe we will find out in the addon.

Cheers, Moonstar

P.S.: SurGoyle is right; yes, there is life after this game!

------------------
He's a sun god, he's a fun god
RA! RA! RA!
BOW DOWN BEFORE the Official Forum Pun-isher

[This message has been edited by K_Kinnison (edited May 16, 2000).]