VCS Farewell to Arms

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Azerik - 09 Apr 2007 22:21 GMT

JESUSTAPDANCINGCHRIST What do you need to finish this mission?

Ok, I will admit I am not a huge fan of controllers for most things in
GTA games. I have to concede their superiority in flying, but other than
that I will take a keyboard and mouse any day. I just don't understand
how anyone can pass this mission.

After the third or fourth time I had memorized where the trucks spawn up
to the first couple past the road block (that asshat gonzalez never had
survived past there). The problem I face is that no matter how well I
know the spawn pattern there are only certain narrow windows that I can
actually use to shoot at the Sharks. Those windows are determined by the
range of the gun, and the angle of the chopper (limiting my range of
motion with the gun).

Within those windows are so many randomizing factors that it makes it
nearly impossible to hit anything with any regularity. Add in the dead
zone that is pretty large on the standard honest-to-sony dual shock, the
1/16th of an inch on either side of that dead zone that allows fine
adjustments to your aim, and the other 80% of the stick's travel that
seems to be turbo assisted movement of the cursor and I'm lucky to be
shooting in the same county as the target.

And then there is the game engine conspiring against me. I suppose it's
unreasonable to ascribe any intention to it, it probably should be
ascribed to the developers. It just seems to me that when they were
developing this mission they got to a point and said, "See, here the
cursor is poised perfectly to take out that enemy. Let's have the
chopper yaw horribly about half a second before this point." Or, "Wait,
the chopper is stable here, so lets make sure that the enemy vehicles get
into a big puppy-pile around the truck so that when he shoots them they
do triple damage to it. After all, the Sharks are all suicidal and
wouldn't care how close they were to the truck filled with explosives
that they are trying to destroy."

Ok, /rant off.

Anyone have any good tips or tricks that aren't just common sense?
Anyone got a surefire voodoo sacrifice that will get the luck gods to
stop pissing on me so heavily?

Oh, the most aggravating part...
I finally did get past the first couple trucks at the road block, got him
to the airport and everything. Took up my defending position around the
entrances, smoked the sharks with relative ease (amazing how a stable
chopper makes it easier to shoot things accurately). Then they got in
the airport (they are scripted to, if it were up to me none of them
woulda made it). We are chasing them down the runway and I am shooting
them...but they aren't blowing up. I have the crosshairs centered on the
trucks, they should be exploding. But no, apparently I am not allowed to
actually do what I am supposed to and defend the damn plane. With
something like 6-8 shark trucks around it I didn't manage to blow up a
single one. Even on my worst day I should have gotten at least one on
blind luck. Does the chopper not know to fly low enough that I am in
range? And yes, I did change my target point forward and back and side
to side a bit in case the aim point was slightly off. I swear it was
intentional. <sigh>

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Luke Synchronizer - 10 Apr 2007 04:40 GMT

>JESUSTAPDANCINGCHRIST What do you need to finish this mission?
>
[quoted text clipped - 53 lines]
>to side a bit in case the aim point was slightly off. I swear it was
>intentional. <sigh>

Note the first truck, on the side street.
Pre-shoot, you have infinite ammo.
Remember, it's a mini-gun.
Notice you tag it before it moves.

It only takes a few shots to flame it up.

That is the only way I remember,
actually getting TO the airport safely.
It's the road (Bayshore) where they drive from behind that
is the whole thing right there. Shoot them quickly enough to start
them on fire then immediately move on to the next.
Be quick in your vision, as some are impeded by the trees
and barrier. Shoot at them anyway. After a few tries
that seemed to work. As long as I could make it OUT of that
final intersection of Bayshore and the road leading to the airport,
home free because that is where they block him in.

Also I noted many times if they did block him in it is over.
The hard part there would have to be hitting the actual guys,
not the vehicles, because when they blow, he blows.
Gonzales, what a dork.

Anyway give that a shot, shoot enough to just set them
ablaze and once you see fire move on to the next.
It seems to be all about avoiding that intersection.

Defending at the airport is a piece of cake after that.
(When not glitched up like you had it)
That 'not blowing up part' inside the airport, this game
is very glitchy. Once it starts doing something like that,
it's glitched. Power down, come back later.
I've seen a ton of ridiculous things on these storylines,
that will prevent passing, almost regardless of anything we do,
from that point on. Glitches that once they happen,
it's pretty much a lost cause.

A couple times good glitches happened, but mostly in the Empire
Missions, side missions, races, and challenges, even rampages
I've finished everything except the last few storyliners. 98%
complete. Hate the storylines, have put the game down for a bit.

L§

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Azerik - 10 Apr 2007 07:28 GMT

>>Anyone have any good tips or tricks that aren't just common sense?
>>Anyone got a surefire voodoo sacrifice that will get the luck gods to
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> It only takes a few shots to flame it up.

The problem seems to be range. I can't honestly speak for the PSP version as
I didn't get this far on the PSP, but on the ps2 the gun you are using has a
range that is pretty darn close to how high the chopper flys most of the
time. Knowing where that first truck is and having a pretty clear shot at it
for a while I have laid into it pretty heavy, certainly hitting it enough
that it should have blown up, but it never really seemed to get hit until
about the time it starts to move forward. I'm thinking that I am just out at
the edge of my range and until it moves I can't actually hit it. I was
noticing this when I tried to disable some normal traffic to slow gonzalez
down a bit.

> That 'not blowing up part' inside the airport, this game
> is very glitchy. Once it starts doing something like that,
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> from that point on. Glitches that once they happen,
> it's pretty much a lost cause.

Turns out this is that same range issue. If I follow the "advice" in the
book or on walkthroughs they typically say to concentrate on the trucks
closest to the plane. The problem is that those are just out of range. If I
was shooting at anything other than the ones that were about even with the
chopper I couldn't hit anything. I'm thinking that in the translation to ps2
something changed just slightly to put some of those targets out of reach.

Like usual when I get so pissed off and rant about something like this I did
finally pass it. Unlike usual I think it was a change in technique that did
it rather than my usual M.O. of just lucking out.

What I did different on the successful run was this. I stopped trying to
target the trucks as far away from Gonzalez as possible. I had noticed it
with the first truck. It shoots out of that side street on a pretty
predictable path and I tried to get it shot up ASAFP so as to head into the
ugly part with little or no damage to G's truck. What usually happened is
that it shot past me and I had to "chase" it, so it usually got a little
damage in before I disabled it. This time I basically just kept my
crosshairs hovering close to G's truck and took the shark out when he got in
range. Minimizing the movements of the targeting reticle kept me from the
usual "overshoot" dance.

When that worked so well I decided to repeat it on the other trucks and it
seemed to give me better firing windows, fewer trees, perhaps an opening when
the bloody chopper was holding level instead of pitching around like a cork
in a typhoon. Whatever it was, it seemed to give me cleaner shots and I
managed to get G to the roadblock at only about 50-55% damage. Really the
run from the roadblock to the airport isn't that hard, it's just that G *is*
going to take a little damage from those first two after the roadblock so you
have to have more than 2-5% of his health left to take those shots.

The other thing that helped I think is being a little less free with the
unlimited ammo. I think the jogs of the chopper and intervening trees
conspired to let me shoot G's truck a few times. Not often enough to blow
him up outright, but one good strafe across him will do some serious damage.
Not just playing "bullet hose" with it, I think it was better in the long run
for the health of Gonzalez. One way or another I finally did manage to get
it finished.

Now I just have to do that goddamn hovercraft mission for Lance the Asshat.
<sigh>...

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Synch - 10 Apr 2007 19:29 GMT

> Now I just have to do that goddamn hovercraft mission for Lance the Asshat.
> <sigh>...- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

The mission where you chase Lance should always be done at night.
It's better to see the glowing targets at night.

If you think that one is hard, try the 2 hovercraft challenges.

In reality the first, in Little Haiti, is the more difficult of the
two.
I passed that one first, then went for the second out on Ocean Beach
Jetty.
This game me the practice I needed for that mission with Lance,
plus I needed to do the challenges for 100% completion.

The Lance mission is far easier than those 2 challenges.

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Joseph William Dixon - 11 Apr 2007 00:30 GMT

> The mission where you chase Lance should always be done at night.
> It's better to see the glowing targets at night.

Did it today on my first try, during the day. Of course, I'd also spent
about a half-hour just before that doing the two hovercraft races (1:40 for
Little Haiti, 3:31 for Harbor).

> If you think that one is hard, try the 2 hovercraft challenges.

Nah. They're not *that* hard once you've learned the course (mainly a
concern for the Little Haiti one), learned to go into first-person view and
learned to let your thumb off the X just before making turns. Oh, and
remembering not to run over any cops. :P

*sigh* Well, I'm off to save Louise. :/

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"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They
never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our
people, and neither do we." - George W. Bush [August 5th, 2004]

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