In atmosphere patrol question

[-Pv-]

Attempted an Olympus mission where the pilot is directed to take out three bogies at low altitude near the planet surface in an aerial dogfight.

After taking out two of the three, the third bolted or escaped during the fight so could not complete.

I assume this is some kind of timed mission where I need to take out all three within a very short time limit or the mission becomes impossible to complete. In the heat of battle, it can be difficult to keep track of how many bogies I took down and how many escaped.

If this is timed and whoever is left or escapes makes this mission un-winable, there needs to be some kind of failed message. I tried waiting around for a while but no new baddies showed up. The contract text showed the contract as sill pending.

-Pv-

[Busch]

In the scenario you've described, which is very common, it's sometimes an idea to have a deploy constructor aboard as endemic equipment. This is in order to deploy a sensor array to try to locate the rabbited bad guy. Or, the next best option is to kill the very next Red (of whatever flavor) that you can locate, or however many it takes to get the 'mission complete' notice, minus the sensor array. In my experience, none of the missions or contracts have any specific time limit on them. Either you are successful, or you're not. All of the Reds, with some minor 'adjustments' regarding the Vonari, are 'programmed' to either hunt you down, or lead you on a merry chase by exiting the AO with alacrity. Not a glitch or a bug, but a dedicated game feature. And as such, may not be detailed in any player-developed manual, 'technical guide', or the games' instructions.

[Edited on 6-26-2014 by Busch]

[Edited on 6-26-2014 by Busch]

[PaulB]

Attempted an Olympus mission where the pilot is directed to take out three bogies at low altitude near the planet surface in an aerial dogfight.

After taking out two of the three, the third bolted or escaped during the fight so could not complete.

I assume this is some kind of timed mission where I need to take out all three within a very short time limit or the mission becomes impossible to complete. In the heat of battle, it can be difficult to keep track of how many bogies I took down and how many escaped.

If this is timed and whoever is left or escapes makes this mission un-winable, there needs to be some kind of failed message. I tried waiting around for a while but no new baddies showed up. The contract text showed the contract as sill pending.

-Pv-

You just have to keep searching until you find another Hostile to kill to complete the contract. I had them do that to a on a couple of occasions while converting Olympus from Fair to Good.
I was jumping all over a sector trying to track a couple down.
The deploy shield array never occurred to me - so I didn't have it loaded and I've never even tried it out - I guess I'll have to do that some time.

[-Pv-]

OK thanks. I'll roam around the sector and take out any red I find. Nice to know the mission kills are not limited to the immediate area. I've not read anything that mentions that.

-Pv-

[Busch]

Well, mission kills ARE limited to an 'immediate are'. If you leave the sector box where the mission contract originates, you'll fail the mission for sure. That's not written anywhere that I know of either.

[-Pv-]

I didn't know it was limited to sector box. I knew it was limited to system. When I leave the system, I get the failed message. I thought I had jumped outside the box several times to warp out when damaged. I didn't remember getting failed messages when I did that. I didn't know I could just hunt for targets until quota was filled.

-Pv-

[Marvin]

You must remain within the sector ... and, as Busch said, you can best search for a fleeing bandit by deploying a sensor (not shield) array.

[Busch]

Ya, sorry for the mis-print. I meant sensor array in the second sentence. Thanks Marv.