Sectorgame

Morning all. n00b to the forums here and indeed the whole Freespace online community - hard to find FS sites still in existance! Long time fan of the game though - I am one of you! LOL

Alrighty then, I am in need of your wise counsel. I play FS2, I love FS2... you know the drill. But, no matter how many times I play through the game, I always end up with exactly the same stuff in my medal cabinet. Try as I might, I always get the same gaps. So I'd appreciate some help in finding out where I'm falling behind:
Here's my medal cabinet once I finish the game (ain't it pretty?), and there are those obvious spaces (not so pretty!).

So obviously my first question is about that missing medal on the right. It's the one main medal I've never been able to get. What medal is it, which mission do you get it on, and exactly what do you have to achieve for it?

Second: how many kills do I need to obtain that elusive Triple Ace?

And lastly: the rank. As you can see all I've managed to get is Lieutenant Junior Grade. Can you even get the higher ranks? What advice would you give to an obsessed but struggling promotion-seeker?

Any help/advice here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, and once again it's a pleasure to be amongst you!

All good questions. All answered in the FAQ

Check the gameplay section for help.

And even before looking I knew it was the Order of Galatea that you were missing

karajorma: a big thanks for your reply. That's one nice FAQ you've got there - I guess I'll need to set some time aside to explore it properly, but I can tell you must have put a lot of time and effort into that - very nice work!

lol so I take it this "Order of Galatea" medal isn't an easy one to get huh? Well I guess I'll try my best. One thing though: fair enough your FAQ told me what mission it was on, but even though I tried several times clicking on the mission title, the objectives still wouldn't come up. So I'm still not entirely sure what I'll have to make sure I get done!

And hey your FAQ also reminded me of something else: the Ares fighter and Artemis D.H bomber. I remember that I was late discovering those. You were never actually told about them once they became unlocked, and nor do they show up in the Tech Database - I only saw them after I finished the game and decided to replay a mission. Imagine my shock! LOL. Mostly I just tend to stick to the default ship I'm given for a mission.

Anyways, if you're able to supply me with the info for the "Proving Grounds" mission that I can't seem to get, that'd be great. But a big thanks for your help and the FAQ - award yourself a medal!

im not sure if i even have it, havent played in quite some time

The Ares and Artemis are simple: you have to do the SOC loops for them.

I believe you have to simply defend the Aquitaine for the medal.

All that is required is that you keep the Aquitane above 50% when you complete the mission. You do NOT need to kill the Moloch nor play on any particular difficulty level despite what you may hear elsewhere.

Ah it's that mission. Right-o, thanks!

Strange though: I thought I managed to keep Aquitane above 50 on at least one occasion, but I must be getting confused with something else.

From what I recall, taking out the Moloch's forward beam turret is easier said than done (at least for me! ) That turret stands up to quite a bit of punishment, and the Aquitane's usually destroyed the whole ship before I managed to destroy one measly turret! LOL. (Think I did manage it once or twice though).

And about getting "promoted" beyond Lieutenant Junior Grade: from what I understand now, I should either try playing on a higher difficulty setting, or my progress in the main FS2 campaign plus various community-made missions somehow all add up together (or perhaps both!). Am I thinking along the right lines with either of these theories?

Again, a massive thanks!

Well what do you know, my account's finally been activated - YAY!

Well karajorma: your assistance has been a blessing. I finally managed to get that elusive medal, and now have all the main ones, so a massive thanks!

Triple Ace still eludes me though. How one is ever supposed to get the 350 or so kills needed is beyond me. I was even trying to get as much kills as possible by constantly telling wingmen to ignore targets, and on one mission staying behind after everyone else had jumped out in order to take out the bomber wings that just kept coming - I ended up with 301 kills! So close yet so far!

And still no luck beyond Lieutenant Junior Grade. Ah well, I guess the main medal was the most important thing.

Anyways, I can't thank you enough for all your help with this - and that FAQ of yours has been a godsend! Keep up the great work, pilot!

The Ace and whatnot medals are cumulative, aren't they? Not all at once.... IIRC. Not that I do RC, but IIRC...

Just play the campaign again a second time. I can get about 50 kills on Argonautica alone by simply lurking and killing the endless waves of Shivan bombers that continue to appear after the Aquitane has jumped out. I think it's like 50 of them in that mission and by the end it's just you left to kill them.

triple ace is around 300 kills...


And don't forget to replay th campaign to get higher ranks and more kills

Hmm, I got triple ace just over 3/4 thru the campaign the first time, but on very easy too.

Well Argonautica was the mission where I did exactly that - stuck around to take out the constant Shivan Bombers. 37 kills are what I managed at the end of that, so it didn't help much. I'd be tempted to order all my wingmen out at the very start of the mission just to ensure all kills, but can't be sure if I could do it without their help.

Looks like I'll have to replay the campaign anyway though: after I finished it I went and installed FS2_Open - now I can't log in under that pilot anymore. I needed to make another one. Ah well, swings and roundabouts...