So, Taspan Ambush space mission

[stephenjohnp]

You're not very good.

[lollie]

I shoot down everything as fast as i can, but still the shuttle for some reason loses 50-70% of its hp almost instantly just as you come out of the asteroid field trench.

 

I'm assuming there is some sort of bug involved here, like it hits a coupe of asteroids or something, cause even if i dont attack any enemy ships at all (i tried), it still loss less hp from all the warships and fighters before getting to the trench.

 

I've seen this myself - the ship goes into trench with loads of hp, I kill everything coming at it yet it magically loses about 70% hp from nothing

[Pekiti]

Taspan was hard at first, but eventually I realized there are two keys to winning iit.

 

1. Contrary to what has been posted before, the enemy fighters are what shred your shuttle when you come out of the canyon, not the frigates.

 

2. Use your missiles early and often on the frigate turrets, specifically the front 2 on the hammerheads first, then the ones on the main hull (outer ring of targets).

 

When you dive into the canyon, your character will say something like 'getting close' or 'I got a bad feeling about this' and that's your cue to start pumping blaster fire where the enemy fighters come out. Remember that only some of the asteroids are solid, you can shoot right through most of them, and so can the enemy. Kill them before they even fly into view - shoot early, and often. No matter what you see (rock, smoking frigate, even empty space), if your crosshair turns red you should be firing blasters there.

 

The first group of fighters come from above the shuttle (and to the left a bit) in a couple of clumps, and then a pair come down from above you and to your right, chasing the shuttle. It is easy to lose sight of the shuttle and the fighters in all the explosions and stupid mission spam, but with practice you can kill them all pretty fast. Kill the front ones first, they are closer to the shuttle and will hurt it more, in less time.

 

When you are about to come out of the canyon you will usually see the frigate you hit earlier (a flaming wreck) going past the canyon exit. Right above him will be a pair of two fighters who whip into the canyon and attack your shuttle head on. If you don't kill them instantly, they each put a long stream of blaster bolts into the shuttle as they go past. Watch for them, and then every time you run this mission put blaster fire right where they spawn so they die as soon as they turn towards your shuttle.

 

You will see another frigate coming from the upper left of your screen when you exit the canyon. A quick spread of missiles at his turrets is good, but don't be distracted by the frigate! He isn't what shreds your shuttle, its the ten or so sets of fighters that swarm your shuttle from the front!

 

Practice watching a little circle around your shuttle, and hosing down any yellow dots you see, as soon as they appear. If you smoke the fighters as soon as they appear, they don't get off hardly any shots on the shuttle. If you wait even a few seconds to kill them (because you were lobbing missiles at the frigates, say) every one of those fighters will pump about ten bolts into your shuttle...and his shields/health goes down fast. No matter what anyone tells you, 10 shots from 15 fighters will maul your shuttle much faster than a half dozen bolts from the frigates.

 

As soon as I started focusing on the fighters when I come out of the canyon, instead of the frigates, I started winning this mission regularly, and with about half the health bar on the shuttle still remaining at the end. If there are no fighters to shoot at, I put a missile or two into every frigate turret I can see, but as soon as the fighters appear they are priority number one.

 

Something to note about the 'flame and smoke' that comes from the shuttle, it can be on fire and looking like its about to die...and still have over 50% of its health bar showing.

 

1. Kill fighters first, and the ones in front need to die first.

2. Tag frigate turrets with missiles or blaster fire, but only when you aren't killing fighters.

3. Stay focused on the area around the shuttle, kill the fighters that spawn right next to it, in front.

4. If you have the power converter, you should always be using maximum blaster strength.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Pekiti

[Agnostos]

This mission is ridiculous. I have beaten it several times before with weaker ship upgrades. Today I just tried it 6 times in a row doing the exact same thing that I have done in the past when beating it (only this time my ship is stronger...) and I don't even come close. I am blasting every turret with missiles as fast as humanly possible. I have completely disarmed the first set of ships several times but at the end the one ship that shows up in the left hand corner for half a second then disappears just completely destroys the ship. Freaking annoying.

[Mertissielle]

Missiles fly too slow.

Get grade 3 beam charger for blasters. It'll kill turrets more quickly than missiles can reach their target.

 

I never use missiles in this mission.

 

I did a missiles-only run the other day, just to try and add a new challenge whilst blasting though them for credits - if you have grade 5s or epics give it a try, it's kinda fun

[Agnostos]

Well I read through Pekiti's tips above and he is correct. At the end you have to focus fire on the fighters, not the turrets. Worked well. Thanks for the tip man. I was getting so frustrated.

[Korrigan]

Keep the shuttle safe until after the "trench", and you can ignore the capital ship. The idea is to have the shuttle to have more than half health after that trench/ship episode. If you manage to do that, you win. Shooting the fighters ASAP (use missiles, remember to upgrade your ship parts too) is the secret here.

[Acsteiner]

I think one of the issues I'm having that may be affecting others is the size of the screen. This mission has been owning me so I've watched a bunch of videos, and have noticed that in those videos the second set of frigates during the first part of the mission come into screen way before they come in for me. Thus, you have more time to shoot turrets out before they come back in the stage after going through the asteroid. My resolution is set to 1920x1200, but admittedly I'm on the lowest graphics setting everywhere else. Any suggestions on what changes I could make to be able to see a wider version of the screen, and hence the frigates earlier? Thanks.

[Surter]

I don't get it. This mission was a JOKE a couple days ago, when my ship was slightly weaker and I was lower level...now, I get wrecked. Edited February 8, 2012 by Surter

[Michelotto]

Yep, ditto most of the comments here. Shuttle just wipes every time and believe me, I am real fast with blasters and missiles.

 

Like the major lack of 38+ content, this game continues to disappoint. Damn shame because its got such great potential.

Edited February 16, 2012 by Michelotto

[ActionPrinny]

There are two key periods when your escort gets hammered. The fighter waves when heavily inside the asteroid field -- you need to shoot those down asap. And after exiting the heavy asteroid field near the end of the mission.

 

Now the thing to keep in mind is that what you do at the START of the mission determines if you fail the end of the mission. You need to strip those cruisers of as many turrets as you can before you enter the heavy part of the asteroid belt or you WILL fail at the end. Those cruisers from the start loop around the belt and attack you on the other side.

 

So the more turrets you destroy on them before you enter, the better your chances of surviving on the other side. Because your line-of-sight is blocked from good firing angles on the cruisers at the end of the mission pretty much.

[Junious]

It's really, really easy. Keep the ship up to level.

Infact, space combat is so god damned easy, it needs a hardmode.

[coopersnow]

My friend said he was having problems with it and showed me this post so I tried it at beat it first try. Just unload on everything. Easy. He's got some lvl 3 upgrades and one lvl 1.

[Darkhosis]

When you come out of the canyon look to your upper left. You'll see a fresh frigate- knock out those guns- you only get a few seconds. That frigate up there is responsible for a lot of damage at that part.

 

Also use your ship to block lasers. Basically take the shot for the little guy... Barely takes off anything on your ship.

[Nap-Nap]

I've been having similar issues, in that this mission seems impossible to me. I destroy every turret I possibly can. I think I may know how this mission is bugged and only for some people.

When I play this mission, the 3rd and 4th capital ships only show up as I'm passing by them. In other words I only see the very front of each ship for a few seconds. I take out the 2 turrets there but the rest of the ship goes untouched because it's off screen.

When watching videos of people successfully completing this mission, the 3rd and 4th capital ships that come on the screen from the right and left, enter the screen a distance away, showing the entire ship and giving the player the time to destroy all the guns.

If this isn't universal then that would explain why some players are having so much trouble with it, and others can complete it without issue. Could my ship be somehow moving faster or starting the mission further along the track? I don't know.

- Hardcore Ewok

[Simin]

When I play this mission, the 3rd and 4th capital ships only show up as I'm passing by them. In other words I only see the very front of each ship for a few seconds. I take out the 2 turrets there but the rest of the ship goes untouched because it's off screen.

 

I can personally affirm this happening. I actually have it a bit worse than that. I only clearly see the first of the four Capital Ships for any length of time long enough for sustained fire or missile barrage to do any significant damage to the vessel's turrets. The second appears mid-screen with only the front two turrets. I destroy those two and then it vanishes as I go underneath its belly and it goes off screen. The third and fourth will appear or not without any real predictablity.

 

The trench is nearly as bad since the debris always seems to cause lag and I seem to go from just behind the escorted vessel to significantly behind it. As it rounds the wall to enter the trench I lose sight of it entirely until it comes out of the trench. By the time I do see it again the vessel only has about 25% of its starting health pool remaining. Within seconds of regaining a visual on the ship the mission is over with it destroyed.

 

I know my successfully completing this mission (108 attempts zero success) stands blocked by only one thing: Graphics.

 

My graphics have to be the problem for completing this mission. The render time for some objects just leave them impossibly beyond the timing mechanisms in the game. The space debris fields often take a long time to render even when I lower the graphics to minimum.

 

I have yet to find an acceptable explination for why my graphics fail me for this game. I built my PC for the purpose of playing WoW's 25 Person Cataclysm Raids. I ran those raids at the highest graphics WoW offers with absolutely no latency issues. I have yet to run this game at even medium graphics.

 

I am hoping that when I can afford to invest the time and money in working out what is causing the graphics issues my success with this quest will improve. Until then I am content playing the other space missions. Though I do hope Bioware separates the Taspan Ambush from the Ezran Outpost. The difficulty differences in those two missions make them inadequate companion missions.

[archifikoss]

I've done Taspan Ambush a number of times, never failed it so far - but it's always been a really close shave, the ship usually remains with very little HP, sometimes just a sliver. I have all class 3 upgrades and have my guns supercharged at all times with that power converter thingy (shields are not important in this mission as everyone and his akk dog is after the ship I'm escorting). I try to mess up the cap ships as much as possible, seems to do the trick. But the mission is annoying, the ship just starts losing HP like mad in the second half of the mission.