Guide to Completing Missions in SH4 | Forums

[Beeryus]

Originally posted by T-Watkin:
...how the hell do you rescue pilots? In SH it was easy - the manual even told you how to do it.

Yeah, it's weird, you'd think a manual that has 100 pages devoted to the game might be able to squeeze in some info about how to actually complete campaign missions - but apparently not. When I first saw the manual I thought to myself "Wow! It looks like they've actually spent some time and done a good job on the manual this time". That was until I read it. Until I saw the SH4 manual I would never have thought that six pages of useful info could be padded to 100 pages by the addition of 94 pages of stuff we don't need. I wouldn't mind the reams of useless garbage if everything we needed was in there, but it's not.

Anyway, in answer to your question there's a button in one of the menu bars that you select when you're near a pilot.

[luviera]

Originally posted by Beeryus:
<span class="ev_code_YELLOW">Patrol.</span>
This mission requires only that you stay within 100 nautical miles of the objective for 48 hours. You usually get 200 renown points for completing this mission.

I've not had any luck compleeting a patrol mission and staying with in 100nm.

This information, where is it based on? Experiance during game play. Or hard info from the game data file (.cfg files?)

After over 3 or 4 day's of patroling in side the 100nm area. The mission still wasn't over. I reduced the patrol area to 50nm and stayed yet an other two days patroling there and still it didn't compleet. I ended up stitting right on top of the patrol marker and waited 2 days to get the mission completed.

(I'm aware of Time Compression to cause the patrol icon not to update and grey out. And zooming in or out would force a icon update helps.)

[Beeryus]

Originally posted by luviera:
This information, where is it based on? Experiance during game play. Or hard info from the game data file (.cfg files?)

Both. I looked up the info in the mission files, then I tested the info in the game.

After over 3 or 4 day's of patroling in side the 100nm area. The mission still wasn't over. I reduced the patrol area to 50nm and stayed yet an other two days patroling there and still it didn't compleet. I ended up stitting right on top of the patrol marker and waited 2 days to get the mission completed.

Which patrol was it? If this is the case then that patrol is bugged, but in order to check it we need to know specifically which patrol it is. If this happens again, make a note of the mission orders and post it here, then I'll check it out.

[Aesyr1]

On the Patrol off Marshall Island missions (of which I've done 4 in a row) I had to check the mission .cfg files to find the range. There are 2 of these missions: one is set for 200 miles and the other for 250 miles. I completed it by spending an obsene amount of time within this range (about 4 to 5 days). I simply marked out a 200 mile radius with my compass and set a slow spiraling patrol from the outside edge of the circle to the mission waypoint on the map.. in every case the mission didnt finish until I made it back to the waypoint. It worked, but it takes awhile.

[Beeryus]

Originally posted by Aesyr1:
On the Patrol off Marshall Island missions (of which I've done 4 in a row) I had to check the mission .cfg files to find the range. There are 2 of these missions: one is set for 200 miles and the other for 250 miles. I completed it by spending an obsene amount of time within this range (about 4 to 5 days). I simply marked out a 200 mile radius with my compass and set a slow spiraling patrol from the outside edge of the circle to the mission waypoint on the map.. in every case the mission didnt finish until I made it back to the waypoint. It worked, but it takes awhile.

The .mis files for those missions both say 2880 for time - that's 2880 minutes or 48 hours. If it's taking longer than that either you accidentally popped out of the area or the mission is bugged.

[Cetaman]

Mahalo Beeryus, the suggestion that one take X number of photos works only for the photographic aspect of the mission. This results in the photo icon going away. However there is an upward curved arrow to the right of the photo icon (now removed) that remains. The reconnaissance part of the mission still indicates incomplete. Any suggestions?

[Beeryus]

...The reconnaissance part of the mission still indicates incomplete. Any suggestions?

I haven't a clue. When I posted the guide it was as much to get info for myself as it was to broadcast the info I know. So far I've never even done a single photo mission. Hehe I spend too much time modding the game to actually play it.

[U-268]

Alot of ppl seem to be having probs with missions. thanks for your efforts beeryus

Shameless BUMP

[T-Watkin]

G'day Beeryus
Thanks again for the info. I finally worked out where the bloody bionoculars are! I find that helps a lot!
Good hunting

[Frumpkis]

Another bump for a noble cause. On those "patrol" missions I've just been going to the star, then sitting on the surface and time-compressing 48 hours. I usually have to zoom the map in and out to see the star finally gray out, after 48 hrs (yet another bug). If I try to actually "patrol" around the star, it's just too dicey figuring out when I've gone too far away.

Needless to say, this is really silly. I hope the operational ranges for patrol missions are greatly extended, either from dev patching or user mods in the future. This is a holdover from one of the bad mission design concepts in SH3.