Full Standoff Mission Tree

Farbourne

Rear Admiral
I thought I'd share this, which I've been working on, with MUCH help from and thanks to Dundradal, who provided his episode specific mission trees for each episode up to 4 (and in fact from the whole Standoff team who have been answering my pestering questions).

It's my attempt at making a high quality, full game mission tree for Standoff. It's not quite done yet. The episode titles were from memory and are almost certainly wrong; I haven't had a chance to go back into the game and check them, and I haven't finished the writeup yet that specifies how the "branching" works (i.e. how to get the more winning "blue" paths versus the more losing "red" paths)...that's still in rough draft mode and is not ready to share yet...but my wife and I just had a baby a couple of days ago, so the chance of me finishing it up in the near future is almost zero. So I thought I'd share it now.

It should prove useful for anyone trying to play through the game and who wants to try to see every mission.

Consider this still a draft, and feel free to leave feedback...if there's interest, and if I've made mistakes (as I'm sure I have), I'll refine it later when I'm getting more than 3 hours of sleep at night and have more than 2 minutes of free time per day. Just not promises of that happening for a few months at least, if not years!

(Sorry the quality is a little low...the hi-res version exceeds the upload allowable on the message board...)
 

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Very, very cool!

Looks really good. I noticed you do have a spelling mistake in Ep5 Losing. Rescue Run is misspelled.

This should come in very handy for Standoff players. Really great job.
 
hehe ,very good job :)

I once tried to make a tree , but I gave up.
When this is finished , I ll make sure to play some Losing/Winning Paths that
I missed !

Thank you:)
 
After playing through them all to make this tree, I HIGHLY recommend playing through the losing path missions. Several of the best and funnest missions in the games are on the losing paths. The losing path version of "Skinning Cats" is great, and "Backlash", "Rescue Run", "Flight of the Arrow", and "Armageddon" are probably four of my five favorite missions in the game ("First Encounters", on the winning path, is my other favorite).

Also, Lt. Freyers and Trigger especially seem to have a lot more personality on the losing path.
 
The Ep5 losing path missions were really fun to playtest and help shape.

"Too Much Company" is probably my favorite Ep5 losing path mission.
 
One thing you need to add - "Rearguard Duties" can be played with a Stiletto, too. The player doesn't get to choose, mind you - but if he ends Episode 4 with too few Rapiers, he'll be forced to use Stilettos here.

As far as favourite missions go, it's difficult to tell. I tend to prefer the Episode 4 & 5 missions in general, but I think there's a bit of an optical illusion here - these are the missions we made last, so we remember them best. Still, it's probable they're also objectively better - in the last episodes, we really hit our stride and started experimenting with all kinds of fun things, especially on the losing path.

Anyway, so I guess my top favourite mission would be "Flight of the Arrow". But there's so many neat things in other missions, as well... I also have an irrational liking for "Middle of Nowhere", because it's so darned hard to make a non-combat mission interesting, and we just about managed it there.
 
One thing you need to add - "Rearguard Duties" can be played with a Stiletto, too. The player doesn't get to choose, mind you - but if he ends Episode 4 with too few Rapiers, he'll be forced to use Stilettos here.

Thanks. I'll get on the fixes when I have a free moment. Our of curiosity, did I get the episode names right? I just filled them from memory, and think I got some of them wrong. Don't have a chance (or a forgiving enough wife) to fire the game up under current circumstances...

As far as favourite missions go, it's difficult to tell. I tend to prefer the Episode 4 & 5 missions in general, but I think there's a bit of an optical illusion here - these are the missions we made last, so we remember them best. Still, it's probable they're also objectively better - in the last episodes, we really hit our stride and started experimenting with all kinds of fun things, especially on the losing path.

I played the game through, but then went back and re-played just certain episodes so that I could fill out the tree. I actually played the losing Ep 5 path on my first full playthrough (had a devil of a time with saving the Leyte Gulf) long before I played a bunch of the other missions, and yet it still has many of my favorite missions. So I will claim that for me, at least, I'm not favoring them because I played them more recently. They're just very well put together missions, that have story, require skill and strategy, yet are all very beatable if you're careful (except for "Too Much Company", which seems to require a great deal of prayer and absolutely flawless flying as well).


Anyway, so I guess my top favourite mission would be "Flight of the Arrow". But there's so many neat things in other missions, as well... I also have an irrational liking for "Middle of Nowhere", because it's so darned hard to make a non-combat mission interesting, and we just about managed it there.

I loved "Middle of Nowhere". When I got to it, I actually thought...wait, they didn't! They did! They actually put in a mission with no enemies! And it wasn't boring... I thought it was great, because in "real life" you probably don't run into bogies every time you go out...so it was nice to see a game actually acknowledge that.
 
Thanks. I'll get on the fixes when I have a free moment. Our of curiosity, did I get the episode names right? I just filled them from memory, and think I got some of them wrong. Don't have a chance (or a forgiving enough wife) to fire the game up under current circumstances...
I'm pretty sure you did indeed get most of them wrong :). You got Episode 2 right, and both Episode 4 paths, too. The others are all more or less iffy, but I do not remember them all, and I can't check them offhand either. Still...
Episode 1 - this was definitely "Crime and Punishment".
Episode 3 - "Middle of Nowhere" may be correct for the losing path. "Warsaw" definitely is not correct for the winning path. Hmm... "First Encounters at Warsaw"? Something like that...
Episode 4 - there may be a "The" at the start of "Battle of Sirius", but otherwise you got both of them right.
Episode 5 - again, there may be a "The" at the start of "Battle of Earth". And it might possibly be "Terra" instead of Earth, though I don't think it is. On the losing path, I just don't know. It might have been "Rushing to Earth", or it may have been something entirely different.

On a sidenote, at some point, I half-jokingly proposed that Episode 4 be called "The Battle gets Serious", but Eder didn't much like the pun ;).

I loved "Middle of Nowhere". When I got to it, I actually thought...wait, they didn't! They did! They actually put in a mission with no enemies! And it wasn't boring... I thought it was great, because in "real life" you probably don't run into bogies every time you go out...so it was nice to see a game actually acknowledge that.
Well, in "real life", you'd probably have something like five non-combat missions for every combat mission ;). One of the reasons why this mission works well is because it's the only non-combat mission in the game. Even as you run through all those backwater systems in Episode 5, you're still being chased by cats all the way - so, in this mission, the tension is still there. You don't meet the cats. But you know you could, and you expect to.
 
Names I have in the guide...so no Ep5 names...

Episode 1 - Crime and Punishment
Episode 2 - Back to Business
Episode 3 - Winning - Gathering at Warsaw
Episode 4 - Winning - The Battle of Sirius

Ep3 - Losing - Back Route to Sirius
Ep4 - Losing - Backlash in Sirius
 
One thing you need to add - "Rearguard Duties" can be played with a Stiletto, too. The player doesn't get to choose, mind you - but if he ends Episode 4 with too few Rapiers, he'll be forced to use Stilettos here.

Does that mean that you also have to fly a Stiletto in "Too Much Company" and "Middle of Nowhere" (which are ordinarily Rapier missions)? Or does the Firekka somehow manage to get a few more Rapiers flight ready in that time?

"Too Much Company" would be pretty rough in a Stiletto... It's already one of the hardest missions in the game flying a Rapier.
 
Does that mean that you also have to fly a Stiletto in "Too Much Company" and "Middle of Nowhere" (which are ordinarily Rapier missions)?

You fly one of the remaining Rapiers in "Too Much Company."

Or does the Firekka somehow manage to get a few more Rapiers flight ready in that time?

By "Middle of Nowhere" you've got FRLN reinforcements to help out IIRC.

"Too Much Company" would be pretty rough in a Stiletto... It's already one of the hardest missions in the game flying a Rapier.

It along with "Fleet Action" were two of the hardest missions I thought in Ep5 during testing.
 
OK, then, here's a (nearly) final version...for now at least. Still, I'm open to corrections.
 

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And here's a rough draft of the branching description.

The (unconfirmed) things are things that I still don't know for sure.

For example, what conditions exactly lead from Destroyer Rescue to the Ep 3 winning path versus losing path? Obviously, you have to save the Sao Paulo, but is that enough, even if you lose both the Verdun and the Clydesdales? I have confirmed that saving the Sao Paulo and the Verdun but losing Clydesdales gets you the winning path, and losing the Sao Paulo gets the losing path, but what if you save the Sao Paulo and the Clydesdales but lose the Verdun? What if you save the Sao Paulo but lose both the Verdun and the Clydesdales? Is it you have to do any 2 out of 3? Or you need to save the Verdun and one of the Clydesdales and the Sao Paulo?

The other thing I'm not clear on is what happens if you nail the Strontium-90 missiles on Armageddon but then lose the Firekka (I don't remember...are bombers even targeting the Firekka?). Do you get the full up losing ending, or do you get the normal "Your carrier has been destroyed" restart message?

Finally, in Lashing Out, do you need to destroy the Snakeir AND the Ralatha to get Rearguard Action, or just the Snakeir (I'm not even sure it's possible to kill the Snakeir and not the Ralatha...but it might be. It's just too hard to do repeatably to test...)
 

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A few minor points from my own notes:

Episode 3: 'Battle of the Verdun' is just 'Battle of Verdun'

Episode 5: 'Rescue Run' is 'Search & Rescue', with the following mission being 'Fresh Company' that runs parallel to 'Too Much Company'.
 
Does that mean that you also have to fly a Stiletto in "Too Much Company" and "Middle of Nowhere" (which are ordinarily Rapier missions)? Or does the Firekka somehow manage to get a few more Rapiers flight ready in that time?
If you don't have any Rapiers left at all, you won't qualify for Episode 5 - you'll be taken off the roster. So, you'll always start Episode 5 with enough Rapiers for one mission.


For example, what conditions exactly lead from Destroyer Rescue to the Ep 3 winning path versus losing path? Obviously, you have to save the Sao Paulo, but is that enough, even if you lose both the Verdun and the Clydesdales? I have confirmed that saving the Sao Paulo and the Verdun but losing Clydesdales gets you the winning path, and losing the Sao Paulo gets the losing path, but what if you save the Sao Paulo and the Clydesdales but lose the Verdun? What if you save the Sao Paulo but lose both the Verdun and the Clydesdales? Is it you have to do any 2 out of 3? Or you need to save the Verdun and one of the Clydesdales and the Sao Paulo?
I thought I explained this already, in this thread or some other recent post here?

The other thing I'm not clear on is what happens if you nail the Strontium-90 missiles on Armageddon but then lose the Firekka (I don't remember...are bombers even targeting the Firekka?). Do you get the full up losing ending, or do you get the normal "Your carrier has been destroyed" restart message?
Hmm. I'm not sure. Might be the full losing ending, but...
 
Episode 5: 'Rescue Run' is 'Search & Rescue', with the following mission being 'Fresh Company' that runs parallel to 'Too Much Company'.
That's interesting. I have never actually finished "Rearguard Duties" without losing a wingman...so I've always gotten "Rescue Run", and wouldn't know if there was a different mission path you get for not having to fly it (I was just guessing).

As to the mission names, I noticed that there was a difference between the mission names in the flight history terminal, and in the mission objective screen that you get after the mission (or by pushing CTRL-O in-mission). For example, after flying the rescue mission, the following mission was labeled "Fresh Company" in the flight history terminal, but "Too Much Company" in the mission objectives screen.

I figured it was that the mission labeling between the two just wasn't consistent due to a programming oversight...but maybe there are two different versions of "Too Much Company" depending on whether you flew the rescue mission or not? I.e. maybe you get "Too Much Company" if you don't fly the rescue mission, and "Fresh Company" if you do? But in that case, the in-flight mission objectives screen mis-labels the mission name.

I *think* I noticed the same disagreement on "Rescue Run" versus "Search and Rescue" for the rescue mission itself... but I don't recall for sure.

The other place I remember a name inconsistency was in the Ep 4 losing path (the more winning version). After "Skinning Cats" you get a mission called "Backlash" (which is also on the more losing version, although a slightly different version), but something (either Dundradal's tree, or the flight history terminal, I don't remember which) labeled it as "Burying the Past". However, I think "Burying the Past" is the name of the cutscene involving
Spoons' funeral
.

I thought I explained this already, in this thread or some other recent post here?

My bad. You did explain it. It was the last post in a previous discussion we had had on this topic, and I hadn't noticed your post had been made. So it's all explained now. To get the winning path, you need to save the Verdun AND either enough Clydesdales (in which case you don't get Destroyer Rescue) or the Sao Paulo. If you lose the Verdun, you get Destroyer Rescue regardless of how many Clydesdales you save, but then you get the losing path regardless of if you save the Sao Paulo.
 
As to the mission names, I noticed that there was a difference between the mission names in the flight history terminal, and in the mission objective screen that you get after the mission (or by pushing CTRL-O in-mission).
Sounds like you have indeed found some bugs - I'm sure Dundradal will add them to our bugtracking system soon.

I figured it was that the mission labeling between the two just wasn't consistent due to a programming oversight...but maybe there are two different versions of "Too Much Company" depending on whether you flew the rescue mission or not? I.e. maybe you get "Too Much Company" if you don't fly the rescue mission, and "Fresh Company" if you do? But in that case, the in-flight mission objectives screen mis-labels the mission name.

I *think* I noticed the same disagreement on "Rescue Run" versus "Search and Rescue" for the rescue mission itself... but I don't recall for sure.
In both cases, there are two alternative variants - but the name you see in the mission history should always match up with the name in the objectives screen.

The rescue mission can be different depending on how many pilots you have to rescue - and whether they're all at the jump point or at another navpoint as well.

The next mission, naturally, differs depending on whether you played the rescue - if you don't play the rescue, you don't take out the frigate at the jump point, so it jumps in after you.
 
Sounds like you have indeed found some bugs - I'm sure Dundradal will add them to our bugtracking system soon.

I actually think this is something I already have in a bug. I want to say it's something we talked because of the Flight History not displaying correctly so it was left alone until we fixed that. EDIT: Just checked the bug...I guess I hadn't listed that stuff there.


But I will create individual entries. Farbourne want to help out by creating a list of missions you thus far have seen that issue? Then I'll bombard Q's inbox with bugzilla emails...something I just know he loves :D

If you want to coordinate more, I'll be on #wingnut this evening (EST).

I'm sure if I've ever told you either but I live near you as well. I'm just north of Boston.
 
I actually think this is something I already have in a bug. I want to say it's something we talked because of the Flight History not displaying correctly so it was left alone until we fixed that. EDIT: Just checked the bug...I guess I hadn't listed that stuff there.


But I will create individual entries. Farbourne want to help out by creating a list of missions you thus far have seen that issue? Then I'll bombard Q's inbox with bugzilla emails...something I just know he loves :D

If you want to coordinate more, I'll be on #wingnut this evening (EST).

I'm sure if I've ever told you either but I live near you as well. I'm just north of Boston.

Heh. I guess I need to update my profile. I lived in Boston for 10 years, but I live in California now. Still, it's always good to meet a friendly ship! :) I hope the snow hasn't been too crazy for you this year (my family and friends all still live back there, so I know how rough a winter it's been).

As far as the missions go, I haven't been able to fire up my Standoff in a while (I'm working on this in 5 minute snatches to make the time between diapers pass and my wife is not tolerant of obvious video game playing right now...and that probably rules out #wingnut for now as well), so I can't help much in the short term beyond my memory...but the only ones in particular I remember a difference between the flight history and the mission objectives was for Rescue Run, Too Much Company, and *maybe* one of the Backlash's and Charge of the Leathernecks... But I"m not sure of the last two...

I guess there are some versions of Rescue Run/Search and Rescue and Too Much Company that I've never played...so I can't vouch for their consistency either...
 
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