I've looked into this, and in addition to what I discovered in the other threads where a cinematic mission can be queued up after 40 minutes, then 60 minutes after each previous one is triggered, if one is available on the current CD, or disregarding the current CD if the main plot is complete. For example, if 42 minutes have elapsed when you land and a mission is triggered, the cinematic mission time variable is set to 102, not 100 - current time + 60, not the previous value + 60. Checks are only done while landed, but not in the PAD or CCN Booth. Holding P while landing goes straight to the PAD without checking the times, also allowing the player to save before the Kappa Labs and Kronos cutscenes. If enough time has passed but a cinematic mission isn't available, one will be queued up as soon as it becomes available (either by reloading the game with a different CD.DAT number, watching a cutscene that unlocks a side mission, or watching a cutscene that requires a CD change and one's available on the new CD). Also, the time for the next mission to be queued up is set to the current time upon finishing the main plot, meaning even if a cinematic mission has only recently been offered, another one can be offered straight after leaving Kronos's ship. I have worked out what seems to be required for each mission to be offered.
For Auntie and Nelson, the character will appear in the bar. For missions that give you an email while landed, you'll get it straight away. For missions that give you an email shortly after taking off, Page 2 of the Diary will change to "No Entry Available" without a full stop; this signifies that a mission has been queued up, and if you save at this point, even if you start with a different CD.DAT number, the mission has already been queued up and you will be offered it after taking off. Be careful not to do the Auntie or Nelson mission when another is due to be offered soon or the game may glitch out and miss one of the missions. This can happen if another mission is queued up when you land with your passenger, but the email saying "Meet me here for payment" or the actual payment cutscene can cancel the queued mission. A good way to avoid complications is to keep CD.DAT set to 1 while doing these missions before finishing the main plot. Assuming Xavier 1 is complete, no other missions will trigger.
First of all, if you use a no-CD method such as editing MOVIES.IFF and changing the bytes 01, 02 and 03 to 00 before each filename so that it never asks to swap CDs, you can complete the entire main plot without being offered a single cinematic mission. I set CD.DAT to 0 for this purpose. If you do this, the missions will be offered in this order after the main plot has been completed, regardless of which CD is in since it no longer checks after the main plot:
CD 1:
1: Nelson Ramirez
2: Xavier Shondi 1
3: Auntie Maria Gabriel
CD 2:
4: Bill Maddox
5a: Melissa Banks 1
5b: Melissa Banks 2 (note that this is a direct follow-up but her videos at Sinner's Inn are on CD 3)
6: Bernice Barlow
7: Tamessa Ames
8: Ralph McCloud
9: Uncle Kashumai / Alberto Fossa
10a: Dr. Graham Gould
10b: Angus Santana (another direct follow-up)
CD 3:
11: Lord Mike Vonx
12: Louissa Phillips
13: Xavier Shondi 2
I still haven't been able to trigger the second part of the Louissa Phillips mission, no matter what I do.
Now that's the order you get the missions if you wait until the very end of the game before triggering a single one, which is probably impossible without editing the game files - otherwise at some point a mission will most likely be activated. In the case of Auntie and Nelson, when their missions are next in line, there will be no notification but the character will appear in the bar, and the next mission will be set to attempt to trigger 60 minutes after the point at which that happens.
If, however, you want to do every cinematic mission as early as possible in the main plot, this is the order it will happen:
1: Xavier Shondi 1 (CD 1, after Joe at Sinner's Inn, first cutscene*)
2: Auntie Maria Gabriel (CD 1, after completing Xavier Shondi 1*)
3: Xavier Shondi 2 (CD 3, after completing Xavier Shondi 1) - can do this before Auntie depending on the CD
4a: Melissa Banks 1 (CD 2, after meeting Hal Taffin**)
4b: Melissa Banks 2 (CD 3, direct follow-up from Melissa Banks 1***)
5a: Dr. Graham Gould (CD 2, after meeting Angus Santana****)
5b: Angus Santana (CD 2, direct follow-up from Dr. Graham Gould****)
6: Ralph McCloud (CD 2, after Shernikov Medical cutscene)
7: Louissa Phillips (CD 3, after Shernikov Medical cutscene) - can do this before Ralph depending on the CD
8: Bill Maddox (CD 2, after meeting Jan Mitorr)
9: Bernice Barlow (CD 2, after meeting Hugo Carmichael at Bex)
10: Tamessa Ames (CD 2, after meeting Hugo Carmichael at Bex, and after meeting Bernice Barlow*****)
11: Uncle Kashumai / Alberto Fossa (CD 2, after Galactic Gourmet cutscene******)
12: Lord Mike Vonx (CD 3, after Joe at Sinner's Inn, second cutscene (so after meeting Dimitri)**)
13: Nelson Ramirez (CD 1, after David Hassan at Hades, second cutscene)
*I've tested this, and if you fail or refuse Xavier Shondi's first mission, you are permanently locked out of all future cinematic missions, even after destroying the five Icaruses he sends after you for failing, after waiting a little while. This is another way to get "No Entry Available" without a full stop, except in this case you won't be offered any more cinematic missions. If you haven't been offered Xavier's first mission, however, you can still do missions on CDs 2 and 3 beforehand. Since Auntie's mission is also on CD 1, you must complete Xavier's first mission to be able to start her mission.
**You don't have to pay Hal or Dimitri, and it doesn't matter which option you pick in Hal's case. Just starting the cutscene is enough to trigger the mission. Failing Melissa Banks 1 will lock you out of future cinematic missions, but refusing the mission is OK.
***If you refuse Melissa Banks 2, you get the "Anniversary" cutscene with Melissa in Sinner's Inn. If you complete it, you get the "Space Bimbo" cutscene if Louissa Phillips's cutscene has been seen at any time (even if you've only just seen it before deciding to click on Melissa at Sinner's Inn), or the "Is that legal?" cutscene if not. All these cutscenes are on CD 3, but as it's a direct follow-up, you don't need CD 3 in to start this mission. Some players consider Melissa's Hephaestus cutscene as part of Melissa Banks 2, with the Sinner's cutscene as an extra. However, that would mean Melissa Banks 1 has no cutscene. I prefer to consider the Hephaestus video as part of Melissa Banks 1 along with a choice as to whether to accept Melissa Banks 2 or not. Then the Sinner's cutscene can be considered as the end of Melissa Banks 2.
****Assuming you want to complete the Angus Santana return mission, don't complete the Dr. Graham Gould mission before seeing the Shernikov cutscene, or it will become permanently unavailable and you will get stuck. This is because you'll deliver Angus's package to Shernikov automatically on arriving, which will stop the regular Shernikov cutscene from playing and you won't be able to click on the receptionist to trigger it. The draft script says refusing Angus's return delivery may give you GOOD points, although a GOOD / BAD points system wasn't really implemented. I don't think there's any benefit to refusing Angus, but I can't be 100% sure at this time.
*****It doesn't matter if you accept or reject Bernice's mission, but Bernice's will be offered before Tamessa's unless Bernice's is skipped due to the taxi mission glitch or similar. Similar to what happens if you fail Xavier 1, failing Tamessa's mission gets you attacked by six Skecis Mk IIs (instantly this time) and locks you out of future cinematic missions with "No Entry Available" without a full stop. Refusing the mission doesn't lock you out, though.
******If you get the bad ending of this mission by giving the item to Fossa, this seems to lock you out of future cinematic missions.
So I don't have everything yet, but this is a good start for now. As you can see, the Ralph McCloud mission is available nice and early for those sweet Kraven Mark IV Lasers. If you get it early enough in the main plot, you can get it as your second or third CD 2 mission after Melissa Banks and maybe Dr. Graham Gould.
For Auntie and Nelson, the character will appear in the bar. For missions that give you an email while landed, you'll get it straight away. For missions that give you an email shortly after taking off, Page 2 of the Diary will change to "No Entry Available" without a full stop; this signifies that a mission has been queued up, and if you save at this point, even if you start with a different CD.DAT number, the mission has already been queued up and you will be offered it after taking off. Be careful not to do the Auntie or Nelson mission when another is due to be offered soon or the game may glitch out and miss one of the missions. This can happen if another mission is queued up when you land with your passenger, but the email saying "Meet me here for payment" or the actual payment cutscene can cancel the queued mission. A good way to avoid complications is to keep CD.DAT set to 1 while doing these missions before finishing the main plot. Assuming Xavier 1 is complete, no other missions will trigger.
First of all, if you use a no-CD method such as editing MOVIES.IFF and changing the bytes 01, 02 and 03 to 00 before each filename so that it never asks to swap CDs, you can complete the entire main plot without being offered a single cinematic mission. I set CD.DAT to 0 for this purpose. If you do this, the missions will be offered in this order after the main plot has been completed, regardless of which CD is in since it no longer checks after the main plot:
CD 1:
1: Nelson Ramirez
2: Xavier Shondi 1
3: Auntie Maria Gabriel
CD 2:
4: Bill Maddox
5a: Melissa Banks 1
5b: Melissa Banks 2 (note that this is a direct follow-up but her videos at Sinner's Inn are on CD 3)
6: Bernice Barlow
7: Tamessa Ames
8: Ralph McCloud
9: Uncle Kashumai / Alberto Fossa
10a: Dr. Graham Gould
10b: Angus Santana (another direct follow-up)
CD 3:
11: Lord Mike Vonx
12: Louissa Phillips
13: Xavier Shondi 2
I still haven't been able to trigger the second part of the Louissa Phillips mission, no matter what I do.
Now that's the order you get the missions if you wait until the very end of the game before triggering a single one, which is probably impossible without editing the game files - otherwise at some point a mission will most likely be activated. In the case of Auntie and Nelson, when their missions are next in line, there will be no notification but the character will appear in the bar, and the next mission will be set to attempt to trigger 60 minutes after the point at which that happens.
If, however, you want to do every cinematic mission as early as possible in the main plot, this is the order it will happen:
1: Xavier Shondi 1 (CD 1, after Joe at Sinner's Inn, first cutscene*)
2: Auntie Maria Gabriel (CD 1, after completing Xavier Shondi 1*)
3: Xavier Shondi 2 (CD 3, after completing Xavier Shondi 1) - can do this before Auntie depending on the CD
4a: Melissa Banks 1 (CD 2, after meeting Hal Taffin**)
4b: Melissa Banks 2 (CD 3, direct follow-up from Melissa Banks 1***)
5a: Dr. Graham Gould (CD 2, after meeting Angus Santana****)
5b: Angus Santana (CD 2, direct follow-up from Dr. Graham Gould****)
6: Ralph McCloud (CD 2, after Shernikov Medical cutscene)
7: Louissa Phillips (CD 3, after Shernikov Medical cutscene) - can do this before Ralph depending on the CD
8: Bill Maddox (CD 2, after meeting Jan Mitorr)
9: Bernice Barlow (CD 2, after meeting Hugo Carmichael at Bex)
10: Tamessa Ames (CD 2, after meeting Hugo Carmichael at Bex, and after meeting Bernice Barlow*****)
11: Uncle Kashumai / Alberto Fossa (CD 2, after Galactic Gourmet cutscene******)
12: Lord Mike Vonx (CD 3, after Joe at Sinner's Inn, second cutscene (so after meeting Dimitri)**)
13: Nelson Ramirez (CD 1, after David Hassan at Hades, second cutscene)
*I've tested this, and if you fail or refuse Xavier Shondi's first mission, you are permanently locked out of all future cinematic missions, even after destroying the five Icaruses he sends after you for failing, after waiting a little while. This is another way to get "No Entry Available" without a full stop, except in this case you won't be offered any more cinematic missions. If you haven't been offered Xavier's first mission, however, you can still do missions on CDs 2 and 3 beforehand. Since Auntie's mission is also on CD 1, you must complete Xavier's first mission to be able to start her mission.
**You don't have to pay Hal or Dimitri, and it doesn't matter which option you pick in Hal's case. Just starting the cutscene is enough to trigger the mission. Failing Melissa Banks 1 will lock you out of future cinematic missions, but refusing the mission is OK.
***If you refuse Melissa Banks 2, you get the "Anniversary" cutscene with Melissa in Sinner's Inn. If you complete it, you get the "Space Bimbo" cutscene if Louissa Phillips's cutscene has been seen at any time (even if you've only just seen it before deciding to click on Melissa at Sinner's Inn), or the "Is that legal?" cutscene if not. All these cutscenes are on CD 3, but as it's a direct follow-up, you don't need CD 3 in to start this mission. Some players consider Melissa's Hephaestus cutscene as part of Melissa Banks 2, with the Sinner's cutscene as an extra. However, that would mean Melissa Banks 1 has no cutscene. I prefer to consider the Hephaestus video as part of Melissa Banks 1 along with a choice as to whether to accept Melissa Banks 2 or not. Then the Sinner's cutscene can be considered as the end of Melissa Banks 2.
****Assuming you want to complete the Angus Santana return mission, don't complete the Dr. Graham Gould mission before seeing the Shernikov cutscene, or it will become permanently unavailable and you will get stuck. This is because you'll deliver Angus's package to Shernikov automatically on arriving, which will stop the regular Shernikov cutscene from playing and you won't be able to click on the receptionist to trigger it. The draft script says refusing Angus's return delivery may give you GOOD points, although a GOOD / BAD points system wasn't really implemented. I don't think there's any benefit to refusing Angus, but I can't be 100% sure at this time.
*****It doesn't matter if you accept or reject Bernice's mission, but Bernice's will be offered before Tamessa's unless Bernice's is skipped due to the taxi mission glitch or similar. Similar to what happens if you fail Xavier 1, failing Tamessa's mission gets you attacked by six Skecis Mk IIs (instantly this time) and locks you out of future cinematic missions with "No Entry Available" without a full stop. Refusing the mission doesn't lock you out, though.
******If you get the bad ending of this mission by giving the item to Fossa, this seems to lock you out of future cinematic missions.
So I don't have everything yet, but this is a good start for now. As you can see, the Ralph McCloud mission is available nice and early for those sweet Kraven Mark IV Lasers. If you get it early enough in the main plot, you can get it as your second or third CD 2 mission after Melissa Banks and maybe Dr. Graham Gould.
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