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Greetings all.

I have been playing the Highland campaign for quite some time now. I am currently in command of a Spectre class destroyer squadron.

I keep getting Patrol missions, none of which ever contain any enemy ships. My entire group finishes the patrol, going through all the nav points. The I end the mission. I always get 30 points.

The problem is, I have done a LOT of patrol missions... the campaign doesn't seem to be progressing. I even tried commanding the Archon battle group, which changes the missions to Flight Ops, but I never seem to be getting anywhere. It's just an endless line of the same missions.

Is this supposed to happen, or is there a bug in the campaign? I'd like to progress and finish this campaign, and see what the next one has in store... but it almost seems to be frozen. Is there any way I can fix this?

I have opened up the campaign save file, and it's perfectly readable, although I don't know what it all means. Here is what some of it looks like:

SAVEGAME

campaign: "Operation Highland"

grp_iff: 1
grp_type: 8
grp_id: 43
unit: "Shadow"
status: 1
basetime: 1664261592.214000
time: 1450826.173000 // Day 17 19:00:26

sitrep: "\tLoyalist and Separatist leaders have signed a cease-fire agreement and hostile action in this system is winding down. Phase Two of Operation Highland has been successfully completed, and President Valmar has ordered us to commence Phase Three - the disarming of Renser Prefecture.\n\n\tHegemony Task Force TF4.3 has withdrawn from Solus to the Khaital Sector of the Renser System. We have been ordered to pursue them into Renser space and eliminate their ability to project force to any of the neighboring Independent systems.\n"
orders: "\t* Pursue Hegemony Task Force TF4.3 into Renser space.\n\t* Eliminate Renser's ability to project force to neighboring systems.\n\t* Destroy all military units of the Task Force TF4.3.\n\t* Withdraw safely back to the Alliance base in Janus System.\n"

combatant: { name:"Terellian Alliance", iff:1, score:12560, }
combatant: { name:"Dantari Separatists", iff:2, score:510, }
combatant: { name:"Marakan Hegemony", iff:2, score:2170, }
combatant: { name:"Independent System of Solus", iff:0, score:0, }

action: { id: 0, stat:4 }
action: { id: 1, stat:4 }
action: { id: 2, stat:4 }
action: { id: 50, stat:4 }
action: { id: 51, stat:4 }
action: { id: 52, stat:4 }
action: { id: 53, stat:4 }
action: { id: 60, stat:4 }
action: { id: 110, stat:4 }
action: { id: 120, stat:4 }
action: { id: 130, stat:4 }
action: { id: 140, stat:3 }
action: { id: 150, stat:3 }
action: { id: 160, stat:3 }
action: { id: 170, stat:3 }
action: { id: 180, stat:3 }
action: { id: 190, stat:4 }
action: { id: 200, stat:4 }
action: { id: 210, stat:4 }
action: { id: 230, stat:4 }
action: { id: 240, stat:4 }
action: { id: 250, stat:0, count:4 }
action: { id: 255, stat:4 }
action: { id: 260, stat:4 }
action: { id: 270, stat:4 }
action: { id: 280, stat:4 }
action: { id: 300, stat:4 }
action: { id: 305, stat:4 }
action: { id: 310, stat:3 }
action: { id: 315, stat:4 }
action: { id: 320, stat:4 }
action: { id: 325, stat:4 }
action: { id: 330, stat:4 }
action: { id: 350, stat:4 }
action: { id: 370, stat:4 }
action: { id: 375, stat:4 }
action: { id: 410, stat:4 }
action: { id: 420, stat:4 }
action: { id: 421, stat:4 }
action: { id: 422, stat:4 }
action: { id: 425, stat:4 }
action: { id: 426, stat:4 }
action: { id: 427, stat:4 }
action: { id: 440, stat:4 }
action: { id: 450, stat:4 }
action: { id: 455, stat:4 }
action: { id: 500, stat:4 }
action: { id: 501, stat:4 }
action: { id: 502, stat:4 }
action: { id: 503, stat:4 }
action: { id: 510, stat:4 }
action: { id: 515, stat:4 }
action: { id: 520, stat:4 }
action: { id: 521, stat:4 }
action: { id: 530, stat:4 }
action: { id: 535, stat:4 }
action: { id: 550, stat:4 }
action: { id: 555, stat:3 }
action: { id: 560, stat:3 }
action: { id: 565, stat:3 }
action: { id: 600, stat:4 }
action: { id: 620, stat:4 }
action: { id: 621, stat:4 }
action: { id: 622, stat:4 }
action: { id: 630, stat:4 }
action: { id: 640, stat:4 }
action: { id: 650, stat:4 }
action: { id: 700, stat:4 }
action: { id: 701, stat:4 }
action: { id: 710, stat:4 }
action: { id: 711, stat:4 }
action: { id: 720, stat:4 }
action: { id: 725, stat:4 }
action: { id: 735, stat:4 }
action: { id: 660, stat:0, count:1, after:1537246 }
action: { id: 670, stat:0, count:1, after:1537246 }
action: { id: 680, stat:0, count:1, after:1537246 }
action: { id: 721, stat:0, count:1 }
action: { id: 726, stat:0, count:1 }
action: { id: 736, stat:0, count:1 }
action: { id: 997, stat:0, count:1 }
action: { id: 998, stat:0, count:1 }
action: { id: 999, stat:0, count:1 }

I'm pretty sure these are the missions I have done, but I don't know what any of it means - can anyone shed any light on this at all? The game has gotten rather boring with no combat or real mission objectives.

Thanks in advance for any help!

The problem you are facing is time. The actions you see listed are more like events you would create in a custom mission. If you want to speed things up, take your squadron to a sector that still has bad guys in it. Taking them out helps speed up the storyline. There is a breakdown of the second campaign (Op Highland) on the Grouper site. I burned through this campaign as an admiral one time and I had already gone to Renser to kill a couple of DD squads before the Marakan CVBG had reached Solus. The very next mission, I was back in Solus to engage them.
In short, if all you do is the basic patrol, it will take a very long time to get through.

V/R

Haha, I never once thought of taking my squadron to another sector... I'll give that a shot.
 
Thanks a million, Dragonlead!

No sweat.

Here's a tip though...send in all your ships before you go, otherwise, they'll sit around doing nothing waiting for you to come back.
Here's a second tip...give each ship about 30 seconds before you send the next one...this prevents collisions or intermingling (where the 2 ships are locked together and basically useless).

V/R