Swoop races, love 'em, hate 'em (SPOILERS)

Deecoy · Post by **Deecoy** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:49 pm

Hi all,
At first i really liked the swoop races but i'm starting to hate them more and more.
I have the pc version and the last race on Manaan is just hopeless, i get close but i never make it under 22:50.
With the keyboard i can't keep the bike steady so i miss most of the last boost pads.It's like the keys react a split second too late.
I know the tricks, have the best possible start, go as straight as possible and don't hit anything but if i try to hit one or two more boost pads i'm bpund to lose time and regularly hit something.
I don't get it, the other races were fairly easy compared to this one.
I've been stuck on this damn quest far too long so i'm thinking of cheating this part one way or another.
Can anyone tell me how i can do this and how i can undo the cheat right after, i don't want to mess up the game.
It's a superb game but little things like this ruin it for me.
Thanks for listening

Deecoy

Spoonie Luv · Post by **Spoonie Luv** » Thu Nov 27, 2003 1:01 am

i played the pc version with the keyboard. the swoop races were quit easy

-=Miz@k=- · Post by **-=Miz@k=-** » Thu Nov 27, 2003 7:45 pm

The swoop races have quite a bit of luck factor even with all
the tips and tricks you use. It just boils down to LUCK. Keep
trying though your bound to win eventually!

tractrpl · Post by **tractrpl** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 8:32 pm

Don't listen to Spoovie, I've had problems too. No matter what I do, the best score I can get is 22.72. Some of those accelerators seem impossible to hit. On ever other planet, swoop racing is easy. I was hoping maybe there was a way to switch control from the w and s keys to mouse. That might make it easier to control the bike, and hit just a few more of those accelerator pads to win.

fraction1977 · Post by **fraction1977** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:39 pm

****************CHEATS***************

For those with time to spare there's a bug in the game, if you wait about 48 minutes (don't ask me why, could understand for 60 minutes since there's no place for the hour digit, but 48?) the counter is gonna reset to 0 so instead of hitting the accelerator button right away wait until you are about 20 sec of the 48 minutes and you're gonna score some amazing time!

So instead of pausing your game when you get diner, just star the race and after finishing eating just make the race, that's what i did for the Manaan swoop race quest too bad you got to do it twice since you gotta beat th 22:48 after!

tractrpl · Post by **tractrpl** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 4:59 pm

Why the hell is it so impossible to beat that time? Is it easier on Xbox or something? I hit every single accelerator pad I could barring the impossible ones and the best time I could get is 22:76. Is anyone else getting this problem, or am I just that bad?

Kaitsuburi · Post by **Kaitsuburi** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 10:57 pm

I wholeheartedly concur with what's been said. The controls are really clumsy (for the ****pit mini-game too), making two of the mini-games -- often vital to your main quest -- much much harder than the rest of the game. Very unbalancing IMHO -- it definitely should not be the case

Now, give me a Porsche Unleashed or NFS-Underground race and see what I can do

(even without a gamepad/wheel)

It took me an hour on Tattooine to even get the first race ~~ I finally gave up and CLUA-ed in the credits for the killer droid...

-kaitsuburi

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 3:35 am

Didn't race on Manaan myself - cause Tatooine just annoyed me.

I actually managed to get one race of 22:55 ..... 00:04 to slow to beat the final tier race, but after that all I could get down to was some 23 sec flat - so after a couple of hours I just gave up.

Really annoying ...

I hate Swoop races ...

ZviX · Post by **ZviX** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:46 pm

Malaak = 5300 credits.. or more..
Tatooie = 120 thingies... and if you sell them @ yavin station you get 152 credits for each... so 120x152=18.240

So if you do this right you can earn yourself ...

23.540 credits ;D

aamos · Post by **aamos** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 10:14 pm

It wasn't easy, but I beat both Tatooine and Manaan. My time at Manaan was 22:48, just barely in time. I probably only had to do that track 20 to 25 times to beat it. I started on Tatooine, and I don't know how many times I went through the track there, dozens. My first times were in the 30 second range. I finally decided that I was too heavy on my steering buttons, swerving all over the place. Less is better. There were places on each track where I gave it a little tap and lined up 4 or 5 accelerators, then another light tap sent me through a couple more. That is especially the case as you start going fast.

I'm glad I'm done with them though, frustrating, but not impossible.

tractrpl · Post by **tractrpl** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 1:43 pm

Are you guys on Xbox or PC? I want to figure out if it's just PC that's impossible or if Xbox is as hard as well.

Idioteque · Post by **Idioteque** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 3:50 pm

Its hard on XBOX but doable with practice. I've never been big on keyboard and mouse, maybe you should try a joystick/pad.

aamos · Post by **aamos** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 7:18 am

I managed to beat both the Tatooine (first), and Manaan (second) tracks, and I'm playing on the PC. It is difficult, but obviously not impossible to do it with the keyboard and mouse. Really you're doing it with just the keyboard since the mouse only provides a "click to change gears", and its all really done with the stearing keys A and D. It might have been easier if you could stear with the mouse, maybe not.

Nexus · Post by **Nexus** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 3:57 am

It's exhausting, but possible.

After a bunch of trials I finally managed to obtain 22:13 winning the first place.

The only way to win is to hit almost all boost platforms and to change gear at the right time.

Calisar · Post by **Calisar** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 6:20 am

Cann't seem to get under 23 sec on Manaan

I was about to give up on the swoop racing altogether, but thanks for the idea of lightening up on the keys, this will hopefully help.

Armisael · Post by **Armisael** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:02 am

I've gone under 22 seconds with the PC version. Don't pay too much attention to the booster pads, the trick is mostly in changing gears. Don't mash the button, either - wait a split second after the meter reaches the second last notch, then hit it. If you do it correctly you shouldn't even see the gear change indicator.

TobiasRieper · Post by **TobiasRieper** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:53 am

It is definitely possible but it took me forever to master swoop racing. First you need to try shifting the gears close to perfection - which is not that hard to do...but you do need to get most (if not all) of the acceleration pads in the beginning half of the track.

Kaitsuburi · Post by **Kaitsuburi** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:21 am

I agree -- the races are not impossible to win. I spent some time practicing and I was "up to speed". However, considering that the majority of the battles in the game are not that hard, I definitely feel a lack of balance.

But again, I am not a big fan or old-school arcade action; a challenging heavily tactical encounter appeals much more to me

[Like the Eclipse/Pontifex/Ascension battles in BGII -- any BGII players out here?]

-kaitsuburi

aamos · Post by **aamos** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 6:45 am

I gave some thought to how hard the swoop racing was for me, and decided it seemed about right. The one swoop race you had to win, Taris, was rigged so that is was easy to win. All you had to do was beat your own time once. The other races were not really required, just there to add additional credits and quests. It took me a good hour or maybe 2 to beat them. In some ways though I decided that if the races were push-overs I'd have felt cheated. I'm not on a rabbit run through this game, so spending an hour or two on honing my swoop racing skills didn't bother me.

I basically had to try to find a good line that got me all of the initial acceleration pads, and then get lucky on the ones that came by at high speeds, being light on the stearing keys seemed to help. As for shifting I found what worked for me was to start clicking every time I crossed a pad. Since most of your speed increases occur over these pads that means you normally will hit the shift speed as you cross one. Clicking shift then ensures you do it at a good time. Also, I was way too busy keeping an eye on my line and stearing to watch the tachometer at the bottom. I could hear and see when I crossed a pad, so it was easy to click like that. I could tell also visually when I did shift, so I might skip a couple of pads right after a shift but then I'd get back to it. I'm not sure if clicking when you didn't have to really hurt your speed, it might have, but as I said, it worked for me. I wasn't out for an all time record, just fast enough to complete the quest.

Mymh · Post by **Mymh** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 9:06 pm

The answer has already been given, but I'll list it short for some newcomer:

1) main thing is to hit the shift gear as fast as possible (and not repeatedly hit it, it's far better to hit it just when you guess the bar will be full, a split-second before you can see the shift-gear button)
2) the last speedboosters are less important, but the first 10 or so should really be easy to hit. One or two races, and you know the line.

So: take 1-2 practice runs, learn the boosters, and where you will need to be aware of the gear-up.

Tatooine were no problem at all. Manaan were hell. I hit 22.50 (yes, same time as I need to beat) several times before I actually beat it (22.47). It's annoying as hell. But I found a solution to do it "fairly easy" (hard, but not impossible). Using Xbox: Start the run. Take the first 10, or so, boosters. Make sure you gear up fast. Then stay fairly straight. If that's not enough, repeatedly (fast) hit the white button/pause, for 'slow-motion' racing. I used that method the first time I played, the frustration is major. But eventually you will notice that the gear up/learning track/staying in a good line will be essential.

You might end up spending 10-15x100creds this way for Tatooine+Manaan, but you will beat them.