Pegasus Prelude

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Function explanation:

• The Ancient Station has 3 bigger fighter bays and 3 docking peers. If you use the “Dock_Ship_Hangar” upgrade ability and a valid Ship (= Ancient Corvette, Frigate, Destroyer or Transporter) is nearby the Starase docks it to the pier at position 1.
  • Once you dock the next ship the station automatically rotates the hexagonal Ring of level 2/3 to get a empty slot to position 1 for docking.
  • And you can use the “Rotate Clockwise” or “Rotate Counter-Clockwise” ability to choose which ship is supposed to undock: pointing at the one in position 1 at the front.

• The Ancient Starbase Level 2 and 3 get a free Ancient Corvette from the Hyperspace as garrison unit docked to the Starbase if the player is no AI.
• “Dock_Fighter_Bay” and “Undock_Fighter_Bay” are supposed to dock/undock one Heavy Fighter or Hevy Bomber, same as the “Dock_Ship_Hangar” ability. The Arms rotate away to make sure no spaceship blocks the entrance to the fighter bay. Sometimes if bigger ships are docked like transporters, that blocks the rotation movement. CAUTION: I know there is a save/load crash bug if you try to dock a whole squadron of Heavy Fighter/Bomber instead of the single unit. I try to fix this in the future.
• Once the Starbase reached a level 5 you can build the “Ancient_Superlaser_LV_1”, and you then seperately need to build “Fire_Ancient_Laser” in order to fire that laser 1x and to deal some bigger damage to nearby Enemy ships (won’t do anything without a valid target). So you can use “Fire_Ancient_Laser” in battles as offensive ability.
• The Ancient Superlaser can then further be upgraded to level 2 and Level 3, each level increases the damage points inflicted by “Fire_Ancient_Laser”.
• If the Starbase has lost the fire Hardpoints on one side of the Ring on level 3 the player can use “Rotate_Constantly” to tell the Starbase to rotate the ring AS LONG AS enemy ships are nerarby. If no enemy ships are nearby that ring will only turn for a full 360* rotation. This is useful to get the Hardpoint on the other side of the Starbase into fireposition! Or to fire some Hardpoints that are ready to fire while the others rotate away and recharge for the next shot.
• The “Power_to_Shields” upgrade works similar like the ship ability, but it requires at least a Ancient Corvette to be docked to the station in order to redirect some power from that Corvette systems into the Shield emitter of the Starbase. That will show the shield mesh of the Starbase for about 30 seconds and boost the shield by a tad.
• Sometimes it makes sense to dock heavily damaged ships to the Starbase in order to protect them under the shield umbrella of the Starbase. But don’t forget to undock them before the Starbase gets destroyed or the docked ships will blow up together with the construction.
• And finally the player can choose to buy “Evacuation_Transporter”. That spawns and docks a evacuation transporter into one of the Hangars. Once the Ancinet Starbase gets critical damage, some seconds before the Starbase blows up that transporter flees to evacuate all civilian personal on that Starbase. If the player manages to escape that small transporter to the next bigger ship without getting it destroyed, the player earns a reward of 5000 Credits.

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• Conquer Laros
  • The player needs to conquer Laros - the planet where the mini-drones were invented.
  • If he manages to this this in time the Heavy Fighter and the Heavy Bomber technology will be discovered on the planet and available for research.
  • If the player is too slow the blueprint won’t be available anymore.
• The Shipyards of Taranis
  • Triggers shortly after the beginning of the GC if Taranis still belongs to the player.
  • The player has to defend the shipyards on Taranis against a big invading Wraith fleet.
  • If Taranis is still under player control after a certain amount of time the blueprints for the Ancient Destroyer will be unlocked.
• Hold Ground
  • The Wraith increase their attacks and it is important for the Ancients to keep their worlds in order to prepare their retreat and strengthen their core planet’s defensive capabilities.
  • The player mustn’t loose more than two worlds in a given peroid of time.
  • If the player fails, the Ancient Cruiser won’t be unlocked.
  • Melia will join the player’s forces
• Drone Tech Unlock
  • If the player conquers Hoff the Battledrones will become available.
• The Survivors on Gonta
  • Triggers some time after the Taranis event or if the player conquers the planet early.
  • Even though the Wraith are orbiting Gonta the Ancients have a huge settlement there.
  • The player has to conquer the planet and send the Delphi there to help evacuating the settlers.
  • Eventually the evacuation fails and the City Ship crashes down on Gonta. The player has to retreat because of a huge Wraith fleet entering orbit.
  • Some time after that survivors of the failed evacuation mission arrive on Lantea (among them the Aurora [Wallus])
• Moros’ Rescue
  • After a while the player will be informed that Moros is stranded with a depleted ZPM.
  • When the player finances the rescue mission he will get him as a hero shortly after.
• Nanite Development
  • The player will be given the possibility to invest into Nanite Development to develop the Asurans if the planet still belongs to him.
  • If the investment is made a bunch of Asuran Auroras will spawn on Asuras attacking the Wraith.
    After a while however, Asuras will turn hostile and randomly attack either the player or the Wraith.
• Guard Convoy (Tactical Mission)
  • Triggers after a certain amount of battles have been either won or lost.
  • The player has to send ships to the Unknown sectors because an important supply convoy for Atlantis needs protection.
  • If the mission is successful Janus will join.
  • Depending on the number of surviving transports the player will receive more or less reinforcements. When all transports survive he’ll even get a ZPM.
  • Some time after the mission the player will be informed that the Wraith were still able to capture a ship with a ZPM which helps them creating a huge clone army.
• The Ancient on Proculis (Tactical Mission)
  • Triggers if the player attacks Proculis.
  • A short time after the battle has started an Ascended Being (Chaya) wipes out the complete Wraith fleet. This is a one-time event, the other Ascended Ancients will not tolerate further interference.
  • The event is meant to be discovered and will not be mentioned in the log.
• Project Arcturus (Tactical Mission)
  • Triggers when a Wraith fleet attacks Doranda after the research has been funded.
  • The energy weapon can’t be controlled and uncontrollably attacks all ships in orbit. A lot of Wraith ships will be destroyed but the player should evacuate after a while.
  • The attacking Wraith fleet will always be destroyed.
• Unlocking Aurora Technology
  • The Aurora Battleship technology will become available eventually but might be delayed due to certain actions.
  • If the player invested in Project Arcturus the Aurora will become available very soon.
  • If the player successfully evacuated Gonta and rescued Moros the technology will be available relatively early.
  • Otherwise it will take significantly longer until the Auroa is available.
• The Attero Device
  • The player may construct the device on M6H-987 (Aesculetum).
  • If activated it will prevent all Wraith ships from entering hyperspace, respectively blow them up if they do.
  • This can be seen when Sensor Satellites have been constructed and the player will also be informed about it.
  • As a side-effect, the device can randomly blow up Stargates causing the player to lose that planet and the fleets on it.
  • The device will burn out eventually allowing the Wraith to attack again.
• The Clone Base
  • When the player manages to capture Arcanus the Wraith will spawn less units in their attack waves.
• Retreat
  • The Wraith increase their attacks eventually. More and stronger ships will attack.
  • The Ancients realise that the war is lost and the player is ordered to retreat all of his remaining forces to Lantea.
• The Defense of Atlantis (Tactical Mission)
  • When Wraith ships enter Lantea’s orbit a tactical mission will trigger.
  • The player has to survive for a while until the evacuation is complete.
  • “We need to submerge the city. Hopefully we can return one day…”
  • It’s the only event that needs to be won - if lost, a replay dialogue will appear.
  • When successful the Lanteans can evacuate to Earth and the player has won the GC.
• Demise of the Wraith
  • Special case event in case the player is about to defeat the Wraith.
  • This is the alternative way this GC can be won.
  • Janus: “Yikes, we won? My time machine tells me there’s something wrong…”

• Asteroid Field (Tactical Mission)

  • The Wraith need a ZPM to create and maintain Heavy Shipyards.
  • The player has to scout for an Aurora class warship (to be found in the Asteroid field) and capture it to steal its ZPM.
    • The Wraith only have a small, fixed, fleet available. (It doesn’t matter with how many ships you fly into the asteroid field)
    • The first objective is to catch up to the Ancient warship and disable its engines.
    • At some point the Ancient ship will make a distress call to Atlantis, which will result in an ancient backup fleet entering the area after some time.
    • Once the engines are disabled, a boarding shuttle will spawn for the Wraith, which needs to be moved to the disabeled Aurora class in order to obtain the ZPM.
    • During the boarding, the other Wraith ships have to defend against the Ancient reinforcements.
    • Once the boarding team got the ZPM, the shuttle will be available again and needs to escape the area by reaching a hyperspace jump point
  • If the ZPM is aqquired, Base on Arcanus starts.
  • If the mission in the Asteroid Field failed, there will be another ZPM available at Nostos. When the Wraith take the planet, Base on Arcanus will be started as if the tactical mission had succeeded.

• Arcanus

  • The Wraith will need to hold Arcanus until the construction of the shipyard is complete.
  • If Arcanus is successfully defended, the battlecruiser and the heavy shipyard will be unlocked.
  • If the Ancients take the planet back in that time, the battlecruiser and the heavy shipyard will be unlocked automatically after some additional time.

• Kohal

  • When exploring the planet, the Wraith discover a yet unknown Lantean facility.
  • The Wraith will find some really interesting ship blueprints, that will unlock the Destroyer after the planet is held for some time.

• Gonta

  • After conquering Gonta the Ancients return hoping to evacuate their settlement before the Wraith cull it.
  • This is the perfect chance to destroy one of their City ships.

• Laros (no ingame log entry)

  • In the Lantean station above Laros, the Wraith could secure some of their heavy fighters and bombers.
  • The Wraith study them allowing the player to construct his own heavy fighters and bombers.

• Heavy Artillery (no ingame log entry)

  • After Gonta, Arcanus and Laros are under Wraith control, and some additional time, the atrillery ship will be unlocked.

• The Asurans

  • Even though they look like Ancients they are much more aggressive.
  • Created by the Ancients, these machine beings will attack the Wraith as soon as they send a scout to Asuras.
  • The attacks can be sotpped by taking control over Asuras.
  • After some time, the Asurans will also turn against the Ancients. Then, the Ancients will also try to get control over Asuras. If they get there before the Wraith, the remaining Asurans will turn friendly towards the Ancients, but remain hostile to the Wraith.

• Dreadnoughts

  • Being desperate, the Ancients started a final attempt to defeat the Wraith by creating a superior warship: The Dreadnought.
  • The player will be heavily attacked by those ships until he destroys the shipyard on Taranis.
  • Once Taranis is conquered, the Hive will be unlocked.
  • The Dreadnought attacks can be prevented if the Wraith take control over Taranis before they control 19 planets. Then, the Wraith will need to hold the planet for a certain amount of time in order to gain access to the Hive.

• Encounter with the Vanir (Tactical Mission)

  • When moving further towards Lantea, the Wraith discover the secret base of an unknown enemy race on Aesculetum.
  • The mission begins when the Wraith attack Aesculetum.
    • The Wraith enter the system, everything is fine. When they get close to the planet, a small force of Vanir ships spawns and attacks.
    • At the same time, some bigger Asgard ships will try to escape while the Wraith are cought in battle.
    • If at least one big Asgard ship manages to escape: as soon as there are no big Asgard ships on the map any more (either escaped as well, or destroyed), the small Vanir ships will retreat to the exit point and jump as well.
    • If all big Asgard ships get destroyed (which should be close to impossible, that’s intentional), the Vanir ships will do kamikaze attacks on the Wraith ships and blow up.
    • The mission is won in every case except if the Wraith get completely destroyed.
  • Once they are driven away from their planet (tactical mission), they will keep attacking the Wraith until their fleet is destroyed.

• The Big Finale (Tactical Missions)

  • The finale features three missions: Orakis, Athos and of course Atlantis.
  • Prelude to the final battle:
    • The missions on Okrakis and Athos will only be available if Aesculetum, Belkan and Jenev are under player control.
    • Winning one of the two missions will make the final mission over Lantea a lot easier.
    • If the player takes Athos or Orakis before Aesculetum, Belkan and Jenev are under his control the final mission will be available but without the bonuses from winning the other missions.
  • The demise of the Ancients:
    • The Atlantis mission is repeatable and the only mission that needs to be won. After that, the GC is over.

Unlike other GCs Pegasus Prelude does not offer a tech system. Instead, the player progresses through certain events.
On the Ancient Campaign all technology has to be researched first; for the Wraith it is typically granted for free.

Ancient Campaign unlocks:

Units:
Ancient_Jumper_Squadron -> From the beginning
Ancient_Drone_Squadron -> Conquer Hoff
Ancient_Heavy_Fighter_Squadron -> Laros
Ancient_Heavy_Bomber_Squadron -> Laros
Ancient_Corvette -> From the beginning
Ancient_Frigate -> From the beginning
Ancient_Destroyer -> Taranis
Ancient_Cruiser -> Win Hold Ground event
Ancient_Battleship -> Arcturus or Gonta+Moros

Heroes:
Melia -> Joins at the beginning of Hold Ground
Janus -> Win Convoy event
Moros -> Some time after hold ground (His ship is stranded with a depleted ZPM, you need to pay for a rescue mission to get him)
Wallus -> Win Gonta event
Delphi -> some time after the beginning
Pride of Troy -> Some time after Gonta victory it can be constructed on Atlantis
ZPM -> Win convoy event with all 5 ships

Wraith Campaign unlocks:

Units:
wraithScout -> From the beginning
wraithDart -> From the beginning
wraithBomber -> From the beginning
wraithHeavyDart -> Laros
wraithHeavyBomber -> Laros
wraithExperimentalDart -> Asteroid Field
wraithCorvette -> Asteroid Field
wraithCruiser -> From the beginning
wraithDestroyer -> Kohal
wraithBattlecruiser -> ZPM
wraithHive -> After Taranis
wraithArtillery -> Win Aurora mission

Heroes:
Commando -> After the Exp. Dart has been unlocked
Envoy -> After 5 space battle have been won
Warlord -> After the Destroyer unlock
General -> After the Battlecruiser unlock
Queen -> After the Hive unlock

Unfortunately Pegasus Prelude doesn’t run as stable as we hope. We are not totally sure as for the reason of the crashes but it seems that a stronger PC is less vulnerable to exceptions.
To avoid frustration we suggest:

• Make sure to create a save game every X minutes. The more often, the better - there is no such thing as too much.
• If something doesn’t work, crashes or whatever: Jump back to the latest save game and try to reproduce the problem (This helps us to track down the problem if you report your findings!)

Function indicator:

• On the galactic layer you’ll notice that you constantly get credits; a few per second.
  If, at any point, you notice that this is not the case that means that the script crashed (bad!). At this point we suggest to jump back to the latest save game which works as you may not be able to complete the GC otherwise.
• When the mod is updated trough the launcher do not use old save games hoping this will solve event bugs. Always restart the game and the GC when using new files.

Unlike other GCs, the chosen difficulty level heavily impacts Pegasus Prelude. Make sure to adjust it to your needs before starting a campaign.

-> Easy: Nearly impossible to lose and you’ll most likely win the GC through conquest
-> Medium: Default experience, will keep you busy but it’s certainly doable
-> Hard. Is supposed to be hard, even for experienced players. In case of the Ancients it’s the idea that the player wins this GC through the retreat event and not through conquest.

Also keep in mind that the Ancients are supposed to lose the war. While it is still possible to conquer the galaxy on the Ancient Campaign this is not the designed outcome. Typically the goal is to fend off the Wraith for as long as possible, conquering planets is rather exceptional. The Ancients can also win if they survive long enough - eventually a retreat event will trigger asking the player to retreat his forces to Atlantis. If the evacuation is successful the GC is still won.

Ancient Campaign:

• Convoy in Need:
  • The Wraith are attacking a supply convoy which is desperately needed in Atlantis. You have to protect the escaping transports.
  • When at least 3 ships survive you will get some extra reinforcements as a reward shortly after. When all five ships make it you’ll even get a ZPM.
  • When less than 3 ships survive the mission is failed and Janus will not spawn.
  • Tip: When Melia is already available to you use her energy barrier ability to protect the transports that are about to die.
  • Tip: Since you need to reach the transports in time it is advisable to assemble a fleet of small and fast ships before attacking the Unknown Sector. Send them directly toward the transports. You don’t need to kill the attacking Wraith but you can use your ships to draw fire away from the convoy ships.
• The Ancient on Proculis:
  • When you attack Proculis without choosing the auto-resolve option an Ancient being will wipe out all Wraith ships on the map. Triggers only once.
  • This is a hidden event that is meant to be discovered; it does not have a grave impact on the GC but makes this planet very easy to conquer.
  • Tip: Don’t use the auto-resolve button. You can attack this planet with the smallest fleet since Chaya will kill all Wraith anyway.
• Project Arcturus:
  • At one point you will be offered to invest in a project called “Project Arcturus”. Some time later a huge Wraith fleet will approach Doranda.
  • If the project was funded, the ground-to-space-weapon on Doranda will go haywire and rapidly attack every ship in orbit once a tactical battle triggers.
  • You can retreat at this point since the Wraith fleet will be destroyed by the weapon anyway. But you will lose the planet temporarily.
  • Tip: Invest in the project. The Wraith fleet will attack Doranda no matter what and the weapon makes it easy to get rid of them. Additionaly, the knowledge gained from the project will unlock the Aurora class technology earlier.
• The Final Battle:
  • This mission will only trigger when you have made certain progress in the overall story line. Eventually the Wraith will attack you stronger and if you lose a certain amount of planets you will be ordered to retreat to Atlantis. This does not mean that you performed bad in the GC but is in fact the desired outcome.
  • After you have been asked to retreat the mission will trigger as soon as the Wraith reach Lantea.
  • The mission will not trigger if you have not been asked to retreat and the Wraith attack Lantea (if you lose Lantea then the GC will be lost!) or if you conquer all planets and defeat the Wraith. This is the alternate ending.
  • In order to dial Earth you need to search the Defense Satellites close-by for working ZPMs. Send Melia very close to one of the satellites and she will automatically board the satellite and search for the ZPM.
  • If a ZPM was found the satellite will become inactive and you can send Melia to deliver the ZPM to the marked transport ship. Otherwise you have to search for a new satellite.
  • Once both ZPMs have been delivered you have to protect the approaching transport ships. Use the escort ships and the heroes to make sure of that.
  • As soon as 10 ships reach Atlantis the mission is won. If too many transports have been destroyed you will need to reattempt the mission.
  • Tip: You can skip all cinematics by pressing the “Esc” button.
  • Tip: The deployment of working ZPMs on the satellites is random. Don’t even bother to remember their location in case you need to restart the mission.
  • Tip: When Wraith ships are approaching a satellite that is still intact make sure to select its next target manually. Choose the biggest ships that is about to come into range and make sure not to select a specific hardoint in order to one-shot the target. Don’t underestimate the value of the satellites; they can take out a lot of Hives if used properly!
  • Tip: You can directly control the escort ships as soon as they jump in together with a transport. It is often useful to group the escort ships together and clear the descent area of the transports.
  • Tip: You can use Melia’s energy barrier ability to keep transports alive. And even though you must keep an eye on not losing any heroes keep in mind that they are very resilient and can do a great deal of damage to the Wraith.

Wraith Campaign:

• TODO

• The GC is prone to crashes. Save often!
• The Tau’ri tactical dashboard, GC space station and some other Tau’ri specific logos are still visible.
• The Wraith AF sat doesn’t show up in the GC even though it’s placed with the starting forces
• The Asuras-turn-hostile event doesn’t always show up in the log (Ancient Campaign)
• The Asurans can also trigger the final battle (Ancient Campaign)

Ancient Campaign:

Battle strategies:

• The Ancients heavily rely on their superior technology. Their ships are much stronger than those of the Wraith so taking on uneven numbers is still possible. Since the Ancient ships greatly profit from their strong shields it is often advisable to move ships that have less than 10% of their shield capacity behind the frontlines. Constantly rotating the ships with the greatest shield strength to the front is a viable tactic.
• Most Ancient ships are compact. Moving ships close together creates a very powerful formation that can crack any opponent with ease.
• Many of the Ancient heroes have useful abilities. Use Wallus’ ability to defend important locations with his satellites, Janus’ drone swarm to kill priority targets or Melia’s energy barrier to keep important units alive.
• The City Ships have extremely strong shields but a very weak hull. Use them as punching bag while their shields are still up and retreat them as soon as they are at the verge of collapse.
• Wraith artillery can sometimes be a real pain, but they have a very weak hull. Use cloaked Jumpers to approach and kill them. In general, artillery is very vulnerable to fighter and bomber attacks.
• Defense satellites are extremely powerful but have a long reload time. Make sure to select the most important targets manually. Target the ship in general and not only a specific hardpoint.
• Melia’s energy barrier ability can be very useful to keep transports alive during tactical missions.

GC Strategies:

• Ancient sensor satellites are extremely powerful intelligence gatherers and help you detect approaching fleets early.
• Wraith ships have a slightly slower hyperspace speed than Ancient units. Use that to move defending forces in time.
• Just because the research option for a new ship class has become available doesn’t mean you have to fund it at once. Sometimes it can prove more useful to buy units and delay research to a later point.
• You don’t necessarily have to succeed in every objective that is given to you. If your resources are spread thin try to focus on the events that appear to be more rewarding.

Wraith Campaign:

Battle strategies:

• The strength of the Wraith lies in their numbers. When approaching an Ancient fleet don’t let your fleet attack at random. Pick one ship after another and take it out. The loss of a single ship is a big hit for any Ancient attack force.
• Make sure to kill the shields of an Ancient ship as fast as possible. Use the strong attack abilities of Cruisers and Battlecruisers to pick on the shields and always re-use the special abilities when they are ready. Focus fire on single ships and target their engines to prevent them from retreating into safety.
• Try not to move directly into the middle of an Ancient fleet. Try to keep formation so that not every ship of the hostile fleet can attack with every hardpoint.
• Ancient ships are slow. Smaller ships can outrun them if you need to retreat.
• Most of the Wraith ships have additional fighter complements on board. Don’t be afraid of losing your fighters since new ones will spawn.
• Many of the Wraith heroes are much stronger than their standard counterpart. They can take a lot more damage and have stronger attack abilities. Use that to your advantage.

GC Strategies:

• Keep your fleets joint. Many small fleets don’t stand a chance against the Ancients.
• Constructing mines is very useful to get more money but make sure to not construct them too early - they are expensive. Sometimes it’s better to invest in firepower first.
• Don’t over-expand too early. It can be tricky to hold many planets without the necessary funds and technology backing you up. Try to create a territory with the smallest possible border line that can be defended easier.
• Make sure to conquer Arcanus early. Its clone facility provides a significant construction bonus on all ships making them much cheaper. Try to build most of your ships there.
• Generally, there are a lot of neutral planets at the start of the campaign. These are basically free to take. Kohal, which unlocks the Destroyer class (as soon as you have access to the shipyard), is one of them.