*** SPOILER *** How to beat Hovis

Sorry but im having a hard time believing that people can´t beat Hovis. I´ve never lost to him nor have I ever had to do that much to beat him. Just fly through the rings. Come on, he makes a mistake near the end of the course, where he chrashes or something, and that gives you a lot of time to fly by him and win. But at that point im already ahead, so it really doesn´t matter. If you lose to Hovis, then you really really really suck. I even heard that some guy did it in a cruiser or a battleship. I did it in a freighter. Edited by - stn on 3/1/2004 7:58:26 AM

i´ve never lost to him at all you only have to concentrate and then you beat him

I´ve only lost to him on modded games. Never at any other times. -~-~-~-~ There is no Silicon Heaven! But where do all the calculators go ? You could no more evade my wrath... than you could your own shadow!

Only time i didn´t beat him was when i thought i had paused the game i cut my crusie engine and decided to take a bathroom break came back and he had won by blowing my ship up. Then i modded and beat him in a train =) too big for more than 1 ship in those rings at a time and well i sorta cheated by having a Shift W waiting and took off. When the Going´s get Tough, The Tough get a bigger Battleboat. "Shotglass moments before the Tiger´s claw blew up" You Look a bit down on yer lucky,..Ya Don´t say well Heres a drink for yas and don´t worry bout how ya lost yer girl. "alright we´ll give you once chance drop it"..."you just signed your ow...*zoid sucking sound* And you just signed off life due to my nomad blasters silly xeno. Ok if i am to Die by the Weapons i adore...then why does he have mass drivers and tacyon, when I adore Proton Tropedos Tacyon and Neutrons?..Silly Retro missiles are for kids, Ceturnions on the other hand Are For ME to make YOU suck VOID!

I´m also having a difficult time understanding how he beats people. I´ve never lost, even when I´ve tried to...which really doesn´t make sense...

How can you possibly fail against this guy? Sure, if you´re trying to lose by flying around the outside of the rings its understandable, but when you´re trying to win????!!!

I lost one time in Evolutions, but that was because I was flying a VHF (Brigadier) and so my cruise engines took about ten seconds to activate. I bought a Drake, came back and beat him.

LOL, I beat him with a Liberty Cruiser, no sweat. Forgot the mod I was using though.

Can a cruiser even fit through the rings? Anyways, I´ve never lost to him either in an unmodded game. I´ve flown him with a Cavalier, Crusader, Dagger and Legionnaire at least. Although, all of them except the crusader are pretty fast >_>

Lol, when I first played through the race I thought that it was scripted and you couldn´t lose <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Seriously, people have trouble winning? Only time I lost was to see if it was possible, lol, and what happened if it was. &quot;If it aint on fire, you haven´t shot it up bad enough yet&quot; - my old teacher on Planet Housten.

i´ve never lost, it´s just that in my time here on tlr, a meager 4 months, ive seen countless threads asking how 2 beat hovis -/-/-/-/-/-/-/- <A href=´http://cardamine.vze.com/´ Target=_Blank>[http://excoboard.com/forums/3330/user/11090/15324.jpg</a> - The home of Freelancer: Rebirth, the prequel to Freelancer!

Oh, I guess if they can´t win the race, something like this could be a last resort -- though I reckon they´ll have worse problems later on if they can´t win this. I´d practice some more, personally. &quot;If it aint on fire, you haven´t shot it up bad enough yet&quot; - my old teacher on Planet Housten.

For those of you who think its so easy to beat hovis, I agree with you. UNLESS, the person who can´t beat him has a laggy computer. My older computer, while it runs the rest of FL just fine, laggs some in the race. The race, as far as I can tell, while not the laggiest part of the game, generates the worst problems in the game from lag. I was playing once, and becauase I couldn´t win, I just flew to the center of the course, and watched Hovis. Every time a lag burst hit, he would jump forward. No matter how good you are, you can´t win if he just bunnyhopes forward, going much faster than you could. I don´t have this problem on my new computer, but I always have it on my old one. This is most likely why some people can´t beat him.

Heh, if that´s the case, as a seasoned 56k gamer until recently, I can sympathise wholly <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> &quot;If it aint on fire, you haven´t shot it up bad enough yet&quot; - my old teacher on Planet Housten.

Hovis is easy to lose to if ... &lt;a&gt; you suffer from lag ... &lt;b&gt; you have the screen size too small. &lt;c&gt; you have too much cargo. But, sell your cargo, set the screen details to the minimum with everything turned off, set the screen size large and give it a shot. Then it is easy. Reducing the detail levels, etc. will cure the lag. A larger screen size will let you see the gates better (otherwise it is easy to get lost on some of the gates). A lack of cargo improves your handling capacity. And, you need to be in the real flight mode, don´t use the autopilot, etc. Dire Wolf http://adrr.com/wing/ [wing commander and privateer http://adrr.com/story [stories http://adrr.com/living/ [more stuff than you wanted to know &quot;kids these days&quot;

you don´t HAVE to sell your cargo, you can just jettison it during the race or just before lol! it´s tricky, but when Hovis stops on the last stretch, you can overtake him easy! -/-/-/-/-/-/-/- <A href=´http://cardamine.vze.com/´ Target=_Blank>[http://excoboard.com/forums/3330/user/11090/15324.jpg</a> - The home of Freelancer: Rebirth, the prequel to Freelancer!

Is is pretty possible to lose by slamming into a ring when your mouse doesn´t like you =x.x= a fun way to mess with it is to use the speed mod and just thrust through it. otherwise, i don´t see how hard it is. i´ve beaten him in a titan before... took me a couple tries though. those tight turns can get dicey. but hey... if you can´t beat him... i guess...i dunno...call NASCAR and get them to do it for you? I´M ABOUT TO GET DODGEY ON THIS MOFO!

Another thing for those of you who think it´s so easy to beat hovis.....I play on a laptop...not because I WANT to, but because im poor, and I got it for free. Its a P3, with a savage mx and 15inch screen. Not terrible, by any means, but its difficult to follow fast motion sometimes on the screen. So phooey on you elitists! You might be able to beat hovis, but I rawk at yahoo! pool. :p if you can´t dazzle them with humor, riddle them with bullets

I lost to Hovis once: it was the part at the end with the Weapons Platforms. I got rattled when they suddenly opened fire, and I diverted off the course doing evasive maneuvers. Hovis challenged me to race against him again, and that time I beat him. The storyline kept on going like nothing had happened. So if you can´t beat him once, then try again. A tip, as well: anticipate what direction the next ring will be in, and keep to the corresponding side of whatever ring you´re currently passing through. Make a sharp turn after that, and you´ll have shut him out from the inside, forcing him behind you. And where did somebody get that mod for the train? (I realize that it´s off-topic, but I´m curious.)