New Year, New System

In the early hours of December 31^st 2010, I entered the Mizar system at long last.



Mizar



How I got there is a bit of a bugger’s muddle. I managed to get in a squad taking on ‘Operation Liberation’, the climax of the Gemini story in which you free the prisoners and defeat Lord Fan Doom. I have to thank Duintje88, Rinstroem, Sweet and YodaYoda who were part of the squad with me, plus fellow Ghost Warrior UKillerwho gave fire support from outside the mission.

Our first attempt was a failure, so we tried again and put most of our force into the attack/diversionary group. This went reasonably well and we eventually killed all of the targets we were assigned. We then wasted Fan Doom’s ride which causes him to drop an Astro-Navigation chip, unlocking the Mizar system.

‘Result’ we all thought, but then the mission seemed to simply stall at 91% complete.  Whatever we did the mission wouldn’t finish. We searched Technatoria and found two stray prison pods which we destroyed, but still no completion. I suspect that the Vendetta was destroyed before it collected all of the prison pods, but the mission didn’t then fail as you’d expect.

Eventually I had to log off, but not before noticing that I had access to the Mizar system even though we hadn’t completed ‘Operation liberation’. I suppose the story logic makes sense, we got the chip even if the Vendetta was destroyed. What spoils the theory that SlipStream planned for this possible scenario is that once I entered the Mizar system I was awarded the Gemini Story Completed achievement. This is despite the fact that ‘Operation Liberation’ still shows up as my next story mission and there’s two more to complete after that. I think that once you enter Mizar the game assumes that you’ve completed all of the Gemini story missions.

Of course I jumped to Mizar and started exploring straight away. First stop was the Star Base so I could look at the shiny new ships that I couldn’t afford. Then I explored to Baumar where I found the first story mission of the system, ‘Explosive Information’, ready and waiting. I decided not to try it as it just seemed wrong to do so while I still had yellow missions in Gemini. This resolve may soon crumble if I get hung up on 'Operation Liberation' too long.

Afterwards I went back to Technatoria and made sure that ‘Operation Liberation’ was still there, which it was. I could of course just ignore it and throw myself into Mizar but that’s just not me. Now I have to keep an eye out for others who need this mission while grinding towards the 7,494 crystals I need for the Mizar Tank. There are still white missions and PVE achievements in Gemini to keep me busy. I’m still irritated though and should raise a bug report, though they may then take Mizar access off me. Still it will improve the game for other players so I’ll do it anyway. How noble of me.

Incidentally I was bitching about all of this to Lool, a reader and commenter on this blog. One of Lool's ships has a snowflake pattern, won during one of the Christmas invasions. Very nice and I'm jealous. It almost made we want to hang around for one of the invasions which I've haven't experienced yet. I'm probably out of time though as we're into 2011 now. The Christmas invasion, snowballs, santa skull etc. are nice and festive but haven't grabbed my imagination overmuch. Nice idea though. I hope SlipStream keep up the seasonal events.

Finally I'd just like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Enjoy Pirate Galaxy whatever your involvement, and may your 2011 be  festooned with Cryonite and filled with the shattered hulks of your enemies.