'Testing Aggro'

The preceding story mission was: 'Dangerous Modifications'

The following story mission is: 'Back to Mizar'

This is an enjoyable mission. Different from your usual objectives, challenging and justified by some tech gobbledy-gook that would sit nicely in an episode of Start Trek:TNG or Doctor Who.

Your first task is to rendezvous again with Layla Hornblower at the Carl Sagan lab. This is a royal pain in the backside, flying from one corner of the planet to the other. Not dangerous, just tedious. Still you may come across an Antares level pilot in need of help, so if you do, be nice and help them out.

At the Carl Sagan, Layla has a modified aggro beacon which you need to collect. Inside the beacon is your new Mantis-tech fusion core. It's cased in a material that 'leaches properties from one medium to another'. Once Mantis start to fire upon it then it will copy the energy signature to the core. If this works for any longer than 60 seconds then the atmospherics will contaminate the core. To try and increase the chance of you capturing the correct energy signature it needs to be attacked by three classes of Mantis to three different levels of intensity. You see? I can picture Geordi La Forge reciting this to Picard, or Amy Pond scowling as the 11th Doctor rattles it off, waving his sonic screwdriver around. 


The outcome of all this techno-babble is that you have to take the aggro-beacon to three locations, and allow the mantis that appear there to deliver certain amounts of damage to the beacon within a 60 second window. Brilliant. 


Once you reach the first location the beacon is automatically deposited. Layla then tells you that the beacon must receive at least 50% damage but no more than 65%. A few seconds later a group of level 20 Avengers arrive and start to fire on the aggro-beacon. The mission panel (activated by the CTRL key) shows the 60 second timer running down and if you select the beacon you can see the damage it's taking accumulate. You have to judge how long to let the Avengers fire before you blow them up to stop the damage. I was in my tank so I let them have a taste of my aggro-bomb which damaged them all but left them firing. Then when I saw the damage was approaching 50% I started to cull the Avengers. 


After this you collect the beacon and go to the second and third locations where Rocketeers and then Marauders attack. The amount of damage required changes but the tolerances are quite wide. After you calibrate yourself you'll soon be through the mission. The first time I took this I failed on the Avengers, the second time on the Rocketeers. Third time was the charm and I completed. 

'Operation Smuggler Shut Down'

Busy, busy, busy

The preceding story mission was: 'Traitor Eradication'

The following story mission is: 'Saving Tobias Planck'

After the disappointing 'Traitor Eradication' this is a good one. Bill Darius is sure that Jake Rattenbury will deliver the intel to the Mantis ASAP so you need to stop him. However to take on him and the remaining smugglers you need more fire power. He invites you to rendezvous with him and someone who wants to help.

On arrival at the rendezvous you discover that this someone is Major Ivanova in her repaired ship. Miss Bossy Boots then says that you and Bill are now conscripts in the Colonial forces. She's still miffed that you blew up her ship but she might forgive you in time. Now you and Bill need to follow her and some of her Guards to the smuggler HQ. The plan is to arrest Jake and the smugglers.

At this point the Major gives you four new Blueprints (BPS) for Colonial military ships. Namely the AnIn-2000 War Hawk (Storm), AnIn-2000 Space Tank (Tank), AnIn-2000 Light Engineer (Engineer) and the AnIn-2000 Speed Stun (Shock). Now I suppose you could go to orbit to buy and equip one of these before you continue with the mission but I just went ahead in my AnIn-1300 and completed first time.

As you approach the HQ you will see a honking big ship hanging over the building with lots of Mantis swarming about attacking the smugglers. You get the order to attack the mothership so dive in and have fun. Now things get hairy and you might struggle to keep up with what's going on while keeping yourself in one piece.

The Mantis start to fire on the smugglers' escape pods (Jake Rattenbury is amongst them) in order to kill the occupants. You have to collect the pods, both to save their lives and allow some healthy interrogation afterwards. Once you've got a few Ivanaova will tell you to scan her ship to initate the prisoner transfer. The mothership will have done a runner by now, and once the prisoners are transferred the major heads for orbit, then Axiom, to start the interrogation. Bill encourages you to follow him to orbit, but I stayed behind to collect all of the cryonite lying around and help the Colonial Guards against the local Sentinels who strayed into the fight.

This is a testing mission and might pod you due to all the ships flying about and constant instructions that need to be read. Good fun and significant in both story and your future as a pilot. Now you have to decide which AnIn-2000 ship to go for.

Steel Legions revisited

I recently received via email a code to claim 50 gold coins in Steel Legions. This incentive, plus the gentle nudging of Pbhuh, took me back for a look see. I enjoyed the game on my first visit so I didn't need too much persuasion.

The new airship pays a visit

There have been a few graphical changes. For example there's now weather and a cool airship docking regularly at the Command Centre. Game-wise you can now wander further afield while you wait for your mission which keeps the action ticking along.

Other than that I didn't notice anything different, but the game was even more fun this time. I managed to fathom the effects of terrain this time which adds another tactical dimension to the battles. For example hiding in a wood makes you harder to hit but slows you down. I particularly like how being in a crater or up on a rise is handled. Being in a crater absorbs some damage from enemy fire, so get down there when you can. The drawback is that you lose range and visibility. To reflect this the altitude of the camera drops so you have a smaller field of view. Conversely, go up on a hill and the viewpoint moves higher so you can see further and your range increases. The bad news is that you're easier to hit.

Ouch!

The missions I was assigned were more varied this time, but that could be because I was at a higher level and so could take on tougher opponents. There's capture a hill, destroy an enemy mine, stop a delivery of platinum and kill the NPC boss. The atmosphere is a lot friendlier in the chat than Pirate Galaxy (PG), at least for now. Maybe it's just the smaller numbers of Beta players, or perhaps the game is so frenetic that players don't have the time to scream 'noob' all the time. Maybe it's because we're all 'noobs' together.

'Dangerous Modifications'

The preceding story mission was: 'Finding Beryllium'

Layla Hornblower - Don't snicker,
it's the name of a famous literary sailor.

The following story mission is: 'Testing Aggro'

After your latest trip to Commerce Central (CC) you now have a functioning fusion drive core matching the schematics you got on Baumar. The next task is to give it a Mantis fusion signature. Pick this mission up in CC's orbit.

Tobias Planck tells you to go to Terasa in the Antares system and there find Layla Hornblower. Layla is a bit of a weapons genius and might be able to find a way to make Isaak Handal's plan feasible.

Fly to the Gemini stargate, from there jump to the Antares system, and then fly to Terasa. On the surface you learn that Layla is at the Carl Sagan lab so you have a bit of a journey in front of you. Fly to the lab while puny local Mantis throw themselves at you, creating a glorious but grisly firework display.

Once there you will find Layla in her ship The Quantum Defender (she knows that means 'The smallest possible  defender' right?). Once you get close enough she is obviously briefed by someone. Her first reaction is that Tobias is nuts, but does have an idea on how it might be done. It will take some time she says, actually as long as it takes you to fly to orbit and select the next mission.

Simple to complete. Again no real challenge but it's really just about getting you from A to B. I certainly enjoyed my visit back to Terasa, so I hope you do too.

'Traitor Eradication'

The preceding story mission was: 'Spying On Bill'

The following story mission is: 'Operation Smuggler Shut Down'

In orbit around Lyris, Jake tells you that now he knows the truth, Bill Darius must be 'dealt with'. Your task is to escort Bill on what appears to be a simple smuggling job. Jake sends Bill the coordinates of a ship he has to deliver to. However the ship is booby trapped with two bombs, one for Bill's ship, the other set to blow seconds later to destroy his escape pod. Fiendish.

Once you reach the ship Bill figures out what's going on and tells you that Jake is a traitor, selling secrets to the Mantis. He tells you to blow up the ship, which you do easily, then he flees to orbit saying Jake is bound to have a backup plan so it's not safe to hang around. Don't worry, it is safe. I hung around for ages and nothing happened. Once in orbit Bill says that the intel Jake was selling would allow the Mantis to take the Vega system in short order. Bill teamed up with Major Ivanova to stop him.

Well that's the mission, and I didn't like it. Why? There's no choice and no challenge.

There is no threat other than the usual local Mantis. You can't be too close to the booby trapped ship when it blows and Jake doesn't have a plan B in case you cross over to the light side.

That would be fine if you could make a decision somewhere. But you go where you're told, shoot what you're told and believe what you're told. You can't refuse to go along with Jake's plan at the start and open fire on him. You can't blast Bill once he realises it's a trap so you can be top smuggler. Just about all of PG's story missions are like that of course, but most have tactical options and a risk of failure and destruction.

It's a bit like watching a pantomime. You can boo, you can hiss, you can even shout 'He's behind you,' but you can't change the story. I like to be swept along in the narrative as much as anyone, but that's what books, films and telly are for. Games should either be a challenge or let you guide your own adventure.

Antares Afterburner

After pontificating in this blog so often about how dull it must be to grind for Rares, I recently found myself doing exactly that.

Antares Afterburner. Phwooar!

In my journey through the Mizar story missions I found myself back at Terasa in the Antares system. I decided to take a break and pick on the local Harvesters. The Aggrobomb is still a novelty for me so I wanted to try it out on a swarm of Interceptors. I found a good spot free of other pilots and bagged three Harvesters in quick succession. Naturally the enraged Interceptors were soon around me and pouring on the Blaster fire, until I triggered the Aggrobomb. After the explosion there only remained silence, and two golden Blueprints (BPs) like earrings on the Terasa surface. 'Crikey!' I thought to myself, 'That was easy.'

After hoovering the Rares up I found that I only needed another 6 BPs to get the Antares Afterburner. Well that was it, I was culling Harvesters and Interceptors. Of course it wasn't as easy to get the remaining 6 BPs and it took me a while over a few on line sessions. An added incentive to stick with it was the fact that I was close to the 'No Longer Poor' Achievement and I was raking in serious crystal as I murdered the Mantis.

So before long I had the required 10,000 crystals (which gives me 165 points and #1,035 in the Hall of Fame) and was the proud owner of an Antares Afterburner. Of course I didn't have a ship to put it in but that hardly matters does it?

'Finding Beryllium'

Hello Sara.
Looking good after your spell in a Mantis space-cage

The preceding story mission was: 'Finding a Way Through'

The following story mission is: 'Dangerous Modifications'

A nice mission, not really dangerous but it provides a pleasantly nostalgic return to Commerce Central (CC).

Tobias Planck has had a little think about the schematics you recovered in 'Finding a Way Through'. His theory is that it's a fusion drive emitting a signature identifying you as friendly in the eyes of the Molikar Mantis Long Range Guns (LRGs). (Molikar Mantis, Molikar Mantis, Molikar Mantis). Tobias doesn't know much about Fusion tech and asks if you know an engineer who does, if so then you should fly to them.

Well there was one obvious candidate, so I made my way to CC in the Gemini system. As soon I reached the surface Tobias went all fan-boy over the prospect of meeting Isaak Handal and begged me to do the introductions. Isaak was in the usual place and he was happy to help. First of all I had to find some Beryllium so he could build me a new fusion drive core.

Isaak and Tobias both came along to help so I was prepared to protect them but needn't have worried. They both have ships tough enough to look after themselves, and the Mantis are strictly local to CC so were no threat. As always I enjoyed returning  in a better ship to a planet that used to pod me regularly and blowing the Mantis apart with one shot.

The mission follows the usual scavenging pattern, go to the marked area and find a canister of Beryllium. There are plenty of Mantis hanging around but they are easy meat. I took my time and kept stopping for energy which didn't upset Isaak or Tobias at all.

The last collection was deep into CC so rather than travel all the way back through the maze I went to orbit. As I did so I thought it might not have been the cleverest thing as Isaak and Tobias might have sat around and waited for me to come back. However it turned out all right once I got back to Sara as she'd done half the work. Isaak completes the job, but the fusion drive still doesn't have the signature required. His only idea is to get a load of Mantis to shoot at the core and transfer their energy signature to it. Natassia promises to think about it and get back to you.

After this you don't travel back to Baumar, stay in orbit and select 'Dangerous Modifications' from there.