Description
The Knossos portal that will take the GTVA to Sol nears completion while the station defending it comes under attack by pirate forces. Help the 119th squadron of the GTD Ithica defend the station and prevent the pirates from controlling the portal.

Storyline:
Yet another Knossos to Sol mission, this one is actually pretty well done in terms of storyline. The Command briefing is superb, sounding like a combination of an 'Ancients' cutscene, and a command briefing of the quality of the main campaign. The briefing and debriefing are well done also, with no eye-catching errors. In flight, there is some good pilot chatter about earth, and the project, which adds a lot to the feel of the mission. However, my one complaint about this storyline is the predictability of the mission. I was never taken by surprise by anything in this mission. The pirate attack was expected, in an almost cliche "Unexpected friendly ship arrives, and turns out to be enemy interlopers" scene.

Balance:
While the pirate forces attack in large numbers, the pirate fighters have AI settings of Lieutenant and Coward, making your job a relatively easy one. The Pirate cruisers can be difficult, but the player can take a minimal roll in repelling the cruisers, by allowing the friendly Sobek to handle the hostile Aeolus and Fenris.

Design:
"Acceptable" comes to mind when thinking of the design of "Third Watch." The author places informative directives for key objectives, sets important ships in the escort monitor, and keeps the player informed on the mission through messages. The author uses chained events (with delays) extensively, but could have cut down on these by simply using send-message-list s-exps.

Gameplay:
Simply put, you take out a lot of pirate fighters in this mission. However, the low AI of the enemy makes your job an easy one. The mission really felt like a turkey shoot, taking down wave after wave of Coward AI fighters. The default loadout of Prometheus S and UD-8 Kaysers makes your job all that much easier too. The enemy forces that attack the station never seemed to post much of a threat to the Arcadia Installation, since the bombers launch from so far away, and the kamikazi pirates are easy to destroy as they have little protection from other pirate forces.

Other Thoughts:
A more difficult (and more interesting) fight would improve this mission drastically.