Description
While the fifth in the 'Welcome to the Boonies' series, this mission is intended to stand alone. Five years after the destruction of Capella, refugees continue to wander the stars, seeking a new home. With a promise of a new life in the systems beyond Altair, the Capellan exiles are now arriving at Luxor station with their Governor in the lead. Yet there are interests that seem to have other plans...

Storyline:
The storyline to this mission continues the ‘Welcome to the Boonies’ plot in an excellent fashion while also creating a mission which exists perfectly well on its own. There’s a touch of epic to the superb Command briefing, which uses biblical and other references and well-thought out animations to enhance it. No spelling or grammar errors, as is the norm for Agatheron. Once again, the storyline is continued throughout the mission with much of the development occurring during the mission itself, which is the way it should be. There’s no voicing, but knowing Agatheron there will be – and besides, you can’t submit voicing to the mission contest.

Balance:
If you use a little common sense when you play this mission, then you’ll find the balance approaches the perfect. Common sense is, say, not flying into a trio of cruisers armed to the teeth with anti-fighter beams, instead leaving them to a handy corvette. It’s just challenging enough – I finished one test on 1% hull. What really struck me about the balance is that the real strength of Agatheron’s missions – the dogfighting – has been captured while putting it in the context of the larger ships and their actions. And yes, your actions make all the difference. Blowing up beam cannons and shooting down bombs will save friendly ships, as will intercepting fighters and thieving transports. The trebuchet missiles have been limited so that you can’t actually destroy all of the enemy beam cannons, though I’d have liked to have seen a few less. Another minor bugbear is the Kaysers – I’ve always found them unbalancing, and I prefer the Prometheus S/Subach combo better anyway. It doesn’t guzzle your energy like a thirsty man at a desert oasis.

Design:
A look in FRED2 will show you this is the most accomplished of AgatheronÂ’s missions to date. You can tell when someone cares when they sabotage a fighterbay and include a teeny ship (SJD Sathanas) to give an explosion effect, with appropriate radius and the vessel masked so you donÂ’t get to see it. Apart from that, directives, messages (using send-message-list, natch) and all of the other usual elements work a treat. There are also dozens of complex waypoint paths and a plethora of neat touches like including important stars like Capella in the sky. TheyÂ’re even all the correct colours. Alt-names are used to create the brilliant space station (why are there no Vasudan installations?)

Gameplay:
You could sit back and watch this thing go on in wonderment, thereÂ’s so much stuff thatÂ’s going on at any one time. It definitely adds replay value to be able to play a mission and watch a dozen different things going on. Of course, youÂ’ll only see them if you know where to look, so look about. In the actual gameplay department, itÂ’s great fun to dogfight with rogue fighters and weave in and out of capital ships (the beginning is a particular favourite). The sheer variety of gameplay is startling. The modified Typhon installation looks great too.

Other Thoughts:
Phew! There was a whole lot to write about in this one, and that’s the way I like it. I intend to write longer reviews in future. You might also notice by my spelling that I’m English. No jokes, please :-)