So the other night, I am playing Anarchy Online, and am using Clicksaver to check out mission loot. I see a Martial Artist special attack that I could really use, so I accept the mission from the terminal. This is a solo mission.

I check it out on the map, and it is in a place called Andromeda. To get there, I will need to ride the Whompah system. They are basically transporters. So, I take the Rome Whompah to Broken Shores. There, it dropped me into a small Omni-Tek outpost. I then rode the Whompah over to 4 Holes. I had never been here before.

The moment I arrive in 4 Holes, and am in another Omni outpost, and I get a message that I am in a PVP area. No big deal really. I have entered them before, and have never seen any hostiles. I walk around for a little while, trying to see if there is anything for sale that I could use in the shops. Didn't find anything, so I looked at the map. I had to follow the road south to Andromeda. Looks like I was in for quite a run to get to the mission. I head out.

I saw no players while I was running to Andromeda. I did see some mobs(monsters), and some were hostile, but for awhile, nothing aggro'd me. I did attract the attention of a large white beast thing, and it followed me for quite some time. I had worked on my run speed, and I had a run speed buff on, so I was able to stay ahead. I was getting close to the Andromeda zone line, so I was not worried, until I got close.

I crossed a bridge, and on the other side of the bridge were about 14 of those beast things. Wonderful. They must have been following others and stopped there. I had no choice, so I charged right through them. Did I mention there was no way I could have taken them on? Seriously, if I was just going to take one of them on, I would die quickly. I am only level 32. I figured I was committing suicide, but, I saved recently, so I was not too worried.

I made it to the zone line and took 4 hits. I healed myself once I was over.

So, now I was in Andromeda. I carefully looked over the in game map(I downloaded a better one), and looked over the routes to the mission. Nothing looked good. I decided to avoid the roads. I would take a route that would carry me west, and I would head south close to a village that was owned by Omni. That trip took maybe 5 - 10 minutes, and I had no problems. I could have stopped to fight some mobs, but I wanted to get the mission over with. I made it to the village, and of course, looked around.

I really saw nothing of interest. The shops had nothing I needed. I did see two players arrive, but I didn't have anything to ask them. I then left the village and headed south along a path that took me to a road. From the road, I could easily get to the mission. On the way down the road, I saw another one of those beast things. I may have been able to win a fight with it, but I did not want to risk it. I had gotten close, and didn't want to have to make that run again. Also, the beast was standing next to a dynacamp, and the boss would have chewed me up and spit me back out without blinking. I ran around it, and was at the mission cave a few minutes later.

There is a bug within AO right now that does not let you enter some missions. That bug affected me. I was beyond pissed. I sent in a petition, and waited around. I didn't wait long. I eventually got bored and decided to head to Clondyke. I watched the status of my petition.

I was able to pick up a road that would take my to a place called on the map called Terra, which was Omni ran and just north of the Clondyke border. Along the way, I aggro'd a mob, but when I got to Terra, the guards took care of it for me. There was not a lot here. A few mission terminals, shops, but not much else. Saw no players. I then made it to Clondyke.

I was at the Omni mine in Clondyke, and I checked the status on the petition. I was #2 in their que, but I said fuck it and deleted the petition and the mission. I did a little shopping, saved at an insurance terminal, and pulled a mission.

The mission was in the southern area of Clondyke. I had quite a run ahead of me. The run was uneventful. I was able to avoid any mobs that would have aggro'd me. I did check out an Omni outpost, but there was nothing to buy or see there. Looked like it was just a safe spot put in the middle of nowhere.

I found the mission, completed it, and ran back. I got a nice face pair of gloves and boots there, so it was worth the run.

One thing about the world is that it is HUGE. I know there are a ton of players in the game, but it isn't that common to see anyone in the middle of nowhere. I saw the two people in that village, another in the Clondyke mine pulling a mission, and saw a shout from somone in Clondyke offering a sword for free. I like exploring, so having this wide open world is cool, but I often feel isolated out there. If I had sat at that outpost for awhile, how long would it have been before I saw anyone? Minutes? Hours? Days?

Of course, I probably would have seen more people if I wasn't playing this at 5am.