I don't get the e-mail from ARC.

[Nicostream]

Hi, everyone. I have this annoying problem with the main storyline.

I got my first e-mail on the 14th of April but I had little to no software or hardware to begin with at that time. So I just completed missions until I had enough to snatch some money from a bank account. I stole 500k, got an UpLink rating of Mage and bought best gateway with best hardware and pretty much every software I might need.

So I thought I was ready for the main missions, and I was following what I read everywhere... I connected to ARC central mainframe and tried the username and pass I was given. Fast forwared a month, nothing happens. Later I even made hacking attemps, and I was so desperate that I left my logs at InterNIC so that idiot can trace and find me, but he just doesn't care. Not only did I not get arrested and disavowed for hacking, I still didn't get an e-mail from ARC. It's already August 2010, and there has been a lot of mess going on in the Uplink News about Relevation and Faith and I'm kind of afraid I need to start a new account to participate in it, altough I still have no idea where I went wrong.

Do I need to start the mission in a given time, or it will just go on without me, or what? I think it was already May when I tried to initiate. If that's the case, do I have to advance later with the main line in a time limit too not to get out of the story once I got involved? It seems kind of ridiculuous, but I can imagine everything now...

I'm pretty pissed with the game anyway because it lacks explenation of basically everything. The tutorial is not even enough to survive, let alone do complicated missions. I had to spend hours searching for LAN tutorials on the internet just to find on some obscure place that if I just mash the "back" button, the sys admin will never catch me IMO. And there are still some LAN systems that are just outright impossible to hack in one attempt.

Whatever, I went slightly off there. Can anyone give me an easy answer? Is there still a way for me to get into the storyline, or should I just start over?

Peace

[orillian]

The mission carries on regardless, if you miss the initial email there are other opportunities as story line missions are posted into the job board as the story goes along, you may be able to pick it up here. Although if you leave it too late the story will eventually end with no input from you. Looking in the uplink news section should give you some idea as to how far along you are.

[Nicostream]

It said that the leader of ARC had been jailed, so I guess it's over. Well, the account was getting boring anyway since with all the high tech I was able to hack basically anything except for some stupid LAN systems that I could have hacked if I took the time, but I just didn't want to connect 4 times clearing the logs each time and all that fuss for 11k credits when I already have almost 400k anyway. I think when I restart I'll just avoid stealing from the bank. It just makes things way too easy.

[tynan]

So, the virus was stopped and you could keep playing afterwards?

[orillian]

yes, the story happily carries on without any input from the player at all. I don't know if there is a bias or it is random chance as to who wins, but in the total time I have been playing uplink, I think that the net was destroyed in only 2 playthoughs that I chose to ignore the story completly.