The reason I ask is because of the story missions. Do these need to be completed by a certain time or does time not really matter in this game?

The second thing I wanted to ask is how most of you play this game. Initially I was jumping from one mission to another and frequently got confronted by the black screen of death and disavowed (reminds me of disemboweled). Probably too eager to finish missions and forgetting to delete logs and cover my tracks. Now what I do is complete a couple of missions and fast forward a few days to see if I've screwed up (if so I admit that I use a launcher that allows you to backup and restore your profile to allow me to continue instead of restarting all over again). I know it's against the spirit of the game but I'd rather play this way than ragequit from some silly oversight and never play again. Do some of you guys play this way or is it just me?

The story missions are indeed on a timer; if you ignore it for too long, you'll miss out on the storyline. It is optional, however, and the game will keep generating missions with or without you following it. (You can end your game permanently if you pick a specific route through the story - but in general, it goes on forever.) You generally have some time to complete each step, though, so you should be able to keep up with equipment upgrades by filling up on non-story jobs.

Regarding getting caught, it's really very simple: use a long bounce chain, always start by bouncing through InterNIC and always log in there to delete your bounce and authentication logs immediately after disconnecting from the server. That simple approach prevents almost any scenario where you can get caught; the only exception are when you transfer money to yourself from someone else's bank account (in that case, you need to delete the transaction logs too - on both sides), if you get caught from an active trace (use a trace tracker), or if the active trace comes WAY too close before you disconnect (just use a longer bounce chain).

Oh, I guess I better get cracking on that email I was sent then... I have been using InterNIC as my first node on the bounce chain and deleting the bounce and password logs thanks to the guide at http://guide.modlink.net/ (which is a great resource)

I think what has gotten me in hot water is that I cut it too close with the active trace as you have said. Sometimes I disconnect only with a few seconds left on my trace tracker. My mistake was thinking the time left on the trace tracker was a concrete time that I had left to work with. I will try to give myself more time in the future, a gateway upgrade is sorely needed.

Thanks for the info on bank transfers, I haven't done one yet but I have many offers to do them. Actually, thanks for all your advice.

IIRC, you do have a few in-game days (maybe a week or two?) for most missions (except the very final one, but you'll see). The time on the trace tracker is until their trace is *complete*, meaning that they know exactly who you are. The closer you cut it, the fewer hops they'll have to go through for the passive trace, and that's what'll get you. There's an upgrade HUD_MapShowTrace which will color in the links on the minimap as they trace through them; this might give you a better picture about exactly how close they are (compared to a simple timer).

It's very useful to go to InterNIC, add all the systems, and set up a gigantic bounce chain - then save it and load it up whenever you need to connect to a new system, so you don't have to configure it manually every time. If you're not completely inefficient, you should have plenty of time to work with. The bank transfers are only an extra issue when you're transferring to yourself. When transferring to others, the usual InterNIC logs are all you need to worry about. ;)

Wow, you have given me a lot of good info to work with. I appreciate the time you have taken to help me further understand the game, especially the trace mechanics.

I've just done this, I have a massive bounce chain now, the world map looks chaotic when it's loaded. It's awesome :)