[SC4RY_Z0MB13]

Spoiler:

Hmm. I feel I need to say some more here. The UEF has beam-jamming technology so they immediately have an edge over the GTVA, Shivan, and Vasudan forces. What the Federation has not done, is get pilots into Shivan territory. Even when provoked inside their own space Shivans only engaged with minimal forces.

The tactics the Shivans have used seems to suggest that they want to engage in minimal direct confrontation. In The Great War, the Shivans sent a Super Destroyer with shields. Without finding Ancient technology it would have been impossible to stop the Lucifer. When I played the Lucifer mission on Medium it was practically self playing. So that is one trick the Shivans won't use again since
A) We know that shields don't work in subspace.
B) We could presumably come up with a technology to disable shields on ships not in subspace.
The destruction of the Lucifer is akin to the backbone of the invasion breaking. So the invasion depended on ONE ship to actually annihilate the GTA and VPN forces.

Some thirty years later what do we see? A Sathanas juggernaut capable of gutting any ship caught in front of it.
It takes a massive commitment on the GTVA's part to destroy the first Sathanas, but they do stop it. So the Shivans have to change tactics again. They engage in massive direct confrontation to clear out the nebular theater. The GTVA forces are forced into retreat back into Gamma Draconis. The Shivans stage a massive breakout into Gamma Draconis. The fleet falls back to Capella. Once in Capella the GTVA sees something like seventeen Sathanas juggernauts. Instead of going after the GTVA fleet in Capella using direct confrontation with massive superior forces, the Sathanas juggernauts surround one of the Capella suns. The Shivans send (if there is such a thing) regular capitol ships to harass the GTVA forces and civilians in Capella.

Perhaps the goal of the first invasion was to soften them up and bring in Sathanas juggernauts to a central system and make it go supernova. Unless someone from V  says otherwise I must assume the first plan was a Lucifer bombardment on all planets and a hunt for the last survivors.

The Federation in War in Heaven has done very little direct confrontation with the Tevs. If I remember WiH correctly, the 2nd fleet was forced to go rogue to attack Tev forces. The only way to stop the Shivans from destroying you is direct confrontation, and of course closing the jump nodes to any system which has been lost.

Imagine if you will a Shivan invasion of Sol. What would it entail? A massive Shivan breakout through the node. Since the Shivans have most of the Sathanas juggernauts from the Capella attack and more in the nebula it is a safe bet that they will be brought into Sol. The UEF has beam jamming technology and unlike the GTVA does not rely on beams for heavy damage. The UEF could put up a spectacular defense at the node, but the Shivans would make it through by adaption or sheer commitment. Even a Meson bomb or its equivalent may not be enough to close the node again once opened (think Gamma Draconis). Remember what happened in Blue Planet? The UEF knew about the probes and they did not surround the node with ships. The probes could have been Terran/Vasudan made but Shivan owned and operated. If Shivans had poured through then, Sol would be lost. The only way to stop a Shivan invasion is to hold the node long enough to find a way to close it forever.

So yes, constant vigilance/defence and I suppose most importantly direct confrontation of Shivan or perhaps any hostile ships.

Anyway, from reading the cargo boxes it seems the Shivans have some problems of their own. The Vishnans are also either occupied by the same forces or ignoring the humans because the war needs to end in peace before Humanity can be considered enlightened by the Vishnans or something like that.

"God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural... fluids. God bless you all."

[Snail]

Did anyone cry while playing?

[Flak]

more shocked than sad really

[Scotty]

Did anyone cry while playing?

I almost did at a few times.

Spoiler:

When I shot down Xinny and Zero.
When the truce ended.
When the Imperiouse kicked major ass.  Those were Manly Tears at the pure awesomeness.

[Klaustrophobia]

The worst I felt was

Spoiler:

when the Imper-whatever completely obliterated the Wargods.  Partly because I was wondering why in the hell would they all go on a suicide run against it, knowing there was not a chance in hell to destroy it or even really slow it down, when they could have instead pressed the attack on the Carthage and take it with them.

[Satellight]

Did anyone cry while playing?

Don't had time for... Except when I retried Delenda Est for the ?? time (mother****ing beams !)

[-Norbert-]

I didn't cry, but the last "briefing" between Simms and Laporte was very sad.

[-Sara-]

I cried at the last briefing.

Spoiler:

But I did not think there was much left for Lorna Simms to live for. With Noemi telling her she loved Lorna, it sort of feels as if that is all Lorna needed to hear, letting the radiation sickness overcome her. Then again maybe she does pull through and find some motivation or not to continue.

[Klaustrophobia]

Spoiler:

I didn't connect at all with the lesbian romance.  I didn't get an extra layer of effect from that, even in the aforementioned last breifing

[Dilmah G]

^

Spoiler:

Same with me. But then again, I come from a nation that has a very noticeable contingent of its males not voting for the incumbent prime minister because she's female.

Okay, I'm not that sexist, but it's just not something that grabbed me. I did feel a fair bit of emotion just because of the way it was written and I did momentarily feel sorry for the two. But even the way the campaign positioned the audience, it just didn't click with me over the course of the mod. I don't like Simms! Just, as a character she repulses me from ever coming close to her. I don't know what it is, but eh, I digress.

[NGTM-1R]

Spoiler:

The whole Simms thing is...well the bottom line is that the campaign never really managed to convince me that I was Laporte, so it failed to convince me on the Simms point by default. Normally FS convinces that you are the main character by simple wish fulfilment, but because we got so in-depth with Laporte it became quickly obvious this wasn't someone I could identify with.

Bei nearly tipped over into the same thing during the middle part of AoA, but I had a solid connection from the first mission sequence from his wearing the mask of wing leader, which is quite clearly the player's role in the grand scheme of things that anchored it.

[-Sara-]

Spoiler:

It's much like a novel or book, sometimes you can really place yourself in the protagonist and sometimes you just cannot come to terms with how the main character acts or thinks. I personally could find myself in Laporte and found Simms to have quite a charm! Then again someone else may feel that Laporte made moral choices which opposed them or may have trouble with her psychotic personality, or may find Simms to be not much more than a butch dyke.

[The E]

It's definitely a risk we took in terms of narrative. We were aware that we couldn't please everyone, and thus didn't try to.

[Dilmah G]

I agree with NGTM-1R.

Spoiler:

"Normally FS convinces that you are the main character by simple wish fulfilment, but because we got so in-depth with Laporte it became quickly obvious this wasn't someone I could identify with."

Yeah, that's my thoughts on the subject put quite succinctly. Obviously the vast majority could identify with her though, which is good to hear.

[Snail]

What about Kassim?

[NGTM-1R]

It's definitely a risk we took in terms of narrative. We were aware that we couldn't please everyone, and thus didn't try to.

Well, if you had been trying to write a novel, Laporte would have been a great character that I would have greatly enjoyed.

...but you got the wrong medium.

[QuantumDelta]

Well, not the wrong medium, but perhaps the wrong media, since many, many games don't try to convince the player they're the main character, and are simply telling a story that the player progresses through, watching the characters evolve, that's rarely FPS/Sims though!

That being said, I didn't mind it

[Androgeos Exeunt]

What about Kassim?

What about him?

[Qent]

I really felt like I was Laporte, but maybe that's just me. I have to say though, her "Alpha 1" moments helped ("I'm almost enjoying myself..."; "I can. Try to keep up!").

[Dilmah G]

Mmm, well, I just have in some ways a radically different personality to Laporte's, to which no amount of character-development or immersion could've helped. I don't badmouth the campaign over it, however, but I just wasn't able to perhaps truly empathise with the main and 'feel' her as well as the vast majority were.

I could understand her well enough, see where it was all coming from, but playing as her? I just couldn't do that very effectively for too long. Not a fault of the campaign, of course.