Well bear in mind what you've played is basically Empire right up to the point where Luke gets his hand chopped off and falls into a pit.
No I understand what you're doing here. You're turning Noemi into a jaded character, a bloodthirsty fanatic who will make even the fanatics of the Fedayeen look like pansies and in part 2 she'll kill loads of Tevs and she'll like it and at the end of her arc she'll either die lost because she needs to die, or she'll find some way to redeem herself and regain that part of herself that is currently dead and buried.
That's cool, and a decent story. But to have everything not go their way, it's too much. It's just overdone. Their own government screws them. Steele screws them. Even fate and circumstance screws them. For example, the Altan Orde sacrificing herself to save the Indus and Yangtzee. One minor victory for the good guys in the face of total defeat. But oh wait, the Yangtzee can't jump out. So she dies. Then the Indus makes a crash jump, but oh wait, she's right by the sun, and crippled, so everyone onboard is dead or dying. Including Simms. Then Noemi tries to make the best of a bad situation and confess her feelings, but Simm dies right before she tells her. And make no mistake people, Simms is dead. Dead like dinner.
And I understand the allusion to Empire, but even Empire had good moments. The Rebels had minor victories, they had good moments here and there. Like I say, I'm not saying it was a bad story, or a bad idea, it was just over done. For example, Leia tells Han she loves him BEFORE he's frozen. In WiH, Noemi is seconds too late with Simms. The elder is seconds too late with Noemi (which btw was so obvious. Transferring a high level official 5 clicks in an escape pod? Yeah she's so going to die).
I don't mind fighting a losing war. Nor do I mind a sad ending. (heck my own campaign had a sad ending). But when their own government, the tevs and even fate and circumstance conspire against them at every turn it's too much. It stopped being believable for me. It was so obviously scripted that I was taken out of the story. There has to be at least a bit of give and take.
How is getting the Agincourt not a victory? It just ends up getting used in operations instead of RnD at Earth.
Because 2nd fleet doesn't get the Agincourt. They score a victory, but a pyrhic one. Their own government shafts them and takes it to use in some research project you never see and that doesn't do anything. And any harm they did to the Tevs is immediately erased when the Vasudans bring in their own ships. They dont' kill Serkr, they don't kill the Hood. This is an 18month war, and ships any ship out for a few "weeks" is inconsequential. From what GB said the Hydra's even in the last mission. The ship they failed to kill come backs to kill them in the end. Basically they did all that for nothing.
Even stopping the Hecate. I don't remember the name. Some Hecate bombs luna, they drive it off and score a victory but oh wait. Circumstance conspires again because now Steele has secured command and he's a better opponent and the damage to Luna is still done and the Hecate will be back in a few weeks.
I may be forgetting some, but the only victories I can remember are saving the civies. Oh and then we stopped a bomb, that was going to be used, to, blow up SOMETHING SOMEWHERE. And then we stop the SOC from rescuing SOMEONE for SOMETHING. Are those victories? Maybe but they mean nothing to me. Or another mission, we save some orbital platform over Earth, but it means nothing because the logistics are all boned across the system and the uffies are still screwed.
Heck even rejuvenating Simms spirit. You save her from depression, but by the end her spirits dead again. And she's pushing you away. And then she's dead for real.
Or the Truce mission. That kind of thing happens in war. We've heard about WW1 the troops in both trenches singing Silent night together, or playing soccer on New Years, or a truce in a French town in WW2 and everyone's gathered around the piano. And they have their truce, they go back to their lines, and then they kill each other. But in WiH, even the true is ruined. Not by tevs, or feds, but by fate and circumstance. Ship comes in, doesn't know what's going on, fires for the heck of it. Oh moment ruined. Why not just have that tender moment, give that bit of hope, and then fight those guys in a later mission.
None of these ideas are bad on their own, but when it keeps getting piled on and on and on the huge pile of bad fortune just breaks it for me.
The missions prior to Delenda Est were basically a ALFA OEN WINFEST. You could save any and all ships. Delenda Est did a good job in popping that feeling of making a difference and leaving a withered husk.
I don't know what the winfest was. Only mission I remember prior to the end was the elder dying, and the mission before Delenda Est. That mission of course being set up for the big ambush. So again, no victory. If there are some genuine tangible victories let me know.
