I finished playing this a couple of days a go, and I certainly enjoyed it overall
. A nice refreshing change from the FreeSpace universe (not that I don't like the FreeSpace universe
).
I remember when you first showed us pictures of some of the ships that made it into this mod - the Ray III specifically - so it was very nice to finally be able to fly and use them.
I enjoyed the story immensely; the time-travel part was pretty interesting. Nice flow from the 'happy-go-lucky' start to the itty-gritty serious end. I think other people have mentioned this though: sometimes you weren't sure which character you were playing - at the start was the most egregious, but it's not a huge problem.
Overall, the ships were nice and varied between the races, as were the races themselves. The only thing that bugged me a little is that I thought that the Adasya should be rotated so that the beam cannon sphere was at the front, as it seemed a bit awkward moving what looked like sideways to me, but it's only a minor nickpick.
The anime-feel was a nice change too - I don't watch much anime myself, but I do like the distinctive art-style (maybe not so much the fanservice parts
). The music was GREAT - I've got one of the briefing music tracks playing on Winamp as I type this. It's great that you drew all of the head-ani stuff etc. yourself; you did an excellent job
.
Now, as I said before I noticed quite a lot of Star Control references
; I'll make a list of what I remember:
The Orz-speak in Infiltration, nice to see that you got *campers* in
The Ur-Quan remix music in the cutscene where the Nordera, Cordi and Fura'ngle (I later spotted the VUX remix music when I went into WoD-Sound.vp
Also, I realised in that cutscene that (since I didn't know of the Zy yet) these three races must be acting as these Hertak guys' battle thralls - and then a little later you actually used the term 'Battle Thralls'
The Fura'ngle seem to me to be a combination of the Chenjesu and Spathi - i.e. crystalline creatures, but extreme cowards.
The Zy's 'RIP AND TEAR' instincts are similar to that of the Ur-Quan, and those instincts not being triggered by the inorganic Fura'ngle is the same as the Ur-Quan's dealings with the Taalo
The Nordera - I'm not quite sure what they're supposed to be based on (if they are based on a Star Control race) but they do the same as the Mycon (if I recall correctly) and actually ask the Hertak to become battle thralls
I'm not sure about the Cordi either, but the way that the Hertak get them on their side (i.e. stealing their queen) seems similar to what the Ploxis did to the Clairconctlar in Star Control 3
Evidentally the Hertak are based upon the Ur-Quan in the way that they enslave other races to be their battle thralls. They use quite a different excuse, but they're doing it for the same end - for self-preservation. (Incidentally the way that the fathers pass their skills on to their offspring reminded me of Pokémon breeding
.)
The Aluyrean 'Prometheus Frame' seems to be a bit like the Precursor ship used by The Captain in Star Control II, especially how in the end it is sacrificed to stop the big bad's flagship
The only real flaw, I think, was my flying ability
. I confess, I ended up just using cheats after failing some missions a few times (since I wanted to continue the story), and full on skipped Stage-2 after I died/failed five times - after that, I put the difficulty down for the last three missions. One day I'll go back and complete every mission on Medium.
So yes, a very, very good campaign. Keep up the good work!
