The Galactic Protectorate 04, #269714
Okay, ran this on a level 38 fire/rad controller, on difficulty 2 so bosses are bosses. I may sound nitpicky in this review, but I'm an editor- I just notice typos and little things very easily. It didn't occur to me until I'd already started that maybe I should note down where the text occurs, but hopefully you can figure it out, MirrorMan. Sorry
Also, this was written as I played, and it may seem a little stream-of-conscious-y or not make sense to anyone but the author. That's intended.
--Mission one--
I trust my firends more than anyone,
*Friends
Alright, Synapse is giving me the "OK" signal, so just stop into the gateway
*Step
the Celestial Cultivators are usually called in to asess the situation
*Assess
The Cosmic Chimeras are the product of Colonel Belladonna's earliest and least successful experiments, and as a result posess little intelligence and are only capble of following the most basic commands.
*Possess, capable
her diligence has paid off in the form of the more intelligent and powerful Astral Azaelas.
*If this is a reference to the real plant, it's spelled Azalea.
[NPC] Celestial Cultivator: Colonel Belladonna sure seems like a nice person! I hope I get to work with her someday!
[NPC] Cosmic Chimera: ...You're new here, aren't you?
*That dialogue seems incongruous with the description that Cosmic Chimeras possess very little intelligence. Since this is patrol dialogue, though, and since I think you can set the patrols to pick randomly from an enemy group, it may have just been unlucky that the Chimera happened to say that line. I'm not sure if you can actually pick which mobs you want in patrols, though, so you may not be able to do much about this. It's a minor thing.
The planet recognized as "Eden" was one of the first planets inducted into the Galactic Protectorate after it's formation.
*Its
Despite it's comparatively average population, Eden contributes by far the largest amount of soldiers to the organization's military.
*Its
The dominate lifeforms on this planet, who call themselves "humans", bear a striking resemblance to the Lilan.
*Dominant
Early analysis of the planet's history also appear to paralell the history of Eden.
*Parallel
--Mission 2--
Ms. Liberty sure *ahem*s a lot. It's a little weird because it's so frequent, and there doesn't seem to be any point to it in places.
If the worse case occurs and Swan isn't being held in this base,
*Worst
What are you waiting for? Swan's in danger! *Ahem* I mean, the rest of us are waiting for you! Please hurry!
...Okay, Ms. Liberty is REALLY worried about Swan, but I don't get why she's trying to downplay it so much. She also seems to have forgotten about Mynx, but I think that sort of makes sense since I only found information on Swan's whereabouts and she's all
!!!! about her.
Now that she's been rescued, Sister Psyche joins Manticore in heading most of the resistance efforts against the Galacitc Protectorate, though her methods tend to be more aggresive than her allies'.
*Galactic, aggressive
The much more succesful results of Colonel Belladonna's experiments, Astral Azaelas are more intelligent and more powerful than their Cosmic Chimera bretheren.
*Successful, brethren
However, in order to gain further evidence, I must find 'borrow' a specific plant from rather ugly beings the humans call 'The Circle of Thorns'.
*I think you probably meant to delete either "find" or "borrow" and it slipped through.
Unlike Celestial Cultivators, Galactic Guardians are trained solely for battle, and are trained to re-focus their cultivation skills into a dealy combat style utilizing some of the most deadly plant-based organisms the Galacitc Protectorate has encountered.
*Deadly
Outside of the battlefield, the Colonel has conducted numerous questionable experiments in secret; experiments which General Adonis ordered stopped years ago.
*Comma, not semicolon
Despite countless attempts, Colonel Belladonna has still not successfully created a perfect Lilan-plant hybrid, though one particular experiment resulted in the creation of Camelia, the closest yet to Colonel Belladonna's goal; attempts to duplicate the success of that experiment have thusfar been unsuccessful.
*I would split this into two sentences at the semicolon, because it's a bit run-on. Also, thus far is two words.
A defeated Colonel Belladonna informas you:
*Informs
Camellia is spelled two different ways- "Camelia" in Col. Belladonna's bio, and "Camellia" as she says when she goes down.
Sister Psyche was a little buggy in this mission. Right after I rescued her, we had a big fight in the room with the three or four aura crystals, and afterwards she parked herself by the blue one and just refused to move. Sometimes I could get her to follow a few feet (and then she stopped right next to the damage crystal *facepalm*), but she'd just stop again. I spent a few minutes trying to figure it out, because I'm perverse like that, and dragged a couple enemies back to her, which seemed to work until she got to the green crystal in the doorway and decided to cuddle it too. I was about to give up and leave her there when she suddenly decided to bolt to the next spawn, which was a ways down the hall and not in her LOS.
Anyway, I'm not knocking you for it, ally AI just seems buggy as hell sometimes. I do think it's related to the aura crystals in that room, although I'm not sure why. /AI derail over
--Mission Three--
Okay, Ms. Liberty's habit of interrupting herself and *ahem*ing is starting to get to me. I know you're trying to do something with this, but I'm not sure what it is (besides giving the player a sense of "something is weird here" or "does she have some kinda lung disease?", which, hey, may totally be your intention). But it doesn't really make sense to me why she's hesitant to say some of these things. It's normal to be worried about your teammate, honey! I promise!
One of our spies has just confirmed that a large battle has broken out betwen the Circle and the invading group that has Swan, in a forest just outside the city!
*Between
However, the Circle probably isn't going to be too happy about ANY invaders in their domain, regardless of who they are, so remember not to think of them as an ally, but rather as a fellow enemy of the Galactic Protectorate.
*Um, hmm. There really isn't any danger of me thinking of the CoT as allies. This line's a little odd. Also, you might want to change "an ally" and "a fellow enemy" to "allies" and "fellow enemies" since you're talking about a group. Unless you're using the British rule that groups are a singular entity, I guess.
[NPC] Guide: Is it not enough that we've been forced to endure the loss of our homes and bretheren? Begone!
*Brethren
I have a feeling it's the map, but as soon as I zoned in, my NPC chat tab was absolutely flooded with the smacktalk between Division 10 and the Circle. As soon as I started moving around and encountering more mobs, it just kept coming. It seems to trigger when you get close enough to the GP and CoT to make them fight, but it does it for every single mob of them and it's...distracting, to say the least. Not sure if you can do anything about it, though.
...Oh dear
god, this mission. I was pretty much coasting through the previous two (although some of that did have to be chalked up to Sister Psyche in the second one), so I really wasn't expecting the level of murder I got here. The mob groups were very large, and I think given the map, they were also pretty close together, so it was very easy to over-aggro due to runners or knockback. That combined with the high level of mezzing, debuffing, healing, and mez resisting meant that I faceplanted more times than I want to admit here, even with purples and breakfrees. >.> This character hasn't died that much in a long time, so it was kind of a nasty wake-up call. And that was just trying to get to Ms. Liberty and/or Swan. Once I got them, the groups were a little easier, but I still died once against the General and the three groups around him.
I didn't get a chance to look at the General's bio, as the fight was fairly intense . :/
Camellia is kept in a secret underground laboratory, where she's observed 24/7 by Colonel Belladonna's most trusted subordinates.
*I'd change this to past tense since she escaped.
(From the souvenir)
Inside the cave you found members of the Galactic Protectorate's 10th Division, as well as a log in General Adonis' personal reocrds indicating that Swan had been moved to a "Rendezvous Point Wolfsbane".
*Records
...My word, Ms. Liberty is certainly...effusive in her reaction to me rescuing Swan.
Final Thoughts
I'm really curious as to why the GP wanted that rose from the Circle of Thorns! I hope some of the later arcs (there are more planned, right?) address the motivations behind the Galactic Protectorate's actions, just because I'm curious like that. On most of the arcs so far, it's felt like I haven't been getting the whole story, but I keep reminding myself that's because the whole story isn't out yet.
Overall, I really liked the designs of the GP's costumes and such. A division dedicated to botany and genegineering is interesting, and it makes me wonder what other divisions we'll see.
Mechanically, the third mission is a heckuva thing. I do wonder how it would have gone if I'd taken my usual MA character, my lvl 50 ill/kin. The fire/rad is far more "controllery" and she still got her [censored] handed to her.
But the ill/kin has some mez resist and probably more defense than the fire/rad. Really, I think it was the way the spawns were packed in combined with their powersets that, when stacked, made them ramp up quickly. I really suck at figuring out balance (it's why my own arc is still in testing and probably will be for much longer), so I'm not necessarily telling you to make them easier. Challenges are good! It just felt like that mission went above and beyond, and could probably make it nigh-impossible for certain characters. I bet there's no way to make the ally helpers spawn any closer to the door since it's an outdoor map...the allies are a good help. Well, when Libby's not crane kicking guys into other spawns.
I may try this on my ill/kin and my 50 elec/elec blaster just for giggles and see what happens. Overall, I liked the story, I just wanted to know MORE,
, and I'm not sure why Ms. Liberty was acting how she was *ahem*. I do have a couple theories, heh. Still, it's solid beyond the issues I had, and I'll definitely be back for the next arc, so clearly you're doing something right.
4 stars. Hope this was helpful! This is my first posted review beyond in-game feedback.
(I think that's what they're called...it's using Spirit of the Century.) 