Arc 363257: The Restarian Front

Keywords: Custom Characters, Save the World, Sci Fi
Length: 3 missions
Morality: Heroic
Description: A strange race of aggressive and militaristic beings, calling themselves Restarians, are invading the planet! The job falls to Paragon's heroes to stop them.

Now, I know a thread like this is not going to get alot of attention and it is probably just going to slowly slip to page 100+ of this section. It is, however, the loudest way I can let people know that I have managed to write up the prequel to The Alien Tyrant. So, if you have played The Alien Tyrant and liked it, then play this one to see how it all began!

Just played this arc. I didn't rate it yet because I think that there is room for improvement. Now I could talk about adding more objectives, more dialogue and basically more things to do which is all true. However I will warn you that to many of your customs have the really annoying web grenade power.

But before spending much time on polishing, I think that it would be better on making the story more solid.

Spoilers

An alien threat from outer space is interesting but I would think such a thing would cause a major alert and scramble all the big guns of heroism. The Rikti has taught us well in that regard. Maybe if prominent diviners tell us that the threat is at most minor compared to the mess we are already in then it would make sense to use a minor official. I know you did mention something like this in the briefing but it wouldn't hurt to emphasize. Perhaps with a line that Vanguard has its hands full of Rikti and they would appreciate a little help in taking out the raid leader.

In the second mission, not only do I have an enemy shuttle, I can understand what they are saying, I know how to fly the thing and I can access their computers in their own spaceship. You really should explain how I am able to do this. The information about this race could be in the databases of captured Rikti files for example (you even can do a mission to obtain this information). With it could be a warning that the race commonly uses the scorched earth tactic when an invasion probe fails. And perhaps some well placed bombs would explain why they didn't simply reset their computers and try again.

Just my two cents.

Thanks for the play GrinningSpade, and thanks for the feedback.

By the sounds of it, yes, I will have to change a few things too suit the story better. Mainly, it seems like dialogue tweaking and polishing. I've also taken into account your dislike with two of the enemies in my custom group using web grenade. I'll see what I can do to change that as much as I can.

Once again, thanks for your feedback. It's appreciated!

Alright, I had enough time to run through this arc today, so here's some feedback I hope you find helpful

First of all, I noticed the new custom Lieutenant "Sentinel" didn't have the usual "Restarian" tag in front of it like the other custom characters did. I'm sure there's a reason for this, but it did make the Sentinels stand out from the other custom characters in the group. I found the Sentinels themselves, however, to have a great bio and a character design which made them seem like a natural part of the Restarian custom group.

Second, I noticed that the first mission mentions that the Restarians have had "skirmishes" with the Rikti in the past, even though the Restarians are (according to what I understood from the storyline) an alien race from outer space and the Rikti are from an alternate dimension. Again, it's possible I mis-read or didn't catch the detail which explains this, so I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong

Finally, I did catch a spelling error in the final mission debriefing: "nad" I believe is supposed to be "and". Other than that, though, the spelling and grammar in this arc is just as good as it was in the last arc (unless I missed something, of course)

All in all, I was actually pretty amazed by how you integrated the advice GrinningSpade gave you into the arc so seemlessly. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that the clues which allow you to understand the Restarians and access their computers were in this arc from the start.

Like the previous arc, I think you should request reviews of this arc to the reviewers in this section of the forum, as well. I'm sure they'll be able to help you improve your arc more than I can

Final Score: 5 Stars