Thanks for the reply Arakasi, I'll try to answer any question's you raised as best as I can..
Disagree on that part, I thought the story was far to textual and wasn't a fan of the writing either. It seemed completely detached from the game's mechanics for the most part. Also you mention rewards, but from my understanding there's only one actual reward you get? It's mostly just flying from point A to B, only to talk to someone then fly back to point A.
I thought the alpha site mission was really cool but it was the only part that I felt any suspense or real excitement. It felt like a chore to me to do endless reading about characters I had no emotional attachment too, to progress a storyline that I already knew was coming.
It felt purposely dragged out and very laborious personally. happy to be the minority here who thinks that.
I don't know how it could be anything much other than textual, it's sort of the old school of RPG writing which I really appreciate. Big blocks of text to sink my teeth into that get me more into the world and the characters. But I can understand why that wouldn't be someone's cup of tea. Not having an attachment to the characters I understand, but I don't think you're meant to in this moment, they're just the people providing your pay check and you interact with them in a way that displays that for the most part. And I dunno, I was pretty freaked out when I started to see Tri-Tach death squads with full story point investment. But then again I couldn't see what was coming, I'm curious what you mean by the remark that you 'I already knew was coming'.
I guess if you're a fan of that, then it makes sense you enjoy it. My counter would be that Star Sector is a very visual game.
There's ships to interact with, going about their business. Planets to trade and land on, colonies to build. Sectors to explore and strange artefacts to discover.
It's a very visual and interactive game, it always has been even from early builds.
Yet the story narrative is focused around the player being forced into a set role with reading and flying from A -> B talking to other characters and delivering stuff. The amount of interactions the story physically causes the player to do, is very little.
For such a visual and interactive game I think it wouldn't be misplaced to try and focus the story more around real time experiences and interactions, rather than just being 'docked' and reading text from the 'Provost' or other characters who we have no attachment to or interest in.
What would of made it instantly better, or cool might of been the alternate text responses, based on the status / wealth / power differences of the player. Would the Provost really speak in such a way to a captain with 10 Paragons and a huge Galactic empire? Yet a captain with a single frigate and not a penny to his name will get the same dialog.
Yet changing that, for me isn't the 'full fix', that would just be a cool patch over the real issue. Which seems to be the story feels detached from the main game's mechanics, I'd like more physical interaction with the SS world and let the narrative speak more from what we see and do, rather than what we purely read.
The reading shouldn't be the sole focus, it should be 'filling the gaps' so to speak.. Does that make sense?
A text based adventure is good for....a text based adventure game. Star Sector is ridiculously visual and interactive. Yet when the text element of the game becomes one of the primary focus', then your inviting a problem here and a major disjointedness to the whole feel to the game.
What I'm trying to say here is I don't think Star Sector is a text based adventure, I could be wrong, it depends on Alex's vision, but weirdly why would it be pushed in that direction? It would be selling itself way, waaaay short in my opinion.
I feel it'd be a bit like taking a diamond and sticking it into an old wooden box, then labelling it 'Hello, there's a diamond in here'.
Well no... why don't you do away with that box as the diamond speaks for itself. Let it out of the box, so to speak. Bad analogy maybe but I'm struggling to explain succinctly..
Don't explain it with text, just physically show it and not hide behind a box?
In terms of how did I know it was coming, it was pretty clear to me that the whole story ark (at least this far) is based around opening the Gates. It just felt like a very mundane and overly drawn out process. I had a pretty strong idea since before last year it was the next big thing to happen in our beloved sector. So it was no surprise to me how this latest story unfolded, unfortunately.
The Alpha site was enjoyable and I thought things were starting to look up.
Why was it enjoyable? Because it was different to reading text, it was interactive, exciting, scary, the music changed into the most ominous sound I think I've ever heard. I was literally like "Wow Wtf"
The red warning beacon was a nice touch.. I knew something big was going to happen and boy I don't think there'd be a single disappointed player with that scene.
Keep that sort of thing up, yet I know it's hard.. Why? Because it's more work and dev time, than it is writing blocks of texts for fictional characters no one cares about. That's what's going to make the difference between a good game and one of the best 2d spacers ever to exist.
Then what happened after Alpha site? After such a crazy, amazing scene it's back to delivery runs from A -> B another complete change of pace.. The provost was barely even bothered that we just went toe-toe with a potential unknown alien race. The reaction seemed completely underwhelming, none of the other 'characters' seemed to really care?
Some of the writing has that feel to it of a Hollywood actor who's 'got that big break' and overcompensates by over-acting. There's too many occasions of over verbosity, but this is approaching strong preferences territory. Some of it is great, more around ships, planets and station description, rather than character dialog IMO.