having just beat the original campaign, i thought i'd drop in a few thoughts on the transition to the RF campaign, which right now strikes me as a problem.
specifically: there's one heck of a game over feeling after returning to perry post-killing the almighty glowing green egg o' death. you get the victory cutscene, and the dialogue with the admiral is very ride-off-into-the-sunset. i know this is because this *was* the end of the original game, but for the purposes of the remake it's trouble - an unspoiled player may not even continue past this point (as someone once put it, "It's hard to find any purpose in your life after you've saved the entire solar system and earnt a quarter of a million meseta in the process.") and even if they do, they may never end up on jolson to trigger the theft.
plus, there's this boatload of new technology suddenly available the instant you do land on jolson, which also breaks suspension of disbelief. two suggestions:
a) have admiral what's-his-face, as a sign of gratitude, offer you the chance to buy some prototype confed tech - like the gun cooler unit or the thrust enhancer, for example, what exactly depends on how much you have - but for more than you currently have. this provides impetus for the player to go do more missions. then count the number of different planets/bases the player lands on and have the gun theft occur perhaps 5-8 landings later. slowly filter the tech into the game every 9-12 landings or so. (or, even better, track the player's flight hours via the computer clock and introduce the new tech based partly on real-world time. [also on kills or the like so that people didn't simply sit in space overnight])
b) after the admiral's "you're getting a medal" speech, fix the player's ship completely, mark his missions-in-progress (though he shouldn't have any) done, give him a few hundred thousand credits, and show a little cutscene of him departing perry and riding off literally into the sunset... fade to black, fade up on a view of jolson, throw down overtext "pleasure planet jolson. system xxn-1927. six months later..." and go from there.
specifically: there's one heck of a game over feeling after returning to perry post-killing the almighty glowing green egg o' death. you get the victory cutscene, and the dialogue with the admiral is very ride-off-into-the-sunset. i know this is because this *was* the end of the original game, but for the purposes of the remake it's trouble - an unspoiled player may not even continue past this point (as someone once put it, "It's hard to find any purpose in your life after you've saved the entire solar system and earnt a quarter of a million meseta in the process.") and even if they do, they may never end up on jolson to trigger the theft.
plus, there's this boatload of new technology suddenly available the instant you do land on jolson, which also breaks suspension of disbelief. two suggestions:
a) have admiral what's-his-face, as a sign of gratitude, offer you the chance to buy some prototype confed tech - like the gun cooler unit or the thrust enhancer, for example, what exactly depends on how much you have - but for more than you currently have. this provides impetus for the player to go do more missions. then count the number of different planets/bases the player lands on and have the gun theft occur perhaps 5-8 landings later. slowly filter the tech into the game every 9-12 landings or so. (or, even better, track the player's flight hours via the computer clock and introduce the new tech based partly on real-world time. [also on kills or the like so that people didn't simply sit in space overnight])
b) after the admiral's "you're getting a medal" speech, fix the player's ship completely, mark his missions-in-progress (though he shouldn't have any) done, give him a few hundred thousand credits, and show a little cutscene of him departing perry and riding off literally into the sunset... fade to black, fade up on a view of jolson, throw down overtext "pleasure planet jolson. system xxn-1927. six months later..." and go from there.