Steel Hearts - Federation Secrets

Title:Steel Hearts: Lumere's Secrets
Author: Avyntrahelion
Faction: Federation
Level Requirement: 41+
Author Notes: *Testing Phase*

Hello ladies and gents.

I have decided to start working on this foundry project again, and I think it is mostly done. I would just like some others to give it a scour and honestly tell me if they like it, love it, or feel I should be publicly humiliated for it.

Also, if there are any more experienced foundry people, what could I do to get it to qualify for rewards - I understand thanks to RainbowWarGames that I may need to make it longer. Does this have to do with how long it actually takes, the number of maps, etc.? If it's length, I want to add more combat - It's already pretty sparse and avoidable since its in the middle of a battle.

Also,


Any advice would be welcome!

And a big thanks to Mr Frozenlilly and Rainbowwargames for giving it a run and their feedback so far.

I played through the mission today, and I enjoyed it! Feels like a bit of a cliff-hanger and I was craving more of the story when it ended. What made it interesting, was the deeper relationship options that you can pursue through the chat dialogue. I was hoping for an opportunity to see how the relationship that I chose to pursue, developed but the story ended right when I wanted more :D

Given that the mission isn't too long right now, you always have the option of adding more of the story onto the end of the mission, rather than making a sequel, if that's what you had planned. Could work well either way, I suppose!

The story flow, spelling and grammar was good throughout the mission. I noticed a few small technical oversights that could use a clean-up:



As for why the mission isn't awarding rewards, I'm not entirely sure. It feels as though there's enough map transitions and combat to justify the normal foundry rewards. From what I understand, the system has an algorithm that calculates what it believes to be the play-time of every mission, and only awards rewards to those that have 20 minutes+ of play time. It was at least that long for me, since I was running the mission on elite difficulty, but maybe an extra map transition and something to do on that map might put it over the edge. You may need to play around with it a bit.

Was fun! Good luck - interested in seeing more!

Thanks, Voleron!

Since I am slightly limited with what the Foundry will allow me, I have an idea. I would like a vote to be held on whether the story will go in the direction of siding against them, or joining them. I think the first direction with five votes will sway which direction it will go in and I will revise the ending to reflext it.

If anyone's given it a run, please say if you sided with or against the consortium. Perhaps we can do that with sequels too, if anyone is interested.

Hey Slice!

I´ve played your mission today again with another char (I´ve played it for the first time over three or four weeks ago and I just wanted to have fresh memories^^).

I like it how the story progresses:



Needless to say that I sided against the consortium. :) But more to that later.

After activating the first console on ESD you are asked to go to a door from where you can beam up. IF you read the text you shouldn´t have a problem to find this door (we all know that reading helps...) but there was a marker missing on the map.

First map change:
Orbit of the colony´s planet. Theoretically it´s possible to progress with the mission without firing one shot. Maybe you could change that? Make it so that you only can contact the ship after you´ve destroyed all enemies? It´s just a suggestion.

Second map change:
Down on the planet. You´re supposed to talk to the Dr. next to your beam in point. Meanwhile the ground troops are handling all the Borg which are around. So there´s not much to do for you and your away team.

Third map change:
The next (real) fights are inside the building (3 groups of Borg).

After that you´ll beam up and have to decide to be with or against the Consortium (I decided both times against the Consortium, so I don´t have any idea what happens if you decide to side with them).

And it´s almost clear that there will be a space fight, but: the rating window pops up! Np, just drag the window in a corner of your screen and start the battle. But it would be good if finishing the mission would require this space battle.

As I´m no foundry author - just a person who enjoys to play foundry missions - I´m not sure which requirements you have to meet so that the mission becomes a spotlight mission or at least gives rewards. But I just think it has something to do - among other things - with the time you need to finish it.

I´ve played it the first time with K.E. Janeway (tac, lvl. 60) and didn´t even need 10 minutes to finish it. The second time it was with Pulaski (sci, lvl. 54) and I needed 20 minutes (well, crappy ship equipment and ground gear, lol).

But the mission has potential. I don´t think you´ll have to add more combat into it, just make sure that the players HAVE TO DO the combat (see first and second map change).

I always like missions where you have to choose options (although I wouldn´t address my commanding officer as "a damsel in distress"). :whistle:

I hope my review was constructive and helps a little bit. Hmmm... maybe you can contact @midnighttlc, he´s a very active foundry author - you should play his missions, it´s always fun - and maybe can help you with questions about spotlight-mission-requirements.

As a last point: I enjoyed playing this mission and I´m looking forward to more missions created by you.

Greetings, A.M. :)


Edit: One more thing: I´ve accepted the mission and after that I switched to another char bc I had to do some fleet captain stuff... when I finally switched back to K.E. I had totally forgotten where to start the mission, lol... So I had to drop the mission and accept it again. It wouldn´t be bad if you would mention the starting point in the mission´s description. :)