AndromedaLab
Interesting premise, also sympathetic characters, nice variety among the aliens and a capable Mc make for a really good start of the game.
Honestly i think ur alien races are way more interesting and better looking than everything seen in ME:Andromeda, thought u will never beat Liara and Tali
The only critic i have is, that some things don't make much sense story wise, at least so far.
-The most prominent point being, that sending a fleet of tiny ships with 5-6 crewmembers for this kind of mission, makes absolute no sense.
Shouldn't the ships at least carry thousands or even ten of thousands of people in stasis (military/science vessels excluded), if u want a new begining for ur entire race ? Upon arrival the people with the necessary skills, for the current development stage of the colony, will be awaken, until it has reached a point where the colony can sustain the rest which remains in stasis.
There is no need to interact with any of this people, not to mention showing them, just the information that they are there would make the story a lot more believable imo.
-The 2nd big point, no remotely competent government would sent/or allow a mix of smugglers, criminals, ex convicts and mercenaries with no loyality, on the probably most importent mission of their enitre race.
(this was allready in ME:Andromeda a really sore point, which required the suspension of disbelief).
Also with a local (hostile?) alien race(s), more hostile races in nearby systems, 1 allied race shown as supremacists and a other allied race being their loyal underlings, i really don't think u need to fall back on criminals for action/drama and story development.
-minor point, the MC's ship, which looks like a battleship or heavy cruiser is a good model, in space that is...when they land it looks like it has the size of the millennium falcon, which doesn't really fit the ship model.
At one point where they react on the signal from a second ship and their captain is on top of the ship, it looks kind of ridiculous with that ship model.
I think either make the ship scale a lot larger, if it is intended as large warship (which it looks like), or using a ship model which fits the size of a small ship would clearly improve this scenes (at least i wouldn't get a laughing fit).
Seeing that our MC has the rank of an admiral (likely the highest rank for the human delegation), in addition to his military service records, it would makes sense that he has the command of a heavy warship and some military troops, be it for protection of the other vessels, the colony or to uphold order.
With a look on the old galaxy, it would be natural to assume that in andromeda are also other races, which are more or less hostile and as such a military delegation being a necessity, with the MC as a logical commander, at least on human side.
I know it's total war back home, but a few military ships from each of the allied races won't change the outcome of a war on a galactic scale, but make the difference of life and death for the expedition and probably the last hope of their races.
As for potential military troops, which are still in stasis on the ship, it could be easily explained why they are not awakened.
U already mentioned that the resources are nearly extinguished, the colony is only in the beginning stage (can't sustain much more people) and while there are hostile aliens, they are not a direct thread to the colony.
So training a few available people for basic scouting and combat is the better solution, considering the available resources, even if not a desirable one.
(also a sore point in ME:Andromeda, sending the probably last hope for their race whithout any military escort and only unarmed civil ships in potentially hostile territory is nothing short of a suicide mission...but hey, at least no ending with colourfull space magic, which wipes the galaxy (written by the new trainy) this time around)
I hope i didn't sound to harsh or demanding, as that is not what i intended, i genuinely enjoyed ur game. The setting has a lot of potential be it main/side storys or exotic LI's.
I know this is a erotic VN and not hard sci fi. But i think for the player among us, which enjoy a good story, such minor changes can improve the overall quality of ur game a lot, whitout changing the story u want to tell, or make larger changes to the existing game.
For the closing words of this essay, which got far longer than i intended:
Death through snu snu
