My chief goal for the expanded version of the prologue was to give Cera's fall more of an emotional impact as it was unfolding. In the base game, it happens within a scant few minutes of starting, while the player still knows scarcely anything about the setting or characters. It's a major event that heavily affects the protagonist throughout Mask of Arcadius and Liberation Day, and while it receives more dramatic gravity much later on in the story, I wanted to give it more upfront punch.

To achieve this, I worked to create context, initially introducing key elements of the setting such as the history of PACT and the background of Kayto's involvement with the Sunrider project. The result is admittedly a substantial amount of frontloaded exposition, but I feel that this was necessary to quickly ground the player in the narrative and Kayto's point of view.

With this foundation in place, I focused on a gradual buildup of tension, juxtaposing the rising dread of invasion with warm or comedic character interactions. As seen in this playthrough, players who are friendly rather than formal with Ava in the first two dialogue choices will unlock a few additional scenes with her as she and Kayto reminisce. While Ava is of course still rather stiff and serious, she's not yet carrying the weight of losing Cera, and the opening tour thus represented an opportunity to showcase a take on her that wouldn't be possible elsewhere. I also created a few new (or mostly new in the case of Admiral Koris, who is very briefly mentioned in the novelization) characters to fill in gaps in the world. Tessa and Nomi were created because I felt the Sunrider needed a bridge crew beyond Kayto and Ava, while Koris was expanded upon to give the Ceran military a leader that Kayto could initially look up to and rely on. The mentor-student relationship Koris has with Kayto was meant to add emotional weight to the battle and its uncertain aftermath, as well as create a foil to Kayto's interactions with Grey later on.

The battle itself goes into more detail than most others will in this mod series, in part because it's the only major engagement not mainly showcased through gameplay. Details of the various ship classes and tactics were intended to both be true to the setting and provide tips to new players in a way that felt more organic than traditional tutorials.

With Amber and Tycho, I wanted to create a very humanized look into two mindsets and backgrounds that I feel would be common among PACT's members, highlighting that the faction is not simply a group of evil space communists that go around committing war crimes. While Fontana of course already exists and serves as an excellent window into PACT's ideologies, he's someone near the top of the hierarchical ladder...and privy to secrets known by few. Amber and Tycho are meant to offer additional viewpoints, as more of the everymen of PACT.