Description
Simple Assault mission, my first, hope its good. Would like lots of comments!

Storyline:
The storyline to this mission is nothing different from the norm: Alpha wing plays a support role to two GTVA cruisers as the launch an attack on an isolated NTF destroyer. The briefing tells the appropriate information, but is written rather poorly, containing several grammatical errors. Icons all match up though, which is nice to see. During the mission, you'll find few messages – only one relating to the destruction of a cruiser, curiously, and nothing to do with the initial objectives. This is due to some message weirdness, as there are in fact several oter messages. Finally, there's no debriefing, and although the stage is there, there's not any text – as though the author forgot. Ooops.

Balance:
First off, there's absolutely no reason for this to be a scramble mission. It's not expressed in the briefing, and the lack of choice of weapons reduces potential replay value. It's also impossible to save the GTCv Arthur as far as I can tell due to the range at which the Shivan bombers jump in. This leads to them firing off loads of bombs from about 100 metres from the corvette, and it's resultant death. Still, at least you don't die - though a few ships do go for Alpha wing. The inclusion of Trebuchet rockets was a good idea for disarming the NTD Frontline and the Shivans.

Design:
Surprisingly for a first mission, most of the design features included in the mission work fine – directives, ship goals, waypoints and even the escort list are used correctly. For some reason some of the messages do send, and others don't, even though they're all set up in exactly the same way – through <any wingman>, which doesn't function because there are no personae in the ships. Design isn't any more complex than it needs to be, and is restricted entirely to the XZ axis, with no background. Still, the author has a grasp of most of the standard FRED2 features, which is promising.

Gameplay:
From a gameplay standpoint, there's nothing horribly wrong with this mission; it's just a bit bland and boring. The dogfights with the NTF and Shivans are hellish, and there's no way that you'll save the GTCv Arthur. The NTF don't put up much of a fight, and the Shivans only offer up two cruisers and a bomber wing, plus three fighters. In other words, Endor. The mission could have been intriguing, storyline and action-wise – how about the NTF and GTVA teaming up to deal with the Shivans and then attacking one another, or the NTF stabbing the GTVA in the back and bugging out while they're busy? A missed opportunity, I think.

Other Thoughts:
This mission isn't terrible for a first mission, but falls into the traditional newbie traps: too much capship action, a lack of messages and background, and so on. I'd encourage the author to make a major revision of this mission.