Mass Effect Future

[yhvh10]

Mass Effect is one of my favorite franchises and I would really hate to see it die because of the flop of Andromeda. So I’m curious to know where everyone stands on the future of Mass Effect. There are some good future game ideas that should be considered. 

A. Reboot. The game should restart back to the first Mass Effect game and redo the Trilogy with future Milky Way mass effect games to be considered.

B. MEA2 Ryder. Continuing on the Ryder story with a potential conflict with the Kett and uncovering the Jardaan/Remnant. 

C. MEA2. Set many years into the future. This would take place with a new charachter with a new crew exploring a new part of Andromeda. 

D. None. Give us a remaster of the trilogy and call it a day until developers are more competent to pick up the series. 

E. Other. Please define.

Im curious to know what you guys think and hope for the future of Mass Effect. I personally would like either A (Ahem, Liara, needs I say more? )or C. 

Whats the consensus for Mass Effects future? 

[fudgietroll]

You should check out the Plots links in Collected ideas and suggestions. There is a lot of fleshing out of B/C, plus quite a few ideas for new games.

Personally I would like to see B plus a couple Es.

First, a game where we get to play with the collective criminals, rogues, and baddies Shepard hasn't killed (plus maybe some cops like Gianna Parasini), as they struggle to survive disaster and each other, probably after taking a hijacked prison ship through the Omega 4.

Second, a large, Cerberus-as-it-should-have-been group of survivalist militias putting centuries of Armageddon planning to work in a all out attempt to defend Earth and humanity's future from the Reapers, even after Shepard defies Catalyst and destroys the Citadel.

[Pyro411]

Honestly I would love to see the list of reported bugs eliminated if they haven't been already, and have all of the lose ends tied up via a single large content patch, be it to make way for MEA2 or end the series a lot of people just want the closure especially after the fiasco surrounding the game happened.

If a trilogy remaster happens, I so hope EA does what was done for Skyrim and gives a free upgrade to owners of all the previous content while re-releasing the remastered game as a new launch to attract new customers.

Now something crazy I'd like to see... a side mini game allowing us to gather resources to develop the areas post MEA1 which may or may not have any form of direct effect on MEA2.

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Oops to put it in line with how the questions were asked...

A combination of BCE for going forward would be my choice.

For the MEA2 I would love to see them pick up either immediately or a few months post MEA1 to continue the story while tying up EVERY loose end in 1 with exception of those which will continue on to MEA3 sort of like how ME1 was about Sarran but had a Prothean / Reaper / Geth / etc subplot to them.

For MEA2-2.5 I would also love to see something crazy as I wouldn't participate much, but have the Multiplayer in 2/2.5 be episodic where the progress the community makes in multiplayer would directly affect the planetary terraforming storyline in MEA3

For MEA3 have the gameplay pick up several years after the last events in MEA2 where the progress/lack of progress in MEA2/2.5 multiplayer would be noted making it either easier or harder for you to continue the terraforming progress in MEA3 while attempting to complete the other portions of the storylines.

Somewhere between all of that, it would be interesting if there was an out of game community driven event that would expediate or hinder the colonization / exploration progress on the planet the Human Arc landed on

Some stuff I'd like to see story wise...

Relationship growth with Love Interest

Waking Mom after finding a way to save her

Ryder possibly having a kid

Children of supporting cast or nameless children showing up

Communications restored with the Milkyway with broad overview of what happened either by save import or ingame comic -- IE 1 of 4 endings "Control/Destroy/Assimilate/FU" where the Destroy ending causes communication to restore in MEA3 late game, and the FU ending communications don't restore at all.

Find out what happened to the Quarians and eventually be able to save them then establish colonies for each of the more exotic races.  -- Easter egg of an Elcor child watching a Blast-o vid.

[draqonin]

My choices would be B and E. However, i assume this could take a looong time by the looks of it.

Hope is still out there, we will see what will happen once they are done with Anthem.

[svitcak001]

well, I would like to see an option B real

[AeromusPrime22]

I'll go with a modified version of C. Since the characters weren't particularly well received and the whole pathfinding thing has been done and colonies established, I say move to a new character.

Since the Initiative and Angara are at war with the Kett the new character can be a member of APEX trying to keep peace in the cluster and protecting outposts (which there should be more done with, saying building defenses and expanding scientific abilities that grants research bonuses).

Pick up the story a few months after ME:A where things have settled some but many issues remain. Focus the story on the continuing mystery of the Jaarden and Scourge, ongoing war with the Kett (still plenty to discover abou them) and the Quarian ark. Of course there's still exploring to do and the Nexus can be greatly expanded in terms of where you can go and things to do.

[kitkathy1994]

TL;DR:

B and A

If you like deets:

I personally both pre-ordered the deluxe ME:A and loved it. I am not ignoring the things that ME:A did wrong, I am simply one of the few who felt the positive aspects of the game heavily outweighed the negative. As such, I would love to see option B come to fruition. I want to see the consequences for my choices from the first game and how they impact both Ryder and his/her crewmate's character development. Here are my thoughts on what they did right and what could have been done better:

What ME:A did well in my opinion:

- Graphics - Glorious Frostbite beauty

- Optimisation - Ran smoothly on my computer despite having so many items and polygons on screen at once (take notes, Bethesda!)

- Combat - Amazingly better than ME3

- Content Quantity - Returned from ME1 and ME2 (was severely lacking in ME3)

- Soundtrack Quality/Choice - Other than poor choice of Menu music, everything else was top notch and memorable. Comparable to ME2

- Open World Exploration returned from ME1

- Inventory mechanic returned from ME1

- Sense of wonder and mystery returned from ME1

- Squadmate control returned from ME2

- Squadmate banter and dynamics returned from ME2

- Final Mission built up with characters and allies from throughout the game - what ME3 ending should have been

- Final Mission end Boss fight returned from ME1 and ME2 (was not present in ME3)

- Difficult choices that were morally grey NEW

- Improved/added family dynamic to player character NEW

- Improved customisation of casual outfit NEW

- Improved customisation of armour outfit returned from ME2 (lacking in ME1 and ME3)

- Improved dialogue responses returned from ME2 (lacking in ME1 and severely lacking in ME3)

- Improved weapon crafting/customisation NEW

- Improved character macro animations - I don't understand people's complaints about this especially when compared to the gross ones in ME3

What ME:A could have done better:

- Too many "scan this item 5x from unmarked locations" quests - repetitive, tedious, and sometimes frustrating to complete

- Character voice could have been slightly better, it was not bad though.

- Dialogue sound editing was atrocious. Missing pauses, people talking over each other, some lines were too loud, others couldn't be heard.

- Inventory UI was poorly done. It was difficult to navigate/organise. Probably designed for console ease-of-use but even then it could have been done better

- Open world looting of corpses and chests were disappointing. I ended up either selling or destroying most of them as they were useless and constantly repeated.

- Squadmate customisation was REMOVED from ME1, ME2, and ME3. I really wish they would let us equip our squad's armour and weapons.

- Morally grey choices in missions had little to no impact - probably to be used in sequel which is fine but only if there is a sequel! Another reason to support option B on Original Post.

- Armour customisation while great removed some things like Light colours (present in ME:A multiplayer!! and ME3 but not in singleplayer ME:A)

- Important Lore-related weapons not available in Singleplayer!! Like the Angaran assault rifle only available in multiplayer. At least let the NPCs use them to give some immersion!

- Dialogue responses while great, lacked clear "evil" choices. Allowing evil options is a good way to let the player choose their own path.

- Weapon Crafting was way too good compared to looted items. There was no reason to loot items as a result. Allowing drops to have augments would be a great way to improve this.

- Character micro animations( facial animations are bland and weird, breaking immersion, and idle animations like using the omnitool was used too much and felt out of place in a lot of ways)

- Squadmates tended to only have one dynamic - Did you know Cora served with Asari commandos? Did you know Vetra had a sister? etc. Should have added more background to them.

If the points were addressed in some way in a sequel ME:A2 continuing Ryder's story, it would be the best game ever. Even with all of the issues ME:A had, I still felt like it was the best Mass Effect game they released.

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On a completely different note, I would love it if they remade the original trilogy. And I mean a true remake, not just a graphics upgrade. They can bring the ME:A combat and dialogue wheel mechanics into the trilogy and expand on things that are lacking, keeping only the story and characters that we love. Hence the option A was also mentioned at the very top.

Granted my opinions may be heavily criticised, but I tried to give the most objective views on the game. I truly want to see the Mass Effect series flourish as it has such amazing potential. I was heavily disappointed when I heard support for the game was dropped.

[GhostDoggSamurai]

Not A - there are enough reboots these days. The original trilogy is a masterpiece. Would you really want it retold with a bunch of new characters? Or some weird retelling in a Cyberpunk stylee?

So I would say B, because one thing this series of games has over every other franchise ever is the masterful way the story continues between sequels, depending on your choices.

C however, would be potentially very interesting. Could even have PeeBee as the last remaining original character, as we join her in the Matriarch phase of her life.

Either way, package it with D, and I am in!

[Fred_vdp]

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@kitkathy1994 wrote:

- Optimisation - Ran smoothly on my computer despite having so many items and polygons on screen at once (take notes, Bethesda!)

- Combat - Amazingly better than ME3

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I like MEA's combat, but I'm gonna stand by ME3 on this one. A couple of reasons why I prefer ME3's combat:

• Not being limited to 3 mapped abilities.
• I didn't like the freedom the jump jet gives you in MEA.
• In MEA, all detonator abilities are compatible with all triggers, meaning there's less strategy involved.
• Enemies in MEA are bullet sponges.

I will say, however, that MEA has a much better cover system.

I have different experience with regards to optimisation. When I first started playing the game I was baffled by how poorly it ran on my hardware. Turns out that some AMD Radeon GPUs are particularly bad at tessellation, so my framerate doubled when I turned that off in the AMD settings at no quality cost (not sure what happened there). That said, Fallout 4 is possibly the worst optimised game I played in years, so I agree that Bethesda should take notes.

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@kitkathy1994 wrote:

- Character voice could have been slightly better, it was not bad though.

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I love Fryda Wolff as Sara Ryder (and as Tressa in Octoptah Traveler). 

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@kitkathy1994 wrote:

- Squadmates tended to only have one dynamic - Did you know Cora served with Asari commandos? Did you know Vetra had a sister? etc. Should have added more background to them.

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I agree entirely on this one. What I loved about the characters in ME1 is that they had contrasting characteristics. Kaidan was the kind and caring man who once snapped his superior officer's neck. Ashley loves poetry and family, while also being a xenophobe. The alien characters are interesting because they go against their species' stereotypes: Garrus being the turian who despises bureaucracy and Wrex who has a higher purpose than just fighting for credits. The MEA characters are a bit one note in comparison.

[AeromusPrime22]

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@Fred_vdp wrote:

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@kitkathy1994 wrote:

- Optimisation - Ran smoothly on my computer despite having so many items and polygons on screen at once (take notes, Bethesda!)

- Combat - Amazingly better than ME3

---

I like MEA's combat, but I'm gonna stand by ME3 on this one. A couple of reasons why I prefer ME3's combat:

• Not being limited to 3 mapped abilities.
• I didn't like the freedom the jump jet gives you in MEA.
• In MEA, all detonator abilities are compatible with all triggers, meaning there's less strategy involved.
• Enemies in MEA are bullet sponges.

I will say, however, that MEA has a much better cover system.

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I feel ME3's combat was the best of the series (which was very nice after the "combat" of ME2) although I liked the jump jet. I feel ME3 had the most immersive combat. When you got close to an enemy you felt like it, unlike the others that had a "detached" feeling to them. In terms of combat abilities available and playstyles, MEA is far above the rest.