Mass Effect 2 Should this be changed/reworked?

[GrimReaperTaken]

Hi all  

Quick thought, Mass Effect 2 it always kind of irked me that legion was recruited after getting the reaper iff because that mission kicked off the countdown to the end game. So if you got Legion as early as you could you could play with him for a while but your crew dies in the end. If you play to 'best' route to save your crew you basically have to leave legion for last and instantly go into the end game. 

Then in ME3 you dont really see Legion either. My problem with this is i always wanted to see more of legion and having his recruitment mission tied to negative outcomes incentivised me to delay recruiting him in my playthroughs until the end of the game. 

In the Mass Effect 2 remaster, do you think it would be an improvement to the game is Legion's recruitment is seperated from the IFF mission so that you can experience more of the game with him? or is there some alternative reason why he has to be tied to the ticking time bomb that I am not thinking of?

[Fred_vdp]

That would be a great change. I think it doesn't make sense that EDI gets to determine the timing of the IFF installation. that should have been up to Shepard.

I don't think the remaster will go to that extent, though. It will mostly be visual upgrades.

Fun fact: The game gives you a little bit of extra time if you recruit Legion before completing Tali's loyalty mission. In that case, you can still complete both Legion and Tali's loyalty missions before the crew gets abducted. 

[mcsupersport]

This is also where a save editor comes in handy if you wish to use one, letting you unlock anyone you wish.  It is amazing how many lines are in the game for characters that can't even be normally recruited for missions at times the mission can be run.

[Psychotps]

@GrimReaperTaken

To add onto/change what @mcsupersport said, another thing you can do it just play normally, get legion early through normal gameplay like you wanted and play with him all you want.

Then, before leaving on the suicide mission, save the game, load the save into Gibbed for ME2. Go into "Plot/ME2 Plot table/Values" and reset "[End] No. of assignments after IFF activation" to 0.

[GrimReaperTaken]

@mcsupersport @Psychotps 
Sadly both of your options can't really be done on console, or if they can I don't know how. 
If i bought the game on pc I still wouldnt try messing with save files or modding. 

One reason i have always loved consoles is that I don't have to mess with files, everything is simple and streamlined. While i do play my fair share of pc games i do everything i can to stick to the idea that i can come home, sit down and play. If i have to leave a game to go mess with save files or drag mods into my game folders I simply won't do it. 

I base my opinion of games on the base game only, if the base game lacks something i put up with it or I stop playing it if the problem is bad enough, no hobby of mine should stress me out.

[Psychotps]

@GrimReaperTaken Well, there is a simplicity to using consoles, but it does limit things in certain cases.

For example, just yesterday I ran into a bug starting a quest (not in ME, different game) I had to talk to a certain person to start the quest, but that opportunity had already passed. So, I was stuck with either skipping that quest entirely or lose 20 levels and 17 hours of gameplay backtracking. So, I ended up using cheats and mods to bypass the requirements and was able to start the quest and continue from there. I wouldn't have been able to do that on console.

Cheats and mods definitely have their place, and not just for "cheating".

It's one reason I don't play console very often.

[Fred_vdp]

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@GrimReaperTaken wrote:

@mcsupersport @Psychotps 
One reason i have always loved consoles is that I don't have to mess with files

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Well, you don't have to. It's all optional.

Since you brought it up earlier, these edits can also be done on Xbox 360 saves. It just takes a few more steps to get the save files from and to the console.

If you don't want to edit saves, that's fine of course. I personally wouldn't edit files just for the IFF situation, but I did fix the Conrad Verner plot flags and I unlocked more casual outfits for Shepard.

[holger1405]

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@GrimReaperTaken wrote:

One reason i have always loved consoles is that I don't have to mess with files, everything is simple and streamlined. While i do play my fair share of pc games i do everything i can to stick to the idea that i can come home, sit down and play. If i have to leave a game to go mess with save files or drag mods into my game folders I simply won't do it. 

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See, this is how different people are, for me the fun really starts when I can mess with game files.  

[Psychotps]

@holger1405

Lol. I'm there with you. A lot of times I like messing with the files to see what I can do. A lot of times it's required because of bugs. Like the whole Conrad Verner paragon bug with ME2. You MUST edit the ME1 save imported into ME2 in order to continue it in the paragon method. The imported ME1 save is flawed. Importing the ME1 save marks it as if you had done both Paragon and Renegade, regardless of which you did. And since both are marked, it defaults as Renegade and you never get the Paragon continuation unless you edit the file and remove it.

ME2 players on Playstation have never even seen the paragon continuation of Conrad. Using a save editor is the only way to correct the bug.

Plus, I just can't play most games unless I can mod them. There are SO MANY mods that are just so incredibly useful. Like the MAP mod for Subnautica. That should have been in the game from the start and it just fits that it should be there. MCCC in Sims 4 is a must because it gives me full control over how the world works.

I don't use a whole lot of mods in Mass Effect tho, mainly things like individual cooldowns for powers and such.

[GrimReaperTaken]

I appreciate the benefits mods bring :P that individual cooldown one for mass effect sounds like a blessing, but would also make biotics super strong right? Spammable and all. 

My issues with mods are more about having to leave the game and mess with files, risking breaking things and then not knowing how to fix them (cause im a noob). Games like civilazation 6 where the mods were brought into the main menu I have actually dabbled with mods. They made it easy to access and install ingame and I was able to grab some quality of life ones, it's great fun and no stress. Also the mods that get officially adopted by the developers like how age of empires forgotten empires was essentially run by modders till they became official. Honestly i reckon those guys are the reason the whole ac franchise is being revived, their work showed there was still a demand for the games. 

My point being though, if mods are officially recognised by developers and implemented in the game with a patch (and some compensation for the modder even if just a shout out) or if mods are accessible through a menu in game I think that opens up the community to them. I'd say a small percentage of people actually use mods overall because it's just too messy, making it easy to access, install/uninstall and use is a great way to bring non tech savvy people like myself into the fold.