[Megathread] Mass Effect 3

[Dezerte]

A new type of FTL that is still based on the same idea as Mass Effect relays could work, staying truer to the science rather than fiction of Mass Effect. Perhaps it would not be as effective and you'd be much more limited in where and how far you could travel.

[May90]

I still maintain we are an exploratory regiment of the Alliance Navy surveying new worlds looking for new places to inhabit and mine. Since let's be honest, Earth is a disaster zone and most previous inhabitable worlds are a complete wreck as well. It would be easier to salvage what we could and start migrating to new planets.

Hmm, didn't they mention that we would be able to play as different races? Alliance Navy doesn't work very well in this case. We are probably either going to play a Spectre again, or some new international organization created after the War, or even as a Shadow Broker agent... I really hope they will finally make humanity totally equal with other races in representation, I am a bit tired of all this "humanity above all" ideology present nearly in all games.

We encounter a new species, find out they are a xenophobic empire and start a proxy war with them. All of this is done without using Mass Relays.

I really hope it will be something more interesting than just one more "Defeat the invading enemy at all costs". Without that, though, it is quite hard to create an epic, massive storyline.

[Lahis]

A new type of FTL that is still based on the same idea as Mass Effect relays could work, staying truer to the science rather than fiction of Mass Effect. Perhaps it would not be as effective and you'd be much more limited in where and how far you could travel.

But you cannot really make shipbased FTL core in the way the Relays work. The Relays create a massless space between the two Relays, granting instantenous movement between them. Such system requires a static anchor point and cannot be installed into a ship.

You propably could make a ship that could act as a movable Relay for other vessels, but it couldn't fling itself trough the massless space it creates. In fact, such vessel would be ideal for charting new systems: drive somewhere with the "slow" FTL drive, spot something worth settling in for, open up the Onboard Relay to the closest Mass Relay in the galaxy and let settlers and colonist pour trough.

[Dhrizzle]

A new type of FTL that is still based on the same idea as Mass Effect relays could work, staying truer to the science rather than fiction of Mass Effect. Perhaps it would not be as effective and you'd be much more limited in where and how far you could travel.

They have that already. Mass Relays work like a wormhole network but ships also use eezo in their regular FTL drives to emulate an inertialess drive (like the ones in Lensman but with more broken science). Top speed is about 5 kilo-lights (Reapers double that) but they need to vent an electromagnetic charge that builds up in the drive core or it will torch the crew and break the ship.

[Nerraw]

Edit: That moment when I realize that I've hit Trekkie levels of nerd when it comes to Mass Effect.

You're not alone!

[Mirishka]

Time for ME4 that means. You know I had a nightmare the other day where I read an article about the release date of ME4 and it was going to launch in November 2016. I seriously hope that it's not going to be late 2016 but rather very early 2016. Sadly 2015 is unrealistic because that would be best.

They said the next Mass Effect is 'still years away' less than 6 months ago. So don't get your hopes up.

[Dhrizzle]

<deleted>/10chars

[May90]

They said the next Mass Effect is 'still years away' less than 6 months ago. So don't get your hopes up.

Well, 6 months ago was 2014, so "still years away" doesn't really exclude late 2016.

[Deleted]

Hmm, didn't they mention that we would be able to play as different races?

Saw an interview with a couple of devs a few months back and they said we'd be playing as a human again :P They did however say that at least some of the alien races we're used to will be making appearances.

[Nerraw]

I wonder if the raloi survived the events of ME3.

[Deleted]

The best setting for ME4 would be a retconned post destruction one with the Geth, EDI and the Mass Relays still intact. I can't really imagine a ME game without Relays so I think that the major ones should still work so that the game isn't completely without Relays but not too many Relays so that the game can also have more focus on FTL and exploration.

[Nerraw]

The best setting for ME4 would be a retconned post destruction one

After all the time they've been taking with this, this would severely disappoint me. I don't care whether they make them converge to a single point with limited difference, but I want that bloody end decision to mean at least something.

[Dezerte]

After all the time they've been taking with this, this would severely disappoint me. I don't care whether they make them converge to a single point with limited difference, but I want that bloody end decision to mean at least something.

It would be a rather daunting task to do so. The Synthesis ending is so wild and major that there is no chance in hell that they'll not retcon the ending.

[May90]

It would be a rather daunting task to do so. The Synthesis ending is so wild and major that there is no chance in hell that they'll not retcon the ending.

They can always come up with a storyline which doesn't really depend on what you chose. They can just focus on, say, Destruction ending and, in case the player chooses another ending, either mention the Reapers flying around a couple of times, or just give everyone green eyes and texture. The Geth can be out of the way just a simple way: by not including them in the game, they can just mention them a few times in case of Synthesis/Control ending. And so on. It is not even that new for Bioware, just look at how easily they dealt with branching fates of characters in DAO/DAA by simply not making them matter that much, except for Leliana for which they chose a converging background.

[Dezerte]

They can always come up with a storyline which doesn't really depend on what you chose. They can just focus on, say, Destruction ending and, in case the player chooses another ending, either mention the Reapers flying around a couple of times, or just give everyone green eyes and texture. The Geth can be out of the way just a simple way: by not including them in the game, they can just mention them a few times in case of Synthesis/Control ending. And so on. It is not even that new for Bioware, just look at how easily they dealt with branching fates of characters in DAO/DAA by simply not making them matter that much, except for Leliana for which they chose a converging background.

I'm sceptical, but we'll know soon enough.

[zealo]

The best setting for ME4 would be a retconned post destruction one with the Geth, EDI and the Mass Relays still intact. I can't really imagine a ME game without Relays so I think that the major ones should still work so that the game isn't completely without Relays but not too many Relays so that the game can also have more focus on FTL and exploration.

A better option would be to not have them retcon more than they absolutely need to and have the survivor races invent new kinds of AI.

I hope they just cut as many ties to the original trilogy as they possibly can, it gives a cleaner state to build the game on with more freedom.

[Nerraw]

Does anyone know if the full collection of EC slides is available somewhere? Been looking for a while but haven't found anything.

[DesoPL]

It's been three years after the ME3 release. I don't know how to feel, in fact ME3 MP is still enjoyable expirience, but well box of shame in Rio is little bit weird. ;/ About new ME i have no hopes etc... Simply for now i do not care much, about Bioware games.

[May90]

Simply for now i do not care much, about Bioware games.

Then why do you post in a Bioware game thread?

[Nazrark]

Then why do you post in a Bioware game thread?

Felt the need to share his thoughts in order to provoke the people in this thread. I mean we have those masochistic people come in every now and then.

On Current Topic: BioWare will have to set up the basic story for the fans waiting eventually. Just maybe the prologue to get things going. But then I realized they will release a novel containing what we want to know.