An open letter to Bioware

[Jfswift]

demonic teddy bear kills *grin*

Honestly, bioware if you're out there. I'd really like to see more character to character conversations / interactions. That's it really. I think the game is fine the way it is.

 

[tikalal]

I would like the menu style (colour scheme etc) to go back to ME1. The abolishment of inventory was a bit of an overreaction. Is Bioware incapable of designing a good inventory?

I would also like to see the same level of detail in the landing/takeoff sequences as ME1, as the reduction of them in ME2 made the worlds feel less connected to the universe and more standalone shooting galleries.

 

[sumanoskae]

How to fix ME2: An open how to fix it guide
1: Make it exactly like ME1
2: Make inventory easier to clean up (not that it was hard already you lazy fucks)
3: Make the Mako handle a bit better
4: DONE

I really hope this is the model that they followed for ME3. ME2 was just an "RPG third person shooter" without any RPG.

(Editors note: please do not consider Conviction to be anywhere near as good as the previous entries in the series)

(EN2: That lazy fucks thing is a joke btw don't anyone get mad)

(EN3: The only good thing about ME2 was the story, other than that it was just Gears of War with the ability to fly a ship around.)

I didn't post conviction as an option because I liked it, I posted it because it's the kind of psychotic power fantasy that Mass Effect tries to do with Sheppard.

I just think that it's particular flavor of stealth would fit Mass Effects heroic tone. Not necessarily because I even like the heroic tone(Sheppard's "Marty Sue" aspects annoy me to no end), but because I can't expect the Devs to change their artistic vision of the game.

If they don't have their hearts in it, neither can we

 

[RatRace123]

I hadn't actually given much thought to what I'd like changed for ME3, I guess now's as good a time as any.

First off I'd say have the pacing of the story be more open ended like it was in the original the fact that ME2 locked you into the story at certain points (Horizon, the collector ship) made it feel constricted, I understand there's a need for urgency but it could've been handled better.

Also I felt that having some party members be unavailable for recruitment until after Horizon was a bit messy. Especially because fan favorites like Legion Tali and Thane were acquired so late and they were originally planned to be available much earlier.

I'd say have every recruitment mission be open to players after they complete the prologue mission(s) and let the players decide who to get first. Then after, say 4 people are recruited you give them the option to go to a story planet like Horizon. They beat it, they continue gathering allies.

Bring back the classic Bioware style. Mass Effect 2's story missions were mostly just a bunch of shooting gallery levels, I missed the larger mission structure that's found in literally every other Bioware game.
No level in Mass Effect 2 (save for the suicide mission) was as awesome as Virmire was in Mass Effect 1.

Make party members die regardless of our efforts, or make it harder to save them. The risk in Mass Effect 2's suicide mission was actually next to nothing once you upgraded everything and knew who to pick for what, it made repeated playthroughs a breeze.
When it takes more effort and tactical thinking to get everyone killed than it does to keep them all alive, then you have some problems. Plus the reason Virmire is remembered as one of my all time favorite missions/quests/levels in any game ever was because of that heart breaking choice, and the encounter with Saren after it.

Which leads to this: Bring back another proper antagonist, Saren is one of my favorite game villains because you got the sense that this guy was everywhere. He was an enemy you could go up against face to face. He's nowhere near as tough or threatening as a Reaper, but because he can face you on a personal level and he served as either your polar opposite or a glimpse into your future it makes him a much more effective villain. Sovereign was pulling the strings but it's Saren who fought you every step of the way.

Bring back choices that mean something, sparing or killing the rachni, saving or wiping out Zhu's hope, saving or killing the council. These choices all had severe consequences and there was about one per story mission, and a lot in the sidequests, I think Mass Effect 2 had maybe 5 of these choices throughout the entire game that really felt really like they had meaning, and one of them was in a DLC. That should be fixed.

More Party member conversations, I recall having at most 5 discussions with party members in ME2. Even Mass Effcet one only had a handful of conversations, though each ME1 party member had more to say than any ME2 one. This probably had more to do with the fact that ME2 had double the amount of party members of ME1, but Dragon Age gave you 10 party members and they all had like 20 different conversation topics each.
Just a chance for Bioware to show off its writing muscle and for us as players to get to know the party members more.
I'd also suggest an approval system like Dragon Age, but I can understand if they want to keep Mass Effect's style seperate.

This one's merely nitpicking but, the character creation system for Male Shepards sucks, I can never make a guy that doesn't look like ass ugly. This has been a problem for both games and I think it has to do with the options for hair and eye types. Not really a huge problem but it bugs me.

More weapon, armor and item choice. Simply put, the vareity is nice. Also, it'd be cool if we could customize our allie's armor in the same way we could Shepard's.

Another nitpicky one, we got loyalty missions as the story progressed, this isn't much of a problem but I think it'd flow better if we got loyalty missions after we talked to our party members and got to know them a bit more so that they'd trust us enough to ask for our help. Again this one kinda stems from the fact that at least 4 of the party members were aquired much later in the story.

That's about it, I guess all my problems with Mass Effect stemmed mostly the story and mission structure. I can deal with gameplay issues but ME2's story and pacing, I felt, weren't as good as ME1.
Wow, I guess I did have a lot of ideas on improvement.

 

[sumanoskae]

I do agree with the OP - having a stealth option or at least something as a third option to "Let's sit down and talk about this" or "Rawr Shepard smash". Melee kills would be nice, but in some ways I suspect that they wouldn't work for a lot of enemies i.e. a thresher maw.

Maybe once they're downed you could finish them in a sequence similar to Lair of the Shadow Brokers final boss.

That would make the kill feel more realistic(I lost count of how many ships I killed by shooting them with my pistol)

 

[sumanoskae]

I agree with some of these, but, in no particular order:

Mass Effect is a strictly single player game, which means you don't have to worry as much about balancing issues.

So very, very wrong.
It is a singleplayer game where you have companions who also use the available classes (or uniques of their own in most cases) alongside who you will be fighting and who you will be comparing yourself to because none of the enemies have a power level of over 9000.
They obviously didn't worry about balancing much for Dragon Age, and that game was so hilariously unbalanced between classes it just wasn't fun (or playable in late game) if you were not a mage or two-handed weapon user. Don't turn ME into a badly designed RPG like DA.

On weapon variety, here's my idea:

During your journey you get weapons a little more often as in ME2, which was a bit overly light on them. Then, you can buy licenses at vendors ME1-style so you can choose a variant customized with parts from those companies and a unique look, giving large selection with an easy menu (Weapons > Pistol, Assault Rifle, Shotgun, etc.> Assault Rifle A, +20% reload speed, -8% accuracy, AR B, +5% damage, +12% recoil, etc., at most 6-8 variants per weapon in addition to vanilla guns).

Of course, making the entire game environment climbable just so one of the six classes can use that feature doesn't seem like a feasible investment.

I do like the idea of biotic powers as a main weapon instead of their current supporting role. It might actually make me impressed with the next sexy-female-biotic-with-romance-subplot's powers.

30x yes on the visceral feedback.

Charm / Intimidate does need reworking.

Overall, agree with some things, disagree with others. Happy New Year, by the way.

I like your idea for weapons a lot, do you mind if I post it as a revision under your name and say something like "His/Her idea is better, so go with that one".

I figure maybe I can get a lot of requests in and then post this on the Bioware forums, as this is very helpful in terms of what's actually realistic to expect

 

[sumanoskae]

I hadn't actually given much thought to what I'd like changed for ME3, I guess now's as good a time as any.

First off I'd say have the pacing of the story be more open ended like it was in the original the fact that ME2 locked you into the story at certain points (Horizon, the collector ship) made it feel constricted, I understand there's a need for urgency but it could've been handled better.

Also I felt that having some party members be unavailable for recruitment until after Horizon was a bit messy. Especially because fan favorites like Legion Tali and Thane were acquired so late and they were originally planned to be available much earlier.

I'd say have every recruitment mission be open to players after they complete the prologue mission(s) and let the players decide who to get first. Then after, say 4 people are recruited you give them the option to go to a story planet like Horizon. They beat it, they continue gathering allies.

Bring back the classic Bioware style. Mass Effect 2's story missions were mostly just a bunch of shooting gallery levels, I missed the larger mission structure that's found in literally every other Bioware game.
No level in Mass Effect 2 (save for the suicide mission) was as awesome as Virmire was in Mass Effect 1.

Make party members die regardless of our efforts, or make it harder to save them. The risk in Mass Effect 2's suicide mission was actually next to nothing once you upgraded everything and knew who to pick for what, it made repeated playthroughs a breeze.
When it takes more effort and tactical thinking to get everyone killed than it does to keep them all alive, then you have some problems. Plus the reason Virmire is remembered as one of my all time favorite missions/quests/levels in any game ever was because of that heart breaking choice, and the encounter with Saren after it.

Which leads to this: Bring back another proper antagonist, Saren is one of my favorite game villains because you got the sense that this guy was everywhere. He was an enemy you could go up against face to face. He's nowhere near as tough or threatening as a Reaper, but because he can face you on a personal level and he served as either your polar opposite or a glimpse into your future it makes him a much more effective villain. Sovereign was pulling the strings but it's Saren who fought you every step of the way.

Bring back choices that mean something, sparing or killing the rachni, saving or wiping out Zhu's hope, saving or killing the council. These choices all had severe consequences and there was about one per story mission, and a lot in the sidequests, I think Mass Effect 2 had maybe 5 of these choices through out the entire game that really felt really like they had meaning, and one of them was in a DLC. That should be fixed.

More Party member conversations, I recall having at most 5 discussions with party members in ME2. Even Mass Effet one only had a handful of conversations, though each ME1 party member had more to say than any ME2 one. This probably had more to do with the fact that ME2 had double the amount of party members of ME1, but Dragon Age gave you 10 party members and they all had like 20 different conversation topics each.
Just a chance for Bioware to show off its writing muscle and for us as players to get to know the party members more.
I'd also suggest an approval system like Dragon Age, but I can understand if they want to keep Mass Effect's style seperate.

This one's merely nitpicking but, the character creation system for Male Shepards sucks, I can never make a guy that doesn't look like ass ugly. This has been a problem for both games and I think it has to do with the options for hair and eye types. Not really a huge problem but it bugs me.

More weapon, armor and item choice. Simply put, the vareity is nice. Also, it'd be cool if we could customize our allie's armor in the same way we could Shepard's.

Another nitpicky one, we got loyalty missions as the story progressed, this isn't much of a problem but I think it'd flow better if we got loyalty missions after we talked to our party members and got to know them a bit more so that they'd trust us enough to ask for our help. Again this one kinda stems from the fact that at least 4 of the party members were aquired much later in the story.

That's about it, I guess all my problems with Mass Effect stemmed mostly the story and mission structure. I can deal with gameplay issues but ME2's story and pacing, I felt, weren't as good.

Some of this is very good, it's also very realistic, do you mind if i post some of this under your name in the OP?. some of this might actually make it into the game

 

[Saintcole]

You forgot to add legion and joker for romance options

 

[AMMO Kid]

I'm a diehard ME fan {beat it on Insanity and all that), but in all honesty, as soon as you put how you thought that ME2 had better combat I seriously got turned off to the whole thing. Screw ammo and give us back our overheating weapons dangit!!!

 

[RatRace123]

Oh, and the Youtube video was showing that a paragon-esque Conrad did exist at some point, but was never implemented.

No matter what you did in the first Mass Effect, you get renegade Conrad for ME2.

There was a glitch with that transfer, the file always read Shepard doing the renegade persuade on Conrad in ME1, something about the renegade option showing up first in the code and cancelling out the paragon one.
It's odd that they haven't been able to fix it.

 

[RatRace123]

Some of this is very good, it's also very realistic, do you mind if i post some of this under your name in the OP?. some of this might actually make it into the game

Sure, go ahead.

 

[Irridium]

Oh, and the Youtube video was showing that a paragon-esque Conrad did exist at some point, but was never implemented.

No matter what you did in the first Mass Effect, you get renegade Conrad for ME2.

There was a glitch with that transfer, the file always read Shepard doing the renegade persuade on Conrad in ME1, something about the renegade option showing up first in the code and cancelling out the paragon one.
It's odd that they haven't been able to fix it.

Really? Huh, I figured it was cut. Well this is interesting. I wonder how this will effect ME3 Conrad.

 

[sumanoskae]

Alot of good ideas here, i especially liked the paragon and renegade ascepts, in which it doesn't have such a large effect on the end-game, but i think they should keep conversation enders (push out of window etc). Also not so sure about the gore, theres a fine line between useful (visual feedback about damage) or ridiculous (splatterhouse), but some really good ideas, well done.

Is that better?

 

[bushwhacker2k]

You inspire me to write about what I want to write about.

I hear that

Not to ride off this forum but if anyone is interested in critiquing game ideas, respond here:

http://www.massivefps.com/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,6/catid,8/func,view/id,2480/

 

[Zephirius]

Snip.

I like your idea for weapons a lot, do you mind if I post it as a revision under your name and say something like "His/Her idea is better, so go with that one".

I figure maybe I can get a lot of requests in and then post this on the Bioware forums, as this is very helpful in terms of what's actually realistic to expect

Be my guest.

It is true that platforming would be difficult and perhaps underused.

Maybe just some alternative paths above the established(Similar to Thanes Loyalty Mission), Engineers could hack them as well, but Infiltrators would have the advantage. You could even send certain members of your squad towards different parts of a mission. That would also be helpful to make every member of the team useful, and do away with the "Elite Specialists" who spend all their time presumably admiring the Normandy's paint job

I do like the idea of having your crew members actually be capable of independent action more than once per game. Can't say I have anything else to add. Good luck with your suggestions!

 

[sumanoskae]

As of late I have mad a few revisions and posted this on the Bioware forums. I had some issues with finding the correct area for posting, but hopefully if it gets taken down I can find the correct are. As of now it's in the Mass Effect 2 Official Campaign Quests and Storylines (Spoilers Warning), I saw a similar thread there, and nobody complained(So far)

 

[Blue_vision]

Bugger off. Calling for the dropping of this stupid double standard where humanoid enemies just fall over when killed versus robots that can get destroyed/taken apart in hundreds of ways is anything but childish. I'll give you a challenge - tell me why anyone would think the combat in Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas is fun. Could it have anything to do with heads being blown off as you shoot them? Because the shooting mechanics really weren't good, I'm just so lost here.

Yeah, I found FO3's combat to be pretty boring myself. And the heads blowing apart there was pretty lame/childish too.

 

[u4527646]

One last thing. In my opinion, you really REALLY need drop the Paragon and Renegade as Charm and Intimidate ratings. Why?, because it conflicts with the games idea of moral choice(Good isn't good unless it thinks it'll go unrewarded). To (Sort of) quote Mr. Croshaw, I'm not thinking "What would I do in this situation?", I'm thinking "Which option is going to give me the most dickhead(Renegade) points, cause I need them to persuade Tali and Legion to not tear each others intestines out?", by introducing a reward that only we as players can see and acknowledge you force us to make decisions that we wouldn't otherwise and disconnect us from the gaming world by changing Sheppard's character in a way that isn't genuine, thus we no longer feel like Sheppard is us, and we're reminded that we're playing a game. It also destroys the ability to be neutral because if you're not all Paragon or all Renegade then you don't get the persuasion options. See, it's really just one choice at the beginning of the game, do you want to be The Punisher or Superman

HOORAY, this the most annoying thing about this awesome series, I cannot stand how much it effects my "becoming" Shepard