Mass Effect Andromeda: To Boldly Go

[Psyren]

It's N7 Day and we just got bombarded with ME Andromeda info, so I say, no time like the present to make a new Mass Effect thread. The old one I could locate is well past the necromancy threshold and there don't seem to be any others active in the subforum, so I'll link to it here since it also contains a trail back to all the other ones.

First, today's shiny new trailer, which has more story meat and gives us a hint as to the kinds of antagonist(s?) we'll be facing:



Stuff we know, spoilered for those who prefer more mystery:

Spoiler: Premise, Character and Gameplay Stuff

Show

Setting / Premise

- The "Andromeda Initiative" was actually started long prior to the events of ME3 - the original goal was merely to explore and colonize our neighboring galaxy Andromeda. However the Reaper invasion added far more urgency to the mission and rapidly pushed up the timetable.

- There are 4 arks rather than one, each containing a different race or set of races from the Milky Way. (One would imagine the Turians got their own.)

- Each Ark is led by a "Pathfinder." Our father (more on that later) is the Pathfinder of the Human Ark, so you can bet we end up with that title at some point. (The real reason for this of course is to give everyone we meet a title to use for us in spoken dialogue, similar to "Warden", "Herald" or "Inquisitor" )

- Humanity's Ark (the Hyperion, as you can see in the trailer) arrives off-course, thus missing the others and the rendezvous hub, at least initially. (USA! USA!)

- Said hub is called The Nexus, and it was a large forward vessel / station sent ahead a decent time ago to pave the way for the Arks. We'll meet the other three Arks there; getting un-lost is probably the Act 1 "Finding Skyhold" extended tutorial phase.

- You'll also have a frigate called the Tempest, to be your "Normandy." There will be no loading screens inside.

- The beings on each Ark were in cryosleep. It's unclear how much time has passed since the events of ME3, though if that voice-over in the trailer is to be believed, the answer is probably "a lot."

- Confirmed races returning (so far) are Turians, Asari, Salarians and Krogan.

- The main antagonists will be an alien race called the "Kett."


Protagonist / Characters

- No more Paragon/Renegade.

- You're human, of course.

- Your surname is Ryder (an homage to Sally Ride.) Default names are Scott and Sarah, while your father (the human Pathfinder) is named Alec.

- Unlike Shepard, there are two Ryder siblings - a brother and a sister. Therefore, whichever gender you don't pick will still be in the game as an NPC (though probably not a squadmate, for reasons.) Similar to Bethany, Leandra, and Carver, there will be some looks customization (and likely some commonalities, like skin color?) across all three.

- Also unlike Shepard, you're considerably greener / more unproven. Basically, Bad Stuff Happens and the title (and responsibility) of the Pathfinder gets passed from your much more capable father's hands to yours. Shepard starts his game as a proven badass from level 1 - you are not.

- Alec (your dad) is voiced by Clancy Brown, aka Lex Luthor (or Mr. Krabs, depending on which you watch more.) I assume those are his silky tones in the trailer.

- There will be more romances in Andromeda than there were in the ME trilogy. There will also be far more squad dialogue; the squadmate with the least dialogue in Andromeda will have more than the one with the most in ME2.

- There will be more games (or at least the potential for more games) after MEA. There is also a NG+ mode.


Gameplay

- Andromeda is trying to combine what worked best from all three of the other games - notably, the sense of exploration/Mako from ME1, the squadmate breadth (and loyalty missions!) from ME2, and of course, the streamlined gameplay and multiplayer of ME3.

- Classes are GONE! Instead, mix and match various abilities (and weapons) to create your own builds.

- There are however, passives that reward a specific playstyle; these are called "profiles" and they are where the class names come back. For example, there could be a profile called "Adept" that rewards you for running with a biotic-heavy focus and light weaponry.

- There will be a respec of some kind.

- Abilities will have individual timers instead of global cooldowns. (Hello rotations and procs)

- There's a jetpack!

- In addition to some of our favorite guns, melee weapons like swords and hammers are being added.

- Cover is dynamic/contextual rather than button-initiated. Think The Last of Us instead of Gears of War.

- Cover is still important but the goal is to get us moving around the battlefield more.

- Our new vehicle is called the Nomad, and will be a zippier version of the Mako but with no weapons.

- Did I mention there's a jetpack?!

So feel free to discuss, or just talk about Mass Effect in general.

[Dienekes]

In whose drug addled mind is the Mako "what worked best" in ME1?

Also, still no confirmation of the Elcor in an ark, meaning even less of a chance for the long awaited Elcor squadmate.

[Psyren]

In whose drug addled mind is the Mako "what worked best" in ME1?

Point I think they meant more conceptually, i.e. the idea of exploring and a large(ish) playground to do it in, rather than the drunk-shopping-cart-execution we ended up with.

Also, still no confirmation of the Elcor in an ark, meaning even less of a chance for the long awaited Elcor squadmate.

I think they're boned, and the Volus too

[Corvus]

After ME3 I'm reserving judgement. No pre-ordering and no purchase until I have heard back about it from trusted sources - ie players, not 'reporters'.

Hey, I happen to like the Mako.

If there are no volus or elcor I'll be sad. Or hanar. We need our jellies.

I hope one of the system they bring back from ME1 is the lack of ammo. Introducing ammo made zero sense. In ME1 a lack of fire disciple meant your gun was out of action for a few seconds. In ME2/3 it meant you were left with a club. No soldier would want that. Plus there would be the whole extra and unnecessary layer of logistics it would create. They are going to a new galaxy as well, one that you suspect would be technologically incompatible with the gear they took - if the ammo of the the new galaxy magically works in their guns then suspension of dis-belief is going to be shattered.

Unless Andromeda is populated by races from the Milky Way that did the same thing - decided the best way to avoid the Reapers was to flee to it.

[Dienekes]

Point I think they meant more conceptually, i.e. the idea of exploring and a large(ish) playground to do it in, rather than the drunk-shopping-cart-execution we ended up with.

Which is more the pity. As exploration seems to hold my interest for all of, say, 5 minutes before I get bored and go do something else. Oh, what's over that next hill? Looks like another hill. Yep. That's another hill. Woo.

And don't even get me started on driving games. I ****ing hate driving games. It's the reason I haven't even bothered to pick up that last Arkham game despite loving the first two. I don't want to drive in the damn batmobile. That thing looks annoying as hell, especially since the gliding mechanics were so much fun in the last two games.

I think they're boned, and the Volus too

Weird, you'd think the Turians would at least bring the Volus along, since they were their client race and everything.

After ME3 I'm reserving judgement. No pre-ordering and no purchase until I have heard back about it from trusted sources - ie players, not 'reporters'.

That's fair, though personally I really enjoyed ME3 right up until the ending. Some of the moments between Shep and the crew are some of the best writing Bioware's done.

Hey, I happen to like the Mako.

We will never see eye to eye on video games, ever.

I hope one of the system they bring back from ME1 is the lack of ammo. Introducing ammo made zero sense. In ME1 a lack of fire disciple meant your gun was out of action for a few seconds. In ME2/3 it meant you were left with a club. No soldier would want that. Plus there would be the whole extra and unnecessary layer of logistics it would create. They are going to a new galaxy as well, one that you suspect would be technologically incompatible with the gear they took - if the ammo of the the new galaxy magically works in their guns then suspension of dis-belief is going to be shattered.

Honestly, I preferred the ammo. There was nothing fun about waiting for your gun to cool down. I get that it makes 0 sense in lore, but really, if they decide to bring back the heat thing, at least make the cool down as fast as a normal reload. It's not like running out of ammo was ever really a problem in the game unless you were a sniper who never ran to pick up heat sinks. And, who cares about those dirty snipers anyway?

[5ColouredWalker]

I'm on the same boat in regards to me3 making me not preorder, but I admit to really liking what I see.

For example, biotic infiltrator with automatics, I've always wanted to do that, and a classles system works for that.

[VoxRationis]

Honestly, I preferred the ammo. There was nothing fun about waiting for your gun to cool down. I get that it makes 0 sense in lore, but really, if they decide to bring back the heat thing, at least make the cool down as fast as a normal reload. It's not like running out of ammo was ever really a problem in the game unless you were a sniper who never ran to pick up heat sinks. And, who cares about those dirty snipers anyway?

I'm going to have to go with Corvus here. Whether or not things make sense in lore is a big deal for me, and in any case, even on its own merits the no-ammunition matter worked well—it made the game different from a lot of shooters and helped create the sense of wonder and progress that ME1 was all about. And ammunition became a problem in certain situations—the last fight in ME2 was an exercise in ammunition depletion, made worse by the fact that even though heat sinks were universal, they couldn't be transferred between weapons once they were picked up. Collecting ammunition slowed down one's progress through levels, which was jarring because many levels tried so hard to impart a sense of urgency.

Edit: Also, I'm really skeptical about this. The trailer did not do justice to what I liked about Mass Effect. It was too flashy, too dramatic. Gone was the Star Trek feel of adventure and progress, or of choice—there's just some aliens that feel like killing us for some reason. The trailer focused entirely on conflict. There's no soft techno, or even the exciting orchestral themes of the later games—instead we get repetitive Trailer Foghorn Sounds. No focus on the exploration and interaction—just action sequences of people alternately getting up and getting knocked to the floor (a gripe I had about ME3 was how much time you ended up hobbled, acting out semi-cutscenes).

I do like the idea of getting to explore a new universe at the head of a colonization effort. That could end up being really well-implemented. Or it could end up like ME3's War Assets.

[Inarius]

After ME3 I'm reserving judgement. No pre-ordering and no purchase until I have heard back about it from trusted sources - ie players, not 'reporters'.

Hey, I happen to like the Mako.

If there are no volus or elcor I'll be sad. Or hanar. We need our jellies.

I hope one of the system they bring back from ME1 is the lack of ammo. Introducing ammo made zero sense. In ME1 a lack of fire disciple meant your gun was out of action for a few seconds. In ME2/3 it meant you were left with a club. No soldier would want that. Plus there would be the whole extra and unnecessary layer of logistics it would create. They are going to a new galaxy as well, one that you suspect would be technologically incompatible with the gear they took - if the ammo of the the new galaxy magically works in their guns then suspension of dis-belief is going to be shattered.

Unless Andromeda is populated by races from the Milky Way that did the same thing - decided the best way to avoid the Reapers was to flee to it.

In ME2 it was explained pretty badly, but when talking to Conrad in ME3 it gets explained a little better why they would switch to thermal clips. Biggest reason? More stopping power probably because of higher muzzle velocities which would generate higher amounts of heat. On top of that most militaries would probably equip their regular troops with the lowest tier of weapons which did in fact have heat issues after shooting 30 or 40 rounds. Granted it has a lot of logistic issues and those will be a big issue for Andromeda.

[Maryring]

What an awful trailer. I want Mass Effect: Andromeda. Not Battlefield: Andromeda. Still gonna wait for player feedback before I pick up the game. I'm one of the many who loved ME3 right up until the ending at which point my enjoyment disappeared.

[Morty]

The trailer doesn't really give us anything substantial, but what it shows about the antagonists isn't super-promising. Vaguely Turian-shaped aliens with growling voices? Hopefully there's a lot more to them.

I'm glad they're dropping classes, though. They had to keep them in the original trilogy to let Shepard keep the same one throughout all games, but there was no reason now.

Melee weapons are a curious thing. Will they be an auxiliary option, like the omni-blade in ME3, or will you be able to make a close combat specialist?

I'm automatically sceptical of any game marketing itself as focusing on exploration. But then, the open world of Dragon Age: Inquisition wasn't as bad as I'd feared, so I'm keeping an open mind. I just hope they don't add crafting or something.

[VoxRationis]

@Morty: Yeah, right now the antagonists all seem to be modeled after Saren. Not just turians in general, but Saren in particular. Which is kind of dull. I guess we're reliving the First Contact War?

Being able to make a melee weapon specialist would be kind of odd. It would be a symptom of the decreasing hardness of the Mass Effect series over time.

On a side note: Does "Pathfinder" seem like an odd title to anyone else? Like something better suited to a fantasy setting (or at least a sci-fi setting where the human culture doesn't have direct descent from modern Western civilization)? While the specific task of building an intergalactic sleeper ship to ferry a portion of humanity away from imminent destruction is unprecedented, the basic idea of "we have a ship, it is crewed by a captain" seems applicable anyway. Maybe bump them up to an admiral or something if you want to make sure they have appropriate authority. Possibly "Governor" if they're meant to be an administrator of a nascent colony.

@Psyren: So these people left the Milky Way during ME3? Depending on how that game ended, that could be kind of ironic. "We left our home to flee the destruction of our entire species..." *broods* "Hey, guys! Nice to see you made it to Andromeda! We beat the Reapers and managed to reverse-engineer their better FTL drives to beat you here. Anyway, you need a briefing on 200 years of technological development, and here's a map of all the places we've already colonized in this galaxy."

[Fri]

No, pathfinder is an actual job in military. I like the title, it give a sense of frontier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinder_(military)

Why I don't like is the rest of the trailer. It's just so generic "epic" sci fi. When I first heard about the premise, I was excited, I thought it'd be frontier adventure in space, no "save the universe from evil we accidentally awaken" or whatever, we have enough of that in mass effect. With personal level stories. But from the trailer it looks like... generic same 'save the galaxy' epic adventure like last one...

Also, on late frontier ships.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Centaurus

[Hunter Noventa]

I'm on the side of 'waiting for more information, not pre-ordering.' It's also really hard to get behind the fact that it'll be an Origin exclusive title on PC, because I hate Origin, so I might not even buy it at all.

[Psyren]

@Psyren: So these people left the Milky Way during ME3? Depending on how that game ended, that could be kind of ironic. "We left our home to flee the destruction of our entire species..." *broods* "Hey, guys! Nice to see you made it to Andromeda! We beat the Reapers and managed to reverse-engineer their better FTL drives to beat you here. Anyway, you need a briefing on 200 years of technological development, and here's a map of all the places we've already colonized in this galaxy."

By my understanding, the 4 Arks did leave during the big war. The Nexus meanwhile left some time before, possibly even prior to Sovereign, purely as an exploratory thing. It's all a bit unclear at this point.

As for whether Andromeda even knows what Reapers are, remains to be seen. Remember, the Catalyst's experiment was focused on the Milky Way because that's where its creators, the Leviathans, lived.

For example, biotic infiltrator with automatics, I've always wanted to do that, and a classles system works for that.

You can do that right now actually (Asari Huntress + SMG.) But yes, I'm excited about classless too.

And ammunition became a problem in certain situations—the last fight in ME2 was an exercise in ammunition depletion, made worse by the fact that even though heat sinks were universal, they couldn't be transferred between weapons once they were picked up.

How was ammo a problem in the final fight? The Human Reaper was dropping heavy weapon cases like candy, and those refill every gun you have. You can literally Cain him in the face twice, to say nothing of your lesser guns.

It was too flashy, too dramatic. Gone was the Star Trek feel of adventure and progress, or of choice—there's just some aliens that feel like killing us for some reason.

The trailer doesn't really give us anything substantial, but what it shows about the antagonists isn't super-promising. Vaguely Turian-shaped aliens with growling voices? Hopefully there's a lot more to them.

I do want to point out that they've said the Kett design is meant to be more humanoid, not as completely alien/hostile as the Collectors were. The designers want us to "empathize with them." So I expect that not all of them will hate us and there will be potential there for an amicable resolution and for us to flex our Federation-style diplomatic muscles. But conflict at the start is understandable; we are arriving on their shores en masse and starting to hoover up resources, and these people might be like the Protheans/Turians where "bellicose" is the default setting. I fully expect some big parallels to get drawn to the Refugee Crisis, which I won't discuss further here.

I'm on the side of 'waiting for more information, not pre-ordering.' It's also really hard to get behind the fact that it'll be an Origin exclusive title on PC, because I hate Origin, so I might not even buy it at all.

Honestly the Origin hate is pretty passé, they dumped SecuRom ages ago and they were the ones who pushed Steam into offering full refunds by doing it first. They also have routine free game promotions; I picked up Jade Empire for free, Nox, Crusader, and Dungeon Keeper, and there'll certainly be more.

[Rodin]

I'm on the side of 'waiting for more information, not pre-ordering.' It's also really hard to get behind the fact that it'll be an Origin exclusive title on PC, because I hate Origin, so I might not even buy it at all.

Meh, you barely have to touch Origin to play it. Bioware games are literally the only thing I have on there, and just logging in and jumping straight to my library is easy enough. It's a PITA compared to getting through another service, but if the game turns out good it's certainly not a factor in whether I play it.

I'll probably pick up Andromeda regardless, although I might not pre-order simply because I pretty much never do anyway. I don't feel the need to have a wait and see attitude, because as poor as the main plotlines of Bioware games have been getting the character interactions have only been getting better, and that's what I play Bioware games for in the first place.

All that said, I really hope they find a decent balance between Mass Effect's rail-shooter design and Inquisition's "single-player MMO" design. Both are okay for what they are, but still underachieved in general.

[Psyren]

The other good thing about Origin is that you can add those games to your Steam Library - Steam will then launch Origin and the game for you. You literally never have to even see the Origin client if you don't want to (unlike, say, UPlay.)

ME's rail shooter was indeed a problem - their biggest limitation was last-gen, hence needing to split both sequels across 2 discs. With current gen storage they should have considerably more breathing room.

[Morty]

@Morty: Yeah, right now the antagonists all seem to be modeled after Saren. Not just turians in general, but Saren in particular. Which is kind of dull. I guess we're reliving the First Contact War?

I do want to point out that they've said the Kett design is meant to be more humanoid, not as completely alien/hostile as the Collectors were. The designers want us to "empathize with them." So I expect that not all of them will hate us and there will be potential there for an amicable resolution and for us to flex our Federation-style diplomatic muscles. But conflict at the start is understandable; we are arriving on their shores en masse and starting to hoover up resources, and these people might be like the Protheans/Turians where "bellicose" is the default setting. I fully expect some big parallels to get drawn to the Refugee Crisis, which I won't discuss further here.

Yes, we need to see what their actual motives are. Their graphic/vocal design doesn't make a good first impression, but there's a lot of directions they could've taken.

Being able to make a melee weapon specialist would be kind of odd. It would be a symptom of the decreasing hardness of the Mass Effect series over time.

It would be, which is why I expect they'll be back-up weapons. Now I'm imagining going all Space Swashbuckler, with a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other. It has a certain appeal. If perhaps smacking too much of WH40K.

As far as preordering goes, I don't do it on a general basis anyway - with some exceptions. I just don't see much of a point in the practice in the era of digital distribution.

[Psyren]

Backup melee is a certainty given the usefulness of the omniblade for dramatic cutscene kills. I mean, shooting Kai Leng would have been nice and all, but straight up impaling him before the badass one-liner was easily far more dramatic.

Primary melee wouldn't surprise me either though. The N7 Shadow and the Krogan Warlord were both very well received in the MP (sword and hammer respectively.)

[VoxRationis]

As for whether Andromeda even knows what Reapers are, remains to be seen. Remember, the Catalyst's experiment was focused on the Milky Way because that's where its creators, the Leviathans, lived.

I meant that the Milky Way galaxy had recovered and colonized Andromeda in the hundreds of years between ME3 and ME:A, on account of having a bunch of advanced technology lying around with the central enemy defeated. 200 years is a long time for a scientifically active, industrialized society.

[Morty]

Backup melee is a certainty given the usefulness of the omniblade for dramatic cutscene kills. I mean, shooting Kai Leng would have been nice and all, but straight up impaling him before the badass one-liner was easily far more dramatic.

Primary melee wouldn't surprise me either though. The N7 Shadow and the Krogan Warlord were both very well received in the MP (sword and hammer respectively.)

I'm not ruling it out, no. I'm sort of hoping for it, even, since more options is always good. As long as it works and doesn't break such verisimilitude as exists in Mass Effect.

It's kind of curious that Mass Effect is much more willing to break the mould than Dragon Age. Is it just a sci-fi versus fantasy thing?

[Psyren]

I meant that the Milky Way galaxy had recovered and colonized Andromeda in the hundreds of years between ME3 and ME:A, on account of having a bunch of advanced technology lying around with the central enemy defeated. 200 years is a long time for a scientifically active, industrialized society.

While that's... possible, I don't think any post-war Milky Way folks will be coming to Andromeda any time soon, as that would force Bioware to canonize one of the endings. As far as the Andromeda folks will be concerned, they're it. Rather, I'd bet the timeskip will purely be "this is how long it takes to even get to Andromeda since there are no Mass Relays between the two galaxies, and that's why we need cryosleep to get there."

What would be interesting though is if an offshoot of the Geth show up. They're certainly popular enough to be kept around in the series, and they can also easily survive the trip. They can also propagate themselves endlessly if they just have enough hardware to live on.

It's kind of curious that Mass Effect is much more willing to break the mould than Dragon Age. Is it just a sci-fi versus fantasy thing?

Sci-fi actually has more flexibility than magic in some regards. It's a lot easier to justify swords in a sci-fi game than it is to justify guns in a fantasy game.

[Dienekes]

Sci-fi actually has more flexibility than magic in some regards. It's a lot easier to justify swords in a sci-fi game than it is to justify guns in a fantasy game.

It's really not hard to justify at all. Guns were around earlier than most the armor in Dragon Age. That's just Bioware showing how little research they do or their utter apathy toward military history. Whichever you think their motivations are.

As to people not pre-ordering, good. Pre-ordering is almost always silly. If the game is good you'll get it a week or so later. Nothing lost. If the game is surprisingly bad you save yourself some money. And all you lose is usually some pretty meaningless cosmetics.

As to the trailer one thing that interested me was the monstrous not-Thresher Maw seemed mechanical. It'd be interesting if the galaxy we're going to is overrun by AI. But it's probably not considering that villain.

The trailer is just a bunch of explosions spoken over by best Lex Luther, but it's a trailer. For a video game. That tends to be the case for a majority of them. But what they're saying about companions dialogue has me hopeful. Bioware writing is always best when exploring their companions and creating a sense of brotherhood rather than their actual main storyline.

[Rodin]

It's really not hard to justify at all. Guns were around earlier than most the armor in Dragon Age. That's just Bioware showing how little research they do or their utter apathy toward military history. Whichever you think their motivations are.

I'd go for C) The fantasy stories they draw from/are trying to emulate do not have guns, and people don't read fantasy for guns. How many D&D parties do you see with an arquebusier along to provide fire support? The lack of guns in a fantasy setting is just one of those breaks from reality that doesn't bother me, especially when adding them to the magic of the setting is an absolute gamebreaker. Semi-automatic crossbows like Bianca do just as good a job at filling the role without taking away from the swords and sorcery feel.

[Dienekes]

I'd go for C) The fantasy stories they draw from/are trying to emulate do not have guns, and people don't read fantasy for guns. How many D&D parties do you see with an arquebusier along to provide fire support? The lack of guns in a fantasy setting is just one of those breaks from reality that doesn't bother me, especially when adding them to the magic of the setting is an absolute gamebreaker. Semi-automatic crossbows like Bianca do just as good a job at filling the role without taking away from the swords and sorcery feel.

3 of 5. But my players are weird.

[Morty]

I wasn't really talking about guns in fantasy and swords in sci-fi - both things have their place, but won't appeal to everyone. I mean that Mass Effect's designers are willing to experiment and change the formula much more than Dragon Age's. Mass Effect has increased its character building variety over the games - arguably so between ME1 and ME2, but definitely in ME3. Dragon Age has mostly reduced it.

[Dienekes]

I wasn't really talking about guns in fantasy and swords in sci-fi - both things have their place, but won't appeal to everyone. I mean that Mass Effect's designers are willing to experiment and change the formula much more than Dragon Age's. Mass Effect has increased its character building variety over the games - arguably so between ME1 and ME2, but definitely in ME3. Dragon Age has mostly reduced it.

I don't think that has anything to do with sci fi and fantasy so much as what the games were for.

Dragon Age was supposed to bring back to the glory days of Baldur's Gate, which was itself limited by the D&D system. And there are pros and cons to class systems vs character build systems. Classes are much, much easier for new players to pick up and play and are harder to break the game with, unless the game designers have no concept of game balance (which ME1 adepts and DAO mages kind of show that balance is not really Bioware's strong suit). While builders give a lot more options for more experienced players to tailor make what they want to play.

Dragon Age is really trying to force the feeling of a D&D campaign, where your classes are supposed to work together. Which they kind of failed at in DAO with mages being able to do anything except open chests, DA2 tried to bring cross-class combos to force it to work, while DAI just did that silly locked door system, where only certain classes could open certain doors.

I do think Dragon Age would be a bit better with some kind of more in depth character creation. But they're not going to do it so long as they keep trying to make the game feel D&D-ish, and I'm sure some people are appreciative of that, even if I'm not one of them.

[LibraryOgre]

My bet would be that client races hitched rides on the Arks for their main species, with some folks maybe shoehorned into the human ship. I could see us, for example, carrying Krogan and quarians, simply because no one else would have them, and it's hard to have Mass Effect without Krogan and quarians. Figure an ark for every council species, and everyone a bit diverse in their ark.

Personally, I liked my solution to the thermal clips/internal heat sinks debate... different technologies that carry different purposes. Thermal clips are newer, provide a higher rate of fire, but also have the downside of needing supply chains to keep you in clips. (In my head, thermal clips are retrievable/reusable, just not tactically... they can salvage some from every clip to keep them going longer, but it's not something you can do under fire to have a reload handy). Heat sinks, though, have a greater sustained rate, if you know what it is. If you keep your ROF under what the heat sinks can handle, you can essentially shoot all day, which is ideal for some circumstances. Most civilian weapons are heat-sink based, because they require less outlay... buy your weapon and keep it up. Thermal clip weapons tend towards military, where a higher ROF and worse SROF can be overcome by logistics.

One thing I really don't want? ME1's inventory system. By all means, bring back omni-gel... but not the horribleness of a Quartermaster MOS.

[VoxRationis]

While that's... possible, I don't think any post-war Milky Way folks will be coming to Andromeda any time soon, as that would force Bioware to canonize one of the endings. As far as the Andromeda folks will be concerned, they're it. Rather, I'd bet the timeskip will purely be "this is how long it takes to even get to Andromeda since there are no Mass Relays between the two galaxies, and that's why we need cryosleep to get there."

Well, yes, I understand it's not likely to be implemented; I just think there's an interesting dichotomy between the mindset of the Andromeda expedition, the whole "We may be the only remnant of our species" line, and the very real possibility that the Milky Way is kicking it in lawn chairs, sipping various margarita variants, at the same time.

[Psyren]

It's really not hard to justify at all. Guns were around earlier than most the armor in Dragon Age. That's just Bioware showing how little research they do or their utter apathy toward military history. Whichever you think their motivations are.

I don't think it's remotely fair to pin this phenomenon exclusively on Bioware. How many guns are there in Skyrim? Dark Souls? Diablo? The Witcher? Legend of Zelda?

It's just not something that comes readily to mind when people consider the genre, and they're responding to that. It has about as much to do with "historical accuracy" as dragons do.

My bet would be that client races hitched rides on the Arks for their main species, with some folks maybe shoehorned into the human ship. I could see us, for example, carrying Krogan and quarians, simply because no one else would have them, and it's hard to have Mass Effect without Krogan and quarians. Figure an ark for every council species, and everyone a bit diverse in their ark.

Krogan are confirmed. I would hope Quarians are too but that presents all kinds of logistical challenges with their immune systems and no Migrant Fleet. Like, they could hitch a ride on the Turian Ark (if the Turians took them), but does that mean they have a sterile zone or something? And do they bring their anti-Geth baggage along? Do the Geth show up too?

I agree, they're popular enough to make the cut and we need a non-Tali squadmate badly, but there are questions.

Well, yes, I understand it's not likely to be implemented; I just think there's an interesting dichotomy between the mindset of the Andromeda expedition, the whole "We may be the only remnant of our species" line, and the very real possibility that the Milky Way is kicking it in lawn chairs, sipping various margarita variants, at the same time.

If we revisit the Milky Way or its inhabitants at all, my money is on the following:

1) It will be pretty far into the future - so far that any of the endings we choose, barring the Refusal ending, can be normalized. For instance, it will be far enough removed that even low-EMS-Destroy can have been recovered from.

2) They will do some hybridized form of the endings. There will be at least some degree of Synthesis, whether from the Crucible or from simple technological advancement; the Reapers will largely be destroyed (though perhaps not all of them), and there will be an AI based on Shepard kicking around observing everything (either the specific one we got from Control, or one that simply arose on its own.)

3) Some new catastrophe or threat will befall the Milky Way. This prevents even the magitech wonderland of Synthesis from solving all the setting's problems forever, and gives the Andromeda colonists a reason to return home (they need our help.)

[Dienekes]

I don't think it's remotely fair to pin this phenomenon exclusively on Bioware. How many guns are there in Skyrim? Dark Souls? Diablo? The Witcher? Legend of Zelda?

It's just not something that comes readily to mind when people consider the genre, and they're responding to that. It has about as much to do with "historical accuracy" as dragons do.

Ah, but just because others are doing it doesn't change my statement. The original point of contention was that it was harder to justify guns in a fantasy setting, when, in fact it is hilariously easy to justify guns in a fantasy setting. Just because very few people do it doesn't change how easy it is to justify.

Also I thought some NPCs had arquebuses in Witcher. I could be misremembering, it's been awhile since I played them.