Heliotic posted:

I mostly like the -endings- (and the shepherd almost dies and struggles onto the citadel with a pistol), but the little kid was cliched and the synthesis ending is bullshit.

Here is how I've modified the endings in my head to give myself more closure (because I'm not a purist who has to take it 'as written'.) poo poo, after that final fight I deserve the best ending possible.


At the end you end up on the platform. Instead of two options, there is a red detonator which says 'destroy all synthetics'. The TIM shows up and says 'no, you don't have to do it this way, we can control them using this platform and Cerberus science'. Then you have the same TIM showdown that you had previously where you realise he is indoctrinated. Anderson lives/dies and you pick up the detonator and the Cerberus control macguffin so you can decide what to do. Harbinger shows up and (since you have the 'kill all synthetics' button) explains everything - trying to convince you the reapers are right. The dialog from the little kid is mostly fine for this.

Then you still get the choice of killing all synthetics:
- This includes the Geth/EDI because not having this way introduces a plot hole.
- If you go to choose the kill all synthetics option and uplifted the Geth, one of the Geth Prime calls you up and goes 'Don't kill me bro'.
- You talk to EDI, depending your talks with her she is either ready to die to save the galaxy or not.

You can push the button and save the galaxy. The ME relays still explode to relay the 'kill all synthetics' pulse to the galaxy.
- You get a sad cut scene of the Geth (if they are uplifted)/EDI dying.
- Since you have all the greatest minds in the galaxy in Sol now, you get to work reinventing the ME relay technology.
- Depending on your war score: Enough scientists and leaders survived to do this before galactic civilisation collapses entirely.
- The Citadel and Galactic Council is now based at Sol.

If you pick the merger option using Cerberus tech:
- You get a talk from your LI/Dr Chakwas telling you that it's a dumb idea.
- You 'merge/die' and are now the leader of the space SS in Harbingers body. Congratulations. The ME relays still explode to relay the 'reapers are now controlled by someone else' pulse but you can rebuild them with your space army). Pax Shepherd forever. (possibly based on your paragon/renegade rating)

A third army to change the mind of the Harbinger with enough paragon/renegade/war score/box of chocolates from the hospital would allow you to convince him that his basic programming is incorrect.
- If you go to accept this option, Ashley/Andersen/Joker tells you that they need to pay for what they've done with a paragon/renegade option to change their mind.
- You might get a bonus if you united the Geth and the Quarians or if the Geth are on your side against the Reapers. Otherwise you'd get a penalty for the Quarians wiping out the Geth.

The Reapers withdraw from the fight and the mass relays/citadel are intact. You have an unstoppable ex-genocidal synthetic race based hegemony hanging around, possibly wanting a seat on the council. poo poo.
- Based on how good your war score was, more people/races/civilisations survived the final battle and the universe will be more accepting of the reapers in the universe.

Ultimately, as long as you didn't pick the merger option, you still have a chance to survive and with a lasting peace based on your war score. Then you can go live happily ever after with your LI.

PS: If you didn't upgrade your ships engine like Adams wants, it should have exploded during the final battle at some point as part of shield fleet protecting the device.


This works for me as an alternate ending, but I'm open to suggestions, additions and modifications so I can get 'the best ending in my head.'

Dan Didio posted:

JaundiceDave posted:

so, this is the biggest renegade thing you can do on tuchanka http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-1FAxiUAoo

who would do this, honestly. i mean come on

Heliotic posted:

It makes me wonder why they didn't focus group test the ending. Possibly they did, and the first iteration of the ending was even worse.

In Bioware's defence, at least it wasn't as bad as the fallout 3 ending.

ashpanash posted:

I had kinda hoped that the crucible wasn't going to be so much a weapon as a tool - a tool that when activated, destroyed "indoctrination." The massive army the reapers had falls silent, all indoctrinated people regain their sanity, and suddenly the reapers are very, very vulnerable. A little more space battle porn and what remains of the reapers, robbed of their ability to indoctrinate and adequately defend themselves, go down fighting but ultimately go down. That was the ending I was building up in my mind.

Yeah, didn't quite turn out that way, I guess.

Codependent Poster posted:

Boy oh boy. Those endings are as bad as advertised.

Game is fun as hell though, and all the characters are really great. So I dunno what happened at the ending.

Anyone seen if there is a "secret" ending for new game plus like the guide said?

magicalmako posted:

Do any of your weapons from ME 2 carry over if you import?

Nucular Carmul posted:

It seems like wishful thinking of the highest order, but I'm just about to finish up Mars on a New Game+ so I can see if war resources carry over. If they do, it would be possible to hit the mystical 10k assets number I keep hearing about. I am almost positive it's being pulled out of collective asses, though.

Robzilla posted:

Oh this face cracks me up every time.

Category Fun! posted:

Jesus christ. I only just started playing but this dialogue is bad. Did someone at Bioware read the wikipedia page on Soviet Montage? Because it feels like the only reason things are happening or that people are saying what they say is to try and get an emotional response. I thought the demo was supposed to be missing scenes from the opening?

evilmiera posted:

Edit: Ahahah, I'm not sure if this was due to skipping a part of the conversation or what, but suddenly me and Liara are having a conversation by bouncing our words at a nearby wall, because why else would we be turning our heads and staring at it so hard?

evilmiera posted:

Edit: Ahahah, I'm not sure if this was due to skipping a part of the conversation or what, but suddenly me and Liara are having a conversation by bouncing our words at a nearby wall, because why else would we be turning our heads and staring at it so hard?

evilmiera posted:

Edit: Ahahah, I'm not sure if this was due to skipping a part of the conversation or what, but suddenly me and Liara are having a conversation by bouncing our words at a nearby wall, because why else would we be turning our heads and staring at it so hard?

Terminally Bored posted:

- Space key used for five different things is not (especially when I distinctly remember the devs promising a change in the controls two years ago).

Blarghalt posted:

I just beat the game.

What just happened.

NihilCredo posted:

Question: how's the money situation in this game? In ME2, with all the DLC, I could afford to buy almost every single upgrade (and probably could have gotten them all with some more efficient choices / not paying for scar therapy).

In this one, considering that I'm 100%-ing every single system and doing every sidequest, can I afford to just blindly upgrade ever weapon to level V before using it (Not necessarily the mods, which I mostly wait to find around, just the weapons themselves)? Every time I get a sidegrade weapon, I'm torn between giving it a try and knowing that, as a level I weapon, it's guaranteed to suck compared to the one I've had from the start unless I sink ~20k into it.

Anal Tributary posted:

So, instead of just saying how you would personally rewrite the ending, I'm more interested in how a new ending might work in context of DLC.

I doubt we'll see any sort of "epilogue" DLC; I'd expect pretty much only new missions that fit within the storyline. And, with the massive amount of negative backlash, it'd probably be a good idea for Bioware to add a mission that could drastically alter the outcome of the game.

Now, my thought is that the DLC, whether or not it changes the ending, must have information on the origins of the Catalyst and the Reapers. That is the single mystery left in the Mass Effect universe, as far as I'm aware. I think the best outcome from this would be that Shepard, armed with this information about the Catalyst, would either convince it, maybe even him/herself, that the choices presented are not the only ones, and that there is another solution, whatever that may be.

By the way, another thought regarding the ending: I'm starting to seriously wonder if this was what Bioware intended the motivation of the Reapers to mean. ME1 was very in the dark about it, with Sovereign saying comprehension of their motivations was "beyond our grasp." By ME3, it's become "[mysterious civilization] did not like synthetic life always wiping out organics, so they created the Reapers to 'collect' organics and have them live on forever as hybrids." I wonder if Bioware ever had greater intentions for the Reapers beyond that - maybe they still do and will reveal it in DLC. I kinda hope they do.

I feel like it would have worked waaay better if they had at least put more effort into the organic/synthetic theme. It makes no sense with the existence of EDI, Legion, etc. The fact that Shepard has proof - at least, in the short term - that things can be different should have definitely come up in his/her talk with the Catalyst.

NihilCredo posted:

Question: how's the money situation in this game? In ME2, with all the DLC, I could afford to buy almost every single upgrade (and probably could have gotten them all with some more efficient choices / not paying for scar therapy).

In this one, considering that I'm 100%-ing every single system and doing every sidequest, can I afford to just blindly upgrade ever weapon to level V before using it (Not necessarily the mods, which I mostly wait to find around, just the weapons themselves)? Every time I get a sidegrade weapon, I'm torn between giving it a try and knowing that, as a level I weapon, it's guaranteed to suck compared to the one I've had from the start unless I sink ~20k into it.

Nucular Carmul posted:

To expand on what was said already, in the first run it looks like you can only upgrade to level 5 anyway, so you shouldn't be too hard up for money as long as you make sure to scan stuff occasionally.

Anal Tributary posted:

They go past 5?

ashpanash posted:

I had kinda hoped that the crucible wasn't going to be so much a weapon as a tool - a tool that when activated, destroyed "indoctrination." The massive army the reapers had falls silent, all indoctrinated people regain their sanity, and suddenly the reapers are very, very vulnerable. A little more space battle porn and what remains of the reapers, robbed of their ability to indoctrinate and adequately defend themselves, go down fighting but ultimately go down. That was the ending I was building up in my mind.

Yeah, didn't quite turn out that way, I guess.

Teenage Fansub posted:

Noticed the 'Choose Your Experience" menu doesn't come up when importing. Does it automatically put you in 'Role Playing' mode?

edit: and do you feel really overleveled when importing a pretty much maxed out ME2 Shep, or does it even out?

Extra Smooth Balls posted:

I was hoping for a golden path type thing where if you managed to get everyone to play nice, get all war assets possible etc. you summon the willpower to give a big "gently caress you" to the catalyst, manage to destroy it/the citadel. The reapers are released from his control, and you end with a conversation with harbinger where he's all "thank you shepard, you have freed us, some will continue to fight as they have been warped by millenia of atrocities, we will help you defeat them and then leave the galaxy in peace". Last dramatic shot of combined reaper/organic/synthetic fleet flying off to save the rest of the galaxy. Galaxy is left scarred and hosed up, losses are massive but there is light at the end of the tunnel

randombattle posted:

Or you know what else would have been good interacting with Harbinger at all.

Haledjian posted:

Haha what the gently caress I'm playing the Genophage cure mission and these brutes that keep double-spawning as I am trying to fix the hammers are kicking my rear end around the block. If I try to fight them I run out of ammo and I die. If I try to run past them they charge me and I die. Is there a secret to this?

Hentai Tentacle Demon posted:

He interacted with you, he shot you in the grill with a laser and gave you massive burns at the end.

Also where the gently caress were the rachni? I didn't save your race so you be bug engineers that never show up again. I wanted krogan riding down the loving streets on bugs or kakliosaurs with every race streaming out of buildings. gently caress.

Hentai Tentacle Demon posted:

He interacted with you, he shot you in the grill with a laser and gave you massive burns at the end.

Also where the gently caress were the rachni? I didn't save your race so you be bug engineers that never show up again. I wanted krogan riding down the loving streets on bugs or kakliosaurs with every race streaming out of buildings. gently caress.

Romes128 posted:

Just evade and run to the hammers. I didn't fight any of them.