Old Mass Effect Megathread: Original Camera Angles

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Potato Salad: Oct 23, 2014; nobody cares

exquisite tea posted:

I never imagined Shepard "coming back" in the Control version of the galaxy, but rather their morality gradually morphing into the same unknowable alien intellect that led the OG Reaper AI down the path they took. Shepard in Control is very much dead, or at least exists solely as a machine consciousness with only vague memories of who they once were. I would have liked to see future entries in the Mass Effect series attempt to deal with rebuilding the galaxy in the aftermath of the Reaper War, I think there would be a lot of interesting stories to tell and you wouldn't even have to focus on any of the original cast.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 17:46

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# ? May 13, 2024 23:03

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Unfortunately with the changes to war assets I think it's literally impossible to have so few that you can get Liara killed, which is like the golden standard of "theoretically possible, but extremely difficult" crew kill fuckups.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 17:46

SubponticatePoster: Aug 9, 2004; Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.; Slippery Tilde

exquisite tea posted:

Unfortunately with the changes to war assets I think it's literally impossible to have so few that you can get Liara killed, which is like the golden standard of "theoretically possible, but extremely difficult" crew kill fuckups.

Can't you have really lovely assets and run her to the beam?

e: I'm one of those saps who has enough assets from MP that I get the best ending even if I did nothing else :v:

# ? Nov 30, 2016 17:47

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

SubponticatePoster posted:

Can't you have really lovely assets and run her to the beam?

Yes that is the only place you can get her killed across the entirety of the series. But I think now it's almost impossible unless you have the base version of the game, do the minimum number of missions, do not play multiplayer, and have no DLC installed.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 17:50

Pattonesque: Jul 15, 2004; johnny jesus and the infield fly rule

much like getting Shepard killed in the Suicide Mission you basically have to get the folks at the beam killed on purpose.

if you do anything extra at all in the base game they'll survive.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 17:51

Feels Villeneuve: Oct 7, 2007; Setter is Better.

It's a bad change imo. though I think the lower thresholds for not getting people killed is something that got added in the EC mod, and not the other DLC.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 17:52

SubponticatePoster: Aug 9, 2004; Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.; Slippery Tilde

Pattonesque posted:

much like getting Shepard killed in the Suicide Mission you basically have to get the folks at the beam killed on purpose.

if you do anything extra at all in the base game they'll survive.

Where's Magimix when you need him for silly challenge runs?

# ? Nov 30, 2016 17:52

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Alain Post posted:

It's a bad change imo. though I think the lower thresholds for not getting people killed is something that got added in the EC mod, and not the other DLC.

They should have increased the thresholds, and also subtracted 500 points to the likelihood of a character surviving if they were your love interest.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 17:54

Potato Salad: Oct 23, 2014; nobody cares

Pattonesque posted:

much like getting Shepard killed in the Suicide Mission you basically have to get the folks at the beam killed on purpose.

if you do anything extra at all in the base game they'll survive.

Yeah, looking through the decision tree posted a few pages back for the suicide mission, you can roll a three, four or six sided die where appropriate for the number of people to choose from and come out with a mostly-intact crew. That you really have to work to kill them off in mass is making me feel less proud about a no-losses first playthrough.

The function of the third game's ending was just....utterly obfuscated, never explained. At least ME2 told you "Hey, there's a pipe, be reasonable and make educated guesses. Maybe possibly Garrus or another person with leadership and combat experience should lead a fire team." I never got butthurt about ME3's ending from a plot perspective because I kinda guessed the series wrote itself into a corner when they announced the overall plot of ME3 a year before launch, but the war assets translating to later consequences / opening dialogue options is unexplained at best, absolutely arbitrary at worst. At least if you sent Jack into the pipe in ME2 and she died, you could figure out where along the line you made a bad decision.

Potato Salad fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Nov 30, 2016

# ? Nov 30, 2016 17:59

Pattonesque: Jul 15, 2004; johnny jesus and the infield fly rule

I think the issue was that they originally said you didn't have to play multiplayer to get the "best" ending, and it turned out that, oops, you did, so they overcorrected in a patch

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:00

Feels Villeneuve: Oct 7, 2007; Setter is Better.

Pattonesque posted:

I think the issue was that they originally said you didn't have to play multiplayer to get the "best" ending, and it turned out that, oops, you did, so they overcorrected in a patch

No you didn't. You did have to do a lot of side missions, but you didn't need MP.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:01

Pattonesque: Jul 15, 2004; johnny jesus and the infield fly rule

Alain Post posted:

No you didn't. You did have to do a lot of side missions, but you didn't need MP.

getting the top-level EMS destroy (with Shepard taking a breath at the end) was impossible in the base game, I'm pretty sure?

from the ME3 wiki:

"Participation in Galaxy at War is encouraged to maximize the Military Strength given by each War Asset, as playing single-player alone will limit EMS by 50%, or half, of the overall War Assets score the player has acquired. There are 8370 total War Assets available in the game without downloadable content, but this number cannot be reached as it includes War Assets that are restricted to specific outcomes of player decisions, including saving Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams, saving or sacrificing the Citadel Council, and spreading or sabotaging the genophage cure. As such, the highest obtainable War Assets score is approximately 7500. If the multiplayer mode is not played, the player will only be able to acquire ~3750 EMS, which is less than the ~4000 EMS necessary to experience all possible endings."

The Extended Cut lowered that to 3100 and the other DLC gave you a lot of extra war assets

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:06

Nevets: Sep 11, 2002; Be they sad or be they well,
I'll make their lives a hell

Yeah, I never even looked at the MP, but did all the side missions and everyone lived. Except Shepherd and Starchild (and EDI), took that little fucker down guns blazing. No weirdo man-machine synthesis poo poo for me.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:09

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

I wonder if someone has put together a maximum crew genocide guide for Mass Effect. All I know is that you'd want to end up with only two of Miranda/Thane/Tali after the Suicide Mission since they can all die in the third game. I guess Samara can too, but it's probably easier to just betray her to Morinth earlier. You'd want to end up with Liara + James eating the beam and choose Destroy so that EDI would die also.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:12

BexGu: Jan 9, 2004; This fucking day....

Moola posted:

I think leaving the galaxy for Andromeda in ark ships to escape the reapers actually would have been a cool ending

I totally would have been fine with the Freespce 2 type end mission where the war assets/lead up was to get as many ark ships of different races out of the Milky Way while destroying enough Reapers to give the next cycle a better chance.

exquisite tea posted:

I never imagined Shepard "coming back" in the Control version of the galaxy, but rather their morality gradually morphing into the same unknowable alien intellect that led the OG Reaper AI down the path they took. Shepard in Control is very much dead, or at least exists solely as a machine consciousness with only vague memories of who they once were. I would have liked to see future entries in the Mass Effect series attempt to deal with rebuilding the galaxy in the aftermath of the Reaper War, I think there would be a lot of interesting stories to tell and you wouldn't even have to focus on any of the original cast.

Yeah like its 200 or so years after the Reaper Wars with a whole new Spectre that just got the attention of that distant weird Reaper that helps out some times. Like is there a Cult of the Reaper that worships Control Shepard? Do people still trust the Control Shepard/The Mass Effect gates?

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:12

Feels Villeneuve: Oct 7, 2007; Setter is Better.

Pattonesque posted:

getting the top-level EMS destroy (with Shepard taking a breath at the end) was impossible in the base game, I'm pretty sure?

from the ME3 wiki:

"Participation in Galaxy at War is encouraged to maximize the Military Strength given by each War Asset, as playing single-player alone will limit EMS by 50%, or half, of the overall War Assets score the player has acquired. There are 8370 total War Assets available in the game without downloadable content, but this number cannot be reached as it includes War Assets that are restricted to specific outcomes of player decisions, including saving Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams, saving or sacrificing the Citadel Council, and spreading or sabotaging the genophage cure. As such, the highest obtainable War Assets score is approximately 7500. If the multiplayer mode is not played, the player will only be able to acquire ~3750 EMS, which is less than the ~4000 EMS necessary to experience all possible endings."

The Extended Cut lowered that to 3100 and the other DLC gave you a lot of extra war assets

Oh, yeah, I forgot about the Shepard taking a breath poo poo. I figured you meant getting it so Synthesis was an option.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:13

Pattonesque: Jul 15, 2004; johnny jesus and the infield fly rule

Alain Post posted:

Oh, yeah, I forgot about the Shepard taking a breath poo poo. I figured you meant getting it so Synthesis was an option.

confusion over the ME3 endings: a tradition of excellence

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:19

Mr.Pibbleton: Feb 3, 2006; Aleuts rock, chummer.

Pattonesque posted:

getting the top-level EMS destroy (with Shepard taking a breath at the end) was impossible in the base game, I'm pretty sure?

from the ME3 wiki:

"Participation in Galaxy at War is encouraged to maximize the Military Strength given by each War Asset, as playing single-player alone will limit EMS by 50%, or half, of the overall War Assets score the player has acquired. There are 8370 total War Assets available in the game without downloadable content, but this number cannot be reached as it includes War Assets that are restricted to specific outcomes of player decisions, including saving Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams, saving or sacrificing the Citadel Council, and spreading or sabotaging the genophage cure. As such, the highest obtainable War Assets score is approximately 7500. If the multiplayer mode is not played, the player will only be able to acquire ~3750 EMS, which is less than the ~4000 EMS necessary to experience all possible endings."

The Extended Cut lowered that to 3100 and the other DLC gave you a lot of extra war assets

The greatest war asset was Conrad Verner.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:23

Mymla: Aug 12, 2010

Nevets posted:

Yeah, I never even looked at the MP, but did all the side missions and everyone lived. Except Shepherd and Starchild (and EDI), took that little fucker down guns blazing. No weirdo man-machine synthesis poo poo for me.

Shepard surviving is the best ending.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:26

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

I agree, which is why anybody playing Mass Effect should immortalize Shepard's legacy and choose Control.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:34

Feels Villeneuve: Oct 7, 2007; Setter is Better.

A legacy of fascism.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:40

Lt. Danger: Dec 22, 2006; jolly good chaps we sure showed the hun

This is all pure fanfiction. We must set such things and look to the future. I for one am very interested in the rock-aliens of Andromeda.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:43

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Lt. Danger posted:

This is all pure fanfiction. We must set such things and look to the future. I for one am very interested in the rock-aliens of Andromeda.

Bioware has announced some very ambitious features of the rebooted Mass Effect franchise, including "open-world exploration" and "resource collection." I can only hope for a gameplay footage video edited to "This is the New poo poo" shortly.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:50

Zzulu: May 15, 2009; (â°ËvËâ°)

In the gameplay videos they've released the game looks pretty solid. It was A LOT prettier than previous mass effects and the environments looked a lot better as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1hBNALUk4w

It actually made me want to... explore.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 18:57

Feels Villeneuve: Oct 7, 2007; Setter is Better.

Mass Effect 3 made me want to explore... explore hard right-wing ideologies, that is.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 19:36

Basic Chunnel: Sep 21, 2010; Jesus! Jesus Christ! Say his name! Jesus! Jesus! Come down now!

Lt. Danger posted:

I dunno, man. I kinda agree on a "lol" level but there's always gonna be a lot of crossover between fascism and any kinda heroic narrative because it's such a bankrupt ideology.

Not bankrupt enough, apparently.

Lt. Danger posted:

Also blame for the Rannoch situation is largely placed on the ruthless military leadership of the Admirals (and to a lesser extent you get something similar with Tuchanka - that turian bomb, for instance), and TIM/Cerberus, the Hard Truth faction, are antagonists throughout.

Might work out that way for Rannoch, but the villainy of the Quarian hawks is undercut and softened by the constant harping on the hardship of their diaspora in games previous. They're on the cusp of retaking their ~~Holy Land~~homeworld and just about everybody (Tali included) has tacitly concluded that not living at all is better than continuing to live off-Rannoch. That the Geth would have let them return if they had just been willing to talk is, if nothing else, a contrivance that throws their previous characterization.

As for the Turian Hierarchy, they're never less than valorous (and given that they're all veterans, they have the only trustworthy or reliable civilian officials, with the exception of the CSEC captain who had the temerity to be against extralegal policing). The emotional core of that quest is the son's heroism, not his father's duplicity. There's also no real blame to be placed for the bomb in the first place, given its age.

As for Cerberus, they're barely an entity in ME1 and only become villains when they are infiltrated and go turncoat in ME3. ME2 doesn't even take seriously the arguments that Shepard is working with terrorists (even when they're directly and openly responsible for Shepard's supposedly formative traumas), because the Council and Alliance are willfully blind, per usual.

Lt. Danger posted:

Umberto Eco was obviously writing from a historian's perspective but even so he suggests there's a bit more to fascism than the "dumb bureaucracy/strong military/helpless civilians" tripartite trope.

Sometimes you just have to accept that fascism without ethno-nationalist mythopoeia or nationalized industry is still fascism

Basic Chunnel fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Nov 30, 2016

# ? Nov 30, 2016 19:40

Zzulu: May 15, 2009; (â°ËvËâ°)

yeah i agree fully, fascism etc

# ? Nov 30, 2016 19:46

Zzulu: May 15, 2009; (â°ËvËâ°)

# ? Nov 30, 2016 19:46

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

Thor-Stryker posted:

Any of the endings could have worked had they actually lead up to them for the past three games.

It's all "We must destroy the Reapers!" for 200 hours of gameplay until the last ten minutes where Starchild casually informs you that you can become god or bi-synthetic or whatever poo poo they made up.

Which is why the destroy ending is the only sensible choice, but even the ending they spent the whole trilogy building to is massively anticlimatic.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 19:50

moist turtleneck: Jul 17, 2003; Represent.; Dinosaur Gum

I decided to kill all of the robots because if I can't gently caress EDI then no one can it's bullshit that Joker got her through negging

# ? Nov 30, 2016 19:52

Zzulu: May 15, 2009; (â°ËvËâ°)

When you think about it, the entire crew had been inside EDI several times over, before she got a new body. Every time you boarded that spaceship, you boarded her as well if u know what i mean

# ? Nov 30, 2016 19:54