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BrianWilly posted:It is a game where you cannot send Thane into the vents. More so it's a game where you couldn't give a flying gently caress if you sent any of your crew members into the vents to die. Hell, if it were up to you you'd send the whole drat lot of them into the vents.
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Dec 19, 2020 04:32
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BrianWilly posted:I've said this before in regards to Andromeda, but one of the main design problems is that there are no real fail conditions. If you make the mistake of clicking buttons in the vicinity of your companions, they will end up liking you and you'll bloody deal with it. This sums it up well. Previous ME/DA games have the possibility of characters dying or hating you. MEA does not, and I believe it’s due to the team’s perception that the core of Mass Effect is bonding with your crew ... which is correct. Except it only has meaning if you CHOOSE to do that. I go out of my way to keep my party alive and solve all their problems and generally be Commander Friend but I need the option NOT to do that, otherwise it’s not really a choice, is it?
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Dec 19, 2020 05:02
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They could have even used DA2's friendship/rivalry system if they wanted it to be abound bonding and everyone being there. That worked great and just being able to rival a character like Merrill and be able to explain to her in detail how much she's a loving idiot helped me tolerate her being there.
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Dec 19, 2020 07:25
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Part of every previous Mass Effect game was doing "the dance" - managing your crew members such that they liked you and were willing to fight and die for you, and managing the relations with other characters as well so that you'd get favorable outcomes. It was possible to gently caress it up. It wasn't likely, and in some cases it wasn't easy to do, but it was possible. It gave you a reason to pay attention to the dialog. ME:A takes that away, completely. It pretends as if the dance is still there - giving you dialog options that you'd think might cause issues, but they never, ever do. You can try, hard, to be a total fuckup - and everyone will still be your best friend and/or fuckbudy for life. That's horrible design for a mass effect game. It should never do the dance for you.
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Dec 19, 2020 07:56
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Moola posted:I still cannot believe "my face is tired" is a line someone wrote down, and then another person spoke out loud, and then another group of people edited into an actual scene The layers of production that had to get through always boggles my mind. I'm glad I'm not the only one. 
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Dec 19, 2020 08:13
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Look it's easy to poo poo on people that write videos game scripts because if they were talented they'd be getting paid to write literally anything else.
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Dec 19, 2020 08:21
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I only respect video game writers who are creative enough to use things like traffic light colors for their endgame inspiration.
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Dec 19, 2020 10:16
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Can anyone recommend a good & complete long play of Andromeda on youtube? I don’t want to replay it but I want to see the dialogue and side missions I missed and the ending (I didn’t complete it) Preferably one where the person playing isn’t commentating too much either (a little is alright)
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Dec 19, 2020 13:45
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Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:The layers of production that had to get through always boggles my mind. I'm glad I'm not the only one. At that point of development every one was so rushed for time that ever IF some one was reviewing the dialogue that closely it was "gently caress it, it's spelled right and a complete sentence? Let's go go go".
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Dec 19, 2020 14:21
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Funky See Funky Do posted:More so it's a game where you couldn't give a flying gently caress if you sent any of your crew members into the vents to die. Hell, if it were up to you you'd send the whole drat lot of them into the vents. the Ark was one big vent
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Dec 19, 2020 22:51
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BexGu posted:At that point of development every one was so rushed for time that ever IF some one was reviewing the dialogue that closely it was "gently caress it, it's spelled right and a complete sentence? Let's go go go". iirc, because they didn't know exactly what kind of technology they were gonna be working with, if they were gonna be able to have that procedural map generation for exploring new planets, no preliminary writing had been done at all that's absolutely insane to me, writing is theoretically one of bioware's strongest points but even that was a last minute rush job here
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Dec 19, 2020 22:56
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ashpanash posted:Part of every previous Mass Effect game was doing "the dance" - managing your crew members such that they liked you and were willing to fight and die for you, and managing the relations with other characters as well so that you'd get favorable outcomes. It was possible to gently caress it up. It wasn't likely, and in some cases it wasn't easy to do, but it was possible. It gave you a reason to pay attention to the dialog. It more that that, with the exceptions of Neverwinter Nights(where the single player was an afterthought), Sonic(maybe never played it) and SW: The Old Republic(an MMO which removed things like companion deaths because players would be short handed) every Bioware game always tried something new with companions. Some new mechanic or system. So every new game there was a potential interesting new situation with companions that wasn't in a Bioware game before. Mass Effect Andromeda added nothing new. Every single thing it did was in a previous Bioware game. Which would be okay if they did things exceptionally well but they didn't.
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Dec 20, 2020 03:45
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kilus aof posted:It more that that, with the exceptions of Neverwinter Nights(where the single player was an afterthought), Sonic(maybe never played it) and SW: The Old Republic(an MMO which removed things like companion deaths because players would be short handed) every Bioware game always tried something new with companions. Some new mechanic or system. So every new game there was a potential interesting new situation with companions that wasn't in a Bioware game before. Mass Effect Andromeda added nothing new. Every single thing it did was in a previous Bioware game. Which would be okay if they did things exceptionally well but they didn't. It is the least confident game I have ever played, everything in it is slotted in from a previous game with the desperate hope that it’ll have the same emotional impact absent its proper context
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Dec 20, 2020 03:47
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hard counter posted:iirc, because they didn't know exactly what kind of technology they were gonna be working with, if they were gonna be able to have that procedural map generation for exploring new planets, no preliminary writing had been done at all Yeah, something like the first four years put of five was trying to do the procedural map and planets and it completely bombed and/ or just could not be pulled off by the dev team. Which bleeds into kilus aof point: ME:A is just a rush job that ends up as worse version of everything Bioware had done before.
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Dec 20, 2020 05:23
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exquisite tea posted:Remember when they killed Emily Wong offscreen so they could put an IGN reporter who couldn't act onto the Normandy. I gotta ask this, because I hadn't seen BSG at the time, was her name intended as a homage to Diana Biers or however you spell it? Comrade Blyatlov fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Dec 20, 2020 |
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Dec 20, 2020 05:42
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It’s still unbelievable to me that BioWare wanted to make a Mass Effect game — a series which purports to have memorable characters and interesting missions — with hundreds of procedurally generated planets. You literally cannot have both of those in the same game and yet they thought they could pull it off because ???
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Dec 20, 2020 14:42
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Pattonesque posted:It’s still unbelievable to me that BioWare wanted to make a Mass Effect game — a series which purports to have memorable characters and interesting missions — with hundreds of procedurally generated planets. I assume the logic here was the same as making Bioware, the studio that specializes in primarily single player RPGs with an emphasis on companions and relationships as a primary feature, create a multiplayer looter shooter like a terrible version of destiny Aka some executive being like "what're the kids excited about now."
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Dec 20, 2020 14:48
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They found the one guy whose favorite part of Mass Effect 1 was driving around in the Mako and made him Creative Director.
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Dec 20, 2020 14:52
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exquisite tea posted:They found the one guy whose favorite part of Mass Effect 1 was driving around in the Mako and made him Creative Director. And I didn't even get paid for it! Seriously though, I loving loved driving the Mako around. It's like a driving a six-wheeled bouncy castle with a big cannon on it.  Hell, I've even got a framed print of the Mako up on my wall.
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Dec 20, 2020 15:39
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Mako great! Hammerhead trash. Let's make a Frogger section in our shooter game! In a vehicle with default controls that make spacebar, the key you've been mashing for every function thus far, activate a completely optional boost function. Where is jump? Left shift, of course. There will be no prompt to tell you this.
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Dec 20, 2020 16:04
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Pattonesque posted:It’s still unbelievable to me that BioWare wanted to make a Mass Effect game — a series which purports to have memorable characters and interesting missions — with hundreds of procedurally generated planets. They were really new.
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Dec 20, 2020 17:19
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Pattonesque posted:even "PB" would have been way better than "PeeBee" They had to be sure nobody from the Commonwealth would call her PedBed. womb with a view posted:Mako great! Hammerhead trash. Let's make a Frogger section in our shooter game! In a vehicle with default controls that make spacebar, the key you've been mashing for every function thus far, activate a completely optional boost function. Where is jump? Left shift, of course. There will be no prompt to tell you this. This isn't a problem if you're using a controller like God intended.
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Dec 20, 2020 17:51
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CAPT. Rainbowbeard posted:This isn't a problem if you're using a controller like God intended. Yeah, the fact that you can only have 3 powers mapped at one time should have been a gigantic glowing sign that "We intend you to use a controller with this game, even on PC." Inquisition is sort of the same way.
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Dec 20, 2020 18:52
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I'm pretty sure you have to install a mod to make a controller work on PC. And you could have up to 8 powers mapped on the number row!
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Dec 21, 2020 00:22
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womb with a view posted:I'm pretty sure you have to install a mod to make a controller work on PC. And you could have up to 8 powers mapped on the number row! So close, and yet so far. 😉
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Dec 21, 2020 00:34
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Pattonesque posted:It’s still unbelievable to me that BioWare wanted to make a Mass Effect game — a series which purports to have memorable characters and interesting missions — with hundreds of procedurally generated planets. Pretty sure this is what the original team envisioned for the original Mass Effect as well, though I could be mistaken.
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Dec 21, 2020 00:38
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chaosapiant posted:Pretty sure this is what the original team envisioned for the original Mass Effect as well, though I could be mistaken. and then they didn't do it because it's impossible! Also I remember someone mashed this up a while back so I recreated it. it syncs up really well (volume up on the right, down on the left) http://www.youtubemultiplier.com/5fdfffa2cd78b-the-eve-of-the-reaper-war-mass-effect-3-war-of-the.php
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Dec 21, 2020 02:55
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chaosapiant posted:Pretty sure this is what the original team envisioned for the original Mass Effect as well, though I could be mistaken. How that work out? One pre-fab structure and three things to scan on each planet. What can you do to make that better? Four pre-fab structures and 12 things to scan on each planet? And do that 100 times.
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Dec 21, 2020 04:59
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kilus aof posted:How that work out? One pre-fab structure and three things to scan on each planet. What can you do to make that better? Four pre-fab structures and 12 things to scan on each planet? And do that 100 times. Original vision: Dynamic procedurally generated everything including worlds, enemy attacks, economy, etc etc. Delivery: 3 prefabs and a single mission, nothing new to scan after the first or second
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Dec 21, 2020 07:22
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kilus aof posted:How that work out? One pre-fab structure and three things to scan on each planet. What can you do to make that better? Four pre-fab structures and 12 things to scan on each planet? And do that 100 times. It didn’t really work out, it that wasn’t my point. It shouldn’t be surprising that they wanted to try this for Andromeda when they already tried it for ME1, which is the game Andromeda emulates more than anything. That said, I’m a sucker for good sky boxes and love the uncharted worlds in ME1, identical prefabs and all.
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Dec 21, 2020 08:14
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ME1 at least let you feel like you were on some barren uncharted world. MEA didn't impact much of anything other than "at least they sort of tried, I guess". Talent to bring it all together wasn't there and probably still isn't. Concept good, execution bad.
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Dec 21, 2020 09:19
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If you were smart, you'd use procgen for a first pass and then have artists and worldbuilders flesh it out. Bioware, et al, are not smart and want an algorithm to design everything for them without human intervention.  Essentially, it's level-design by Inspirobot.
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Dec 22, 2020 01:47
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Pattonesque posted:It’s still unbelievable to me that BioWare wanted to make a Mass Effect game — a series which purports to have memorable characters and interesting missions — with hundreds of procedurally generated planets. They all played Daggerfall and thought it was the greatest thing ever created.
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Jan 1, 2021 20:18
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Admiral Ray posted:They all played Daggerfall and thought it was the greatest thing ever created. Was daggerfall procedurally generated? I didn't play it much because I missed it when it was a thing that was being played on computers and so I have no nostalgia to revisit it.
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Jan 1, 2021 20:26
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orange juche posted:Was daggerfall procedurally generated? I didn't play it much because I missed it when it was a thing that was being played on computers and so I have no nostalgia to revisit it. Yeah, the world of Daggerfall was GIGANTIC and had over 10,000 locations, but all of them procedurally generated. The playable map is about 1000 times bigger than Skyrim.
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Jan 1, 2021 20:46
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This thread was impossible to find without asking around about. Good job hiding it. So is there list anywhere of things not to do before other things so I dont screw myself on my first playthrough?
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Jan 8, 2021 01:49
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Of...the entire series? Starting from ME1? Not really! It's pretty user friendly. There's three main "missions" on three main planets at first, and there's some slight comedic consequence to saving one of the for last (the one where you find someone called Liara), but it doesn't lock you out of anything. A fourth mission planet opens up after that, called Virmire, and you'll want to have done everything your companions wanted you to do for them before going there, because it'll affect things a little. Unless you don't care and just wanna see what happens. Generally, go full Paragon or full Renegade for each playthrough on each game. There's benefits to always P or R, and none for constantly switching between them.
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Jan 8, 2021 01:59
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BrianWilly posted:Of...the entire series? Starting from ME1? Sorry. Andromeda
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Jan 8, 2021 02:00
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Ah. Then none.  Lol I genuinely don't think the game locks you out of anything. Just do whatever you want. Points of no return are clearly marked.
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Jan 8, 2021 02:02
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Edit: Oh, Andromeda. Yeah, Andromeda is self-explanatory and obvious. It's an open world game.
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Jan 8, 2021 02:03
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