Next theoretical Mass Effect game

I agree with what OP said the only thing I'd like to add is make our choices have a direct effect on the world. If I side with someone at the expense of the others then make it count in the world. The Reyes/Sloane choice had hardly any consequence in Kadara sure it might in the long term but we don' get to see it in the game.

-I want more Renegade choices in the next game. I still remember getting frustrated by those looters in Kadara telling me to "fuck off" and didn't had the chance to gun them down as Shepard certainly would have. IF you're thinking about making a new game with Ryder then I want him/her hardened. I can't stand his/her inexperience but most importantly his/her lack of authority.

While I agree with a lot of what you are saying, at times it is counter to what a lot of people want. If I had to make a list of what I want BioWare to do is fairly simple.

1) Ignore the community and make the game you want and not the game you think we want. To me that was something I saw all over both Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda they were squeezing every little thing the community has said they wanted to see in those franchises and it hurt the games overall.


Now I am not exactly sure what you want with #6. If you want a small more compact game I think that means really dropping the open world concept for open world style games are meant to be massive games that take close to a hundred if not more hours to complete. If you are talking about adding a timer to what is going on I would hate that in the game for I have never liked that style of mechanic it feels cheap and with BioWare they would tone everything down even further so you don't miss anything. Think of how people were upset about having to play (I think) only one MP match in Mass Effect 3 for the "Breath Destroy Ending" until they patched it with the Extended Cut.

One thing to consider with your wish list is there are reasons for what is done. Such as the "iconic looks", that is because they have unique body types for the party, the games that I have played where you can put your squad members in armor and change their look normally has them looking the exact same from the neck down so they don't have to recreate the armor for everyone and test it to make sure it works. It is also like the ground vehicle request as cool as I think it would be, it does mean they would have to cut something else out of the game to fit it into the game's memory. Most games use the full amount of memory on the consoles for one reason or another, with Andromeda it was to have the open worlds with only having the loading times when you landed or loaded into the planet. So something I would suggest is to have trade-offs as well for that is generally the problem developers have is finding what to sacrifice so something else can happen.

I change my mind about killing Ryder's sibling in a previous post. If I were to do something, perhaps have a new game in Andromeda with a new protagonist. I think one thing everyone here can agree upon is that the back and forth planet hopping didn't work. It doesn't work in other games either, though. I would return to a ME2 style. Perhaps a ME1 ME2 meshing of several optional planets you can land on with a more streamlined main quest. The optional planets would have to be scaled back in size, obviously.
What worked in ME2 was Omega, Illium, the Quarian ruins on Haestrom. Interesting places, fun mission, and just the right amount of time spent there. ME1? Feros and Noveria were longer, but not ridiculous with lots of running back and forth. You can get away with visiting each only once. Imagine if Kaidan needs you to go back and retrieve data from Feros and then scan a rock on Noveria after you've left. Too much planet hopping.
This is weird but I always think of the old game Jazz Jackrabbit when I think of ME1 and 2. Land somewhere cool and a bit exotic, complete awesome mission, leave.

Next Mass Effect game should have a much tighter structure, and allow you to pick between Human, Turian, and Asari. Less errand running, more having fun. I really enjoyed Mass Effect Andromeda, I have multiple playthroughs, but the area I feel it needs the most work is in cutting the bloat.

DON'T do a reboot.

DON'T move the series back to the MW.

DO make Ryder the protag again.

DO include the MEA dialogue wheel with minor improvements.

DO go classless.

One thing to consider with your wish list is there are reasons for what is done. Such as the "iconic looks", that is because they have unique body types for the party, the games that I have played where you can put your squad members in armor and change their look normally has them looking the exact same from the neck down so they don't have to recreate the armor for everyone and test it to make sure it works.

Combat is close to perfect imo, I am happy it`s not interrupted by fiddling with a power-wheel or having to babysit your team.

I am nervous of the backlash of a customized protagonist even if it is from a list of possible body types, especially after the issues around "Ryder isn't white enough".  To me I like how it was handled in The Old Republic with having four body types to choose from.  My only real concern on the development side is that we would get less armor styles in general so instead of having multiple armors to customize our appearance we only have body types and then additional armor is DLC only due to the amount of testing to make sure they don't have technical issues that cause a backlash again.

I. Ditch the class system. It's arbitrary and pointless. There's absolutely no reason a biotic can't learn to use tech armour, and no reason a vanguard would be able to pull but not push.

I don't know when or if we will get another Mass Effect game but when and if we do I think we can all agree it needs to have a development team commited to whatever direction they want to take it in whether it is more like ME1/MEA or ME2/ME3.  List things you would like to see in the next game, whether they be things the trilogy had or things Andromeda had or changes you would like to make.

1.  Have a clear set direction early on what you want to do with the game both in terms of story and gameplay mechanics.  The earlier you commit the more time you have to maximize the quality of what you are doing.

2.  Bring squad interactivity back to combat.  The loss of the power wheel really lessened the combat experience overall for me.  In the trilogy  I could tell when Garrus when to use his concussive shot or overload an enemy's shields.  I could also tell him when to switch to his sniper rifle or assault rifle.  I felt like a real squad leader.  In MEA I can only tell the squad where to go and that is it.  Instead of a squad they just feel like AI  fighting  by my side.

3.  Speaking of the squad and squadmates.  Bring back customization that everyone has been asking for since as far back as ME 2.  Not only did the DA team manage to do it but they throught it back to the next level.  It can be done and most people want it.  I am not saying it even has to go as far as the DA team did but it would have been nice to be able to buy new sets of Armor for Vetra or Draak or to even get some real armor for Peebee.

4.  Whether or not it is open world or linear I would say the community is pretty divided on it but either way if you are going one or the other commit to it and do a good job with it.  If you insist of going open world (and yes I know it isn't truly open world but for the sake of this we will just say open world).  Then do it right.  Make the eviornments feel real and organic.  Avoid the mmo like feel (this same advice can be given to the DA team).  Personally I feel like you should go back to a linear style as it plays to your strengths more but if done right open world can work.

5.  Ground vehicle.  This is something that MEA did improve on over the trilogy.  It was smart to bring in a developer that does racing games to design the vehicle and the vehicle physics.  I did have fun whipping around on the nomad.  Though next time having a canon like the mako would be nice.  Also I would like to see enemy vehicles.  Have vehicle on vehicle combat.  I don't want to be the only vehicle that is actually driving somewhere on planet.  In MEA we saw plenty of parked vehicles that were not going anywhere it would also make the environment feel alive and more immersive.  This is something that happened in ME 1 as well with the parked vehicles.

6.  Limit the length of the game.   This is something that the DA team could also take into account.  I felt both DAI and MEA were too big for their own good.  The games in the Shepard trilogy took me roughly 25 to 30 hours to complete on first playthroughs before DLC.  With DLC MEs 2 and 3 nearly doubled in length and took me 50 plus hours to complete respectively but those games were still only half as long as DAI/MEA were.  I would rather have a 30 to 50 hour experience that is focused and captivating than a 100 hour exprience that feels bloated at times.  Limit the game's length would allow you to focus on quality over quantity and deliver better pacing.

In other words make it more like the MET and less like MEA.