Your preferred Character Progression in the next future Mass Effect game

I'm okay with getting to be anything. But I'm also pretty big on class identity. I wouldn't mind if we got what we got in MEA, but at least one more ability slot and more care to stick in one spec at a time, as well as more of a sense of investment when we're getting new abilities.

Switching 'Favorites' in MEA didn't really work, so either remove it (and any intended gameplay design for it), or fix it to properly demand fluid switching. I'd prefer the former though, because again, class identity.

I just also like having everything unlocked, even if eventually in NG+s.

More squad stuff including customized and upgraded ways to control the squad. Improve the AI dammit.


Like so much of a theoretical MEA2/ME4/ME5/whatever, I'd really not mind at all if there was a general MEA basis, this new generation of ME games - I didn't hate it - but it really needs to look back and really remember what we loved in the trilogy and keep that in. ME3 did that in some great ways (when people were pissed off after ME2 cut everything down instead of polished). Be the ME3, in this regard.


There's a fantasy ME game of mine where we play as some avatar-like entity/person who can 'be' anyone/thing and so we still have 'profiles'/personas as we steathily cross over a galaxy (there'd still be humans around due to some upgraded transportation option, but more aliens than humans except in particular places, and we can change our image to seem alien), and we get recognized and treated and fought differently depending on our profile/class. In this one game, we'd lack very concrete identity (Shepard, leaning Soldier; Ryder, Pathfinder that is a 'little of everything' but maybe a boost to Tech imo), sure, but there could be a cool roleplay in how our chosen profile/class at a particular time, intersects with our situation - both roleplay and combat.


Basically, I'd like to be 'no one' (GoT haha). When a protag is no one, they can appear to be anyone, and those anyones have clear definition



But yeah if we're just Ryder again, just refine the existing model, and bring back Warp goddamn it. Like so much of MEA, there's a wisp of a fantastic dream of a ME game, and its okay to follow up on that in a much better way. I'd accept continuing being the jack of all trades here, with this protag and game arc or whatever, but there was rather too much of a bland class feeling in MEA that didn't need to happen. So personally, I'd say develop Profiles more and make them more interesting. Sure that goes against the DadRyder 'SAM, switch to X Profile!' switching emphasis, but sure keep switching in, but develop the combat scenarios much better to soft-force us to consider switching up. Frankly SP combat in MEA was relatively bland in terms of scenarios and enemies (not in terms of actions and movement; that made the overall improvement!), so work on that!

Bingo. You can be everything! Except you can't, and its spread out clumsily over a 4-Favorites thing. Ew.

More ability slots, less emphasis on switching specs all the time (since that clearly didn't work), but more specialized (AKA POLISHED GAME) situations where we may consider it good, especially on harder difficulties/challenge mode NG+, to switch to a radically different spec temporarily. I feel Bioware wanted us to zip around like DadRyder switching spec constantly, but even with just 3 abilities at a time we didn't see enough reason to. Well, take the general pressure off (and this includes having at least 4-5 abilities at a time), but include encounters that jar us and make us think of experimenting after a game over.

In the end I'd take this. As whatever a future game (especially a MEA2) needs, it most needs a sense of refinement and care. No need to super rock the boat with everything revolutionary. Just make a damn good game with what you got.

I say - give me my freedom of gameplay back. Even if it never hits the 'Dishonored1\2' mark of The Freedom of Gameplay. Allow me to be a spec-ed tech, a full-scale biotic, a stealthy infiltrator or a 'bang-bang' soldier (yes, the bad pun intended). Something in-between, a jack-of-all-trades? It would work too because some people like it this way, why not.

Being able to pick his powers is great: if I want to play a tech/soldier, I don't want to be forced with Tactical Cloak everytime like they did in ME3.
But the profile system, and especially the 3 powers limit almost ruined my first playthrough. I hoped it can be fixed (by a mod obviously) before my next playthrough.

I think it should start out by giving us a starting profile, like what we had in the OT, but like Andromeda we can change our profile. The difference is that to change our profile it'd have to cost us either a lot of credits or a special item, and we have a limited amount of times we can change our profile per playthrough and it gets more expensive each time we use it (Though in a NG or NG+, the cost would reset).
Dark Souls 3 did this and I found it to be a VERY welcome feature.

EDIT: Also like Andromeda, you have access to any power you choose, but the amount of skill points is limited and there is a level cap. (Meaning you have to play a role more)

I still don't see why you being unable to keep yourself  from wrecking your own experience is a reason to limit other players' approaches.

There are plenty of reasons why classless is a troublesome way to build an RPG, but I don't see how this is one.

Two bits here:

It isn't about wrecking the experience, it's about worsening the experience. That seems semantic, but it's quite a large difference. Of course it would be stupid if you kept using a power that ruined the game, but what about a power that just made your experience sub-optimal? If you can even notice that your choice would result in a worse experience, humans are still bad at differentiating between long term and abstract benefits from short term and concrete ones. For a lot of people, it's difficult to choose between maintaining immersion and getting that damage boost. And even if could avoid using it, the fact that you can even do it still harms the game's immersion as much as it always did.

Second, and more generally, games are as much about what you can't do as what you can. More choice isn't always the answer. This should be intuitive: Basketball isn't Basketball simply because there's a ball you can mess with, it's Basketball because you also have to dribble when you move and stay within the court and you can't foul, etc. This goes doubly so for videogames where the very reality of the setting needs to be solidified by the mechanics. That's why you don't have infinite health in Mass Effect: it would eliminate both the challenge and the reward of combat as well as totally ruin the veracity of the universe.

Class system and background options to allow for greater level of role play.

Kinda feels like you didn't read my whole post.

I acknowledged that I can choose to limit myself, but the game is designed (and balanced) not to do that. Like I said, this open slather approach takes away a key concept of role playing by not forcing a player to make a binding choice, and that is absolutely one of the problems with a classless RPG. Ryder simply has no weaknesses unless the player arbitrarily imposes them.

I can accept that other people prefer this freedom and the ability to switch things up in one play through. I guess it's just one more nod to the action/shooter crowd and one step further away from the RPG side of things.

I think the open class approach in MEA is the best one, but I think it was implemented poorly. Limiting you to 3 powers at a time and initiating cool downs when you switch to different power sets makes it feel like you're not supposed to be using powers.
I think you should have a minimum of 6 mapped powers at a time, each with individual cooldown periods, and access to the rest of your powers via the power wheel. Keyboards and Xbox Pro controllers have all those extra buttons. Let us use them, goddammit.

With as praised as the combat was in MEA, I'm kinda surprised with the results actually. I knew some fans wanted the game to have the old class system, but I had no idea it was the majority (at least on these boards). This is pretty insightful.