Things you wish would have happened in Andromeda?

I would've liked to have had a more serious tone. They wanted to have a young protagonist with a lighter tone, but I think they over did it. Ryder and team come across, not as young, but as wisecracking, unprofessional goons. Even when dire discoveries are made, the impact is limited. It's hard for a serious moment to resonate when they characters immediately resume their poor jokes and wisecracking. They seem unaffected, and so the player is less affected. It causes dissonance.

I'd have liked to have experienced a more realistic introduction to the angara. (I agree that they aren't very alien.) Even the poorly explained fact that they already knew of the MWers via the exiles doesn't account for angaran mastery/translation of at least 5 MW languages. (These being human, asari, turian, salarian and krogan.) The intro was abrupt and full of holes. The relationship seemed way too easy throughout the entire game. I'd have liked to see more depth and nuance.

Before launch, I watched a lot of design videos. They claimed that the kett would be a sympathetic foe. This never happened. They were clearly the "bad guys" from the start. Hell, the first two we meet we are forced to kill. This was a huge disappointment. Maybe they intended to reveal some sympathetic info in a future game, but that doesn't help MEA.

I'd have liked one of the two new species, at least, to be less humanoid. I correctly predicted (here on the BSN) last December, upon first seeing good pics of kett faces, that some of the kett are genetically modified angara. The recognizable features are not a problem in and of themselves. The real problem is that the kett and angara were seemingly already very similar digitigrade humanoids long before they made first contact. That's a bit lame. Yet another (2 more!) digitigrade humanoid species was a bit of a disappointment. I understand the mechanical challenges, and accept those. I still feel that the aesthetics, at the very least, could've been more alien. The new aliens need not look "romanceable".

There are many other things I'd change, add or subtract. I'm sure I'll revisit this thread. It's a good discussion.

Definitely a more serious tone, I agree with Eezo that they overdid it with the joking. It would've been fine if it was optional aka Sarcastic option on the dialogue wheel, but it was not. Which actually brings me to the thing I wanted most.
I wish they had given Ryder more tone choices, and especially less audiodialogue. Shepard already had too much of it by ME3. While I still find many of those fitting in the context of the military and the Reaper war, Ryder with their jokey attitude was nothing that could be avoided, and it especially clashed with the professional dialogue option. It did not fit the setting, the situation they were in. Andromeda should've been full of dangerous moments and struggle, but instead everything is depicted as way too peachy.
I definitely would've liked a good first contact war and complicated relationships we could broker (or not) with aliens/various factions. Seeing how they apparently planned this as a standalone game, they should've made a lot of different choices possible, with a lot of different outcomes. Instead they played it way too safe.

I wish the 1st contact with the Angara would've been handled better. Not talking in english after 2minutes for example.

More maps like Elaaden. More ideas for ice world weirdness. A take on bizarre worlds of frozen methane and frozen gas clouds forming beautiful shapes. Deorbiting planetary ring systems. Weird liquid oozte worlds. Thresher Maws.
Weird stuff you want to go and explore just because they are there.
Procedural (no, not maps) ship layouts for variety in missions. Ship boarding. 0 g combat.

I didn't mind the lighter tone but I wish it hadn't gone as far as taking away nearly all of the intra-squad conflict. I wish there had been more opportunities to genuinely disagree with the other characters.

And I would have liked to see a few more new aliens.

Sense of mystery and discovery, nutshell. Travel through galaxy map, you're pulled into gravinetromagneticwhatsitcalled event. Then you and whole team work together to find a way around it...classic Voyager epizode.

Expand ME lore directly through missions, you get interesting codex entry at the end explaining phenomenon ( based on how you resolve it), make the player feel like actual scientist/explorer...what a waste of opportunity.

You can bet someone will make popular AAA sci-fi like this in near future ( then those Canadian knuckleheads will realize: "Duh, maybe we should do something like this?")

I've been away for a few weeks, but I've been thinking of posting again in this thread.

I like the vaults a lot, both the primary and "side-quest" vaults. The first vault, the Eos vault, was by far the best in my opinion. I enjoy the aesthetics, the battles, and the puzzles for all of the vaults. Still, none of them ever reached the high standard set by the Eos vault. I'd have enjoyed larger vault complexes for the primary vaults at least.

This next one is more nit picky. It's more of a wishlist item for a sequel, rather than something MEA "should've had". I'd like to have seen more variety in the architect battles. As it is, they're exactly the same experience on each world. The scenery changes slightly, but each architect is indistinguishable from the other. This means that by Level 12-15, I've likely already evolved the skills needed to trounce all four "megabosses". They're definitely far less epic than I'd hoped. DAI's dragons can be killed in seconds, but at least this requires significant optimization. They are also beautiful in audio and visual presentation. I still smile as I sneak up on a sleeping dragon. I listen to this terrifying sounds and admire her beauty before dropping that nova.

Getting back to the architects, I'd like to see more varied architect designs in the next game. Maybe they evolve to better match their respective environments? Visuals and structure aside, they definitely shouldn't feature the same mechanics and tactics in every battle.

EDIT: Also, a few CC wishes.

Why in the world was the "Cassidy Shaw" hair not available in the CC? It seems that they always reserve the game's best style for NPCs. It never makes sense. I'm confident that this style would've been a fan favorite, were it available.

I also think that making eyebrows an intrinsic, uneditable part of the face texture is a mistake. Unchanging eyebrow colors limit believable hair colors. It's annoying.

Sloane Kelly: I wanted a scene between Nexus leadership and Sloane during Endgame. Tann had been trying to kill her, Addison seemed like she was trying to protect her but was also the one that carried out her sentence of Exile, and Kesh had been a friend. There is no way that there wouldn't have been some sort of confrontation. Especially with Sloane standing in the middle of the Hyperion. I would have also loved to have another scene fighting alongside her.

This is a thing that I have taken upon myself to address in fanfiction.

Keri T'Vessa: We should have been able to hug/kiss her and tell her that she is loved by either the scene right when she is released from prison, or the last part of Path of a Hero. She told Alex that she loves her. Alex is crazy about her and chose nobody but her. It would have been fun if Ryder had a chance to write her letters too, and have her send replies that were a little more personal, so we can really see a relationship develop. 

I would have loved an expansion of her character. She had a very full backstory with little development beyond that. I would also have loved to been a fly on the wall for her meeting with Tann before she meets Ryder and the one before she gets jailed. I've had to address all this in fanfiction, and I rewrote her date scene.

Lisana T'Lesso: Interesting character that we don't see after Voeld. I would have loved to have run across her in space, the Nexus, or maybe on Kadara.

Foster Addison: She says a lot of cryptic things throughout the game we get no explanation of. I think she is an antihero, and I think that makes her a very damaged and interesting character. I would really have loved an expansion on her character including her backstory, and the answer to my question: Was she, Jien, and/or Alec connected with Cerberus?

Fight on the Nexus: It would have been fun to see this, or fight it as another character in the story (ala Joker in Mass Effect 2): Pick one of Kandros' sergeants (we never heard from Talini after Uprising and I really liked her character), Keri, or maybe someone in Nexus leadership unless they were all really on the Hyperion as it went into a war zone.

Lexi T'Perro: I would have loved to have been able to ask her if she is okay. She gets to hear everyone else's problems, and has gone through hell as a person. Even professionals need a health check every now and then. She is also Alex's friend and confidant in addition to Cora and Keri. This could have led into a nice expansion of her story.

Less talking heads: One of the things I enjoyed the most about the original trilogy is that the characters seemed organic and memorable in their gestures and facial expressions. One of my favorite moments in Mass Effect 3 was this look of contempt that Liara gives Javik after he is a complete jerk to her. There really wasn't any of that in ME:A.

Hard to make a proper fan video of my Ryder's romance with Keri when all they do is stand or sit in front of each other and talk: Neither character moves around, Keri doesn't really make any facial expressions apart from blinking. Keri is cute and sarcastic and her interactions should have reflected that.

Sloane would have also been a prime candidate. Especially when Ryder makes fun of her.

Instant masturbation at a button!



Games are better that way.

I would've liked for Ryder to be more emotional about the death of their father and for Ryder to grow up a bit. Not instantly, that's unrealistic, but to see Ryder gradually mature as an impact of being Pathfinder, of having those responsibilities, of being so totally in control would've been great.
I also wish Ryder could've been a bit more malleable. Kinda like renegade and paragon type stuff but not so clean cut or so isolated. I wanted Ryder to be able to be really good or really bad or somewhere comfortably in the middle.

Also more of the crew messing around and more emotional moments overall with them.

Different strokes for different folks.

I personally felt like there wasn't enough emotion regarding Alec's death. Ryder just kinda . . . Didn't care, or so it seemed. There were times it felt like Cora was more distraught and lost over your dad's death.

As for growing up, I would've liked to have seen Ryder maturing more evident. I didn't want it to be a choice, y'know? I'd have rather it have been something you had to see and go through. But not everyone wants that and I understand so idk

I never complained about emotional moments? Or messing around?