Mass Effect '5' speculation (Official Thread)

Nov 26, 2018 20:50:56 GMT souljahbill14 said:

Nov 26, 2018 19:29:10 GMT @endless said:

How can you say Shepard with his/her wide range of in game choice differences (renegade to paragon) isn't able to be felt/acted in accordance with the player like the Warden or the Inquisitor? I REALLY have to hear this this one...

This is literally one of the biggest gripes (his potential for mood swings) with the fanboys on this forum about Shepard...

Edit:
To make this easier I'll break down all the Bioware protagonist (that I've played) in which you can't change their history...

-Revan (Kotor) same background no matter what you choose
-Ryder will always be a brother or sister with a family past
-Hawke, the same as Ryder

Protagonist in which you can change their history...

-Shepard can change his background and psychological history
-Warden's Race (which changes the history depending on)
-Inquisitor ( same as Warden)

That background/psychological profile is more or less meaningless. Yeah, it’s technically different but outside of in the player’s head, it’s of no significance to Shepard or the games story. You didn’t even have to follow it. A Spacer War Hero Shep can be just renegade as a Ruthless Earthborn Shep and vice versa. There wasn’t a wide range of differences. It was either Space Christ or Space Dick.

• Human: A member of the noble Trevelyan family from Ostwick in the Free Marches. The Trevelyan family has close ties with the Templar Order and warrior and rogue Inquisitors were raised to be devout and loyal Andrastians (though they do not have to relish this role). They are sent to the Chantry conclave to aid their family in the proceedings. Human mages lived a cloistered, protected life in the Ostwick Circle before the Templars attempted to kill them, forcing them to flee and join the mage delegation at the Chantry conclave. Human Inquisitors receive one extra ability point upon character creation.
• Elf: A member of the Lavellan clan, a Dalish clan that resides in the Free Marches. As a warrior or rogue, the elven Inquisitor is a hunter. If a mage, they are First to the clan's Keeper. The Dalish tend to hold their beliefs and traditions in the highest regard (though they do not have to be upheld). All elven Inquisitors are sent by the Keeper to spy on the conclave's proceedings, as the rebellion has been threatening the clan's safety and way of life. The Keeper also predicts that the conclave's outcome will effect everything. Elven Inquisitors receive a 25% bonus to ranged defense upon character creation.
• Dwarf: A surface dwarf and member of House Cadash, a prominent crime family within the Carta. They are lyrium smugglers, and are sent to the conclave to spy on the proceedings, as it's outcome would have a major impact on the demand for lyrium. Dwarven Inquisitors receive a 25% bonus to magic defense upon character creation.
• Qunari: A Vashoth Qunari who was never introduced to the Qun. Regardless of the player's chosen class, all Qunari Inquisitors are members of the Valo-kas mercenary company and are sent to the Chantry conclave as hired security. Qunari Inquisitors receive a 10% bonus to physical resistance upon character creation.

Pre-Service History

The player then selects Shepard's pre-service history, by choosing Spacer, Earthborn, or Colonist. This choice affects how others talk about the main character and, in combination with the psychological profile, determines how many bonus Paragon and Renegade points the Commander has at the start of the game. Some assignments in the game are only available to those who selected a particular pre-service history.

• Spacer: Both of your parents were in the Alliance military. Your childhood was spent on ships and stations as they transferred from posting to posting, never staying in one location for more than a few years. Following in your parents' footsteps, you enlisted at the age of eighteen.
  • Spacer characters can have a short conversation with Hannah Shepard, the PC's mother, through an assignment that is only available with this background. (In both of the other backgrounds, Shepard's parents are deceased or otherwise absent.)
• Earthborn: You were an orphan raised on the streets of the great megatropolises covering Earth. You escaped the life of petty crime and underworld gangs by enlisting with the Alliance military when you turned eighteen.
  • Earthborn characters also have a unique assignment. A member of a gang Shepard belonged to in youth will approach Shepard outside Chora's Den in the Citadel Wards. Shepard is asked to help free a member of the gang from a turian in the bar.
• Colonist: You were born and raised on Mindoir, a small border colony in the Attican Traverse. When you were sixteen slavers raided Mindoir, slaughtering your family and friends. You were saved by a passing Alliance patrol, and you enlisted with the military a few years later.
  • Colonist characters also have a unique mission. When exiting the docking bay elevator, you will receive a request to help a fellow survivor of Mindoir, who was taken by slavers during the raid on Mindoir when you were sixteen.

Psychological Profile

Following a selection of pre-service history, the player must choose a psychological profile: Sole Survivor, War Hero, or Ruthless - each of which relates to a specific event in Alliance history and places Shepard in a prominent role.

• Sole Survivor: During your service, a mission you were on went horribly wrong. Trapped in an extreme survival situation, you had to overcome physical torments and psychological stresses that would have broken most people. You survived while all those around you fell, and now you alone are left to tell the tale. The Sole Survivor's unit was slaughtered in a thresher maw attack on Akuze.
  • Sole Survivors begin the game with both bonus Paragon and bonus Renegade points and have special dialogue in the UNC: Dead Scientists assignment.
• War Hero: Early in your military career you found yourself facing an overwhelming enemy force. You risked your own life to save your fellow soldiers and defeat the enemy despite the impossible odds. Your bravery and heroism have earned you medals and recognition from the Alliance fleet. The War Hero almost single-handedly repelled an attack by batarian slavers on Elysium.
  • War Heroes begin the game with bonus Paragon points and have special dialogue in the UNC: Espionage Probe assignment.
• Ruthless: Throughout your military career, you have held fast to one basic rule: get the job done. You've been called cold, calculating, and brutal. Your reputation for ruthless efficiency makes your fellow soldiers wary of you. But when failure is not an option, the military always goes to you first. The Ruthless character sent 3/4ths of his/her unit to its death and murdered surrendering batarians on Torfan.
  • Ruthless characters begin the game with bonus Renegade points and have special dialogue in the UNC: Major Kyle assignment.

Nov 30, 2018 6:38:27 GMT @upagain said:

Nov 29, 2018 20:14:45 GMT themikefest said:

Another way to think about the Drack thing.  Wouldn't you prefer a Krogan to be off on their own in the kitchen rather than squeezed into an overcrowded room full of bunks?  According to EDI,  Krogan are known for fighting when being transported in overcrowded conditions.  Even Cora has worked out her own private space on board the ship.  She sets  herself up alone in the BioLab.  Liam sets himself up in the one cargo bay, and Vetra is in set up in the tech lab.  Gil is off by himself in the engine room.  Bioware arranges the crew so that each has their own private space, but they've didn't design Tempest with enough space to give each crew member even small private living quarters.  Really, they should have probably just eliminated Cora's line about assigning bunk spaces and let Drack, PeeBee and, later, Jaal just assume the private workspaces according to their talents.  PeeBee should have been set up in the Tech Lab.  Drack, being a good cook, was fine set up in the kitchen, and Jaal needed to be in the area where you could modify your weapons, since that was his talent.  Sleeping spaces should have never been mentioned and it just assumed that everyone bunked in the living quarters.

Ryder was not an elected or chosen leader.  He//she was the individual related to Alec who was in trouble..  By that time, Alec knew he could not pass SAM onto Cora; that it had to be someone related to him.  He was simply not prepared to watch his own child die.  He probably also realized that if he gave his helmet to Ryder, there was a pretty good chance he would be dead before help could arrive, so he opted to transfer SAM as wel to ensure SAM's survivall.  It's Alec that's going against his military training.  The most secure thing to do for the Initiative would have been to just watch his child die and keep SAM in his own head... but at that moment he's not thinking as a military man; he's thinking like a father.  It's probably also not just the air on the planet that killed Alec, but the act of severing himself from SAM.  When Ryder is severed from SAM, he passes out, so it's reasonable to think that this is what likely happened to Alec as well... and it's pretty hard for even an N7 to hold their breath when they're out cold.

Andromeda is a story about taking an unlikely candidate and turning them into a leader over time.  At the end of the game, Ryder is starting to assert himself/herself.  When the team questions his/her trying to open the door, Ryder asserts that it just needs to be done.  When he/she raises the Remnant fleet, it's "I can still do something."  Ryder is learning to be a leader without a mentor.  He/she is fumbling along and that's the theme of the story.  I get that it's not what you would do, but the PC isn't you.  He/she is a character in a story.  It's very likely that if Bioware does bring back Ryder as the PC, it will be a far more assertive and older Ryder that we get for the next installment.

What do you want people to take away from Andromeda?

For me, there is this thing that with exploration where I remember as a kid, less so now, looking up at the stars and just wondering what's out there. In that real sense of what I'm seeing now, like when they're putting rovers on Mars and SpaceX is talking about going to Mars and all these things, it's invoked that wanderlust in me. That wanderlust, it goes beyond just travel on Earth, but what could possibly be out there?

That's one of the key things that drove just the inspiration for Andromeda. I really hope that people take away that sense of wanderlust and what's possible out there. That sense of exploration and discovery and really going to a place unique for the very first time. Also just, I talked a bit about the mystery. I think that's a big part of it too, which is we won't tell you everything when you go there the first time, so we want people to come away going, "And now tell me the rest."