Things you feel "Mass Effect: Andromeda" does well

I just listened to the conversation. He does mention scouts, but nothing about them missing. 

I agree with the Hawke part, but cannot get behind Ryder providing more control in shaping due to the inconsistent nature of the dialogue system forcing me to alternate between upper and lower...and the fact that I had no Renegade-type option that was sorely needed to address the disproportionate number of idiots presented in-game.  Protesters in Agroponics (renegade, 30 days of Kett recon work on Eos and then we can discuss getting their family members out of cryo,) stoners false distress call (renegade, shots to the leg...what, they got their "medicine,") Spender (renegade, hand him over to the Krogan,) Peebee (renegade, left on the volcano world,) Liam (renegade, kicked off the team,) and don't even get me started on the Nexus leadership.  I want to craft a voice specific to the psychology I come up with for my character...MEA didn't give me the freedom to stay in character.  It wasn't terrible...I was able to make due, and it worked well for a couple of my characters, but frustrated me more than anything.  With a few tweaks it could be great, but as it sits now it's merely passable.

Don't know about the Danny Messier quest, I imagine Spender's head would be a display piece on Overlord Morda's throne, I wouldn't have cared if Peebee and Liam simply disappeared in the context of a Renegade playthrough, and maybe the protesters thing is too difficult to implement, so...stuff them back in cryo.  You say too many variables, I say the lack of variables was one of the more disappointing aspects to MEA.  And all those things would have been easily doable had the team not mismanaged their resources.  In all my original trilogy playthroughs I never once did a 100% one thing or the other, but it certainly needed a 3rd option...and it's not really about needing to do 100% on a specific dialogue option, it's about having the ability to choose what I feel is the most appropriate response 100% of the time.

I’ve never played another game with these type of bugs. I think these exist only because BioWare ran out of time to fix them. Had they actually finished the game before release, we’d not see all of these rough edges. Dialogue would trigger once and only once; Danny would be found in only one place, and so on.

The last thing I would do is suggest what these devs do is easy, (anymore than I would call them lazy...something I hear too often that just makes me cringe,) but it is what they choose to do as a profession (and all the trappings that come with such).  I do believe they owe it to their consumers to put together a more complete package.  It's not all on them, they have to answer to people above their paygrade.  But this is why good management with a concise vision is imperative.  Despite my gripes, I still believe it to be a pretty good game and fun as hell to play.  I just can't help but wonder how the situation might be different had they had another 10 million dollars and 6 months of time.

I assume those were just examples rather than specific requests. DAI gives the player the opportunity to tell Sera that she’s not right for the team after a crazy, unilateral action and continued friction. (We can also decline the VS’ return to Normandy.) I think such an option would’ve been welcomed by players for Liam and PeeBee. It’s not really a lot of extra work. If the character gets booted, they’re gone. We need not see them again. Maybe we get a parting email at most. If the devs have already definitively determined to put these characters into our crew in a sequel, that complicates things. I don’t think such definitive decision-making is typically done, nor should be done, before player reception is gauged. They should never assume X character will be liked enough to be desirable as a squaddie in the sequel.

Sera was the much more applicable example. I’m not sure if you’ve played DAI. After she goes unilaterally aggressive and is generally obnoxious, you can tell her to leave the team. Lukas wrote an another annoying character, but they wisely provided a way out for those who wanted it. Employing a similar approach wouldn’t have been difficult. Disruptive to future plans? I can’t say.

I don’t want BioWare to be slavishly beholden to fan desires. Their fan service has always resulted in stupid design/story choices. I don’t agree, though, that they would be wise to just assume their characters are going to land. Each ME has added new characters and had others move on to other things. I don’t see why a “wait and see” approach to planning would be bad. I don’t foresee PeeBee or Liam being plot crucial. They could be, but is it likely? Would their respective roles be something that couldn’t be shifted to someone else in future games?

I can’t say why they didn’t include better options for venting our wrath on these two characters. Maybe they really thought the gentle talking-to was sufficient? Maybe they considered letting us fire them but decided against it? The passivity Ryder shows is pretty standard for his/her reactions throughout the game. These are just the frustrating, peak examples.

Anyway, this is starting to sound like another, existing thread. I’d prefer this one remain positive, or at least not be centered on debates of what did or didn’t “go wrong”. I’m not trying to shutdown or exit the conversation, I just don’t want it to take over the thread.

Wouldn't be hard to do. If Bioware plans to have a sequel, just have the asari and Kosta not in the game because of whatever with the other Ryder and a quarian/salarian to fill the missing spots.The player can finish ME1 with only 3 squadmates, T'soni, Tali and A/K. Look at ME3. The player can play the game with only James, edibot and Liara.

My guess is that they decided early in the design process that they wanted to have cutscenes with multiple squadmates and didn't want to have to burn a lot of zots writing conditionals and recording alternate dialogue. You don't have to worry about who's going to say line 73 if Peebee's not there to say it when Peebee's always around to say line 73.

I'd like to see a squadmate like Murphy from the 100. Is that just me?

Regarding Peebee, if they'd allowed the player to choose not to recruit her, the way the remnant VI tech skill is unlocked would have needed to go away. I quite like that story arc, and am glad it was included in the final product. IIRC, DAI's Sera was also needed to unlock a combat ability (jar of bees?).

(not at Alan specifically)

For my part, one of my biggest draws to BioWare games is the depth and variety of their characters, including their interactions with one another and the PC. While some are universally (or nearly so) liked or disliked, there's usually a few who are controversial. DAI's Sera and MEA's Peebee are great examples of such characters.  I think their worlds (Thedas and Heleus) would be poorer and less interesting without them, and feel that such characters add a lot to the worlds and their respective games. Furthermore, I think it greatly enhances the NPC's characterization when the writers can make assumptions about which characters will be present and available. A line usually delivered by Peebee might seem out of character for Vetra, for example - and I'm a big fan of these character-defining moments.

Since I (the player) am not Ryder (the PC), I can usually find reasons for the PC to do what s/he does, regardless of my own personal feelings about a character or situation. IME, cRPGs are all about deciding what your character would do from a very limited set of options. The options are always limited by necessity; and discussions like the one that's been happening in this thread are often about other options some players might have liked but were not available - sometimes for story reasons, sometimes due to an oversight, sometimes due to budget or technical constraints.

I've sometimes wondered just how costly some of the life-or-death choices were for the team that built the trilogy. The Virmire decision ultimately meant that both Ashley & Kaidan would play the same role in the rest of the trilogy. Being able to kill Wrex and the original Council in ME1 meant that they had to write, develop, record, support replacements the rest of the way. I remember my surprise at the number of followers in ME2, and thinking there's no way that all of them could be available in ME3. I was actually pretty impressed by the inclusion of all of the survivors in ME3, and not at all surprised that players who chose an ME2 LI did not get to have them on board in ME3. In any case, I would guess that some of the design constraints for MEA included a desire to avoid writing themselves into the same sort of hole they found themselves in during the trilogy's development.

In any case, it is not unusual for a PC to work with unsavory/unliked characters in service to a higher goal. ME2's Shepard worked with a terrorist organization and recruited a vigilante and some criminals in order to achieve the higher purpose of defeating the collectors. Part of Ryder's arc involves becoming a more capable leader, and dealing with team members' nonsense/screw-ups supports that path, imho.

They’re actually present from the beginning, but that’s how I interpret them as well. It does always seem to me that there are more after the mission. I’ll try to check again this PT, and actually count them. My saying “It seems...” isn’t very reliable.

There really are a ton of small details that show that the effort and investment was real. (I hate when armchair experts throw around “lazy” and/or “didn’t care”.) I just noticed such a detail as I was constructing and testing custom pistols on Eos. Usually, gunfire is abundant and then finished. When I first test fire for feel, though, I’m not in combat. I noticed again just how great this game’s sound is. I heard multiple, realistic snaps and echoes as the gun’s sound echoed off of the surrounding terrain. It bounced around very believably. It’s easy to miss things like this when you get 10 hours in and quit because “bad animations, bad writing, don’t like characters”.

I find that BioWare games always improve with multiple PTs. There is always too much to see, hear and experience in a single go.