The Scene/Interrupt Ideas Thread

I would to have renegade interrupts that involve both harsh language and violence. ME3 was lacking in that department.

And what temper tantrum would be thrown?

The kind involving the use of profanity and violence. There are regulations against the use of profanity while serving in the armed forces, and unmotivated violence is grounds for termination from service. Sure, it's not like someone will be able to enforce it in deep space, but it would really discredit the Ark Initiative if they let a misanthropic edgelord slip through their screening procedures.

And seriously, man, Renegade Shep was already a psychopath of comical proportions and you want to make Renegade Ryder even worse? Where does the edge end? Being Renegade should be about making pragmatic choices, not about being the biggest asshole possible.

Okay, so the idea is to suggest scenes - whether whole set pieces, or relatively small moments that'd work well as dialogue interrupts - that you think could be, well, cool for Andromeda. You can use clips from other shows/games to illustrate the idea, or describe it in text--whichever you'd prefer. Keep in mind that these scenes would, obviously, be adapted to better fit with the Mass Effect setting, and the specific situation Ryder is in, so don't worry overmuch about small inconsistencies and such--it's more about the general idea than the specifics. 

To start us off, I have three suggestions:


1. Whole Scene: Just let me be Picard already. (Seriously though, I would like to see more 'tense stand-off between spaceships' stuff in Andromeda, with us in dialogue with the enemy commander. And revealing a hidden advantage is always satisfying. Heck, it'd actually be a good spot for a significant roleplay/dialogue choice: do you order the ships to immediately attack as they appear, giving you a better chance of winning but destroying any chance of a diplomatic solution, or do you do as Picard did, and take the risk on the chance that the enemy commander could back down?)

The kind involving the use of profanity and violence. There are regulations against the use of profanity while serving in the armed forces, and unmotivated violence is grounds for termination from service. Sure, it's not like someone will be able to enforce it in deep space, but it would really discredit the Ark Initiative if they let a misanthropic edgelord slip through their screening procedures.

And seriously, man, Renegade Shep was already a psychopath of comical proportions and you want to make Renegade Ryder even worse? Where does the edge end? Being Renegade should be about making pragmatic choices, not about being the biggest asshole possible.

Yes! I wouldn't mind some more Star Trek vibes in my Mass Effect, and ship standoffs would be a great addition, for the reasons you say.

As for interrupts in general, I'm not sure this is exactly what the topic is about, so I apologize if not. I know they're not going with the Paragon/Renegade system anymore, which is okay, but I'll really miss interrupts. Yes, they did have the awful downside of meaning you had no idea what would actually happen if you picked one (or not), but I think it's important to add some sort of way to perform actions in cutscenes, not just have dialogue. Interrupts allowed for more seamless actions than if a wheel with "[Do nothing]/[Intervene]" popped up and stopped what should be a tense/emotional moment.

So it might be a good idea to just have "interrupts" in ME:A. It also allows for better RP, as someone pointed out, because you wouldn't be forced to, say, hug Tali (you monster).

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Further to what you said, I'd rather not have my character suddenly start spewing profanities with no prior warning (or at all, personally, but I can avoid those). What if I want to ream one of my crewmembers out without completely undermining my good points with useless immaturity? In my opinion, the best arguments don't need to resort to that kind of thing, and are all the more impressive for it. Plus, it's more open for RP that way. I think they should continue to keep protagonist profanity to a minimum for those reasons, but we'll see what happens.

Since we're on that topic, why the heck could James just get away without so much as a warning for cursing up a storm to his superior officer? Oh, and I guess I didn't even touch on the violence aspect. Are we talking about shooting some mooks in a cutscene, or beating up our squadmates here?

The kind involving the use of profanity and violence.

I know it might have seemed like such a minor thing to a lot of players but I really did not care for the scene where Shepard hugs Liara in Mass Effect 2. It is an auto-action that bothers me because it really stands out especially  when I'm playing a character that has barely interacted with Liara in the previous game or had any indications previously that they had any sort of positive relationship. One character was also very stoic and harsh so it made no sense for him to be giving out hugs.

With regards to the interrupts, there's this from the old Survey leak (which, thus far, has been remarkably on-the-money):
So, it sounds like the Interrupt system is indeed going to be back, and even expanded. We know they're moving away from Paragon/Renegade, so I imagine they've had to come up with a new means of demarking which interrupt does what. Now, that could simply be a Diplomatic/Aggressive divide, in the mould of Paragon/Renegade - so, if you're gonna hug someone, it's Diplomatic, while kneecapping's definitely in the Aggressive category - but I'm hoping they've gone further, and taken this opportunity to come up with some means of actually telling us what a given interrupt is going to do - at least in summation - before we hit the button.

I don't know what form that might take, exactly, but I'm sure there's a way. Perhaps simply better contextual clues in the environment combined with custom icons for each interrupt? (For example, in the Tali scene the icon might just be a simplistic representation of two people hugging. When you shoot Brooks, it's someone getting shot in the back. When you push a merc out a window, it's someone falling. And so on.)

And on profanities/reaming out: I, too, would really appreciate at least having the option to go about that sort of thing differently, in line with the character I want to roleplay. When it comes to disciplining crewmembers, I'll once again call upon the one, the only Jean-Luc Picard:

*Picard snip*
Not a single impolite word uttered, and all the more devastating for it.

Another good example is 'playing the game' in Orlais, particularly the scene where you expose the Grand Duchess:

*WEWH snip*
A big part of what makes this scene so fun - it's in the running for my favourite in the whole game - is the way the Inquisitor completely destroys the Duchess' plans, exposing her to the entire court, all without ever losing her courtly airs, smirk firmly affixed in place. This kind of verbal duel is so much more fun to me than just cussing someone out. (That said, I do occasionally want to just cuss someone out--but it ought to be an option, not a requirement.)