Small changes you would make to Mass Effect Andromeda

* Temperature threats are dumb. The Pathfinder team wear space suits, and the "extreme temperatures" aren't all that extreme. Angara and Exiles alike stand around unfazed while Ryder races against death. By all means, make extreme temperatures a narrative issue to be handled by the Vaults, but ditch the gameplay mechanic.

Also, Voeld's temperature hazard presumably should've been removed by the Vault. I think they tried to fix it once, and the patch created problems. Then, EA bailed on the game before any fix could be implemented. If we gotta have temp threats, at least let Voeld's be removed by the Vault.

Something that always annoys on Havarl, and particularly on Kadara, are the calls we must make from Tempest and/or the Outpost. dazk just mentioned this in the MEA daily thread.

In a theoretical next game, it would be cool if they could integrate the omnitool a bit more, maybe presenting the menus as omnitool functions, and allowing things like story-scheduled calls to be made/triggered from such a menu.

I know the hassle of heading into orbit to make a vidcall is probably a product of dwindling development time near the end. Still, having to leave Havarl to call Evfra, and return for quests, is tedious. Far worse is Kadara. Reyes calls. Finish his task, and there's absolutely nothing to do. Go to the badlands or off-planet, since there's nothing to do. Now Sloane calls. Ugh. It's a mess.

I finally wrote some stuff down for this thread

About what RedCaesar97 mentioned with the level cap: Since you can't even normally reach the level cap in one playthrough, i think its fine. IIRC i land around level 70, or even only 40 if speeding through the game. I would instead like more powers in each category, but that's another matter entirely.
I completely agree with the AVP deliveries being able to stack!

I think the biggest problem the game has is pacing. You get so many tasks and side quests at the start of the game, which slows that part down, and several of them can't even be progressed to the next phase until after Kadara or Elaaden unlock.
Spacing those out more would help drastically, i think. What was already said in the other thread about having to go back to the Tempest or switch between Kadara and the Tempest multiple times to unlock the next part of some quest is really annoying and slowing down progress. It would have been better to allow a VidCall or whatever used to progress these quests from either anywhere or at least one point on each planet. Maybe even the outposts? That way those have additional meaning.

Consumables: I don't like them, because i always forget that i even have them or think that 'i might need them more later' .
Never mind that the Backup Live Support is pretty much useless in its vanilla state. I very rarely use Overdrive Packs and Cobra RPGs, So maybe trying make some of them more involved with the environment or something would be worthwhile? Like allowing Cobras to blow up certain walls or debries and open up otherwise unreachable or hard to reach areas. Let Overdrive Packs boosts the Nomad's speed or also reset squad-powers, or allow interacting with broken initiative tech in the world for some time. Like starting broken turrets or shield generators or something to that effect, similar to how the mako could be used to power those turrets on Nepmos in ME1. Ammo Consumables and powers could also be used more often to interact with the environment in some special way.
Yeah i'm just fantasizing here i guess.
For Backup Live Support i think i found a pretty good solution, with simply increasing its duration and allowing to stack several of them for increased protection. Of course the only planet where this actually matters is Voeld, which is kinda why i don't want to reduce its hazard level But then I also kinda like the environmental hazard mechanic, though the stated temperature numbers for the hazards are chosen weirdly.
Also: Why i can't i see how many of those consumables i even have left when making the choice which one to equip in vanilla?

Maybe not a 'small' thing, but I really would have liked seeing the outposts evolve over the course of the game. Prodromos is the only one where people have new things to say after some key story points, or where new people arrive after certain decisions. But even Prodromos does never actually have new quests or even visual changes to the surrounding. Aren't they supposed to be growing crops or something there as well, no matter what type of outpost you choose?

Quicksave and Manual saves: Seems like a small thing, but i really miss(ed) those. I kinda understand why there are no manual saves during some parts of the game, but at least a quicksave slot should have been there from the start!

And lastly, balance seems off in so many places. I mean, i still think that MEA in vanilla is the most balanced of all the Mass Effect games! ME2 without any dlc and only on normal difficulty might be really really close, but MEA has so many more options available over ME2 that its just not a fair comparison.
Still, Some stuff seems off and i kinda don't even know how to do it better at most times.
Take weapons for example: Some of them receive way more damage or other bonuses with each rank than others, that seems like an easy fix. But should a lowly Katana really compete with over-the-top hightech Piranhas or Dhans? What does the rarity even mean or imply?
I tried my own attempt at balancing those, and its still not completely right. An Avenger is kinda crap, imo is supposed to be kinda crap. But it does everything, while high tier weapons should only do certain aspects really well - but this is again circumvented by augments and other 'outside' factors that complicate things.

Powers are in a similar weird place, most are fine imo, but several powers or skill evolutions feel weird or useless. I still don't actually know what to do with those. Kahmu created some extensive overhaul mods that rebalance most aspects of the powers, but i don't like some of those changes either
It probably doesn't help that i can't really decide whether i want fights in this game to be slow and methodically against few fearsome enemies or fastpaced and hectic against large waves of easily killed cannon fodder.

But overall, especially with there being mods fixing bugs and most of the annoying stuff, i really like the game the was it is now.