The Nomad (Official Thread)

I like the idea of speeder like mounts. My biggest complaint about the mako, other then the fact that its driving was at times sucky as hell, was that you could not see your character(s) on it or in it. Made it most discouraging for an RPG aspect where I wanna see my character at all times.

I am probably mistaken, but Andromeda has that pioneering/frontier vibe to me. So, I was wondering if part of it was using what came in handy on the new and undiscovered worlds, including the local mounts.   Which I would have loved, since it, well, sort of would have appealed to me.

I think that's a bit of an illusion... In ME3, we potentially visited 4 separate locations on Tuchanka... I think we actually covered more surface ground on that planet in ME3 than we did in ME2 (where we only visited 3 locations).  I also think the surface area we covered on Tuchanka in ME3 may have actually been larger than the area of a planet map in ME1.

I am more than happy to trade seeing my character for a closed in Mako if it means it can hold you and your squad and all the usual banter and plot chatter.

Having individual mounts can lead to problems with how to deal with squad members. How DA:I deals with companions when you mount up drives me up the wall and I would hate if they made a mount system like that in ME.  The magically disappearing companions is the reason I walked everywhere in DA:I.

The Mako is an alliance workhorse and is perfect for exploration and combat plus it's reused assets.

I guess it is a gameplay decision. They want the exploration factor in the game and the romanticism of driving around on an unexplored alien planet. Would a shuttle make more sense? Possibly (although there might be some places like caves or forests a Mako might be better) but I doubt the flight simulator gameplay was something they were after.

I am a bit sceptical about it. For a start I don't like driving games, I don't like sandbox games, I don't like exploration with no purpose, I don't like games that have stories with bad/slow pacing. I do like some games that have vehicle sequences, Halflife 2, especially episode 2, had amazing vehicle gameplay that integrated with the normal gameplay flawlessly. I'm just hoping if there is a lot driving, they have put in enough effort to make it interesting and challenging, I don't see any point in simply making the player drive for 2 minutes to get somewhere and not have some actual challenge in that time.

Not really.  But the point is I have probably spent 10-30 minutes on any given RPG creation and I recognize I am by no means the heaviest creator of such things.  From what I have heard some people can spend hour upon hour on it.  So, I at least, want to see my character and play with them on the screen to appreciate my good look rather then have them locked behind a metal box which I could not see.  

Yeah, it does have that vibe, but have you thought about what actually goes into making a mount, in real life? You can't just go find a horse and ride it; wild horses are called that for a reason. You have to tame a species over generations and learn exactly how to ride it. That's just not feasible at all while quickly exploring new worlds, each with their own life forms. Unless you're borrowing them from the local sapient species. But there is still little-to-no advantage in doing that over using your own technology.

That doesn't mean it's a good idea

Well at least I don't go around telling other people that their feelings are pointless. And obviously I'm aware that an unexplored location is an unexplored location. But there is a huge difference between exploring The Milky Way and Andromeda. Are you assuming all I care about is exploration itself? Because it's not.

My thoughts exactly. DA:I's system made no sense, and even if ME:A had it so each squadmate had their own speeder, it would likely run into the same pathing problems DA:I had. I'd rather not look behind me to find my companions teleporting/falling from the sky to keep up with me. Lack of banter sucked, too.

And to answer the original quote: Well, I'm sure we'll spend loads of time out of the Mako, and it's not like you see your characters face much while running/in combat anyway.

How have I not seen that before? Also, it reminds me: The M35 Mako IFV. Now, what is the new designation going to be? Because it's obviously not an infantry-fighting vehicle anymore... I just really can't wrap my head around that decision.

Well, at least you have now seen it. I particularly like the last minute of the video.  
This new one's designation is the M40 Mako. In some images you see the M40 on its side. So apparently despite having no armaments, it is in the same class as war vehicles like the M29 Grizzly, the M44 Hammerhead, and of course its predecessor the M35 Mako. 

... and now you're effectively also telling me that I should not be enthusiastic about "fictionally" going to another galaxy... and yet, somehow, I'm the one who also gets slammed for allegedly telling other people their feelings are pointless.  What is the point of crushing my enthusiasm?  You all must have a point to it because it's absolutely a "sin" around here to be enamoured with the idea of going to Andromeda. 

It's fiction and I'm stoked about the possibilities of all the new wild imaginings that can pop out of the developers' heads in a new story that's located in a new galaxy.  If you're talking about non-possibilities... There is not 99% or even 90% unexplored of the ME Trilogy's Milky Way galaxy... because Bioware never created it... never drew it, never rendered it, never programmed it.  It's simply not possible to quantify and explore something that simply does not exist.