GamePlanet Interview with Mike Gamble Dec 22'16

I definitely see the resemblance between what they're showing us and telling us and DAI: the big maps, the bases we're going to establish in each of them, the monsters/dragons, the resource gathering and the crafting, the apparent need of buiding up your central base (nexus points included), the new dialogue wheel... Those are things that to me have more in common with DAI than with previous ME games... Even the nomad looks more like DAI horses that like the mako, not having guns... I don't think the idea is crazy at all

That said, I don't think all of those of these similarities are bad. The changes in the dialogue options, for instance, for me are welcome (if they would add the aproval/disapproval system it would be perfect)and so is the crafting itself (the resource gathering is another issue), and I had lot of fun with the dragon fights, so I think I'm going to enjoy something similar. I'm not a fan though of big maps, but as long as the nexus points are not used to level-gate the main missions and I'm not forced to deal with all the exploration and side-quest in every single pt, I'm ok with it even if I'd have still prefered that resources were spent elsewhere. I'm not a fan of the nomad either, but we'll see, maybe it's fun driving it and, in fact, since it seems I won't be able to ignore it, I'm happy that at least I won't have to fight with it.

And then, there's still the case of things that I didn't like in DAI but that I could like in MEA if they're done better, which are the resource gathering and the side-quest, and here, maybe the hype is making be naive, but I'm optimistic for the moment, I think they actually might be better, for what I have heard and seen.

So, personally, some things I like, some I don't, but I sure can see where "Inquisition in space" remarks come from

The thing is, he also said that combat was designed around on-the-fly respeccing.  This doesn't seem to be an option, like "this build isn't working for me, I need to change some stuff" or "D'oh!  I didn't mean to click that talent!"  You are EXPECTED to periodically rearrange your talents to handle certain fights!

Forever for me is literally Mass Effect 1 lol.. it's the first BioWare game I played. Perspective I suppose, although the point remains. It was an ME innovation, not a DA one.

I believe that voiced protagonists are worth it for the immersion alone, but then again I have a high tolerance for inflectional discrepancies so this is a subjective viewpoint. Occasionally I do get irritated by paraphrasing issues, but I am far more likely to be pleased by the outcome.

DAI was surely not reinventing the wheel, all or most of these features of course come from other games... I'm compairing specifically MEA with DAI and MET.

ME1 have big maps, yes, but they were not so vast or full of side-quests and stuff that you needed to establish bases (and I'm not sayin it doesn't makes sense, I'm saying we never had those in other ME games), and neither there was in every one of them a super monster that you probably wont be able to take on when you arrive there for the first time, as I seem to remember they said it will happen in MEA.

And I don't remember either having to collect resources as we travel (on foot) to later make helmets, guns or whatever, we were picking uprades, which to me is kind of different. In fact, a lot of them you couldn't just pick them up, you had to buy them. I wouldn't call any of this crafting.

The dialogue wheel was always there of course, but as you say, it seems it's more similar to the one in DAI than to the one in MET, even the symbols look the same.

The Crucible might be similar, ok, I could agree on that (though I didn't find it half as annoying as the power requirements in DAI, but ok, that's my thing)

And, again, I'm not saying DAI didn't take much of other games, so if you want to say that MEA looks like DAI only because they're more open-world games, that's fine with me, but they're still look alike a lot (as far as we can tell without actually having played the game) and somewhat diffferent from last BW games

I see!  I didn't mean anything negative about it.  I know on the old BSN forums there was a hefty thread about the pros and cons of a silent protagonist.  I prefer how they did Shep in the OT, but I don't think there is anything wrong with a silent protagonist.  

I think we will have the option to choose the "emotion" in dialogue, judging by the DAI-inspired symbols on the dialogue wheel in the VGA gameplay demo.  

I used to read 'Choose Your Own Adventures'...


And they could have '40 possible endings!' 

It would seem that evolution of format is inevitable... 

It's okay. I didn't see anything negative from your post. 

I don't think we will, since Bioware told us what the options are. Instead of like DAI where you chose not only what to say but the emotion and tone to say it, in MEA the four options are instead Head, Heart, Professional, and Casual. There is no real choice of emotion or tone there except maybe Heart. 

That's it, 'old people's reminiscence' over, please do carry on...

AKA the KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS. Effect. 

Merry★* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★Christmas★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門｜ ˚And a happy new year!

---

Two distinct personalities with bigger character dialogues, than in any previous ME games, allows the gamer to discover new aspects of the protagonist in multiple playtroughs.

Playing the Ryder as a hard azz or a lover should trigger different dialogues from our squad and aliens. However, I'm also tempering this "enthusiasm" with rock salts. I mean, let's face it, a bigger character dialogue could simply mean take the largest in ME, add two extra lines and marketing can say it's the biggest yet.

THis is specifically what I was referring to...


Q:  Are there any restrictions around item usage or class or any aspect of each character?



Mass Effect: Andromeda interview

Mike Gamble: Nope, there's no restrictions based on class or anything. We have a really cool profile system that we've included which allows you to change what we call a profile, which is a subset of skills. We don't have a class system, so you basically level up your character, you assign your points, and you can rearrange those points as you need to. You can select different profiles as they unlock that focus you on specific different areas. So there's an Infiltrator profile and a Vanguard profile, but if you're not cool with that you can always switch, and you can actually do it at any point.



So if you see a combat that is much more suited to an Infiltrator, you pop open the main menu, you select the Infiltrator profile that gives you set powers that you can use to take that combat using an Infiltrator approach, then if something is up close then you switch to a Vanguard profile and go from there. There's no real limitations in terms of powers and weapons. We found that to be quite limiting for players so we got rid of it.


Will there be a cost associated with this respeccing?



Mike Gamble: You can just adjust. We felt that putting a cost into it would eliminate players from wanting to do it as much. But of course, we've built the game around being able to do that. So you'll have different kinds of situations and combats where it would be very beneficial for you to change your profile, and you might have a greater reward if you change your profile. So by doing that, we just want the players to be able to do it, we don't want to punish them for it.


You can, and will be encouraged, to switch abilities on the fly, even in the middle of a mission.