GamePlanet Interview with Mike Gamble Dec 22'16

I might be wrong, but wasn't character class ever "recognised" only once in the entire trilogy, if the PC was an engineer during the Omega DLC for one scene?

There were the occasional nice reference, but it was by no means perfect. Like Kaidan claiming my infiltrator shep was a stronger biotic than he was.

I find the class swapping strange too, but am willing to wait to hear more information before forming an opinion.

Actually switching profiles seems unnecessary. If they want a Skyrim-ish classless system then let us choose whatever skills we want out of all available, and give us access to our chosen skills all the time. If I want to be a warrior that can pick locks and cast spells then I should be able to be that all the time, not have to artificially swap out skills.

But again. I'm willing to wait for more information.

it's not going to happen in da since the classes in da have always been a huge part of the story.

In Mass Effect, the crossover class mechanic's always been there... at least in 2 and 3. My pure biotic was able to use a sniper rifle - I didn't find that unimmersive because she was a trained soldier. It only made sense that at some point in her N7 days someone would have taught her how to shoot one. She could also unlock tech powers in the med-bay, which made sense because theoretically everyone in that universe can own an omnitool and buy the software. Again, at some point in her military training I would hope she'd have learned how to install an app and push a button. It sounds like the new classless system just expands on that. Don't get me wrong, the profile switching seems a bit weird - if it's all about freedom, why can't we just have access to all (or at least more than three) of our favorite powers at once, regardless of category? Was it really that difficult to design the UI to accommodate that? Still, I'll wait and see how it works out in the game before I go into freak-out mode over it.

It makes sense in the ME universe for someone's skills to be more well-rounded. As opposed to Dragon Age, where a mage stuck in a tower isn't going to get a lot of opportunity to pick up a sword and shield. But if anything, dividing Rogue/Warrior into separate classes seems a little arbitrary, and in DAO and DA2 it kinda showed, where a warrior class could use dual weapons or be an archer, and why not? That actually got removed in DAI and people were disappointed by it. But, why shouldn't a warrior learn how to pick a lock? Are they too honorable? Too dumb? Again, it's all arbitrary 'because, class' stuff. Also, crossover classes existed for our companions - Cole and Fenris both had magic-like abilities. Actually, specializations did that too to some extent - with Templars and Arcane Warriors and such.

Anyway I liked that I could create a sword-wielding battlemage, or a rogue who used invisibility spells and trap runes in Skyrim. The fact that I could mix and match from a pool of everything added replayability rather than taking from it. For a more sci-fi example, in Fallout you could mix and match weapon and science and sneak skills - all are available but to make a strong character you specialize. So I'm hoping this new system in ME does in fact give us the freedom to be more creative in how we build our characters and isn't designed to just let us be good at everything like some might fear. Again, a super-brief article with a few-sentence answer isn't going to tell us that no matter how much speculation BSNers throw at it

But they said that if you try to do everything you will not be an expert. Instead you will be a Jack of all trades. So if you want to be better at Biotic than at tech, you will have to focus on those skills.

It sounds to me like the loudouts are just a way to switch out which three abilities of those you've already put XP into. The MEA equivalent pf me swapping out Leaping Shot for Full Draw in the hotbar. We already knew the system was classless.

Really not liking the idea of a "class profile. Please tell me that gets thrown out or is a lie. It sounds like it would kill the immersion so to speak. When playing ME3 and having that extra power you get from loyalty missions and such that squadmates have it was a tough one since my engineer could suddenly have "flare" and be a biotic bada**

Then you either have a tech in the squad OR get better. I have really hard to imagine that they should force people to use all powers. They didn't do it in the OT and there is NO hard evidence that they are going that way, so I don't see how people jump to that conclusion.

It was actually possible to get 100% Galactic Readiness without MP. 

You use the ME3 datapad app (that's what I did):

masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_3:_Datapad

That's not what I was suggesting at all.

Here's an analogy. Pretend you have three computers each with a Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor:

Office Computer: Connects to a Printer, Memory Stick and Mobile Phone
Gaming Computer: Connects to two Game Controllers and a memory stick
Graphic Design Computer: Connects to Printer/Scanner, Graphics Tablet and External Hard Drive

In this analogy each of those computers represent a class. The connections are hard-wired so they can only be used for those purposes.

Then someone invents the USB port and creates a computer with 3 USB ports instead. Same number of connections but now you can connect any of the above peripherals in any configuration you want but still with a maximum of three at any one time.

All the driver software (i.e. training, natural biotic ability) has already been installed so all you need to reconfigure (i.e. change your profile) is to unplug the devices you don't want and plug in the ones you do want.

My theory is that the pathfinders have implants which now act like USB's in that, unlike the ones Shepard uses, they can interface with whatever they need to for the task at hand.