What did you do today in ME?

rewrote the heretics
Tali is exiled, but she is loyal
everyone survived the suicide mission. Very rare since I usually have at least one death
paid a visit to my friend Harbinger. He said to wait for his arrival

I will import this Shepard into ME3

Bought the ME Trilogy on Greenmangaming for 10 bucks, today I rolled Vanguard MaleShep, spacer and sole survivor background. My original playthrough of the trilogy was an Infiltrator Shep with colonist and war hero background, second playthrough was Sentinel FemShep with earthborn and ruthless, so this will be my late foray into the glory of CHARGE once ME2 and ME3 roll about.

I also ended up recruiting Wrex first then Garrus. Oddly, I've never done it in that order and the dialog switch up was unexpected but fresh.

It's this mod. I think I installed the "fugly dress removal only" version, which gives you some additional casual wear options and replaces the Citadel dress with the ME2 version from Kasumi's DLC. 

I know, right? And she's in such great shape after she finally lands   I guess the single health bar is supposed to represent all the shards of glass slicing her up, the broken bones, the bruises... Still though, what a trooper! 

I love how you do these in dialogue format with Shepard's mom

Drew once posted in his blog that there were only ending ideas floating around when he was still working on ME, but they never had anything concrete planned out. He also mentioned how tough it is to do so because things are changing constantly, so I guess that's one reason they didn't start out with an ending in mind.

Patrick Weekes was interviewed by a fan during a convention, and there he stated that we can assume all the important people survived thanks to emergency shelters

I don't remember it being specified. I would think a space station that important to civilization would have backup life support systems (see the "breath scene"), even if artificial gravity is lost. I would expect there to be escape pods and/or lifeboats as well, so at least in high EMS endings, I would think at least some people made it off and were picked up by military ships.

Even so, the big problem for survivors around Earth would be the sudden influx of millions of organics who all need to be fed, and with no relays working, supplies probably can't be brought in. So as cruel as it sounds, the fact that many people on the Citadel probably died just means that any supplies that can be salvaged will go farther than they would have otherwise.


Edit: totally ninja'ed by themikefest and a real answer. But at least my guess was kind of correct.

Yeah, it looks like there's some orange-ish light reflecting on her back, she was perfectly fine during the game when shown from the front

From the Journal of Ioan Shepard:

- Zorya: In the spirit of following the advice Sha'ira gave me in a message, I'm going to help Zaeed out with his request. Her specific words were: "Take whatever steps you must to ensure that those battling at your side fight with clear minds and glad hearts." I suppose I'll have to do the same with whatever Garrus, Miranda, Jacob and Mordin come up with, as well as whoever else I recruit. In this case it means going to Zorya. It was only after touching down that Zaeed mentioned that he had co-founded the Blue Suns and wished to take down his former partner who had ousted him years ago after trying to kill him. Which was fine. For the most part, the only good merc is a dead merc, and these guys are nothing more than criminals who give the pretense of obeying any sort of law. Or maybe they're just to big to take down. Gotta say that I do love one upgrade Cerberus gave to me. I was an L3 when I died but an L5 after my reconstruction. The difference is phenomenal. The biotic charge alone is worth it. I could never do anything like that before.
- The problem came when we reached the refinery where his old partner was holed up. Lots of innocent workers were within and Zaeed was willing to see them all dead in order to get his revenge. I wasn't having it. His rash actions meant I would not be focusing on getting Vido but instead on rescuing the workers who were trapped inside. It might cost me Zaeed's loyalty but...well, he's a merc. You know what I think of mercs. I kind of pissed me off, too. If I'm being honest, I would have loved to take down this Vido. But not at the expense of the refinery workers. Despite Vido getting away, Zaeed did agree that teamwork was going to be necessary if our mission was to be successful. Of course, he said that while trapped under burning debris and my gun at his head, but that's what his type responds to. Now he and Kasumi were both wearing the red outfits that said they were mine.
- Zeona: Touched down with Miranda and Kasumi to investigate the MSV Rosalie. In the wreckage I found a fully intact M-44 Hammerhead hovercraft. Also, Miranda and Kasumi are apparently dead because...no airtight suits. Whatever. Anyway, I'm no better at driving this than the Mako. I wish these people would design better controls. Anyway. we picked up some research. From the dirt. Or something. I don't know but apparently Miranda thought Cerberus would find it important. Or something. I'm confused, to be honest. "I went to Zeona and all I got was this shitty Hammerhead."
- Neith: Found the wreckage of a freighter. Said it was the MSV Corsica and its cargo - LOKI and YMIR mechs - came from Jarrahe Station. These were the mechs that I'd lately fought. Still suspicious of Reaper involvement. Now wondering if the mechs are responsible though I haven't seen any. Then a security report said the mechs had activated in the cargo bay and started self-destructing. Fingers-crossed that they were all destroyed in the crash. Turned off the beacon signal and, surprise, the mechs activated and started attacking! I could only surmise that they had set the beacon to lure people in. Like I said, this suggested Reapers, because why else would they want people dead. In any case, I destroyed a lot of them before making my way to the shuttle and back to the Normandy. Good thing about fighting mechs is that there's no need to hold back. Nothing like a biotic charge to shred them to bits!
- Jarrahe Station: This is where those mechs came from so I investigated with my former security officer (Garrus) and a master thief (Kasumi). First thing I noticed was the broken windows and blood smears. Second, I noticed Kasumi was dead because of her lack of body armor. A PDA suggested there was a problem with the station's VI. Failing to be shocked. It's Luna Base all over again. Another one mentioned that the MSV Corsica had brought mech parts from Hahne-Kadar facility on Capek. Seemed the likely source of infection here. The VI is actively trying to convince me to leave, both with words and actions. In one case, I locked me in the living quarters and suggested I set the self-destruct sequence to avoid death by starvation. I outsmarted it. It also tried to upload its programming to the Normandy when I got to the mainframe. The VI's image looked just like that of Mira from Peak 15 but Mira was helpful rather than deadly. In any case, I shut the VI down so that Jarrahe could be recovered.
- Korlus: "In Search of..." a krogan warlord named Okeer. I loved Wrex something fierce but I don't know how I feel about a warlord. I knew Wrex's story. I knew he wanted better than most krogan for his people. Okeer, though...I was wary. I needed tough people with me. That meant Garrus and Zaeed at this point. People who would take no prisoners if it came to that. First, we heard an unpleasant voice screeching commands over a loudspeaker. Second, we saw Blue Suns. That should make Zaeed happy. Then we can upon a wounded merc who thought he was bleeding out. What we learned was the Okeer was brewing krogan in vats but that they were all insane. The Blue Suns were hired to take them out, presumably to find out if the krogan had any worth. Then we met one of the krogan. He wanted to talk. Said he was seven days old but was fully grown. He said he was bred for a purpose but was deemed a failure before being released from the tank. It then pointed us in the direction of the lab where we could find Okeer. None of the rest of the krogan was so friendly, all suffering from blood rage and probably not even knowing why. The best part is how even Jedore realizes how ridiculous it is that three guys are taking her army of mercs apart. There's a difference between hired mercs and the best of the best. A big difference.
- Then I found Okeer. He was standing next to a krogan in a tank. He told me he approved of destroying Saren's genophage cure. Also, that he created a single "pure" krogan that would ignore the genophage. Not sure what that meant. However, once Jedore said she was going to flush the tanks he asked us to kill her. Not a problem. Turns out the tech necessary to create this krogan came from the Collectors. I guess that was where his use came in. After defeating her, we returned to the room. Okeer vented the gases that would have killed the tank-bred krogan into the room in order to save it. He sacrificed himself to save this perfect krogan. Well, it was better than nothing. We took it back with us to the Normandy.
Normandy: Miranda thought I should throw the pod out the airlock. I said it was a waste of a resource. Honestly, I wanted to find out what was inside. A pure krogan sounded like it might be something worthwhile to have at my side. I ignored her advice and went right down to Port Cargo. EDI advised against me unlocking it. Ignored her, too. First thing he did on release was charge and slam me against the wall. Then he asked for a name: his, as it turned out, not mine. He chose "Grunt" because it was one of the last things Okeer said to him and was virtually meaningless. I talked him into joining my crew, mainly by saying I had worthy adversaries for him to fight. What got his respect was when he noticed that the whole time I had my pistol aimed at his gut. Some upgrades I got: a krogan shotgun, a Thanix Cannon (powerful enough to destroy a Collector ship with a few hits), an Argus Planet Scanner, Silaris Armor and a special omni-tool for Mordin (I remember the days of looking for the best of those with my old squad).

So today I took Javik with me to Thessia for the first time. I really can't believe I did not do this before. I gained new appreciation for him, I really thought he was just an a-hole but there is so much more to him - he definitely knows how to motivate people when he needs to. But I never really noticed that the ancient drawings and statues of Athame showed her to be Prothean. Now that Javik pointed it out I can't believe I never noticed it on my own! And Liara was in full on denial mode! For the first time since my 2012 I actually went through all the temple items instead of straight to the plot triggers just to see what Javik's comments were on each and Liara's constant denials. The subsequent argument in Port Cargo room was also a first for me.

I mentioned this in another thread but this mission also revealed to me how each race's selfishness contributed to situation. The Asari had Vendetta and its associated beacon and kept the information for themselves, the batarians had a reaper corpse they hid and denied all knowledge of, Cerberus and Turians got prime Sovereign salvage and used it for their own benefit. Shepard may have not had proof of the reaper invasion, but if all that info was combined it would have painted a very clear picture. I feel the secrecy/selfishness theme was not explored enough. It was way to obvious to not dedicate a few shepard dialogue lines towards it.

Even though the whole episode was done tongue in cheek, especially after Clone Shep makes her appearance, I actually found that boss fight to be one of the hardest in ME 3.  (I also found the ambient dialogue among the mercs that they were just cannon fodder to be funny.)

Many thanks!  Loved the nerd convention!  (Yes, I resemble that remark...)

Loredana leads the Normandy to Feros after stabilizing the situation in Noveria.  Initial reports indicated a human colony under Geth attack.  But upon meeting the Zhu's Hope colonists, they found something more was going on here.  All the colonists were too quick to defer to the colony's leader, Fai Dan.  Some even seemed to suffer pain whenever they were about to say something someone didn't want them to say?  A cult?  Or something worse?

After clearing the immediate area around the colony and the docks, they headed to Exogeni Headquarters.  Exogeni was the backer of the colony and also a leading scientific research corporation.  Most of the geth were in the HQ building.  Perhaps answers were there...  Shepard and her team appropriate a functional Mako and battle down the highway and head toward the HQ building.  There, in the offices, they find evidence of unethical research using a strange sentient plant called a Thorian whose spores could make nearby creatures act on its behalf - a form of mind control.  Was this how Saren controlled Benezia?

 After destroying the Geth mothership that had latched on to the Headquarters building, they head back to the colony where the colonists are now trying to attack the Normandy.  After conferring with some surviving Exogeni scientists, they decide to use knock-out grenades to render the mind-controlled colonists unconscious so they can go after the Thorian, which they find is located underneath the colony.  All goes according to plan until they reach the Thorian,  which was massive, ancient, and protected by husk like creatures and clones of an asari commando.  After killing numerous creepers and clones, they find the Thorian's vulnerable spots and kill it.  Out of the wreckage emerges an asari commando named Shiala from whom the clones were formed.  Formerly a servant of Benezia, she explains how Benezia came to be indoctrinated and how Saren was able to get the "Cipher" from the Thorian, which imparts knowledge and understanding about the Protheans.  Shiala is able to impart the Cipher on Shepard.  With the help of Liara's mind meld, the images Shepard got from the beacon now begin to make sense.

Also completed numerous side missions.  Still mulling Kaidan versus Ashley at Virmire.  Ashley seems to have a richer backstory which she will talk to you about regardless of whether you romance her.  Kaidan less so.  Basically just got the story about "Brain Camp" and the turian instructor he killed.  Is that it?  I've saved Ashely previously and wanted to save Kaiden this time; does his story get more interesting in later games? 

Ooooh, you need to try it, it's glooooorious

Played ME3 up to deciding the fate of the g and q. If you remember from my ME2 playthrough, Tali was exiled and I rewrote the geth. I wasn't able to get peace. I wasn't surprised. You can rewrite the geth, but Tali has to be loyal, and not exiled.

I ended up choosing the quarians.