You can't change companion weapons or armour

I approve this.

Of course we want a game perfect full of everything, but that is not possible. A question remain : does adding personalisated equipement to squadmate improve the game in anyway and is it worth the time ?

In Dragon Age it makes sense to have equipement for squadmates, they do not have a specific progression and you could specialize them in one direction instead of another. A mage could be specialised in damage or in protective spell, a warrior in damage or tanking, equipement should reflect that.
Same thing for Mass Effect protagonist, you don't have a set class so in order to optimize your gameplay according to your abilities you need equipement.
However Mass Effect Squadmate does have a set class and the limited evolution to abilities does not justify to have multiples possible equipement. A soldier teammate will need an armor with bonus to weapon damage (so no RP reason behind that) so it would take systematicaly the best tiers armor possible...and that is all. The bonus on equipement are arbitrary in mass effect, there is no reason a chest piece improve your weapon damage or your biotic ability duration there is no logical RP reason behind it.

In DA:I I find it disapointing to have to choose between an ugly generic armor that don't fit the character or an armor inferior but with a better look and if you play mass effect 1 you know what I mean. You had a lot of armor in mass effect 1 and everyone was ugly as hell. That is why DA;I had some armor that change appearence to fit the character it is applied to with tier 1,2,3,4 looking item.
But let's focus on ME:A. In ME:A we have 8 characters wearing armor (2 ryder+6 squadmate). Each character has an unique physionomy and was designed that way (unlike dragon age were the human had the exact same bone structure). That means 8 armors to design for a same skin, moreover Turian, Angaran and Krogan require specific armor because of their physionomy, mass effect 1 dealt with that with a bunch of ugly generic armor...hurrah.

So mass effect 2, 3, andromeda (and many dragon age 2 and inquisition) decided not to create generic armor for every character but specific armor set for specific character and we won at the change. Garrus armor in mass effect 2 and 3 is better than anything in mass effect 1, and losing a 3% optimization on a side character that does not do much in combat anyway.
Do you want honestly think the game would win trading Miranda and Kasumi suit, Shepard N7 armor, Thane Jacket, Garrus Cool armor and Mordin cool lab coat for the ugly phoenix armor because of the slight upgrade in stat adding nothing to the game overall ?

TL DR. An armor is used for optimization and skin. Optimizing side character with an already set class would be pointless and adding micromanaging were it is not engaging neither in gameplay or in RP. We want squadmate to have personnalities, their armor look is part of their character design, that is why every game and every movie spend a lot of time designing their visual identities.
Plus I don't see why micromanaging our squadmate armor is RP...

Yep totally immersive and enriching.

And yet I could equip Garrus with a Black Widow if I wanted extra stopping power, an Indra if rapid fire seemed most appropriate, an Incisor for burst fire, etc.

Not to mention I could mod anything Garrus used.

And what part of role playing has Peebee in a gunfight on a toxic world armored only with a jacket that's not even buttoned up correctly?

the part were you choose the right people for the right job?

reminds me of older jrpgs you want a healer you better bring the healer not whine the black mage isn't a healer. why would the rogue academic dress or act like a soldier?

DAI the same outfit would look different on three different characters

THese three characters are all wearing Battlemaster armor, for example:








So in DAI, that white and pink monstrosity couldn't happen

I'm fine with not being able to change my companion's gear. I'm not fine with my companions wearing gear that is not practical for space, that's the issue.

The tweet states that weapons will gain in strength as they level up and based on skill selection.

Think Bianca in the Dragon Age games, I guess.  Minus being able to mod or enchant it.

Sigh. Not sure how I feel about that, it looks like more streamlining that hurts gameplay diversity.

Thanks for the info though.

One of the issues, anyway. But control over outfits is neither necessary for nor sufficient to ensure having a practical outfit. You either need to have them revert back to generic looks for all armor and have the generic looks be practical,or to have whoever is designing the iconic looks include practical appearances for each squadmate. This is conceptually distinct from player control of gear. It's an art question, not a mechanics question.

We seem to have at least three different issues with the gear system being expressed here.

1). Desire for practical outfits.

2).  Desire for strategic depth through companion gear control

3).  Desire for player control over appearances in itself.

Any of these could be solved without solving the other two. I think the intellectual confusion here is because the ME1 system solved all of them at once.

Also, note that ME2 and ME3 were weak in all of these areas. 1 went away after ME1 altogether, 2 was nonexistent in ME2 and very weak in ME3, and 3 was weak in the later games, though improved slightly with DLC if you cared enough to buy it. 

I suppose our reactions to this have a lot to do with expectations. I didn't have any hope for point 1 after ME3 didn't walk the ME2 system back, and I never did care about point 3. But DAI and the previews led me to expect better for point 2.

First, biotics require concentration.  If you can't focus, or don't see the attack coming biotics do FA for you in a fight.
Second, biotics require energy.  IF you're exhausted, biotics do FA for you in a fight.
Third, barriers don't protect you from poisons,  extreme heat, cold, radiation, and other energy-based dangers.  On a world with a hostile climate, biotics are going to do FA to keep you alive.
Finally, even if you are in a situation where biotics are useful, extra redundancy is always useful.  Extra redundancy is always useful.

And in Peebee's case, you can't even use the fig leaf of "She's a 900 year old justicar and has been fighting bad guys for centuries"

we know ME fields protect from at least some environmental hazards and heat seems to be one of them. biotics use me fields to do what they do and she's using them for protection anyway.


is seems at least on the it makes no sense point peebee is covered on the lore side. on other character I can't say yet.

1, she is using them for that anyway no thing new needed.
2. in a fight if a biotic and your that tired your sol anyway.
3. well then we're all dead anyway is it doesn't matter. hail our new reaper overlords.

and in peebee case she isn't covering a whole squad just doing what she does every fight anyway. so she doesn't need to be a 900 year old justicar.