Main story

I think the main thing is that Bioware kinda learned from the issues the Trilogy had in regards to consistency.  Leaving these plot issues more vague leaves room for them to be expanded on in a sequel, without locking them into any particular path.  Granted, this could come to bite them in the ass if they let it drop like the dark energy sub-plot from ME2, but I get the feeling that Andromeda was trying to kinda "play it safe" a bit, since the OT had its fair share of inconsistencies and unfired Chekov's guns.   They gave enough info on the main players to get us through this initial outing in Andromeda, and left enough on the table for any future installments.

I know they downplayed the idea of this being a trilogy (almost outright denied it at one point, iirc) but I think in the back of their minds it was a "Let's do this, see if it goes over well, and we'll continue it if it does, but let's not outright say this is gonna be a trilogy to get anyone's expectations too high."  I could well be wrong, but quite a bit of what I saw in Andromeda's main story pointed heavily towards continuing the story.

Well, I understand your position a bit better, even if I may not share the same opinion.  

Friendly "agree to disagree?"  

Understood - and I don't disagree, but I have this tendency to view RPGs as toys, or toolsets I can use to create my own narrative. Obviously, we're at a point where most of them have pre-planned narratives to deliver, but I still enjoy having a lot of freedom to create my own.



Let's see if I can do a little better job of explaining.

DAO - Your character was recruited to become a grey warden and stop the blight. There were some sidequests (in hubs and on bboards), but the warden had a prime directive and major questlines to support that goal.
DAI - Your character was made the inquisitor because s/he had the ability to close rifts. Healing the rifts in the sky plus the mage/templar rift, stopping those responsible, bringing a degree of security to the people of the land were the inquisitor's objectives.
ME1 - Stop Saren, the geth, defeat Sovereign.
ME2 - Stop the collectors.
ME3 - Defeat the reapers.

In all of those cases, much of the game's content feeds and supports those objectives.

DA2 - Um... uh... lessee... Yeah, I had a lot of trouble with that game. I played hour after hour, trying to figure out whether Hawke had any real goals in life. It started out with basic survival, then pursuing the deep roads expedition to accrue enough wealth to move out of Gamlen's, but that was wrapped up by the end of Act 1. Then what? Well, a conversation with Varric, I chose the take care of family option - then oops. Mom bit it. I was challenged to figure out why Hawke would stay in Kirkwall once the HoF had defeated the darkspawn, and losing the family made it harder. As near as I can tell, DA2 presents 3 plots: Acquiring the mansion, dealing with the qunari, and the fall of the Chantry's control of the Circles of Magi. The only thing that ties them together is that they all happen in Kirkwall with Hawke present. It's really more "A Decade in Kirkwall" than it is a story about Hawke.

And yeah, I do understand that a lot of people really enjoy DA2. I can certainly appreciate a lot of the content it offers, but playing a character who only reacts to what other actors are doing instead of setting and working toward goals of her own isn't my cuppa.

I don't know whether you've ever played Skyrim, but I'll offer a few examples here, too.  I played a 153-year-old Bosmer who really just wanted to establish a home and family and create financial security by mastering crafting skills - which she did.  She was concerned about the problems with vampires, so she joined the Dawnguard and completed those questlines, too.  I played a young Orsimer who felt that she had a lot to prove, and set out to become Thane of every reach.  I've actually never engaged any of the civil war plotlines, as the characters I've played thus far don't much care who wins - but I still plan to do that at some point, probably from both sides.  The point is that each of these characters had their own internal motivations that determined which of the available content they would engage.  A friend of mine who is quite a talented writer has written some very detailed journals for some of her characters in Bethesda games.

All that said, I can agree that BioWare could have done more to tie some of the storylines together - but I do think they work as is if your Ryder regards all of them as being part of the overall objective to establish a home in Andromeda.  If you think about it, recruiting the mages, elves, dwarves, and Arl Eamon's support were separate storylines in DAO, and they all tied into the warden's goal of defeating the darkspawn.  As always, YMMV.

Hehehe i agree with some people in here, when MEA main story is finished you don't really feel you have accomplished anything in here.
Way too many unresolved plotpoints. It's like you stopped playing before the big finale.

I'm not sure what the standards for necroing a thread are, but I had thoughts on this topic, and I didn't want to make a whole new thread on a topic that looks mostly closed. Caution, lots of text coming up, although I did try to put it in readable paragraphs.

I personally didn't mind the dual-main plot idea of both making colonies, and thwarting the Archon's plan for the cluster.

However, I think there could have been some definite improvements along the way, and here's a few of the ideas I have had (many of which others have mentioned) on how I would have changed tings up, had it been my decision.

The Archon half, in my mind is like a slow-burn type of deal with the Kett aware of a new set of races, at first, and just using them to continue their whole incorporate races via exaltation thing to start with. Then vaults start getting activated, and they start to realize, hey, these new people are undoing a lot of our work, and oh, hey, they also have figured out something we have struggled with for decades, which then turns into the WTF we have to get to Meridian - our side to secure viability across the cluster, their side to use it to wipe out the new threat before it can really take root. I would have saved the reveal of Meridian's existance until the third vault activation.

Then, and here is where I make major structural changes, I would start by chopping off about half of the current non-plot-related quests and tasks. Any non-plot quest and task that remained would be modified (if necessary) to ensure quest markers point you where you need to go.

To make up for that loss of content, the colonization aspect of the main plot would be significantly altered. For starters, I would add 3 new explorable planets, and then make it so your goal is to plant 4 colonies, one for each of the Ark races. The Krogan colony doesn't need planted, they have done that, and your goal there is to either bring them into the fold, or let them go their own way. You could *almost* make the same case for Kadara, but I would rather leave that as a melting pot trading port/hub, then change it to a colony.

And since I know the vaults make the planets viable is a thing in this game, leave it as it is, but once the vault has been activated, the planets actually need to be viable! I'm looking at you, Voeld. -31 Celsius is not viable. Viable means a climate appropriate to the race that will be living there, and the ability to actually produce their own food. I'm adding 2 planets so you can have some planets belong to the Angara and be places to help them deal with the Kett as well as help them by activating vaults on their worlds, to show them that the Initiative is not just interested in activating Vaults for our own gain. The Angara can have Voeld and Havarl. Aya is the Angaran capital, and rightfully we keep our noses out of it except by invite. The Krogan can have Elaadan. Kadara stays as a multi-national wretched hive of scum and villany port/trading hub. We need a world appropriate to each race. With the changes I have made, those options become Eos plus the 3 added worlds.

The initial 'plant a colony here' beacon would serve the exact same purpose, but the initial colony would be smaller then how they currently appear. The science vs military shenanigan would be scrapped, each colony needs both, given the threat faced. Additional quests would flesh out that initial colony, adding modules, science outposts away from the main section, forward military outposts, etc, with the end goal (beyond the scope of a single game) to make those colonies the capital for each race's new home world in Heleus. Obviously, the quests to find the missing arks would need to be brought forward in the game so the other races were present and needing their own worlds. Now the other pathfinders become something more then throwaways, and you work with each one on their planet to deal with the Kett, treat with the Angara, and handle dissidents brought about by Nexus stupidity.

Why'd you do that? Now this is stuck in my head.