Missions & stuff

(...)one of my fondest hopes for the game is that we'll actually get some Star Trek-style first contact/disguise ourselves and move amongst a pre-warp civilisation undetected quests. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and, with what we know about the plot of ME:A so far, they could slot your average TNG episode into the narrative as a key side quest or whatever with very little (narrative) difficulty.

Here's an expanded take on an idea I suggested in another thread:

A Remnant artifact of great importance, or perhaps a piece of Initiative technology - say, a probe sent ahead to check for habitable planets - has been detected within a small city on a world with roughly Renaissance-level technology. You have the retrieve it - it's got valuable information/technology that would be dangerous in the wrong hands - without causing any panic, lest whoever is currently in possession of the artifact/probe - which has granted them some limited knowledge of alien civilisations, and some working alien technology - catches wind that you're coming to take it, and does something stupid.

So, you disguise yourselves as natives - for the sake of argument, let's say they're Asari/Quarian-style 'rubber forehead aliens', or perhaps you have access to some advanced hologram disguise tech, or whatever - and have to move amongst the local population, investigating to find the artifact's exact location. Perhaps, along the way, you have a chat with a young inventor about her rudimentary telescope, hinting ever so subtly that there might just be more up there than even she dares to dream, and that it's people like her who are going to lead her civilisation into a bright future... *camera pans to the Tempest looking majestic in orbit, inspiring Star Trek music plays* (Or you can just be a total dick, 'cause this is an RPG.)

Anyways, various shenanigans occur, you find the artifact, maybe there's a moral dilemma/decision to make regarding how you go about retrieving it/how much you really care about upholding the Prime Directive/allowing this culture to develop in peace. Young inventor probably helps you out, maybe finding out about aliens, maybe not depending on how you play it, and so on, and so forth...