Contenu de Diokletian600

#4892036 Rachni: ME3 and beyond

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 28 février 2011 - 02:39 dans General Discussion

I see, thanks for the info! Then I guess my point about there not being many Rachni is not valid.

However, I still have doubts about them being able to build a fleet. Sure, they were able to repair a ship and there have been reports of sightings of Rachni ships, but you must keep in mind that until recently the queen was locked in the facility on Noveria, so even after getting out she can only do so much. They seem to have been able to build up an infrastructure of some sorts, but building a few ships is not the same as getting an entire fleet. Especially since for now they would still have to maintain the illusion of the Rachni being extinct in order to avoid an outside intervention until they are ready to reveal themselves.

That said, I say they might have better chance of doing something of substance than the krogans. I expect some krogan warriors fighting, but nothing coming close to a fleet. That said, I do wonder how the krogans would react to the Rachni returning again to the galactic stage, not to mention the Council. After all, while it is implied that the Rachni were indoctrinated, even if we assume that this is the the truth (and the Rachni aren't out to screw us over), the Council races and the krogans do not know that. Of course, if common sense prevails they will postpone dealing with all these conflicts until the Reapers are beaten, but that does not always occur.

#4891456 Rachni: ME3 and beyond

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 28 février 2011 - 01:44 dans General Discussion

How many ships could the Rachni have by the time the Reapers invade? It actually takes an infrastructure to build something like that.

Sure, you could have some Rachni shock troops during ground combat, but in the end the Reapers are gigant sentient war ships and so you have to beat them in space (though obviously Mass Effect is a shooter and not Freelancer). It's the same issue I have with the krogan and their genophage issue being really that relevant during the battle with the Reapers. Sure, you get a few krogan bersekers fighting husks, but realistically the Rachni and the krogan could not be really that relevant to ME3, aside from a few cameo appearanced in cutscenes.

Realistically, it would take some time for them to reach a state where they are of galatic significance again.

#4891381 Novel/Game Tie-ins.

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 28 février 2011 - 01:36 dans Story, Campaign, and Characters

Edit: I would not mind the novel characters appearing. Not necessarily as squadmates, but certainly as NPCs. Grayson does get indoctrinated by the Reapers at the end, doesn't he? So he might be of some significance, especially if say Shepard has to fight indoctrination at some points.

Kai Leng could even be a squadmate, since as an assassin he could replace Thane if he has dies, assuming you are still on good terms with Cerberus - or as a contact to the organisation or temporary squadmate for a certain mission that involves them. As for Kahlee Sanders, perhaps as some sort of NPC. Certainly there could be some tie-ins, but not too many that you do not understand the characters and their presence in the plot without having read the novels.

Wouldn't it be more sensible to wait with taking down Cerberus until the Reapers are beaten?

Sure TIM is an extremist and I don't buy his nonsense about rogue cells, but for now his organisation is still useful against the Reapers. What Anderson did was thus stupid and gives the turians more ammunition against the Alliance. Simply wanting to take them down because you do not like them is rather ridiculous. History shows numerous examples of alliances of convenience despite incompatible ideologies.

As for humanity being bullies and not "earning their place", well it's not like the Citadel Council empire is one with the right to judge, considering that their presence on the Council and thus on the old boys' club is solely based on them having substantial fleets and the ability to enforce their dictates on everyone else. I fail to see how the asari, turian and salarian nations are supposed to be more "progressive" and "worthy" than the Alliance.

#4854648 Has anyone else lost interest in Dragon age 2?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 26 février 2011 - 12:18 dans General Discussion

Concerning the query about Kreia and Flemeth, to be honest it depends.

The main problem with Kreia in KotoR 2 is that it is plainly obvious that she will turn out to be the betrayer and is manipulating (though to be fair, I think that originally this was supposed to be dependant on your choices and Atris might be the evil one in some) yet you are forced to keep her around, listen to her "advice" despite being an experienced Jedi who doesn't need her to boss you around. Not to mention her super plot makes no sense. If Flemeth ends up being like that, then I would have a problem with it.

If Flemeth is manipulating the main character to her own ends, then that's fine and also in character. But I would not like it if all revolves around a convoluted plot she has supposedly been weaving since before DA: Origins and where somehow everything has gone the way she wanted.

Sure, she can be more than an abomination, as Morrigan hinted at, but she certainly should not end up being an Old God or Andraste or something like that. So it has to be logical and consistent and they should not conjure up some vage superconspiracy plot (like killing the Maker or whatever).

#4854405 Has anyone else lost interest in Dragon age 2?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 26 février 2011 - 11:53 dans General Discussion

I don't think that Bioware sucks, has somehow been corrupted by EA or that DA2 is the end and will be a terrible game. Hell, I don't even mind the dialogue wheel really.

But I am sceptical concerning several of the changes. The Darkspawn look rather generic and cartoonish, Hawke seems to be just as much a brick like Shepard, if the scene were Bethany/Carver dies is anything go by and I am sceptical about the whole framed narrative.

Also I'm not sure about spending most of the game in Kirkwall. If they are able to make it interesting, then fine, but Bioware does not exactly have a track record of making cities feel alive and the whole "your choices will change things" spiel has not really worked out either. How can Hawke become so uber-important if you spend all your time in a city-state? Not to mention the fact that I suspect that Flemeth will turn out to be the Kreia of DA2.

Oh, and Isabella seriously needs some pants! Walking around like that in a fight is just nonsensical (much like in ME2 when Miranda walks in combat wearing high heels and a skintight leather outfit).

On the bright side, I like fact that for once we will not have to save the world from a generic daemon invasion, at least as far as we know.

That said, I am not yet sold on the fact that DA2 will be a failure. The reviews certainly seem to praise it, but they're not the definite word. So for now I will wait and see, though I am more inclined to be sceptical.

#4837256 Should Shepard be more defined?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 25 février 2011 - 01:07 dans Story, Campaign, and Characters

Or, assuming Shepard likes working for Cerberus, you do it because you got the mission and the intel from Cerberus. Being close to Liara undoubtedly adds more motivation to taking out the Shadow Broker, but I don't see it as a requirement.

#4836551 Should we have recruited Okeer instead of Grunt?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 25 février 2011 - 12:02 dans Story, Campaign, and Characters

Yeah, I think Okeer would have been better. Grunt is fun, but just a berseker. Moreover, Okeer seems to have been dealing with the Collectors, so his presence would have been, albeit in a smaller manner, connected to the "plot", at least more than Grunt.

Besides, another mad scientist is always fun!

#4748261 Why Kirkwall and not another Blight?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 20 février 2011 - 02:46 dans General Discussion

Considering, while DA was a very good and fun game, how unimpressive the "Blight" was as far as daemon apocalypses go, I don't mind the change of plot at all. Better than fighting zombieorks and an Archdemon with not much personality.

Sure, Awakening was progress in that regard, but still. Admittedly I have doubts about the whole "Hawke will become the most important person" despite spending most of the time in one city-state, but if they make Hawke the prime instigator of change, but not some sort of messianic figure (like they did with Shepard in ME) then I will be fine with that.

#4662253 I hope Shepard adds at least 5 spectres to his team in ME3

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 12 février 2011 - 11:42 dans Story, Campaign, and Characters

I like the idea, not necessarily five Spectres, but perhaps one or two. It would be nice to see Spectres who haven't gone "rogue" or get themselves killed.

Moreover, the Reapers are invading now. The Council might still deny that they are Reapers, but they cannot deny that evil mega-machins are attacking. Moreover, some Spectres might not share the Council's opinion. It's a pity that Tela Vasir got killed off, she would have been fun on the team.

#4458431 Mass Effect: Future of the worlds Nations

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 20 janvier 2011 - 11:56 dans Story, Campaign, and Characters

Out of interest, where was it said that North America is a third world nation?

The codex only says that the US, Canada and Mexico unified and that there was a second civil war against secessionists trying to prevent that.

#4450430 Why is everyone assuming the worst?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 19 janvier 2011 - 03:58 dans Story, Campaign, and Characters

Assuming the worst is perfectly logical. Assume the worst and be prepared for it, and if it comes to pass you will not be disappointed and if it does not, you can rejoice at your fears being completely unfounded and without basis.

#4450401 Is the Council run Citadel space an oligarchic empire?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 19 janvier 2011 - 03:55 dans Story, Campaign, and Characters

Only a very limited number of people in Athens could participate, to my knowledge. Moreover, Athens was a city-state, and so a more direct form of government actually works. It would not have worked if Athens had actually become an empire and taken over Greece and the eastern Mediterranean area.

The asari are supposed to be an interstellar race spread across the galaxy. I fail to see how they could maintain direct rule by the people within such a framework. The way I see, it would be very difficult to pass decisions in such a system. Then again, we do not really have any information on how this "internet democracy" works beyond they're being monitored chatrooms and such (I pity the moderator who has the job of keeping things productive and deal with all the spam) and what qualifications these "wise women" need to have.

Surely simply being very old and thus having reached the matriarch stage is not qualification enough. Moreover, relying on all these elders for decisions means that their society could very soon stagnate, since eventually they would become very set in their ways. After all, asari can live to up to a thousand years. It would be like having a duke at the court of the Holy Roman Empire still around, giving "sagely advice". But then again, if the codex is to be believed, the asari also do not have a real professional army, just anarchic bands of fighters who just do what they want. At least the turian and salarian structures seem to make sense.

#4450143 Thane a plot shortfall in Mass Effect 2?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 19 janvier 2011 - 03:14 dans Fan Creations

I found the whole warrior monk thing he had going sort of interesting, minus his claim that he is not responsible for his killings since his body is his contractor's vessel, but I must admit that on the whole I found his whole addition rather unnecessary.

Admittedly this can be said about many characters, since the vast majority of them are not really connected to the plot. As has been said, only Mordin is really plot relevant, since you need his countermeasure thing on Horizon (and somehow you can't upgrade it for the "suicide mission"), but at least Jacob and Miranda make sense since they are your Cerberus watchdogs.

Not to mention that a good deal of his story is just another repeat of Carth (dead wife, son about to go bad, female protagonist is his psychiatrist and gets compared with his dead wife). I wonder what would happen if Femshepard and Thane made love and suddenly he had one his hallucinations where he relives exactly the same act with his dead wife and starts killing out her name...wait, let's not focus on that.

But then again in general I would have preferred a smaller squad - I think there is a video somehow on youtube where suggestions are made for several characters to be cut and others to be combined. I don't agree with everything voiced there, but it goes into the right direction.

So, yeah, they could have cut him and I don't the game's quality would have suffered. Why are we hiring an assassin when there's no specific target to assassinate (then again, why are we hiring anyone on the list of specialists when we have zero idea and zero intel on what we are actually going to do and what lies beyond the Omega 4 relay - hell, unlike the SB, we did not even send reconnaissance probes through it, ah, stop ranting now)?

#4450070 Will Kai Leng be ME3 squadmate or enemy?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 19 janvier 2011 - 03:01 dans Fan Creations

Not that keen on Kai Leng, but if Renegade Shepard gets the chance to fully join Cerberus and the organisation has a role to play in the Reaper war, then I see nothing wrong with Leng joining the team.

Actually, I might even prefer him to Thane, whose Carth issues really annoyed me (seriously, how many times are they going to repeat the "dead wife, son about to turn evil, protagonist must act as psychiatrist if female" formula?). Sure he's an assassin and a racist, but Thane is an assassin and his whole talk about not being responsible for his kills since his body is the vessel of someone else makes no sense. I'm not saying that Kai Leng is the better man or more moral Thane, but if we're supposed to have the archetypical cold assassin on the team, then I'd like them not to try and whitewash it like they did with Thane. The Reapers are coming and are out to kill (or harvest or whatever) everyone and so rejecting people just because they're despiceable or have shady morals you do not like makes no sense, as long as he is useful at least.

#4450010 Is the Council run Citadel space an oligarchic empire?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 19 janvier 2011 - 02:48 dans Story, Campaign, and Characters

They do state that about the asari (without explaining how this "internet democracy" concept is supposed to work in practice), but at the same time they also say that they almost always follow the counsel of asari matriarchs, the so called "wise women". So it still seems like an oligarchy, which in a way makes more sense than this internet democracy anarchy.

#4449877 Is the Council run Citadel space an oligarchic empire?

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 19 janvier 2011 - 02:19 dans Story, Campaign, and Characters

The fact that throughout the game the Council was portrayed as being really important was something I never understood.

After all, realistically the councillors would be little more than ambassadors appointed by their respective governments (eg. the turian councillor by the Hierarchy's Primarchs) and so they would only do what their governments want. After all, the UN Security Council is not a world government and three people cannot realistically compose one. As for the Council itself, it's obviously there to maintain the status quo, which conveniently is one that favours the three races that made up the original council.

This does not make the Council evil and I would not consider it an actual empire, since the three races all have their own interests, governments and fleets, but it's an old boys network. Of course, if humanity had found the Citadel first or somehow managed to overthrow the current regime, then I doubt humanity would act any differently.

That said, I agree that many things are wrong with the current arrangement. First and foremost the whole Spectre system is pretty much a carte blanche to abuse of official power (the same can be said about the Justicars, since in theory at least the Spectres answer to the Council, but that's a different matter), and go rogue, since almost no one has the legal right to step in and control them and there is hardly any oversight. And, interestingly enough, none of the council races seem to be "democratic" or representative in any sort of way, since the salarians and the asari seem to be an oligarchy and the turians are run by a sort of military junta. Of course, one could counter this with the argument that running interstellar polities along the lines of a representative democracy is not possible and we do not really know how the Alliance is governed, aside from the statement that they seem to have a Parliament, which does not mean a lot.

#4421823 One thing that I hope they focus on in ME3 is Garrus' family

Posté par Diokletian600 sur 16 janvier 2011 - 02:25 dans Story, Campaign, and Characters

As much as I like Garrus, we've dealt with enough family and daddy issues in ME2. He's just one of many squadmates and the way I see it ME3 should be focused on stopping the Reapers. Sure, there will be side quests, but I'd prefer it if they were somehow tied into the main war effort.