At present, the inside of the Normandy looks like this:
It always looks like that regardless of where you are. In orbit over a planet? The Normandy still shows you FTL'ing through space. Docked at Illium? The Normandy still shows you FTL'ing through space. Sitting stationary in the middle of a cluster? The Normandy still shows you FTL'ing through space.
This seems like a step backwards from ME1, where at least you could actually view docking areas through the Normandy windows (Citadel, Noveria, Feros). It helped to create a sense of atmosphere and scale; you were on Noveria, you weren't just on some static hub area called "Normandy SR-1". Actually exiting and entering the ship via the airlock and going through decontamination helped this illusion as well, rather than what we have at present where you're automatically insta-warped back to the CIC upon returning to the ship and the Normandy undocks and FTLs away without any orders to do so, but I won't get into that at the moment.
What I would like to see in ME3 is not only a return of the visible docking areas (which would also require staying in the docking areas until I expressly order the ship to leave *cough*), but for BioWare to take it a step further. To aid me, I've thrown together a few examples.
So as I've said, if the Normandy SR-2 is docked at Illium, looking out the cockpit/observation decks should show a scene something like this:
This would actually be the most technically challenging of my suggestions, because it would require BioWare to create actual 3D geometry viewable from multiple areas of the ship (cockpit, both observation decks, captain's cabin, armory, Miranda's quarters, anywhere there's a window on the SR-2). ME1 managed it however, and I see no reason why ME3 shouldn't be able to. And d*mnit, I'm tired of Joker jumping the gun and warping away when I just came back aboard to feed my fish and change my armor.
But as I said, I'd like BioWare to take it a few steps further, and these suggestions would actually be easy to implement.
Cruising around or idling in, say, the Rosetta Nebula? Then stopping to look out the window should present you with a view like this:
Or maybe you're flying around the Minos Wasteland? Then the view should look something like this:
Or perhaps you're taking a scenic tour of the Vallhallan Threshold? Then this should be what you see out your window:
This actually wouldn't require as much work as it seems. All it would require is a skybox around the Normandy (which we already have, with the current starfield) and most every cluster in the game could be approximated by simply creating 4-5 vistas of varying color palettes: red, blue, yellow-orange, green and possibly white. I doubt most people would complain about--or even notice--if the red nebula out their window looks the same as the red nebula they flew through 3 clusters ago.
Aside from that, however, I'd also love to see the planet I'm currently orbiting. This could be achieved no different from a skybox as well, and also wouldn't require as much work as it seems. Remember those "zoomed in horizon" looks that planets had back in ME1 whenever you selected them? Simply take that, superimpose the Normandy on top and boom, instant orbit. Here are two examples of what it could look like:
Put all these together and it would actually feel like I was exploring a whole galaxy. Right now, I feel like the Normandy is just some room that I go back to between each mission, and that sense of exploration and wonder that was present in ME1 is sorely missing.
Comments? Questions?
Modifié par JKoopman, 03 février 2011 - 08:50 .
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