9960 réponses à ce sujet

[Spiritwolf1]

*sticks tongue out at Gryph* now your just teasing me, nowing how much Ive been anticipating this game.

I researched somewhere once about the normandy and I think it ended up that the actual crew size for it was small, like 20-30 people. It is much smaller then they turian cruisers... its a frigate not a cruiser and frigates come in different sizes but the normandy is a small one

[Obsidian Gryphon]

Spiritwolf1 wrote...

*sticks tongue out at Gryph* now your just teasing me, nowing how much Ive been anticipating this game.

I researched somewhere once about the normandy and I think it ended up that the actual crew size for it was small, like 20-30 people. It is much smaller then they turian cruisers... its a frigate not a cruiser and frigates come in different sizes but the normandy is a small one

Hehe, can't resist yanking your tail. You'll love Tomb Raider. Thanks for input on Normandy. I'm actually chasing the numbers for a Alliance cruiser; the SSV Glasgow that I'm using for my fic.

[Spiritwolf1]

Obsidian Gryphon wrote...

Spiritwolf1 wrote...

*sticks tongue out at Gryph* now your just teasing me, nowing how much Ive been anticipating this game.

I researched somewhere once about the normandy and I think it ended up that the actual crew size for it was small, like 20-30 people. It is much smaller then they turian cruisers... its a frigate not a cruiser and frigates come in different sizes but the normandy is a small one

Hehe, can't resist yanking your tail. You'll love Tomb Raider. Thanks for input on Normandy. I'm actually chasing the numbers for a Alliance cruiser; the SSV Glasgow that I'm using for my fic.

See if this helps

http://www.navy.mil/...00&tid=800&ct=4

[AustereLemur799]

Ignis Mors wrote...

Obsidian Gryphon wrote...

I'm kind of wishing whoever came up with the ships who would also lay out the technical and crew aspects. They've practically nothing in those departments. So I'm going to have to take a guess on some stuff.

Does five hundred plus crew to an Alliance cruiser sound too many or too little? This does not include the marine complement. At best, I'm alotting at least a company of say a 150 marines under the command of a major or a colonel.

I'm also putting the number of shuttles to a cruiser as 5-6. Sitting number is only 12, I'm guessing if they really have to squeeze, maybe 24. On the whole, I'm tempted to dunk the shuttles for another bigger version just for bigger troop insertions. I think the Kodiak is just too small for large scale operations.

P.S. I'm not going to bother with the undefined military roles showcased in ME. To me, they're just too frecking a mess.

I'd say that there are a lot fewer than five hundred crew on a  cruiser, because it's said that ship space is at a premium, so you would want a crew that was as small as reasonably possible. That way they'd have a more space for the individual crew members.

Yeah, this question always gets me too. In ME1 Pressly says that a skeleton crew would be cheaper as well as carrying less risk for security leaks, but I've never actually counted that many crew members (it's nice that you can see their names on the memorial board in ME3's SR-2).

All I know is that a frigate is smaller than a cruiser which is smaller than a carrier which is smaller than a dreadnought (at least I think so). Sorry, I'm crap when in comes to these things .

In my fic I've just invented a lot of stuff for the SR-1 because, as you say; the writers were vague (I guess that gives us license to expand at will, no?).

I can't really say about cruisers, but I'm pretty sure that dreadnoughts have a crew of a thousand or more. I mean the Destiny Ascension (I know it's an asari dreadnought) has a crew of about ten thousand. I think that 500, not counting the marine complement, is a bit too much. I also think that frigates and cruisers are more just navy personnel and that marine units would feature more on carriers and dreadnoughts because they're more of a fighting class (if that makes any sense).

I'm sorry. I'm trying to weigh in on something I know very little about - so apologies if I come across as an ignorant idiot.

I also can't think about the Kodiak without thinking about the puddle jumper in Stargate:Atlantis. I think you're right that it's unrealistic for the Kodiak to carry out the operations it does in ME3. I know it's been upgraded with the Normandy's stealth drive technology, but I always imagine that Shepard and co don't go anywhere without a team of marines - for instance it was nice in ME1 on Virmire to see those marines carrying out the nuke.

ME gives the impression that one person (i.e. Shepard) does everything; but in reality it's a joint effort from a lot of unsung heroes.

[Obsidian Gryphon]

AustereLemur799 wrote...

I'd say that there are a lot fewer than five hundred crew on a  cruiser, because it's said that ship space is at a premium, so you would want a crew that was as small as reasonably possible. That way they'd have a more space for the individual crew members.

In my fic I've just invented a lot of stuff for the SR-1 because, as you
say; the writers were vague (I guess that gives us license to expand at
will, no?).

I can't really say about cruisers, but I'm pretty sure that dreadnoughts have a crew of a thousand or more. I mean the Destiny Ascension (I
know it's an asari dreadnought) has a crew of about ten thousand. I
think that 500, not counting the marine complement, is a bit too much. I
also think that frigates and cruisers are more just navy personnel and
that marine units would feature more on carriers and dreadnoughts
because they're more of a fighting class (if that makes any sense).

The problem is that Shep specifically referred to the Turian cruiser, and not generalising about cruisers . So I guess what's she saying is that the Alliance followed Turian example; putting 300 on a cruiser. That's surprising since I'd thought the Alliance would prefer to do things differently. Anyways, I'm not going with the 300. Not that I'm going to even mention the number. So why did I want it in the first place? Because I want to figure out the various divisions; engineering, medical, marine corps, fighter jocks, galley, etc.

On the whole, the Alliance (and others) is a paper tiger to me in the game. I never did get that sense that they are a worthy space navy. It's as if the writers just put out the bare minimum; here's a captain, here's a pilot, now go play soldiers. bam bam

I'm sorry. I'm trying to weigh in on something I know very little about - so apologies if I come across as an ignorant idiot.

Welcome matey.

I also can't think about the Kodiak without thinking about the puddle jumper in Stargate:Atlantis. I think you're right that it's unrealistic for the Kodiak to carry out the operations it does in ME3. I know it's been upgraded with the Normandy's stealth drive technology, but I always imagine that Shepard and co don't go anywhere without a team of marines - for instance it was nice in ME1 on Virmire to see those marines carrying out the nuke.

ME gives the impression that one person (i.e. Shepard) does everything; but in reality it's a joint effort from a lot of unsung heroes.

I'm actually surprise there isn't a bigger version for more effective troop insertions. Think of the logistics if say, they have to insert 2000 troops. Kodiaks are very good for small squads that would pave the way for their fellows coming in behind but I don't see any of that in ME. Kodiaks can also serve another function; to screen bigger ships, giving them better protetcion.

Agree on Shep (and unsung heroes) not going anywhere wthout the marines. Didn't make sense, did it? But then, it's a game but it would actually help if they're shown going in with Shep and they were given orders to do such & such, while the camera follows what Shep's doing and she'll get updates from them. It's little bits like this that improves the atmosphere so the whole thing doesn't feel like Star Trek Flash Gordon.

[dpMeggers]

Obsidian Gryphon wrote...

AustereLemur799 wrote...

I'd say that there are a lot fewer than five hundred crew on a  cruiser, because it's said that ship space is at a premium, so you would want a crew that was as small as reasonably possible. That way they'd have a more space for the individual crew members.

In my fic I've just invented a lot of stuff for the SR-1 because, as you say; the writers were vague (I guess that gives us license to expand at will, no?).

I can't really say about cruisers, but I'm pretty sure that dreadnoughts have a crew of a thousand or more. I mean the Destiny Ascension (I know it's an asari dreadnought) has a crew of about ten thousand. I think that 500, not counting the marine complement, is a bit too much. I also think that frigates and cruisers are more just navy personnel and that marine units would feature more on carriers and dreadnoughts because they're more of a fighting class (if that makes any sense).

The problem is that Shep specifically referred to the Turian cruiser, and not generalising about cruisers . So I guess what's she saying is that the Alliance followed Turian example; putting 300 on a cruiser. That's surprising since I'd thought the Alliance would prefer to do things differently. Anyways, I'm not going with the 300. Not that I'm going to even mention the number. So why did I want it in the first place? Because I want to figure out the various divisions; engineering, medical, marine corps, fighter jocks, galley, etc.

On the whole, the Alliance (and others) is a paper tiger to me in the game. I never did get that sense that they are a worthy space navy. It's as if the writers just put out the bare minimum; here's a captain, here's a pilot, now go play soldiers. bam bam

To weigh in on this again, in ME2 Shep says "The turians lost 20 cruisers. Figure each had a crew of about 300." We can take that to mean:
1) Turian cruisers have crews of about 300
2) Human military ships of equivalent size and firepower have crews of about 300 and Shepard is assuming the turians do the same.
3) Both
4) Shep was pulling numbers out of thin air.

As for military doctrine: I agree that turians and humans are noted to have very different military doctrines. However the fact that humans and turians collaborated to build the Normandy SR-1 would lead me to believe that the behaviour and staffing on board ship is probably closer between humans and turians than any other two species - you never hear about any other similar collaborations. 

(As an aside or two and on the topic of the Normandy in game...the SR1 didn't have any kind of washroom facilities. So read into that what you will. )

As for the unsung heroes: from a gameplay perspective, only having 2 companions is fine. From a story perspective, to have a potential squad of 6 (ME1) to 12 (ME2) plus Shep and only take 2 of them groundside...kinda silly. From what I've seen there's a bit of a convention among fic writers that goes along the lines of 'Shep brought everyone, s/he took 2 friends to go do all the exciting things, everyone else held the fort/explored/blew other things up.

Apologies if any of that didn't make sense. I'm tired today.

[hot_heart]

dpMeggers wrote...
As for the unsung heroes: from a gameplay perspective, only having 2 companions is fine. From a story perspective, to have a potential squad of 6 (ME1) to 12 (ME2) plus Shep and only take 2 of them groundside...kinda silly. From what I've seen there's a bit of a convention among fic writers that goes along the lines of 'Shep brought everyone, s/he took 2 friends to go do all the exciting things, everyone else held the fort/explored/blew other things up.

The new DLC actually acknowledges this at one point. Shepard's, like, "Who says we can't take everyone..."

Of course, he still has to 'take point' with two other squad members.

[dpMeggers]

hot_heart wrote...

dpMeggers wrote...
As for the unsung heroes: from a gameplay perspective, only having 2 companions is fine. From a story perspective, to have a potential squad of 6 (ME1) to 12 (ME2) plus Shep and only take 2 of them groundside...kinda silly. From what I've seen there's a bit of a convention among fic writers that goes along the lines of 'Shep brought everyone, s/he took 2 friends to go do all the exciting things, everyone else held the fort/explored/blew other things up.

The new DLC actually acknowledges this at one point. Shepard's, like, "Who says we can't take everyone..."

Of course, he still has to 'take point' with two other squad members.

Bought an MS points card today specifically to download Citadel. I had no interest in Leviathan or Omega but for whatever reason Citadel interested me. By which I mean - Companion DLC? Hells yes. Gimme. I haven't downloaded it yet though. Apparently I deleted my finished save for Damon and I'd like to get him past Priority: Citadel II before I start the download.

[hot_heart]

As far as I can tell, the 'tone' of the DLC is markedly different. Very enjoyably so. I've mentioned it elsewhere already, but the actual mission feels a bit like one of the 'lighter' episodes of Firefly. Lots of neat character interactions, even during combat and from enemies, too ("They've got a krogan! Why haven't we got a krogan?!").

Not sure I'd accept the story as 'canon', but it's definitely worth experiencing, and all the extra content looks fantastic. I did the apartment visit with Miranda, which was funny and had a nice ending.

[Spiritwolf1]

The Sam romance is pretty lame, Im going to try liaras tomorrow or the weekend... I did find a lot of humour in the DLC

[Seracen]

Plenty of laughs in the Citadel DLC, not so many tears on my end though.

Oddly enough, it's funny how various things I've already written in my fic fit perfectly with what was presented in the DLC.

Case in point: Shepard having an apartment on the Citadel, Kolyat being more active in the War, and the "twist" which I will not spoil here makes many things easier for me going forward.

One can almost see this DLC as being an ending to the game, if the game had the MEHEM ending or similar.

[dpMeggers]

I'm arguing with my OC's again guys...and losing. *sobs* Why won't they co-operate?

(I should note that this isn't about what's going to happen in the imminent future. This particular OC has decided what she's going to do about 8-10 years from the present story and isn't budging. What's worse is that she ISN'T telling me what she wants to do in the imminent future.)

So back to my questions of the intermittent time period. Today's question is:
How often do your characters (original or otherwise) argue with you, refuse to behave the way you thought they would, say something very bizzare or act (surprisingly) out of character?

A related question:
How much time do you spend trying to pin down your Shepard (or your OC's) background, character traits and likely reactions to events?

I ask this one because as I mentioned before I'm coming back to Conversations and doing some rewrites (again). Before they were purely structural, but this time I'm coming back and I'm trying to flesh out my characters a bit better. When I started writing I really only had the vaguest concept of what kind of people my characters were, and upon rereading I feel like that showed a bit. So I'm going back and working on who my (important) characters are as people before I have them do things in my story. This has become a lot of tedious writing exercises which I hope pay off - I think they will. Also it's made me realize that I need a chapter in which Shepard decides to join the Navy because as it stands now he just sort of jumps from 15 to 18 and we never see that decision...which is an important one.

Modifié par dpMeggers, 06 mars 2013 - 03:05 .

[Obsidian Gryphon]

dpMeggers wrote...

So back to my questions of the intermittent time period. Today's question is:
How often do your characters (original or otherwise) argue with you, refuse to behave the way you thought they would, say something very bizzare or act (surprisingly) out of character?

A related question:
How much time do you spend trying to pin down your Shepard (or your OC's) background, character traits and likely reactions to events?

Curiously, the OCs in my story are very quiet.   They don't particularly like to chat.

I'm a slipshod writer, so I spent only 30 mins - 1 hr if I were to figure out what my Shep would react to certain stuff. My story has very little drama and a lot of incidents going off, which I find are easier to write than to figure out what kind of emotional pendulum so and so is going through.

OT..I finished Tomb Raider! Exciting, tension, mystery (though predictable really) and riddles to solve! I really enjoyed the combat; quite versatile. I'm liking this version of Lara Croft. I'm thinking Crystal Dynamics took BW's lesson to heart because there's a nice polite message at the end, thanking players. 

You hear that BW? Hello? My heart sang when everything ended well and that courteous message caps it nicely.

[dpMeggers]

Obsidian Gryphon wrote...

dpMeggers wrote...

So back to my questions of the intermittent time period. Today's question is:
How often do your characters (original or otherwise) argue with you, refuse to behave the way you thought they would, say something very bizzare or act (surprisingly) out of character?

A related question:
How much time do you spend trying to pin down your Shepard (or your OC's) background, character traits and likely reactions to events?

Curiously, the OCs in my story are very quiet.   They don't particularly like to chat.

I'm a slipshod writer, so I spent only 30 mins - 1 hr if I were to figure out what my Shep would react to certain stuff. My story has very little drama and a lot of incidents going off, which I find are easier to write than to figure out what kind of emotional pendulum so and so is going through.

OT..I finished Tomb Raider! Exciting, tension, mystery (though predictable really) and riddles to solve! I really enjoyed the combat; quite versatile. I'm liking this version of Lara Croft. I'm thinking Crystal Dynamics took BW's lesson to heart because there's a nice polite message at the end, thanking players. 

You hear that BW? Hello? My heart sang when everything ended well and that courteous message caps it nicely.

I swear it's just this one character. Everyone else is all 'Oh hey you want me to shelter a kid I found in a dumpster? Sure why not.'  or 'Oh hey you think I should make a bad call because I'm kind of noble and not ruthless enough? It's going to get people killed? Ya that sounds like a good plan.'

She's all 'Oh hey I want to do this.' And I'm all like 'What? No! This isn't your story. You weren't even supposed to be a major character. Go away.'  and then she's all 'Ha, no I'm sticking around. I like it here. Oooh what's that? A gun? Gimme. I want to fight too.' And then I sob quietly in a corner because a I lost an argument with a figment of my imagination.

I think part of it is that I'm writing a prequel, so it's more about character development (and by extension feels) rather than plot. There sort of ... isn't a plot? I mean there's a beginning a middle and an end, but it's more a bunch of small related events than a continuous flow of time.

I have probably spent the equivalent of days trying to decide which in game decisions are more in character for Shepard...

[Seracen]

dpMeggers wrote...

.....

How often do your characters (original or otherwise) argue with you, refuse to behave the way you thought they would, say something very bizzare or act (surprisingly) out of character?

A related question:
How much time do you spend trying to pin down your Shepard (or your OC's) background, character traits and likely reactions to events?
...

I like to plan the broad strokes, and let the details take care of themselves.  I can often plan out the entire chapter, but I like to be surprised by what my characters will do in the moment.

Any number of times, the writing deviates from what I planned.  I don't think I've ever had a situation where a character refuses to do something I want.

I think my larger problem is making sure the character acts naturally, and not because they've read the script in my head.  There are multiple situations in which I've edited or explained certain actions because, without the overarching plot, they just made no sense.

Per your 2nd question, I think I let my characters be, and just make sure their tone stays true to the originals.  For OC's, I work the hell out of those worksheets, so I can have an impression of their motivations.

I should probably deliberate more, make myself work for the scenes, but the writing never flowed that way for me. Then again, after how I used to write, anything is easier...

The concept of just throwing characters into situation, having the lore and the world live in your head, and then letting the story write itself?  That is not something I ever care to repeat.  It's very difficult to have proper foreshadowing and characterizations that way.

[hot_heart]

I wish my characters would speak to me. I have to goad them into doing things!

On an un-related topic, I don't really pay much attention to viewer numbers (the kind reviews are enough for me!) but I appear to have over 1,000 views already this month...which comes from around 300 unique visitors. Hope it makes for an entertaining repeat read.

[fainmaca]

Ugh... had a horrible month that's put me waay behind on my writing.

Anyway, I need some help guys. I've got a storyline I;ve started weaving into my narrative, but it very much feels like I'm jumping the shark here. I need someone to either assure me it'll be fine or tell me to cut it out.

Right, basic background: In the beginning of the story, the Normandy is captured by Cerberus (as part of the 'reset to level 1' sequence I put Shepard through so that he starts the game with a small squad), and the whole crew is imprisoned, sold for their bounties, or used for research. Joker is used for the latter, put into a project whose original idea came from Project Overlord. The basic plan was to find a way to fuse an organic pilot's mind with the thought processes of the ship he operated, in this case EDI. Anyway, the end result is that Joker can now hook his brain into the Normandy's systems to provide a performance boost to the ship.

So in the latest chapter, I have the ship's heat sinks and energy capacitors almost overloading, neccesitating an emergency procedure to jettison the overloading heat sinks. During the course of this, the ship experiences a power surge. Unfortunately, Joker is connected to the ship at this time.

What I wanted to do was write a short 'body swap' storyline, where the overloading equipment forces Joker's consciousness into the ship, while EDI ends up in control of Joker's body. I'd intended to have the characters go through a 'walk in one another's shoes' arc, before concluding that they prefer their original bodies to their opposites.

What I'd hoped this would do, particularly for EDI, was give her an understanding of what the other side felt like, but affirm her appreciation for what she is. Basically, as opposed to a Pinocchio storyline, here the puppet decides that being a 'real boy' is not all its made out to be, and she ends up happy with what she is.

So... thoughts? Can this work in Mass Effect? Is it stupid? If you think it'd work, do you have any advice?

[fainmaca]

Also, some of you may be interested to know that my creepy reader is back!

[fainmaca]

Ugh, I don't know. The more I think about it, the more 'fanficcy' it feels. I realise I'm writing a fanfic, but when I use that term I'm referring to the spectrum that includes things like 'My Immortal' and suchlike.

Modifié par fainmaca, 07 mars 2013 - 08:35 .

[fainmaca]

but then again, its good enough for Stargate, Star Trek, Smallville, and quite a few other sci-fi series that usually take themselves very seriously.

[nrobbiec]

Spiritwolf1 wrote...

The Sam romance is pretty lame, Im going to try liaras tomorrow or the weekend... I did find a lot of humour in the DLC

I did a lot of manswooning over Kaidan in Citadel.

[hot_heart]

fainmaca wrote...
What I'd hoped this would do, particularly for EDI, was give her an understanding of what the other side felt like, but affirm her appreciation for what she is. Basically, as opposed to a Pinocchio storyline, here the puppet decides that being a 'real boy' is not all its made out to be, and she ends up happy with what she is.

So... thoughts? Can this work in Mass Effect? Is it stupid? If you think it'd work, do you have any advice?

I'd seen someone suggest that ME3 should've chosen to have Joker explore a virtual environment with EDI instead of/in addition to her getting a robot body. It does seem like it would offer more potential to explore the organic/synthetic thing that the game chose to go with.

As for your own story, I don't know if that's your aim but I think it would be worth considering a long-term impact. Learning that 'it's good to be yourself' is all very fine; I just feel more could be made of it. Will there be something to test them at a later point or will it at least be built on?

Not saying these are questions you have to answer, but I think they might go towards rooting the concept in a larger narrative (arc) and thus do a better job of 'legitimising' it in readers' minds.

/endbrainfart

[fainmaca]

hot_heart wrote...
I'd seen someone suggest that ME3 should've chosen to have Joker explore a virtual environment with EDI instead of/in addition to her getting a robot body. It does seem like it would offer more potential to explore the organic/synthetic thing that the game chose to go with.

As for your own story, I don't know if that's your aim but I think it would be worth considering a long-term impact. Learning that 'it's good to be yourself' is all very fine; I just feel more could be made of it. Will there be something to test them at a later point or will it at least be built on?

Not saying these are questions you have to answer, but I think they might go towards rooting the concept in a larger narrative (arc) and thus do a better job of 'legitimising' it in readers' minds.

/endbrainfart

Well, you see, the whole part you said about putting Joker into the virtual environment was exactly for the purpose of exploring the synthetic/organic divide (could've been me you saw suggesting it). I've felt for a long time that this is a better way to explore that, and have strongly opposed EDI getting a body. She doesn't have one in ITU, and I feel that that opens up pathways like this for me. I really want her to have more than the 'I'm a real boy!' storyline she got in ME3, so that's a large part of my motivation here.

I do have a little plan for Joker and EDI to end up facing something where their growth in the story is key to helping them, but I definately don't want to divulge too much of that just yet.

(Besides, some of my readers have asked me to give EDI a sexy new body. Seeing as they didn't specify male or female, why not loan her Joker's?)

[fainmaca]

You know what, I think I'll go with it. If the readers don't like it, I can retcon it away. I just want to do what's best for my characters. And right now the best thing is a bit of trial and error to see what works and what doesn't.

The benefits of self-publishing... I bet Bioware miss that.

[snipeshot224]

One question. Part of my plan is the story's going to be overtly humor, but with darker personal themes unique to each of the characters.

An idea I had for one was for the character (not going to say he/she or affiliation to avoid spoilers seeing as how it's a later addition, not somebody present from the start) was an orphan of the First Contact War, both military-serving parents killed in the opening day of the war, and said character now has major issues getting along with Turians.

Not the traditional hate-spewing kind of issues, just finding it hard to get along with Turians, always forgetting that they're not savages, and just overall feeling out of place when a Turian is in the room. So my question is has this been done numerous times over before?

Because I know that in just about anything with wars in it the war orphan theme is quite popular, so I just want to know if just about every other OC writer has a character who was orphaned in the FCW.

Modifié par snipeshot224, 07 mars 2013 - 10:34 .