30 réponses à ce sujet

[Trippid]

I'm going to repost a response I made to an earlier thread on this topic:

Trippid wrote...
While I like the idea of a larger variety of enemies to face, I think you're not looking enough at the reasoning behind fighting a merc group. Simply put, why?

Mercs are self interested or loyal to the person with the deepest pockets, and that logic just doesn't stand in this war. Who would hire them to take key locations? Cerberus doesn't need to expend money on that, the Geth allied with the Reapers make no distinction between alien factions, and the Reapers themselves have proved time and time again it's easier just to work with indoctrinated/fully reconfigured aliens.

Granted, the merc factions would feel no affection towards the Alliance, but the first priority of self interest is self preservation. What sort of nitwit doesn't realize the Reapers are the larger threat? They'd be lucky to even have allied factions left to fight after the war, they don't need to help clean house. Doesn't matter how much money someone has to offer, it's all useless if the Reapers win.

So you go with the indoctrination theory. Say... One of the head honcho's is indoctrinated. Well, that's all well and good, and it could explain away why you'd intermittently come across some merc gangs looking for a fight, but it simply doesn't hold enough strength to apply to a widespread range.The Reapers aren't going to single out every merc leader for indoctrination, and even if they did manage to snag one of the top guys, the likelihood that it would effect enough people down the chain of command is ludacris. 

These mercs are everywhere. As far as I can tell they have a basic structure, but no formal galactic chain of command. Garm (pre-death) lead the Blood Pack on Omega; his reach stretched across solar systems (if I'm recalling correctly, he's mentioned on later planets where you encounter the Blood Pack). The datapads on said planets made mention of him as if he was still alive, so even with the proclaimed power that Garm held, it would still take a decent amount of time and effort to send specific instructions to your cohorts on other worlds. Recall too that the Reapers destroyed comm buoys, and you have a recipe for communications blackout.

The last option I see is that the leader of every small merc band encountered is indoctrinated. I can follow a suspension of disbelief when it comes to the numbers of Geth/Cerberus/Reaper forces we face, there's simply no way to be realistic about it. However, there seems to me no plausible way that thousands upon thousands of merc subsects are indoctrinated. Why would the Reapers even go that route? Why not spend more effort focusing on targets of higher value like military commanders or spiritual leaders, who could in turn shape the tides of battle in Reaper favour?

To target some of your new points - If the mercs wanted to take a key location for themselves, they could definitely attempt to. But the actual scale you're suggesting just doesn't hold any weight to me. 
Reiterating that with Cerberus/Geth/Reapers of course there's some suspension of disbelief (especially taking into account the amount of Ardat Yakshi's we're encountering), but there just isn't a reliable enough merc force for it to make a solid fourth enemy.
If perhaps you could only encounter the merc teams through 'unknown enemy' paramaters, and only say 15% of the time, then I'd definitely see it being more plausible, plus more exciting when you do finally face them.

Trippid wrote... 
And just to be clear, I love the idea of teaming up to fight mercs. I'm simply pointing out what I believe to be reasons it's not plausible. 

[ProfGast]

@Landline: Yes, that is part of the point to my suggestion

@xcrunr1647: You know what? You are ABSOLUTELY right. I would much rather have endless threads about how I enjoy the curvaceousness of female quarian suits, and whine and gripe about the latest nerf or problem than read a lengthy thought-out post. What WAS I thinking? Oh wait.... Seriously mate, you lost pretty much all your credibility when you admitted that you didn't even read anything.

@Trippid: you know I hadn't thought about scale of engagement on a plausibility level. Simply hadn't occurred to me given that, as before, endless waves of Cerberus buggers my suspension of disbelief. Sure Reapers and Geth could be near endless in waves (And with good reason) but Cerberus? eh. My thought was simply that there could definitely be occasions when the N7 operatives could be detached against enemies that AREN'T the Big Trio, but if plausibility of engagement scale is a factor, then I do like your "% chance of engagement when ransoming" suggestion.

As far as why a group would hit a key point, maybe the hit is its own reward. Upgraded weapons, tech, resupply, pillage, plunder, insanity, indoctrination, I think there are a number of plausible reasons a band would take over a fortified location that suddenly showed up as a soft target. "With our supplies, we could hold off Reapers, Alliance, the whole shebang for years! And that <only lightly defended base/base we've already infiltrated and compromised/supply depot that's unguarded> is ripe for the taking! The Alliance is too busy engaging Reaper/Cerberus/Geth activity to be able to respond in time, and once we're dug in there's no way they'll commit the forces necessary to dig us out again!" Only they're not counting on the 4 commandos.

I guess my main point is it isn't just a single unified force (I'm not proposing blue suns, or eclipse, or blood pack specifically, more likely a mix or freelance group) that can cause trouble. It's kinda a knee-jerk reaction of mine to the oversimplified ME3 "Convince 1 man/take out 1 base, affect entire galactic situation."

[ValorOfArms777]

They could easily be (pirates/mercs) misguided and only caring of their own gain in the nitch of it honestly if they start doing bad things WE still will react we can't just let Pirates/Mercs take wtf they want HECK no ...it's wrong and could hurt the cause

[E71]

I too have a suggestion for a new enemy faction...



The real scum of the universe!

I can just imagine Hackett addressing all N7 units asking them to be wary of those who call themselves our allies.

Modifié par E71, 01 juillet 2012 - 01:06 .

[Samurai Knecht]

I like the idea OP. We definitely need some new enemy factions, and if I may add my two cents on the matter, personally I think the Indoctrination Theory would also solve a lot of story/lore issues. We've seen Indoctrinated agents fighting for the Reapers in ME1 and ME2, so just call the new enemy faction The Indoctrinated. That way you could have Krogans, Asari, etc. all in one group as well as mechs since they would undoubtedly would reprogram mechs under their control to attack players (like we saw in the ME2 DLC) and mercs would also be captured and turned so they would be included in their ranks as well. This would also help explain why there are so many Indoctrinated forces available because as the war goes on, more and more soldiers of all races would be captured and indoctrinated.

As for scale of conflict, that is definitely a valid point but here is a possible explanation: all of the Firebases you operate on in MP are supposedly high value targets for various reasons and are spread across the galaxy. If that is true, then the Reapers, Cerberus, Geth, and the Indoctrinated enemy only need send a sufficient number of soldiers to capture these areas or at least threaten to do so. This (in a cohesive story sense not in a real sense obviously) forces the players to stretch their own forces thin in order to retake or defend those firebases. So in essence only a small enemy faction could cause major problems by striking at only a few targets. Rather than waste their own forces on such assaults, the Reapers send the Indoctrinated for several reasons: one it again means they don't have to send Banshees, Brutes, etc. allowing those units and resources to be deployed elsewhere, two it means the Reapers are effectively turning the good guys against each other and forcing them to waste resources fighting each other, and three it would be demoralizing (story-wise) to have to fight people who were once allies. (Obviously you and I wouldn't care that much because it means we have something else to shoot, lol.) There are other reasons why Indoctrinated could be used and be viable, but those are just the ones I could think of right off the top of my head.

[Lajkos]

ProfGast wrote...

I know there are some of you out there who will disagree, but I think that one limiting factor in ME3 Multiplayer is the fact that there are only three (3) "enemy" factions.  While I realize that the game is 100% about fighting against Reaper forces (or suborned reaper forces like Geth and Cerberus) I definitely think that its rather unbelievable that there are no third-party opponents.  Even with God-machines advancing across the galaxy and assimilating all sufficiently intelligent life, there's no way that there aren't opportunists, scum, criminals or cutthroats who would cause their own little havoc for the Alliance and their friends in the fight against the Reapers.

This leads to my suggestion of enemy forces who are simply opposing mercenaries.  People with the same makeup (Humans, Turians, Batarians, Vorcha, Salarians et all) who did NOT agree to help Shepard but are trying to carve their own little place in the midst of all the chaos.  Sure they could be completely misguided but you can't say there wouldn't be groups like that that the normal alliance military may not be able to spare resources to handle, but the irregulars that make up the squads of commandos in MP might just be enough to gamble with.  After all, I refuse to believe that the Blood Pack, Eclipse, and Blue Suns are the only mercs out there.  It's a big galaxy.

Also, even if Bioware insists on having the "reaper influence" bent, the enemies could, instead of mercs, be former allies who've been indoctrinated and now serve the reaper cause.  This would make it so Cerberus is no longer the only "native" enemies.  Bioware wouldn't even have to reach very far for character models and units.  After all, generic units still exist back in ME2, and the same theory can be applied for them.

I can't be the only one who misses LOKI, YMIR And FENRIS mechs can I?  We know that FENRIS models exist in ME3, and the YMIRs terrified me so much more than Atlases ever did.  Adding those (who should definitely be still in evidence, since I also refuse to believe that Cerberus have the monopoly on heavy mechs too) to a hodgepodge of "allied" enemies, I think, would make a great 4th faction for multiplayer, and keep those of us who play this game too often from being bored with just the current options.

Thoughts?

Agree 100%, it just wierd to think that every merc in the galaxy join shepard just becaus the three major merc groups joined him.

And i wouldn't be supprised if a lot of merc left the Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack to make a personal profit instead of risking their life fighting the reapers (yes a lot of ppl are that short sighted). And i would love to see a return of the mechs