Ectosage wrote...
1. Not called "Mass Effect 4," even though I want the game to take place after Mass Effect 3, changing the name to, "Mass Effect _GameSpecificNameHere_" would be much nicer.
I would prefer to keep it in there but i like having game specific title to go with it in a way you could use that title as a shorthand. That way would can still keep the franchise recognisable, seperating it from the previous trilogy and avoid making it look like an off shoot or filler title (*cough* Call of Duty *cought* Assasins Creed). I'm looking to "The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim" as a good example.
Ectosage wrote...
2. Not a Prequal. A prequal to me is the biggist possible insult to anyone who likes, or liked any of your games. Yes, you could get to look back at interesting points, but don't you want to look forward not back? I want to see whats gonig to happen next, not see how something happend, when I already know the outcome. Also, the technology used in the Mass Effect universe would of course, have to be a fraction of what it is now, and not something more interesting.
I agree going back would limit if not eradicate human participation in the universe by going backwards, if they stick with the canon, and constrict the reason for exploration if they went for particular events. I would prefer if they covered that in the multiplayer to which i have mentioned in previouse posts
here and a little bit
here.Ectosage wrote...
3. Chose your race, sex, class. I would love that the very first thing you chose isn't male or female, its Human, Turian, Quarian, Salarian, Krogan, so on & so forth. This would of course, be followed by the ability to customize your male, or female of any of these races the same way you can customize a human. After that, of course you should still be able to chose your class.
See post
^above^ for my view on this. But definate yes on deeper character customisation for both lead character and squadmates.
Ectosage wrote...
4. Chose your ship, eventually. I want you to start with a specific ship, not the same ship that everyone gets, but maybe one based on a mixture of your race, backstory, or maybe even something to do with your class. After a while, I would like to see it expand, to the point where you equire more ships, maybe selling off old ships to afford new ones, or even ending up being a ship barron.
Not just ship purchase but ship customisation and upgrading with weapons, shields, boosts as well as recruiting npc crew that boost your ships stats. Ships need to contribute more in terms of gameplay to what is a space exploration game. Give me ship battles that would work as a mix between
StarWars: Battlefront 2 Space battles and
Assasins Creed 3's ship battles, both were done very well and could carry into multiplayer gametypes. I know i've said this before in previous posts but this would really stand out and be a huge sell for the multiplayer and not just another COD/battlefield style battlemaps.
Ectosage wrote...
5. Exploration of the Galaxy. In Mass Effect 3, this was almost completly missing, were as I feel that in Mass Effect 1, this almost went too far, with the Mako.
Resources/Minerals: I would like you to be able to scan each planet, but have a more engaging mini game, maybe instead of seeing resources on the right, simply have a height map show up on the planet. Maybe this would only display where you launch a drone, then you launch a proper recovery drone to actually gather any good materials that you see from your AOE height map scan. Yes, this would ret-con the ease at which the Normandy Scanned, but you could argue that the Normandy had far more advanced scanning equipment that most, if not all civilian ships.
Visiting random planets: In Mass Effect 2, every now and again you would run into that small planet with a few corridors to shoot down, or even an interesting station that had been overun by something. I want that back, but with even more variety, mind you, not procedurally generated, but just more things to find and do that would require you to leave your ship.
Hub zones: I personally adore & love large cities in games, single player or multiplayer. In Mass Effect 1, you got the feeling the Citadel was HUGE, it took time to get from place to place, maybe this was also because of the long elivator rides, but either way, it gave it scale. In the next games things seemed to shrink down, they still had a great asthetic, but I felt like I could get a mental map of the entire place in a few minutes. I want hubs that I can get lost in, turn a corner & see something go down, and then help the local authorities deal with it, or maybe join in. I also want more than just one or two hub zones, I would like 3-4. Think, Omega, The Citadel, and Illium, aswell as others. Also, think that if you have more than one ship, you could dock yours at different hubs, and if you want to switch you would actually have to travel to the different hub. This would work to make the world seem like its always there, and not as if your ships magically follow you around.
Good shout on these. Definate things that need a return to the fore of the franchise especially the hub zones. Give us a big Citadel to explore with many vendors full of different wares, conversation events, mission triggers, etc. I wann explore the big environments not just look at them through the well done, expansive backgrounds. Expand the exploration to space itself with ship encounters, space missions, etc. I covered my ideas on planet exploration
here as well, think Lylat Wars/Halo's Banshee.
Ectosage wrote...
6. Still diolog driven. Like the previous Mass Effect games, I believe the main focus of the game should be diolog and stories, not combat, or even exploration. There should of course be great exploration and combat, but that shouldn't be the only reason people pick up the game. This might seem like a no brainer, but very clearly things have begun to change in the Mass Effect serise. I personally felt that with the removal of many neutral options, and an apparently minimized number of dialog options, the game has started to fall away from one of the main things that brought me, and I'm sure allot of others in.
Once again i refer to this
post (I'm to lazy to retype my ideas sorry ;P)
Defiantely agree with you as well, the dialogue and story options was what drew us to the franchise in the previous trilogy so i would like to see it expanded, make the conversations more two sided.
Mission Briefings and Debriefs before the mission launch like in
ME2's Suicide Mission and
ME1's Council Meetings. Maybe having a handler with your lead going over the mission details choosing your squad in a more cinematic way over the static squad selection menu.
Ectosage wrote...
7. Speaking of story, have little to no relation to the previous games. Even though I want the game to take place after the events of the previous games. I think it should not constantly be calling back to it, therefore I belive it should be places a fair amount of time after the original games. The only mention to Shepard should be that he/she is a legand, almost forgotten, and the same should be said for their team-mates. The plot of this new game should be epic, should involve politics, and corruption, but maybe not quite on the same scale as the possible end of all sentient organic life.
This would be the only idea i have reservations on. I still think there's part of the universe's canon from that trilogy that is worth carrying over, maybe beacuse im still attached to some of the characters and storylines. I dont want them to be afraid of having to deal with the infamous ending. Im not saying spend the entire game going over it but to mention that the ending happend and now the galaxy is in a period of change.
I add my thoughts from
this post and
this one. (Again, lots of links, i really apologise)
I would agree that shepard should become a legend that the events of ME3's finale are known only to the players who played it, the rest of the galaxy would have to speculate and gossip over what happened.
As for the squadmates, would like to see them a little bit older, a little bit wiser and very much affected by what happened. Give them the ending/prologue that the fans wanted in ME3 by doing it in the way that these characters are passing on the story to the next generation of heroes and adventurers.
Love the story idea involving more political struggles rather than "End of the world at the hands of an ancient race" thing. I want polictical fall out conflict, GALACTIC CIVIL WAR!! that ends with huge change in the social and political environment. I posted an idea about this
here (*sigh* sorry everyone, trying to avoid this post taking a whole page)
Okay thats it im done for now. Just wanted to respond to a decent post full of good ideas. Cant wait to hear more from everyone.