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[Vorian_Rob]

  In light of the discontinued content for Mass Effect 3, discussion amongst my friends, my multiplayer squad, and I am sure the expansive fanbase of the series as a whole, has moved to one simple question.  "What is next?"  As a fan of the series, a former Marine, and a game design student, I would like to share what my friends and I have come up with to answer that question.

  Story:  
The greatest strength of the Mass Effect franchise is its story.  It takes us into an expansive universe with countless intriguing races, characters, and controversies.  While I believe it will be really difficult to top the Reapers in terms of antagonists, there is still endless potential left in the ME Universe.  

  When thinking of story we have 3 option. Prequels, Meanwhiles, and Sequels.

  A prequel at first glance seems like an appealing way to explore the universe without losing the interest of those fans already established in the lore.  However doing so minimalizes the feeling of urgency required to fully immerse the player in the story.  It becomes very difficult for the player behind "Lieutenant Commander Prequel" to feel that his mission is important if he already knows that Commander Shepard saves the universe anyway.  The other major downside to prequel stories is you either have to limit the gadgets, perks and powers of a character to those of the first game in the series or risk making the original protagonist seem under supplied.

  Meanwhile stories meet many of the same downsides as prequels, however rather than feeling a lack of urgency the player feels like a sidenote.  You can make a character equally as badass as the original protagonist but then raise the question, "Well where was he when I was risking my life at the Collector base?"

  This brings us to Sequels.  As I previously stated, the scary part of sequels is "How do I top that?"  This can be an intimidating barrier to overcome, but not shying away from the challenge and succefully pulling off a good sequel story is more often than not far more rewarding than the former options.  Sequel series' by definition take place in a future time line relative to the original series.  This allows the player to explore the long term effects of their action in the earlier games and more importantly allow for new technology and the implementation of fixes to prior game issues.  Because "Captain Sequel" exists in a future timeline, it now makes sense for him to have better stuff than Commander Shepard.

  My recommendation, move forward about 150-200 years.  This would allow the player to see the effectsof the Reaper invasion and how the galaxy coped with the after effects.  Nearly all of the original cast will be dead, with the exception of the Asari characters who will by now be in their Matriarch phase and able to provide intriguing backstory.  As for the antagonist, I don't know yet, but Bioware has never disappointed on the story front, so i have faith.

Gameplay:
  The Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer has opened us up to a much larger spectrum of characters and ability combinations than we previously had access to.  It makes for a lot of  fun times to pick up a new character and see where their abilities can take us.  However there certainly are plenty of things can can be fixed, upgraded, or expanded upon.  Here are some ideas my squad tosses around alot.

  1 - Greater class depth. The multiplayer has expanded the classes tremendously.  But there is one thing that my entire squad agrees on.  The classes on future titles should be more customizeable.  Every class now has a plethora of abilities that are a blast to use or just plain amazingly functional.  Mass Effect 4+ should allow the player to customize the class itself by choosing the abilities they can take as a character.  Obviously abilities will be limited to those available within the class restrictions (Last thing we need is a Soldier with Tactical Cloak).  But simply put, if you want the character to feel like it is ours, let us create them ourselves.  

  2 - Viable gunplay.  Plain, blunt, and simple.  Guns suck.  Comparatively it is way more viable to use a biotic or tech based character than to try to duke it out with a banshee with an assault rifle.  Nothing is more depressing than watching an enemy unit shrug off a headshot from your most powerful gun only for a biotic to hide behind a wall and tear the beast to peices with an ability that apparantly ignores 4 feet of concrete.

  3 - Cooperative Campaign Missions.  The Mass Effect 3 multiplayer shines in many areas, but one thing it doesnt do is make you feel like there is a reason for your surviving the hellish experiences of the battlefield.  Seriously how many times can the pilot lose his cargo before he gets replaced?  I recommend making a Cooperative campaign, or at bare minimum, let a friend tag in as one of your squadmates (like Garrus).  It seems to me that you either get quality storyline OR multiplayer.  You proved with TOR that the two can go well hand in hand, so please embrace that with Mass Effect.

 4 - Enhanced AI.  One of the shining jewels of the Mass Effect franchise is the companions.  Tali Zorah might be one of my favorite video game characters of all time, and Garrus is a badass.  But I'll tell you right now, all the character development stories in the world cannot make up for a stupid computer.  I once watched Vega wrestle with the same Husk for 10 minutes.  And watching Garrus "take the high ground" by climbing onto the table in the middle of the room made me cry.  

  5 - Bring back the planetory exploration.  One of the coolest things about Mass Effect 1 was the ability to hop in my Mako and just explore random planets.  Bring it back please.


  I am sure that a lot of this has been said before, and I am sure I forgot to add a fair bit.  What do you guys think?  

Community please feel free to addas you see fit.  Bioware, I hope you found this useful or at bare minimum interesting.  I am curious as to your thoughts as well.

[M74]

Vorian_Rob wrote...

 
  I am sure that a lot of this has been said before, and I am sure I forgot to add a fair bit.  What do you guys think?  

excactly that:
it has been said before a hundred times

[Scottus4]

Metal Gear does prequels excellently, they're not bad... Halo: Reach may have just soured too many people's expectations of prequels. Prequels aren't totally out of the picture, but I'd personally prefer going forward.

[JamesFaith]

Vorian_Rob wrote...

  A prequel at first glance seems like an appealing way to explore the universe without losing the interest of those fans already established in the lore.  However doing so minimalizes the feeling of urgency required to fully immerse the player in the story.  It becomes very difficult for the player behind "Lieutenant Commander Prequel" to feel that his mission is important if he already knows that Commander Shepard saves the universe anyway.  The other major downside to prequel stories is you either have to limit the gadgets, perks and powers of a character to those of the first game in the series or risk making the original protagonist seem under supplied.

 

Just notion that these problems are connected only with direct prequels - God of War or Halo.

But loose prequels with different hero and plot separated from original one have no of these problems - GTA: Vice City, Deus Ex 3.

[Vorian_Rob]

Scottus4 wrote...

Metal Gear does prequels excellently, they're not bad... Halo: Reach may have just soured too many people's expectations of prequels. Prequels aren't totally out of the picture, but I'd personally prefer going forward.

Oh I am aware that prequels can be done quite well, in fact Crisis Core is one of my favorite games.  But my point is That in a world like ME its very hard to  make a prequel without moving backwords in terms of ingame tech.  If I wanted to make the new main protagonist one of the ME3 multiplayer classes for example, how can I do that without making Shepard feel ill equipped.  Plus you run the risk of making the story feel meaningless because you already know Shepard saves the galaxy (*cough*sortof*cough*)  What Crisis Core did well was toexpand a story we already knew, we never expected Zack to defeat Sephiroth, but that wasnt what the game was leading to.

[JMTolan]

... There's a pinned topic for this exact thing...

You forgot "Meanwhile" which seems to me to be more likely than sequel and in the same same ballpark as prequel. As many have pointed out, a sequel would either have to cannonize an ending--which would be at best highly unpopular--or be basically three separate games, which would rather defeat the purpose. Putting it far enough in the future for the ending to be irrelevant--which is basically impossible, given the significance of some of the variables--would change too much--part of what made ME great was the tech level was perfect for the setting, enabling just enough for the genre, without making everything too easy.

Prequels have challenges, but they are not materially more significant than any other kind of follow-up story. A good story will be a good story, no matter what. Having more limited tech wouldn't be that big of deal--even if you know what's coming, your character doesn't, and can only make use of what they have. In many ways, it'd actually be more fitting--it would give them a legitimate excuse to change up the combat balance. Amp and omni-tool tech goes backwards, making powers weaker/less reliable, and making guns more comparably powerful. Only a drastic change--like, say, going back far enough that tech or biotic powers simply don't exist--would really make things worse, and that's because you're messing with the basic formula of the game, not limiting the tech.

-Tolan

[CenturyCrow]

Or a new group. We could call the Space Wardens. They meet up with Morrigan's god child (by now, well matured) and go to the heart of deep space to mop up any reapers, or whatever evil dwells in the darkness... 

Morrigan's god child vs. whatever god child created the reapers ought to be a major battle. Okay, yes the wardens were killed off, (apparently as intended). Shepard is dead (presumably as intended). And we never did get an answer to dark matter from ME 1 and ME 2

Possbily there were ideas (as yet unfulfilled) from the original Mass Effect 1 concepts and story, that might still be viable.
Perhaps, someone will discover the original misplaced manuscripts for the series... sorry, wishful thinking on my part.

BioWare has a lot of creative people, so the potential for a story arc that fits what we have experienced in the trilogy, will be there. However, in light of the recent EA 'restructuring/downsizing,' wishful thinking isn't going to help much. I wished I didn't have to install Origin and that didn't do any good. If I knew that BioWare was fully in charge of the story and EA just the publisher, I'd have an interest in being dazzled by what might follow; but until it's available and well tested first, not going to speculate.

There's a lot of interest in sci-fi and space operas. While I didn't like the ending of ME 3, the overall series was a major accomplishment, that won't be easily equalled.

[Sanunes]

A lot of what you mentioned has been mentioned before, but the problem is the complete opposite has been mentioned as well. So like normal BioWare is stuck trying to please the extremes of the people that keep saying they are only listening to the other players.

[Linkenski]

Now, there will of course be more than 1 writer for this game, but the lead writer is Mac Walters, so expect a lot of narrative contradictions and contrived crap. Also after playing the original trilogy i'm sure Mac is pro human because he made Cerberus, James Vega and he (changed) wrote Anderson and Hackett for ME3 (who became ruthless rednecks instead of professional mentors and leaders). The only aliens he's written as far as i know are garrus and Wrex in ME1, whom both were only half-decent.

Also, as a lead-writer he decides what the "high-level" story should be, which means what the major plot-points there will be throughout the game.

Bioware will listen to our suggestions, but Bioware isn't the same Bioware as the ones who made ME1, so i wouldn't get my expectations too high just yet. The story is probably going to be massively dissapointing in Mass Effect 4 now.

[ConlanBeorn]

Bring the option to not only choose the character's background and class, but also his/her race has well.

[Vorian_Rob]

ConlanBeorn wrote...

Bring the option to not only choose the character's background and class, but also his/her race has well.

As much as i would love that, i think that might add to many variables to the story line.  I would rather not trade a quality story for racial choice.  If Bioware thinks they can handle it then please do, but quality needs to take priority.

Modifié par Vorian_Rob, 03 mai 2013 - 03:51 .

[KaiserShep]

ConlanBeorn wrote...

Bring the option to not only choose the character's background and class, but also his/her race has well.

I'm afraid that would not be workable. The ethnic background of a single human being among multiple species outside of your own world becomes far too obscure to be particularly meaningful. Aside from that, there are far too many ethnic backgrounds to choose from anyway. It would be doomed to alienate a fair portion of the fanbase, aside from creating a lot of unnecessary work to develop. Altering the physical appearance is the simplest and most effective way to go about this.

[ilego]

One of my friends on Xbox Live came up with this great idea for ME4 do it as a prequel to ME1 Where you play as the first 3 council races and see how they started out as well as how they got there and found the Citadel. I then suggested we make the DLC be all the wars for example: Turian unification war, quarian/geth morning war, Krogan Rebellions and Rachi War. These are just a few I like the idea, but personally I LOVE Tali so much as long as I get to romance a quarian female or play as a quarian I don't care.