Can we scrap ME2 as well?
I think I'd have gone down with a mixture of a modified Dark Energy plotline and a Babylon 5 kind of scenario. Not the most original, I know but seriously, this was how I imagined the story might play out before ME2 (and after reading Ascension).
Basically the main idea is that naturally occurring eezo has an adverse effect on the structure of the space time continuum, warping and distorting it, therefore endangering our galaxy as a whole in the long run. There are two very old races who try to combat this trend, the reapers and the collectors. They have radically different ways of attempting to solve the problem. The reapers believe the answer lies in technology. Being a post singularity race themselves, they think that with the right technology, they can build a machine that will stabilize the eexo effects.
The collectors on the other hand believe in a biological solution, thinking that the perfect biotic species will be able to control eezo and save the galaxy. They experiment with evolution to finally create this race.
The collectors and the reapers are in an a cold (intermittently hot) war for millions of years already. They both need to maintain the cycle for their "projects", the reapers to study variances in technological development of the races and the collectors to reset and study different permutations of organic evolution. But they hate each other, whether that is just because they disagree on the eezo issue or because of other reasons as well is unknown.
In ME1 Shepard learned mainly about the reapers and their part in the cycle.
In ME2, s/he'd learn mainly about the collectors and find out that it wasn't just the reapers who wiped out the protheans but also the collectors. In fact, at the demise of the prothean empire, the main war was not fought against the protheans but the reapers clashed with the collectors (as they do at the culmination of every cycle).
Vigil on Illos had no idea about this. The reapers started the invasion
first and later on Illos isolated it self too much to get the entire
picture.
Shep also learns that human (and possibly also asari) genetic material is very valuable to the collectors since it represents a huge step towards a biotic race that could solve the eezo problem.
Also in ME2, Shepard would learn more about the protheans themselves. The conduit got studied after ME1 and it turns out that the mass relay the protheans built works differently than the old ones. This plot line is left hanging for ME3.
After learning about the second faction in ME2, the invasion begins in ME3. Shepard's goal is still to secure the alliance between the races of this cycle but at the same time, s/he has to do some crucial missions in order to channel the war into a direction where reaper and collector forces clash against each other a lot rather than wiping out planets of our cycle (I think this would even have made for a good gameplay mechanic where Shepard can actually fail in missions without a game over but the player would be punished by loosing planets instead).
At the same time, the alliance of races that Shepard builds works on a secret project. The idea is to build a new mass relay from the template of the conduit on illos (the continuation of that plotline from ME2). The idea is that they want to build at least one new relay which the reapers and collectors know nothing about. In a worst case scenario, they could then save a certain percentage of the population by sending them to a remote location off the reaper's and collector's relay network (mind you, I would have stuck to the ME1 setup where traveling between star clusters without relays was barely possible, even for the reapers). This project will also find out that the different technology, used in the prothean conduit relay could on a very large scale (with a new relay network) have a stabilizing effect on eezo (i.e. be what the reapers were looking for).
In the end, there are three scenarios how ME3 can end:
1. Worst case: The player did really badly and this cycle looses and gets wiped out (it would be like Shepard's death in ME2, you basically have to specifically play for that outcome in order to get it, with a little bit of common sense, you can avoid this.
2. If the player lost a lot of worlds and didn't do particularly well, the war will be lost but the current cycle manages to save some people in a colony that escaped the reapers and the collectors. In an epilogue it is implied that the descendants of this colony will eventually defeat them.
3. If the player did well and channeled the war cunningly, the reapers and collectors will be lured to send the bulk of their forces into a final stand off. While they fight each other, The allied fleet of the current cycle comes in a plays their trump card. They have both, the genetic material the collectors want and technology the reapers want. Shepard is in a position where it is left to him/her to decide. They can ally with the collectors or the reapers, wipe out the other side and get on to solve the eezo problem. In each of these cases Shepard would have to sacrifice himself, either by joining with a reaper or by giving hmself up to the collectors but the cycles would be ended and the current one would be allowed to continue while the reapers/collectors (which ever was chosen) would vanish into the depth of the unexplored parts of the galaxy, trying to fix the eezo problem..
With a high paragon score, Shepard even has the option to broker a piece. Collecotrs, reapers and the current cycle would live, Shep wouldn't have to die and they all would persue both avenues to fix the eezo problem..
With a high enough renegade score, Shepard also has the option to manipulate both sides into wiping most of each others forces out so that the allied fleet can actually win against the remaining forces (although taking heavy losses in the process but Shep would live). Both the reapers and the collectors would go extinct this way and the current races are left to deal with the eezo problem themselves (although there would be time).
Sorry for the wall of text. That's what I'd have done though.
Modifié par MrFob, 09 juillet 2013 - 03:59 .
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:lol: Good one!
