Aucune réponse à ce sujet

[Dean_the_Young]

Notes: This is a PM with another person.

I guess this counts as a collaboration idea. Just here for later rememberance

===

Anonymous wrote...

The ME universe is so expansive that you could tell a limitless number of stories within it. One thing I'd love to see would be a C-Sec cop simulator set mainly on the Citadel. I'd set it in the aftermath of Sovereign's attack, and cast the player as one of the new breed of human rookie cops (thinking about it, maybe even as Bailey!). Imagine patrolling the wards in a skycar or on a grav bike, investigating crime scenes, tailing and interrogating suspects, and from time to time shooting it out with armed perps.

I once played a video game called SWAT, which had a pretty cool feature - as well as a "fire" button, you also had a "challenge" button. You'd point your weapon at a perp and pull the "challenge" trigger and there was a chance they'd surrender, at which point you could close in and cuff them (or order your squaddies to do so). In a Mass Effect game, Bailey could earn Paragon points for arrests and Renegade points for kills.

In terms of an overarching plot, I'd go with the "bits of Sovereign are indoctrinating people" thing we discussed. I like the idea of a mix of normal crimes combined with this growing sense that the Citadel is going insane. Grislier and grislier random crimes (like a rash of impalements) and disturbing suicides from those who are indoctrinated but don't even know what a Reaper is. More sophisticated plots from those who become Reaper aware and actively work to support them. I think it'd be awesome.

Dean_the_Young
04:21 PM 2012-08-02

Your cop drama has a good basis: it's grounded in lore (known events), not overreaching (the galaxy doesn't pivot on it), and has that low-level practicality that can translate into high-level enjoyment. Bits and pieces of Sovereign make a good plot impetus, both from the indoctrination angle but also the criminal/espionage angle.

One way that plot could be expanded, for example, would be also extending to Omega. Say that opportunists/smugglers, recognizing the opportunity, are smuggling Bits and Pieces to Omega for sale on the black market. On the Citadel side the player tries to corner and shut down the smuggler, but has to go undercover/'rogue' in order to track down a major shipment that got out to Omega.

This would provide the implicit counter-theme between Omega and the Citadel in terms of design and concept of the levels. Citadel levels lean more towards rule of law, bright lights, white-collar crime, and most people submitting to the Challenges and arrests being made. You are the authority, and people recognize it.

Omega is dark, dangerous, and a lot less friendly. Fewer people submit to challenges, your badge barely gets you anywhere, and can you imagine a scene in which you're ambushed, hooded, and taken infront of Aria to explain why a Council dog is trying to interfere and play quiet on her station? I could even see a non-standard game over in which, if you can't justify why Aria should let you stay and instead try and be sanctimonious or demanding, Aria's goons execute you.

Ultimately your series of crimes could progress to both sides of the Terminus border, with a confusing mixture of petty greed, conspiratorial tech-grabbing by various powers, and good-old indoctrinated agents all scrambling for a Big Haul (a particularly sizable/significant piece of Sovereign: say part of its processor?) that could have major implications for whoever gains control over it.

The Big Haul becomes the ultimate prize of the game, with the final Choice/Consequence being who ends up getting it. The Council? The Alliance? The Collectors? Terminus factions? STG/Turians/Asari?

Who the character gives it to, and under what P/R conditions, effects the conclusion and character epilogue. Giving it to the Council as a Paragon leads your character to getting promoted within C-SEC: giving it to the Council as a Renegade sees you rewarded with Spectre status. Giving it to the Alliance as a Paragon lets you stay in C-SEC, but the tensions prevent you from being promoted: Alliance as a Renegade could see you leave C-SEC but rewarded within the Alliance. Giving to the Collectors or Aria means huge personal reward, but organizational marginalization to various degrees. Etc.

A rather mundane, non-world-breaking, but reasonably-huge prize might be a complete map of the Relays recovered from Sovereign, including all those undiscovered relays. Whoever gains control of that could gain control over latent trade routes, first access to virgin colonization regions, and of course 'secret' knowledge of strategic relay routes to be used in case of war, where entire fleets could appear deep in enemy space without forewarning.

Such a prize would, at the time, seem to have huge implications... while conveniently also being easily covered/ignored by ME3's big-picture focus, and not galaxy-shaking in the near-term.

---

Anonymous wrote

Loved your idea of going "south of the border" for part of the cop game. You could have two dramatically different styles of combat encounter - on the Citadel, in nearly all circumstances you can call in an absolutely overwhelming amount of backup at very short notice. Pin the perps down for a minute, and armed buddies start showing up to back you. If a skycar chase takes too long for you to finish, technical support units show up and Sabotage their engines. For once the hero wouldn't have to shoot everything himself, and dangerous situations would get resolved with thirty cops in heavy armour with shotguns, not one lone maverick.

And then of course the game would totally subvert that out on Omega. No more backup: just your wits, your nerve, a handgun, and whatever local scumbags you'd been able to cajole or bribe or blackmail into helping you out. I've never seen a tonal shift in a game like that before.