Since Mass Effect 3 came out, I have never thought it was a bad game. I believe that if the ending hadnt been the god awful train wreck that it is, that people wouldnt have looked so closely at all of the other flaws the game has, or hated the game as much as they do. Since ME3 came out, ive hated the ending, but ive never really thought about how i would have done it differently. I recently just finished another ME playthrough, and sitting at work bored the other day i started thinking about what i would have changed. Im posting to get my thoughts down in words, and would like to hear other peoples opinions on my thoughts and what everyone else would have done. This may be pretty long.
Im going to put my thoughts down in separate sections. They may not necessarily be in order. Please keep in mind that this is NOT changing anything from ME1 or 2 (aside from 1 detail) and I wanted to avoid completely changing ME3 so i tried to keep as close as possible to the missions and story as i could.
1. The Intro
Now the 1 detail that needs to change from ME2 is the final scene from Arrival (the scene with Hacket). Rather than having him board the Normandy, Shepard should contact him as usual, and have the option to either tell Hacket the truth of what happened, or lie to him. If Shep tells him the truth, Hacket says he will cover for Shep since noone besides Hacket even knew Shepard was there. If you decide to lie, Shep tells Hacket that they tried to stop the meteor but they couldnt. Either way, Shepard has no reason to 'surrender to Alliance custody', and we avoid wasting 6 months for no valid reason.
The intro for ME3 would still have Shepard on earth, just for different reasons. After cutting ties with Cerberus, you go to earth to inform the alliance of the coming threat. The crew all have their own reasons to leave. Thane wishes to spend his last days with his son, Garrus returns to Palavin to help the Turians prepare, Miranda wants to hunt down her father, Samara has completed her oath to Shepard and so returns to being a justicar, Mordin leaves to help the Salarians prepare etc. The only one who could potentially not leave is Tali. If Tali was exiled she stays with Shepard, if not she is now serving as an Admiral on the flotilla.
While on earth the Normandy is retrofitted while scientists study the reaper IFF. The study of the IFF is so that it can be mass produced for all ships, so that when the reapers attack and gain control of the Citadel (as they do every cycle, for the same reason, other than ours for.......some reason), that all species will be able to still use the Mass relays like the reapers do. (Now im not 100% knowledgeable of every bit of lore, if this doesnt work, please point out why).
Rather than have the reapers show up immediately at the start of the game, allow Shep to explore earth like a hub world. Allow the player to walk around Vancouver, talk to people such as Anderson, Ashley/Kaiden and James. Have the tutorial for newer players through a 'training exercise' or something like that that will allow unfamiliar players to learn the controls without distracting from something as big as, you know, the end of the universe. After the tutorial, the research of the IFF is complete and will begin to be sent to all other species as a sign of cooperation by the Alliance, and to begin preparations for the attack.
2. The Crucible
The Crucible isnt completely a bad idea, just the way it was used was terrible. Having this massive deus ex machina device that apparently can kill all reapers, but noone knows how it works, is just bad writing. Im not a writer, so i cant make it perfect, but i can do my best to make it at least slightly believable.
While on earth, you get a call from Liara saying she discovered something big inside a Prothean ruin (NOT ON MARS). She asks Shepard to come immediately. So you go to whatever planet (not choosing a planet, just anything besides mars), and find Cerberus already there. Surprise! So you fight through cerberus, meet Liara, where she tells you about massive weapon developed by the protheans that was designed to target reaper signals and send massive waves of energy out that was intended to interfere with the signals and mechanics of the reapers and destroy them (just making vague ideas here, any more details or better ways this could work please add). But the device was unstable due to lack of resources and study available to the protheans by the time this was built, and ended up destroying a system. The device also did not have a power source large enough that allowed it to fire beyond the system it was in. Liara believes that with study into the reaper tech (like parts of sovereign, the reaper IFF etc.) that the Crucible could be made to target specifically to the reapers, and that with a much larger power source, it could be made to target ALL reapers. Remove the catalyst idea, and through this completely removing the freaking starbrat. Liara recommends taking the plans to the salarian home world, so that they can begin working on the design changes.
3. EMS
EMS was a waste in ME3, because all the numbers were all mashed up and had no real meaning beyond more EMS means you could do all 3 endings with minor differences. That was it. So instead of having them all in 1 big pile, seperate them.
Fleets/Troops: this is all the ships, ship upgrades, and armies that you build up over the game. This will affect how well you can fight against the reapers
Crucible: this is all scientists/research/resources that can be put towards building the crucible. This will affect how well it works, if at all, and how much damage it can sustain.
Planetary defences: this could affect how well planets can defend against reapers. If you dont develop this EMS, some planets with side missions/characters could be closed off after certain points of the game, due to being overwhelmed.
(Any more categories/ideas to add, please elaborate)
At points in the story, as you gain allies, you can tell them which part of EMS to focus on most eg. tell salarian dalitrass to have salarians focus on crucible first, adds majority of EMS score from salarians to crucible, ships/troops next, adds most of remaining score, and planetary last, adds final amount. This allows the player to prioritize, and decisions must be made on which is most important.
4. Exploration
No more planet scanning. At all. Worst idea ever. Whoever decided to take the Mako out and put in this garbage in has needs serious help. Adding the real-time reaper evading just made it more insufferable. And creepy eavesdropping Shepard? Who thought this was a good idea?
Instead, have hub ships become available at points in the game. I understand the lack of hub worlds available in ME3 due to the situation, so instead have the flagship of each species become available as mini hubs. Allow access to each flagship once certain points in the story have passed, and on each ship allow discussions with the leaders of species, as well as getting information from other people about locations of resources, people who need rescuing who could help with the war, important items etc. This allows new planets and systems to be explored without the bordem and repetition of scanning for nothing more than a score that adds no sense of achievement or excitement.
But to keep with the urgency of the universe ending, the more side missions you do in between priority missions means that the allies you get will be weaker, but once a priority mission is started all other side quests disappear (eg. Geth/Quarian conflict. up to 4 side missions, the war is just starting, both sides are full strength. 5-7 missions, both sides are weakening. 8 or more, both sides are at breaking point, not a lot left). This would greatly increase replay value, as you couldnt do all side quests in 1 playthough and gain adequate amounts of EMS, doing certain side quests may be worth more EMS than a 100% fleet etc.
5. Choices
Mass effect was supposed to be the game that made our choices matter. At face value, they do. In reality, they dont. This isnt fixing every choice, this is just making a couple big ones different.
5A. The Rachni. Killed the Rachni in ME1? Oh doesnt matter heres another queen. Saved the queen in ME1? Here she is, under reaper control again.
To fix this is simple: killed the queen in ME1? The rachni mission is gone completely. No more choice to have them as allies. Grunt instead shows up on Tuchunka to help cure the genophage (in place of Wreav maybe) If you saved the queen, the mission
becomes available after Tuckunka mission, where on the flagship for the Krogan (not sure if the krogan would have a flagship but whatever) you can be told about Grunt being sent to check out reports of Rachni. Mission plays out the same, with killing the queen in ME1 having the same effect as killing her in ME3: kill her, more krogan strength. Save her, less krogan but Rachni are allies. Rachni modified by reapers could still be used as an enemy in ME3 because death of the queen doesnt mean all Rachni die, they just have no leader. So this still allows Ravagers to be used.
5B. Collector base: one of the few major choices in any ME game turned out to change a few bits of dialogue and about 50 EMS points. Really. So instead: destroyed it: Alliance trusts Shep more, offers slightly more support, cerberus is weaker, troops have less health, shields etc. (implants not as efficient), but less EMS to go towards crucible after cerberus base assault. Save it, alliance fears Shep still helping The Illusive Man, offers slightly less support, cerberus is stronger but can be worth more EMS later. Can also affect the ability to get The Illusive Man to potentially help Shep later. Save it, TIM trusts Shep more. Destroy it, TIM trusts less, harder to convince to help.
Any major choices anyone can think of please point out.
6. Reaper invasion
Have the reapers invade shortly after taking the crucible to the salarians. Not being on earth at the time helps stop the game playing out as 'earth is the most important thing ever!!' and helps us avoid mountains of stupidity by Shepard and lots of other characters. Shepard has very little if any attachment to earth thanks to the backstories, and having a spacer or colonist Shepard constantly refer to earth as 'Home' is just a painful reminder to the player that the backstory they chose really had no impact on the game. So the reapers invade and take the citadel, as they do every other time because it gives them almost instant victory by capturing the seat of the galactic government and shutting off the relays. Only this time, the council is evacuated long before the attack, and the relays are able to be used thanks to the study of the reaper IFF, which gives our cycle the best chance yet. As the story progresses and the Crucible is developed, it is decided that the best power source would be the citadel, due to its massive, one of a kind mass effect cores. The Crucible is altered to connect to the Citadel (the arms), Shepard begins gathering support to take back the Citadel, and so the 'final battle for earth' becomes 'the final battle for the citadel'.
7. Squadmates
Liara, the VS, Garrus, Tali, Javik all are fine and can stay. EDI is completely unnecessary, especially since the synthetics vs organics plot is non-existent outside of the Geth/Quarian conflict anyway, so replace EDI with a squadmate from ME2 since they are supposed to be the best. And James is also not needed. Replace him with another ME2 Sqaudmate or a new character. Miranda for 1, not because im a Miranda fanboy, but because she makes the most sense and can fit into the story the easiest. As for the 2nd character, im not sure this many is needed, but assuming everyone wants another squadmate, please let me know who'd be most appropriate. Not just everyones favorite character please, but who could fit into the story best.
8. Story
The main story from after mars progressed fairly well, so i wont change a lot from the Palavin, Genophage and Geth/Quarian missions, just a few small things. Palavin can stay the same, just with altered dialogue to go along with the new situations.
Genophage can also largely stay the same, just move hidden krogan females, Mordin, research etc. to secret STG base on planet nearby to Salarian homeworld, but not on it since we will have already been there.
The Geth/Quarian conflict is the one in need of the largest change, since the way they portrayed the Geth in ME3 goes against everything that we learnt about them in ME2. So instead of the geth running to the reapers for help when the Quarians attacked, change it so the Reapers came and forcibly took control of the geth shortly after the war began. The geth under reaper control will annihilate the quarians, so we must free them. Most of the missions play out the same, aside from the geth consensus mission, which is only there to play on our sympathies for the geth, and make players see the quarians as the bad guys. They both need to be portrayed as both having made mistakes, without it all being clearly black and white. The parts of the story that have legion wanting to upload to reaper upgrades to create life also needs to be changed, as this goes against everything he said in ME2. Instead just have the geth wanting to remove reaper code. It also needs to be harder to get both the geth and quarians to cooperate, just because it was fairly easy to get them both. Once the code is removed, the geth and quarians can be asked to stand down seperatly. If neither can be talked down, Legions loyalty mission from ME2 comes into play. Rewrite the heretics, the geth destroy the quarians, but have barely any geth survive. Destroyed the heretics and the quarians desrtoy the geth, but have few surviving quarians left. If one side can be talked down and not the other, the Side that refuses to stand down crushes the other. Peace can still be achieved, just make it a bit more difficult to get. (any ideas, please add).
Liara's time capsule is one of the best and smartest scenes in the game, and doesnt need to be changed, but still needs to remain in the story.
The Citadel Coup can be replaced by an attempted takeover of a ship used for diplomatic meetings, and is attacked while all the leaders/council/Shepard are on board (after Quarian geth conflict). Similar situation, minus one thing: Kai Leng. Gone. Completely. Shepard does not need a space ninja assassin arch enemy. No.
The Horizon mission can also stay mostly the same, just with a slight change: Kai Leng. Again. The Horizon mission can have a significantly bigger impact on the story than it did, however, by making a choice weather or not to use the horrific research done by TIM and cerberus. Using it results in higher Crucible EMS, but could also have negative impact on other things (seen as immoral to use such monstrous data, could damage morale, troops? any ideas please add).
Move the assault on TIM's base to before Thessia. Have Miranda tell Shep where to find the base rather than track that guy who no longer exists in this game. Have Miranda join the party, even if just for this mission, rather than EDI. If the reaper base was destroyed, then there is no recovered human reaper. None at all. At the end we meet TIM, who can either be convinced to help Shepard, or killed.
Have the Thessia mission after TIM's base, and change the reason for going there from the Prothean VI to the Asari councilor requesting assistance to evacuate some important personnel who are vital for gaining Asari support. The mission plays out like a rescue mission, and the quicker you can get to the objective, the more people you can save and thus gain more support (EMS) from the Asari.
After Thessia, its the for the assault on the Citadel.
Leviathan DLC needs to be removed to. Was only in there to try explain the Catalyst.
9. Ending
The ending would be largely dependent on your EMS in 2 separate areas: the Crucible and Fleets. It begins with the organisation of the final assault to get to the citadel. Rather than have the beam thing from the normal story that is never explained, instead the reapers open the arms to receive incoming reapers that have finished harvesting a planet (since thats what theyre supposed to do. Harvest. Not just stomp around crushing and lasering things). So the Normandy along with a small fleet will wait for a chance to enter the open citadel to ensure they cannot close it and block access for the Crucible. This can have a space battle scene that has a large section of the fleet engage the reapers, while Shep and the small infiltration fleet break off and rush the Citadel. Once on board, the rest of the gathered fleets enter the system with the Crucible. Now heres where EMS comes into it. A EMS score of over a certain amount (for the purpose of this lets say 5000) in fleets ensure that there is enough defense to get the Crucible safely to the Citadel with minimal damage, leaving the Crucible EMS unchanged. But a score of under 5000 means the crucible can be damaged. A fleet of between say 5000-4000 only allows the crucible to be slightly damaged, making it lose 15% of its EMS. Any less than 4000 Fleet EMS means that the EMS from the Crucible comes into play. A Crucible of over 6000 EMS is barely damaged despite the lack of fleet support, and loses 15% of its EMS, A Crucible between 5000-3000 EMS is damaged but not destroyed, halving its EMS and making it potentially dangerous. A Crucible of between 2000-500 EMS is severely damaged, making it unstable. A crucible of under 500 EMS is destroyed. This leaves us with only conventional attacks possible, which will in the end be unsuccessful. Rather than being given nothing like we are in the Refuse ending, we are shown a lot of cutscenes showing all our allies fighting to the last man, but inevitably being destroyed and harvested. The last scene should shown Shepard and their crew on the Citadel being overrun by reaper forces. Then have Liara's time capsule scene, and the game end. No stargazer bull****. With this ending, we are left saddened but it is not an ending we couldnt have seen coming, or an ending that didnt make sense.
With s Crucible thats not destroyed, and makes it to the citadel, the remaining EMS of it will affect what exactly it does. Once docked with the Citadel, it can be fired. An unstable Crucible with under 1000 EMS will simply destroy itself and the Citadel, and once again we get the fighting and losing ending, minus any scenes with Shepard and crew. An unstable Crucible with under 1200 EMS will only destroy the reapers in the system around the Citadel, which provides us with different scenes of Shepard and Hacket discussing if it worked or not, and other leaders celebrating as the reapers they can see fall, but on other planets we are shown reapers continuing to harvest. From here we see cutscenes of the fleets getting warnings from their homeworlds of continued reaper threat, and we see fleets leave to defend their worlds, and we ultimately lose again.
A crucible with between 2000-1500 EMS will destroy a large amount of reapers, but as the crucible is more powerful but unstable it destroys several mass relays and thus their systems. We see cutscenes of these explosions, and then more fighting with reapers. The reapers are eventually destroyed in this ending, but we are shown a final cutscene of 2 turians talking on a ship, and we learn that more than 50 years have passed, and most species were wiped out before the reapers were ended.
A Crucible with between 2000-1500 EMS will destroy most reapers, but also a few mass relays. This is the first ending where Shepard lives through it. We are shown more fighting, relay explosions etc., ending in a conversation between Shepard and Hacket discussing the loss of a few species, and preparing to rebuild.
A crucible between 4000-2000 EMS will Destroy all reapers but some mass relays as well, wiping out a few systems. This one ends in scenes similar to the original game, seeing reapers falling on planets, being blown up etc. It then skips ahead a couple of weeks and we find Shepard discussing with the remaining leaders how to begin the rebuilding process. The player will have dialogue options here, the ability to talk to squad mates again etc.
A crucible about 4000 EMS destroys all reapers and no relays, and we get the ending above minus relay explosions.
And so that is my thoughts on the game. Its sure not perfect, and im sure not a writer, but these are just some crude thoughts on how the game could have been changed to at least slightly improve it. Any thoughts and inputs would be appreciated, and if you actually read it all i congratulate you on your effort.
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