91 réponses à ce sujet

[PunMaster]

The question is simple, What were your thoughts on the EMS system? Would you like to see it again? If so how can it be improved?

 

I'm a fan of what they did with EMS and War Assets and how it had an effect on the endings. Whether or not you appreciated the endings is not the point here and can be discussed in the many other ending threads.

 

I didn't quite enjoy scanning worlds for war assets, I ended up using a guide because it felt tedious. I did enjoy collecting war assets during missions though, it felt like that tied in well. "Oh I found Cerberus intel at their base? I'm glad I can make use of it in the bigger picture".

 

Regardless of how multi-player turned out and peoples opinions on it, I also feel like it was a good tie in to the EMS system. By playing multi-player I could accept that I was fighting in the wider galaxy and each win shifted the balance in our favour. Admittedly it gets a bit more annoying to bring new playthroughs up to 100% each time so I'd suggest that once you complete the game, you get the option to enable a higher resting rate. Eg. 75% instead of 50%.

 

Overall this seems like a great new system, I'd love to see them continue to build on it.

[Mcfly616]

 I don't mind the benchmark it set for the high level endings. Although I would prefer a game where your ending is simply shaped by your choices throughout, instead of one where you just make a final decision. 

 

No, I don't mind the Galaxy at War/EMS thing. I do wish my forces had more representation throughout the game. It would've gone a long way.

 

 

 

Seeing as how I don't want a galactic war in the next game, I'm not sure I would want the EMS mechanic.

[Sion1138]

It's unlikely that we'll be fighting another galaxy wide war ever again, and that's about the only scenario the EMS system is good for.

[Iakus]

Eh, it could have been interesting.  But it was employed very badly.

 

The numbers themselves were completely arbitrary.  A former squadmate for the Normandy like Kaidan or Jack is worth nearly as much as an entire Alliance Spec-ops team!

 

And the War Assets themselves were worth nothing but a number to be added to more numbers to hit some "goal"  I would have preferred to see Assets actually reflecting something in-game.  Unlocking features, scenes, missions, etc.  Even categories of Assets.  Build up a big enough fleet and X happens.  Get enough scientists to unlock Y, and so on. 

[chris2365]

Eh, it could have been interesting.  But it was employed very badly.

 

The numbers themselves were completely arbitrary.  A former squadmate for the Normandy like Kaidan or Jack is worth nearly as much as an entire Alliance Spec-ops team!

 

And the War Assets themselves were worth nothing but a number to be added to more numbers to hit some "goal"  I would have preferred to see Assets actually reflecting something in-game.  Unlocking features, scenes, missions, etc.  Even categories of Assets.  Build up a big enough fleet and X happens.  Get enough scientists to unlock Y, and so on. 

 

Agree with this. The concept was interesting, but it's execution and depth could've been better. Make 3 separate catagories, one Crucible, one Fleets, one Ground. That would allow for better comparisons. Make them impactful, like a low ground assets makes push to the beam more difficult and more people die. I wish we could have seen more of the assets in action, but obviously when you've got to cut somewhere 

[FirstBlood XL]

Good idea... Poorly implemented.

Listing the war assets was fine, it made them easily trackable and reviewable. Never having most (any?) show up in any meaningful way was a big let-down.

Except for forcing MP via the "readiness" rating, and thus the endings. That was an incredibly poor/ruthless money grab idea.

[Matthias King]

I agree as well.  The numbers were entirely arbitrary, as he said, and often made no logical sense, and ultimately made no difference one way or the other in the end.  I'd much rather the individual assets themselves make some kind of real difference in story or gameplay other than + or - 5 points in a checklist or whatever.  I want them to actually play a role or not, depending on if you have it or not. 

 

If they can't be implemented in any real way like that, I'd rather they just leave it out entirely. 

 

Do it well or not at all.  I'm not usually an 'all or nothing' kind of person, but when it comes to something like this, I'd much rather see that time, effort and resources go toward a small handful of features that are rock-solid, well-tested, and fun than a large bunch of ill-conceived, poorly implemented, half-realized ones.

 

Quality over quantity.  Five truly solid and awesome features are worth way more to me than twenty mediocre ones.

[themikefest]

The one part I didn't like is that your Galactic Readiness is at 50% instead of 100%. I guess that means that Jack being worth 25 assets, that she will only use 50% of her 25 assets until I play multiplayer to raise my Galactic readiness for her to function at 100% to use all those assets.

[RoboticWater]

If there's one thing Bioware should stop doing, it's boiling complex systems down to arbitrary numbers.

 

I should know that I'm being renegade when most government officials hate me and my only friend is that weird mercenary guy who hangs out next to the trash compactor. Similarly, I should know I prepared poorly for battle because my fleet contains only a handful of ships and my commanding officer shouting "we're doomed."

 

Talking specifically about EMS, I think it's a deplorable system which perpetuates poor gameplay and story mechanics, enabling the developers to toss in pointless fetch quests which do nothing but increase the value an arbitrary pile of points. It goes against one of the most important rules of videogames: "show, don't tell." Rather than cultivating an environment where meaningful content can emerge, EMS simply justifies the existence trivial tasks, which give the illusion substance (albeit poorly).

[Mcfly616]

Even though we aren't really shown our war assets in a cinematic (besides the space battle), there's low/mid/high ems endings, and there are some noticeable differences in the EC (I actually find low ems destroy to be the most appropriate finale to the series).

 

That's cool and all, but I'd rather they implement a mechanic akin to the Suicide Mission, but over the course of an entire game instead of just a single mission. The choices you make over the course of the adventure, even seemingly small irrelevant ones, have an effect on how everything plays out. Your fate, the fate of your crew members, and the success of your mission, having different world states after the endgame.

 

Obviously its implementation would have to be and should be a lot more intricate and subtle.

[Remix-General Aetius]

concept had potential, extremely shoddy execution. wanna get rid of someone? sure, make them a war asset.

[zestalyn]

it was silly. all it was, was scanning planets and seeing a number go up. i like the concept of building military strength, but idk what that was that they did in ME3 lol. 

[Astartes Marine]

I didn't mind the overall system really, the only problem I had was that there was no tangible impact on the game itself.  All the difference was made in the background rather than the fore.

 

For example, say one rallied the Krogan, Geth and Quarians to Earth...why were there no Geth Juggernauts, Quarian Marines, and Krogan Battlemasters during the ground battle for Earth?  I would have liked to see those war assets actually make an appearance during the game, change events visibly, be able to call in support from orbit from ships I've gathered, and maybe even be able to deploy troops to make certain missions easier like maybe take a platoon of Krogan to the Quarian homeworld to make a pasty mess out of some Geth.

 

[Karlone123]

I didn't like the system, it felt like a cheap way to make your choices amount to a number bar, Giving off the impression that the galaxy was alive and fighting the Reapers, when really it was just a number bar you had to raise and that's it.

[SilJeff]

Like planet scanning in 2, I didn't care for them.

 

They, unlike planet scanning, is a far more interesting concept because you get to learn more about the lore than just scanning for minerals would. But it wasn't implemented well, so it became just as much of a waste of time as planet scanning [yes, both planet scanning and asset collecting do serve a purpose, but I'd much rather just Gibb the resources/asset number than get them for real].

 

 

They should have either:

1. Had a news program in the game with videos instead of just a guy talking showing specific assets at work throughout the game. And instead of having the transmissions only in the hubs, have them on a terminal in your quarters so you could watch them close up ala the shadow broker terminal in ME2.
2. Used the assets in Priority: Earth.
3. Combination of the two

[KaiserShep]

My preference is for it to simply not exist, but then this ties into my indifference toward multiplayer, since the only reason for such a system to exist is to provide some sort of reward for playing MP at all.

[L. Han]

This isn't really the first time BioWare has done this. There's a bit of this in Dragon Age: Origins where in the final showdown you get to summon NPCs you collect.

[SwobyJ]

"If there's one thing Bioware should stop doing, it's boiling complex systems down to arbitrary numbers."

"If there's one thing Bioware should stop doing, it's boiling complex systems down to arbitrary numbers."

"If there's one thing Bioware should stop doing, it's boiling complex systems down to arbitrary numbers."

"If there's one thing Bioware should stop doing, it's boiling complex systems down to arbitrary numbers."

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

 

I've got lots of weird thoughts about War Assets and EMS, and how they act as one part of the art piece (hey, I heard that snicker!) that is Mass Effect 3. I think there's good, serious purposes for it. But I still think the game itself would have been much better if Bioware managed a way to actually more visually illustrate assets in action, especially in the final mission.

 

At the end of it all, as a mechanic, I'm not super impressed by it. See the quoted lines above.

[PunMaster]

If there's one thing Bioware should stop doing, it's boiling complex systems down to arbitrary numbers.

 

I should know that I'm being renegade when most government officials hate me and my only friend is that weird mercenary guy who hangs out next to the trash compactor. Similarly, I should know I prepared poorly for battle because my fleet contains only a handful of ships and my commanding officer shouting "we're doomed."

 

Talking specifically about EMS, I think it's a deplorable system which perpetuates poor gameplay and story mechanics, enabling the developers to toss in pointless fetch quests which do nothing but increase the value an arbitrary pile of points. It goes against one of the most important rules of videogames: "show, don't tell." Rather than cultivating an environment where meaningful content can emerge, EMS simply justifies the existence trivial tasks, which give the illusion substance (albeit poorly).

 

I thought movies went by "Show, don't tell" and video games went by "Do, don't show". So Bioware got the do'ing part down but yeah I agree with the general consensus, could have been done better.

 

But hey, I still give them points for trying, can't learn if you don't make mistakes.

[SolNebula]

Simply it sucked.

[Azmahoony]

forcing people to play MP in order to achieve a 'better' ending? eh i'll stick to save-edit

[President of Boom]

I didn't mind it, well, except for the whole "Uncle Hackett wants YOU for multiplayer!" thing. I seriously hope MP has no impact on the SP campaign in the next game.

[NM_Che56]

I like the general concept.  But, the implementation could have been a little more than just a "watch your numbers rise" sort of thing.  I really would have been nice to see at least some of these used in the final battle in a cutscene.  Also, a lot of them were just "go here, scan this planet, bring thing back to this person you overheard mentioning it".  More exploration on the planets would have been nice.

 

I would have been ok if the bulk of these were subsituted for more in depth side quests.

[NM_Che56]

The one part I didn't like is that your Galactic Readiness is at 50% instead of 100%. I guess that means that Jack being worth 25 assets, that she will only use 50% of her 25 assets until I play multiplayer to raise my Galactic readiness for her to function at 100% to use all those assets.

 

Yeah.  It wasn't TOO bad.  If you're an obsessive like me, you'd get the highest EMS by scanning stuff, etc.  But it would have been nice if the two systems were equal; i.e., you can get 100% by doing one or the other...or both.

[PunMaster]

I've been curious as to what they'll do when they take the multiplayer servers offline. It'll happen eventually, so I wonder whether they'll patch the game to instantly have people at 100% effectiveness. Because they'll have to expect that some people will buy the trilogy when the 4th comes out.