262 réponses à ce sujet

[Tonymac]

I don't like it when people I don't know that well stand waaay too close to me during a conversation. I like my personal space. It's fine with friends and whatever, but otherwise, it's just uncomfortable and irritating.

 

Well they already avoided it with ME2 and ME3, so I doubt they would return to copy paste locations. The engine is indeed better, especially for huge areas and environmental variety, and it does seem like they have a good budget and proper time. But yeah, now we just have to wait and see.

 

The funny thing is they never seem to get the body language.  Crossed arms, raised eyebrows like that's far enough, but then again we dudes have it easy; because plan B is always a beatdown.  Back up or get backed up.

 

Waiting and seeing what they can do with Frostbite 3 is not so hard for me.  I was rather uninterested after ME3.

 

However, I would like them to use the full capabilities of a good up to date gaming rig for the PC version of the release.  If they can make stories as good as they can do artwork, then this might actually be a good game.

[Mcfly616]

On that note I wonder if it matters if its strictly a human protagonist.  I imagine the character creator will have to be rebuilt from the ground up anyhow.  

 

More options, life-like hair, etc.  I think that the potential of this engine should blast open the doors on options.  

 for sure they'll have to re-do it for the Frostbite engine. And I have no doubt it'll look much better. But the range of options is what I tend to worry about. For instance, there was like maybe 10 for each facial feature. That's not nearly enough. Personally my biggest gripe had to do with hair. I know Shep was in the military, but there was literally no options for long hair. For either male or female.

 

I want to give my character a retro feel. Hair like Han Solo or Snake Plisskin. 

 

 

Either way, I find a lot of the time my Shep resembles many other Sheps people make. Hell, even when I try to change my Shep from playthrough to playthrough I still see resemblances. Hopefully the next game has much more variation so the hero can look completely different and unfamiliar on subsequent playthroughs of the campaign.

[Ithurael]

I think it is a bit easier to empathize and connect to a human player - at least for us humans.

 

I would be open to playing different races in side missions or, how do I say this, like certain missions for the sake of gameplay differentiation.

 

An example of this was in DA:O where you elect one of your crew to hold a specific area. Or in Burial at sea where you get to play as Elizabeth.

 

Having different species/characters in the game be playable allows for greater gameplay combinations.

 

Oh and @McFly616, I am not sure but I think coding hair that actually moves in wind or acts like hair is rather difficult from what I have heard, but I do agree, I would love to have a long haired badass running around messing stuff up. Point in fact that was something In noticed in the char creator too, was the minimal hair options, and even if you chose the longest one it just stayed that way through everything.

[VelvetStraitjacket]

Either way, I find a lot of the time my Shep resembles many other Sheps people make. Hell, even when I try to change my Shep from playthrough to playthrough I still see resemblances. Hopefully the next game has much more variation so the hero can look completely different and unfamiliar on subsequent playthroughs of the campaign.

 

Yeah, most Sheps looked like they were related on some level, or products of inbreeding. Thankfully, that was not the case with Inquisition's CC. If you check the Inquisitor picture thread you'll see that no two characters look the same facially. And since both Inquisition and the next Mass Effect are running on the same engine, I think it's safe to say that the heroes won't look like siblings or cousins.

[NM_Che56]

Start with the story and then go from there.  

 

Just asking for human or non-human playable characters seems arbitrary. 

[JamieCOTC]

Playable races please. Take a legitimate break from Shepard and do away w/ he "humans are special" aspect of ME. Really explore the game and let it evolve. Keeping the PC human just confines the experience that could be so much richer otherwise.

[Vortex13]

Playable races please. Take a legitimate break from Shepard and do away w/ he "humans are special" aspect of ME. Really explore the game and let it evolve. Keeping the PC human just confines the experience that could be so much richer otherwise.

 

 

Even if having multiple playable races results in the overwhelming majority of side objectives in ME:N to be fetch quests?

 

 

Believe me, I detest the "Humans are special" trope as much as the next guy, and I would like to see more alien elements take the center stage, but giving the players multiple PC racial options is going to detract from some other area of the game; especially if we are wanting the other playable races to be more than just a re-skinned human.

 

 

A game like DA:O was able to give us multiple races, complete with in-depth origin stories and heavy reactivity because the protagonist was silent. If the PC was fully voiced, we wouldn't have been able to have the same level of success with the multiple races or their origins. More options are a good thing, but (IMO) we have to look at it from the perspective of the overall game.

 

 

4 racial choices > 1 racial choice it's true, but is 4 racial choices with less reactivity and meaningful side quests really > 1 racial choice with deep reactivity and many meaningful side quests? 

[Tensoconix]

 for sure they'll have to re-do it for the Frostbite engine. And I have no doubt it'll look much better. But the range of options is what I tend to worry about. For instance, there was like maybe 10 for each facial feature. That's not nearly enough. Personally my biggest gripe had to do with hair. I know Shep was in the military, but there was literally no options for long hair. For either male or female.

 

I want to give my character a retro feel. Hair like Han Solo or Snake Plisskin. 

 

Either way, I find a lot of the time my Shep resembles many other Sheps people make. Hell, even when I try to change my Shep from playthrough to playthrough I still see resemblances. Hopefully the next game has much more variation so the hero can look completely different and unfamiliar on subsequent playthroughs of the campaign.

If you're on PC, by the time ME:N comes out modders will already have prepared a functioning mesh importer for FB3. Well, let's hope so. Limitless customization yay!

 

- snip -

WTF? That sounds exactly like me. Down to every single word. Are you a clone of mine? A long lost twin? 

[Guanxii]

As others have stated if it means going back to a silent protagonist then it's just not worth it as it would probably only appeal to a minority of fans at the expense of ruining everybody else's immersion.

I only really care about playing other races from a gameplay perspective to be honest. So long as you can continue to play as krogans and all other lesser species in coop/multiplayer then I am perfectly happy with the current regime provided we get a break from the archetypal grizzled macho space marines every once in a while.

[JamieCOTC]

Even if having multiple playable races results in the overwhelming majority of side objectives in ME:N to be fetch quests?

 

 

Believe me, I detest the "Humans are special" trope as much as the next guy, and I would like to see more alien elements take the center stage, but giving the players multiple PC racial options is going to detract from some other area of the game; especially if we are wanting the other playable races to be more than just a re-skinned human.

 

 

A game like DA:O was able to give us multiple races, complete with in-depth origin stories and heavy reactivity because the protagonist was silent. If the PC was fully voiced, we wouldn't have been able to have the same level of success with the multiple races or their origins. More options are a good thing, but (IMO) we have to look at it from the perspective of the overall game.

 

 

4 racial choices > 1 racial choice it's true, but is 4 racial choices with less reactivity and meaningful side quests really > 1 racial choice with deep reactivity and many meaningful side quests? 

 

We had too many fetch quests in ME3. Also, DA:I, which was 80% fetch quests, had just a human protagonist up until a year ago, so the races were sort of shoehorned in. Had races been considered from the get-go I think we would have seen a better outcome. I understand your concern, but the side quests became more meaningless as the trilogy went on anyway. Also, with emphasis on exploration I think the fetch quests and pull back, noncinematic convos are here to stay in both DA and ME.

[Vortex13]

As others have stated if it means going back to a silent protagonist then it's just not worth it as it would probably only appeal to a minority of fans at the expense of ruining everybody else's immersion.

 

I would like to see how complex BioWare could make a ME title with a silent protagonist. If DA:O is anything to go by, we could have 3 or 4 species, complete with playable backstories and the game reflecting the player's choice of origin and species throughout the narrative. 

 

 

It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I wouldn't mind a silent protagonist again, especially if it meant that we players were getting substantial content because of it.

 

 

I only really care about playing other races from a gameplay perspective to be honest. So long as you can continue to play as krogans and all other lesser species in coop/multiplayer then I am perfectly happy with the current regime provided we get a break from the archetypal grizzled macho space marines every once in a while.

 

 

While I would like to role play being an Elcor combat engineer, I agree that gameplay mechanics is the first thing that I look at when a game has multiple alien species. Is this alien just a human with one or two extra points in fortitude, or does the actual method of playing the game change because of the alien's unique physiology?

 

That's why I want Rachni and Elcor (at least) to make it into ME:Next's MP as playable options. Let me run around as something that is completely different, unique, alien from human norms. 

[Guanxii]

I would like to see how complex BioWare could make a ME title with a silent protagonist. If DA:O is anything to go by, we could have 3 or 4 species, complete with playable backstories and the game reflecting the player's choice of origin and species throughout the narrative. 

 

 

It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I wouldn't mind a silent protagonist again, especially if it meant that we players were getting substantial content because of it.

 

 

 

 

 

While I would like to role play being an Elcor combat engineer, I agree that gameplay mechanics is the first thing that I look at when a game has multiple alien species. Is this alien just a human with one or two extra points in fortitude, or does the actual method of playing the game change because of the alien's unique physiology?

 

That's why I want Rachni and Elcor (at least) to make it into ME:Next's MP as playable options. Let me run around as something that is completely different, unique, alien from human norms. 

 

That in a nutshell is why alien races are perfectly suited to coop/multiplayer - fun for a while in short bursts for the sake of variety but I can imagine selecting volus or elcor in the options menu at the start is something you'd probably quickly regret about about an hour or so and if your only options are basically reskinned humans with mild variations in powers and combat quips i'm not sure that warrants sacrificing voice acting. If Bioware changed their entire approach and removing spoken dialogue meant we could have the choices and consequences of a 90s style RPG then I might come around to the idea but I wouldn't count on it.

[corporal doody]

so why...WHY is there the opinion that if there are multiple species playable there will ONLY be silent protagonist?  isnt that extreme?

the same extreme that say multiple species WILL diminish game quality/resources needed for the story?

 

two voice options per gender in DAI...works.

 

how difficult (seriously...how difficult/costly) would it be to take those voices and run it through a filter?  dont have to pay someone else to record new lines when they already exist.  would have to do it for Turians, Salarians, Drell....maybe a hint on Asari (very very slight if any).

 

inb4whataboutspace?  for real??? 

 

i think someone else already pointed that stuff out though earlier in this thread.

[Faerlyte]

Sarcasm aside it actually would

You gain more species to play as but lose the chance the further explore that character background and possible family. Dialogue becomes more limited to compensate for each race and you get to talk about their culture but not really delve into

Essisentially every new playthrough would just be a pallete swap with minor noticeable difference ala Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls, etc.

I'd rather the game feel more personal then just getting a facelift each go round

That is an opinion, not a fact. I didn't give one **** about Shepard's back story, because it wasn't one I would've written. It didn't enhance my gaming experience, it hampered it because I felt shoehorned into a specific person, whereas leaving it more open allows the player to interpret the character as they'd like to. 

 

It's not that hard, it's called imagination. 

 

But let's look at your reasoning closely. Apparently we can't properly delve into the back story and culture of other races (it hasn't happened properly yet, so it must be impossible to do), so we should just stick with humans. I find this odd, given that we are humans, and as such  know quite a lot about them. What on earth is there to discover about humanity that I don't already know from first hand experience? Especially in the Mass Effect universe, which is essentially a future of our present day. That leaves me, again, with a back story for the human main character that I don't want or need. 

 

Thus, Bioware should make the main race anything but human. At least we'd have something interesting to discover.

[Vortex13]

so why...WHY is there the opinion that if there are multiple species playable there will ONLY be silent protagonist?  isnt that extreme?

the same extreme that say multiple species WILL diminish game quality/resources needed for the story?

 

two voice options per gender in DAI...works.

 

how difficult (seriously...how difficult/costly) would it be to take those voices and run it through a filter?  dont have to pay someone else to record new lines when they already exist.  would have to do it for Turians, Salarians, Drell....maybe a hint on Asari (very very slight if any).

 

inb4whataboutspace?  for real??? 

 

i think someone else already pointed that stuff out though earlier in this thread.

 

 

I don't think anyone has said that ME:N having multiple species for the PC would require a silent protagonist, just that a silent protagonist would make having multiple races a lot easier, and also allow for greater depth of role-play and reactivity. Look at DA:O, in that game we not only had 3 racial choices but six fully fleshed out background stories with repercussions throughout the narrative.

 

 

Now it is possible to have a voiced protagonist as well as multiple races, DA:I proved that such a thing is possible, but look at the loss of content compared to DA:O. We no longer have a unique background adventure for each character, and certain races (like the dwarf inquisitor) have very little in the way of reactivity or solid (dwarf-centric) roleplaying opportunities based on your racial choice. Also the level of secondary quests have little impact on the overall game being almost entirely fetch quests. 

 

 

Gaining the option to play as an Asari, Turian, or Salarian protagonist would most certainly be doable, but we would have to consider what the trade off would be. I personally would not be particularly interested in playing as an alien that was human in every aspect except appearance. The dialog would have to written in a way as to not recognize the player's species if we were dealing with the same voice actor/tress for all options. We would also have to realize that unique gameplay or story elements; like say visiting the Elcor homeworld of Dekuna; would likely be the first thing to be cut in order to accommodate for the possible protagonists and making sure that the game was normalized to ensure that each playable species worked correctly. Etc.

[RoboticWater]

That is an opinion, not a fact. I didn't give one **** about Shepard's back story, because it wasn't one I would've written. It didn't enhance my gaming experience, it hampered it because I felt shoehorned into a specific person, whereas leaving it more open allows the player to interpret the character as they'd like to. 

 

It's not that hard, it's called imagination. 

 

But let's look at your reasoning closely. Apparently we can't properly delve into the back story and culture of other races (it hasn't happened properly yet, so it must be impossible to do), so we should just stick with humans. I find this odd, given that we are humans, and as such  know quite a lot about them. What on earth is there to discover about humanity that I don't already know from first hand experience? Especially in the Mass Effect universe, which is essentially a future of our present day. That leaves me, again, with a back story for the human main character that I don't want or need. 

 

Thus, Bioware should make the main race anything but human. At least we'd have something interesting to discover.

Actually, you'll find there's much about humanity the average person doesn't know. 

 

But you're correct; if we stay with humans, then BioWare don't have to delve into their cultural backstories, as we already know them to some degree. We don't have the same reference frame for aliens, and we'd probably need more exposition just to stay on the same page. Then, of course, there's narrative feasibility.Keeping only one playable race is convenient for the writers. They don't need to worry about Cerberus hiring you or Aria considering you an outsider because you're definitely a human. More races are just more obstacles for the writers to maneuver around. They can do it, but at what cost?

 

Speaking of cost, you must also realize that this debate isn't merely about design philosophy. Creating multiple playable races is tough work, and logistically wouldn't really be worth it. As I said earlier, any meaningful PC would require extra writing and voice acting from multiple cast members. On top of that, you'd need special animations and armors specific to each race (except the Asari, if we're trying to be economical). BioWare only has so many resources. Sure, they could definitely implement multiple races, but they'd need to divert time and effort away from another project to do so. Personally, I don't think multiple races are worth that kind of commitment.

[Vortex13]

As much as I would like to see a PC Rachni (if we are going to the extreme with player protagonists) I think my wishes would be better managed (as well as the game still appealing to other players) if we have our human character meet up with a nest on some uncharted planet as well as BioWare making the Rachni a playable MP character(s).

 

 

Let the lore of the SP build up and explore these alien races, and then let us run around as them in MP; it's the easiest and most economical way to give alien lovers like myself something non-human to play as, while at the same time allowing BioWare to tell the story that they want to the best of their ability.

 

Unless we are going to have a silent protagonist, eliminate humans as a PC option for SP, or have multiple versions of the ME:N released for each player race, I don't really see any feasible way that  BioWare can give us the depth of story they are known for and give us separate and wholly unique alien protagonists.

[corporal doody]

 

Unless we are going to have a silent protagonist, eliminate humans as a PC option for SP, or have multiple versions of the ME:N released for each player race, I don't really see any feasible way that  BioWare can give us the depth of story they are known for and give us separate and wholly unique alien protagonists.

DLC.  DLC i would gladly buy

[Vazgen]

Class and background-specific dialogues should already give them a lot to work on. Let's not add more on top of that.

[Vortex13]

DLC.  DLC i would gladly buy

 

 

That could work, but you are talking about replacing the protagonist for the entire (however long BioWare makes the SP) campaign. To my knowledge nothing like that has even been attempted for a character and story intense RPG like this. I won't knock it on principle, but I would question the feasibility of doing such a DLC, and whether BioWare/EA would consider the expense of development worth the money.

 

 

A side DLC or expansion that casts the player as an alien PC would be very interesting; and something I would definitely buy; but I am not sure the rest of the fanbase would be too keen on playing content where they can't play as their character from the vanilla game. 

[Malanek]

A way I thought of doing this would be to write a bunch of characters and let the player pick which one to play while using the others as squadmates. Each one would have a surname and a default class, personality, appearance, and first name. Although there would be more dialogue to write, there would be no additional voice actors needed and from a storytelling replay perspective you could learn about a characters back story as a companion and then delve into more depth by playing as them. The writers wouldn't have to write any more back stories at all, just flesh them out and change opening depending on player choice.

[GalacticWolf5]

That's why I want Rachni and Elcor (at least) to make it into ME:Next's MP as playable options. Let me run around as something that is completely different, unique, alien from human norms.

 

OMG yes! Rachni MP character would be amazing! But it most likely won't happen tho.

[Vortex13]

OMG yes! Rachni MP character would be amazing! But it most likely won't happen tho.

 

 

I say that a playable Rachni in MP is entirely likely, especially if DAMP gets a Mabari class to play as. 

[Mcfly616]

Class and background-specific dialogues should already give them a lot to work on. Let's not add more on top of that.

 There wasn't much dialogue concerning those two in the trilogy. Very few and far between. Especially class. So, they're gonna have to incorporate it into the next game much more than previously seen in order to consider it "a lot of work".