12 réponses à ce sujet

[MrObnoxiousUK]

Should side missions be linked into overarching chains that can ultimately effect main missions positively or negatively?

I would be most interested to hear your opinions on the matter.

[cap and gown]

Ideally, there would be no side missions, but rather a number of missions that could be completed in any order that would all, ultimately, be part of doing the main mission. I think ME1's story structure could be expanded on. In ME1, each of Virmire, Feros, Therum, and Noveria had a piece of the overall puzzle that eventually led to Ilos. You could do them in just about any order, although you had to do either Feros or Noveria first before you could do Virmire in order to ensure that the player was familiar with the concept of indoctrination before meeting the indoctrinated Salarians on Virimire, or being able to accuse Saren of being indoctrinated.

 

ME2 also had an interesting story structure in that there was nothing you could do about the Collectors until they showed up, so in the mean time you would be busy building up your team. Specifically, there was the 5 mission timer in between Horizon and the Collector Ship. That made sense since you couldn't do anything about the Collectors until they appeared somewhere, at least until you got the Reaper IFF and could take the fight to them.

 

Overall, I would like to see each mission bear on the main mission, while having some degree of freedom which order the missions are done in. I would also like to see the main story "emerge" out of the missions, rather than be given an end goal right from the start. I.E. we don't know what the ultimate mission is for at least half way into the game. Rather, we are uncovering clues that something larger is going on that we are only finding out about as we do various missions.

[AlanC9]

The whole sidequest concept should go away. They aren't a thing in the game-world, and shouldn't be a thing in the game.

[Il Divo]

Much as I dislike Baldur's Gate, if there is a game that Bioware can learn sidequest design from, I think it's Tales of the Sword Coast. As a concept, I like the idea of side-quest chains being longer, more involved, and providing more diverse content.

[MrObnoxiousUK]

Personally, I like the idea that the main mission is an incomplete jigsaw puzzle, still able to get an idea what the big picture without having all the pieces,but the side missions and extra missions provide those extra pieces to view the whole picture.

[Il Divo]

^Deus Ex: HR did this to a great extent. You didn't need the side quests to understand what was going on, but they provided extra hints/foreshadowing at what the big picture narrative was.

[sjsharp2011]

Ideally, there would be no side missions, but rather a number of missions that could be completed in any order that would all, ultimately, be part of doing the main mission. I think ME1's story structure could be expanded on. In ME1, each of Virmire, Feros, Therum, and Noveria had a piece of the overall puzzle that eventually led to Ilos. You could do them in just about any order, although you had to do either Feros or Noveria first before you could do Virmire in order to ensure that the player was familiar with the concept of indoctrination before meeting the indoctrinated Salarians on Virimire, or being able to accuse Saren of being indoctrinated.

 

ME2 also had an interesting story structure in that there was nothing you could do about the Collectors until they showed up, so in the mean time you would be busy building up your team. Specifically, there was the 5 mission timer in between Horizon and the Collector Ship. That made sense since you couldn't do anything about the Collectors until they appeared somewhere, at least until you got the Reaper IFF and could take the fight to them.

 

Overall, I would like to see each mission bear on the main mission, while having some degree of freedom which order the missions are done in. I would also like to see the main story "emerge" out of the missions, rather than be given an end goal right from the start. I.E. we don't know what the ultimate mission is for at least half way into the game. Rather, we are uncovering clues that something larger is going on that we are only finding out about as we do various missions.

yeah I liked the way ME1 works to in that regard.

[Hiemoth]

I am slightly surprised by the comments that ME1 worked in this manner, as all the side quests were largely independent and the main quests weren't really chained at all, or they were chained as much the main quests were in DAO or KOtoR.

 

ME3 actually heavily chained the sidequests, with all of them being relevant to either the main quest at that point of the story or to the larger story arc of the game itself. I really liked that and I also hope that the ME team continues to build on that instead of returning backwards in the series. However, if they are focusing on exploration, such a structure would be difficult as the chained quest apporach works best with a very tightly paced narrative.

 

Another BW game where I really loved the approach to sidequests was actually DA2, where while the side quests usually independent of the larger story missions, they did build on the themes of the game itself. They effectively showed the different sides of the issues and struggles of Kirkwall and, for me, really contributed to the larger story. Although, again, I don't know how to make something like that work when the focus is on exploration.

[Sanunes]

I really don't understand the obsession with "don't have side missions" since all BioWare games have them, its just Inquisition was missing the dialogue flavour the other ones included.  Even looking back at Mass Effect 1 there were a lot of side missions as well, there are the four collectable ones or the ones on the Citadel all are side missions.

[cap and gown]

ME1 and ME2 side quests were pretty horrid from a story point of view.

 

In ME1, the only side quest that can logically be fit into a playthrough focused on story is the Geth Presence side quest since you can find this side quest by hacking into a geth terminal on either Feros or Virmire. After finding out the Geth will be in the Armstrong Nebula, Shepard can feel justified in going out there since it might lead him/her to Saren. Other side quests that can be fit in are those in the Artemis Tau cluster since we are not told which system Liara might be in and therefore are free to explore other systems in our search for her. A few other side quests can be fit in by noting that they are located along Normandy's travel route. Most of them, however, including Garrus and Wrex's "loyalty missions" run exactly counter to the main quest's "Race Against Time." Basically, I hardly do any side quests in ME1 if I wish to construct a coherent story.

 

ME2's side quests are perhaps even more nonsensical. Why is Shepard randomly dropping in on planets and disrupting the operations of various merc organizations? What does any of that have to do with stopping the Collectors? The only reason I bother with any of those side quests is for upgrades and XP.

 

ME3's side quests at least fit the overall theme of the story. Still, it makes little sense for the Normandy to be constantly diverting hither and yon to run some operation when Shepard is supposed to be focused on securing alliances to help build the Crucible.

[KrrKs]

Should side missions be linked into overarching chains that can ultimately effect main missions positively or negatively?

I'd like that!

Though definitely not all side missions should belong into such an sub-arc, and not all side mission chains should effect the main missions. But a few of those would be great.

I'm not sure to what extend these side-arcs should effect the main missions/plot. Something like additional equipment (of whatever sort) or rather 'flavour' like different squad/NPC chatter?

Anything more would make the side missions too important (aka qualify them as 'maim'-missions), imo.

[AlanC9]

ME2's side quests are perhaps even more nonsensical. Why is Shepard randomly dropping in on planets and disrupting the operations of various merc organizations? What does any of that have to do with stopping the Collectors? The only reason I bother with any of those side quests is for upgrades and XP.

Well, Shepard can just stumble upon them while doing mining, or do them after the Collectors are beaten.

ME3's problem is caused by the game not having a real clock. There's enough time for the Normandy to do everything while waiting for the Crucible to be built if you do missions in one order, and there isn't if you don't.

[KumoriYami]

I don't mind mission chains. In ME1 they made several quests that linked up to other ones, or you couldn't get a quest until you finished some other ones. Quite liked the idea of how you couldn't help Tali with her pilgrimage until you went and wiped out a bunch of Geth.