23 réponses à ce sujet

[Sir Floopy]

I guess I'm not really bringing up any major issue, per se, but I thought I'd just say I'm hopeful about something that's bothered me since the series' beginning: Armor, vacuum seals, and the limitations of mass effect fields and biotic barriers. The first game was pretty good about the realities of the rather extreme hazards one can encounter in the galaxy, and it had an actual effect on gameplay, (Hazard levels) and it greatly impacted the aesthetics of Shepard, squadmates, and anyone else who braved the elements. I wasn't a big fan of not having the option to leave the full faceplate on my helmet, not just for added ballistic and environmental protection, but also for the fact that I roleplayed a mostly-Paragon who rarely showed emotion.

 

Besides the minimalist helmet-toggle option, though, the first game featured fully-sealable, full-covering armor sets for all squadmates, and all species who were capable of fighting in gameplay. After all, nobody wants to die painfully from bubbles in their arteries. Of course, krogan could probably survive a vacuum, but then most humans could probably survive swimming in low-molarity sulfuric acid; it's just that most species, including krogan, don't seem to enjoy needless self-harm. Another thing the first game had was casual outfits for characters who weren't particularly combative or didn't have armor that doubled as their species' standard clothing. When we met Liara, she was in her green lab-suit-thing, but she still had the sense to equip a set of full, if basic armor.

 

Then the second and third games happened, and we got a bunch of cool new squadmates, literally none of which use a full vacuum suit in hazardous environments, at least in default armors, barring Legion, who isn't even organic. Thane's alternate appearance pack up-armors his chest, back, and hands to form a full seal if he has his hood on, but then again, we had to see those...glasses...the rest of the time. Other than him and Legion, everyone just put on a breather mask, or a hockey mask-thing in some cases, and seemed unbothered by clouds of chlorine gas, howling sandstorms in their unprotected eyes, and pressure variances that surrounded them. Note that the characters from the first game still had full seals, although Garrus' default armor looked like it had probably been compromised, and should have been fixed.

 

Pleasant surprise, the third game fixes most of the "environmental" problems, but there are still things like Ashley's catsuit, Javik's lack of any helmet, ever, EDI's lack of any apparent armor plating, and Liara's mostly flimsy lab-coat-things that would degrade combat readiness, and spell doom for the squadmate if their shields were down in a hazardous environment. It seemed like the "armor up, 'cause a big war is coming" attitude was reserved for Garrus and the male characters, never mind Ashley's old conversation about nice, solid armor and a big gun; they wanted to make all the female squadmates more attractive, it seems.

 

The EA takeover reared its ugly head, as rule of cool became the rule, over the previous common sense, but now, a ray of hope. From what we've seen in terms of trailers and promotional material, it seems that Andromeda may return to a bit of logic for combat readiness; everyone gets armor, either fully sealed or natural plates. (The krogan squadmate in the E3 trailer seems to have an uncovered head, but I'm sure they're fine.) The new helmets remind me of a military pilot's, or a modern-day EVA suit for spacecraft. Well done on showing a lot of the characters' faces while remaining fully sealed (Though I hope my stoic player character gets the option to darken their visor), and looking quite durable at the same time. Same goes for the rest of the armor set I keep seeing in concept art.

 

So, I hope this really is a step in the right direction for believability, and not something that'll only apply to the player character like the second game. If anyone from BioWare actually reads this, I encourage you to use the attitude with which you designed the original species of the first Mass Effect: Full anatomical drawings to prevent any confusion, but designed with a full set of armor or a pressure suit in mind. And please no more catsuits or armors that aren't really armor; that was just annoying. Good work so far; I hope you can keep it up.

[NKnight7]

I would like more hazard areas for Andromeda. Haestrom in the 2nd game was one of my favorite missions because of the hazard effect. It lets you use a little more strategy to complete the mission because of the hazard, especially when it comes to battles. I liked the open areas on Haestrom when you did fight the Geth because you had to worry about them and the damaging sun at the same time. 

[Han Shot First]

I'm also hoping that all squadmates will have full armor with proper helmets that can be toggled on/off. Besides aiding in suspension of disbelief during missions in hostile enviroments, it just looks a lot better than ME2's comic art influences. (superhero style catsuits, exposed skin, ect)

 

Save the revealing clothing for off duty casual wear. 

[SNascimento]

Just because there are some squadmates' costumes that are not practical 100% of the time, it doesn't mean the "rule of cool" somehow took over because of the evil EA overlords.

I do indeed thing several costumes for squadmates were inadequate in some situations of ME2 and ME3, but a more methodical look to ME2 for example, will reveal that for most of the times the clothes most squadmates wear were reasonable, but that's beyond the point. The point is that begining with ME2, Bioware made the correct choice of give characters more identity with unique clothes and armors. 

Unique looking squadmates and practical armors are not mutually exclusive though. Giving squadmates at least one piece of armor that would be used in situations that they were logical would have solved this issued in ME2 and ME3.

For Andromeda I expect amors to be much more prominent as it will be a game more focused on "rural" areas, as opposed to the ME2 and ME3 which were much more urban. 

[SlottsMachine]

Plus its not like having full armor sudden means you can't have a unique and stylish look for each character. I don't necessarily have a problem with revealing off duty clothing if it fits the character, the problem is they massively over did it with ME2 and ME3. 

 

 

^ME2 and ME3 in a nutshell.

[Han Shot First]

I thought ME3 was good for the most part on armor design. Characters all had a much more unique appearance compared to ME1, while they all generally speaking were wearing more armor than many of the ME2 squadmates. There were exceptions of course like Liara and Javik not having helmets or Ashley's optional catsuit, but on the whole I didn't have many complaints.

[SlottsMachine]

I just loved how Javik was so badass he apparently didn't even need a breather mask let alone a helmet. I guess they didn't use such primitive devices in his cycle. ME3 still had the ****** tho.

 

LOL. The language filter on this site is so messed up and broken. Its like they didn't even try.

[Sir Floopy]

I think EA did pressure BioWare to make their designs more comic-booky and "sexy", because they knew it would sell better, realism be damned. I think BioWare probably knew skintight "armor" with no helmets and weird vestiges of today's fashion would sell better back when they made ME1. The difference being that before they had to do what the "worst corporation in the US", as it was voted, told them, they cared more about making a great game with a believable atmosphere than however much extra money they would have made on sales, all because Samara hasn't learned from a thousand years of combat experience that biotic barriers won't stop her blood from boiling in space if her skin is exposed, or that spiked heels are hard to run in...

[Han Shot First]

I doubt EA had much influence on that. 

 

I'd look to Mac Walters, who was always sort of a comic book guy. Behind the scenes he was also the one often working against the series having more hard Sci Fi elements. Chris E'toile doesn't name him specifically, but the constant references to 'higher paid' dictating that he humanize Legion and the Geth for example, were probably references to SuperMac.

[Dalakaar]

 

Yeah...

[Han Shot First]

They grow in the future? 

 

Great Scott! Marty, where's my Delorian?!

[SardaukarElite]

I think EA did pressure BioWare to make their designs more comic-booky and "sexy", because they knew it would sell better, realism be damned.

 

Does it though? Top selling games aren't typically loaded with as much sexy as they can handle. Other EA games aren't sexed up to the eyeballs*. ME1 was still published by Microsoft, who also cared about sales. 

 

I think BioWare are the ones who should take the fall for this one.

 

*Exceptions include Dante's Inferno and The Sabouteur, but in those cases is was part of the premise. 

[Sir Floopy]

I knew he was responsible for a lot of...that last bit...

 

I didn't know that bit about Legion though. For an emotionless killing machine sent by a race of genocidal, Cthulu-worshipping robots to find Shepard for admittedly vague reasons, he seemed awfully friendly and innocent.

 

Also laughing at your last post...

[Filament]

I think they should just use biotic fields like Super Monkey Ball if they're gonna keep pretending a plastic breather mask and pasties are enough to protect against the vacuum of space and cosmic radiation.

[Sir Floopy]

See my first reply to the topic. The Codex explicitly states that mass effect fields, either shields from emitters in armor or biotic barriers, are not enough to make a self-contained atmosphere, at least not for practical infantry application. They didn't bother retconning this to make sense of the armors in ME2 and ME3.

[Filament]

Easily solved by,

technological improvement
super andromeda eezo x2
retconning it

[Sir Floopy]

Or BioWare could just continue what they already seem to be doing for Andromeda and make actual armor instead of swimsuit-things, and stick to their well-established and extremely thought-out lore...

 

It doesn't take much technological improvement to make an armored spacesuit that protects from pressure, temperature, and raditaion extremes. Just improve on what Earth's space agencies already have today.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Plus its not like having full armor sudden means you can't have a unique and stylish look for each character. 

Yeah. The Halo franchise for example has the characters in full body armor and they still all look great aesthetically and still show their personality.

[Filament]

Or BioWare could just continue what they already seem to be doing for Andromeda and make actual armor instead of swimsuit-things

Well it's all the same to me, I'm just saying the contingency they should use if they want to keep doing the swimsuits.
 

and stick to their well-established and extremely thought-out lore...

Ha ha.

[SlottsMachine]

Yeah. The Halo franchise for example has the characters in full body armor and they still all look great aesthetically and still show their personality.

 

Yeah, or even if they still want a more sexualized look which I imagine they might. And I'm just talking out loud here but there is probably a more subtle and less immersion breaking way to do so. 

[LinksOcarina]

I think the issue is that Mass Effect is very much a pop Sci-Fi styled game, very Space Opera where the costumes are supposed to be iconic and specific so the characters are recognizable.

 

Perhaps an approach like Inquisition's armors would be best; specific appearances for the companions but interchangeable here and there when necessary for stat increases. Nothing crazy though, I would rather they avoid the needless stat increasing of a bunch of armors like we normally see. That sort of progression I always hated.

[wizardryforever]

Well to be fair, they did have alternate appearances for the squadmates that equated to a full suit of armor in the third game if you'd bother to change their outfit. I always change Liara's outfit immediately to the armor, and Ashley too, on those rare occasions where she's alive. Sure you couldn't change their casual attire, but that's pretty fair to me, honestly. And each "armor" outfit came with a helmet on those rare occasions where it is actually needed in game.

[Han Shot First]

Well to be fair, they did have alternate appearances for the squadmates that equated to a full suit of armor in the third game if you'd bother to change their outfit. I always change Liara's outfit immediately to the armor, and Ashley too, on those rare occasions where she's alive. Sure you couldn't change their casual attire, but that's pretty fair to me, honestly. And each "armor" outfit came with a helmet on those rare occasions where it is actually needed in game.

 

Liara and Javik were missing helmets on all of their armor choices. If you took Liara on a mission in a hostile enviroment she wore a breath mask instead, and Javik went without either a helmet or a breath mask.

 

While I liked ME3's squadmate armor for the most part, that those two lacked proper helmets was one of my gripes.

[Jeremiah12LGeek]

 

As long as my armour covers my hazard area, I'm cool.