Hello everyone. Finally decided to return to the forums after the release of Mass Effect 3 because I really want to get two ideas out of my head and see what everyone else thinks. This is/will be the first. Now I might describe things that are totally in the game and we just simply don't know about them. That would be awesome. It would be even more awesome if this would actually give Bioware some ideas.
Okay, enough. Let's jump in:
We all know what the game will be about. The new team goes to the neighboring Andromeda galaxy to establish a new frontier. That is the gist of it. We will be colonizers carrying with us all the iconic Mass Effect stuff because whatever we will see will be new.
However it won't be much of a colonization if our base of operation is the ship. We need to establish a permanent foothold. And this is when my idea comes into play.
At first this base would be just a small building roughly the size of those bases we raided all the time way back in the first game. A few crates, a shopkeeper with very basic stuff and a few guards. Nothing else.
Now comes the war asset part. At first they would work like the ME3 war assets. Certain story missions, side quests, purchased upgrades and scanned resources contribut to these assets. Let's call them colonization assets. Of course since everything will be new, why not take it a step further. Scan every new technology, flora or fauna you find. All of these will contribute to these assets.
You might have guessed where I'm going with this. Phasing. Instead of Colonization assets simply giving you larger numbers on a scale and becomming meaningless halfway into the game, everything you gather gets reflected on your foothold as it grows from a small base into a quest hub that you can and should return to regularly.
Established good relationships with an alien race? Send them the coordinates and start some diplomacy. It might even be a good place to get new squad mates.
Now let's take it a step further, shall we? The Mass Effect series is notorious for situations where you just can't save everyone and will inevitably lose someone (*cough* Virmire *Cough*). If Bioware to tie a few colonization assets to such choices, we could even have different, mutually exclusive upgrades to the base. And if those branch out again the replayability factor would extend a lot. You might get a totally different set of companions, or entirely new quest lines. The possibilities are endless.
So, what does everyone think?
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