I see quite some wish lists on this forum with ideas what should and should not be in Mass Effect: Andromeda. Some of them quite good. But I'm wondering, isn't the game more or less 'done' by now? The story, characters, romance options, are already set in stone, right?
What are the elements of a big game that can still be altered in this phase of a production?
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You got it.
There may still be time for side quests dialogue / cinematics but not that much.
Additional time, resources and cost can become a wrecking ball smashing into a tightly controlled development schedule. Unless this new idea is super awesome that outweighs the negative effect on a production schedule, it won't happen.
They are on sexy time animations right now, so suggestions for these are too late. Sorry to bring it.
We will know this June. If we get actual gameplay footage then probably 8-12 months away (65-70%), If we don't get gameplay but we get a full length 2 minute feature trailer probably about 12-15 months (50-60%) and if all we get is a lousy teaser and some concept art it's probably two years away because at some point somebody called do-over (40%).
If I had to guess right now I'd say the writers have finished their contracts and moved on to other projects, but the level design, coding and art department are still in implementation hopefully moving towards what BioWare call 'triage' the crunch-time play testing/debugging final stretch. Voice Acting should be well underway now that the writers are done.
I recon we will get a proper trailer but not gameplay footage and my estimate for a launch date will be next April 23, 2017 although they will claim January 2017 during the media conferences but it will be majorly delayed because that's par for the course.
As for what could still be open to change at this stage:
Voice-actors may have some autonomy to tweak their lines.
Enemy & Player class/powers/skill/weapons stats/mechanics will be repeatedly modified/rebalanced during play testing.
Additional combat animations & tweaks may be required and possibly changes to enemy AI/pathing during testing.
Secondary quest content may be yet to be implemented - possibly farmed out to other EABioWare support studios.
Additional music may be required for additional levels or related to feedback.
Pre-production on post-release content
Multiplayer gameplay balancing will probably go right to the wire.
They are still deciding if it is wise to put a pansexual romance in the game.
I think right now the only changes to content will be removal of content and the modification of existing content to fill in gaps from the content that has been removed due to either optimization issues or they decided that content won't be finished in time for release. If what I have read on the internet is correct studios put games into the certification process somewhere between two and four months prior to launch to make sure they have enough to fix any possible issues that arise in certification and to make sure they and manufacturer enough copies for day 1.
They can't decide if they should input a last minute Hanar LI or not 
I think you can still vote for if you want a Volus, Octopus or a special Krogan valentine's surprise LI instead!! 
They are still deciding if it is wise to put a pansexual romance in the game.
Not sure, I think the romance are locked at this point, even if the game is delayed to the first quarter of 2017.
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This may be off topic but how many of you out there knew that Mass Effect Andromeda was almost called Mass Effect Beyond?.... as in the movie Star Trek Beyond:
source: http://www.masseffec...-name-revealed/
In terms of what's open to input from the fans, none of the game ever was. And it still isn't.
They'll make the game they think we - taken generally - want, regardless of what the more vocal fans say. This was always true.
Hehe, well, the vocal fans did get quite some stuff Bioware didn't plan, like the extended ending cut, femshep on official ME3 promotionals and Garrus as a LI in ME2. All because of the community.
hopefully it's somewhere around cancellation
The way they were talking about it a few months ago it sounded like it was almost or basically finished and then.......pushed back to 2017 lol.
Hehe, well, the vocal fans did get quite some stuff Bioware didn't plan, like the extended ending cut, femshep on official ME3 promotionals and Garrus as a LI in ME2. All because of the community.
See imo, this is the kind of complaints developers should not listen to. Anything other than criticisms about core mechanics and how to improve them should just be ignored. Letting fans write your story ruins games. Their main focus should always be on the mechanics and the story they want to tell.
I agree with the first half of this sentence.Their main focus should always be on the mechanics and the story they want to tell.
Not sure about that, I've seen several games where devs have responded to player feedback and implemented ideas where possible into the game.In terms of what's open to input from the fans, none of the game ever was. And it still isn't.
They'll make the game they think we - taken generally - want, regardless of what the more vocal fans say. This was always true.
hopefully it's somewhere around cancellation
Do you always waste your time on forums for games you hope never see release?
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