53 réponses à ce sujet

[JonathonPR]

I would like to know the communities view on diversity of alien form and mental processes within the Mass Effect universe and how it could be improved with inspiration from other sources of fiction. 

 

While I enjoy the Star Trek, Star Wars, and Babylon 5 trope of aliens being humans wearing facial prosthetic and makeup I would like to see a greater diversity of non humanoid races on the ships crew and especially in the party. The Elcor, Hanar, and Rachni are some of the most interesting races to me. 

 

In a number of other scifi settings there is not only a physical difference but a psychological one as well. For the table top rpg Eclipse Phase the only intelligent race that humans have come across is a sapient fungus that can bud off an fuse back together to communicate. They have a hard time understanding the individual perspective of humans because they are so malleable. There is a short story that retells The Thing from the alien's point of view and explains how it perceives life on Earth and how from its perspective because of its physiology it is doing the right thing. 

 

I would be interested in a party member that you could never be sure of how you are communicating with it because it is so vastly different in form and psychology. 

[thats1evildude]

"I get asked a lot, 'Give us ALIEN aliens.' So I do. And then I get gigged because they don't act like we'd expect humans to act. Sometimes I just throw up my hands."

-J. Michael Straczynski

 

The problem with writing 'alien' aliens is that 1) all writers are human, and 2) all fans are human, and thus relate to humanoid mindsets much better.

 

(Outside of the Reptilians hiding in our midst, of course.)

[MrBSN2017]

Go to the zoo if you want different. Why aliens are so fascinating is because we expect to connect with them physically or mentally. Why not both?

[Laughing_Man]

No doubt that making truly Alien aliens and keeping them interesting and relate-able is somewhat difficult, but I still want to see at least some.

There is a limit to how far you can stretch the "Prothean Genetic Vandalism" trope to explain the uncanny similarity between the shapes of so many races.

[Teabaggin Krogan]

This is something I would like to see as well, seriously of all the life forms on earth those exhibiting humanoid characteristics form only a very small part of the overall variety of life we have here. And yet in most sci fi films, the majority of aliens we meet are humanoid and even have very relatable humanoid features and emotions. Essentially being reskinned humans on a different planet. It wasn't all bad though, we did get the rachni and the hanar and so on although their appearance and impact in game was rather limited. 

 

I understand the relatability argument although I'm doubtful of its actual validity about people not being able to relate to non humanoid "alien" aliens. I'd like to believe that people in general are not that rigid of mindset but nevertheless I wish Bioware actually grew a quad and gave us some new species that actually makes us think rather than go "wow hot space babes". Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed seeing those hot aliens but I just wish there was more of an actual biodiversity in game. 

[Remix-General Aetius]

I'm fine with the Rachni, communicating telepathically. The Collectors were done beautifully. Hostile, silent, sinister & malevolent. More of that.

[Iakus]

More geth consensus, less geth Pinocchio please.

[In Exile]

More geth consensus, less geth Pinocchio please.

 

There's real no difference. Exploring alternate ways we conceive of re: thinking with AI doesn't fundamentally change the "Does this unit have a soul?" question, and ME3 in any case doesn't really go down the Pinocchio route so much as it ignores the fact that the geth were already sentient to begin with in ME1-2. 

 

And that's the problem with "alien" aliens - the very idea of their thinking being comprehensible to us would be off the table. 

[Wulfram]

I'd like to see some eusocial (Ant, Bee type social structure) aliens without the rachni/geth style telepathy or shared consciousness going on. The telepathy makes it too easy, but having aliens who are driven entirely by serving their clan/family instead of themselves without there being any sort of hive mind to enforce it could be interesting.

[Spectr61]

Give us something like the Scrambler.

It has been described multiple times in other threads.

A wholly unique take on the concepts of alien and consciousness.

[iM3GTR]

Elcor could have been fleshed out more and portrayed as unique and with different perspectives on life. Like how the Elcor ambassador speaks about how they are not really similar to any other species in terms of their social structure and so on. Unfortunately they became, like the Hanar, just purely there for the subject of jokes, and hardly mentioned in any other context.

The Thorian, too. That could've been interesting if it wasn't killed and mentioned once by Shiala in ME2 and in a random message in 3.

[The Ascendant]

Well in this game we are the aliens. 

[capn233]

I can't tell the aliens from the animals.

 

A not quite sentient cloud of living gas might not be very helpful as an ally.  But I guess it could provide 5 seconds of interest on side quest planet.

 

ME hasn't really been hard sci fi, so I am not concerned if nearly all the aliens you interact with regularly aren't too far removed from humans.

[Display Name Owner]

Some aliens should be, certainly. Thorian was quite cool in that regard, Rachni to a degree... Reapers should've been, but, well... And Geth started out that wy until the Rannoch arc was inflicted upon them. 

 

I'd like some aliens that are completely alien, but then I also do like the fact that, as Kaiden put it in ME1, aliens aren't so different, they're just people like us trying to live their lives. Paraphrasing. But yeah, I like having some nice relatable ones too. 

[Sartoz]

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"The Elcor, Hanar, and Rachni" , while they may be interesting to some, fall towards the useless in the practicality scale. At least, as far as crew mates on a ship. Besides, according to Bio, creating aliens is "hard work". 

 

Here is a video on alien design, from the zBrush Summit 2015. BTW, a Bio senior artist was also there giving a workshop presentation. The page provides links to other workshop presentations on design techniques. 

 

 

David Giraud  Alien Demo = <== no sound

 

Furio Tedeschi interview    = https://youtu.be/YfJB45diWQU

 

As I understand, Furio is presently working at Bioware Montreal for Mass Effect. His presentation shows our N7 friend from the trailer.

Furio Tedeschi workshop presentation = https://youtu.be/x4b7HkQsGdE

[Fiery Phoenix]

You literally can't make a 'truly' alien alien, because such an entity is fundamentally beyond our imagination. Look up anthropomorphism.

[Sifr]

I'd like more cultural clashes over conflicting ideologies, showing us that even the aliens who look "like" us, still don't necessarily think the same way?

 

Sort of like how the Turians don't believe in civilian casualties because they all undergo military service, so anyone who's not in a designated non-combatant area when the attack begins is deemed an enemy combatant and legitimate target.

 

Or showing us why races like the Batarians believe they have a "right" to own slaves and explaining what cultural reasons were the basis for this philosophy? Would be better to understand why they believe in it, rather than the way was presented in ME1-3, as seemingly only as a flimsy excuse they bring out to justify acting like a total bunch of jerks towards everyone else in the galaxy?

 

Star Trek in comparison, established alien mentality rather well when it came to the Cardassians. It's mentioned in one of their earliest appearances that when put into a room with them, they'll instinctively attempt to establish dominance and prove they are the alpha male, much like wolves. This is part of the reason they always seem to be manipulating people, project a veneer of superiority and treat everyone in the room as merely window-dressing to them. It's not that they're inherently "evil", it's simply that's the way their psychology operates.

[Silvery]

The Elcor, Hanar, and Rachni are some of the most interesting races to me. 

I would be interested in a party member that you could never be sure of how you are communicating with it because it is so vastly different in form and psychology. 

 

I would be interested in see aliens that are very different in terms of form or how they act. The problem with the form part is making them companions/enemies, it is a lot easier to animated a bipedal creature to move, run, climb, etc. compared to something different (or so I would imagine). If we had a elcor/hanar like companion as a ship mate (like Chakwas,Adams,Pressley etc.) that could work has they would basically be standing in one spot. 

[Altair_ShepardN7]

Sooo, when people want something "alien," do they want something like this...

... or is this too alien? 

 

Hey OP, you also from PR?  

[ArabianIGoggles]

There's real no difference. Exploring alternate ways we conceive of re: thinking with AI doesn't fundamentally change the "Does this unit have a soul?" question, and ME3 in any case doesn't really go down the Pinocchio route so much as it ignores the fact that the geth were already sentient to begin with in ME1-2. 

 

And that's the problem with "alien" aliens - the very idea of their thinking being comprehensible to us would be off the table. 

There's a night and day difference between between ME1-2 geth and ME3 geth. 

[Navasha]

I am all for more alien aliens, but I will say that humanoid aliens are likely just as possible in the real world.    There is such a thing as convergent evolution.   Species from vastly different background end up developing into similar looking creatures.    This is largely because of the way evolution works.   Species adapt and evolve to fit a certain environment.  

 

On Earth, the easiest to see is sharks and dolphins.  Half the people on the planet can't tell them apart.  To them they are both 'fish'.   However, whales/dolphins evolved from a land animal (much like a Hippo)  that went BACK into the sea.   Over time it ended up developing much of the same traits as the most successful fish.

 

So any species that develops in arid savannah has a pretty good chance at looking similar to humans in overall body form no matter what planet they come from.

[Laughing_Man]

...

 

So any species that develops in arid savannah has a pretty good chance at looking similar to humans in overall body form no matter what planet they come from.

 

...or they might be more similar to a Cheetah.

 

In any case, you are only thinking about planets with similar gravity and environment as ours. Planets with different mineral and gas compositions,

planet with different gravity, and perhaps planets from outside the "Goldilocks Zone", all have the potential to contain forms of life that are very different

from those we are familiar with.

 

Hell, even on a planet which is almost identical to ours, the cosmic dice might fall on different numbers, and one more ice age or one less, might be the cause for a drastically different Eco-system.

[SKAR]

I can see plenty of aliens looking more similar to us.

[SKAR]

How bout some cat people. LOL

[Vortex13]

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"The Elcor, Hanar, and Rachni" , while they may be interesting to some, fall towards the useless in the practicality scale. At least, as far as crew mates on a ship. Besides, according to Bio, creating aliens is "hard work". 

 

 

No doubt creating non-humnoid animations is hard work, but that shouldn't stop their inclusion (IMO). I mean writing a well though out, compelling narrative is 'hard work', does that mean that we should skimp on that too?

 

The way I see it, a fully implemented Rachni, Hanar or Elcor companion (for example) would be a quality vs. quantity issue. Sure, you could populate the world with humanoid aliens, but how does that distinguish you from the hundreds of other settings doing the exact same thing? We could get five human companions for the price of one Rachni or Elcor crew member, but then how many of those human companions are going to give us more daddy issues, and/or trending social/political views to talk about? At least with something so drastic, appearance and animation-wise, you can't readily fall back on the common tropes that seemingly attach themselves to anything humanoid. 

 

And even if the alien in question flops as far as story and fan popularity is concerned, there is still the whole diversity of gameplay to consider if such an element was made playable in the MP. The canine form in DCUO (for example), might be a tiny throwaway, but it is far more compelling to go around as a super dog, than the million Batman and Superman knockoffs running around.