903 réponses à ce sujet

[Scarecrow_ES]

 
Scarecrow’s Compendium of Proposals to BioWare for Mass Effect Gameplay Improvements (UPDATE 2)
 
Introduction
 
This topic is meant to serve as a means of consolidating access to several other topics I’ve created in order to propose and discuss various gameplay improvements that can be made for the next title in the Mass Effect series.
 
 I openly apologize for the format of this topic.  It was not my intention to put up such a great wall of text, but I no longer have any choice in the matter. I’ve been asked by the moderation staff to consolidate my individual proposal threads into a single compendium thread, and this has resulted in a much longer topic than I had originally intended.

Firstly, I want to state that I am an avid fan of both Mass Effect games, and consider the franchise to be one of my all time favorites. That said, while the gameplay present in the Mass Effect series is at the top of its genre, there is always room for improvement. It is not my goal to propose changes that radically alter gameplay, but to refine and otherwise improve what already exists. I am not here to inspire controversy, but to propose ideas to end it. It is not my interest to propose ideas that change the gameplay in a way that is not in keeping with the spirit of Mass Effect. I do not want to adapt the series into a different one. It is also not my goal to address gameplay issues that already work well but are simply not to my liking. As I am a great supporter of Mass Effect, I want nothing more than for the series to shine even brighter.
 
Update 2 of this Compendium incorporates new ideas and refinements that have resulted from 30+ pages of discussion within this thread. Some of the newly incorporated material expands the scope of the thread from simply those items that “must” be fixed to include some items which should or could be fixed with relative ease, and would provide a better gaming experience.
 
Rather than simply use the forum to complain about something I’m not happy with, I’ve decided to employ constructive criticism instead. In these posts, I describe what problems exist within Mass Effect gameplay, of course, but also what solution I propose to resolve said problems, and how this solution will affect the gameplay. As a result, my posts will be quite long. Though, rest assured, if you are able to get through them, I believe you will find the ideas presented to be well worth your time.
 
Again, these are LONG posts which must be fully read to get the full effect of my proposals, but you’ll be glad you did!

You have been warned.
 
Abridged Table of Contents
 
Below you will find an abridged table of contents which will highlight the individual proposal sets. Below each proposal name is a brief description of what each proposal topic entails, and a search tag can be found next to the category name for easy navigation.
 
1) Concerning Weapons, Armor, and Equipment Inventory Refinement {INVNT}
Modifications to the existing inventory system, to include a greater variety of distinct but balanced weapons within each category, increasing the number of armor pieces, and upping the effect of passive buffs on them, as well as providing additional squadmate outfits. 
 
2) Concerning Customization, Research, and Upgrade System Modifications {UPGRD}
Reintroduces weapons customization through a slot-based mod system. Modifies the manner in which the player acquires new research, upgrades, and useable skills or weapons.
 
3) Concerning Hybrid Weapon Heat System {WEAPS}
Introduction of a hybrid heat management/thermal clip system for weapon heat/ammunition management that incorporates the slow heat dissipation system of ME1 and the swappable thermal clip system of ME2 to overcome overheat scenarios.
 
4) Concerning Improvements to Power/Skill Customization and Usage {PWRSKLL}
Proposes a change from the current Global Cooldown system for power usage to one of a tiered, multiple-use cooldown system. Reasserts class customization through limited choice of assigned class powers, and introduces a segregated and incremental skill point assignment system to eliminate unusable skill points and add customization to power effects. Proposes a modification to power evolution that produces truly evolutionary, rather than minor incremental, changes to class powers and introduces a charge system for evolved powers to expand power gameplay. Also introduces a revamped controller scheme to account for proposed power modifications.
 
5) Concerning Planet Scanning and Resource Management {SCNSMGMT}
Expands and modifies the planet scanning and resource management system to break up potentially tedious gameplay through the introduction of varied mini-games and resource management strategy systems. Adds expanded uses for acquired minerals.
 
1. Concerning Weapons, Armor, and Equipment Inventory Refinement {INVNT}

Specifically for this topic I will discuss changes to the weapon, armor, and equipment inventory system that should satiate fans of the Mass Effect 1 inventory system while remaining true to the nature of the streamlined (and in my opinion, ultimately better) Mass Effect 2 system.

The removal of dropped loot and the elimination of redundant equipment is an improvement over the Mass Effect 1 system; however, the system in Mass Effect 2 is possibly more limited than it should be. It would not take much expansion to reach a point that would be acceptable to fans of the old system, while keeping the nature of the new system.
 
Weapons
 
I have never been a fan of shooters that provided you with a selection of weapons that were virtually identical, or ones where there was a clearly superior choice – an uber version, if you will. Instead, especially for the Mass Effect franchise, I believe a small selection of weapons, with a global upgrade system, each with unique but otherwise equal attributes, would be best. In this regard, I prefer the weapon system in Mass Effect 2 to the loot-heavy system of Mass Effect 1. Having said that, what we see in the basic line-up of ME2 weapons is just too few, and not nearly varied enough.
 
If you’ve read my topic on changes to the weapon heat management/ammo system (included below), you know that I prefer a hybrid system, combining the ME1 and ME2 systems in preference to either. As such, heat management in weapons would be a factor in gameplay again. Accordingly, weapons in a given class could vary in how they manage heat, as well as other factors such as damage and accuracy. Each individual class of weapons – whether pistol, submachine gun, assault rifle, shotgun, or sniper rifle – would still have their particular type of function that differentiates it from other classes, but also each weapon within in a class would have certain attribute trade-offs that are balanced against each other to produce the several different weapons within each class. Below is how I see those trade-offs creating the various versions you have available: 
 
Balanced - Your base (starting) weapon in any class would be a simple weapon balancing heat management, damage, and accuracy equally. The result is a weapon that is a good, all-around weapon with no particular strengths or weaknesses.
+Damage/-Capacity(Cooling) - Increasing the damage a weapon is capable of doing per shot will increase heat output, and thus the weapon would have fewer rounds fired before overheating - thus trading heat management for damage. 
+Accuracy/-Damage - Increasing the accuracy of a weapon may be achieved by changing the shape of the projectile to cut through atmosphere better, but the round will not have the same level of impact on the target, reducing damage – thus trading damage for accuracy.
+Capacity(Cooling)/-Accuracy – Increasing the heat management ability of the weapon allows the weapon to fire more rounds before overheating or fire at an increased rate (but overheat in the same amount of time), but the looser clearances between components needed to allow for more efficient cooling result in a less accurate weapon – thus trading accuracy for greater firing time.
UNIQUE – This weapon in a class will be unique in nature for the class. It may offer certain characteristics that remain balanced but give it unique personality. It could include using attributes that go against the class standard – such as in a class where the weapons are strong against health, but weak against shields, barriers, or armor, the unique weapon instead may trade some of the prowess against health for increased effectiveness against armor types. Or it may have certain secondary effects – for instance trading some damage for impact force that can knock an enemy to the ground. The unique type is an opportunity to shake up the class.
 
The Heavy Weapons category offers a great opportunity to introduce weapons which are unique, and so demonstrate unique associated gameplay. It would be very easy to expand upon the system already in place and introduce an even greater variety of heavy weapons, as has already been done with the Flame Thrower and other such weapons. BioWare has done a good job of keeping the heavy weapons coming, so I have no doubt this will remain possible in the future. Maintaining a separate Heavy Weapon ammo system, using Power Cells found in crates throughout the game world makes sense in limiting the ability to continually use these weapons in combat. However, like with Medi-Gel in Mass Effect 1, a station should be placed aboard the Normandy (in the Armory) to refill Power Cells between missions.
 
Also, rather than finding these weapons on missions (thus ensuring a user does not have access to the weapon he may like until the story says he can be, or missing out on a weapon or item permanently if he doesn’t immediately find it in a mission), new weapons should be available to receive when the user chooses, either through shops, research, licenses, or whatever system seems best. Keeping the current Mass Effect 2 research-based upgrade system (without one-time, missable mission pick-ups) allows all weapons in a category to grow as the user does.
 
The above system insures that there are enough weapons in a class to provide variety, but also that each weapon has a unique personality which may appeal to different users. This eliminates the need to have many variations of the same weapon class, but also allows for 2 weapons within a category to behave differently enough that this difference can be noticeable to the user - ultimately the few weapons will feel like many.
 
Armor
 
The armor system for Mass Effect 2 is much improved; though, again, it is more limited than it could be. For the user’s Commander Shepard, improvements to this system will be no more difficult than adding a wider variety of mix-and-match armor pieces with various unique qualities. For the next game, though, I propose that the armor pieces chosen have a more profound effect on the wearer. 
 
While bonuses to weapons damage for a particular type of gauntlet are a great idea, upping them by merely 3 to 5% is not enough to make any piece or armor significantly more attractive to wear than any other. With the bonus so insignificant, the aesthetic qualities of the armor might override the skill improvement for many players. Raising the bonus to, say, 10 to 15% is necessary to really make the decision of what armor piece to wear that much more difficult, and makes the choice more profound. Further, certain “special” armor pieces could be found that offer unique ability enhancements that go beyond basic improvements to health, shields, or weapons damage – we could see biotic or tech enhancements, for instance, that make a real difference in gameplay. I won’t go so far as to make those up myself, but there is opportunity there. Suffice it to say, we need only increase the number of options for each type of armor piece to, say, no more than 10 to provide enough options.
 
As far as party member armors, I agree to a large extent that it is unnecessary to give them the same armor options we have for Shepard, and managing armor pieces and upgrades for up to 10 part members can become tedious. At the same time, though, it is not enough to be given access to only 2 outfits which are little more than texture swaps, with no change in properties. It’s not likely we’d need more than a handful of outfit options for each character (perhaps no more than 3) – and certainly the mix-and-match approach is not necessary – but each outfit should use different architecture, appear different in more than just color scheme, and should endow unique bonuses in a similar fashion to our own armor suits (like the Terminus, Inferno, or Collector armors available to Shepard) to the party members who wear them. This allows us to outfit our party in ways that not only greatly affect their appearance, but provide meaningful enhancements to their abilities.
 
Beyond that, party member armors should be appropriate to the nature of combat. While it is certainly necessary and largely advantageous to demonstrate a character’s unique personality as reflected in their choice of attire, it’s absolutely ludicrous for any individual to enter into a combat situation wearing essentially no clothes. As such, party armors should remain effective for combat while sharing the character’s sense of style. It is not necessary for all characters to wear fundamentally similar combat hard-suits in the ME1 style, but surely a happy medium can exist between dress casual Fridays and hardened military grunt. It if is necessary for Shepard to wear a full closed environmental helmet when entering a combat zone, it’s likely that his support squad would need more than a hospital mask… and sleeves always help. A terrific solution is shown with the handling of Shepard’s armor. Aboard the Normandy, Shepard wears casual attire, and outside wears his combat gear. Party characters can be handled in roughly the same may, wearing their unique casual outfits on the ship, and being combat ready outside. 
 
Further, for Shepard, a clear problem exists in having a full environmental helmet as a selectable armor piece, as helmets are not toggleable items as they were in ME1 and thus interfere with much of the dialog in-game when there is no conceivable reason for Shepard to be wearing his helmet. While having a toggle option is one way to approach it, another is to simply not have the full helmet as a choice in armor customization, and thus the fully enclosed headgear only appears when the mission environment dictates it, and it can be made to disappear again when not required (again, a al ME1).
 
Summary
 
I think the above changes to the weapon and armor inventory system would more than satiate detractors of the Mass Effect 2 system who insist that the prior elaborate, but ultimately tedious and redundancy-ridden, system was better. Further, I think these small refinements provide a selection of equipment which offers variety and imbues each piece of equipment with more meaningful, and therefore valuable, qualities that make only a handful of choices seem like that much more. Those advantages are offered without deviating much from the systems already in place.

2) Concerning Customization, Research, and Upgrade System Modifications {UPGRD}
 
There has been much call in the community to return to a customizable weapon system as existed in ME1. While I would support some degree of weapon customization, I would not support a system with the same degree of inventory clutter we saw in that game. A reasonable solution has already been proposed numerous times in the forums in the way of a slotted mod system similar to that which existed in the Knights of the Old Republic games. My proposed weapons customization system takes a cue from this much-requested system.
 
Weapons Customization
 
Unlike with player armor pieces, which contain only passive buffs, a case can be made for allowing a degree of user customization for the active buffs present in weapons. While there is a danger of returning to a cluttered and overt customization mess that existed in ME1, it is possible to allow customization in such a way that allows for unique applications of modifications for weapons without the loot-intensive system ME1 preferred. My proposal revolves around several basic principles. 
 
The first is that weapons modifications are made in a slot-based system similar to that in KotOR, whereby the player can apply modifications to individual components of the weapon. The number of components that can be modified will be limited to no more than 3 or 4 per weapon, and will be entirely appropriate to the class the weapon belongs to. Each class of weapon will have select moddable components to include barrels, scopes, firing chambers, chassis, electronics, etc. It is possible, if the scope of model interaction allows it, that various mods can cause a visual change in the basic weapon model it is applied to – though simple color or texture swaps can convey the same differences. 
 
Each mod will boost one attribute of the weapon while also lowering another. There will ALWAYS be some sort of stat trade-off within the basic weapons attribute stats (damage, accuracy, capacity/cooling). This is necessary to ensure that each modded weapon remains balanced, that it will not be possible to create an “uber” version of a particular class of weapon, and to ensure that each permutation of weapon that could result from player modification feels unique and different. Certain “goofball” mods may also exist that imbue unique qualities to the weapon, such as a firing chamber mods that allow for burst fire, barrels that trade damage for increased impact force or penetration, scopes that provide thermal detection, or electronics packages that enhance target acquisition, auto aim, etc.
 
The second basic principle of the mod system is that mods are acquired in the form of schematics, rather than being physical items that the player finds as loot or purchases individually in stores. Much like research items the player finds or purchases out in the game world (or acquires through additional research on the ship), players will find or purchase schematics for various types of weapon mods also in the game world. These schematics will either unlock new mods the player can use, or improve existing mods the player has already found. Improved mods will have a greater benefit boost with a smaller corresponding trade-off, but the basic trade-off will still exist.
 
Mods will then be created on the ship using minerals found via the resource management system. Players will go to the Armory on the ship and access the armory customization and inventory systems. From there, the player will be able to examine the weapon selections of each squadmate, build and apply mods to weapons, examine mod inventories, and perhaps even create saveable weapon templates for easy access later. Individual mods will be created using select minerals the mod requires, and if the player no longer needs a mod he’s already created, he can choose to either apply the mod to a different weapon, or break it back down into basic minerals again (though a slightly reduced amount than what it took to produce it). There will be no inventory system to store unused mods. Further, if an upgraded schematic of a given mod is found, all existing versions of that mod already applied to a weapon will be automatically upgraded.
 
This system allows for a weapons customization system to exist that does not require the tedious and redundant loot and inventory systems of ME1, while also allowing for a more robust and expanded upgrade system than even that game had. The player need not worry about carrying around hundreds of obsolete mods for dozens of similar weapons, or spending hours of play time simply updating every squadmember’s inventories every time a slightly better version of a mod is found.
 
Research, Upgrade, and Modifications System Modifications
 
Certain tweaks to the manner in which players acquire research materials and upgrades need to be implemented to ensure a smooth upgrade path that does not include the possibility of missing out on upgrade items that appear only in mission maps that are then locked out once the player completes said mission. Adding a customizable weapon system and expanding the role of minerals to gameplay allows further modifications to the upgrade systems as well.
 
Much of the problem stems from the fact that situations in which you can acquire potential upgrades in ME2 are fixed within the game world. You will always be able to acquire a specific upgrade at a specific location, and if, for whatever reason, you’ve missed a particular upgrade location and you are no longer able to return to that area, that upgrade is gone forever (this applies to weapons as well). Beyond that, the player’s ability to develop his character is then entirely dependent on the order he chooses to progress through the game world, rather than being dependent on the level he’s at while he progresses through the game world. As such, I propose a modification to how upgrade items are acquired.
 
Essentially, I propose, rather than having fixed drops of specific, one-time upgrades, that instead the game system is far more flexible as to which upgrades are dropped at upgrade opportunity scenarios. In the background the game will monitor basic player progression factors, such as character level, game completion percentage, specific mission completion staging, which types of upgrades the player has already collected, etc. Then, the system will automatically create a list of which upgrades the player is qualified to have access to, based on the previously mentioned factors. For instance, if the player has already attained Assault Rifle Damage 3, and has reached a specific point in the game or his character’s progression, then this will unlock Assault Rifle Damage 4 as an available upgrade to add to the drop list.
 
Within the game world there will be certain points that are earmarked for upgrades to become available. These can be at stores, during/after specific cutscenes (talking to specific NPCs or Squadmates), or even after completing a certain milestone within a mission (such as defeating a mini-boss). At these points, one of the available upgrades will become available to the player – it will show up in designated shop inventories, appear in a conspicuous place within a mission, or will be on the corpse of the now-defeated boss. Which available upgrade that appears (except at stores) will be chosen at random from the list of available upgrades (all upgrades will become available to purchase at stores that specialize in those types of upgrades as soon as the player has reached the milestone for them to become available). 
 
If, for whatever reason, the player misses the opportunity to snag the upgrade when presented to him, such as moving on within a mission without picking the upgrade up first, that particular upgrade will then return to the availability list, to be recirculated at another point. This ensures that the player can NEVER miss an upgrade. If the player passes through a “drop point” but has no available upgrades to be dropped, he will instead receive a monetary amount (or a minerals package) that he can use at a store later to purchase the upgrade once it becomes available. All upgrades a player has already unlocked and acquired will become “locked out” and displayed as “purchased” or “already in inventory” in store menus once either purchased at the store or found elsewhere.
 
Other than being unable to miss available upgrades, there is another advantage to this system in that the upgrades the player receives are determined entirely by the progression of the player’s character. The player will only receive upgrades that are the next logical step from where the player is already at, and so player progression is no longer determined by the order in which he chooses to tackle missions. The player can exert slight influence over which upgrades he gains access to sooner by purchasing in stores upgrades or research items he finds useful, thus ensuring that he’s already met at least one of the requirements to unlock the next level of that upgrade (should it exist), and making it more likely to appear in the availability list sooner. 
 
This system would apply both to weapons mods schematics, as well as character upgrades such as weapon, biotic, tech, and armor, health, and shield upgrades that appear in the research lab. Also, the system of having to perform research in order to occasionally unlock the next tier of upgrades would also still apply, although this could be done more intelligently and be only applied to certain upgrades that imbue unique qualities to character progression.
 
Summary
 
Through the above discussed proposal, it would be possible to return to the oft-requested option of weapons modification without having to also revert to the cumbersome loot-based system that ME1 perpetuated. The system I’ve proposed allows for significant and distinct modifications to weapons that emphasizes true differentiation and customization, without the need for a cluttered inventory system. Further, I’ve proposed changes to the upgrade system that allows for more natural player progression – eliminating missable upgrades and expanding player upgrade options.
 
3) Concerning Weapon Heat System {WEAPS}

This topic is intended to put forth a proposal for gameplay refinements concerning the ammunition or heat management component to weapon combat in Mass Effect.  The minor changes I'm suggesting will improve the fluidity of weapon combat and give the player greater tactical options by introducing a hybridized ammo/heat management system that should satiate fans/detractors of the systems present in either Mass Effect game.

Heat Management vs. Ammunition

For Mass Effect 2 the "infinite" ammunition and slowly draining heat/overheat system of the first game has been replaced for what is, essentially, an ammo/magazine system by another name... in this case replacing thermal clips for ammunition clips.  While I must say that the new system offers certain advantages over the previous one, namely a greater ability to handle higher-intensity, sustained-fire battles (so long as clips are available), it also offers significant disadvantages over the previous system with regard to lower-intensity firefights - certain weapon types suffer here more than others.

What I propose for Mass Effect 3 is, at essence, a hybridization of the two systems.  Let me explain.

I propose that we return to a system largely similar to Mass Effect 1's ammunition management system, with certain key changes.  Like in the original system, each round of a weapon fired will produce heat, which will build up over successive shots.  The weapon will have certain heat dissipation qualities, so when the user stops firing, the heat will be slowly vented.  Fire too many shots, thus building up an excess of heat, and the weapon will go into overheat status.  This is all basically how ME1 handled it.  What I propose that is different, however, is that once a weapon goes into overheat status, it cannot dissipate heat automatically after a short period of time as in ME1, and will require that the "thermal clip" (though I prefer the term "heat sink") will have to be replaced in the same fashion that ME2 uses.

There is, of course, scientific reasoning for this change, and the Mass Effect lore masters have essentially set up the precedent already.  The amount of energy expended from firing a weapon in the ME universe would be such that if left to vent to atmosphere directly, it could certainly do damage to the user.  As such, I would say that each weapon has, as part of its operating system, a sort of heat sink or coolant system that will absorb the heat generated by firing the weapon and disperse it slowly into the atmosphere in a safe way.  I'd also say that if the heat sink is exposed to too much heat too quickly, it will become damaged and no longer function.  Perhaps if there is a coolant involved, super-heating the coolant could make it volatile and prone to explosion, thus requiring that the coolant be immediately vented overboard in what some forum posters here have dubbed a “blast vent” type system. The on-board heat management system of the weapon, in order to prevent unsafe use of the weapon would thus lock out any further use of the weapon in an overheat condition until the heat sink, coolant, or "thermal clip" is replaced.

This change would add a new dimension to the ammo/heat management aspect of combat.  A player may fire a few rounds and wait for the weapon to cool down before firing again, or fire at a suitably low rate of fire, which allows the weapon to remain cool and not require a thermal clip swap.  At this lower, controlled rate of fire, a player may be able to fire for long periods of time at low intensity. However, this would not be ideal for higher-intensity combat, as waiting for the weapon to cool can leave the player unable to deal with the greater level of threat.  Thus, the player could continue firing, and allow the weapon to overheat, and simply exchange the thermal clip for a new one.  Of course, thermal clips would be universal for all weapons that use them, but would be in relatively short supply as compared to the ME2 system, and thus it would not be possible to keep up sustained fire for long – risking burning through the small cache of available clips and rendering the weapon useless.  This creates a greater tactical component to weapons combat while ensuring balance.

A player could be slow and methodical with his shots, ensuring his weapon will not overheat but limiting the amount of rapid damage he can do, or a player could go all out, guns-a-blazing, but would not be able to keep this up for long, and he risks completely disabling the weapon in combat if he runs out of thermal clips. There will certainly be situations which will call for either approach or maybe some that will call for both.
 
While “thermal clips” will not be dropped randomly and in great amounts on the battlespace by enemies, as they are in ME2, they will not be so rare that players will not be able to resupply between big battles. Much in the same way that medical kits are placed strategically in levels to provide players with medi-gel to heal downed squadmates, coolant stations or crates can be placed throughout the game space as well for players to partially refill their used stock of coolant or clips. Players should remain cautious about using too many thermal clips in a fire-fight, as you’ll never be able to fully replenish your supply immediately if you run out, but a player should also not be punished mercilessly by being denied a way to get a weapon working again if he got a little trigger happy in a battle.

This modified system could also allow for an expanded upgrade system for weapons, taking into account the improvements made in ME2, but also incorporating certain upgrade balancing as in ME1.  For instance, weapons with a higher rate of fire do more damage more quickly, but also build heat more quickly.  Increasing the damage output of a weapon my also increase the heat produced.  It may be possible, then, to add research projects aimed at increasing the cooling efficiency of thermal clips to allow weapons to remain cooler or dissipate heat more quickly.  The expanded upgrade system is sure to please detractors of the current system.

Summary

I believe that this new hybrid system will please fans of both the new and old system while simultaneously refining weapon gameplay in a way that will greatly benefit the third installment in the series. This system combines the tense atmosphere created with dwindling ammo supplies in the face of overwhelming enemy force with far greater tactical options for weapon combat, and also adding a bit of relief for less intense but more strategic combat sections. This system offers significant advantages over both the ME1 and ME2 systems in combat variety and in balancing.


The topic continues below with proposal Section 4 Concerning Improvements to Power/Skill Customization and Usage {PWRSKLL}

Modifié par Scarecrow_ES, 11 juillet 2010 - 04:15 .

[VasQuipQuip]

And bright pink armor for Legion.

[Scarecrow_ES]

The topic is continued from the above post ending with proposal Section 3 Concerning Weapon Heat System {WEAPS}

4) Concerning Improvements to Power/Skill Customization and Usage {PWRSKLL}

This topic is intended to put forth proposed refinements and modifications to the Biotic, Tech, and class power systems in Mass Effect, to include not only enhancements to the skill tree system, but also modifications to power gameplay that greatly improve the systems put for in both Mass Effect 1 and 2. The practical results of these changes should allow the gameplay surrounding power usage to reflect the intentions apparent of the development team, and should offer a more refined usage system and more meaningful skill assignment choices.

The most significant and potentially controversial modifications to gameplay I might suggest concern the core mechanic of Biotic, Tech, and class power usage. My hope is that these proposed changes will introduce mechanics that not only improve the way powers are used in combat in a way that more accurately reflects the apparent intentions of the development staff, but also expands on the current power evolution system and offers more refined and meaningful skill progression choices.

Cooldowns
 
My first proposed change comes in the way power “cooldowns” work in combat. After each power is used, its usage is locked out for a specified period of time we call a cooldown period. The intention here is to prevent users from using their powers continually in combat. Mass Effect 1 chose to limit usage by giving each power its own individual cooldown cycle that locks out the specific power until it can be recharged. Mass Effect 2, instead, uses a “global” cooldown cycle where all powers are locked out until the used power recharges. The Mass Effect 1 system allows you to use several powers one after the other, which can allow you to combine powers, but this can result in being unable to use any powers until their cooldown cycles have finished. The Mass Effect 2 system grants shorter cooldown periods between power usage, but prevents you from “casting” multiple powers at once and thus combining their effects. These systems are not ideal, and a great deal of controversy surrounds these systems.
 
My proposal is simple. Rather than use traditional ME power cooldowns, whereby when a power is used the player is prevented from using that power (in ME1) or any power (ME2) until that power’s cooldown timer has run through, we instead have a tiered cooldown system that remains global in nature (meaning individual powers are not locked out after use, unlike the ME1 system). However, the tiered system is similar in concept to an energy bar which depletes by a fraction of the whole every time a power is used, but then regenerates over time whenever powers are not being used. This is fundamentally similar to the weapon heat system from Mass Effect 1. 
 
The user may use any power at any time and in any order, so long as there is still at least one tier of energy in the “meter.”  This could mean using the same power back to back against several enemies, or it could mean using several different powers to combine their effects. Weak powers will use a third of the available cooldown power (one tier), and thus weak powers could be used up to three times before the energy is drained completely (if the cooldown is at full power to begin with) and must be allowed to cooldown at least one tier before a weak power can be used again. A player may choose to use a refilled tier immediately to unleash a single weak power, or wait to cool down the higher tiers and unleash a series of powers. There will only be enough power in the meter to unleash 2-3 normal-strength (weak) powers, but a high-strength (strong) power, such as the charged evolved powers described below, will require a fully cooled-down system, and thus all available power tiers, to use.
 
The practical result is a system which allows for continual power usage in combat, while also allowing users to combine power effects, but still limits repeated power usage (spamming) for the sake of balance. This system achieves the results the development staff has stated were its intentions regarding power usage, and offer greater fluidity in the combat experience. The system allows for a greater number of options for power usage than exists under the ME2 system, and far greater combat continuity than the ME1 system.
 
This system makes more technical sense than the current ME2 system as well. Currently, your cooldown time (and thus the amount of time required to wait until another power can be used) is based on the strength of the power you’ve just used, rather than the power you intend to use. If you’ve just used a power that requires a 12 second cooldown, you must wait 12 seconds to use your next power, even if you wish to use a weaker power with only a 4 second cooldown. Realistically you should only have to wait 4 seconds to reacquire enough energy to use this weaker power, but you must wait the full 12 instead. This is a bit backwards.


Under my system, a player may choose to unleash 2-3 weak attacks in a row, against a single enemy or a group, at which point he will be out of energy and will have to wait until at least one tier cools down. The player can choose when he’d like to use his powers – the cooldown will run whenever powers are not being used. Each tier individually could take roughly 5 or more seconds to recharge, which would mean 15 seconds to go from empty to full. If the player chooses to use his next power as soon as his first tier has cooled down, he will find the system is no different than the ME2 system, where he uses a power, waits to recharge it, and then uses it again. If doing so, however, the player will miss much of the potential depth of the system - especially for biotic or tech-centric character classes. The tiered system also ensures that strong powers cannot be spammed (as the wait between strong power usage is 2-3 times the wait for weak power usage to become available), but also ensures that another weak power can be used very soon after a strong power has been used, to keep combat fluid. Beyond that, for the sake of balancing an intermediate strength power using two tiers is possible in cases where a longer cooldown period between potential uses of a particular power is necessary for balancing issues.
 
Further, I would suggest that this system is more in keeping with the nature of powers in the Mass Effect universe as compared to either system previously implemented. It would make sense for a Biotic Adept to be able to effectively tire himself out using a lot of powers all at once, while he might be able to sustain himself longer using powers only occasionally. It also makes a great deal of sense for Tech powers as well. It is possible, if desired, to add some sort of “overheat” effect, whereby if a player uses too many powers in too short a time span, he may find some negative result – lowered movement speed for a short period of time or a temporary damage to health or shields. Though this is not necessary, it could add another dimension to managing power use. Also, obviously, as a part of a character’s skill progression it should be possible to lower the tier cooldown time through application of skill points. For instance, a single tier might start out at 8 seconds, and lower to, say, 4 for a fully upgraded character. In this regard, a powerful character will be able to use better powers more often than a weaker character.
 
I am not sure that this system would work as well for party member power use as it does for Shepard, so perhaps for squadmates the “global” cooldown system already in place for Mass Effect 2 would remain the better alternative here.
 
In terms of the visual representation of the tiered cooldown system, I’m sure something similar in concept to the ME2 cooldown indicator (the semi-circles flanking the reticule that move together as the cooldown ends) can be adjusted to demonstrate the reactivation of different tiers and then a full recharge. A sort of “mana” meter does not necessarily need to be displayed on-screen to fill this function.
 
Skill Selection
 
Another area of controversy surrounds the decision to streamline the skills system in Mass Effect 2. Some view the restructuring as removing choice or customization from the character building process. While I do not necessarily agree that the streamlined structure of the Mass Effect skill system is a bad thing – in fact I consider the new system a significant improvement that removes redundant or unnecessary skill trees in favor of ones that are more meaningful to individual classes – I can see that while classes are now more differentiated from each other, creating more unique gameplay experiences depending on your class choice, there is actually little actual choice in skill progression once a class is chosen due to the limited availability of powers. This is further hampered by the fact that upgrading individual powers results in little more than incremental increases in damage or area of effect.
 
In this regard, a system was put in place allowing the player to “evolve” a power by investing a large number of points into it. By evolving it, the player is able to select one of two different variations of the power. Most often this is posed as a trade-off between one attribute and other – for instance damage versus area of effect, or weapon damage versus power cooldown reduction. While I applaud the creativity of this new system, and welcome to perceived new level of customization it is intended to offer, the practical result is underwhelming. The new evolved powers are still only incrementally better than the lower-level versions, and each evolution choice is, again, only slightly different than the other. There are few powers whose evolution offers a dramatic enough change to be truly noticeable in combat, which means power evolution is a missed opportunity.
 
As I like the system largely as it is in Mass Effect 2, with few streamlined options, I propose keeping this system as a base to work from. Each class, then, retains its unique defining skills, and remains a unique gameplay experience. However, rather than remove all other choice from character development, I propose allowing some initial choice for the powers the user will have available to his class. For instance, all classes will retain their class-specific powers (an Infiltrator will retain Tactical Cloak), as well the class ability tree and ammunition ability trees (though I may recommend moving these to weapons customization rather than class skill as it makes far more sense – see below). 
 
Where my proposal differs, however, is in allowing the remaining abilities to be chosen by the player from a list of class-available powers. These remaining powers usually fall into either tech, biotic, or soldier powers, from which categories there are always a large number of available powers to choose from. Using the Infiltrator again, since this class is a combination of Tech and Soldier abilities, the player may be able to choose from abilities such as Overload as replacement for the default AI Hacking and Incineration Blast tech powers that this class is defaulted with. Tech powers can only be exchanged for other tech powers, and biotic for biotics, and skill trees that tend to be class specific (i.e. Tactical Cloak for Infiltrators) cannot be selected by another class even if the other class has access to the category of power the class-specific power adheres to – in order to retain class integrity. Also, the player will be able to pick up an additional bonus skill later in the game when certain conditions are met, as have been the case in both Mass Effect games.
 
One further suggestion I may make is to remove ammo powers from the skill tree, and place them instead under the research/upgrade system, and have these options be selected from the weapons wheel screen, rather than the powers wheel screen. While I do recognize that certain ammo powers should only be available for use by certain classes or to certain disciplines (biotic/tech users), it makes no sense that the type of ammo a character can use and the strength of that ammo must by tied to that character’s skills. If anything, ammo is, itself, an upgradeable tech item, and so should appear either in the standard upgrade system – or, if my earlier weapon mod proposal is used, within the weapons modification system as an upgradeable schematic.
 
Having to select the ammo type or the option to use Unity from the power wheel can potentially cause problems in combat. Choosing the type of ammo to use with specific weapons is cumbersome, as it requires shouldering the weapon to be ammo-modded, and then selecting the ammo power from a completely separate menu. Being able to apply an ammo type directly to a weapon from within the weapon wheel by a simple button press is preferable. Further, having to wait until your recently-used power cools down in order to change ammo types, or use Unity to revive squadmates, in the thick of battle can lead to significant difficulties in combat on higher difficulties and in more intense situations. Another method of activating Unity should be found.
 
The initial choice of class skills allows the player to customize his class with variety present in Mass Effect, while maintaining the more streamlined approach as in Mass Effect 2. The result continues the unique gameplay of each class while giving the player a small amount of freedom to choose powers he will use, rather than forcing him to invest in powers he will not simply because no other options are presented. I would also suggest further differentiating each class from each other by having those classes more closely mirror their basic RPG archetypes in a way that encourages players to play each class in a distinct manner in keeping with the strengths, weaknesses, and unique skills of the chosen class. Each class could be given various stat buffs (or debuffs), or various “perks” if you will, that lend themselves to the specific style of play the class is built around. In this way, perhaps players would be more inclined to play their Infiltrator like a stealth character, their Soldier like a tank, their Biotic like a mage, etc etc – expanding on the unique experience of playing through the game in each class.
 
Skill Point Assignment

Another issue with the current ME2 system that will need to be reworked is the tiered skill tree system, as brought up to me by SinHound on these forums.  The current system requires a progressively larger number of points to be invested to reach each higher tier of upgrade for each skill.  Because of this tiered system, it is entirely possible to end up with skill points which cannot be used to upgrade skills, as the total number of points available may not be enough to unlock the next highest tier in a skill.  In the end, this leaves a level 30 character as powerful as a level 28 character with two points that can never be invested into a skill.  There are a number of ways to fix this issue, and most involve returning to a single-point skill investment system, much like that in ME1.
 
I would greatly expand on this system, however, by actually separating each individual attribute of a power and allowing the user to apply skill points to those attributes independently, allowing for a far greater degree of non-linear power customization than has ever been possible in Mass Effect. Rather than incrementally upgrading a power from say 4 points assigned to 5 points assigned, and thus increasing all associated attributes like damage, duration, area of effect, and such all by an equal degree, I propose that attributes like those described above be given independent categories that can be upgraded by the user at will. 
 
Each skill tree will be divided into a set of unique attributes which make sense for the associated power. For instance, Incinerate might have area of effect, duration, and force. Each individual attribute of a given power will have, say, up to 4 or 5 tiers (each costing a single skill point to upgrade). Players can assign skill points to each attribute as they see fit. If the player wishes to focus on one attribute that is most important to him, such as greatly increasing the duration of the burn of his Incinerate power, over other attributes he finds unimportant, like area of effect, he can choose to do so. This allows the player to truly customize how each of his powers behaves. Two players could have the exact same character classes, but have powers that behave in very different ways.
 
As a player assigns skill points to the attributes of a skill tree, the skill will also increase universally and automatically in power with other unassignable attributes. For instance, if a player assigns 5 skill points to Incinerate, regardless of where he assigns them, the skill will have increased 5 times in power, and so might see 5 incremental increases in damage (or other skill-specific attributes). This ensures that no matter what attributes that player focuses on, the skill still grows overall as well. 
 
It is also desirable, here, to reintroduce passive gameplay buffs to skill trees. In ME1, if a player chose to invest in the Electronics skill, he could crack increasingly more difficult locks. Working some form of passive buffs of those sorts (especially for the class-specific skill trees) back into skill trees would add a greater level of customization than exists currently, without requiring the level of intricacy and clutter that ME1’s skill system had.
 
In order to ensure that a player does not simply invest a large number of points into a single skill, thus making said skill uber powerful at the expense of other skills, there will be a practical cut-off for skill point assignment. After assigning, say, 10 total skill points that attributes in a particular skill tree, that skill will become evolved, basically in the same way as the ME2 skill system. At this point, no more skill points can be invested in the skill tree. There will always be more total possible attribute slots available than the number of points that can be invested into a skill, thus ensuring that no power can ever be maxxed out. This helps to keep each player’s skill choices roughly unique, and allows for each character build to truly play differently. Players, then, must carefully choose how to invest skill points in a way that best reflects the style of play they wish to use, and adds back some of the real thought into character customization that is claimed to be lacking under ME2’s system.
 
Power Evolution
 
Further, I propose a modification to the evolution system that results in more than a choice between two simple, incremental improvements, and instead will truly change the nature of the power in a very obvious way. In my ideal system, a player will highly desire to evolve a power because it will result in a dramatic change, and of course improvement, in the power. The ability added for Mass Effect 2 to map powers to the LB, Y, and RB buttons presents an opportunity for power usage not present when using the power-wheel system alone. Therefore, I propose introducing “charge” powers. Let me explain…
 
Once a player devotes enough points to any active power, he unlocks the ability to evolve that power. This power will then be available in both a standard form and the charged evolved form. The standard form will behave just as the power had before being evolved. For instance, Biotic Throw may streak forward and hit the aimed target; knocking him away from the direction he was hit. However, when Throw has been evolved, the button it is assigned to can then be held, causing greater energy to flow into the power. When the power is fully charged, the button is released, and the player unleashes a much more powerful version of that power. In the case of Throw, perhaps not only will the power knock the target enemy back, but will explode on any contact and push anything back within a given area of effect at significantly higher power than in the standard version. Using the evolved power will also result in a complete drain of the power meter (charged powers require 3 full tiers), instead of the partial drain of the standard, which limits the use of the evolved powers further, and creates a wider variety in the tactical use of powers.
 
The manner in which an evolved power changes from its standard version will depend highly on the power. “Missile” attack powers like Throw, Cryo Blast, Incinerate, and so on can simply see significant gains in both power and area of effect (perhaps impact force as well) in their charged versions to make them truly devastating against all enemies – basically just bigger and badder versions of the standard, though the possibilities for creative differentiation are certainly there. Support powers may be different, and offer greater opportunity for creativity. For instance: 
 
AI Hack - The standard version of AI Hack may allow you to hack low-level synthetic enemies to attack other enemies for a short period of time. The charged evolved form may actually allow you to temporarily hack higher-level synthetic enemies that are otherwise unhackable (YMIR mechs for instance) or to cause low-level synthetics to self-destruct in a sort of Kamikaze attack against any nearby enemy once the power has worn off.
Tactical Cloak - The standard version of the Infiltrator’s Tactical Cloak may allow him to go invisible for a brief period of time and give him a bonus to his first-strike damage while cloaked. The charged version may significantly increase the duration of the cloak, maintain the high first-strike damage bonus, but also give him the ability to unleash a devastating close range attack that results in an instant stealth kill for any low-level enemy, regardless of protection.  
Warp - A charged form of Warp may be powerful enough to eat through any enemy protection or instantly disintegrate an unprotected enemy. 
Barrier – The standard version of barrier will remain the same, covering the user in an addition biotic shield of sorts. The charged Barrier will instead create a sort of shield “bubble” protecting anyone inside if from harm, including any squadmates who happen to be near you. (Think a smaller version of the bubble used near the end of the game) 
Drone – The standard Engineer Drone could be upgraded to explode on destruction, have higher shield rating, and even attack a single nearby enemy with a sort of lightning energy attack that does damage over time. An evolved Drone could gain the ability to attack multiple enemies at once within a short radius of the drone. The drone would only be capable of doing the same amount of damage per second regardless of the number of enemies attacked, so one enemy would receive 100% of the damage, while 4 enemies would receive 25% each, for example. This drone could be quite useful against a crowd of closely grouped enemies.
Charge - Rather than simply charging a single enemy with a single quick strike, the player will unleash a flurry of attacks Nightcrawler-style, zipping back and forth between nearby enemies if there is a group, or hitting a single enemy several times from different directions if he is alone. The result could be devastating to a single enemy, or could effectively crowd control and disorient a small group of enemies (though not causing much damage each).
 
These are just examples, of course, of how the charge system might be used to provide truly evolutionary powers that become highly desirable to upgrade to, as they would offer gameplay opportunities not present in the standard version of the powers. Passive class kill trees remain largely the same as they are in Mass Effect 2.
 
Evolved powers that require charging will have high rewards for use, but also come with high risks, which is what allows them to remain balanced. While the player will not be forced to remain static while charging, he will not be able to move into or out of cover, storm, roll, shoot, or perform any other context-sensitive action. The player might potentially expose himself to enemy fire for a longer period of time if he has chosen to charge a power from an unsecured position, and the power will completely drain his energy meter, preventing him from using another power until at least one tier has regenerated to do so.  This means the difference between using several low-power attacks or one very powerful one. The ability to have a significantly more powerful version of a standard power gives the player abilities he’s thus far only seen other characters use in cutscenes.
 
An evolved power will always be significantly more powerful than even a fully upgraded standard power. They present an opportunity to add a unique and powerful spin to the standard power that causes a player to desire to invest fully into certain powers beyond the benefit of simply making that standard power slightly better. The player will want to have certain evolved powers unlocked for his use, which adds yet another layer of decision making to character progression.
 
Revamping the Controller for Charging Powers
 
Because the charged power system requires that mapped power buttons have both a press and hold function, the controller configuration needs to be remapped. This provides an opportunity to refine control settings to optimize for both the proposed power system, but also to refine combat control as a whole. Below is how I would remap the controller:

Left Stick (Click): Move (Storm)
Right Stick (Click): Camera (Cover*)
D-Pad: Squad Commands
Left Trigger: Aim Down Sights, Zoom*
Right Trigger: Fire Weapon
Left Shoulder Button (Hold): Reload Thermal Clip (Bring up Weapon Wheel)
Right Shoulder Button (Hold): Combined Squad Power Attack^ (Bring Up Powers Wheel)
Y Button (Hold): Use class Specific Power (Charge class Specific Power)
X Button (Hold): Use Assignable Power 1 (Charge Assignable Power 1)
B Button (Hold): Use Assignable Power 2 (Charge Assignable Power 2)
A Button (Hold): Context Sensitive Action/Melee (Context Sensitive Hold/Charge Action)

*The button actions for Aim Down the Sights/Zoom and Cover can be swapped by the player, and can also be set to either Hold or Toggle modes.
^Combined Squad Power Attack – The unused RB press presents an opportunity to create a new power action that takes advantage of the combined powers of your squad. Currently, the player may open the wheel and select that his squad members perform 2 powers simultaneously. Otherwise, the user will have to open the wheel, select a squad power, close the wheel, wait for the power to be cast, reopen the wheel, select a second power, and then close the wheel again to have the second squad member cast the power for that power to be performed after the first. With the Squad Combined Attack, this is now accomplished with one button press.
 
When the Power Wheel is opened, each Squad Member can have a power assigned to the Combined Squad Power Attack. The order in which the power is assigned (select the power and press the Y Button) determines the order in which the power will be used, and the power will be designated in the Wheel with a small 1 or 2 to show this. When the Right Shoulder Button is pressed, the squad member assigned the first power will perform his attack, followed by the second party member’s assigned attack when the first has taken effect. This would allow the player, for instance, to have the first squadmate lift an enemy into the air with Biotics, while the second uses Throw to send them flying away. As another example, the player could have the first squadmate cast Cryo Blast to freeze an enemy, while the second casts an attack to instantly smash him to bits. The possibilities for creative power combination are great, and allow the player to access an easy way to unleash a predetermined coordinated attack not present in current Mass Effect gameplay.
 
It is also possible to have the evolved power selectable in some way from the power wheel so that it does not have to be charged by having a button held down by the player. This would aid players in the Adept or Engineer classes which may have more powers than can be assigned to buttons, and also will assist PC users who may not have a system configuration that allows for a press-and-hold scenario.
 
It should be noted, however, that even though selecting the charging power from the power wheel will not require the player to press and hold a button or key to perform the charge, the player character will still have to go through the process of charging and releasing the power.
 
Another suggestion made in the thread I’d like to incorporate here is the addition of a lock-on system for power usage that ensures that when a player uses a power, it is directed to the enemy he intended. This requires power usage to be modded from a button press system to a press-and-release system, whereby the releasing the power button (a hot-button in real time or A in the power wheel) will actually release the power. In function, the player will move his reticule over the enemy he’d like to target, and then would press the button for the power he’d like to use (or A in the wheel). This would cause the enemy to become visually bracketed to show that this is the targeted enemy. The player could then move the reticule away from the enemy, and release the button to activate the desired power, which would only seek the designated enemy.
 
This allows the player to “bend” powers with greater accuracy, and to attack more reliably from cover. It also ensures the player does not have to rely on the game code to home in on an enemy, and will eliminate occasions where a power will go astray simply because the code cannot cope with the intentions of the player. This system would already be compatible with the charged evolved power system I’ve previously proposed.
 
Summary
 
I believe that the modifications and refinements I’ve just proposed regarding the powers system in Mass Effect represent a significant improvement on past systems. Skill progression retains the simplicity and meaningfulness of that in Mass Effect 2, with the greater amount of choice and customization in Mass Effect 1, while expanding upon the evolved power concept in a way that makes power evolution more than an incremental improvement – thus spending enough points to evolve a power becomes highly desirable, and presents a significant and difficult customization decision with great payoff for the player. Power usage in combat is made more fluid and is given far more tactical options than have ever been seen in either Mass Effect game - with the introduction of a tiered cooldown system for powers, as well as devastating new charged evolved powers and combined squad power attacks.
 
5) Concerning Planet Scanning and Resource Management {SCNSMGMT}
 
This topic is intended to discuss potential improvements to the planet scanning and resource management system that exists in Mass Effect 2. Reading some of the comments made since the launch of ME2 about the planet scanning and resource gathering system has made me do some thinking. I have been very reluctant to enter into the debate about the merits of this system because, as I've mentioned, it has not been my goal to deal with systems that already work; and while the planet scanning and resource gathering system can be extremely tedious (read: not fun), it is a system that functions well and does exactly what is intended. Having said that, I've been pouring over this system in recent days, and I've had a bit of a change of heart about entering into the debate.

While yes, the system does work mechanically speaking, it's not very engaging and at worst is no fun at all. It takes the player out of the game and essentially makes him do tedious and repetitive work. Given how necessary it is to involve yourself in this system in order to progress in the game, I am not sure I can leave it unaddressed, so below I outline a series of changes to make planet scanning and resource management more engaging for the player, and might I say far more entertaining. In reality this particular proposal is largely a stopgap. It doesn’t in any way eliminate the need to survey planets or gather resources, and doesn’t significantly change much of the core gameplay. Ultimately, it just breaks up the lengthy amount of time spent securing resources into more palatable gameplay tidbits which should be more entertaining and engaging for the player overall – it should end up being a system that players are far more willing to spend time in, and in turn will be far more worth their investment.
 
Scanning Unsurveyed Planets
 
My version of planet scanning would actually be broken down into a series of steps, each of which presents basically a separate mini-game. I would increase the number of types of resources, say to 6 varieties, but I would limit the number of mineral types per planet to 3. In addition to the current Element Zero, Iridium, Platinum, and Palladium, we can also add Gold (an excellent energy conductor and heat shielding material), or other useful mineral types (such as silicon, carbon, etc) to round out the 6. The richness of a planet's mineral resources will be related to the number of large deposits on the surface - rated at 5 deposits for rich to 1 deposit for poor, and depleted will have 0.

When you first approach an unsurveyed planet, you will get the planetary information and basic richness level. Surveyed planets will also list any previously found mineral claims and other associated information. When you first bring up the scanner interface, it will present a system which controls largely like the current ME2 scanning system, but you will have a larger or faster moving cursor. Moving your cursor over a planet will reveal a sort of topographical map that shows the relative concentrations of mineral deposits on the surface. The revealed portions of the map will then be permanently overlayed on the planet surface so you can see what you've already scanned. The map will change color as you approach areas of high concentration... red peaks will represent very high concentrations of minerals.
 
The scanner will NOT tell you what kind of minerals are at a given deposit. There will be a separate mini-game for that. We can justify the lack of specific mineral identification in scanning by saying in codex that using the faster orbital scanning technique allows for an easier identification of mineral concentrations at the cost of specific mineral identification (if you need a scientific reason as to why we can't figure out what mineral we have from orbit).
 
Analyzing Your Located Mineral Deposits

Once you have found a mineral deposit, you send down a probe, as in the ME2 system. Unlike in the ME2 system, however, probes do not secure the minerals at a given location for you. They simply probe the area you ask, and send back 3 mineral samples you use for the next mini-game. In order to determine just what type of mineral you have at a given deposit, you enter into a sort of chemistry mini-game using the 3 samples your probe sends back. You find out which of the 6 types of minerals you have by mixing your samples with a series of chemical agents in a specific order.
 
There will be 3 different chemical agents available to mix with your samples, and you will choose 2 of them, mixing first one, then the other. Which agents you choose, and the order you use them, determines what mineral you are testing for. There will be 6 combinations of the 3 agents – AB, AC, BA, BC, CA, and CB - for the 6 available mineral types to be located, and upon applying the second of the 2 chosen chemicals you will be given a yes or no result (yes meaning that you have indeed found the mineral you were testing for). Running tests on a sample destroys the sample, so you can only run 3 tests per probe.

Each planet will only have 3 of the 6 mineral types on it, and the types of minerals it has will be determined by what type of planet it is (just like in the ME2 system). For instance, planets listed as Garden or Post-Garden worlds will be high in concentrations of Element Zero. Knowing what type of planet you're scanning and what types of minerals those planets tend to have will help you figure out which chemical tests you need to run. If you fail to determine what type of deposit you have found with the 3 given samples, you can send another probe to collect 3 more. You can also pay a fee of credits to have the tests run for you, which costs money but guarantees success. Ultimately the chemistry mini-game is a simply logic game in which players who pay attention to the information they’re given (and ones who’ve had plenty of practice) will breeze right through.
 
Managing Surveyed Mineral Deposits

Once you have finally identified what kind of mineral deposit you have found, that deposit will be marked on the surface by a claim flag. You now own the rights to those resources. From this point, you can choose to send a mining team to the deposit to mine the resources, or if you wish, you can simply sell the rights to that deposit for credits to the "mining guild" via an interface in your personal terminal (which also keeps track of located deposits, mining teams, available resources, etc). You could also sell resources you have already mined for credits, trade them for other resources, or buy needed resources using credits using the same system. There could even be a real economic component to mineral sales, as flooding the market with a given type of mineral will both lower its value as well as raise the cost of other more rare types of minerals.

In order to harvest any mineral deposits you have found, you will have to send a mining team to the deposit. You will only have a limited number of mining teams, and you can reassign them at any time. This means you can only gain resources for as many deposits as you have mining teams. Mining teams will funnel minerals into your mineral bank slowly over time, until they have depleted the deposit they are assigned to, or until you pull them off. This infuses a bit of strategy into the resource management system.
 
Summary

Given the greater number of steps with their associated mini-games, I think utilizing the planet scanning and resource management systems as I've just proposed will be a lot more fun, and would result in the type of system you could lose yourself in for hours without it becoming tedious. Adding a greater amount of strategy to the process of acquiring resources, and giving greater reward for expertly using the system should add a greater level of satisfaction for the player. Further, adding additional uses for minerals harvested, such as for currency or additional manufacturing options, adds greater weight to the usefulness of the system to the overall gameplay experience.

Final Summary
 
If you found yourself able to get through all or even some of the above subjects, I applaud your resolve, and hope that you have found the reading worthwhile.  These changes should result in a system which is more appealing to all players, and one that is closer in practice to the spirit of combat the developers have chosen.  My hope is to see changes like these instituted for Mass Effect 3 so that the next title in the Mass Effect series can be unquestionably the best from a gameplay perspective, and present an unforgettable swan-song for the franchise.

I would like to personally thank every forum member who has ever taken the time to read through the posts in this topic and/or to create a reply here of their own. I would also like to thank the BioWare Social Network moderation staff for their continued support of this thread (But can I have my sticky back?!). It is because of the overwhelming support from the gaming community that this thread has persisted through over 5 months and 30+ pages of discussion. I can only hope that, with Update 2 now online, that the community will find this topic interesting enough for another 30 pages. Thanks again!!!
 
Please feel free to enter discussion on the topics presented. I look forward to discussing ideas, and welcome any further improvements the community can come up with. 

Modifié par Scarecrow_ES, 11 juillet 2010 - 04:27 .

[Barker673]

Good luck getting ANYONE from BioWare onto the social site, I havn't seen anyone but Christine Norman here to talk about scanning improvements from like a week ago - where are they?

[Scarecrow_ES]

Well, as an article I read in Game Informer not too long ago puts quite eloquently, how is a developer supposed to be able to find the best way to improve their products if the player community only offers complaints, and only does so in a way that is not the least bit constructive. If you were a developer trying to find out what real problems existed in your product and the best way to satisfy your customers, would you want to spend all day in a forum weeding through "I want to screw Tali" and "BioWare/EA sucks because" topics just to find a real gem of truth and a bit of solution? Hell, I can't blame some developers for trying to ignore their forum communities.



However, what I've tried to do here is to not whine and cry about things that work but are not to my liking. Notice I've not created a "I hate scanning" thread. What I was hoping for was to create topics and invite discussion that a developer might actually want to read, in the hopes that someone might catch an eyeful of and pass along. I think I've done that.



I truly hope that people will take time to read these admittadly LONG proposals to see that there are some truly good ideas there that will appeal to every fan of Mass Effect.

[Scarecrow_ES]

Just a bump to move this up after a couple days in limbo.

[Scarecrow_ES]

Gotta bump at least the main one here... I should have put "Tali" in the subject line, so everyone would flood in.

[BusterPoindexter]

I think a bonus for the adapt should have been no global cooling. Global cooling makes sense for the techies and soliders using the same omni-tool. I can also understand it for vanguards and other biotic power users becuase they aren't masters. Adepts should be similar to soliders in that they shouldn't even need weapons (like the soliders doesn't need anything but weapons). No, i'm not suggesting that adepts should be as effective in terms of raw killing.

[BusterPoindexter]

I love the heat sinks. (before the revenant) i was switching around to different weapons because of the lack of ammo, unlike the first game where i would use the assault rifle for the first half of the game, then switch to shotgun in the second half only to use the sniper in certain situations.



Also, i don't think we could have heavy weapons without ammo.

[BusterPoindexter]

With regards to mineral collecting, planet scanning is fine (don't take me out of context).  It gives the many, many planets in mass effect a purpose, even if it isn't the most spectacular purpose.  Lets face it, mineral collecting will never be super fun, but it must be essential.  I love the new upgrade system, it makes me feel like i really am the captain of a ship like normandy.  There just needs to be multiple ways in which you can generate mass amounts of resources.  here are a couple (just random ideas):

Pirating.  I can understand if bioware feels that personal pirating is a little tacky and below shepards position in MA3, but there are still pirates in it seems like half the systems.  a bunch of mini quests, or a massive quest can either see the eradication of these pirate bands, or their willingness to give shepard a cut of the profits.  Even if shepard destoys the pirates, maybe the colonists or corporations owning the freighters will give shep supplies.  It could be a massive syndicate with a huge questline, or it could be a cool little battle/negotiation in every other system.  Either way, to make sure it's substantial it should be weighted to your other mineral collecting.  Like the game can sense how much you collected elsewhere in between quests and give you a certain set % of that based on how much work you have done with the pirates/corporations/colonists/mining operatins.  It can be done in many different ways

I have other ideas but i don't feel like writing them right now because i just wrote all that and no one will respond to it most likely.

[jmark22]

Nice job Scarecrow. It's a shame good topics like this get pushed off the front page so quickly. You should repost this in the new 'Characters, classes, and builds' forum. At least, that's where Chris Priestly said suggestions for improving biotics should go.

Edit: Alternatively, maybe you could email your suggestions directly to Bioware.

Modifié par jmark22, 06 février 2010 - 03:21 .

[jmark22]

BusterPoindexter wrote...

With regards to mineral collecting, planet scanning is fine (don't take me out of context).  It gives the many, many planets in mass effect a purpose, even if it isn't the most spectacular purpose.  Lets face it, mineral collecting will never be super fun, but it must be essential.  I love the new upgrade system, it makes me feel like i really am the captain of a ship like normandy.  There just needs to be multiple ways in which you can generate mass amounts of resources.  here are a couple (just random ideas):

Pirating.  I can understand if bioware feels that personal pirating is a little tacky and below shepards position in MA3, but there are still pirates in it seems like half the systems.  a bunch of mini quests, or a massive quest can either see the eradication of these pirate bands, or their willingness to give shepard a cut of the profits.  Even if shepard destoys the pirates, maybe the colonists or corporations owning the freighters will give shep supplies.  It could be a massive syndicate with a huge questline, or it could be a cool little battle/negotiation in every other system.  Either way, to make sure it's substantial it should be weighted to your other mineral collecting.  Like the game can sense how much you collected elsewhere in between quests and give you a certain set % of that based on how much work you have done with the pirates/corporations/colonists/mining operatins.  It can be done in many different ways

I have other ideas but i don't feel like writing them right now because i just wrote all that and no one will respond to it most likely.

I like where you are going with this.  Maybe some N7 missions where you hit mercenary mining operations could give you a bunch of minerals.  That would make the N7 missions significantly more worthwhile for me.

[samuraix87]

you do know that if bioware actually did any of what you sugest it would mean another complete overhaul of combat and weapons and from what im hearing bioware is keeping everything from me2 to put in me3 which by the sounds of rumors might be out by late 2011 or early 2012 so your ideas are just ideas and the current system for everything in me2 is fine change is good from what i hear

[Scarecrow_ES]

Samurai... many of the systems that we see in ME2 weren't even this way until late in the dev cycle... the thermal clip system we see today is a late entry. So noone should ever go so far as to say that things cannot change even in the course of development. If a new system comes along that is better than the old system, then why not impliment it. As far as my systems requiring complete overhauls of the current systems, I wouldn't say that.



My weapon heat management system is a hybridization of the systems from ME1 and 2. You basically start with the heat code from ME1, then add the reloading aspect of 2 for dealing with overheats. It's simple from a coding perspective, cuz nearly every line of code to implement it already exists at BioWare. My inventory changes are very minor in terms of implementation... in fact, these are so simple that they'd require absolutely no increased effort whatsever over what's already required for implementation for ME2. My power cooldown system is more or less the weapon cooldown system from ME1, so again, ridiculously easy to implement. The only system I've suggested which does not already have an existing code base is the revamped evolved power system. But honestly, this wouldn't be difficult at all from a coding perspective, and would be somewhat easy to implement.



Mark... Thanks for your support. It is a shame that good topics can't stay on the main page long enough to make an impact. I hope that if enough people read these topics, and we can get enough people to approve of the changes, that we'll see an improved gameplay formula for ME3.

[Looy]

I posted in all them freds, doubt it'll help.

[BuddyX]

 I'm sorry. I was a huge fan of the first Mass Effect. However, not so much with the second. Many of the changes made to make this game feel more like a FPS, have detrimentally affected the RPG elements of the game. Some might have felt there was too much micromanaging of inventory and such, or too many skill to choose from, but isn't that part of a RPG? Customization? I wished Bioware would pay more attention to the forums, then I might have recourse to express my dissatisfaction. I appreciate your efforts in suggesting change to the ammo system, but I don't think it goes far enough. For instance, has anyone noticed that Shepherd is the only one who wears custom armor. A number of the other characters don't wear any armor, much less custom armor, or helmets. This change limits the number of unique locales you can visit. Skills have been stripped down to a measly 4 each, and there are no clearly defined character classes any longer. Instead of a clearly defined ruleset and then creating characters in it, ala a RPG, it's like they just shoehorned these new characters into a game they weren't designed for. Don't get me wrong. I like the story and character development that they kept, but the rest of the game feels too much like an action shooter to give it a passing grade. It is too much like playing Modern Warfare 2. Please Bioware... bring back the RPG. I think you skewed too far in trying to embrace the more casual action gamer. In these respects, Dragon Age was a far superior RPG to Mass Effect 2.

[Scarecrow_ES]

Great great apologies to my followers...



It had been suggested (in a not so suggesting way) by the moderation staff here that I combine the individual proposal threads into this single compendium, rather than linking from here. As a result, as you can see, there is a LOT of text up there to read, but now all of the proposals are compliled into this single topic.



It's a lot harder to read, yes, and I'm sorry for that.



However, I've been promised greater visibility for the thread, so I hope you can forgive the new format.

[Nautica773]

You weren't kidding this was going to be long.



I agree that fewer weapons but more variety is the best route to go. ME2 could benefit from a handful of more guns, but I was just disappointed that even with only 3-4 guns in any given category, there's still an obvious upgrade option that trumps the rest.



If all guns were as varied as the Heavy Weapons, I'd think that BioWare really nailed the armoury portion of the game.

[Scarecrow_ES]

That was exactly my thought, Nautica. While many people complain that the ME1 loot system was better, in reality there was only a very marginal difference between each brand of weapon in a given category you could get, and each numerical upgraded was only slightly better than the last. Regardless, there was ALWAYS one best weapon in each category to use (the highest number available in either the Spectre gear or whichever manufacturer was best for each category). The sheer number of manufacturers and numerical models only gave an illusion of difference. I don't like illusion, I like actual variety. Having just a handful of weapons in each category that play differently is a far better choice. Not only is there variety, but your choice in weapon becomes about preference and playstyle, rather than just finding whatever's best. You want to make your choice of rifle incrementally better, use the upgrade system. Want to give it improved capability against a specific defense type, use an ammo power. I think this greatly improves the ME2 system in a way every detractor of the system can get behind.

[Stanley Woo]

Okay, let's Sticky this bad boy.

[Sibbwolf]

On the whole, I like what I see. The wall of text looks bad, but once I started reading, it really wasn't.



The only thing I'd add concerning heat management is the importance of environment, on the assumption that development can take it into account. Would be nice to see the environment - atmosphere composition, pressure and temperature have some effect on the efficiency of the cooling.

[Braag]

I wonder if ME3 will have a cover to cover system. I loved how I could finally jump over cover but moving from cover to cover was still not so fluid in ME2.

[ChaoticBroth]

Oh my, that's amazing. Probably the best topic I've seen for a while. It brings everything into a new light. I like the idea of the energy meter thing myself. You could easily tie it into lore, since biotics require substantially more energy, or your omni-tool would partition energy for combat, etc.



Damn nice work, though. Must have taken plenty of thought.

[AlbertoAquilani]

Fantastic thread.

[Goth Skunk]

Finally! Criticism with a proposed solution! Far better than the usual 'ME2 sucks! make it better' drivel that these forums have been forced to swallow.



Not that I think ME2 needs any improvement, but Scarecrow is certainly onto something with his ideas. A 'best of both worlds' mentality if you will.