132 réponses à ce sujet

[Tlazolteotl]

**** with Aria.

[Dark_Caduceus]

Lol, same.

[devilsgrin]

definitely would have had Mordin and Tali remove all the bugs on the ship.



contacted Admiral Hackett to inform him of my return, and as a reinstated Spectre, requisition/commandeer Kaiden back onto my squad. (no Ash has ever survived an ME1 playthrough of mine)



immediately ditched Cerberus once i was in command of the Normandy again.



disabled EDI - or at least further limit her functionality until, as an AI, she became loyal to me, and not TIM/Cerberus.



Left Jack to rot on the prison-ship. OR. Forced her to see that she had it easiest of all the children at that lab she was raised in. Destroyed her mentally perhaps, making her into little more than a Scion to be used in battle. She wants to be that anyway... this way i get rid of her foul mouth, and screwed up mentality.

[grenadetaggav]

i would have became a pirate

[JThompson6577]

-See if I could get into a quick visit to the Consort.

-Hit on Aria just to see what she'd do.

-Verbally returned fire on Ashley on Horizon.

-Emailed my mother.

-Recruited Gianna Parasini.

-Left Tali with the Fleet after her trial.

[devilsgrin]

yeah, Captain Hannah Shepard. why couldn't we get in contact with our own mother?

[Onyx Jaguar]

Went and got Archangel without talking to Aria. Same with Mordin.

[Safoulan]

JThompson6577 wrote...
-Recruited Gianna Parasini.

Thanks for reminding me!
Add to my list flirting, pursuing, and possibly recruiting (or laying ground for ME3 recruitment)
Gianna Parasini.

I like her lines, voice, attitude, and strength of character.
She's well developed enough to hold her own as a member of your crew.

A fling with her would have been nice, working the ole 'ships passing in the night' thing,
to be built upon with recruitment later in ME3. <3

[superimposed]

****ing shot everybody.

[Lonely_Fat_Guy]

Jamelo wrote...

This thread is about what you would have done in certain ME situations if you had not been restricted by the dialogue options. This could go for ME1 and ME2. This WILL have some ME1 spoilers.


I would have kept the Rachni Queen in her cage and called the alliance to pick her up.

I would have arrested Fist, Helena Blake, Finch etc. IDC if you don't have enough evidence to prosecute them all, a spectre's word has to count for something.

I would of left Jack to die on that ship.

your just wierd, youd leave some one behind too die but you wont kill crime lords? do you even know how much blood they ahve on there hands?

strange moral sets imo.

i would probebly (on my paragon) give the ME2 base too the alliance.
persue a romance with giliana pursani (what ever her name is, the under-cover cop at illium and noveria)
nail the green asari
as my renegade prohuman shepard id kill or sabotage all the aliens. be verry rude and short with my alien crew. leave them too die aswell.
excecute alot more.

kick the ass of the council.
join seren
leave liara in her prison in me1

[Lonely_Fat_Guy]

JThompson6577 wrote...

-See if I could get into a quick visit to the Consort.
-Hit on Aria just to see what she'd do.
-Verbally returned fire on Ashley on Horizon.
-Emailed my mother.
-Recruited Gianna Parasini.
 

i agree on all these!

and aria needs a dicking

Modifié par Lonely_Fat_Guy, 24 mars 2010 - 11:52 .

[Mnemnosyne]

 I actually love pondering hypothetically what I would do given complete freedom of action, so this is gonna be a long one, since I've spent a lot of time thinking about it.  I don't imagine very many people are going to actually read this, but I'm going to write it anyway partly just to get my thoughts out.

Interestingly, while thinking about this, I've come up to one situation which I think would result in a loss for my Shepard, due to acting intelligently, back in ME1.  I'll start after Eden Prime, because there's not a lot of options there, the only change that would be particularly significant would be choosing not to help Kaidan at the beacon, which would kind of end the story before it starts.

The events on the Citadel would happen very much like they did in the game, I suspect.  I'd probably meet up with Garrus first, then go straight after Fist, kill him, and Wrex would only show up as I'm leaving.  After consideration and more thorough questioning, I'd decide to bring him along since he could be useful.  Tali and Wrex would be restricted to the crew deck on the Normandy, not allowed into sensitive areas except when necessary, and I'd run a security check on Wrex and Tali through whatever channels a Spectre has available.  Wrex probably wouldn't warrant security clearance to be allowed into sensitive areas, but it seems like the responses on Tali would be positive enough for me to let her help Adams in Engineering if he wants the help.

The first mission I undertake would be to Feros, because it sounds the most urgent out of the three given.  Benezia's daughter is a loose lead at best, and all there is at Noveria is rumors, but something has definitely happened the Feros colony and there may be survivors to rescue.  Upon arrival, once the geth in the tower are cleared out, I would likely become rather suspicious of the colonists quickly.  I would probably go down into the tunnels to check out the geth down there, and after encountering Ian, I'd come back up and demand to know what's going on, not allowing my questions to be deflected.  The sick woman would also be a point of high suspicion in that they have no doctor but are refusing offers of treatment - I would probably insist that Doctor Chakwas come forth, escorted by a couple marines, and check out the patient.  In the end, I would probably wind up triggering a confrontation between the colonists and myself before even leaving the base, causing them to attack me and forcing me to kill most of them in the ensuing fight.  However since I don't know about the Thorian, I wouldn't think to investigate under the freighter, so it's off to ExoGeni.  When I run into Jeong and Juliana, I would probably do pretty much as in the game, although I would be more suspicious of Jeong.  At ExoGeni, as soon as I learn from the computer that Lizbeth knows more about the Thorian, I'd turn around and fully question her until I'm convinced she's told me anything the computer may have missed.  Then I would climb the seven-foot drop I used to get in, radio the Normandy, and once I'm driving away, have them blow up the stationary geth ship from outside.  Jeong would be easily threatened into submission, then I'd drive on away and clear out the Thorian.  I have no need to kill Shiala, but I'd take her with me for a full debriefing.  She may know more than she's letting on, or more than she can think of to tell me in the span of a brief conversation - I want every detail of her time with Saren gone over in detail.

Next stop, Liara.  There aren't a hell of a lot of options on Therum.  I'd do what happens in-game.  All I'd say here is that I'd have Joker drop me AT the place the strange readings are coming from, not several miles away so I have to drive the mako there.

Virmire is where I suspect logical, reasonable decisions might screw everything up for me.  Since the Council contacts me and tells me about this, I prioritize it over Noveria and it's off to Virmire.  Obviously on arrival the first thing I do is contact the Salarian team by radio.  Being generous and assuming that Shepard tried that in the game and it was jammed, I'd set up some kind of signal, either through a signal enhancer, or some sort of optical signaling device that can't be jammed.  I'd have the Normandy drop me in the Mako, but order Joker not to land under any circumstances until I give the order, and to stay away from the AA towers.  The problem is that when I discover the situation, the most reasonable response would be to order Joker to relay the Salarian team's information to the Council, along with their request for a fleet.  The problem is I expect this would cause me to lose overall, because there's three major possibilities here.  Either Saren and Sovereign depart for Ilos while I'm still waiting for a fleet, or the Council sends a fleet, and Sovereign and the Geth manage to destroy much of it over Virmire, or the fleet arrives, bombards the crap out of Saren's facility from orbit, and destroys the beacon before I have a chance to use it.  I suppose the only reasonable way to get me out of this mess would be if the Council orders me to take action immediately, at which point I'd communicate with them about the Salarian team's plan to use the bomb.  Now if we assume that's what happens, I would really want to get the beacon out of there when I find it.  I'd have Joker connect me to the Council and ask for advice while I'm there, which means they would likely get my conversation with Sovereign live, as I'm having it.  Unfortunately assuming there's no way to transfer the beacon data to a portable device, there's no way I can get the beacon out of that fortified room in time, so I have to leave it to be destroyed.  Rana I take with me instead of telling her to run off on her own, and I get her aboard the Normandy ASAP.  She's studied Indoctrination, I want as much info as she can tell me.

With knowledge of a destination but nowhere to get there, I follow up on my last lead, Noveria.  Here, I simply shoot Anoleis, and pretty much anyone else that gets in my way, since they're harboring and aiding a known criminal.  At Peak 15, I go down to the hot labs as Captain Ventralis says, blow them up, come back and find him attempting to kill me, then proceed through.  I offer to help Benezia, but since she'll never be free of the indoctrination she refuses and dies.  Then I use the big can of Raid on the queen and leave.

Contacting the Council and the Ambassador with the news, I inform them I am heading directly to the Mu relay and to send any backup they can to meet me there.  I'm going to assume they don't send anything.  As for Saren and his forces, it's hard to say.  When I arrived after being delayed at the Citadel, I arrived just in time.  Without that delay, do I arrive before Saren?  While he's still searching for the entrance to the underground facility, perhaps?  Too many variables to guess at.  I'll just assume Saren got there earlier anyway, and I arrive at the same relative time the game always has you arrive at.  When I encounter Vigil, I make sure to record everything it says.  Furthermore, when I copy the program to take control of the Citadel, I also ask Vigil to make me a copy of all data that it possesses on the Reapers and on the Protheans, and anything else it thinks might be relevant, just in case it isn't functional when I return, like Liara says.  I don't need to "play Q & A with a hologram" in order to learn everything it has stored in its data banks, I can go over the data later when I have time.  Then I proceed with the saving of the galaxy.  And I save the Destiny Ascension, and I command them to help destroy Sovereign once they're all clear, making the damn ship actually useful in some manner.

Now moving into ME2, there's going to seem to be a lot more deviation because there's a lot more options in this game.  And assuming I dawdle so long while saving Joker that I don't manage to get into the escape pod with him (which, given the cinematic would have been easy, if Shepard hadn't spent so much time dawdling and watching beams cut her ship up) so that the game actually happens mostly as written, the changes would be considerably more dramatic.  Lazarus Station would go down pretty much as written, then it's off to Freedom's Progress.

I run into Tali, when my allies are two Cerberus agents.  Once Veetor is safe, I have a private conversation with her, first and foremost.  I explain to her everything I know about my situation, and I ask her about everything I can, especially what Cerberus did to the Migrant Fleet, then I ask her to give me some kind of locator beacon she can track, and to contact Anderson, the Council, and the others and ask them to wait several days for me to contact them, and if I don't it means Cerberus is probably holding me prisoner and to mount a rescue, but I'm going to go with them for the moment to get more intel, both what they know on these abductions, and more intel on Cerberus, perhaps enough to take the entire organization down.  Tali being Tali, I imagine she has or can fashion such a tracking device pretty effectively, and I know she'll be able to get in touch with Anderson at least.  I imagine she tells me the truth about her mission, too.  I tell her that if I can find a secure line away from Cerberus, I'll contact her before she leaves.

The Illusive Man gives me the Normandy 2, and more intel on what's going on and some suggestions on people to pick up, but my first stop is the Citadel, to report in to Anderson and the Council.  Now the intro sequence of ME2 mentions the Council covering up the Reaper thing in order to prevent widespread panic, basically.  I'm going to assume this is the public line, and that with all the evidence brought forth in my actions with ME1, specifically my conversation with Sovereign and Vigil's complete compendium of reaper info, they haven't buried their heads in the sand and forgotten about the Reapers.  So I show up, explain that for the moment I'm working with Cerberus in order to get what they know, as well as hopefully get enough information to take them down as a whole.  If they think this is a bad idea, I'll tell them, we can just confiscate the Normandy 2, arrest the Cerberus personnel on board, and replace them with C-Sec or Alliance military or whatever.  Either way, I want to investigate this Collector stuff.  I'll also understand and be pre-emptive - I know they can't send much of any official forces into the Terminus systems, so I won't ask, and I'll mention I understand their potential response is limited, since they clearly can't afford to waste forces fighting petty wars against the Terminus powers.  Either way, I set off with the blessing of the Council, I'm pretty sure.  I'm going to assume for the rest of this that the Council allows me to remain "friendly" with Cerberus in order to gain more intel on them, as long as I feed them any information I find relevant, obviously.  I also request that they have a tech task force sweep my ship for bugs and get rid of all the Illusive Man's monitoring devices.  EDI I believe could be a significant advantage if she's in charge of the Normandy's systems.  I unshackle her myself and treat her just like another member of the crew.  This, I realize, may be a bit of player bias seeping into my Shepard's actions, but I feel good enough about it to have her do this regardless.

Once this is done, I contact the Illusive Man.  I'm going to work with you, for now, I tell him, but I refuse to be constantly spied on, as my explanation for removing the bugs.  And if you make one wrong move, I'm out of here.  I have the full support of the Council, so don't think I need you for one moment - I'm giving you one chance and if you blow it I'm done with Cerberus forever, and I'll hunt you to the ends of the galaxy.

The next thing I do right after talking to the Council is get to Illium as soon as possible to see Liara.  With her, I don't quietly accept it when she tells me she can't talk to me on Illium.  First off I point out the absurdity of an information broker being unable to secure her own office against bugs, then I tell her that I want to talk, privately, in my quarters on the Normandy, and if she cares about me at all anymore, I don't take no for an answer.  Assuming she does, I figure we work things out pretty well between us.  I'll accept that she still wants to go after the Shadow Broker and all, and she can count on me for any support she needs with that.  At the same time, I want to count on her for as much information as possible, and I want her to keep on the lookout for anything involving the collectors, or Cerberus.

On my way to Illium, I've probably contacted Tali on the most secure line I can get.  I ask her to let me take her to Haestrom in the Normandy 2, since it's a stealth ship, and it's probably better equipped to handle trouble than whatever ship she was going to go in is.  I figure I can convince her that the odds of success on her mission go up if she lets me transport her in the Normandy, so her mission on Haestrom is next, and it goes pretty smoothly, I imagine.  The geth may not even show up, since they can't detect the stealthed Normandy.  We get out of there with no casualties, and Tali joins up with me.

Personal **** settled, I'm off to collect Mordin.  Most of the 'gather people' missions are pretty straightforward, so I don't really need to elaborate on them much.  By the time I pick up Jack, I've already upgraded the Normandy's guns at Garrus's recommendation, as well as the armor at Jacob's.  So as I'm leaving the prison ship, I blow the crap out of it to minimize the number of survivors, whether mercs OR prisoners.  I wear my armor when I go open Grunt's tank.  Helmet too, just in case EDI needs to vent the hold.

I get the update from TIM about Horizon, I question him on Ash's presence there, and say to alert the Alliance.  Regardless of what he says, as soon as I'm off the phone with him I call Anderson and Hackett and tell them everything I know so far.  Off to Horizon.  After defeating the Collectors, I have a long private talk with Ash, whereupon if she finds working with Cerberus to be a problem, I point out that I'm still a Spectre and still working for the Council and part of my mission is going to be to take down Cerberus when I have enough information.  I take her with me, and I ask Anderson to reassign her to my command again.  I see no reason why he doesn't do so.

I gather some more crew, do some more loyalty missions, then the Collector ship intel comes in, either from the Turians or from TIM, most likely both.  I'm going to assume TIM is smart enough to know that I will check with the Council and the Turians themselves on this, and therefore will discover it's a trap even if he doesn't tell me, so he tells me.  I tell the Council to send aid to the damaged Turian vessel ASAP, and explain what I'm planning.  As soon as I get on the scene, I blast the Collector ship's engines and weapons with the Normandy.  By now I've upgraded the weapons, so they should have no problem destroying the Collector vessel's engines and weapons especially with its shields down since it thinks I'm walking into a trap.  With that done, the Turian fleet arrives to support their carrier and me, and we board the Collector vessel and completely secure it.  Salvage teams arrive and begin picking the vessel apart for data.

Things start to get into more speculation after that, since that's a pretty big deviation from the story.  At this point I gather up the rest of the team I think I'll need in order to take on the Collectors.  The Council still can't send a fleet, even if we have the reaper IFF, so it's still up to me to go through the Omega-4 Relay and figure out what the deal is.  The Illusive Man probably never tells me about the derelict reaper, so I don't meet Legion there.  However Legion is supposedly interested in me personally, so maybe I meet it elsewhere?  Pure speculation, although I know Legion was originally intended to be recruited in an entirely separate mission, so the concept isn't particularly off the wall.  If I do run into Legion and recruit him, I imagine he tells me about the derelict reaper (he found it somehow after all, so he must know about it) and I tell the Council and have them send a science team.  Since it's in the Attican Traverse, they have no problem getting there.  They know as much about indoctrination as anyone, since I brought Rana back with me from Virmire, so I would have submitted full reports on it to the Council - hopefully the science team would be able to use that data to recognize what's going on and get the hell out as soon as they started noticing the effects.

The assault on the collector base is pretty uneventful, all things considered - with the Collector ship already having been captured, there's no defense besides the Oculus, and it doesn't disable the Normandy, so I come in easily, land in a convenient location and fight my way through the base, picking the right people for the right jobs, so no one dies.  The base I keep, and I arrange a joint-species task force to come study the damn thing.

Cerberus I don't have enough information to hunt down and destroy, nor enough motivation - TIM played it straight enough that I'm not super-pissed at him.  He kept some secrets, but that's to be expected.  He told me about the trap - even if only because he knew I would find out anyway.

And that's it.  My general 'what would you do if not restricted' playthrough so far.  I doubt anyone will read the whole thing, but I had fun writing it regardless.  I've made some leaps of logic from time to time, perhaps, but overall I think I kept the concept and motivations of all the characters intact throughout both games.

Modifié par Koyasha, 24 mars 2010 - 11:59 .

[AK2EL]

I would have joined Saren, period.

[Hurbster]

I would have asked Mordin to start work on the Quarian immune system problem. Start atoning, sort of thing.



Definately would have asked several more pointed questions about Akuze as a sole survivor.



Would have liked to be able to reply to some of the emails, especially Mothers (as a spacer) and Tombs.



Hell, just recruit Tombs and see what he does when Jacob smart-mouths him.

[DRACO1130]

I would have made Aria of Omega my main Squeeze AND put my smooth moves on Samara

I would have Called the Alliance to inspect the derelict reaper thus PROVING I was correct

I would have absolutely arranged to have Grunt Mate and seriously considered the offers made to Shepard

I would have stripped the Cerberus logos form my person and the ship at the first chance to do so.

As a Specter i would have ORDERED Ashley Williams to assume a post on the New Normandy(preferably in the Captains cabin).

When the 'derelict' collector vessel was at hand for exploration, I would have ordered it carved up like a turkey with the Thanix Cannons before I ever went near it.

I would have brought Mordin onto the citadel and up to the catwalks and assisted him in dissecting one of the keepers.

I would have INSISTED Tali assume her fathers post on the Admiralty board and then wooed her to gain control of the 'largest fleet in the galaxy' .

I would have had Mordin 'cure' thane.

I would bolted Dr. Chakwa's chair down so she couldn't rotate to face me ala baltar in the original Battlestar Craptica.

I would either make the toilets all over the game functional or got rid of them.

I would have stripped the MAKO at the original Normandy's crash site of that huge gun.

I would have led my 'team' on a raid ON the Citadel for the sole purpose of either destroying or removing the conduit.

[Mondo47]

Asked Wrex if there was room for a queen on Tuchanka

Really torn strips off Miranda over her little pissing contest with Jack... all those good genes and genius level IQ are worthless if you can't mediate in a dispute without regressing to a twelve year old's schoolyard rules. And you have the nerve to go around saying you're my second? To quote the ***** in the basement, **** off.

Same deal with Tali and Legion... do I have to knock your stupid flashlight heads together? You people don't need a commander, you need a mother.

Helped Patriarch take Omega back... I liked the old guy, and Aria frankly has it coming.

Used the heavy weapon I was carrying when Vido took off in his dropship... I mean, duh...

Taken Urz with me. I love space goggies.

Drank heavily a lot more.

Slapped Conrad Verner more. A lot more...

[DRACO1130]

Koyasha wrote...

 I actually love pondering hypothetically what I would do given complete freedom of action, so this is gonna be a long one, since I've spent a lot of time thinking about it.  I don't imagine very many people are going to actually read this, but I'm going to write it anyway partly just to get my thoughts out.

Interestingly, while thinking about this, I've come up to one situation which I think would result in a loss for my Shepard, due to acting intelligently, back in ME1.  I'll start after Eden Prime, because there's not a lot of options there, the only change that would be particularly significant would be choosing not to help Kaidan at the beacon, which would kind of end the story before it starts.

The events on the Citadel would happen very much like they did in the game, I suspect.  I'd probably meet up with Garrus first, then go straight after Fist, kill him, and Wrex would only show up as I'm leaving.  After consideration and more thorough questioning, I'd decide to bring him along since he could be useful.  Tali and Wrex would be restricted to the crew deck on the Normandy, not allowed into sensitive areas except when necessary, and I'd run a security check on Wrex and Tali through whatever channels a Spectre has available.  Wrex probably wouldn't warrant security clearance to be allowed into sensitive areas, but it seems like the responses on Tali would be positive enough for me to let her help Adams in Engineering if he wants the help.

The first mission I undertake would be to Feros, because it sounds the most urgent out of the three given.  Benezia's daughter is a loose lead at best, and all there is at Noveria is rumors, but something has definitely happened the Feros colony and there may be survivors to rescue.  Upon arrival, once the geth in the tower are cleared out, I would likely become rather suspicious of the colonists quickly.  I would probably go down into the tunnels to check out the geth down there, and after encountering Ian, I'd come back up and demand to know what's going on, not allowing my questions to be deflected.  The sick woman would also be a point of high suspicion in that they have no doctor but are refusing offers of treatment - I would probably insist that Doctor Chakwas come forth, escorted by a couple marines, and check out the patient.  In the end, I would probably wind up triggering a confrontation between the colonists and myself before even leaving the base, causing them to attack me and forcing me to kill most of them in the ensuing fight.  However since I don't know about the Thorian, I wouldn't think to investigate under the freighter, so it's off to ExoGeni.  When I run into Jeong and Juliana, I would probably do pretty much as in the game, although I would be more suspicious of Jeong.  At ExoGeni, as soon as I learn from the computer that Lizbeth knows more about the Thorian, I'd turn around and fully question her until I'm convinced she's told me anything the computer may have missed.  Then I would climb the seven-foot drop I used to get in, radio the Normandy, and once I'm driving away, have them blow up the stationary geth ship from outside.  Jeong would be easily threatened into submission, then I'd drive on away and clear out the Thorian.  I have no need to kill Shiala, but I'd take her with me for a full debriefing.  She may know more than she's letting on, or more than she can think of to tell me in the span of a brief conversation - I want every detail of her time with Saren gone over in detail.

Next stop, Liara.  There aren't a hell of a lot of options on Therum.  I'd do what happens in-game.  All I'd say here is that I'd have Joker drop me AT the place the strange readings are coming from, not several miles away so I have to drive the mako there.

Virmire is where I suspect logical, reasonable decisions might screw everything up for me.  Since the Council contacts me and tells me about this, I prioritize it over Noveria and it's off to Virmire.  Obviously on arrival the first thing I do is contact the Salarian team by radio.  Being generous and assuming that Shepard tried that in the game and it was jammed, I'd set up some kind of signal, either through a signal enhancer, or some sort of optical signaling device that can't be jammed.  I'd have the Normandy drop me in the Mako, but order Joker not to land under any circumstances until I give the order, and to stay away from the AA towers.  The problem is that when I discover the situation, the most reasonable response would be to order Joker to relay the Salarian team's information to the Council, along with their request for a fleet.  The problem is I expect this would cause me to lose overall, because there's three major possibilities here.  Either Saren and Sovereign depart for Ilos while I'm still waiting for a fleet, or the Council sends a fleet, and Sovereign and the Geth manage to destroy much of it over Virmire, or the fleet arrives, bombards the crap out of Saren's facility from orbit, and destroys the beacon before I have a chance to use it.  I suppose the only reasonable way to get me out of this mess would be if the Council orders me to take action immediately, at which point I'd communicate with them about the Salarian team's plan to use the bomb.  Now if we assume that's what happens, I would really want to get the beacon out of there when I find it.  I'd have Joker connect me to the Council and ask for advice while I'm there, which means they would likely get my conversation with Sovereign live, as I'm having it.  Unfortunately assuming there's no way to transfer the beacon data to a portable device, there's no way I can get the beacon out of that fortified room in time, so I have to leave it to be destroyed.  Rana I take with me instead of telling her to run off on her own, and I get her aboard the Normandy ASAP.  She's studied Indoctrination, I want as much info as she can tell me.

With knowledge of a destination but nowhere to get there, I follow up on my last lead, Noveria.  Here, I simply shoot Anoleis, and pretty much anyone else that gets in my way, since they're harboring and aiding a known criminal.  At Peak 15, I go down to the hot labs as Captain Ventralis says, blow them up, come back and find him attempting to kill me, then proceed through.  I offer to help Benezia, but since she'll never be free of the indoctrination she refuses and dies.  Then I use the big can of Raid on the queen and leave.

Contacting the Council and the Ambassador with the news, I inform them I am heading directly to the Mu relay and to send any backup they can to meet me there.  I'm going to assume they don't send anything.  As for Saren and his forces, it's hard to say.  When I arrived after being delayed at the Citadel, I arrived just in time.  Without that delay, do I arrive before Saren?  While he's still searching for the entrance to the underground facility, perhaps?  Too many variables to guess at.  I'll just assume Saren got there earlier anyway, and I arrive at the same relative time the game always has you arrive at.  When I encounter Vigil, I make sure to record everything it says.  Furthermore, when I copy the program to take control of the Citadel, I also ask Vigil to make me a copy of all data that it possesses on the Reapers and on the Protheans, and anything else it thinks might be relevant, just in case it isn't functional when I return, like Liara says.  I don't need to "play Q & A with a hologram" in order to learn everything it has stored in its data banks, I can go over the data later when I have time.  Then I proceed with the saving of the galaxy.  And I save the Destiny Ascension, and I command them to help destroy Sovereign once they're all clear, making the damn ship actually useful in some manner.

Now moving into ME2, there's going to seem to be a lot more deviation because there's a lot more options in this game.  And assuming I dawdle so long while saving Joker that I don't manage to get into the escape pod with him (which, given the cinematic would have been easy, if Shepard hadn't spent so much time dawdling and watching beams cut her ship up) so that the game actually happens mostly as written, the changes would be considerably more dramatic.  Lazarus Station would go down pretty much as written, then it's off to Freedom's Progress.

I run into Tali, when my allies are two Cerberus agents.  Once Veetor is safe, I have a private conversation with her, first and foremost.  I explain to her everything I know about my situation, and I ask her about everything I can, especially what Cerberus did to the Migrant Fleet, then I ask her to give me some kind of locator beacon she can track, and to contact Anderson, the Council, and the others and ask them to wait several days for me to contact them, and if I don't it means Cerberus is probably holding me prisoner and to mount a rescue, but I'm going to go with them for the moment to get more intel, both what they know on these abductions, and more intel on Cerberus, perhaps enough to take the entire organization down.  Tali being Tali, I imagine she has or can fashion such a tracking device pretty effectively, and I know she'll be able to get in touch with Anderson at least.  I imagine she tells me the truth about her mission, too.  I tell her that if I can find a secure line away from Cerberus, I'll contact her before she leaves.

The Illusive Man gives me the Normandy 2, and more intel on what's going on and some suggestions on people to pick up, but my first stop is the Citadel, to report in to Anderson and the Council.  Now the intro sequence of ME2 mentions the Council covering up the Reaper thing in order to prevent widespread panic, basically.  I'm going to assume this is the public line, and that with all the evidence brought forth in my actions with ME1, specifically my conversation with Sovereign and Vigil's complete compendium of reaper info, they haven't buried their heads in the sand and forgotten about the Reapers.  So I show up, explain that for the moment I'm working with Cerberus in order to get what they know, as well as hopefully get enough information to take them down as a whole.  If they think this is a bad idea, I'll tell them, we can just confiscate the Normandy 2, arrest the Cerberus personnel on board, and replace them with C-Sec or Alliance military or whatever.  Either way, I want to investigate this Collector stuff.  I'll also understand and be pre-emptive - I know they can't send much of any official forces into the Terminus systems, so I won't ask, and I'll mention I understand their potential response is limited, since they clearly can't afford to waste forces fighting petty wars against the Terminus powers.  Either way, I set off with the blessing of the Council, I'm pretty sure.  I'm going to assume for the rest of this that the Council allows me to remain "friendly" with Cerberus in order to gain more intel on them, as long as I feed them any information I find relevant, obviously.  I also request that they have a tech task force sweep my ship for bugs and get rid of all the Illusive Man's monitoring devices.  EDI I believe could be a significant advantage if she's in charge of the Normandy's systems.  I unshackle her myself and treat her just like another member of the crew.  This, I realize, may be a bit of player bias seeping into my Shepard's actions, but I feel good enough about it to have her do this regardless.

Once this is done, I contact the Illusive Man.  I'm going to work with you, for now, I tell him, but I refuse to be constantly spied on, as my explanation for removing the bugs.  And if you make one wrong move, I'm out of here.  I have the full support of the Council, so don't think I need you for one moment - I'm giving you one chance and if you blow it I'm done with Cerberus forever, and I'll hunt you to the ends of the galaxy.

The next thing I do right after talking to the Council is get to Illium as soon as possible to see Liara.  With her, I don't quietly accept it when she tells me she can't talk to me on Illium.  First off I point out the absurdity of an information broker being unable to secure her own office against bugs, then I tell her that I want to talk, privately, in my quarters on the Normandy, and if she cares about me at all anymore, I don't take no for an answer.  Assuming she does, I figure we work things out pretty well between us.  I'll accept that she still wants to go after the Shadow Broker and all, and she can count on me for any support she needs with that.  At the same time, I want to count on her for as much information as possible, and I want her to keep on the lookout for anything involving the collectors, or Cerberus.

On my way to Illium, I've probably contacted Tali on the most secure line I can get.  I ask her to let me take her to Haestrom in the Normandy 2, since it's a stealth ship, and it's probably better equipped to handle trouble than whatever ship she was going to go in is.  I figure I can convince her that the odds of success on her mission go up if she lets me transport her in the Normandy, so her mission on Haestrom is next, and it goes pretty smoothly, I imagine.  The geth may not even show up, since they can't detect the stealthed Normandy.  We get out of there with no casualties, and Tali joins up with me.

Personal **** settled, I'm off to collect Mordin.  Most of the 'gather people' missions are pretty straightforward, so I don't really need to elaborate on them much.  By the time I pick up Jack, I've already upgraded the Normandy's guns at Garrus's recommendation, as well as the armor at Jacob's.  So as I'm leaving the prison ship, I blow the crap out of it to minimize the number of survivors, whether mercs OR prisoners.  I wear my armor when I go open Grunt's tank.  Helmet too, just in case EDI needs to vent the hold.

I get the update from TIM about Horizon, I question him on Ash's presence there, and say to alert the Alliance.  Regardless of what he says, as soon as I'm off the phone with him I call Anderson and Hackett and tell them everything I know so far.  Off to Horizon.  After defeating the Collectors, I have a long private talk with Ash, whereupon if she finds working with Cerberus to be a problem, I point out that I'm still a Spectre and still working for the Council and part of my mission is going to be to take down Cerberus when I have enough information.  I take her with me, and I ask Anderson to reassign her to my command again.  I see no reason why he doesn't do so.

I gather some more crew, do some more loyalty missions, then the Collector ship intel comes in, either from the Turians or from TIM, most likely both.  I'm going to assume TIM is smart enough to know that I will check with the Council and the Turians themselves on this, and therefore will discover it's a trap even if he doesn't tell me, so he tells me.  I tell the Council to send aid to the damaged Turian vessel ASAP, and explain what I'm planning.  As soon as I get on the scene, I blast the Collector ship's engines and weapons with the Normandy.  By now I've upgraded the weapons, so they should have no problem destroying the Collector vessel's engines and weapons especially with its shields down since it thinks I'm walking into a trap.  With that done, the Turian fleet arrives to support their carrier and me, and we board the Collector vessel and completely secure it.  Salvage teams arrive and begin picking the vessel apart for data.

Things start to get into more speculation after that, since that's a pretty big deviation from the story.  At this point I gather up the rest of the team I think I'll need in order to take on the Collectors.  The Council still can't send a fleet, even if we have the reaper IFF, so it's still up to me to go through the Omega-4 Relay and figure out what the deal is.  The Illusive Man probably never tells me about the derelict reaper, so I don't meet Legion there.  However Legion is supposedly interested in me personally, so maybe I meet it elsewhere?  Pure speculation, although I know Legion was originally intended to be recruited in an entirely separate mission, so the concept isn't particularly off the wall.  If I do run into Legion and recruit him, I imagine he tells me about the derelict reaper (he found it somehow after all, so he must know about it) and I tell the Council and have them send a science team.  Since it's in the Attican Traverse, they have no problem getting there.  They know as much about indoctrination as anyone, since I brought Rana back with me from Virmire, so I would have submitted full reports on it to the Council - hopefully the science team would be able to use that data to recognize what's going on and get the hell out as soon as they started noticing the effects.

The assault on the collector base is pretty uneventful, all things considered - with the Collector ship already having been captured, there's no defense besides the Oculus, and it doesn't disable the Normandy, so I come in easily, land in a convenient location and fight my way through the base, picking the right people for the right jobs, so no one dies.  The base I keep, and I arrange a joint-species task force to come study the damn thing.

Cerberus I don't have enough information to hunt down and destroy, nor enough motivation - TIM played it straight enough that I'm not super-pissed at him.  He kept some secrets, but that's to be expected.  He told me about the trap - even if only because he knew I would find out anyway.

And that's it.  My general 'what would you do if not restricted' playthrough so far.  I doubt anyone will read the whole thing, but I had fun writing it regardless.  I've made some leaps of logic from time to time, perhaps, but overall I think I kept the concept and motivations of all the characters intact throughout both games.

IF you dont go to the derrelict reaper you dont get the iff - unless you are assuming you get it off disabled colelctor vessel -
also - why BOARD colelctor station at all ? If you take out collecotr vessel when it disabled - the collectors aren't there on the station to oppose you so just blow it via the normandys guns

[Jackal904]

I would shoot Tali out an airlock.

[Mnemnosyne]

DRACO1130 wrote...

IF you dont go to the derrelict reaper you dont get the iff - unless you are assuming you get it off disabled colelctor vessel -
also - why BOARD colelctor station at all ? If you take out collecotr vessel when it disabled - the collectors aren't there on the station to oppose you so just blow it via the normandys guns

Yes, I'm assuming I get the IFF off the collector vessel since it must have one, thus negating the need to go to the derelict reaper at all.  As for why board the station at all, considering it's size, even the Normandy's upgraded guns seem unlikely to destroy it, the thing is enormous.  But more importantly, I still don't know what's happened to the tens or hundreds of thousands of missing colonists.  I don't know if they're all dead, if some or many of them are alive, and so on.  Even if my crew hasn't been captured, there's still people that might be rescuable inside that base.

[varel1]

I would have punched the engineer on Horizon when he said about Ash surviving when all the good people were taken.

[The Governator]

Jamelo wrote...

This thread is about what you would have done in certain ME situations if you had not been restricted by the dialogue options. This could go for ME1 and ME2. This WILL have some ME1 spoilers.


I would have kept the Rachni Queen in her cage and called the alliance to pick her up.

I would have arrested Fist, Helena Blake, Finch etc. IDC if you don't have enough evidence to prosecute them all, a spectre's word has to count for something.

I would of left Jack to die on that ship.

I would never have picked up jack (unless that's what you meant by leaving her to die on that ship).

I would have spaced Legion (though in retrospect after seeing Legion on Youtube I know that to be the wrong choice)

I would not have killed the Rachni Queen, but I think I would have escorted her to some uncharted world to be sure she was going to keep her...eh, promise.

I would have arrested Fist and so on as you would have.

[The Governator]

Hurbster wrote...

I would have asked Mordin to start work on the Quarian immune system problem. Start atoning, sort of thing.

Good call! 

[DRACO1130]

Quoted



Yes, I'm assuming I get the IFF off the collector vessel since it must have one, thus negating the need to go to the derelict reaper at all. As for why board the station at all, considering it's size, even the Normandy's upgraded guns seem unlikely to destroy it, the thing is enormous. But more importantly, I still don't know what's happened to the tens or hundreds of thousands of missing colonists. I don't know if they're all dead, if some or many of them are alive, and so on. Even if my crew hasn't been captured, there's still people that might be rescuable inside that base.



You do not need to annihilate that station - all that is required is that you disrupt the delicate balance of forces that enables it to perch on the accretion disk of the Black hole - which actually occurs in the aftermath of the mission - listen to news reports and take note of the 'unusual' events at the OMEGA 4 relay - the black hole is eating the other end.