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The Mass Effect Community Thread

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Taker34

Banned
Who wouldn't be interested in that?

Post it please! Or PM or whatever.

Oh god yes please!

Yes please!

I didn't create those videos (someone sent them to me) and the problem is that some of these videos are dev demo reels. It would be actually pretty bold of me to upload these videos/or being responsible for spreading them on YouTube. Or am I overreacting?
 
I didn't create those videos (someone sent them to me) and the problem is that some of these videos are dev demo reels. It would be actually pretty bold of me to upload these videos/or being responsible for spreading them on YouTube. Or am I overreacting?

Upload them to a dummy Dropbox account and/or send links by PM. I have one myself for any ME-related footage.
 
Also wanted to say that I see a lot of people feeling a little down thinking the new game's extremely far off given they're "just" showing concept art. That's not really the case. Aside from personal convos, there are strict marketing schedules to adhere to in game development. They're much further along than you think.

Earlier this year it was at least half-way through development. Once 2015 rolls around, expect marketing to head into full speed.
 

Blowdrum

Neo Member
Also wanted to say that I see a lot of people feeling a little down thinking the new game's extremely far off given they're "just" showing concept art. That's not really the case. Aside from personal convos, there are strict marketing schedules to adhere to in game development. They're much further along than you think.

Earlier this year it was at least half-way through development. Once 2015 rolls around, expect marketing to head into full speed.

What kind of release window would be reasonable to hope for then? Q3/Q4 2015?
 

SliChillax

Member
I didn't create those videos (someone sent them to me) and the problem is that some of these videos are dev demo reels. It would be actually pretty bold of me to upload these videos/or being responsible for spreading them on YouTube. Or am I overreacting?

I don't know to be honest, as long as you don't get into trouble.
 

Prothero

Neo Member
The thing I'd love to hear from people is what you'd like to have in such an experience. For me (personal opinion, and based on what people have told me many times before):

- 1080p
- 60 fps
- High res textures, especially on ME1
- Some shader improvements commensurate with newer GPUs
- All the DLC
- "Seamless experience" - the adventures flow into each other without having to go back to save import, menu screens, etc.

Agree / disagree? What else?

Bear in mind this is a "wish list" at this point...

The seamless experience -- would that mean that we wouldn't be able to just play one of the games? Say, if I wanted to play just Mass Effect 2 or 3, would I be able to do that (or have the option of choosing between that and the seamless experience)? Or would they just flow from ME1 onwards like one big game? I like the seamless option, but would also like to just be able to play any of the games at any time.
 
The seamless experience -- would that mean that we wouldn't be able to just play one of the games? Say, if I wanted to play just Mass Effect 2 or 3, would I be able to do that (or have the option of choosing between that and the seamless experience)? Or would they just flow from ME1 onwards like one big game? I like the seamless option, but would also like to just be able to play any of the games at any time.

If they did it like the MCC, you'd be able to do both. You could either start ME1 and continue on seamlessly from there, no swapping of discs or booting of games, or you could select ME2 or 3 from a central menu.
 

prag16

Banned
Also wanted to say that I see a lot of people feeling a little down thinking the new game's extremely far off given they're "just" showing concept art. That's not really the case. Aside from personal convos, there are strict marketing schedules to adhere to in game development. They're much further along than you think.

Earlier this year it was at least half-way through development. Once 2015 rolls around, expect marketing to head into full speed.
Good. So all the people claiming they're just now heading into full production are incorrect.

Sounds like Q1 2016 unless they hit a major setback. I can live with that.
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
Not all DLC were easily available last I checked since some things were random exclusive stuff.

For PC ME2 and 3, people figured out how to unlock all of the retailer exclusive gear within hours of release. I had it all by the time I started playing.
 

prag16

Banned
Shinobi, do you know anything about that Citadel looking place?
I think shinobi had said at one point he's not even 100% sure if it takes place before, during, or after the original trilogy. :(

I'd really love to know the timeframe along with whether or not the bulk of the game takes place in another galaxy.
 
I would be surprised if we could play as various races, the amount of work needed would surely go beyond budget. My feeling is human again.
 

Guri

Member
Well, they began working on it since 2012. A lot of things are helping speed development along: mature Frostbite toolchain, technical experience from DICE, DAI team etc. 2015 will be its big marketing debut.

I've been wondering, maybe a VGA/VGX title reveal, similar to what we got for Mass Effect 3 in 2010?
 
If I played on console I'd want 1080p@60fps, or at least as close to it as possible.

As I'm on PC those bullet points are already achievable (and beyond). So, thinking invested yet reasonable (eg: no additional content / massive gameplay overhauls), I'd like to see from a trilogy port:
  • Seamless narrative between all three games, avoiding menus and whatnot.
  • Abso-fucking-lutely all the DLC and extra content bundled in. Every bit. No leftovers.
  • DLC content optionally added to stores instead of dumped on the player when they boot the game. Properly integrate guns/armour DLC into the adventure.
  • Improved textures while remaining 100% faithful to the original art. Might be too much work. JeanLuc's texture pack for ME2 is a perfect example of how to do it right, and how it improves image quality.
  • Additional graphical polish/fluff on shaders and post processing to take advantage of modern hardware. EG: Improved shadow resolution/complexity, god ray sampling, etc. Anything the team would be willing to invest time in. Like ambient occlusions.
  • Controller support. I wouldn't use it, but others would appreciate it.

As with all "next gen ports" the rock and a hard place will be with the PC crowd. For example, I own all three games and all the DLC. I've played the saga religiously. At 1080p 60fps. With SGSSAA cleaning up the aliasing and forced high quality 16xAF. In short, visually I the game has already looked leagues better than the 360/PS3 build and, additional shaders/textures aside, better than what a next gen build would look like. My money has already been spent.

Eidos' upgrade program for Human Revolution to the Director's Cut left me happy. It had many, many issues, but the price was low given I already owned Human Revolution and the DLC, and the extra content seemed worth the investment. Seamless DLC integration, tweaked AI and skills, and the super awesome developer commentary (of which there was a metric shitload, almost all of which deeply informative).

So if all a "next gen port" turned out to be was the base three games and DLC meshed together as a cohesive experience, running at 1080p@60fps on PS4/Xbone, then as the PC market I'd be pretty under whelmed.

Sweeten the deal. Maybe it's too much to ask, given something like Human Revolution and Tomb Raider are just one game and this is three. But in my opinion the best ports to a new generation of hardware are the ones that either introduce massive, impressive overhauls in visuals/presentation beyond just resolution and framerate, or those that include a wealth of supplementary content that was previously unavailable (eg: developer commentary) that warrants another trip for familiar players.

Great post.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Unless they really can't get it out the door I would expect ME4 in either Q4 2015 or Q1 2016.

EA is moving toward three year dev cycles for their biggest games, and that would let them have one BioWare RPG per fiscal year if you slot the new IP into Q4 2016/Q1 2017.
 

Prothero

Neo Member
The thing I'd love to hear from people is what you'd like to have in such an experience. For me (personal opinion, and based on what people have told me many times before):

- 1080p
- 60 fps
- High res textures, especially on ME1
- Some shader improvements commensurate with newer GPUs
- All the DLC
- "Seamless experience" - the adventures flow into each other without having to go back to save import, menu screens, etc.

Agree / disagree? What else?

Bear in mind this is a "wish list" at this point...

I wanted to post an idea and second some others that I saw in the thread:

- About the "seamless experience" vs. choosing each game individually for a ME trilogy remaster -- please keep the New Game+ options, too.

A little late to the party but all of the above sounds great and to add to what you mentioned.

Save import from previous gen:- So you can import your Shep from ages ago and to save having to go through 2 playthroughs of ME1 to get a beefy level 60 character.

Is there any way that we could get something like an upgraded version of The Keep to make anything like this possible? Something that would allow us re-input our choices, create loadouts, etc. for characters that are ready to go in Mass Effect 3.

I'm not sure how feasible this is but something I always thought would be really fun in Mass Effect is

  • Drop-in/dDrop-out CoOp
  • Squadmate control options

Having a friend take control of a squad mate online would be an absolute blast. Hell Id love to play as some of the characters myself too (Grunt, Thane, Wrex, Samara, Legion). Not sure how possible it'd be to implement but adding a system similar to that of Dragon Age: Inquisition where the player can directly control any party member in combat would certainly add a lot to the games replayability!

I'd like to see squadmate control as well. I really would like to be able to get a glimpse of what it's like to play as other classes without having to start a new game.

I don't know if it's possible to include co-op for battles, but if it is, that'd also be great. :)
 

Ivory Samoan

Gold Member
I was kind of hoping they would say at least the timeframe (when the next game/trilogy is set) on N7 day... I'm still 100% behind it being after ME3, and I would truly be shocked if they went prequel at this stage.

All this new exploration, human (100% confirmed) involvement in said exploration and new-style N7 gear lends itself to not being a prequel at all IMO.
 

DOWN

Banned
I don't even get how rumors started flying that the game is barely in production? Like it's been almost 3 years since ME3 and they confirmed a sequel not long after.

Then they shared detail about things like title and the Frostbite usage they are getting out of the DAI team's assets.

Then we got told they were about halfway right around 2 years after ME3 came out, easily indicating that another 2 years could be release which is Q1 2016.

Perhaps they're aiming to match ME3's release period back in 2012?

I've been wondering, maybe a VGA/VGX title reveal, similar to what we got for Mass Effect 3 in 2010?

Mass Effect 2 was also a Q1 release.

I expect Q1 2016 (the Q1 2015 spot is currently being filled by Hardline) looks like a successful spot for ME, following Battlefront in Q4 2015 and giving plenty of buffer before Mirror's Edge 2 and Battlefield 5 later in 2016.
 
I don't even get how rumors started flying that the game is barely in production? Like it's been almost 3 years since ME3 and they confirmed a sequel not long after.

IIRC, there was a topic during late summer that said they had just started doing writing meetings and beginning to hash out story beats. Likewise, if production was halfway-finished at this point, we probably would have seen more than a Mako prototype and some concept art at this stage.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
IIRC, there was a topic during late summer that said they had just started doing writing meetings and beginning to hash out story beats. Likewise, if production was halfway-finished at this point, we probably would have seen more than a Mako prototype and some concept art at this stage.

There is no "probably" about it. Bioware will show off more of the game when they are ready to show off the game. They don't owe it to us to show us the game right now.
There is no benefit to anybody to show the game off right now other than appeasing online fanboys. Bioware is really doing their best to make sure their past doesn't come back to bite them in the ass.
 

prag16

Banned
IIRC, there was a topic during late summer that said they had just started doing writing meetings and beginning to hash out story beats. Likewise, if production was halfway-finished at this point, we probably would have seen more than a Mako prototype and some concept art at this stage.
Not necessarily. Very faulty assumptions here. See shinobi's posts. And let not your heart be troubled. They won't let this fall to late 2016 unless they encounter some kind of development hell along the way somehow.
 

Patryn

Member
There is no "probably" about it. Bioware will show off more of the game when they are ready to show off the game. They don't owe it to us to show us the game right now.
There is no benefit to anybody to show the game off right now other than appeasing online fanboys. Bioware is really doing their best to make sure their past doesn't come back to bite them in the ass.

And if Dragon Age: Inquisition is any indication, when they're ready to show the thing, they will SHOW the thing.

Seriously, have you seen how many hours of DA:I footage has been released at this point?
 
I would be surprised if we could play as various races, the amount of work needed would surely go beyond budget. My feeling is human again.
ME3 multiplayer opens up the doors of possibility. Everyone in ME universe speaks a common dialect. So I hope we can play as any species. I would rather they focus on building strategy thru team setups than giving the protagonist godly powers thru a huge power wheel. I want to be able to switch players in mid combat to create combo explosions and navigate flank maneuvers.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
And if Dragon Age: Inquisition is any indication, when they're ready to show the thing, they will SHOW the thing.

Seriously, have you seen how many hours of DA:I footage has been released at this point?

Good point. DA:I barely had ANYTHING shown off.

That's all the proof you need.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
ME3 multiplayer says hello. ;)
I hope we can play as any species. I would rather they focus on building strategy thru team setups than giving the protagonist godly powers thru a huge power wheel. I want to be able to switch players in mid combat to create combo explosions and navigate flank maneuvers.

I absolutely hope they don't do this. I see it as unnecessarily complicated. It was fine the way it is. I am OK if they want to add COOP, but I am not really sure how they would do it without sacrificing the single player experience and that is a big no no.
 
I absolutely hope they don't do this. I see it as unnecessarily complicated. It was fine the way it is. I am OK if they want to add COOP, but I am not really sure how they would do it without sacrificing the single player experience and that is a big no no.
Complicated as in messing with lore, or something else? I didn't mean to insinuate more than one protagonist. I just hope it can be any race. Of course it depends on the story.
 

Pollux

Member
Complicated as in messing with lore, or something else? I didn't mean to insinuate more than one protagonist. I just hope it can be any race. Of course it depends on the story.
I would prefer if that type of thing stayed in dragon age; no need to make both series basically the same.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Complicated as in messing with lore, or something else? I didn't mean to insinuate more than one protagonist. I just hope it can be any race. Of course it depends on the story.

I mean how do you do COOP? You would have to change up the game in ways that could be detrimental to the ME experience.

For example, imagine if in ME2 you could do COOP. While you the main character, Shepard would walk around the ship between missions, what's a coop character going to do during that down time? Walking around the citadel, etc?

I mean I supposed you could go into a lobby and wait for someone playing the main game to request coop squadmates, but that just doesn't seem fun and would be a disconnect.

It works in a very linear experience like Gears of War, where all you do is fight.
 
I mean how do you do COOP? You would have to change up the game in ways that could be detrimental to the ME experience.

For example, imagine if in ME2 you could do COOP. While you the main character, Shepard would walk around the ship between missions, what's a coop character going to do during that down time? Walking around the citadel, etc?

I mean I supposed you could go into a lobby and wait for someone playing the main game to request coop squadmates, but that just doesn't seem fun and would be a disconnect.

It works in a very linear experience like Gears of War, where all you do is fight.
I think there's been a miscommunication here. I never mentioned coop, only character switching in combat.
 

Dima

Neo Member
The thing I'd love to hear from people is what you'd like to have in such an experience. For me (personal opinion, and based on what people have told me many times before):

- 1080p
- 60 fps
- High res textures, especially on ME1
- Some shader improvements commensurate with newer GPUs
- All the DLC
- "Seamless experience" - the adventures flow into each other without having to go back to save import, menu screens, etc.

Agree / disagree? What else?

Bear in mind this is a "wish list" at this point...

Totally agree! I ranked these starting from the most important ones:
#1 - Seamless experience – Yes!!! To play it as a single game (not as a trilogy) would be awesome!!! Just imagine, at the end of ME1 (after making decision about human chancellor) Shep is getting a message about the Geth activity and is taking SR-1 to investigate it, so the second part of the story begins. (You could also give it a better title – “ME: Sheppard’s Story” for example)
#2 - High res textures & shader improvements
#3 - All the DLC
#4 - 1080p & 60 fps
What else…:
- Ability to switch among active party members in combat (just like in KOTOR or DA);
- 2 player split screen co-op, local (on ME3 multiplayer maps);
- Make Tali a romanceable character in ME1 - add a few dialogs and reveal her face (...forget about the stock image);
- More colors for armor in ME1 and an ability to custom colors of the weapons (…playing ME1 wearing Colossus armor with Devlon Industries weapons just because their colors match - it looks cool);
- Extend Mako's planetary exploration areas, please! (Simply make a map bigger with more stuff to find);
- A few more sliders (options) for a face and hair customization in character creation menu.
 
There is no "probably" about it. Bioware will show off more of the game when they are ready to show off the game. They don't owe it to us to show us the game right now.
There is no benefit to anybody to show the game off right now other than appeasing online fanboys. Bioware is really doing their best to make sure their past doesn't come back to bite them in the ass.

Not necessarily. Very faulty assumptions here. See shinobi's posts. And let not your heart be troubled. They won't let this fall to late 2016 unless they encounter some kind of development hell along the way somehow.

If anything, they've been more than forthcoming with their progress to date. It doesn't take a fanboy to figure out that they've been showing various prototypes/pieces of concept art/status updates to keep people informed of where they're at. It's the inverse of their actions during production of the previous game.

Not letting people know what stage they're at would be the real bite, I think. I may not necessarily agree with their choice for lead writer, but I can appreciate them revealing the writing team from the get-go.
 

DOWN

Banned
IIRC, there was a topic during late summer that said they had just started doing writing meetings and beginning to hash out story beats. Likewise, if production was halfway-finished at this point, we probably would have seen more than a Mako prototype and some concept art at this stage.
Nope. There's no basis for saying a game that's likely a year and a half away still should have shown more than their in engine prototypes back during summer, nearly two years from the release of the game. They've got a lot of time left to develop and market the game, which is why they've barely started the marketing and technically haven't done the announcement yet.
 
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