ME1 was worse than DAI's exploration if you can even call it that in ME1. At least you can speed of war table missions by talking to and recruiting mercenaries, merchants, soldiers, and conscripting former enemies.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Rumor: Mass Effect 4 details leak through survey
- Thread starter Lakitu
- Start date
ME1 was worse than DAI's exploration if you can even call it that in ME1. At least you can speed of war table missions by talking to and recruiting mercenaries, merchants, soldiers, and conscripting former enemies.
The English Conquistador
Member
This sounds almost exactly like the original trilogy.
Beelzebufo
Banned
Yeah, it would be almost impossible for the MAKO to be worse this time around. Even walking around the citadel in ME1 was boring.
Hyperzephyrian
Banned
I wasn't talking about exploration, friendo.
shinobi602
Member
You answered your own question.
Fog of war doesn't make sense given the lack of maps the ME series seems to have in general (I've never understood this actually, why), it'd still be a step up. So long as it has an appropriate reward I can;t imagine what the issue with strike teams would be anyway. These aren't inherently good or bad things.
Maintenance
Member
Yep, unfortunately it looks like ME special snowflake human with ancient aliens + DA:I shitty resource gathering system. What a combo.
Well, Ubisoft's AC games sell double-digit millions each and they have shown that they can do that annually. Unlike the Bethesda/Rockstar type open world games which sell even better perhaps per installment, but need long production cycles.
Bioware has done nothing else than chasing what they perceive to be the next big thing in AAA game design for at least 5 years now, so it's not surprising that at this point in time they settled on the Ubi approach.
TimorousPanda
Member
Agreed wholeheartedly. I couldn't finish it.
Indeed, instead it had a few matriarch writings and nothing besides.
None of the things you mentioned I have an issue with in theory, especially since you can actually play the strike team missions, and since I will be playing the MP I like that I can use it for currency in the SP. They aren't tied storywise so really there is no issue for me.
I've said it before but although I loved DA:I a lot I'm hoping that they continue to improve on DA:I's approach if they are going to go that route. Obviously the game sold well enough for them that they are going to take some things and bring it over to their new titles. The thing about DA:I's side quests is that yeah, a lot of it wasn't tied to the main storyline and it was hard for people to leave the first area alone before continuing to the other if they were completionist. The sense of urgency wasn't really there considering what was supposedly at stake in the main questline. I would say that they did better in their Jaws of Hakkon DLC where, yes, there were still fetch quests, but they were much better integrated into the main plot of the DLC's story. They've acknowledged that it's something they wanted to work on and so I'm hoping that sentiment carries over to the ME team as well. Considering the fact that the exploration aspect is now on a grander scale than DA:I it will be easy to fall into that trap of okay go get this much fuel or that much food, etc. etc. I'm hoping those sort of things get allocated to the War Table-esque DA:I timed missions where you send your "agents" so to speak if they are going to go that route vs. say actual side missions can be used to tie into the main storyline which is something they desperately need to do. I don't want to see them fall into the same pattern of galactic readiness resources again.
Raven77
Member
100's of planets to explore???
Are they setting this up to try and kill No Mans Sky or are they playing off of some of the procedural space exploration that will be the hot gameplay thing in the future? No way they can render and populate 100's of planets, even if only a small part is explorable, and not have it be at least somewhat procedurally generated.
Are they setting this up to try and kill No Mans Sky or are they playing off of some of the procedural space exploration that will be the hot gameplay thing in the future? No way they can render and populate 100's of planets, even if only a small part is explorable, and not have it be at least somewhat procedurally generated.
They've named Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed and Skyrim as influences and audience targets at some point or another, so yes, pretty much.
Hyperzephyrian
Banned
I was saying that this post of yours:
makes no sense in the context of what we've learned, given that ME1 didn't have these same open-world issues.
ChasingComets
Member
Saw the OP and I like the idea, it's not immediately another "rah-rah save the Galaxy" deal (at least not at face value) and I can get behind the premise of exploring new frontiers and navigating relationships between the various races/factions. From the started I knew I wanted a clean slate from the original trilogy and not have this be about another galactic-scale foe, but instead scale down to a smaller, more intimate adventure like Firefly; hopefully Bioware is thinking along those same lines.
shinobi602
Member
About the planets: I was told they have a certain toolchain or some program (forgive me, tech isn't my strong suit) that's crafted for them in Frostbite 3 that's allowing them to generate terrain/create planets through a random generator. They go in afterwards and tweak and detail each planet to make them unique and their own thing.
Ah, so that's probably the upper limit. Still huge.
"Ancient race called Remnant has left beacons floating in the space. These beacons were used to map solar systems in which they float, but has long time ago switched into standby mode. You can reactivate these beacons as you explore and gain knowledge about planets and moons in solar systems [read: points of interest, collectibles, side quest markers...]"
StoppedInTracks
Member
Sounds great (love collectathons in DA3) but The Remnants?
Really?
They cannot think of any other sci-fi story than ancient, long gone civilization holding the keys to saving of the Universe, no?
Really?
They cannot think of any other sci-fi story than ancient, long gone civilization holding the keys to saving of the Universe, no?
Sir Garbageman
Member
This is exactly what it sounds like tbh :/
I don't mind it broadly speaking, but the ratio of interesting unique RPG content to generic AAA bar filling mission design was way off. It was like 90/10 in DA:I.
Are any of these planets part of the main narrative path?
The return to open environments in the first place is due to ME1 fans, and knowing that if ME1 was released today its side content would be ripped apart, they know they need to add toys to play with out there.
This. So much this. God damn it, don't remind me of that mess.
Beelzebufo
Banned
Poor Bioware can't win. People have been asking for ME to return to the more ME1-style of gameplay (especially after ME3), and now that they did everyone's calling them Ubisoft 
Poodlestrike
Banned
Oh my god, this sounds AMAZING! I love the idea of exploring and building things up in new territory. So damn cool.
Get HYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE
Get HYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE
Frozenprince
Banned
As long as this doesn't completely ignore everything that happened in the last game it could be okay.
You HAVE to reference the Reapers and Shep and stuff that happened. You can't just ignore the last 3 games. The ending you can leave ambiguous (nobody really knows etc etc) but you have to at least mention this stuff.
You HAVE to reference the Reapers and Shep and stuff that happened. You can't just ignore the last 3 games. The ending you can leave ambiguous (nobody really knows etc etc) but you have to at least mention this stuff.
shinobi602
Member
Wasn't specifically mentioned but I'm sure there are.
Nah, they're better off completely abandoning that ship. Make it basically a complete reboot, please.
Leaving the galaxy and moving years into the future makes this almost a soft-reboot. Whatever happened had happened, but it doesn't matter anymore. Probably left as a codex entry, and that's fine imo.
Frozenprince
Banned
But if there aren't all the council races from ME1-3 (I NEED A TURIAN SIDEKICK) then why call it Mass Effect at all? Why not *insert generic other sci-fi setting here*?
If it's gonna be in the same universe then the giant robot Cthulhu's that nearly killed all sentient life are kind of a big deal.
Dandy Lyin
Member
I'm definitely feeling the DAI vibe of things... Which is fine by me!
Optional "bloat" is optional, afterall.
Optional "bloat" is optional, afterall.
*shudder*