Mass Effect General Thread

[Super Hans v2]

Well the reaper storyline had to be tackled eventually, the curse of the setup they created with their original plotline.
Now the mass effect storyline could very well have benefitted from being q game or two longer,

A trilogy would have been perfectly fine, the problem is some idiot thought it would be a good idea to have 2 be a complete fluff entry, the only relevance to the overall story being a dlc.

 

[Fig Kommandant]

Well the reaper storyline had to be tackled eventually, the curse of the setup they created with their original plotline.

Eventually yeah, but they could have milked it for a few more games with doing stuff similar to ME2. Keep the reapers in dark space and the villain of the game is employed or used by the reapers to facilitate their arrival.

 

[Snekposter]

The first trilogy made it out okay, but Andromeda wasn't so lucky....

The worst part is I can see where the story had potential if not for someone deciding it was way too chuddy so it had to get changed at the last minute.

 

[Green Kitbash]

Eventually yeah, but they could have milked it for a few more games with doing stuff similar to ME2. Keep the reapers in dark space and the villain of the game is employed or used by the reapers to facilitate their arrival.

Mass Effect 3 could have just been the Arrival storyline and concluded Shepards journey. Then 4 could have picked up with a new protagonist on new hardware to which they could still keep the Reapers in their pocket if they wanted to revisit their shenanigans later. Would have been too close to the DA storyline I suppose now that I think about it

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Mass Effect 3 could have just been the Arrival storyline and concluded Shepards journey. Then 4 could have picked up with a new protagonist on new hardware to which they could still keep the Reapers in their pocket if they wanted to revisit their shenanigans later.

Technically Andromeda is the sequel of the OG trilogy.

Would have been too close to the DA storyline I suppose now that I think about it

The story of the Grey Warden was one-time, and having the dark fantasy is better sending him off after Origins.
For me, DA2 to DAI is the worst contender: why a new inquisitor? Why not the option to play Hawke again?
Fucking Bioware tried to do the Mass Effect voiced protagonist to keeping it at its fullest in Inquisition.

 

[PetiteFeet]

I'm of half a mind to play through ME1-3 again but this time on PC. I already own the original trilogy, so no LE. Any mod recommendations?
Also wish I could find non-LE versions of the mods used for this broshep. It IS a dress up game for women, after all.

 

[Rololowlo]

Any mod recommendations?

Only two mods are arguably "mandatory":
- minigame skip
- the ME2 mod that only triggers the main quest by player action (a new button on the ship computer)

The rest can be up to personal preferences, like hiding visors and helmets. Definitely get the remasters if you can get a deal on third-party sellers.

More of a suggestion on tone: I don't know how you played the first but I highly suggest renegade, with the exception of sparing people in 1 so they reappear in 2 and 3 for continuity. The renegade dialogues are just more fun and more impactful than the limp-wristed paragon.

(Speaking of, as someone who does like Andromeda that's the one thing that bothered me: the non-committal "the HR hag is watching over the writer's shoulder" dialogues.)

In Mass Effect 2, recruit Thane rapidly, because you get the Viper sniper rifle, a workhorse that will carry you much more than the Mattock.

ME2 again: IFF mission as late as possible, followed by Tali's loyalty mission (taking Legion with you for max reactivity), followed by Legion's loyalty mission. The mod to manually triggers the main mission makes this less pushy, you can recruit Legion as soon as he becomes available.

ME3: citadel DLC dead last before the point of no-return. Clearly intended as a last send-off.

And of course play on hard difficulty or above. High is a great example of a "casual" hard mode where enemies die fast but you still get gibbed if you do something stupid.

 

[We've all been there]

ME2 again: IFF mission as late as possible, followed by Tali's loyalty mission (taking Legion with you for max reactivity), followed by Legion's loyalty mission. The mod to manually triggers the main mission makes this less pushy, you can recruit Legion as soon as he becomes available.

Get the early recruitment mod and this isn't an issue. You can get Legion from the beginning (although you can't do this loyalty mission until after the IFF).

ME3: citadel DLC dead last before the point of no-return. Clearly intended as a last send-off.

There are two ME3 mods that fix this (3 if you get the one that fixes Priority: Earth also). One is called citadel epilogue and the other is called something like the happy ending mod, don't remember the exact name but it's one of the most popular ME3 mods and easy to find. They work together out of the box I think.

Personally, I use a few qol and content mods for ME1, but it doesn't really need them. My mod list typically included mods that add more details to the galaxy map and one that marks all points of interest on planets automatically (Charted Worlds I think).

ME2, for sure skip mini games and delay main quests. There are also some for integrating DLC armors, revising weapons so you can have an a la carte load out like ME3 and reverting to a weapon cooldown like in ME1, individual cooldowns for abilities instead of universal cooldown, plus the aforementioned early recruitment.

ME3 has lots of good mods that make the game much more pleasant and improves the story. The three already mentioned, plus better DLC mission, weapon and armor integration, Spectre expansion mod, Miranda mod, no universal cooldowns.

I use a bunch more as a matter of taste, but I consider these essential, except maybe removing ammo and reinstituting weapon cooldown in ME2.

 

[Miller]

I'm of half a mind to play through ME1-3 again but this time on PC. I already own the original trilogy, so no LE. Any mod recommendations?
Also wish I could find non-LE versions of the mods used for this broshep. It IS a dress up game for women, after all.

I don't know much about the original versions of ME on PC. I was looking on Nexus to see if some of the LE mods were ported to the original versions, for ME3 there's the Expanded Galaxy mod that adds QoL and more customization.

As for the LE that's what I used when I played it:

Spoiler

LE1 Community Patch (Mass Effect 1)

Trilogy save editor (in case you want to change stuff without having to replay the entire thing)

Unofficial LE2 patch (Mass Effect 2)
LE2 Prologue Framework (it's for the other mods)
One Probe All Resources (as it says on the tin)
Combined Ammo Mod LE2 (replaces the thermal clips with the classic heatsink energy from ME1)
Sheploo Appearance Consistency Project (fixes default male Shepard skin and model)
Miranda Butt Shot restoration (fixes the censored camera)
Casual Hubs (makes Shepard and his/her squadmates wear casual outfits when they are on the Citadel)
Wrex and Wreav Consistency mod
Expanded Shepard Armory

LE3 Community patch (Mass Effect 3)
Smoother GUI
Combined Ammo Mod LE3 (like the LE2 version, replaces thermal clips with a system similar to the heatsink)
Weapon Zoom FOV (allows you to modify the FOV)
ME3LE No Reaper wide scan FOV 100 (changes the FOV of the camera)
ME3 Expanded Galaxy (new weapons and QoL stuff)
Unique Udina Face (restores the unused Udina face model)

 

[Peaches the Wonder Cat]

ME3: citadel DLC dead last before the point of no-return. Clearly intended as a last send-off.

Citadel has a few parts. You can do the main mission early, some people do it to get the ME1 style gun with unlimited ammo and heat sinks. That's personal taste though you should wait until you meet up with the Quarians so Tali can come.

The rest, definitely wait until the end for the big party.

 

[We've all been there]

As for the LE that's what I used when I played it:

I always forget the community patches because they're so foundational lol. Also the diversity projects mix up the background NPCs and add ones that were added later like female turians.

 

[Activelo]

I already own the original trilogy, so no LE. Any mod recommendations?

Can't really speak for the original trilogy, but LE consistently goes for $15 or even $5 on Steam during sales.

Here's what I'm using right now or seen recommended, along with a couple of meme mods.

Spoiler

Trilogy-Wide:
A Lot Of Textures - Graphical overhaul using both AI and manual adjustments/enhancements where needed. Not personally a fan of AI upscales, but it has 760000 downloads for a reason.
A Lot Of Videos - Ditto with ALOT, but with the pre-rendered cutscenes.

ME1:
Community Patch - Fixes hundreds of bugs.
Diversification Project - Adjusts numerous background NPCs to bring more species diversity into the setting, adds NPCs to barren areas, rebalances hub populations to be more lore accurate, etc. Also restores some missing NPCS, items, and over 500 lines of dialogue. Note that this will override some settings in the Community Patch and requires you to also install Halcyon Hairpack and Advanced Weapon Models.
Pinnacle Station - Completely restores the DLC to the Legendary Edition, which wasn't included due to Bioware losing the source code.
MELLO - Restores the dynamic lighting that was lost from the original ME1, along with a handful of bug fixes, cinematic fixes, and optional postprocessing updates (bloom, motion blur and film grain).
Saren Stages - IIRC, Saren was originally supposed to gradually transform throughout the game each time you meet him, and Bioware scrapped this in favor of his more conspicuous appearance, but not before the transformation idea made its way into the script. This mod restores the original idea and, especially early on, helps explain why Nihlus and the Council could see him and still trust him rather than ignoring the blatant implants.
Dossiers Restored - Restores character dossiers from the defunct ME1 website as well as cut codex entries, For example. it contained additional facts about the Mako, more details about how humanity discovered the mass relays and built Arcturus Station, and other worldbuilding stuff. The only entry that was purposely not restored is the one about the Harvesters due to its questionable place in canon and the fact that it was absent from the ME3 multiplayer website, which kept the other stuff. Requires you to also install Private Message Terminal.
Appearance Modification Menu - Customize Shepard and your squadmates with hundreds of outfits and lets you override appearances in combat, even for immersion-breaking stuff like naked doll Shepard in the vacuum of space if you toggle the option.
Squid's Squad Outfits - Adds more casual clothing to every squadmate, like Tali wearing male Shepard's big hoodie from ME3. Requires you to install the Appearance Modification Menu first.

ME2:
Unofficial LE2 Patch - Fixes hundreds of bugs, same as the first game.
Miranda Butt Shot Restored - For Miranda simps wishing to undo Bioware's censorship.
Lighting Restoration - Changes lights, heightfogs, and dynamic lights to bring back the tones from the Original Trilogy version of ME2 for some scenes in LE2.
Mission Results Screen Fix - Fixes the results screen being tiny and properly scales it to your monitor size.
Early Recruitment - Allows you to recruit any squadmate in any order as was originally intended, which had to be changed due to the game being split into two discs for consoles back then.
Cerberus Daily News Emails - Incorporates the defunct Cerberus Daily News articles that Bioware wrote for the main menu of the original trilogy, by adding them into the LE as emails. This only includes a third of them (or just over 50 articles), and only the ones more relevant to the narrative/games instead of every article. This is because there's 5 times as many articles as there are missions, so there would be no way to space them out realistically and you'd get absolutely bombarded with dozens of emails after every single mission. Only thing I'm not a fan of is the original "flavor" emails written by the modder for what's supposed to be a straight restoration.

ME3:
Community Patch - Ditto as the first two, fixes hundreds of bugs.
Diversification Project - Just like ME1, diversifies the game with better species and outfit/appearance balancing. Is subtler and more vanilla-friendly than Project Variety and is NOT compatible with it, so pick one.
Project Variety - Overhauls the game by adding new hubs, diversifying the Citadel population, restoring cut content, and much more, with thousands of changable options via mod settings. Has more bolder changes than Diversification Project and is NOT compatible with it, so pick one.
Expanded Universe - Mod Menu - Allows you to tailor which books, comics, games, and films you've read/played, letting other mods tailor specific content depending on what you toggle. This is required for stuff like the Diversification Project and Take Earth Back.
Miranda Butt Shot Restoration - Same thing, but for ME3.
Anderson's Final Conversation Restored - This restores cut content with Anderson in the ending, extending the conversation.
Reworked Kai Leng or Shut Up Leng - Changes Kai Leng to be less annoying. The former tries to keep as much of him as possible while the latter tries to removes him as much as possible, and both involve taping his mouth shut (or changing his dialogue for the former).
Admiral Daro'Xen Restored - Restores Daro'Xen's war asset that was apparently not ported over to the LE version of ME3
iOS Datapad Messages Integration - Implements the text messages you receive from the now defunct tie-in Datapad mobile app into the game. For those who don't like the vanilla versions of the messages or think they're flawed, use the Datapad App Messages Expanded version instead, which expands on them like the name suggests.
Unextended Cut - Restores the original 2012 release ending for the morbidly curious.
Reduced Plot Armor - Adds a random chance of Shepard dying in cutscenes and includes a hard mode you can toggle for more checks, increased chances for death, and apparently a potential new ending.

 

[StacticShock]

Citadel has a few parts. You can do the main mission early, some people do it to get the ME1 style gun with unlimited ammo and heat sinks. That's personal taste though you should wait until you meet up with the Quarians so Tali can come.

just go with garrus...

 

[Franz Joseph]

Despite 3 being a mixed bag, Meer fully comes into it and as a whole he ends up the better choice. Hale starts out OK, but as the series slides in quality so does her performance. Meer starts relatively decent but by the end he kicks ass no matter the dialogue option

^This, I vastly prefer Meer's performance to Hale. I never got the praise that was heaped onto Hale for FemShep, her performance in the trilogy just boils down to girl boss and slightly more pissed off girl boss.

 

[Kane Lives]

^This, I vastly prefer Meer's performance to Hale. I never got the praise that was heaped onto Hale for FemShep, her performance in the trilogy just boils down to girl boss and slightly more pissed off girl boss.

Girl boss was novel during those halcyon years. I agree though, I came to appreciate Meer's performance more than Hale's over the years.

 

[Sog Dog]

Girl boss was novel during those halcyon years. I agree though, I came to appreciate Meer's performance more than Hale's over the years.

I really liked how Meer grew as a voice actor over the course of the series. Makes it almost like Shep is getting more comfortable in his own role.

 

[Throng of Titans]

^This, I vastly prefer Meer's performance to Hale. I never got the praise that was heaped onto Hale for FemShep, her performance in the trilogy just boils down to girl boss and slightly more pissed off girl boss.

I finally buckled down and played some Femshep and I was totally lost as to the insane hype surrounding her. She is constantly putting on this "breathy tough girl" voice and never bends from it. It sounds very forced and heavily limits her range compared to Meer, who yes, has some awkward lines in 1, but overall sounds far more natural and like a person who reacts to things rather than an emotionless "tough" character.

 

[Commander Shepard]

I am probably biased, but Meer's Shepard was always the best especially if you played renegade. His deadpan delivery for a lot of the lines fit perfectly.

 

[Disdainer of the Plebs]

Now the mass effect storyline could very well have benefitted from being q game or two longer, but as it is Mass Effect just barely escaped the beginning of DEI gaming.

No it didn't. They blasted half the crew with the fag ray in 3, including Kaiden (which admittedly I didn't know until much later because I left his boring ass to die on Virmire every time.) The existence of Jacob. Shit, you can lez out with Liara for the entire trilogy. Bioware were always progressive, and the Obama era gave them carte blanche to go nuts with the fagshit. It was always there, it just dropped in quality and was less subtle the more audacious they got. This faggot (power word Patrick Weekes) wrote most of the offending material and went on to be a prominent writer for veilguard.

 

[Miller]

This faggot (power word Patrick Weekes) wrote most of the offending material and went on to be a prominent writer for veilguard.

That's why the argument of Bioware A or B team makes no sense, the same writers work on ME and DA.