Why hello, I didn't see you there. Please, step in. Don't worry, despite us never having met, my alien translator perfectly converts our conversation to English. What? Yours doesn't? You should see a doctor about that...
Factions - Broader Strokes
Factions - Broader Strokes
THE ANGARAN... and Jaal: As a written character, Jaal is fine enough, if you're willing to settle for that. He's the poster boy for his species and as such, is our window into their culture. Our experience with him will either help define his race or defy stereotypical expectations. Many characters in Mass Effect tend to fall outside the norm of their culture. They serve as exposition to their people's norms while also highlighting how and why differ.
*My biggest gripe with Jaal has to do with the god-awful writing, scripting, and direction of his loyalty quest. It's not even a terrible premise, it's just executed with utter nonsense. A sub faction of the Angaran are hostile to any foreign aliens, which is fair considering the first contact they had was with the main villains of the game who ruined their civilization. Jaal's quest involves reaching out to them and persuading them that the milky way new guys are actually okay.
No one's motivations make any sense during the quest. People are shot, left to die, and apparently survive anyways. Then the person who shot them later walks back into the scene apologizing for killing that person, despite totally believing in their cause five minutes earlier (enough to shoot her brother, point blank! But he survives so it's cool).
Then the leader of the resistance can't come up for a good argument for his entire cause (despite being sooooo charismatic as mentioned by others) in front of his followers. And then when Jaal succeeds in verbally defeating him, his entire group just leaves because their leader looks dumb. I guess they didn't believe in their cause after all if it was that easy...
Jaal claims to be just another member of his species. The Angaran are said to be an underdog race of close to nature aliens that emphasize emotion and familial bonds. Their entire culture is meant to play on your sympathies from a writing point of view. This, however, creates two problems. One is that in an entirely new galaxy, even just a cluster, the very next species we find is still humanoid and easy to relate to, to the point of being able to romance them. I'm not against finding love in strange or unique places but it feels like a cheap way to have us connect to the Angarans instead of thoughtfully engaging them as actual aliens.
*The Geth in ME2 introduced us to the idea of anthropomorphizing our values onto an alien species as racist. The Angaran could stand to be more unique and less of an indigenous race that needs saving from a "civilized people."
For a story about colonizing already claimed regions, this story sure doesn't touch on any darker aspects to that venture. It plays with those ideas; like starving due to lack of resources, rampant deaths due to lack of planning and proper authorities. But it doesn't follow through with them, we're too busy having a fun cowboy adventure. Even first contact failures only occur once (minus an AI sub quest that goes nowhere).
The Anagaran in Andromeda should play up the emotional demands of their writing. If I were to change one thing, it would be this. I would turn them into Shakespearean tragics of every range. Their passions and emotions often take control of them, leaving them as a cast of Cesars, Romeos & Juliets, Othellos, Brutus, and Edmunds. An unpredictable race of passion players would spice up the narrative and keep you on your toes for who you befriend and whatever plans they have in place.
It's not much but I feel it helps my tonal concerns more than anything, with some more dynamics thrown in the mix.
KETT: Spoilers, this race of super evil gene thieves goes around stealing other race's genes. Some of theirCollectors forces are actually indoctrinated exalted Angarans. They are implied to have a super evil empire (gotta have that cliff hanger) but we're only dealing with a small faction in Andromeda. To the writer's credit, there are moments where we can negotiate with some of them. Even our first contact scenario allows us to holster the gun in an attempt to talk things out. We end up shooting anyways but I really appreciate the chance to role play.
My change to the Kett is snuff out any implications of a lager empire, current means of reproduction and their superiority complexes. How could a race possibly exist and reproduce through evolution when they use technology to reproduce? They didn't always have this technology so how did they do it originally? There's no indication that they have something in their physiology that performs this function.
In order to facilitate their role, the Kett should utilize a cosmic phenomenon to not only increase their numbers but owe their existence to. I'm taking a page out of the Gears of War franchise and tuning the Kett to be transformed versions of other species exposed to the Scourge. We're still having them assume similar roles to the Reapers but in this way, the relationship is parasitic and not controlled by machines and ideals but by chaotic wonders of the universe.
They can still treat exaltation as ascending to a higher form of being but in this setting, there should be a priority to treat new things with a sense of dread and curiosity. What's the point of a new setting if the characters don't react to it? Establishing relations to this new species could reflect your own actions against a seemingly zombified hoard.
Players don't need to be talked down to by the bad guy to know they're bad. That was the problem with Kai Leng in ME3. The writers thought he would be a great bad guy because the game forced you to lose and look dumb when he showed up. But that behavior only frustrates players and makes them bitter towards the entire experience and not in an immersive way.
REMNANT: Alright, I'm going to spoil another twist for the game about our new special robots and the Angaran. It's discovered partway through the game that an ancient race of aliens, known as the Jaardan, created both the Remnant and Angaran, as well as the terraforming vaults around Andromeda. The Remnant themselves have no sapience of any kind.
*For a plot that's supposedly trying to be different from the original trilogy, this setup sure is identical to the old one:
Ancient technology left by mysterious race?
CHECK
Enemy race that wants to convert all of us into them for reproduction?
CHECK
Do they claim we're beyond their comprehension?
CHECK
Political system that insists on not helping us?
SUPER CHECK
My change to the Remnant is having them be fully-aware AI that were left by the Jaardan. As leftover servants, they are essentially searching for either their old creators or some new race to assume the controls behind their vast array of tech lying around (I refuse for it to be humans). Different sects of Remnant might change sides often based on who they believe would better use their technology. Some dedicated to combat might value the aggression of the Kett. Others who value social ties and self-reflection would go with the Angaran. The rest that value more advanced cooperation would jump in with the Initiative. This would all depend on a particular Remnant's programming and preference.
The point here is to create a sense of agency and illusion of flux within your enemies. Even if there are only two end states for a given faction, this illusion is important for players to take the game seriously. If players don't feel like things could change due to their actions, there's no feedback, thereby dissolving all the tension.
BENEFACTOR: As mentioned in an earlier part, there's a subplot in the game that alludes to the Initiative being funded by a secretive and manipulative shadow figure known only as the benefactor. With Andromeda and it's content being shelved recently, I'm not sure what they planned to have develop for this idea. But in my mind, the Benefactor would be the front and center antagonist that gets slowly revealed as this new series spreads it's wings. Like a pelican taking flight after gobbling up some poor tiny creature.
Similar to the Shadow Broker in the original trilogy, the Benefactor would be a necessary evil within this new frontier. They are known for manipulating both large and small scale events for long term gain. I don't want to play my hand to early with my thoughts for how to rework it into this new plot. As it's integral to my redesign doc, I'll reveal more about the Benefactor's new function as we discuss the plot next.
*My biggest gripe with Jaal has to do with the god-awful writing, scripting, and direction of his loyalty quest. It's not even a terrible premise, it's just executed with utter nonsense. A sub faction of the Angaran are hostile to any foreign aliens, which is fair considering the first contact they had was with the main villains of the game who ruined their civilization. Jaal's quest involves reaching out to them and persuading them that the milky way new guys are actually okay.
No one's motivations make any sense during the quest. People are shot, left to die, and apparently survive anyways. Then the person who shot them later walks back into the scene apologizing for killing that person, despite totally believing in their cause five minutes earlier (enough to shoot her brother, point blank! But he survives so it's cool).
Then the leader of the resistance can't come up for a good argument for his entire cause (despite being sooooo charismatic as mentioned by others) in front of his followers. And then when Jaal succeeds in verbally defeating him, his entire group just leaves because their leader looks dumb. I guess they didn't believe in their cause after all if it was that easy...
Jaal claims to be just another member of his species. The Angaran are said to be an underdog race of close to nature aliens that emphasize emotion and familial bonds. Their entire culture is meant to play on your sympathies from a writing point of view. This, however, creates two problems. One is that in an entirely new galaxy, even just a cluster, the very next species we find is still humanoid and easy to relate to, to the point of being able to romance them. I'm not against finding love in strange or unique places but it feels like a cheap way to have us connect to the Angarans instead of thoughtfully engaging them as actual aliens.
*The Geth in ME2 introduced us to the idea of anthropomorphizing our values onto an alien species as racist. The Angaran could stand to be more unique and less of an indigenous race that needs saving from a "civilized people."
For a story about colonizing already claimed regions, this story sure doesn't touch on any darker aspects to that venture. It plays with those ideas; like starving due to lack of resources, rampant deaths due to lack of planning and proper authorities. But it doesn't follow through with them, we're too busy having a fun cowboy adventure. Even first contact failures only occur once (minus an AI sub quest that goes nowhere).
The Anagaran in Andromeda should play up the emotional demands of their writing. If I were to change one thing, it would be this. I would turn them into Shakespearean tragics of every range. Their passions and emotions often take control of them, leaving them as a cast of Cesars, Romeos & Juliets, Othellos, Brutus, and Edmunds. An unpredictable race of passion players would spice up the narrative and keep you on your toes for who you befriend and whatever plans they have in place.
It's not much but I feel it helps my tonal concerns more than anything, with some more dynamics thrown in the mix.
KETT: Spoilers, this race of super evil gene thieves goes around stealing other race's genes. Some of their
My change to the Kett is snuff out any implications of a lager empire, current means of reproduction and their superiority complexes. How could a race possibly exist and reproduce through evolution when they use technology to reproduce? They didn't always have this technology so how did they do it originally? There's no indication that they have something in their physiology that performs this function.
In order to facilitate their role, the Kett should utilize a cosmic phenomenon to not only increase their numbers but owe their existence to. I'm taking a page out of the Gears of War franchise and tuning the Kett to be transformed versions of other species exposed to the Scourge. We're still having them assume similar roles to the Reapers but in this way, the relationship is parasitic and not controlled by machines and ideals but by chaotic wonders of the universe.
They can still treat exaltation as ascending to a higher form of being but in this setting, there should be a priority to treat new things with a sense of dread and curiosity. What's the point of a new setting if the characters don't react to it? Establishing relations to this new species could reflect your own actions against a seemingly zombified hoard.
Players don't need to be talked down to by the bad guy to know they're bad. That was the problem with Kai Leng in ME3. The writers thought he would be a great bad guy because the game forced you to lose and look dumb when he showed up. But that behavior only frustrates players and makes them bitter towards the entire experience and not in an immersive way.
REMNANT: Alright, I'm going to spoil another twist for the game about our new special robots and the Angaran. It's discovered partway through the game that an ancient race of aliens, known as the Jaardan, created both the Remnant and Angaran, as well as the terraforming vaults around Andromeda. The Remnant themselves have no sapience of any kind.
*For a plot that's supposedly trying to be different from the original trilogy, this setup sure is identical to the old one:
Ancient technology left by mysterious race?
CHECK
Enemy race that wants to convert all of us into them for reproduction?
CHECK
Do they claim we're beyond their comprehension?
CHECK
Political system that insists on not helping us?
SUPER CHECK
My change to the Remnant is having them be fully-aware AI that were left by the Jaardan. As leftover servants, they are essentially searching for either their old creators or some new race to assume the controls behind their vast array of tech lying around (I refuse for it to be humans). Different sects of Remnant might change sides often based on who they believe would better use their technology. Some dedicated to combat might value the aggression of the Kett. Others who value social ties and self-reflection would go with the Angaran. The rest that value more advanced cooperation would jump in with the Initiative. This would all depend on a particular Remnant's programming and preference.
The point here is to create a sense of agency and illusion of flux within your enemies. Even if there are only two end states for a given faction, this illusion is important for players to take the game seriously. If players don't feel like things could change due to their actions, there's no feedback, thereby dissolving all the tension.
BENEFACTOR: As mentioned in an earlier part, there's a subplot in the game that alludes to the Initiative being funded by a secretive and manipulative shadow figure known only as the benefactor. With Andromeda and it's content being shelved recently, I'm not sure what they planned to have develop for this idea. But in my mind, the Benefactor would be the front and center antagonist that gets slowly revealed as this new series spreads it's wings. Like a pelican taking flight after gobbling up some poor tiny creature.
Similar to the Shadow Broker in the original trilogy, the Benefactor would be a necessary evil within this new frontier. They are known for manipulating both large and small scale events for long term gain. I don't want to play my hand to early with my thoughts for how to rework it into this new plot. As it's integral to my redesign doc, I'll reveal more about the Benefactor's new function as we discuss the plot next.
- Gabriel A. Franco
Writer, Gamer, and Proud member of Huffle N' Stuff
@GabenStuff
Writer, Gamer, and Proud member of Huffle N' Stuff
@GabenStuff
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