#chancelipscomb

Ooooh that’s a tricky one. I hadn’t actually thought about what pokemon the generals would have, let alone restricting the choices to starters.

Here are my gut reaction choices:

 Lotor with Piplup, because it grows into an Emperor penguin.

Ezor with Treeko, because both are sassy.

Zethrid with either a Turtwig or Tepig, because both evolve into very big and tough pokemon.

Narti with a Snivy, just because it was the first thing I thought of because of it evolving into a giant snake and thought of Narti’s tail. 

Here’s an idea I had for the mice in the D&D au!

They all have their own classes and help the group in minor ways, but also have their own little campaign one-shots with Coran as the DM when the others are busy.

Wide-Open, New Worlds

With the canon of the Heleus Cluster being a ravaged wasteland, Bioware gave us an explorer’s playground with lots of space for expandable content. Critics argue that it was empty space, but it was an investment on future installments. We’ve settled into these decimated worlds and created a Milky-way friendly biome on them. To capitalize on it, simply do what settlers do: expand. DLC drop a new, post-game settlements. To facilitate a low-budget, fast paced schedule and reconcile fans of the series, I outlined a plan for modular DLC drops.  

1st DLC New Neighbors           $5-10

This one’s relatively cheap to produce. There’s not much new content and almost no new asset production, but it will give you an estimate of people willing to come back to your story.

Eos has its exile faction that wanted to mine the natural gas. If you helped them with the hammer, they’re underway. If you didn’t, they start stripping parts from the one you placed less than a kilometer away. Use pre-existing level assets, like Kadara & Elaaden’s caves, to build out a base for Ryder to explore. Drop a few hints with the exiles about the Benefactor’s assassin and leads to Kadara, for a bonus. Script out a peaceful and hostile solution for those settlers to build upon in future games. Key question: do they fold in with the Initiative, get blasted, or operate autonomously?

On Kadara, the assassin’s trail goes cold, but you learn that the Shadow Broker also has agents in Andromeda. They have new items to buy, and promises of quid pro quo. For the port itself, you simply see how your new power dynamic is playing out. Sloane or Reyes may have work hunting down the other faction, with Reyes having romance dialogue if courted. The Doc and bartenders may have some quests involving supply runs. Utilizing Vorn can tie Elaaden and the Nexus to the itinerary.

Not much has changed on the Nexus, H-047, or Elaaden, as newly awoken crew are funneled to settlements. The water crisis on Elaaden hasn’t changed yet, despite the vault and shipments from Voeld. New enemies in the Flophouse, and idle chatter over Okeer’s notes. Maybe spend some time reanimating Krogan fighting techniques.  

2nd DLC Voeld and Havarl       $15

As a two-for, this price point will be a little higher, but it has more content. With proper handling of the Eos pack and its nature, fans will be more eager.

Voeld and Havarl offer their own opportunity. Rather than new maps, focus on story expansion and lore here. The Angara have learned their origins and the truth about exaltation. In both places, they’re dealing with this. The Roekaar are leaderless, so address whether someone will fill the power gap or if they’ll be welcomed back by Evfra. Tie in the Glory Seekers here for added effect.

Use these stages to flesh out the body gestures for the existing dialogue system. This’ll draw attention away from stiff animations angst and give your developers better tools for future content, including DA:4 and other Frostbite titles. I haven’t seen your pipeline, but if this isn’t part of an art/animation workflow suite, you really need to hire me Bioware. I can make your life, and your fans, much happier.

On Havarl, expand upon the Mithrava lore and the ancient stellar maps we saved. Build some context around this new species. Crafty players now have access to shared scientific research thanks to the coop. That’s an opportunity for weapon/armor/item packs, not to mention ferry quests for flora to the Nexus and less fruitful planets. Use Jaal and his family to deepen our understanding as well. That’s a great place to flesh out angaran relationship culture. This’ll address fan feelings about the race and any animosity over Jaal’s romantic preferences.

For Voeld, pick up on the yevara poacher quest. These beasts will require modelling and animation, but your script made them a crucial bit of angaran history. We have evidence of living creatures on “The Lost Song” side quest. Since the Kett still have that huge fortress in the hills, prepare to drive them out for good. Organize the hunting party with the resistance. Now, get ready to drop the bomb: en route, you find a pair of Quarian escape pods. Since Voeld is now an ice planet, it makes sense they’d head there to limit foreign bacteria exposure. Thaw them out to reveal the fate of the Keelah Si’yah. Connect their audio log event to the assassin and Benefactor, implying their designs trace back to the Milky Way. It doesn’t have to be the core cause, but it’s important to keep that thread alive.

3rd DLC Quarian Ark    $5-10

Not going to lie, I want this to be free but it is content-heavy like DLC 2, so despite being an olive branch to fans, it’ll take money to make. The low cost still rewards fan loyalty.

Do not shortcut this one. Use the ME 2 assets to marry quarian style to the Initiative tech. Build the tertiary races like elcor, hanar, and drell… even if we only see them briefly. It’s both an investment in the franchise and rekindles that wonder and nostalgia from the original trilogy.

Not sure what the writers have in store, but based on the multiplayer additions, I’d say involve the Batarians and the Salarian pathfinder from the outset. With neither having a squad mate spot in Andromeda, there’s a huge opportunity here. Both have multiplayer and game models to source for single player inclusion.

If you followed up on DLC 2, let players pick the male or female Quarian escapee they want to party up with. The other will play a support role, like sibling Ryder. Vary their move-set if possible, but the story elements should be the focus of their addition. Build franchise characters like Tali so that their returns exceed development costs, and match accents with the original trilogy.

Now the rest depends on the plot direction scripted so far. If the Reaper-Geth or Reapers themselves followed the Initiative, there’s a much longer conversation I’d need to build this story. Open to chat, Bioware. I’ll even pitch it to EA for you. If the Benefactor, Kett, some malfunction, or Scourge are the culprit; tie up those loose ends here.

Kett: make it big and challenging. The Archon, like Corypheus, was a bust for a boss. Fighting the Architect in confinement was a nice touch, but if players tackled them already, it cheapened the experience. Craft an intense, unique battle that they’re eager to replay this DLC to repeat. The Primus is the perfect candidate, flouting that the Archon lost his way, and offering an ulterior motive to pulling their forces from the final battle. Since they aren’t present, even missing “Dissention in the Ranks” doesn’t upset the quest line. Finally, set up travel to Kett space or an invading armada for the true sequel.

Benefactor: Jien Garson’s body never turned up, and paired with Alec and SpecTRe agents seemingly littering the Initiative… they all point to the first-time game reveal of the Illusive Man’s identity, and his connection to Cora. You’ve laid out the dots connecting the Harpers and fans are clamoring for impact on their decisions. Make them wreathe. Does this shatter the pathfinder team’s core leadership, or will Ryder and gang be able to look past her heritage? Did she even have a relationship with her father? Could she be the assassin? That’d take some work to spin, but she was awake before Ryder and likely has special resources if so. In any case, it explores her character and the relationship to the crew. It ties two large settling points of the game plot together. Based on the outcome, you may even weave an enemy with very intimate knowledge of the crew into sequels. 

Scourge and Technical difficulties: The Quarians took on a lot to bring all those other races to Andromeda. For a sabotage angle, the original showed us that Reaper agents were embedded everywhere… even the Hanar, and by de facto, the Drell. Imagine fighting an indoctrinated version of Thane, or an enraged elcor. What if they were preventing the wake-up procedures? Have they evolved over the 600 year trip? What if the Volus simply seized the ship as an opportunity to create their own hierarchy, sick of their status in Council Space? Finally, as a technology based race, the Quarians face unique trials when it comes to the scourge, which wreaks havoc on any technology, even if it only actively seeks Rem-tech. This is pre-geth boosted immunity, but if the Krogan used their travel-time to adapt to the genophage, perhaps the Quarians did the same.

Photo credit: http://imgur.com/adSKpCx

Nihlus, a Turian SpecTRe, stood aboard the deck amid the Pilot’s cabin of the SR1 Normandy. A head taller than all but a few humans, he’s had little trouble asserting command here among them. A natural deference to stature was a leftover from their evolutionary mechanics. That gave him the leverage he needed, if the authority of being an elite agent of the Galactic Council didn’t already. The First Contact War put Turians and humans at odds. Thirty odd years may be a long time for them, but he’d seen their histories. Many still held a grudge.  Consciously, he’d been training himself to adopt common human mannerisms and customs. Most were cumbersome, even in their militia. Compared to the streamlined efficiency of the Hierarchy, they might as well all be elcor. Frivolous things could shatter allegiances, while matters of true import were muddled with protocol.

It was little more than an annoyance, but the humans were expanding. Unlike the Krogan, they could be reasoned with. For now. His true purpose here was to bridge that gap for the Council, before humanity unwittingly stumbled into the abyss. The batarians wanted blood. Hell even the volus were pissed. The Council saw an opportunity to chastise the Hegemony for its continued slave trade. So they let the humans push into the Skyllian Verge. It hadn’t worked, but with careful prodding, both species could be brought to bear. And so, here he was, striving to understand this new ally in order to assimilate them to the galaxy’s needs.

His official business was oversight of the maiden voyage of the Normandy. The space frigate had been designed to meld human and turian starship design. He hadn’t been involved with the construction of course. A SpecTRe, whatever talents they possessed, typically acted in a securities fashion, not as an engineer. He relished the thought of utilizing a fleet of turian cruisers with the Normandy’s stealth drive capability if it proved effective here. He liked to think he only admired its turian utility, but humans were damned fine craftsmen. Had to be to protect all those squishy bits. They lacked the natural armor plating that covered much of his body. A birthright of the richly irradiated Palaven. In the cascade of lights flickering around the bridge, even his ashen head crest and facial plates would gleam, refracting off their angular features.  

The pilot who called himself “Joker” of all things, was lining up the approach to the Mass Relay. Now those were ingenious creations! Supposedly left behind by a long extinct race the asari historians called Protheans. He’d seen a number of their ruins as a SpecTRe, and it nagged at him that the Relays didn’t fit the same design aesthetic. They were familiar, but not quite kin. It was like trying to put a blade in the wrong sheathe. But what did he know? Nihlus was just a soldier. Point and shoot were his wheelhouse. Fifty thousand years or more had muddied those waters. The Relays let fleets and traders traverse the galaxy faster than any known method available. They’d never broken, and the alternative could be a decade of travel that spanned minutes with a Relay. His own species had discovered Faster-Than-Light, or FTL, travel centuries ago, but hadn’t been able to push past a speed barrier of a few hours difference; a critical battle advantage to be sure, but the Relays changed the game entirely.

Normandy’s diagnostic run would lead to Eden Prime, a human colony in the Terminus. It bordered the lawless rim of Council space, where nefarious types wound up eventually to avoid the scrutiny and authority of the Hierarchy. Part of him hoped this budding truce with the humans could help his own people bring order here.