After a very well spent Christmas Break (and some sleep lost over Far Cry 3), I'm back and I'll kick off with talking more about the setting and the structure of the game. I'm not COMPLETELY shore up on every little detail of the Mass Effect Universe so try not to crucify me too much. And please feel free to comment, I'd love some feedback, yes you 20 some odd regulars and you 6 other people (math is totally off but to hell with it!), tell me what you think.
MEO, as I've dubbed it, is set approximately 200 years after the Reapers' defeat with the Crucible. During this time, the races of the Council have perfected the Reaper's technology, now that the threat of indoctrination was null and the millions of dead husks floating adrift after the battle to salvage, gaining the ability to construct Mass Relays and rebuild the Citadel space station.
As the Citadel nears the end of its construction, tensions begin rising as an exceedingly heated topic of discussion raises up among many of the sentient races of the Galaxy; who should receive credit for the fall of the Reapers, and thus the increase in prosperity that has encompassed the whole of the galaxy. Old issues rise to the surface as the question soon enveloped the minds of even the Council.
Open violence broke out even among the council and soon every race found themselves scrambling for arms to defend their beliefs, or scrambling for shelter to avoid the Galactic Civil War that erupting in the heart of the newly rebuilt Citadel.
The player begins just before the climax of the the debates, and gets to bare witness to the events that start the war firsthand by the end of their first 'area' or about level 10.
We of course do not want to force the player to experience the story if they don't want to, though its likely to become a main focus for many of the players in the game, and we want them to encourage the multiplayer aspect of the game. We don't want the game to seem like SWTOR was; A singleplayer game built in an MMO.
During the course of the story missions and soloplay, the Player will have access to Squadmates, or AI controlled party members that will assist the player through their game play. The squad will be automatically tailored to the player's specialization choices, and evolve as the player progresses through soloplay AND PvP. But, as the Squadmates belong to their respective military, the player cannot use them in Endgame PVE content which is filled in the role of a private contractor. I'll cover these NPC's at a later date.
Gameplay will be divided up amongst three different gameplay 'types'; Storyplay, Merc-play, and Conquest.
In storyplay, the player will be placed in story specific areas and situations in an open world that evolves as they participate in the action. As the story in a certain area progresses, the area begins to change. As well, this is not a solitary instance but an open 'planet' where players and squads can still interact. PvP can happen between the two or three factions depending on who is fighting for the system or the planet.
In Merc-play, players will participate in a more traditional PvE experience. While taking part in this, all faction restrictions are removed, allowing players to trade, buy and sell while in the Hub, and allowing them to party together to handle contracts and operations, which fill the role of Dungeons and Raids respectively, as well as fullfilling smaller time contracts in concert which fill the role of more daily activities.
Players can also compete in Arena and tournament style PvP in the Merc-zones of the game which function like Guild Wars 2's Structured PVP system and equalizes all participants and brings the focus in more on strategy, build, and player ability.
And finally, in Conquest, the Player will join their race in their bid for the Citadel in a massive Six-way evergoing battle. Here the player will have access to their squad and will be able to join a battalion under the command of a player general who will wage war against each other for territory.
All six races have a specific wing of the Citadel that was designed by their race. Certain areas carry certain bonuses or advantages, such as a Factory will reduce the requistion time of Heavy Vehicles (Non-player controlled but still devastating), or a Hospital will reduce the downtime of routed squads (player 'deaths' when all units under their control have been incapacitated).
As well, every wing will have a unique building that provide bonuses tailored to the race that built the wing, such as the Asari Ward Research Center, players will be able to teleport to . As well, the Wards will contain Shuttle bays which allow squads to cross between Wards depending on where their connecting Bay is, which require squads to assault the connecting bay until they can capture it, which will allow for safe transit between the Wards.
On every race's home ward, there is an Operations Base that cannot be captured or assaulted due to extremely heavy fortifications. This is also where players will join the action, leave the Citadel, regroup, as well as where Heavy Vehicles for the home ward spawn.
The Presidium is the goal, the ideal capture, which allows the controlling race to deploy NPC support (Heavy Vehicles etc.) along all six wards as well as their own, as well as make any points they control take twice as long to capture, a counter to this however is that the controlling race also has a capture delay as it takes longer to set up fortifications.
Players start out exclusively in Story-play, until they complete a certain series of quests which gets them a full squad, up to speed on the game setting, and have themselves immersed in a character.
After the players reach that point, they're free to do as they please, which is preferably level 10.
The Story players experience will be a combination of semi-random events and missions as well as pre-set story missions that are dictated in character creation.
Tomorrow, I'll cover Character; Creation, Customization, and Comradery.
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