Mass Effect Andromeda Single Player Story DLC

Yeah, I dunno Fred. Though valiant attempts, you still have to basically make the past forgotten because you have 3 of them. Three possible futures is one thing since they haven't happened yet as the game ends with that choice.

But 3 different pasts is a little harder to explain so you'll have to make it all go away and I think a lot of people will complain about it. I mean the whole Shepard story would have to be more obscure than the Protheans ever were.

Ideally you'd need some cataclysmic event that makes the previous 3 possible pasts irrelevant for one and the same reason and not different ones and this event would have to wipe out any knowledge except perhaps the most rudimentary bits to ensure it all at least looks like one past. 

And then you'd have to explain how this cataclysmic event didn't wipe out life till the point of extinction because if people survived, why would they've forgotten the past?

It's just all a bit too iffy in my view to even touch for them. 

I think unfortunate as it may be it's best to leave the Shepard story alone and focus on something different unless it's an actual reboot perhaps. But I wonder if BioWare is even wanting to touch the Shepard story again. For me an enhanced trilogy with all the DLC is something I'd happily spend money on for example and that may be enough.

As for the Andromeda tangent, well, the Heleus cluster has become a bit of a cluster f*** in my view so we also need to get away from the Ryder story. I just don't think that the Pathfinder angle really worked. Maybe we can start at a point where the AI has fallen apart with some Kett wars and the new protagonist is leading what's left of the survivors to the area where the Remnant originated to start over. The Quarian ark would've already arrived so we have the old races back on board as well and we would've lost a big battle with the Kett that we just escaped from but as the Kett would've suffered significant losses they don't have the momentum to pursue us. 

Then in this new refuge (the old home of the creators of the Remnant who have died out ages ago) we discover that they already experimented with creating life and we find more local races that are perhaps a bit more flawed and we can decide to help them evolve, survive, or even fight them. That way we could sort of build a new cluster of alliances, or occupation or destroy some of them to see how we can build the strongest society to fight the Kett who one day will find us and try to take revenge on us no doubt.

Perhaps you lead people to freedom from the Kett but politics started brewing even before arriving and while you are out trying to strike new alliances, subjugate people or whatever you see as right, you may find your own people splitting in factions and depending on your choices they will side with you or be against you. 

I would like the idea of having a power base that's split that you try to go along with you but they won't all play nice and they will also form their opinions based on your decisions in dealing with other races on new planets and in general. So you're basically trying to build two alliances at the same time: your home base and between the planets if you know what I mean.

This setting could be used as much for a new single player game as a mmo style game if that's the idea for the future. In that respect it could even open up playing different races and not just genders as anybody could be the one who lead us to relative safety.

So maybe people find this a terrible idea and that's ok lol, but I think that BioWare may not be keen on revisiting the Shepard era. Hence my attempt to give Andromeda another chance but in a way that might make it more interesting (well that's my personal view of course hehe).

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@Fred_vdp wrote:

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@EgoMania wrote:

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Just one slight issue. You may remember that Mass Effect 3 had multiple endings, so which version of the Milky Way should they connect to? I'm pretty sure that no matter which one they pick, there will be a crapstorm of complaints. I mean it does kinda make a difference if the races still exist individually or whether they got that shared DNA which is basically biotech in nature.

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I've thought about this and I believe the three endings (not counting the one where everybody dies) can be railroaded.

Destroy - The Reapers are gone. The galactic civilizations work together to rebuild what was lost.

Control - The Reapers make repairs, then fly into a sun.

Synthesis - The Reapers make repairs, then fly into a sun. Synthesis causes complications in all lifeforms, whose bodies reject synthesis, causing everyone and everything to revert to normal.

A theory I had while playing Mass Effect Andromeda was that the species in Andromeda originate from the Milky Way since they are humanoid and use technology similar to ours. While this turned out not to be the case, I still think a similar idea could be used. One way to bridge the games is if ark ships left after the Andromeda Initiative but arrived sooner due to technological advancements.

I hereby give BioWare and EA permission to use these ideas. 😉

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Really, I don't think we should really be looking at an integrated Andromeda/Milky Way universe anytime soon, although we should probably expect more ark ships coming in the near future, probably in various states of distress. That being the case, of the 4 endings, only 2 matter: either we win the battle of Earth, and Liara launches an ark program for herself and everyone else too scarred by the war to remain in the Milky Way, or we lose the battle of Earth and Liara heads up a top secret ark program trying to smuggle as many people out of the Milky Way as possible before the Reapers wipe us out. This is of course assuming no one smuggled a Conduit receiver on one of the arks or found a way to turn the Geth Relay Telescope into an intergalactic ship launcher.

I've thought about this and I believe the 4 endings can be railroaded.

Destroy - The Reapers are mostly gone. The galactic civilizations start to work together to rebuild what was lost, but the sudden loss of both a common enemy and many key leaders, including Shep, combined with the disruptions of war, old animosities, and newly revealed secrets cause the rise of new and resurgent factions and alliances that threaten the old order of the galaxy.

Control - The Reapers start to make repairs, but conflicts between Shep, Catalyst, Leviathan, and possibly Harbinger and one or more other Reaper generals trigger a civil war among the Reapers, with the galaxy caught in the crossfire.

Synthesis - The Reapers start to make repairs, but conflicts between Catalyst, Leviathan, and possibly Harbinger and one or more other Reaper generals trigger a civil war among the Reapers, with the galaxy caught in the crossfire. The galactic civilizations start to work together to rebuild what was lost, but the sudden loss of both a common enemy and many key leaders, including Shep, combined with the disruptions of war, old animosities, and newly revealed secrets cause the rise of new and resurgent factions and alliances that threaten the old order of the galaxy. Synthesis causes almost no effect in all lifeforms, besides increasing interspecies fertility. Joker and Edi have babies

Defy - The Crucible gets blown up, taking out Catalyst and Harbinger, leaving the Reapers leaderless. Leviathan and several of the Reaper generals try to seize control of the Reaper fleet, causing Reaper civil war and slowing galactic extermination. The surviving allies regroup and try to find ways to fight back while attempting to save as much of the surviving populace as possible.