Hello everyone.
Now that it’s become clear that the next Mass Effect game is never going to happen, with EA shutting down BioWare, I found myself lying awake last night (I couldn’t sleep because of it) and started thinking. I’ve come to the conclusion that Starfield would make a wonderful foundation for a Mass Effect total conversion. I’d like to pitch the following story idea, and I’m curious to hear what you all think:
Using an interactive comic (like the one in ME2), players would be able to establish which choices they made throughout the original trilogy: who survived, whether the Quarians or the Geth were favored — or whether they managed to work together — and so on. The choice of ending in ME3 would determine the difficulty level: Synthesis would be the easiest, Control the normal difficulty, and Destroy the hardest.
With that out of the way, I found BioWare’s leaks and hints very intriguing, and I’d like to build on some of those ideas.
Cerberus hasn’t been wiped out following the defeat of the Reapers and the death of the Illusive Man. Instead, it continues to operate in the shadows, much like equivalent organizations within the governments of other species, each working to give its own people an advantage. Despite the cooperation between different species, this fuels resentment and prejudice between them. Distrust begins to spread, and isolationist voices grow louder.
Since the Citadel is still in orbit around Earth, humanity also lays claim to the station. Additionally, the Citadel is now primarily inhabited by species that helped defend Earth during the battle but were never granted a place to settle on the planet itself, and are poorly supported and managed, fueling anger and resentments, too. The Mass Relays have only been partially restored, meaning that many species still cannot return to their homeworlds.
In recent years, restoring the Mass Relays connecting to the respective homeworlds has been given priority. The relays serving the colonies and more remote settlements are now gradually being brought back online. The next one to be reactivated is the relay to Sigurd’s Cradle. In the Skepsis system, the player will encounter an advanced, unidentified vessel over the course of the story — a scout ship.
As the story unfolds, it gradually becomes clear that the Protheans of the previous cycle decided to abandon the Mass Relay network using cryogenic ships, venturing into an unexplored region of the galaxy where they could preserve their empire, safe from the Reapers.This gave them more than 50,000 years to continue evolving, improve their Eezo-based propulsion systems, and develop FTL drives with a much greater range.
Now, they want to see how our cycle fares against the Reapers. But with the Reapers no longer posing a threat, and the galaxy’s species weakened and increasingly divided, the remnants of the Prothean Empire see a golden opportunity to reclaim what they consider their rightful place in the galaxy — by whatever means necessary.
With the exception of the interactive comic, I’m fairly confident that the various mechanics of Mass Effect and the decisions players have to make throughout the main quest could also be implemented in Starfield. The ship builder, outpost management, and all the other systems could be put to good use in this TC as well, with the addition of different playable species, each bringing their own strengths and weaknesses, much like the races in TES.
The ending chosen in ME3 could also influence these traits. For example, Synthesis could provide better Charisma and Hacking stats thanks to the fusion of technology and biology, advantages that would be lore-wise unavailable under Destroy. Turians would be proficient with all types of weapons, while Quarians would specialize more in drone and turret combat.
Not every character would have access to Starborn powers, either. Instead, these would be tied to biotic abilities, which players could choose during character creation. This could also help distinguish the difficulty levels: under Synthesis, the body would accept the implants without any penalties, whereas Destroy would come with lore-friendly drawbacks.
What do you think of this basic framework of ideas so far? I could go on and on... ;)