Mass Effect General Discussion (spoilers)

Do we have any description of what Volus look like?

I always thought they were mole people.

Come to think of it, since Volus live in the high pressure atmosphere of Irune, did their first jumps into space involve either the creation of lifesuits, or creating a ship that could support their native pressure inside of it?

I'd be very surprised if it's the latter. Can't really compare the pressure difference of ~1 atmosphere the first spaceships of most especies, humans included, must had withstood, and the ~60 atmospheres of difference the Volus would've had to deal with.

I suppose that is why volus engineering is supposed to be pretty decent - a species that can create a spaceship which can tolerate that much loss of pressure is no joke, even if they are the Butt-Monkey.

A lot of the species design comes down to needing them all to be humanoid in some fashion. Asari are really the only Green-Skinned Space Babe, Quarians are just slightly non-human in body shape (and, as we learn, have similar skin pigmentation to humans) and are completely covered up to not quite fit that trope.

Knowing the Volus, they probably went with the cheaper alternative.

I do wonder what purpose the whisker-like protusions are for in the nose region of the suit, however.

Or how Elcor eat. Seriously those mouths are odd.

(Also, in my head, Protheans will always have chitinous plates and wings under their armor, like the Collectors, but not to their degree of Body Horror; seriously, take a look at the Collector General and compare him with Javik)

And the Drell were designed as the Spear Counterpart of the Asari. Shame they didn't go further, making them full-on Spear-Asari, as Always Male and able to impregnate pretty much anybody else with Drell infants. Oh well, the eidetic memory deal is kinda neat, as is the far lower tolerance of ambient moisture.

I will say it again, it is a damn shame we don't see more of the native fauna of each planet; we see Varren, Harvesters, and those skullcrab things in Tuchanka (and Maws, but those may not be native), and some birds in Rannoch, and that's it. But come on, I want to see what different kind of mandibles all the creatures on Palaven have, for example.

edited 6th May '15 9:01:44 PM by Eriorguez

I find the drell hilarious. They spent months designing an alien species that would be a Spear Counterpart to the Asari (which I honestly really appreciate, it proves that Bioware cares about their players, even the ones attracted to men). There was an article all about how difficult it was for the male art team to design Thane, and all I could think was, "why not just ask a woman to design him?"

edited 6th May '15 11:22:48 PM by CalamityJane

I think they did end up asking for a woman's opinion, actually.

No, that's not what I meant. I meant rather than consult a woman, they should have given a female artist a pencil and asked her to design a green skinned space hunk.

edited 6th May '15 11:24:17 PM by CalamityJane

Either way, they succeeded. Woof.

@local fauna: designing a consistent environment is incredibly difficult. It is the one reason I think Avatar is a great movie despite its terrible story: the world that Cameron created is absolutely amazing, and rather consistent ecology-wise - Na'vi excepted, they should have two pairs of arms if they were native of Pandora, but it is the same thing than the Green-Skinned Space Babe trope already discussed for the drell.

But I doubt the brainstorming that led to the creation of Pandora was just two guys spending half an hour thinking about it. And after thinking about the fauna, they had to create the first artworks, then to animate it, which overall takes a lot of time.

Now, for Mass Effect, you would need to repeat the procedure for every major world you land on - or at least all the homeworlds bar maybe Tuchanka and Rakhana (Thessia, Palaven, Sur'Kesh, Irune, Rannoch, Kahje, Dekuuna, Heshtok, Khar'shan). And try to create an environment that A/feels unique B/is consistent with what the codex imples about local biology.

Recreating Dekuuna's fauna and flora would be rather difficult - how would life evolve in high-pressure environments? Same for Irune. Even Palaven and its high-radiation environment would be a challenge. As for Sur'kesh, it is also complicated to think of an ecosystem that follows the same rule than tropical ones without being identical to what is found on Earth.

So if there was a ME game that took place on a single world - yes, definitely. But in a space faring setup, I think it would require tremendous resources (after creating the fauna/flora, you need to add it in the game, which also takes time) that may be better allocated elsewhere.

Thane's big lips throw me off.

And the Na'vi had the explanation of their anthropomorphism by virtue of the parallel-monkey with arms with paired forearms. And it is not like we don't do crazy things with our evolving pathways: What accounts for a shark's upper and lower jaws are our "anvil" and "hammer" inner ear bones.

But yeah, agreeing on those points: I guess Dekkuna would have shrub-esque vegetation, avoiding ramification whenever possible, Palaven would have silver leaves...

It is a good exercise of worldbuilding, not vital, but having it would improve things.

And yeah, Thane falls within what people find attractive of men, rather than what men think people find attractive of them. Shame they shyed away from making him a bi option, could've worked very well.

And on the topic of Thane, I can't be the only one who thinks that having Kirrahe survive and Thane loyal should have made him live until after the Reaper war. Some cooperation and degree of self-preservation so he doesn't jump into a blade...

I never got how Thane was supposed to be cool.

I honestly just thought it was funny that it never occurred to the art team to just ask a woman to make some sketches for them...

Well, you are right that they succeeded in making a male character who was intended to be attractive actually be based on what people attracted to men like in their dudes. Beefcake isn't quite as popular and attractive as some guys think.

I find speculative biology fascinating. Do you guys know of any place where one can find more of that?

Thane is a great example of a male character designed to appeal (sexually or not, mind you) to female players. It is not exactly the norm.

I am only talking about social gender here, not about sexual orientation: there are a lot of female characters with appeal for male players, a lot of male characters with appeal for male players (the 30-something white guy with Perma-Stubble, essentially), more and more female characters with appeal for female characters (thankfully), but the male characters with appeal for female players are still the least important group - and Thane is part of this minority. Garrus and Kaidan are also borderline members, because their characterization had to be changed a bit throughout the trilogy to fit the bill, while it was the original intent for Thane.

Basically, there is no western equivalent to the Bishonens. Squall Leonheart or Hope Estheim have an incredible fanbase of female players, and I can't see many Western VG characters who can claim the same.

But it's more than just appearance, no?

Re:speculative biology: So far, I can recall a project that involved how the fauna would have developed if the K-Pg extintion didn't happen, and another that had bizarre aliens with "push" rather than "pull" muscles, and genitals in a rostral position, with the associated structures having a great degree of diversity. Searching for links at the moment.

But yeah, it is a telling bit of sexism: Women in media are what men like in them, but men in media are what men want to be. Not fine, good to see it is changing, even if a bit.

Ehhh...
I don't agree with that. I'm a straight guy, and I find a lot of "sexy" characters not to be, and I'm sure there's a lot of women out there that find the usual male archetype to be attractive.

Basically, it all really comes down to preference, but both male and female characters are aiming at the lowest common denominator of attractiveness IMHO.

I am also straight and male, but I have to disagree on that one, the asymmetry is quite clear cut.

I've seen promo art of Thane and he doesn't look too bad.

Zaeed's nice looking too.

Okay, whoever doesn't finish Rannoch by instigating peace is a heartless bastard. No "if"s or "but"s are valid, both sides are right and wrong, and neither deserves genocide.

There should have been an option to have the quarians pull back and retreat from the system. The requirement to make peace are difficult to reach (especially if you're roleplaying), it's harsh that the only other options failing that involve the genocide of an entire race.

edited 7th May '15 9:07:25 AM by Aetol

I see this arc as being supposed to be very rewarding for empathetic/completionists players, but that it was also supposed to make the renegade/fastrun players feel like shit because they just had to sacrifice an entire sapient species.

Alas, many players chose instead to find all possible excuses to justify committing genocide. It's apparently easier than realizing how wrong you behaved. Most of them are anti-quarians, which I find logical considering the writing (all "bad" geth are presented as "heretics", and we only talk to Legion, a "good" geth - on the other hand, we see quite a few "bad" quarians who very much have a personality, such as Gerrel, Xen or Prazza), but it is jarring to see how easy it is for many to decide sacrificing 20 million people and an entire race and culture - the culture of a friend no less.

Note that if I had to make a choice, I would sacrifice the geth, all the time. But I would definitely feel like a dick for that.

edited 7th May '15 9:17:49 AM by Julep