Mass Effect General Discussion (spoilers)

So would it be cool & possible for a Krogan to become a Specter?

Correct me if I'm wrong guys, but only species that have a seat on the Citadel Council can have Specters, right? In this case, there should only be Human, Asari, Turian and Salarian specters, no? (for now)

Even in the aftermath of the reaper war, and even after having cured the genophage, I think it's going to be a long while before the Krogan are admitted as a council race.

That's assuming of course the same political structure will be kept after the end of 3, wich is not assured. Maybe galactic civilisation will decide to throw away the old system, considering it was designed by the Reapers in the first place.

edited 16th May '16 7:18:06 AM by GutstheBerserker

Yes, that is (was) the case, but it doesn't seem to be, strictly speaking, a rule. Shepard was made a Spectre before humanity had a council seat.

Oh true you're right. Humanity was only made a council race at the end of the first game. My mistake. So I guess non council-races can have specters.

In that case, yeah they would probably have Krogan specters eventually.

Any member, associate or otherwise, of the citadel council can have a spectre agent. The Hanar had one, Blasto. Or was that just a movie? you get what i mean. Its possible, but not all species are equipped for it or ambitious enough for a spectre agent all the time.

Now onto Relay durability. The Mu Relay was pushed out of position by a super nova, a nuke won't do diddly to it. The whole purpose of the launching nukes through the relay was to use the general inaccuracy of the relay to your advantage to get as close as possible to the Turian defenses and to provide thermal smoke screen with which you can attack the relay before the enemy can get a good solid target lock on your fleet. For example launch the nukes, send in the pocket dreadnoughts and assault cruisers, then securing territory for your attack to expand.

Blasto was a movie.

Or was it?

In theory, there's nothing to stop a krogan from being chosen as a Spectre. In practice? Yeah, incredibly unlikely. Few krogan would actually be appropriate choices - Spectres need to be resourceful, and they also need to have some degree of loyalty to the Council. And the general prejudice against the krogan means even the few who could be good choices aren't going to get nominated.

edited 16th May '16 9:44:11 PM by Tiamatty

Ya know since Krogan's are pretty damn hard to put down & looking at Wrex & Grunt, a Krogan Specter with both strength cunning would be fucking unstoppable.

Well, I mean, a krogan with cunning gets you Wrex, who is pretty well unstoppable. Wrex actually probably does have the right skillset to be a Spectre - he's not brute muscle, he's smart and knows how to plan, and he is fairly capable of being respectable. The thing is, it's doubtful he would be willing to be loyal to the Council.

Which is a big sticking point. What krogan would actually want to work for the Council? "Yes, please, let me pledge my loyalty to the people who released a genetic plague on my race."

As for Ryder (going with that name because it sounds badass and I don't know what else to call our Adromeda Protag) Origin Stories.... I'm going to ASSUME that you're Alliance of some kind. I'm sure I could edit them based on if you aren't and are say, the owner of a ship and sailing off past the horizon.

1) Citadel Born - Raised on the Citadel to a very poor family who lived in the lowest wards. Your parents were killed by a robbery gone wrong leaving you in the care of your grandparents. When you became older, you joined C-Sec and ascended quickly through the ranks. The Alliance saw your potential when a raid on a Blue Suns warehouse went south and you took control of the squad after your commanding officer was killed and almost everyone in your squad survived. The Alliance recruited you to their fleet shortly after. Now, Captain Ryder, you command your ship for the Andromeda Galaxy to discover new far flung locations.

PERKS-

• Your C-Sec can assist you in information and dialogue options.
• Your grandparents back on the Citadel can be brought up in dialogue and you can talk to them via vid call.
• Your dead parents can be brought up when discussing your past
• Side Mission Arc involving one of your past C-Sec friends sending you on a loose end from the warehouse you raided and ties it into your parents' deaths.
• Paragon Starting Bonus? (I'd rather not have Morality Bonus' since I feel those inform character too much)

2) Merchant - You traveled the stars with your mother on her merchant ship. By the time you were a teenager, she controlled a small collection of merchant ships that were sent across the cosmos to delivery everything from cars to cattle. However, after a mysterious a group of mercs raided your mother's ship and left her for you to mourn, her growing merchant fleet began to shrink to make ends meet. Flying one of the last ships, you ended up in the middle of a great space battle. Through great flying and commanding of your very small and untrained crew, you survived the battle and gained the attention of the Alliance Captains who watched your maneuvers. Brought into the Alliance shortly after and rising through the ranks, you, Captain Ryder of the Alliance Marines, command your ship to regions unknown.

PERKS-

• Your merchant history allows you some better prices at some stalls and you might be able to get some stuff earlier than otherwise available.
• Your brother and aunt have taken over the family merchant ships and can be talked to via vid call.
• Your dead mother can be brought up in dialogue about your past
• Side Mission Arc involving the people who killed your mother. (Plot Twist: Large Merchant Corp that you've been doing a few missions for hired people to kill her when she didn't want to sell her ships to them. You can break away from working for them over this, an option that the other backgrounds don't have unless they just ignore/decline the missions).

3) ...

I actually haven't come up with an idea for a third. I was thinking Colonist and that'd be the 'boring, not much bad actually happened'. That'd also make it a role reversal of the previous backgrounds where 'Spacer' was the 'boring, not much happened' background which would flip in comparison to this game's 'Citadel (Spacer) where a lot of shit went down'. The Merchant background also has the most going on in terms of scale.

Speaking of scale, I like the idea of the backgrounds being much smaller in scale and stakes if for the sake that I'd really like a smaller scope sequel to some extent. The Merchant background is based more on having a very small merchant fleet of ships that are family run compared to a larger corporate run one. Citadel, despite the size and grandeur of the station, is a background based more on family ties and living in a smaller social position. Colonist could be something like being from a farmer family on some small planet who grew up and went to the army like a classical hero. The more 'personal' scale might create an interesting palate.

And, naturally, you can choose how you feel about some related things to paint in the background, like having no interest in helping your C-Sec friends now that you're in the Alliance and cancelling the quest arc? Or maybe you really don't get along with your Aunt all that much but are pretty close with your brother? Those small moments that give a different flavor.

Take out eveything that has to do with contacting people on the Citadel and you have some good ideas.

Cause, ya' know, Milky Way and Andromeda are kinda really fucking far away from eachother.

@Krogan as a Spectre: I'd honestly wait a few hundred years. Then again, the Reaper Wars by 3 irrevocably change the status quo so I guess anything is possible.

I'd be more interested in seeing what the rest of the galaxy does to the Asari afte the war, considering that they were hiding what was basically the largest known and most intact Prothean memory cache. Be great to see the Matriarchy taken down a peg (or a hundred).

Wonder what kind of thanks they will give to the asari big shots for aiding in the almost destruction of entire civilizations via robot fleas.

Their reputation already took quite a hit. While humanity managed to hold despite Earth taking the first attack unprepared and Palaven held against the largest Reaper force in the galaxy, Thessia was obliterated in a couple of days, if not hours. It's bound to be a Break the Haughty moment.

Though in the asari's defence, I think it was implied that the Reapers curb-stomped them so hard because they saw the asari as a greater threat than the other species. The asari are natural biotics, and are also adept at hit-and-run tactics. So they probably are the most dangerous species.

Asari were always described as something like GlassCannons, though. It's well-established that while Asari commandos are among the strongest strike forces in the galactic community, they're also known to be more fragile than even humans, meaning they're not the best for front-line combat. Guerrilla combat doesn't mean jack shit against the Reapers, and the fact that the Matriarchy did nothing to address this outside of sending Shepard to the Temple at the very last minute is bound to piss off more than quite a few people once reconstructing is well underway.

To be fair it seems the Reapers targeted the two most militaristic species first: the turians and humans. Isn't it implied in the story that the Reapers didn't really force themselves into asari space until later in the story? As far as I know Palaven and Earth were two of the first homeworlds to be attacked, not counting Khar'Shan.

edited 17th May '16 1:47:50 PM by ITNW1989

Yeah the Reapers started by the two most likely species to hold the line (heh) against a frontal attack - three if you count the Krogans. The Asari should have been nuisances while they were preparing the harvest, but since they did not share the Prothean intel, they ended up being largely irrelevant on the global scale - not the individual one, mind you, Liara is probably the most significant character in the trilogy after Shep.

I'm not quite sure that "held" is the appropriate term to use in regards to Earth. Humanity lost, the Reapers won, and the survivors went into hiding until Shep returned with the rest of the known galaxy. And that only happened because TIM brought the Citadel to Earth.

Palaven is the only place it qualified as a war; everywhere else was, uh, I believe the Daleks used the term "pest control."

edited 17th May '16 2:44:41 PM by TheAirman

True, but Earth was "ambushed" - no one knew that the Reapers were coming - while the Asari had more than a few months to prepare the defense of their homeworld (which was afaik the reason they did not send a fleet to help Earth in the first place).

The Asari will likely see the stripping of their council status, a permanent ban on any of the asari who knew of the Temple holding a beacon, and likely an eternity of mistrust. Their days as the diplomats of the galaxy are likely gone now that their reputation has been shattered and the veil of lies were unveiled. They actively used their position to stay at the top, actively discriminated against other species and in general were extremely poor team players politically when the time came for them to assist others. So much for council unity, especially when Palaven was hit.

(*Grumble grumble poor writing* Grumble grumble* Strategic idiocy* Grumble grumble* Council hate*)

In all honesty, everyone will be too busy rebuilding basic society to give the Matriarchs much shit, especially considering how badly Thessia got fucked. Not that there won't be any consequences, but if anyone is going to get the wrath of the Galaxy in all its fury, it'll be the Dalatrass, at least, depending on how Tuchanka played out.

About Krogan Specter's I think its possible with Wrex & especially if he has Eve beside him. I mean Wrex is a very forward & progressive thinking Krogan. He is well aware that even though they helped save the galaxy & the Turian's, people still heavily distrust the Krogan. He will do whatever it takes to get that respect back but he'll be smart about it, asking for small things like reopening the Krogan embassy on the Citadel. Now with Specter's they are their species best soldiers but once they become Specter's their loyalty's must switch from their respective species to the Council & the galactic greater good overall. Wrex giving one of his best men to the Citadel would go a great way to gain good-will on the Krogan's behalf.

Also bout the Asari, people will prolly focus on rebuilding & later on once word gets out on what they did, the Asari will have to answer for hoarding a beacon all to themselves in someway. Even if their planet was decimated, that can't let them be excused for fucking the entire galaxy over & taking over for themselves.

I don't see the Asari being removed from the Council. But I can really see new races being added and the Asari influence suffering a steep decrease.

The asari would be removed from the Council, they broke one of their biggest agreements that the council had, to share any and all prothean technology that you find, and they MADE the law SPECIFICALLY to avoid anyone doing what they were doing. That's not just wrong that's a deliberate abuse of power. Who knows what else they did during their time as leaders, they obviously can't be trusted.