Game Mechanics

Is the story going to be linear? How much freedom will we have?

Bob McCabe:
There is, of course, a well-developed story that the player will go through. And there will be choices along the way, just like Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic.

The goal is, as always, to provide some freedom, but really, we want to tell a good story that people can get immersed into - and allow those players to affect the story in their own way, as much as we can.

But, even better, there are going to be locations to discover that aren't directly tied in with the story; these will allow you a diversion of sorts, when appropriate. Imagine picking up a strange signal from a nearby planet that was thought to be devoid of life.

It's something we haven't really done since the Baldur's Gate days. We'll see how it goes.

And

Bob McCabe:
Think KotOR and JE and Neverwinter Nights - but with branching to other, uncharted planets.

Personally, I think it may end up playing out something *like* Grand Theft Auto or maybe Baldur's Gate, and what I mean by that is that when you're on a plot you'll be focused on that. But between plots, you can either jump right back to the next part of the story or wander around for a while and see what you can find.

Make sense?

Everything can be tweaked, and any suggestions you have we'd love to hear. I think the part we're trying to emphasize, though, is that we really want to push for more exploration, for those who want it, and we want to ensure that there is still the usually tight story for those who don't want to get distracted - and, of course, freedom of movement within the story, for what is a BioWare RPG without choices?

And

In general, I would like the game to require choices. To me that makes it interesting, and gives it replay value. ... I would be quite happy if some choices foreclosed others. Bob McCabe:
This one is harder to answer because we don't want to spend too much time creating content that many may not see (cost). On the other hand, we want there to be choice and we want those choices to feel unique and inspired (bonus). Our goal with Jade was to make a more linear adventure, and our goal with KotOR was to make a somewhat non-linear adventure that retained its focus. Right now, we're leaning more toward the KotOR approach, but as always, things can change. Keep our cost/bonus philosophies in mind, and offer up some ideas.

What is the game balance going to be in Mass Effect?

(Jade Empire had a very heavy focus on combat almost to the exclusion of everything else, KoTOR had I felt a much better balance of dialog, quests, puzzles, exploration etc.) Jay Watamaniuk:
As I said in my demo Mass Effect is first and foremost an RPG we want to be very clear about that. Yes the combat is in real-time but BioWare makes games about story and character and we don’t make first person shooters. Much of the work we are doing to breathe life into our digital actors to make your story as the main character that much more believable and immersive. That sounds like marketing speak and it is but after watching the full demo many times I was still picking up little ways that draw the player into the world.

Balancing a game is a very difficult thing to do that many, many sleepless night are dedicated to to try and figure out. It will be ongoing for the duration of the development of the project right up until the last minute.
The bottom line: this is an RPG first and everything second. In the case of an ExXtreeme Bass-fishin’ simulator it is even lower, like, 56th right behind a Diaper Tycoon type game.

Will this game include blood and be aimed at a mature audience?

Bob McCabe:
We haven't made a final decision on exactly how the "gore" will play out, but as caradoc2000 said above - people tend to bleed when shot, grenaded, etc. There will most likely be blood in this game. How realistic? How much? How dramatic? Etc? Can't say just yet. Same thing with the rating. Violence tends to lock you out of the kiddie ratings so I'm sure we'll get teen or mature or something of that nature, as our past games have been rated, but we'll see... I'm not involved in those decision making processes, so I know about as much as anyone else posting here.

And

Chris Priestly:
The team is making Mass Effect the best game that it can be and do not have a rating in mind as they do so. Our publisher, Microsoft, is again giving us leeway to make the very best game that we can (they did this on Jade Empire as well). So all our team has to do is concentrate on making the game as cool as it can be.

They are not adding or removing elements just to try to reach a certain rating, Instead, they are concentrating on making the game as excellent as it can be. When they are done, we will see what rating it gets.

Which game engine does Mass Effect use?

Is it Unreal 3? Chris Priestly:
Well, tools have been added to the existing engine and we've made some modifications and extensions for Mass Effect. But basically, yes. For more details on the use of the Unreal 3, please have a look to these interviews : TeamXbox & IGN

Bob McCabe:
Yep, this question has been answered before - but that's OK! Mass Effect will, more or less, be using the Unreal 3 engine. I'm not a tech guy so I can't answer this perfectly clearly, but the idea is that we've done a lot of work with the engine to fit it into our brand of RPG - but basically, yeah... Unreal 3.

Will Mass Effect 2 and 3 use the Unreal Engine 3?

Posted 09/25/06 20:36:08 (GMT) by Bob McCabe:
Baldur's Gate II was a joy because the engine was done and the designers could go crazy with a finished engine/toolset. The two expansions packs (and all of the DD modules) for Neverwinter Nights were nice for the same reason - even if we didn't make a full-fledged sequel. Knights of the Old Republic? Jade Empire? Mass Effect? All of these were brand new games where we had to start over from scratch. I think, as a company, we're ready to focus more on the design side. :D

How many polygons are used per character?

Posted 09/06/06 16:40:06 (GMT) by Chris Priestly:
Well, we can't give an exact number as some characters will have more polys than others based on things like their size, complexity, whether they have weapons or armor, and that sort of thing.

But to give a rough idea, I'll use Sheppard as an example. A model of Sheppard wearing armor and carrying weapons will be somewhere in the range of 20,000 to 25,000 polygons. This would change a bit based on his armor, whether he is carry a weapon, which weapon, etc, but it's a good rough idea.
Hope this helps. :)

Will there be any loading issues?

Will Mass Effect:
- have a ton of loading times (long ones too)
- more then one disk per each trilogy part
- they COULD be lying (i highly dought it though)
- something like a THAW loading thing?
Bob McCabe:
We're not lying. Mass Effect is stuffed with goodness. What we showed at E3 was all game play. And... anything we... might... show... in the future... will be real, too.

If there are a ton of loading times (long ones), I'll be angry. I don't know if Xbox 360 does multi-disc games. I guess that leaves THAW. But... what is THAW? Tony Hawk American Wasteland is the only thing I can find, and I haven't played a Tony Hawk game since PS1.

Will Bioware provides tools for modding Mass Effect?

Chris Priestly:
Well, currently we are concentrating all our efforts into making Mass Effect the best Xbox 360 exclusive title that it can be. So any presumption or requests for anything else is a moot point.

Does ME will have different profiles for settings and save games?

Bob McCabe:
Anyway, I'm also a big fan of the other kind of profiling, the kind Adria wasn't talking about. We pushed a little for it on Jade Empire, but I'll make sure we push really hard for it on Mass Effect.

Is this a first or third-person point of view game?

Bob McCabe:
Preston, the lead designer, agrees with you that Resident Evil 4 is one of the best games ever. And I know he appreciates the camera angle of Resident Evil 4. On the other hand, he, and we, all know that the POV has to match the gameplay. And, if possible, alternative options would be nice.

We've designed how we want the game to play out, but once you get everything up and running, things tend to shift slightly this way or that. As such, the current POV is in flux.

How does the camera work ?

Jay Watamaniuk:
We are still working on the camera but as you might be able to see in the demo when you pull out your firing weapon you can swivel around almost anywhere and not confined to the same camera view. If your character could look there so can you.

Apart from that I don’t know a lot of specifics on the camera and how it will work. I know that in the demo we have moments where the camera would shift perspective to allow the best angle of an in-engine cut-scene before returning control to you.

Why are screenshots featuring the interface rare ?

I couldn't help noticing that in all the screenshots there was no visible screen furniture (like health bars etc)... Bob McCabe:
Actually, that's how Jade was once upon a time but - and this might make you hate me just a little - I argued that it was a problem and made them fix the GUI so those elements were always present.

But maybe this time around I'll suggest that they have an option so that you can toggle it off-and-on in explore mode. I don't think we did that with Jade, but it would be easy enough for our team, I'm sure.

And if you're curious, the reason I argued against having them not be present was that I'd be beat up but not realize it, ignore the shrines, and then enter into a combat in a near-death state. I felt that the representation of your health was simply too criticial to not always have on the screen.

Will there be day night Cycles in Mass Effect ?

Chris Priestly:
Unless things have changed lately, there are no day or night cycles. Mostly because you will not be on one particular location long enough (in terms of in game time, not how long it may actually take you to play through the area) to observe the changes.

There are planets with different environments, like day or night time or different weather, but you won't be seeing these environments change (unless there is a story reason for them to do so) in Mass Effect.

How does the save game system work, will you be able to save at anytime ?

James Henley :
We're currently using a "save most places" system. Will this change? Probably not. Can this still change? Yes. Nothing is final until the game goes gold.

A save-anywhere system is one of the most complicated and intricate systems I've ever dealt with. The amount of information you have to track is truly staggering. It makes it very clear why some games choose to go with a checkpoint system.

We've done non-checkpoint saves in all past titles, and we're looking to continue that here.

Damn, what a headache it provides though.