Now we have been talking about different game play styles for the Council and Reapers since the inception of this little project so many months ago, and its time to final tackle and discuss the meaning of that statement.
The Citadel Council
When playing as The Council players will be emerged in a game play that is geared towards quick development, and preparation for the to be Reaper onslaught. The basic tech tree will be changed from stock sins to as such
Material Science - Hull and armor research to aid the player in preparing his/her ships for the brutal nature of reaper weapons in the heat of combat.
Armaments - Split into three sub categories Mass Accelerator, Thanix, and Disruptor Torpedo these will help the play to deal more damage in the face of what seems like an invincible opponent.
Design - This is designed to easily let the player see and utilize the ships capable of construction playing as a member of The Council. Having to of course start with frigates the player is forced to decide whether having the best guns or the biggest ships is a priority when faced with possible destruction.
Now after looking at that picture one can see Infiltration. At this point you're asking yourself what the f&^% is infiltration. While diplomacy is useful in Stock Sins as a means to peace or diplomatic conquest. In Dawn of the Reapers it is not. In the Mass Effect Universe the Reapers are insidious and powerful with the ability to convert people to their cause with simply their presence. Infiltration is the Defense to that. Offering the player defense against Indoctrination and defense against Reaper weapons as the tech tree expands. This tab also allows for the construction of the Normandy SR-1 and SR-2.
The Reapers (Still a WIP)
While The Council is fast in their research and development, you will find the opposite for the Reapers. Worry not though, this for good reason. The Reaper faction consists of three sub-groups. The geth, Collectors, and of course The Reapers. All these groups have abilities that more then make up for their longer research times and heavier demand on resources.
The Geth
The Geth are simply a massive network of simple programs that together form a single gestalt entity, this holds true in Dawn of the Reapers. All Geth ships will have a passive ability known as "The Geth Network." Simply put the more geth ships you have near each other the faster they will fire, the harder the weapons will hit, and the faster they will react in battle. Just as one would expect Geth to do in Mass Effect.
The Collectors
Collectors will have a similar effect known as "The Hive Complex." Being similar to insects by origin and by observation IE the Collector General. When Collector ships are in the presence of a Reaper they will get significant stat boosts as they are "Under Direct Control"
The Reapers
As anyone who has played Mass Effect has seen Reapers are very dangerous entities, even a single one can cause a lot of havoc. Reapers will cost the most to produce resource wise, but even the smaller ones will pack a punch that will make every piece of eezo worth it. Reapers also all have a passive effect called "Indoctrination" which for Mass Effects fans are familiar with. Actually convert ships in the opposing fleet to their own. This effect is constant but will only become evident in prolonged battles, It begins by effecting frigates first and working up through the ranks.
I will update more as the team and I hammer out more of the tech tree, but for now that is all.
Lord_Set
Sounds Awesome, especially how the tech tree and abilities are being totally changed from stock sins
im with you on that
is there six factions or just 2 the reapers and the council races or are the council split and the reapers, geth and collecters are just one whole faction im a bit confused
Its two races, and then theres 3 subraces in each faction. I think thats what he meant
The Council has as follows
-Alliance
-Turians
-Asari
-Salarian
-Quarians (Only two ships)
For The Reapers
-Geth
-Collectors
-Reapers
What about other fringe elements? like batarians and krogans? lol imagine a yahg ship XD. Im just saying that it would be interesting to see indoctrinated pirate forces, and maybe even the allaince corsairs.
I really wish Bioware would produce some more spaceship art for the all races in Mass Effect so it would allow for more concepts to allow the imagination to build upon. But now that I think about it for the Quarians I think its fair game to make up tons of random ships for them. Maybe we should have a contest about it and see what kinds of whacky creations for the Quarians! Please! Please! Please! It would be fun and allow for a fan-possible concept of the Migration Fleet. Your team could be the judges. Anyway this is food for thought is all it is. What say you Lord_Set? O_o
it sounds like the citidel races will go with a advent style of play eg s**tloads of weak ships to overpower everything else. reapers are vasari eg small empire for a long time then punce and crush everything under your heavy fleet. reaper ship stealing sound extreamly dangerous. how long untill this happens in the smallest ships?
Reaper faction ships automatically target the biggest baddest ship in a fleet, so little ships have opportunity to do some decent damage but in larger scale battles Reaper ships will target and try to destroy quickly the biggest ship in a fleet and during that time you may lose 4-5 frigates in a fleet of of 20-30 frigates if that makes any sense.
Do the reaper ships have multiple attack banks? meaning, can they attack more than one target?
Will the Geth be split into true Geth and Heretics. That would be so cool. I say this because only a minority of Geth joined sovereign the rest are actually the main threat to the Reapers because they refuse to use others technology (everyone else's tech is based off reaper tech only the Geth and I think the Rachni don't.) Could it be possible to have the Geth as either another faction or as a end game set of ships available to the Council. Remember the Geth really aren't bad, they didn't even mean to defeat the Quarians they just defended themselves.
When we get into the later stages of the mod with map creation and what have you we plan on using Orthodox Geth as npc ships in uncaptured gravity wells.
Think of this, the majority of the Geth can be pirates, and the minority will be with the Reapers. what do you think?
please dont have the indoctirnation effect too severe, i dont want an entire turning upon me, espically my heavy cruisers
i think i see an epic strategy, send reaper forces into a pirate dominated gravity-well... and convert thier entire fleet into a reaper fleet.
With infiltration, you mentioned the SR1 AND the SR2. Are there any drastic differences between the two in terms of abilities? Also, does the SR2 research then invalidate the SR1, or are you able to field both at the same time?
Thinking about Geths...
Wouldnt it make sense if Quarians would be able to lessen the effect of "The Geth Network". Since they are clearly tech experts , and they made the Geths in the first place , im sure they know every single program about them.
Heh , cyber warfare.
No, Reapers must be as alone fractions, and trying to control geths and collectors. Reapers must try to destroy all fractions becaurse they are strong!!!