The Mass Effect Mod Thread

[jurrz12]

So, since we have Star Wars mod thread, why not a Mass Effect mod thread. I believe that this is something a lot of people would like to see, and the setting seems like it would work well with Stellaris's game design: colonies, fleets, and large end game disasters.

I'm a rather brief person, so let's get into it!

The Setting

Mass Effect is set in a galaxy- our galaxy, the Milky Way- that is mostly empty save for a few large empires. It seems mysterious that, despite the age and size of the galaxy, that there are so few sentient races. This, of course, is do to the Reapers, who periodically cleanse the galaxy of sentient life every 50,000 years for unknown reasons.

A centerpiece of this plan is the Citadel, the center of galactic society. Various powers compete for power and control, each wishing for a prestigious seat on the Citadel Council. Can you take control of your race's future, guide them to the top of Galactic politics, and defeat the Reapers?

Major Factions

• The Earth Systems Alliance: A coalition authorized by nearly every nation-state on Earth, the ESA is responsible for the governance and protection of humanity's colonies and extrasolar interests. Initially founded after the discovery of ancient Prothean ruins on Mars, the Alliance was not taken seriously as an entity after the First Contact War. System: Indirect democracy. Earth inhabitants, spacers, and colonists each send representatives to the parliament. Ethics: 2 Individualistic, 1 Militarist.

• The Turian Hierarchy: The largest military power in the galaxy. The Turians are a fiercely collectivist and militaristic society. The government, which is synonymous with the military, is fiercly meritocratic. The Turians are raptor-like in appearance and biology, but are dextro-amino acid based. System: Military government Ethics: 2 Militarist, 1 Collectivist.

• Asari Republics: The oldest power in the galaxy, Asari are renowned for their advancement and culture. The Asari practice cultural hegemony to gain dominance. They are very embracing towards all races and favor diplomacy. Physically, they are mono-gendered, but feminine in appearance. System: Direct Democracy. Ethics: 2 Xenophile, 1 Pacifist.

• Salarian Union: An amphibian race from the jungle planet of Sur'kesh, Salarians have high metabolisms, making them quick thinking but short lived (Salarians over 40 are a rare breed). This has given them a reputation as eccentric scientists. Their government system resembles feudal Europe, with most of the planet divided into duchies. System: Representative Democracy Democracy Ethics: 2 Materialist, 1 Xenophobe.

• Batarian Hegemony: The Batarians hail from the planet of Khar'shan, and are the galactic pariah state. The hegemony is a brutally repressive government, and the caste system is the predominant social organization. They are one of the few galactic powers with legal slavery, and often fund pirates and slavers to raid the rest of the galaxy. System: Oligarchy Ethics: 2 Xenophobe, 1 Militarist

• Hanar Illuminated Primacy: The only major aquatic race, the Hanar are deeply religious and worship the Protheans, whom they refer to as the Enkindlers. Their biology is not well suited to surface warfare, so they often rely on diplomacy or assassination. System: Theocratic, Ethics: 2 Spiritual, 1 Pacifist.

• Elcor: A large mammalian race, the Elcor are from a dangerous high gravity world, which has led to them developing a cautious, conservative culture. Not well suited to space travel, the Elcor satisfy themselves with their homeplanet and a few colonies. However, due to their imposing physical strength, they have some of the best surface troops in the galaxy. System: Representative Democracy Ethics: 1 Pacifist, 1 Collectivist, 1 Spiritual

• Vole Protectorate: This is the domain of the Volus, and is a Turian client state, The Volus willingly gave their skills at commerce to the Turians in return for protection, as the Volus hail from a high pressure atmosphere that means they could easily die outside their hazmat suits on other worlds. System: Corprotocracy Ethics: 1 Materialist, 1 Individualist, 1 Pacifist.

• Quarian Flotilla: A massive fleet of ships inhabited by the Quarians, a humanoid but dextro-based race. They were forced from their homeplanet four centuries ago by their own robotic creations. Centuries of this life has made them technical experts but destroyed their immune systems. System: Representative democracy. Ethics: 1 Materialist, 1 Collectivist, 1 Militaristic

• Geth Consensus: The AI creations of the Quarians, they are extremely isolationist, never attacking outside their territory, but also killing any attempts to make contact. However, the Geth are also scientific and technical masterminds devoted to the idea of consensus: every Geth program acting in unison. System: Direct Democracy Ethics: 2 Collectivist, 1 Materialist.

• Krogan Empire: A warlike race that destroyed their own planet in nuclear war. The Krogans gained the interest of the scheming Salarians, who uplifted them to fight the Rachni menace. After the Krogan defeated the Rachni, they were granted several planets as a reward, beginning their interstellar empire. However, the Krogan had adapted a high fertility rate to make up for living on a hellish world, and once liberated from it, their population grew uncontrollably. This eventually led to them settling worlds already inhabited by the Asari and Salarians. Tensions rose, and war broke out after negotiations broke down. The Krogan lost the resulting war (known as the Krogan Rebellions), and their population was ravaged a Salarian-engineered sterility plague. They are now a dying race. System: Imperial Ethics: 2 Militaristic, 1 Individualist. (Note: Would only be in a "Krogan Rebellions" start date)

• Rachni Hives: An insectoid, hive-minded race, the Rachni were bizarre but ultimately peaceful and spiritual. However, something corrupted the minds of the Rachni Queens, and due to the hive mind, therefor the whole species. When the Salarians made first contact, the Rachni attacked and went on a rampage across the galaxy for centuries. The Salarians eventually uplifted the Krogan to fight them, and the Krogan drove the Rachni into seeming extinction. System: Oligarchy (hive-mind is top-down, with the queens controlling activity). Ethics: 2 Collectivist, 1 Spiritual. (Note: Woule only be in a "Rachni Wars" start date)

Possible Start Dates (All dates in Earth Years)

- The Unification Wars (1st century AD)
- Rachni Wars (1st-3rd Centuries AD)
- Krogan Rebellions (8th Century AD)
- The Morning War (19th Century AD)
- Humanity Discovers Prothean Ruins on Mars (2148)
- First Contact War (2157)
- Skyllian Blitz (2176)

So, what do you all think? Of course a team will be needed, I am far from a modding expert (I'm mostly a concept guy)!

I hope there is at least some interest for this mod.

 

[machinekng13]

I think that Mass Effect would be a very clean conversion, much smoother than Star Wars or 40K, given the number of races and technology.

Comments on the write-up:

• Is the Hanar government autocratic, or would the Spiritualist Oligarchy or Democracy work better?
• How do you plan to represent the Flotilla, since nomadic species seem unlikely in the base game?
• How would you handle races like the Drell (Hanar protectorate, but with no owned planets), Krogan (either non-FTL or single planet, depending on start), as well as the Yahg and Vorcha?

Otherwise, things seem okay. I'd say that the Geth are Fanatical Collectivist, Materialist, but that's more of an opinion.

So, events don't seem like they'd be super difficult to adapt. For start dates, you'd probably want to have a couple earlier ones for colonization, and then later ones for the reaper invasion. As for Federations, you could probably have Council Space and the Terminus Systems each be a Federation of sorts.

 

[vyshan]

I like it, I was going to post something like this. As a fan of the setting, I think it is perfect for Stellaris. A few things that I would do.



Start Date
Right after the First contact war when humanity discovered the Galaxy. This opens it for plenty of things to do.

The Council
The council should function like an oligarchy federation, but with people competing to gain a seat on the citadel council. The starting species should be Turian, Asari, and Salarian.

Reapers and the War
This should be a major end game event, it shouldn't have a particular start date. but should be a late game crisises. With events to change things for the worse or greater, ie curing the genophage and solving the geth/Quarian conflict.

Species
I like your ideas for the species Though you did forget the Drell, Krogan, and Vorcha so here are my thoughts on them. I would also add that the Volus should be a client/Vassal of the Turians.

• Krogan: You forgot the Krogan. They should be split up between different clans as a government. Not sure what would represent clan based systems currently but that is their government. Obviously super militaristic. fanatical Militaristic/Individualistic.
• Vorcha: They do not really have any government and should pop up anywhere with events to deal with vorcha populations in your empire.
• Drell: They should be a part of the Hanar faction.

Furthermore we should discover new species that are making their way into the galaxy. Some of them could be violent, ie the Yahg others less so such as the Raloi. But the chance to find new species and they to have new relations with the Galaxy is something that we should make sure to include.

 

[Dovahkiin MasterHoe]

I've been waiting for someone to start this thread. The Mass Effect universe is one of my favorites from any game or book ever.

How would you handle races like the Drell (Hanar protectorate, but with no owned planets), Krogan (either non-FTL or single planet, depending on start), as well as the Yahg and Vorcha?

We already know that primitives will exist in the vanilla game when it launches. I can't think of a reason that the mechanics they have talked about using wouldn't be effect for the Yahg and maybe the Vorcha. Especially since we know that the Salarians were considering an uplift.

As for the Drell, with the population mechanics it maybe possible to just implant some of them into the population of the Hanar homeworld.

Now with the Krogan it's more difficult. There is no really good answer to how they should work without more knowledge into how the games mechanics work. Might have to wait for the game to come out before planning out how to implement them. Still the Krogan absolutely MUST be included just because of how they have influenced the galaxy.

Sidenote: On your chart at the top you didn't add the Rachni but you added start dates that would include them.

 

[aitaituo]

Mass Effect seems great for Stellaris modding, except the FTL method. I'm not sure how to get around that satisfactorily.

 

[Highlordelliot]

Mass Effect seems great for Stellaris modding, except the FTL method. I'm not sure how to get around that satisfactorily.

Systems with mass relays allow faster and longer travel without them logistics are a pain.
Also the human faction is just called the Systems alliance.

 

[aitaituo]

Systems with mass relays allow faster and longer travel without them logistics are a pain.
Slso the human faction is just called the Systems alliance.

I wonder if that can be handled as a unique resource. If it can, then we can just lock everyone to warp and call it good enough.

 

[TheAnguishedOne]

I cannot be more excited for this. I want this more than I want the vanilla game.

 

[vyshan]

Mass Effect seems great for Stellaris modding, except the FTL method. I'm not sure how to get around that satisfactorily.

Everyone should be using warp travel. The Mass Relies could be a space station equivalent that functions like hyperlanes, ie you bring your ship to it and then you can select another mass reley to telaport the ship to.

 

[jurrz12]

Thanks guys for all the responses! Just a few notes:

- Drell, Zorcha, etc. aren't included because they don't hold planets, ie, aren't "powers" they would be pops, though.

-Krogan and Rachni aren't in the list because they aren't powers by the time frame of the series. If we go with an earlier start date, we would obviously have to include them.

 

[Taricus]

Oh sweet, I was wondering when this'd come.

Now, in regards to the start date, I'd suggest something between the end of the krogan rebellion and the start of the first geth war/morning war as the initial start date: Later dates would necessitate the game to have features it doesn't yet have due to the migrant fleet and the geth.

Also pretty interested to see how the terminus is going to be handled as well.

 

[vyshan]

@jurrz12 Would there be other primitive species to discover or that are taking their first steps into space that we can come into contact with. Such as the Raloi?

 

[jurrz12]

@jurrz12 Would there be other primitive species to discover or that are taking their first steps into space that we can come into contact with. Such as the Raloi?

Don't put all this on my shoulders, this would be a more collaborative effort.

Humans, Raloi, and Yahg would all be presumably be included as primitive civs in start dates before their development of space travel.

 

[Sinister2202]

Mass Effect could fit well into the game's galactic crisis feature. The Reapers and all... Very nice. I will be following this mod.

 

[yoloswag6969]

How will the council and the cidatel be represented?

 

[vyshan]

Don't put all this on my shoulders, this would be a more collaborative effort.

Humans, Raloi, and Yahg would all be presumably be included as primitive civs in start dates before their development of space travel.

I would be happy to help out in anyway that I can

As for my question, I ment if we could find more then just the canon ones

 

[ParagonExile]

The game should take place after the Paragon Control ending;

The Reapers are still around doing whatever, all the species in the series are present, several factions open up (Krogan Resurgence, Batarian Renaissance, Geth Singularity/Geth Heretics, Quarians from Rannoch, the Yahg, The Shadow Broker forces etc) and you can use named characters from the series as leaders (i.e. Wrex is the leader of the Krogan, Ashley and Hackett are admirals for the Alliance, Garrus is a General for the Turians, Tali is a Quarian scientist etc). On top of that, this setting also has the races re-expanding into space from their home planets, rebuilding mass relays (i.e. wormhole stations) and the Citadel is not the center of government.

Also you could play as Commander Shepard and take over the galaxy as the Reapers

I think that would be best imo. I think it's the worst and least fulfilling ending, but as a starting point for an RTS it makes the most sense and allows the game to follow the events of the lore.

EDIT: Everyone disagrees ;-;

 

[jurrz12]

How will the council and the cidatel be represented?

It depends on how restrictive the Federation system is. If you can have a very loose association, then it would work

If not, then it will likely require a specially designed event/decision system, where modifiers are applied to all Citadel members based on current representation.

 

[Garak]

The game should take place after the Paragon Control ending;

The Reapers are still around doing whatever, all the species in the series are present, several factions open up (Krogan Resurgence, Batarian Renaissance, Geth Singularity/Geth Heretics, Quarians from Rannoch, the Yahg, The Shadow Broker forces etc) and you can use named characters from the series as leaders (i.e. Wrex is the leader of the Krogan, Ashley and Hackett are admirals for the Alliance, Garrus is a General for the Turians, Tali is a Quarian scientist etc). On top of that, this setting also has the races re-expanding into space from their home planets, rebuilding mass relays (i.e. wormhole stations) and the Citadel is not the center of government.

Also you could play as Commander Shepard and take over the galaxy as the Reapers

I think that would be best imo. I think it's the worst and least fulfilling ending, but as a starting point for an RTS it makes the most sense and allows the game to follow the events of the lore.

EDIT: Everyone disagrees ;-;

The less said about the end of Mass Effect 3, the better, in my opinion.

 

[jurrz12]

The game should take place after the Paragon Control ending;

The Reapers are still around doing whatever, all the species in the series are present, several factions open up (Krogan Resurgence, Batarian Renaissance, Geth Singularity/Geth Heretics, Quarians from Rannoch, the Yahg, The Shadow Broker forces etc) and you can use named characters from the series as leaders (i.e. Wrex is the leader of the Krogan, Ashley and Hackett are admirals for the Alliance, Garrus is a General for the Turians, Tali is a Quarian scientist etc). On top of that, this setting also has the races re-expanding into space from their home planets, rebuilding mass relays (i.e. wormhole stations) and the Citadel is not the center of government.

Also you could play as Commander Shepard and take over the galaxy as the Reapers

I think that would be best imo. I think it's the worst and least fulfilling ending, but as a starting point for an RTS it makes the most sense and allows the game to follow the events of the lore.

EDIT: Everyone disagrees ;-;

Personally, I'd prefer to stay as far away from ME3's ending as possible. The end game goal of the mod, IMO, should be to build a galactic empire and/or alliance powerful enough that you can defeat the Reapers on your own terms without the help of a starchild.

Also, I personally think the Reapers should be randomized as far as when they arrive, if they arrive in 2186 (as per the trilogy), it'll cut the game too short at later start dates and make it a bit too easy to prepare for them.