mass effect character problems

[I Max95]

i faced many problems with the conversation comands of the character for example
once when a reporter came up to me and wanted to ask a few questions i said yes but when she asked about saren i chose the "shut her up" option
then jack shepard my character struck the reporter right in the face
:0
i didnt want to do that i just wanted her to shut up i expected him to just yell at her not strike her

 

[ShotgunSmoke]

You can't stop him from being utterly badass.

He just hits people in his spare time. Deal with it.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Shouldn't have chosen to shut her up then fool. I thought this might be a technical issue, not "Oh no! My character is more badass than I'll ever be"

 

[I Max95]

Shouldn't have chosen to shut her up then fool. I thought this might be a technical issue, not "Oh no! My character is more badass than I'll ever be"

im just saying they should be more derect with there commands i mean some times it says one thing but does a COMPLETE other thing

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Shouldn't have chosen to shut her up then fool. I thought this might be a technical issue, not "Oh no! My character is more badass than I'll ever be"

im just saying they should be more derect with there commands i mean some times it says one thing but does a COMPLETE other thing

That's not a complete other thing. He shut her up. You never specified How. To be honest, no RPG developer is mad enough to let you control everything.

 

[Avatar Roku]

It's not hard to figure out: top option is paragon, middle is neutral, bottom is renegade. The left half gives more exposition, right one gets closer to the end of the conversation. If you give a renegade response from the right side, Shepard's going to do something dickish which ends the conversation in a hurry, it really stands to reason.

 

[goatzilla8463]

The actions are a little off what it actually says on the wheel thingy but you can't expect it to be word from word.

 

[Andy_Panthro]

This is a problem with the conversation system they chose.

I'm not a fan, exactly for this sort of reason. Alpha Protocol seems to be more of the same.

I prefer to know what my character is actually going to say, rather than have to guess what he might say from a couple of key words.

 

[bjj hero]

She should know better than to fuck with the Shep. She's lucky she didn't get tea bagged.

 

[I Max95]

Shouldn't have chosen to shut her up then fool. I thought this might be a technical issue, not "Oh no! My character is more badass than I'll ever be"

im just saying they should be more derect with there commands i mean some times it says one thing but does a COMPLETE other thing

That's not a complete other thing. He shut her up. You never specified How. To be honest, no RPG developer is mad enough to let you control everything.

are you serious that is what rpgs are about in my book controling everything that has to do with your character not just controling in ecense what he does but controling exactly what he does

that is what i hate about some rpgs and love about rpgs like fallout 3

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Shouldn't have chosen to shut her up then fool. I thought this might be a technical issue, not "Oh no! My character is more badass than I'll ever be"

im just saying they should be more derect with there commands i mean some times it says one thing but does a COMPLETE other thing

That's not a complete other thing. He shut her up. You never specified How. To be honest, no RPG developer is mad enough to let you control everything.

are you serious that is what rpgs are about in my book controling everything that has to do with your character not just controling in ecense what he does but controling exactly what he does

that is what i hate about some rpgs and love about rpgs like fallout 3

Mass Effect gives you more choice than Fallout 3. You had a few options, you just chose one that might not end well. Did you pick "Ruthless" or whatever it was as a character background at the start of the game, that may explain it.

 

[I Max95]

Shouldn't have chosen to shut her up then fool. I thought this might be a technical issue, not "Oh no! My character is more badass than I'll ever be"

im just saying they should be more derect with there commands i mean some times it says one thing but does a COMPLETE other thing

That's not a complete other thing. He shut her up. You never specified How. To be honest, no RPG developer is mad enough to let you control everything.

are you serious that is what rpgs are about in my book controling everything that has to do with your character not just controling in ecense what he does but controling exactly what he does

that is what i hate about some rpgs and love about rpgs like fallout 3

Mass Effect gives you more choice than Fallout 3. You had a few options, you just chose one that might not end well. Did you pick "Ruthless" or whatever it was as a character background at the start of the game, that may explain it.

the amount of choices was not my point
my point was that when you chose what to say in fallout 3 the person you were talking to reacts exactly to what you chose to say they dont apear with a black eye on the ground when your done talking

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Shouldn't have chosen to shut her up then fool. I thought this might be a technical issue, not "Oh no! My character is more badass than I'll ever be"

im just saying they should be more derect with there commands i mean some times it says one thing but does a COMPLETE other thing

That's not a complete other thing. He shut her up. You never specified How. To be honest, no RPG developer is mad enough to let you control everything.

are you serious that is what rpgs are about in my book controling everything that has to do with your character not just controling in ecense what he does but controling exactly what he does

that is what i hate about some rpgs and love about rpgs like fallout 3

Mass Effect gives you more choice than Fallout 3. You had a few options, you just chose one that might not end well. Did you pick "Ruthless" or whatever it was as a character background at the start of the game, that may explain it.

the amount of choices was not my point
my point was that when you chose what to say in fallout 3 the person you were talking to reacts exactly to what you chose to say they dont apear with a black eye on the ground when your done talking

They usually do when I play. If you wanted a good choice you should've kept talking, instead you chose the bad choice.

 

[TheDoctor455]

All right, now look. Bioware chose the "conversation wheel" because by not giving ALL of the information about what you are about to say or do, it ensures that the conversations feel more dynamic than getting a few fully-spelled out options ripped straight from the script. I actually liked the conversation wheel better because I never liked having the impression that my character had pinched half of the fucking script, that just seems like too much of an advantage. And another thing, other people have mentioned Alpha Protocol. I actually got to see how a conversation worked in that game. Basically, there are four words or symbols indicating your options on their version of the "conversation wheel", and these options are based around the kind of EMOTIONAL outcome you want to convey through your character or to get out of the NPCs. Leaving you free to either A) keep your character locked in one of the emotional states FOREVER, or B) mix it up every now and then. This could actually make the conversations even MORE dynamic than those in Mass Effect.

And as to the original poster's problem with the reporter... well, there actually is a way that you can predict what the "shut up" option would've done. Okay, way back in the Eden Prime mission, do you remember running across two scientists hiding in a little shed? Yeah, and remember the one who had clearly gone insane? Did you ask about him (by hitting the "assistant" option within the "investigate" option? Well, after the first few lines of dialogue in that conversation branch, you get an option that says "I can shut him up", and if you select this option, you punch the mad scientist (no pun intended) in face, knocking him out cold. Notice the pattern here? In both instances, the "shut up" option ended with you punching someone in the face. And correct me if I'm wrong, I do believe that these are the ONLY places in the game that have a "shut up" option at all.

And as for how much control a player should have over his character in an RPG. I will agree that yes, you should have a fair amount of control over your character's actions (shoot at that prick, let the council die or save the council, that sort of thing), but you shouldn't be able to do EVERYTHING you want to in an RPG, otherwise, you, as the player, could kill the atmosphere and you would have no else but yourself to blame.

 

[Zacharine]

To be honest, no RPG developer is mad enough to let you control everything.

Nethack begs to disagree.

The dev-team thinks of everything, including using the kitchen sink as a helmet...

 

[Sanaj]

The fact that I don't know exactly what Shepard is going to say/do makes it more interesting I think.

I've done RPG's where the player chooses exactly what the character says...but that gets dull after a while.

I'm not going to say all dialogue trees in RPG's would benefit from a slight difference
from selection to the actual dialogue/action though...that would be ludicrous.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

To be honest, no RPG developer is mad enough to let you control everything.

Nethack begs to disagree.

The dev-team thinks of everything, including using the kitchen sink as a helmet...

Do they let you wander off and farm carrots then have a wank over them? No.

My point proven.

 

[I Max95]

Shouldn't have chosen to shut her up then fool. I thought this might be a technical issue, not "Oh no! My character is more badass than I'll ever be"

im just saying they should be more derect with there commands i mean some times it says one thing but does a COMPLETE other thing

That's not a complete other thing. He shut her up. You never specified How. To be honest, no RPG developer is mad enough to let you control everything.

are you serious that is what rpgs are about in my book controling everything that has to do with your character not just controling in ecense what he does but controling exactly what he does

that is what i hate about some rpgs and love about rpgs like fallout 3

Mass Effect gives you more choice than Fallout 3. You had a few options, you just chose one that might not end well. Did you pick "Ruthless" or whatever it was as a character background at the start of the game, that may explain it.

the amount of choices was not my point
my point was that when you chose what to say in fallout 3 the person you were talking to reacts exactly to what you chose to say they dont apear with a black eye on the ground when your done talking

They usually do when I play. If you wanted a good choice you should've kept talking, instead you chose the bad choice.

renagade usually doesnt mean bad usually in that game its doing a good thing in a diferent way when trying to calm wrex down on virmire renagade and paragon options both had the same result same with trying to convince saren to off himself at the end but with this one option get you off gently with no reprocusions while the other make people hate you

 

[RebelRising]

I've had enough of your snide insinuations...

All right. Firstly, having the options explain, word for word, what he/she is about to do is not dynamic enough to keep a conversation interesting. The way Bioware did is much more fluid, and it's not that hard anyways.

Secondly, in general conversations, the top right option is Paragon, the middle right option is Neutral, and the bottom right option is Renengade.

Thirdly, Charm is the top left option, Intimidate the bottom left option in certain conversation situations.

I hope this helps. Though, I do have to ask: Why would you be so upset about punching out that bint in the first place?

 

[Andy_Panthro]

Surely the point is that its not clear whats going to happen when you chose an option.

Thats poor game design. (and I'm not saying the game is poor, or that the design in general is poor, just this one little part)

It's not about being able to choose any option. We all know how these things usually work, you pick an option from a list. The ME system is similar, you choose an option from the available choices given to you. However, in ME, you are not always sure what the effect is going to be.