ME: which mechanic is worse? What instead?

[kuyo]

How's about making the levels right so I can find enough material on missions? If we need to have some tedium, then we could have a side quest where we set up and hack com bouys to get information from them. If we have to fix the ship (It's a brand new ship, why does it need upgrades? Seriously TIM, way to go on that top of the line stealth ship.) Then how about focusing on recruiting people to make those improvements. We could assign different people to work on stuff to get them more cooperative with each other. We wouldn't have to sit there doing some mindnumbing task, just get other people to do it. We're a Commander, so lets give some commands.

 

[AtheistConservative]

I'd like to see not only the Mako, but other vehicles, such as an actual tank, helicopter, walker, that the player gets to choose. While the Mako sections were often a bit trivial, there's no reason they couldn't make them more difficult.
While its true you didn't "need" to do that much mining, if you wanted all sorts of little upgrades, mining took a considerable amount time.
My guess is that both will be gone from ME3.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

A little green marker to let us know what part of the planet has been scanned would be perfect.

Although if they made the Mako exploring less looking for clone brush bunkers on sprawling mountains and more diverse locations I'll be happy.

I really felt like I was exploring a universe

 

[Sharalon]

I liked that little car. Planet scanning on the other hand... Let's just say that I thought about sacrificing a few people just so I could skip a few minutes of it.

 

[CheesyGrin1992]

The planet scanning in ME2 bugged me a lot more than the Mako segments of ME1. You can end up the richest commander in the galaxy and yet you still have to scan planets yourself? Square by square of the damn grid which you could hardly see if the planet wasn't of a darker colour from the dirt spectrum... to make it better, I think the ability to just hire somebody else to mine and scan for you would be better. You're having to give money in exchange for the ease of access that comes with somebody else doing it. But as somebody else has already said, it wouldn't make sense to have those mining segments in three what with the universe in danger and all... so hopefully we've all seen the back of it.

 

[Shilkanni]

Only have played Mass Effect 1 once and the Mako sequences only got slightly boring towards the end. I'm planning to play again and I bet it will annoy me more on the 2nd time through.
Halfway through my first playthrough of Mass Effect 2 and the planet scanning is already boring. The first time I was like 'ooh, this is kind of neat', and it's interesting when there's an anomaly to pinpoint.

I would have liked to see both. Adding a bit of planet scanning but also some Mako missions. Same with the hacking, the first time each of the minigames was fun but more variety would have made it awesome.

 

[vermin_]

Planet scanning was OK, but in the Overlord DLC we could actualy see that planets can be a nice place to visit. I say get back to exploration, BUT make less planets to explore. That way we can explore the galaxy, and see some nice vistas.

 

[DRSH1989]

Want vehicles... mining is....................................................meh.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I want to see Shepherd and some friends flying around with jetpacks near the surface of the planet, old-school StarFox-style. The jetpack would have a scanner to help guide you to points of interest, but you still have to find them manually and get a visual confirmation. The jetpack would be equipped with a standard, beam-style weapon for fighting off hostile flying alien lifeforms (if that planet has any) and a special cannon that fires homing devices. The homing-device-firing-cannon would be used to tag points of interest, such as resource deposits.

When you return to your ship, the on-board computer will have already performed the planet scan based on the homing devices you deployed and will have all the planet info ready based on what you tagged.

I dare someone to tell me how this is NOT a good idea!

 

[Mikeyfell]

I actually think the vehicle controlled like a shopping cart in a bouncy house.

The problem is that the Mako exploration was mostly frustrating while the planet scanning was boring.

After playing Mass Effect one hundred billion times I got used to the Mako.
After ten billion playthroughs of Mass Effect 2 the planet scanning is still boring as all hell.

Spoiler

as a testament to how big of a nerd I am I made a handy dandy little chart of all the planets I need to scan in order to get all the elements I need to get all the upgrades.

In all honesty they both sucked, but the Hammerhead tank from the Cerberus Network DLC was pretty cool. If the brought back the exploration but let us use the hammerhead tank I'd be happy.

 

[Choppaduel]

I want to see Shepherd and some friends flying around with jetpacks about a hundred feet above the planet, old-school StarFox-style. The jetpack would be equipped with a standard, beam-style weapon for fighting off hostile flying alien lifeforms and a special cannon that fires homing devices. The homing-device-firing-cannon would be used to tag points of interest, such as resource deposits.

When you return to your ship, the on-board computer will have already performed the planet scan based on the homing devices you deployed and will have all the planet info ready based on what you tagged.

Tell me how this is NOT a good idea!

JET PACKS

Spoiler: large img

...and populate the planets with giant wolves that shoot lasers.

This is my favorite solution too, but I'm not sure how practical it is. Still, I'd buy the game just because they tried something very exciting, though not really new.

 

[gbemery]

I liked the planet scanning...Oh god don't hurt me please...I'll explain...I liked it only because of the point that the ships have sensors. So you would think they could scan the surface for POIs (points of interest) such as mineral deposits, anomalies, etc. But with that said the scanning itself can be summed up in "where did i put that piece of wall i bash my head against?"

I liked the vehicle sections and hope they bring them back because they added so much to the immersion and depth. Plus I liked the feeling of being on an alien planet for a simple distress call etc. BUT I didn't like the Hammerhead tank DLC. It seemed very impractical. Every time it lands or skids into the Normandy they will have to refurnish the bottom of the Hammerhead and the cargo bay because it scrapes like none other. Plus I don't know how scanning in the Hammerhead made it near impossible to hold stable in one spot. I want a wheeled vehicle back but not as many craggy ass planets where I can drive up an 89 degree incline at 1 foot an hour and then when I loose forward momentum just turn the Mako a degree to either side and be off again.

Or they could just let us use the shuttle to fly over the surface land and scan/explore on foot the POIs. I think that actually sounds more interesting. Maybe a mix of something more like the Mako with better handling and camera control plus the shuttle craft.

 

[Riddle78]

Combine scanning and vehicles: Have a rover/tank hybrid (a la Mako) and add a sophisticated sensor arry to it. This will allow you to scan for rich deposits of materials while you hit enemy positions with an armoured assault.

On the topic of another ME mechanic switch I dislike...Thermal Clips. Why? In ME1,ammo was infinite. Fire too much,gun overheats and you have to wait fifteen seconds. ME2,ammo is finite,and more often than not,an endangered species. My suggestion?

Merge them. Keep Thermal Clips,but when you run out,you revert to ME1's system;shoot too much,you have to dump the waste heat. Simple,no?

 

[Wayneguard]

I loved the planet exploration in me1 mako and all. I say ditch scanning or at least scan from orbit then go collect it in the truck. theyve gotta do something to make mineral gathering more involving.

 

[Android2137]

I agree with Mikeyfell in regards to the Hammerhead. In fact, isn't that why they came up with that DLC? To test its fun level in comparison to planet scanning and the Mako?

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

My solution,get a space crop duster and put a sensor on it.You've melded the two perfectly without land contact.

 

[DustyDrB]

The Mako can be maddening to use, especially if you've done 8+ very comprehensive playthroughs (and a few other, less thorough ones) of Mass Effect and spent a lot of time in it. The Mako sections on the main story planets were fine. There are a few planets during the Geth Incursions side mission that drive me insane, though.

Exploring could be cool when you found something interesting (that planet with all the Rachni comes to mind). They had that part of exploration in Mass Effect 2, though. They just cut out the 2-5 minutes of driving around in the Mako to get to it. I'm more than fine with that.

Scanning was equally boring, but not as frustrating. I don't see the need for scanning or Mako-style "exploration". If they were to scrap that whole idea and add more RPG elements, I'd be happy.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I want to see Shepherd and some friends flying around with jetpacks about a hundred feet above the planet, old-school StarFox-style. The jetpack would be equipped with a standard, beam-style weapon for fighting off hostile flying alien lifeforms and a special cannon that fires homing devices. The homing-device-firing-cannon would be used to tag points of interest, such as resource deposits.

When you return to your ship, the on-board computer will have already performed the planet scan based on the homing devices you deployed and will have all the planet info ready based on what you tagged.

Tell me how this is NOT a good idea!

JET PACKS

Spoiler: large img

...and populate the planets with giant wolves that shoot lasers.

I wish I could say, "Huh?!" in that clueless naive way that says I have no idea what you're talking about, but I am an avid follower of ZP, so yeah, I did base my idea off of what Yahtzee said in his ME2 review.

In all seriousness, I think an idea like what I described above could work. Even if it wasn't jetpacks it could be a small, Arwing-style flight craft equipped to fire homing devices.

Then again, I don't know much about programming but I'm sure that this would be more taxing to program than planet-scanning segments. It would SO be worth it though. If a big open-world would be too taxing to program for something like this, they could create set paths to fly through, similar the StarFox levels, and replaying them would allow to find POIs that you may have missed.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

**snip**

Well, I'd like the Mako a whole lot better if it handled like the Hammerhead.
I'd like the Hammerhead a whole lot better if it had armor and shields like the Mako.

I... actually enjoyed the scanner.

I don't understand why people compare the scanner to the Mako. The scanner replaced the "click on a planet - you're done" scanner from ME1.

So, how about keep the scanner for the planets where you stay in orbit.

And do a Mako/Hammerhead hybrid for the landing missions?