By Alec Meer on October 10th, 2012 at 8:00 am.
I tend to lose my sense of connection to science fictional narratives once they get into the realm of prophecies and pseudo-deities, so the idea of a return to the Mass Effect universe that’s only about the neat spaceshippy stuff and none of the Circle Of Destiny soapboxing appeals enormously. Frinstance, this unofficial mod for the TIGHT space strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire which plans to recreate the Normandy and its multi-species chums’ war against the Geth, Collectors and Reapers.
It’s not released yet, and hey, maybe it never will be, but I dig the hell out of the concept. The modders are even planning to do-over SOASE’s UI to be more Mass Effecty. Here’s a taste of what they’ve got planned:
UI Test – Mod DB
They’re even planning on including the Crucible as a late-game superweapon, but promise it’ll have a practical purpose rather than a wibbly-wobbly mythological one.
More details and updates on Dawn of the Reapers’ progress over on Moddb. Via Kotaku.
10/10/2012 at 08:08 Brodo Swaggins says:
It was always going to happen, but I’m glad to see that it’s underway.
10/10/2012 at 08:20 razgon says:
Isn’t it a bit weird to start with showing a ton of cutscenes from another game? Albeit the one this is based on, but it feels like stealing.
10/10/2012 at 10:59 Miltrivd says:
Stealing? Fan based, unofficial, non-profit mod project. What best to complement a mod that tries to emulate Mass Effect than to use cinematics from it to enhance the connection. It’s just… I don’t get it… Stealing?
11/10/2012 at 00:23 Dances to Podcasts says:
Obviously Bioware is all out of cutscenes now.
10/10/2012 at 09:01 Rich says:
Is this going to be a Rebellion only thing or are they making it for the Trinity versions?
Couldn’t find the answer in their FAQ one of those two images would suggest they’ve made at least some of it for the older versions.
10/10/2012 at 09:28 yurusei says:
I was hoping they’d place a Mass relay near every planet’s gravity well, and your ships need to be near it to jump. But eh.
A man can dream, eh?
10/10/2012 at 09:36 westyfield says:
Relays are only used in star systems in Mass Effect, they have on-board FTL drives for in-system travel. There are some maps in Sins that have multiple stars though, so they could use relays on those (instead of the wormholes that Sins uses).
10/10/2012 at 10:36 tkioz says:
The Mass Relays in the ME series are for long distance travel, like 500-1000 LYs, the ships themselves have their own FTL drives that let them travel at vastly reduced speeds (comparatively) between relatively nearby star systems.
IIRC there is an inbuilt limit they designed as well, the longer the core is used the more static is generated, and after a while BOOOOM. In order to get rid of it they need to “ground” themselves in a gravity well.
10/10/2012 at 10:33 tkioz says:
You are so very right. I’m sick to death of fantasy and other magic crap getting into my Sci-Fi. It’s okay if you need to skirt the laws of physics to make the game interesting, but keep destiny and prophesy and all that other metaphysical crap the hell out of my Sci-Fi
10/10/2012 at 12:32 PatrickSwayze says:
Exactly what SciFi do you like then??
10/10/2012 at 12:43 x1501 says:
More Star Trek, less Star Wars?
10/10/2012 at 14:30 Jenks says:
You might like the theme of Halo.
Religious zealot aliens think an extinct race’s universe ending weapon is their salvation, so atheist humans fill their faces with lead.
10/10/2012 at 11:59 MeestaNob says:
Also destined to end in a way no one is satisfied with: Cease and Desist.
10/10/2012 at 12:32 Kyrius says:
Will it allow people to complain about the “stupid ending” again? that would be fun!
10/10/2012 at 21:09 Wooly says:
But of COURSE! ANY mention of Mass Effect should be met with a wave of butthurt complaints about the ending, no matter how irrelevant to the discussion or topic at hand!
10/10/2012 at 22:07 Devan says:
Funny then that you’re the first (and thus far only) person to mention it. Are you complaining about off-topic complaints which haven’t been compiled yet?
10/10/2012 at 12:38 DK says:
If only Sins wasn’t so tremendously *bad* at being a pretty spaceship blow up game (or one that has gameplay worth a damn). It’s engine has hardcoded upper limits that the devs tried to lift (and failed to) since release, from FX limits to the fact they *didn’t have the capability for animated turrets in a goddamn SPACE SHIP GAME ENGINE*.
Is it really so hard to write a better engine than Homeworld 2′s? An engine Relic cobbled together out of bubble gum after scrapping all previous work on a tight Sierra budget, which, despite that, has pretty much no hardcoded ceiling and was so common sense made modders have managed to retrofit better directx and entirely new texture formats (bump mapping!) onto it?
10/10/2012 at 22:08 Devan says:
This trailer makes me want to go back and play some SoaSE. I only have the original game, though, so I hope this mod won’t require an expansion.
11/10/2012 at 06:04 zhanbao21 says:
http://uuz.cc/ahVA
11/10/2012 at 19:41 gritz says:
I think I would have gotten more into the Mass Effect series if there had been more of an emphasis on the spaceship part of it. It seemed like such a waste to have the Normandy be a “press button to teleport to new area” instead of feeling like you’re actually exploring outer space.
Dream game: Mass Effect’s guns and conversation (with better shooting and better writing) and soundtrack, with Privateer’s space-trader sandbox gameplay and maybe a little of FTL’s ship & crew management.