[Hill-Shatar]

22.What was your inspiration for Mass Effect ?

Bob McCabe: "Anyway, some of the inspirations are the sleek design styles of Sid Mead, and cinematic experiences like Blade Runner and, yes, Guard Dog, Alien. We're looking at a lot of sci-fi classics from that era."

23.Will Mass Effect have the Good Side/Bad Side concept?

Bob McCabe: "I said it elsewhere, I think, and I'll say it again. This isn't going to be a generic good & evil system. We're definitely attempting to move further on in the direction we started with Jade Empire. More than that, for now, I will not say...

As far as your influence system, a lot of us liked what we saw in KotOR II. We'll see what we can accomplish."

24.Will Mass Effect have ship travel?

Chris Priestly: "We will definately have multiple planets to visit in Mass Effect (I'm not going to name the actual names of the planets yet, but that is the sort of thing to stay tuned for updates in the future).

We're even going to have a large number of uncharted, unexplored planets available to be visited that will not be directly tied to the main story. Just cool planets to go visit to try out your cool weaponry or a new tactic you want to try out. Plus we feel being an explorer on uncharted worlds is a key part of cool Sci-Fi.

Pretty much at any time during the campaign, the player will be able to choose to head off and visit one of these planets in an All-Terrain Rover to discover what lies of the surface - such as new alien life, resources, ruined civilizations and powerful technology.

Overall, exploration and travel will be a cool feature in Mass Effect."

25.Is Bioware going to charge a fee for the new content delivered by Xbox Live ?

Bob McCabe: "This is NOT a prediction or an official statement or anything. Please do not confuse this speculation on my part as "BioWare said!". I truly do not know, and I do not have anyone telling me anything in this regard.

But, I am sure this is something (content-for-cash) MGS and BioWare upper-management will discuss - or maybe they've even already done it.

But if I were *guessing*, I would look at other things that occur with Xbox Live (with other companies) once the 360 comes out, and I would also look at what BioWare has done in the past.

For example, check out what we've done with Neverwinter Nights: patches, new models, new tiles, new music, new voice sets, etc. - those are generally all free. Full-fledged new modules? They typically cost somewhere under $10."

26.What is the rating of Mass Effect ? Mature ? Adult ? Big Baby ?

Chris Priestly: "We do not yet have any target for rating. When we do, you'll be able to read about it here. Stay tuned."

27.Which size will have the planets ? What will be their look ?

Chris Priestly: "I can say, in a general kind of way, that the planets will be different (so not all city planets, or ice planets, or desert planets or whatever the Art and Design departments have in store). They will likely be of different sizes with different terrains. I don't yet know what sort of restrictions they will have, but they will be less restrictive than the ones in KotOR."

28. Is point of view in first person or third person?

Bob McCabe: "Preston, the lead designer, agrees with you that Resident Evil 4 is one of the best games ever. And I know he appreciates the camera angle of Resident Evil 4. On the other hand, he, and we, all know that the POV has to match the gameplay. And, if possible, alternative options would be nice.

We've designed how we want the game to play out, but once you get everything up and running, things tend to shift slightly this way or that. As such, the current POV is in flux."

29. Will Bioware provides tools for modding Mass Effect ?

Chris Priestly: "Well, currently we are concentrating all our efforts into making Mass Effect the best Xbox 360 exclusive title that it can be. So any presumption or requests for anything else is a moot point."

30. Will the A.I of the game be more realistic ? Like adapting itself to your actions ?
Bob McCabe: "Anyway, the topic of AI draws a lot of interest for us at BioWare. We want to get much better at creating a realistic AI as we think it's been a weakness of ours in the past. A good AI will definitely be part of the gameplan for ME."

Bob McCabe: "We generally tend to steer toward fun over realism, but sometimes we can achieve both. We'll see? We haven't hammered down inventory yet, so that's about all I can say."

31. And what about music ?

Chris Priestly: "It is too early yet to be revealing anything about the score, music or sound for Mass Effect. But don't worry, the Team is very aware that good in-game music is an essential component to making a great game."

32.Will this game include blood and be aimed at a mature audience?

Bob McCabe: "We haven't made a final decision on exactly how the "gore" will play out, but as caradoc2000 said above - people tend to bleed when shot, grenaded, etc. There will most likely be blood in this game. How realistic? How much? How dramatic? Etc? Can't say just yet. Same thing with the rating. Violence tends to lock you out of the kiddie ratings so I'm sure we'll get teen or mature or something of that nature, as our past games have been rated, but we'll see... I'm not involved in those decision making processes, so I know about as much as anyone else posting here."

33.Will there be cheat codes for Mass Effect ?

Chris Priestly: "Far FAR too early to be thinking about that yet.

Personally, (and I'm speaking as a gamer here, not a Dev) I hope the answer is no. Why? Because if they are there, some monkey will abuse them. Sure, MOST gamers don't use cheats. Or they use them after they have finished the game once to see what they missed ot whatever. But there are some muffinheads out there who use cheats and abuse cheats. For me, if they aren't in the game, then there is no way to abuse them. But again, thats just my opinion, you could be wrong."

This FAQ contains quotes made by Bioware employees on the Mass Effect™ Official Board. Other quotes belong to their respective authors. If there is any error, please contact me at ihatedaspam [REMOVE] AT [REMOVE] enoreth DOT net. All your spelling mistakes are belong to me.