Remnants Chapter 10 Notes

Okay, a lot of things have happened since I last bothered to make an update. I'll touch on those AFTER the notes proper are addressed. Since this chapter is another two parter of sorts, this should be easy since a lot of this stuff is rather quick to go over. So, let's dive into the Dauntless and see what we find.



I think it's evident by now I really like horror or horror elements, but not your typical gore porn you find the today. I prefer atmosphere more than anything, the kills are just the sprinkles on the sundae. It's the flavoring that ultimately matters. So I spend a LOT of time building up what's going to happen on the Dauntless. Unlike when I depicted 343 Guilty Spark, the Dauntless gave me a better chance to surprise you. What was going to be the thing in the dark? The secret this ship was holding? Was it more Flood? Some kind of suped up crazy Sentinel? Another Monitor that went off the deep end?

Prometheans! Three whole games before they're supposed to show up! I kept them Crawlers of course, and there is a story reason behind that. Structurally wise, I wanted to save the bigger Knights and other enemies for another time. The crawlers were more thematically appropriate for the creepy monster elements. Think of any tiny creature in massive numbers film, this is that. Big problems, small packages. Thankfully there was some variety among even the Crawlers that I could use to make things a bit more interesting. Plus, it was just nice to do a different enemy besides another group of Elites or Grunts or whatever. If there's one thing I always find annoying it's how limited a ton of my enemy casts can be at times. It's nice to get the opportunity to branch out.

Another cool thing to do in this chapter was the Dauntless itself. Besides exploring some elements of Forerunner technology, I was able to depict a rather obscure fact overlooked by a few people. The Forerunners could reshape and reconfigure their ships! I looked it up, they can do that. Any ship can reform itself to fit a new situation or need! And I thought, hey, how would that work as a disadvantage to people trying to infiltrate it? So not only did I have a proper new monster to bring in, I could fit in the element of a haunted house. Which I love. Seeing how our heroes dealt with that was cool, but ultimately it was just an easy way to split the groups up a little to form some team ups for next time.

The main focus of which, as you might guess, is Shepard and Varvok. This is where everything building between these two comes to a head. I'm not saying they're going to become friends after this, but you will see their relationship actually develop before this is over.

And, as a quick aside, I enjoyed putting Taq in her element and actually doing some archeology work. I have a great fondness for the study of the past and I tried my best to capture how it's actually done. Or at least would be in the future setting we find ourselves in. I may have dressed it in some tropes, but the idea of cataloguing and proper procedure for going about working at a historical site is more or less true to life.

Now, with the story parts out of the way, I might as well talk about some news. Because it's inevitable one of you will ask questions about this.

Mass Effect: Andromeda... I actually have the game and have played it. I haven't finished it, but I have played it. It was a birthday gift. Yes, I am aware of the easter egg at the end that suggests the quarians will be involved in some DLC later. That is good news as far as I'm concerned. I'd like to see something come of it, but right now I'm just waiting to see any confirmation. So far, nothing, probably won't be anything until EA holds their conference next month. There is a book coming out around the same time that might shed more light on things, but we'll see. For now, I'm willing to wait and see if BioWare actually does right by the quarians.

Yes, the game is buggy, it has its problems. I'm not exactly happy with how they decided to do some of the facial animations, specifically the fact every Asari in the game has he same face for some reason. And not exactly the most attractive asari face to boot. It's not perfect, but it's not nearly as terrible as it could've been. It could've used more polish, but as a game and a story it functions more or less okay.

More importantly, the characters are actually fairly engaging and fun. I really enjoy Drack and adore both PeeBee and Vetra. Jaal also seems to be built to be the perfect boyfriend, so I don't know, maybe my Sara Ryder will go for him or something. I'd still prefer a quarian, but whatever. I do like all the characters, they're good fun. And, if I get the chance, I'd like to do something with them all. We'll see. In general, I think the game is a good addition to the Mass Effect franchise, for whatever good or ill that may be seen by some.

Also, for those concerned about Mass Effect being put on ice for he time being by EA... please stop worrying. This is standard practice for a game series after a major release. Studios get reshuffled, departments shrink or refocus. I think you'd prefer them to take their time with another major release for the series rather than them rushing to get another one out the door with even more bugs and less polish.

Do not worry about DLC. Once a game goes gold, most DLC is worked on by the remaining staff. They got nothing else to do, so they decide to keep making stuff for the game. It's still in production and it will ultimately be released. The series being put on hold is not going to stop some DLC or online support. They clearly still have plans to introduce more characters for multiplayer so it stands to reason the same holds true for single player.

It's not the end of world, the series isn't dead, you are going to see whatever else they had planned for the future. Just give it a few more weeks and you'll hear about something. Mass Effect and BioWare release dates in general for DLC take a few months after the initial launch. Just be patient and you'll get everything they already were working on.

So, that's everything. I liked MEA, I might do something with the characters, do not worry so much about the future DLC, it is most likely coming. I'd also like to add, please do check out the tv tropes page for the story. It does seem a little... bear to be honest. I know the title being shared with something else makes it confusing, apologies for that. It and the recently named enemies of Andromeda have made me consider renaming the story altogether. Either way, please do try to fill the page out if you can. Thanks.

http://tvtropes.org/fanfic/remnants

Well that's it for now, come back later on when the next chapter will be posted. See you then.