Christina @ATX

Agentic Systems Engineer/Designer · Building AI Powered Pipelines · Former Riot (League of Legends), BioWare (Mass Effect)

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

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[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@Zheos01 Yeah sentinel was a bit in the dull side we wanted sentil to be easier to play so lots of power but not a lot of gameplay on tech armor.

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

In mass effect 2 we added one unique ability for each class as part of the kit.

As a KOTOR player I loved force jump. It felt like a force jump ability + shotgun might be an interesting play style, so we tried it and it was!

It broke lots of things in the game but it was fun so we kept it. I know there are a couple places you can't jump to but it worked most of the time and vanguard shotgun is my all time favorite playstyle!

[Griffin Manticore @grifinmanticore]

@truffle What was the thought process behind the charge ability and are so many enemies in places where you can't use it? Was there any specific challenges working with the ability?

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

The companions were narratively driven first, and the writing team understood the class system and represented a good range of gameplay archetypes. For example the writing team decided which did and did not have biotics.

The universe in mass effect allows for a diverse range of abilities we never found the narrative constraining.

[Zach 🐀 @Evelllex]

@truffle While you're Q&A-ing, any insights on how number of companions was settled on, and how the team decided on their class breakdowns?

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@Rhopunzel I honestly can't remember the weapons were all very collaboratively designed. Cain was a fun one!

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@JLGarsh I don't recall a purpose for this might just be a big. I guess they are extra experienced ;)

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

The original E3 mass effect demo was mostly smoke and mirrors. It was big on the vision and the ideas, but none of the gameplay was l near production quality. I was actually the demo operator for the video.

Best to think of the video as a concept for the game.

[The Unsung Hero @TheUnsungHero26]

@truffle I've always loved these 2006 videos of ME1, they show a very different looking game.

I'm curious when and why the decision was made to change the combat to what it is now. Did Gears of War's release have an impact?
https://t.co/IzUMqrUYfF

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@daosino Be the decision maker

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@tetralesca Lol

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

We studied film and sought to replicate a film experience. We empowered cinematic designers with tools that let them create those experiences.

Really the writers and narrative designers figured it out and the engineers built the tools under the creative direction of @CaseyDHudson whose taste drove all the decisions including the paragon and renegade system and the unique narrative pacing that makes a conversation feel mass effect.

[snowlatin @snowlatin]

@truffle Could you tell us a bit about how you designed and arrived at the conversation system?

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@davidldalton https://t.co/8Y4PLAd28r

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

This is a big question but I guess what I would say is we focused more on the main storyline and less on providing a universe to explore. We made sure everything that went into the game was important and had a purpose, versus focusing on the feeling of a high breadth experience. We raised the minimum quality bar significantly, understanding that meant we could build fewer things.

[Dylan Sandell @DylanSandell41]

@truffle What changes were made exactly in terms of the scope of Mass Effect 2 compared to Mass Effect 1?

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@BmAbhilash It is a recognized trope in video games that the heroes trying to save the world need to scavenge for trinkets and save to buy things. Nothing wrong with tropes.

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

We switched to dropped ammo for gameplay reasons.

In ME1 there wasn't a lot of reason to move around during combat because you had infinite ammo. This makes cover based com at design a lot less interesting.

Dropped ammo creates a reason to move around. This means level designers can design combat around this movement.

[Abhi @BmAbhilash]

@truffle I have a question, The thermal clips will be dropped by enemies and that is the only way to source them. Isn't this odd? Compared to the first one where we can shop for weapons, in ME2 we can't plan ahead due to this issue. If we can buy it before missions then it makes sense

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@KeldorRDM Sniper rifles are strong

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

I have been enjoying talking to mass effect players about development and gameplay questions. Feel free to keep them coming!

My focus was gameplay and systems design.

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

Are you asking if we cut abilities? I dont think so. We approached each squad member and class as a gameplay kit. Nothing got cut.

We did prototype power ideas and not every prototype made it into the game.

[Drew Russell @DrewRussel49314]

@truffle Were there more abilities that could be obtained uniquely to classes?

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@korvicon @NebsGoodTakes A lot of this is trying to appeal to a browser audience which I know conflicts with what core RPG players want. I see merrit in both types of game, and play both types.

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@bruh47213 I am not sure honestly I have my opinions but a decision like that needs to be informed by research and strategy. Could go more RPG could go more action shooter. There have been a lot of great games made since Mass Effect to learn from as well.

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@WomboSupreme @iwelsh @FreedTMG Designers love players who appreciate mechanics

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

We didn't have consumable grenades in me2 for a couple reasons.

First people expect a dedicated grenade button/key, buttons are a limited resource!

Second grenades serve a similar purpose to combat powers. Making grenades powers that certain characters had as part of their load out just made a lot of sense.

[Shawn Matthews @SMthegamer1]

@truffle I remember checking the manual multiple times because I couldn't find a way to throw a grenade, at first I had thought they unlock later but a few hours in it really bothered me.

For some reason of all the changes that hit me hardest.

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

We never discussed the option of halo style weapons but that could have been a cool option.

Thinking back I don't think we would have gone with that option because we knew that not everyone playing mass effect was a hard core shooter player. Less hard core shooter players are more likely to develop a strong preference for a specific gun, and to not want to be forced to learn to use a different one.

This is also way playing mass effect with just powers is difficult but totally viable. I know lots of devs who exclusively played mass effect with just powers. I have done it myself. It is a fun challenge.

[Vaul Tradeous @Vaul347]

Why not Halo style weapons? Is this an IP block?

I'm not aware of many other games that had halo style weapons/ammo economy. You get a gun, fire until you are out of ammo and pick up an enemies weapon. Maybe you run across some ammo for your weapons, maybe, in the right context.

But, take Andromeda for example. VERY UNLIKELY you find ammo for your weapons on an inhabitated part of a planet. But you could take enemies weapons. Break a laser off a machine. Use your biotics primarily, etc.. one can dream.

Compared to ME2. 99% of the game is around similar milita, character types that would carry ammo. Still, they also had lots of different guns. The heavy weapons sorta did the Halo style pick up. Where you would come across a new arc thrower for example.

Anyways, with the VR modding advancing so dramatically now. I will be adding my dream of Halo style weapon pickup to as many games as possible. I think it adds a sense of urgency, a whole other combat feature requiring you to suddenly think out of the box, and simply, more character to redundant combat across many games.

I don't want 1200 rounds of pistol ammo in my trenhcoat (cyberpunk 2077) I want a few spare mags. With the options to pick up and immediately use an enemies weapon they dropped because I'm out of ammo. Or find an opportunity to use the world context more( explosive barrels, electrical hazards) because I literally don't have a choice, I'm out of ammo.

If I'm shooting at a mech while my tech cryo combo recharges, I'd probably run out of ammo because of their thick armor. Even though it was a 2 second cooldown, bear with me😆

This would be another reason to make the player move around the map. Searching for countermeasures or weapons in general because we just ran out of ammo, and this damn thing is still coming!

Anyways, unlike Master Chief who can tank and bash his way through everything. This weak economy style would force alot of different ways to think about company in countless games.

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

@InstantSunrise This is somewhat true. During early development the exact unlock order and dependencies were not decided. So maybe 1/3 of the development occurred before the order was known.

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

How mass effect 2 came together in 18 months successfully:
- It was the same team that shipped mass effect. Teams often have a lot of turn over, the core team stayed on for mass effect 2.
- We knew the timeline up front (I believe the dragon age 2 team had their schedule pulled in six months or more which was rough(
- We struggled a lot shipping mass effect 1 on unreal and we made a lot of mistakes. We came into mass effect 2 knowing how to build with unreal.
- We were ruthless about limiting scope. Mass Effect 1 was a much higher scope game and we had to cut about half of it just to ship. The team hated that and it was wasteful because a lot of work didn't ship. We cut our scope to the bone early on so no work was wasted.
- We listened to the player feedback on mass effect 1 and used that to decide what to cut, what to keep, and what to improve.

Mass effect 2 was not perfect, but it benefited so much from setting realistic achievable goals given the short development timeline.

[Stefan Sain Lopuszanski 🔜 LoL Worlds & PAXU @Stexe]

@truffle Wow. That's impressive. I'm always amazed at how fast some games come to be, especially AAA titles. I guess it helps to have an existing framework to build upon though?

[Christina @ATX @truffle]

I get it but back to ammo clips specifically as a game designer being different for the sake of being different is seldom the right choice. Your design choices need to be better, not just different. Having the humility to do what others have done before is often good design.

There were many other ways we differentiated combat.

With all that said I understand and respect your preference for me1's system design me1 was much closer to turn based rpg that could be played in real time, me2 was more of an action shooter with pause any time.