User blog:LeoJo/New Gameplay Ideas for future Mass Effect 3 DLC

We all know that there will be future story DLC for Mass Effect 3, Take Back Omega being pretty much confirmed by files found in previous DLC Packs. Knowing that the story will be continued it might not be a bad idea to come up with new gameplay mechanics and details that would be quite easy to achieve, even without creating tons of new content. Here are a few ideas that I got in the previous weeks. They are meant for both SP and MP and would add new fun to the already good gameplay in the game. My ideas will cover simple things such as new gear equipment or weapon attachments, but also bigger customization ideas. I will not add any "new" character ideas or ideas like new factions for MP, as previous blogs have shown that people came up with many ideas and I would end up copying those ideas made in other blogs (Collector Faction, Indoctrinated Merc Faction, Ardat-Yakshi Vanguard, etc.). Rest assured, my new gameplay and customization ideas are those that I came up with and are not stolen from others.

If you got any new gameplay and customization ideas, post them in the comment section if you wish to share them. Tell me if some of the ideas could use some tweaking and I might change them.

New Weapon attachments

Rate-of-Fire Mod - Available for all weapons

As the name suggests, this would be a simple upgrade that enhances your gun's rate of fire. It would be available to all gun types. You might think that such a mod would be horribly broken, as it would turn already "fast" guns like the Hornet, the Revenant or the Harrier into game breakers, but this could easily be countered by reducing the weapon's accuracy by a little amount, balancing out the higher rate of fire. Your gun would start off as terribly inaccurate, but it would fire slightly faster. As the mod's level increases the properties gradually improve.

Level 1: 15% Rate of fire increase - 25% Accuracy decrease

Level 2: 17,5% Rate of fire increase - 22,5% Accuracy decrease

Level 3: 20% Rate of fire increase - 20% Accuracy decrease

Level 3: 22,5% Rate of fire increase - 17,5% Accuracy decrease

Level 4: 25% Rate of fire increase - 15% Accuracy decrease

Automatic Gun Mod - Available for all weapons

Again, the name pretty much says what the mod is about (this is not my actual suggested in-game name, but I couldn't come up with a fitting in-universe one). This mod would be certainly interesting, as it could basically let you create new guns by modding existing ones. It would turn semi-automatic weapons like the Hornet, Vindicator or the Phalanx into automatic ones. Like the Rate-of-Fire Mod it would appear that it would turn certain guns into game-breakers, so I would suggest again that the gun actually looses some of it's accuracy and stability when adding this mod.

Level 1: 25% Stability decrease - 25% Accuracy decrease

Level 2: 22,5% Stability decrease - 22,5% Accuracy decrease

Level 3: 20% Stability decrease - 20% Accuracy decrease

Level 4: 17,5% Stability decrease - 17,5% Accuracy decrease

Level 5: 15% Stability decrease - 15% Accuracy decrease

Stability Mod - Available for Pistols

This would simply add the existing Stability Mod, that the SMGs and Assault rifles have, to Pistols. No side-effects would incur as this mod wouldn't alter the gun's properties as much as the previous two Guns did.

Scope Mod - Available for Shotguns

This is one of the mods that might not make a lot of sense to you maybe, but it would be quite similar to adding a scope to the shotgun-like Talon Pistol, it would increase the shotgun's accuracy, thus decreasing the pellet spread. Coupled with the Smart Choke mod this could allow you to use certain shotguns at a larger range. The N7 Crusader shotgun would certainly benefit from this mod.

Ballistic Rounds - Exclusive for Graal Spike Thrower/Kishock Harpoon gun

This mod would turn the shots that the Graal Spike Thrower and the Kishock Harpoon gun fire into exploding projectiles obviously akin to the Ballistic Blades power of the Batarian Soldier.

Gear Equipment

Grab-Protection Gear This Gear equipment would protect you from the pesky grab moves that the Banshees, Husks, Brutes, Phantoms and Atlases have. It would give you a certain percentage of chance not to get grabbed, with each level on this gear decreasing the chance of getting grabbed.

Gameplay Ideas

Equipment Items for SP

One idea that could be nice in-game is that the Equipment packs Gear Items from the Multiplayer section of the game would be added to the Singleplayer section. They would be buyable items from the stores on the Citadel (or any future hub world that they decide to add, probably Omega) You could buy Strength Enhancers or Adrenaline modules if you want your Shepard to be a melee character or you could buy Sniper Rail Amps and Targeting VIs to enhance your Infiltrator Shepard a little. It wouldn't be much, but it would make you feel like you're actually customizing your Shepard, in addition to his Power/Armor and Weapon choice. It could even be added as some sort of loot that you find in the world, maybe off enemy troops (Cerberus, of course), to bring the RPG-like loot aspect back to the game.

Second Skill Tree for Weapons

We already have a through skill tree concerning you Powers and Passive abilities. A good idea would be to add a new skill tree dedicated to your weapons. It would get points separately from the "actual" Power Skill tree and would include a Skillset for each weapon type. You could improve your weapon's Stability, Accuracy, Damage and Weight. If you never use one of the gun types you could gradually ignore this tree and concentrate on the others that you desire, just like you do with your powers.

Heavy Melees and Dodges as buyable items

Though the appearance of some of the Heavy Melees seems to be a trivial detail, they sometimes behave quite differently. An Adept's melee is not as damaging as a Vanguard' one, but the striking Adept will throw unprotected enemies farther away than the Vanguard for example. It would be really cool if you could choose which Heavy Melee animation your Shepard uses, be it the N7 Demolisher's Omni-Gaulent or the Infiltrator's Disruptor Blade. Your Shepard's class could be further customized by this and some melees are preferred over others, meaning that you could switch to another one if you wish. The same applies to dodges, you could give your say, Adept Shepard the Mini-Biotic Charge, that the Asari Characters use in the MP, or you could give your Infiltrator Shepard the "Chicken Jump", that the Salarians are using. Or you could just choose no dodge at all, giving you a Health and Shield boost, similar to the N7 Destroyer.

Multiplayer Maps with individual stats

A simple, maybe just cosmetic addition to the Multiplayer Maps: Each map has his own little stat, giving your characters under certain circumstances additional bonuses. Large maps such as Hydra or Dagger could get a 10% Sniper Rifle bonus, small maps such as Glacier would increase your Shotgun damage. Asari characters would get a small health/shields boost when fighting on Firebase Goddess (Thessia), Humans on Earth, Turians on Menae, etc. It wouldn't outright change the behavior of the maps, but it would make them seem a little more individual.

That's it I believe. I hope you liked my ideas and give some feedback on what you think about them. Like I said, if you have any gameplay ideas of your own, then please share them in the comments section.