We got
an update from BioWare today on the future of the game.
I'll copy-paste for those who don't want to go elsewhere.
Aaryn Flyn, General Manager BioWare wrote:Hi everyone,
It’s been two weeks since the launch of Mass Effect™: Andromeda and we’re thankful to the millions of you who have already joined us on this journey. And though the game is now in your hands, it’s really just the beginning.
Since launch, our team has been poring over your comments and feedback, looking to discover what you like about the game, as well as areas we can evolve or improve.
This Thursday, we’ll release a new patch that addresses technical fixes (crashes, improved performance), but also adds a number of improvements we’ve heard you ask for, such as:
- Allowing you to skip ahead when travelling between planets in the galaxy map
- Increasing the inventory limits
- Improving the appearance of eyes for humans and asari characters
- Decreasing the cost of remnant decryption keys and making them more accessible at merchants
- Improving localized voice over lip sync
- Fixing Ryder’s movements when running in a zig zag pattern
- Improving matchmaking and latency in multiplayer
There are many more adjustments being made, all of which you can find in our
patch notes.
Over the next two months we’ll be rolling out additional patches which will go even deeper and look to improve several areas of the game:
- More options and variety in the character creator
- Improvements to hair and general appearance for characters
- Ongoing improvements to cinematic scenes and animations
- Improvements to male romance options for Scott Ryder
- Adjustments to conversations with Hainly Abrams
These upcoming patches will also address performance and stability issues. And we’re looking at adding more cosmetic items to single player for free.
For multiplayer, over the same timeframe, we’re going to continue to build on the APEX missions that have been running since launch. We’ll be adding new maps, characters, and weapons. On Thursday, we kick off the first of three new chapters centered around The Remnant Investigation.
This is just a taste of what’s in store as we continue to support Mass Effect: Andromeda. And as always, you all play an important role in that. We want to hear from you about your experiences, both what you love about the game and what you’d like to see changed. We’re listening, and we’re committed to partnering with you as we continue to explore the Andromeda galaxy together.
Here’s to a great journey,
Aaryn
I'll comment and clarify on some things here based on what I know.
In the first set of bullets, improving eye movement and lip sync comprise the two biggest issues affecting facial animations across the games. The eyes create the weirdest effect.
Allowing players to skip the travel sequence is a good compromise for something that even players that absolutely love the game and BioWare are frustrated with.
For some of the stuff coming later, I'm glad they're planning to improve the character creator. I'm black (no jokes, please) but I'm of Caribbean descent. None of the black options look like the people I see in my city and in my family.
The last two bullets are about issues LGBT+ fans have been upset about. Fans of m/m romance in games are very disappointed in our options in this game.
Kotaku covered this pretty well. Gay fans are pissed because m/m Ryder only has two options in this game, whereas f/f Ryder has four. Additionally, none of Scott's options are squadmates so we get very, very limited interaction with them. Reyes is a criminal and that's always been an issue with gay representation, and Gil's arc makes many fans (myself included) very uncomfortable with the baby bits with Jill. There are also wildly different levels of intimacy displayed in romance culmination scenes in the different romances. Both m/m romances fade to black after a makeout. Those of you who romanced Cora did not get a fade to black after makeout.
To hammer the point home, fans made this infographic about romance options in the entirety of the Mass Effect franchise.
As for Hainly Abrams, she is a trans woman who is one of the personnel you interact with on Eos. We know she's trans because she outs herself to us almost immediately and without prompting. Polygon talked about this in
an article about Mass Effect, Zelda, and Horizon: Zero Dawn all struggled with this.
I'd highly recommend reading both articles from Kotaku and Polygon.