...Does EVERYTHING touching Mass Effect have to turn in to a HFY wank?

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Right now we have:
X-Com laser and plasma weapons completely/partially ignoring Kinetic Barriers.
X-Com with non-Mass Effect FTL
X-Com with synthesized E-115, Alien Alloys, and Meld.
X-Com with no ingrained fear of synthetic intelligence(VI/AI) and would likely have several HWP utilizing AI programming architecture.
Turian Contact at Relay-314 having the Turians getting shit kicked out of them because Fusion Lances.
X-Com researching Mass Effect and Eezo from the standpoint that it's nice, but not necessary for everything.
Etherials worried about Reapers being the cause for the invasion of Earth and subsequent development of non-Mass Effect based tech.
Psionics are heavily in humanities favor. The only races that have shown psionic potential in ME are Asari, the Thorian, and Rachni, and those are VERY limited compared to the abilities of Humanity and even Sectoids.
Psionics are more versatile than Biotics, mainly by being able to directly affect the mind.

Points of Debate:
Would Gene-Modding allow a non-psionic human access to Biotics using Meld? Would this be cost effective? What about MEC Troopers gaining Biotics?
Would X-COM allow aliens on human colonies?
Would X-COM keep viable populations of Invasion Aliens for further study and resources?(my answer is Duh, but some feel otherwise, discuss)
How wide spread would cats and dogs become?
Why does captcha give me 7 completely illegible phrases before I can post?

>post deleted, corrected, and reposted. Fucking TYPOS

>>28821111
No, but XCOM tends to have that effect.
I mean, look at XSGCOM.

>>28821111
ME has serious flaws in it's implementation that it has to be combined with other settings to keep it from being fantasy in space.

Guys, guys.

Vanguard.
MECs.

How is Xenonauts?

>>28821111
It is not about making a 'human f-yeah' story. Taking lore from two games and merging them as best as one can without changing things too much. After all, isn't that the point of a crossover? To answer that 'what if' question? What if the X and Y universes met? If one were to fundamentally alter one game beyond recognition simply for balancing's sake - then what's the point of a crossover?

>>28821146
>look at XSGCOM.
I just did, and it starts like this:
>The Jaffa guarding the chappa'ai raised their staff weapons and charged them, anything could be coming through and they didn’t want to meet the fate of the guards who had clearly been caught unawares by the Tau’ri agents who had recently come to this world and sabotaged the vessel that was being constructed here.
Now I'm not sure if it's worth it.

>>28821434
It gets better.
Much better.

>>28821146
>Stargate XCom crossover.

no pls

>>28821166
It HAS to be combined with other settings? That's a very strange thing to say.

>>28821432
How does it make sense for an interstellar empire that has waged war in space repeatedly to get the shit kicked out of it by humans who never waged an interstellar war, and fought the most retarded alien invasion in the world.

I mean, fuck, XCom is fun. It's good. But it's pure fucking fantasy. "We have orbital supremacy. So, our plan is to coast around in ships, get shot down by the equivalent of chucklefucks in technicals, and every once in a while land ten to twenty guys in cities to shoot people in the face at random."

Humanity, fuck yeah!

>>28821506
The Etherals weren't trying to invade humanity, they were trying to find a race that could match their psionic powers.

Beating the turians was because plasma, laser, and fusion lances all ignore their shields and when you add psionics and all the assorted inventions the humans got out of the Ethereal war it turns out to be shit kicking as the Turians were expecting somebody much weaker with weapons they had defenses against.

>>28821506
>How does it make sense for an interstellar empire that has waged war in space repeatedly to get the shit kicked out of it by humans who never waged an interstellar war, and fought the most retarded alien invasion in the world.
because E-115 makes energy weapons practical on a scale that is impossible for the Mass effect side to replicate, also no orbital supremacy simply because of how the turians find humanity in the first place.

Another crossover that could've been interested but has devolved into HFY circlejerks, lovely.

>Psionics are heavily in humanities favor. The only races that have shown psionic potential in ME are Asari, the Thorian, and Rachni, and those are VERY limited compared to the abilities of Humanity and even Sectoids.

Why?

>plasma, laser, and fusion lances all ignore their shields

Why?

>>28821762
ME shields are designed against kinetic weapons because it's impossible to make energy weapons with their understanding of Ezero.

The Asari have a mild suggestion which makes them look like an attractive member of your race, that was stated in ME2 in a bar, the Rachni are a hive concious which extends to every Rachni, and the Thorian is a giant tree like thing which communicates through some form of telepathy.

>>28821762
>>plasma, laser, and fusion lances all ignore their shields
>Why?
because that's Mass Effect canon

>>28821804
>>28821798
Technically their shield should be able to stop plasma.

>>28821827
It would stop the projectile but the plasma will still land on you and melt you.

>>28821506
>It HAS to be combined with other settings? That's a very strange thing to say.
I want to point something out:
"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own, you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign."
and
"...the Reapers existed for the sole purpose of ensuring the ongoing existence of organic life in the galaxy, based on the assumption that all synthetic intelligences will eventually destroy their organic creators."
Seems like shitty story telling and antagonists to me if you have to assume the audience is 3 years old.

>>28821798

> it's impossible to make energy weapons

In ME it is. In XCOM it isn't. In this crossover setting, either no one developed energy weapons since it's impossible, or it's possible and everyone did.

>>28821839
Oh, like fire-ammo that deals a DoT afterwards. That sort of fire-ammo that doesn't have a damage bonus to shields or barriers.

>>28821804
Source?

>>28821798
>The Asari have a mild suggestion which makes them look like an attractive member of your race, that was stated in ME2 in a bar,

That was never stated in that dialogue. The races simply see things in asari that they find attractive through their own standards. There's no evidence of them having psychic suggestion abilities.

This stinks of HFY circle-jerk garbage. Enjoy yourselves, autists.

>>28821869
Are you retarded? According to ME Canon no race developed DEW small arms(Excepting Protheans and Collectors/Reapers), X-COM humanity has access to non-ME tech base that allows and even favors DEWs.

>>28821870
Actually Plasma is more of an energy weapon so it would short out the shield, plasma is a weird substance.

>>28821869
Reread what I posted I was specifically talking about ME races.

>>28821889
Uniquely, the asari are known to be perceived as attractive to many other species. At the Eternity bar, a conversation occurs between a human, a salarian, and a turian who are watching an asari dancer. The men debate whose species the asari most resembles. Upon each forwarding their own race, the human theorizes that the asari might be using mind control to appear attractive to other species, but it is more likely that the three men were merely focusing on characteristics their species shares with the asari (e.g., body shape for humans, skin color for salarians, head fringe for turians). All three men compliment the asari's flexibility and grace. This conversation implies that asari are considered attractive to many species, which would prove useful considering their method of reproduction. Mordin Solus postulates that the mechanism behind the asari's cross-species attraction may be neurochemical in nature.
Straight from the ME wiki.

>>28821869
E-115 favors DEWs and Ezero Favors Mass Accelerators. humanity has Access to E-115 and teh mass effect aliens don't.
>>28821870
Guardian Lasers completely bypass mass effect shields, and geth plasma weapons partially bypass them while doing more damage to said shields.

>>28821947
>Actually Plasma is more of an energy weapon so it would short out the shield, plasma is a weird substance.

But other energy weapons don't "short out" shields, which also doesn't cover why lasers and fusion lances would ignore shields.

>>28821804
>>28821870
"Kinetic barriers, colloquially called "shields", provide protection against most mass accelerator weapons. Whether on a starship or a soldier's suit of armor, the basic principle remains the same.
Kinetic barriers are repulsive mass effect fields projected from tiny emitters. These shields safely deflect small objects traveling at rapid velocities. This affords protection from bullets and other dangerous projectiles, but still allows the user to sit down without knocking away their chair.
The shielding afforded by kinetic barriers does not protect against extremes of temperature, toxins, or radiation."
Straight from the ME codex entry.
"Lasers are not blocked by the kinetic barriers of capital ships (bar the ones employed by the Reapers, whose barriers are capable of blocking them to an extent). However, the range of lasers limits their use to rare 'knife fight'-range ship-to-ship combat. "
From the Wiki

>>28821762
>Psionics in humanities favour
Frankly we're the only species still alive who bothered to look into it. Even Vahlen, the discoverer of human psionics, admits it sounds like science fiction and that without seeing Sectoids and Ethereals use them she never would have believed it possible. Other races never met the Ethereal forces so never saw its potential
As to why those particular races, the Asari mate using a form of mind meld, and the Thorian and Rachni had similar powerful psychic abilities
>Plasma, laser and fusion ignore shields
All those weapons use energy as their means of attack, ME shields are designed to protect from physical impacts from mass effect propelled rounds. Laser burn clean through, plasma has a tendency to burst against the shield and cook the poor bastard inside

>>28821972
>E-115 favors DEWs and Ezero Favors Mass Accelerators. humanity has Access to E-115 and teh mass effect aliens don't.
I don't really get why E-115 wouldn't exist/be discovered in other solar systems.

>>28821972
>geth plasma weapons
They're not true plasma weapons though

The overall problem I'm seeing with this crossover is that it's not so much that both take place in the same universe but more like people want to pluck out the X-COM solar system and plant it into ME universe with the ME universe having progressed in the same exact way, which requires large leaps of logic and extreme contrivances that ME aliens wouldn't discover E-115.

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>>28821975
>toxins
Well, I think we know what happens if energy weapons fall out of the picture.

>>28822096
>>28822038
It actually has some basis in ME, the reapers steer technological development in a way they like so it would be beneficial to keep the council races dependent on the Relay form of transportation.

>>28822129
Doesn't that just raises the same question of why wouldn't Reapers have used E-115 in the first place?

>>28822235
Reapers might be using Elerium. It's suggested that Reapers have an extremely large Eezo Core and immense power generators.

>>28822235
The reapers might use it but they would keep it out of the younger race's hands because it would be far too easy for their ships to slip through the cracks of a harvest.

Hell, they might not even use it because they don't advance their tech so they only have the technology their creators had or the race they assimilated has.

>>28822235
Even the Reapers find something new every cycle, its part of why they do it
Could be that E-115 is a byproduct of Ethereal research into Eezo, kind of like depleted uranium?

>>28821136
I for one see no need for a conflict between psionics and biotics.

The issue would be the investment. You invest in the Genemods to make your psionic trooper more survivable. The biotics on the other hand would take on the same mental resources to develop and train as the psionic one. Focus, perception and willpower. Meaning you need to train twice as long a biotic psionic trooper, while you can get two batches of psionics and two batches biotics in the same time allotment.

Gene mods most definately can be slapped on a biotic or vice versa. In fact it is not unlikely that humans don't need prenatal eezo exposure to get biotics, so there is no need for that catastrophe. Especialy if they only encounter eezo with the citadel (which would fit tematically, raiding Turians for fun and eezo)

They would use genemod implants to get biotics in the first place.

For invasion aliens kept alive its most likely under stasis and for use of xenobiological studies, since they want to feel a bit better about themselves than nazis or invading aliens.


Regarding MECs, i see them as a desperation move to get ultra heavy troopers by xcom. Sure the prostethics and cybernetics field will get a major boost out of them, but MEC conversion wont be something that people will volunteer for. Its most likely we will see some kind of of larger MEC like thing that is similar to the Tau Crisis or Broadside Suits. Only people that loose more than one limb in combat will most likely consider volunteering for MEC conversion. Especially with optional genemods becoming widely available, and lets not forget biotics and psionics most likely needing to not only visualize but feel and act things out with hands and limbs, to further enhnace their mental state, since we are after all biolocical creatures no matter what transhumanists would have you believe, thus making MEC conversion not all that great for biotic or psionics.

Also, Wraith Fusion Lance Armored vehicles.

>>28822545
MECs would probably lose the conversion requirement, with human cybernetics going more for outright augmentation or being bypassed entirely depending on how rare MELD is

As for biotics, I'd see them as just plain rarer than psionics. Willpower helps but thats a nebulous idea at best, really psionics seems to be luck of the draw, whereas biotics require a specific set of circumstances, training and amps to use in the field.

>>28822545
Would MEC troopers be able to utilize Biotics? Before or After conversion? How would Gene-Modding be perceived by associate species of the Citadel, not just those on the Council?

>>28822656
Probably, biotecs are used through implants but Genemodding would be reviled considering it's illegal under the same basis as Omni-gel and won't get the exemption Omni-gel has for being so damn useful, actually come to think of it Omni-gel wouldn't exist considering it's a human invention.

>>28822701
Medi-gel.

>>28822656
>Would MEC troopers be able to utilize Biotics?
I would argue that no MEC troopers can't use Biotics on the grounds that they can't use Psi or Gene mods.

Has there been any good write-faggotry yet?

>>28822701
Omni-gel might be a MELD product, or perhaps an imitation of the original
The real question is how extensive is genemodding? Is this Transhuman X-Com, or is MELD in rare supply and the extensive modifications seen during the Ethereal War are reserved for frontline elite units?

>>28822751
None that I've seen, but one of the main inspiration is a really quite good fanfic called X-Com: Second Contact that I'd recommend

>>28822737
My bad, sorry, anyway gene-therapy for the use outside of altering natural abilities is outlawed by the council.

>>28822777
I already read the wh40k crossover fanfic now I'm reading the Tiberium Wars one.
I really liked the wh40k one and this one is pretty good read too. I'll check out that fanfic you're recommending.

If you would fuse the two you'd just get an really overpowered setting. Imagine star trek where the gun actually just needed one shot to kill the target.
It'd be a deadly game of one chance rock,papers,scissors aka terrible.

>>28822701
>>28822737
Medkits would be the precursor to Medi-gel.

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>>28822833
>deadly game of one chance rock,paper,scissors
Not my fault the Council races never trained against parachuting paralegals

>>28822921
Wouldn't it be worse, you could literally destroy planets if you combined the two settings weapons together. Humanity wouldn't just reach some technological superscience, they would trancend- IN 50 YEARS mind you if we follow the ME timeline.

We're talking immortality, god like psychics and the ability to just reverse engineer everything in a matter of months.

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>>28822752

>Is this Transhuman X-Com, or is MELD in rare supply and the extensive modifications seen during the Ethereal War are reserved for frontline elite units?

While I do feel that MELD resources would largely be saved for XCOM units, that doesn't necessarily mean that the human race wouldn't still be much further along in terms of synthetic and organic augmentation. While MELD allows for flawless augmentation, if it was a limited resource then XCOM would likely put much of its efforts into discovering alternative means of achieving similar results on a wider scale.

Plus, I think it's more interesting if humanity is largely transhuman by the point of the "Second Contact War / The Human War", as a more liberal stance on genetics and robotics research would definitely shake up Citadel politics.

>>28823033
I don't believe that humanity will accept "Transhumanism" within the next 200 years. Gene-modding immune systems and removing genetic disease? Most likely.
Cybernetic Prosthesis? With out a doubt.
Full Augmentation? Not likely outside of Armed Service.

>>28822997
I'm not so sure, humanity advances centuries in a few months yes, but on the back of incredibly risky principles barely tested before hitting the field. There would be a substantial gap between acquiring the tech and its large scale use
That and I'm not so sure we'd advance as fast without the Ethereals notes to steal anymore

>>28823111
Augmentation by choice might become available, possibly with the help of Medi and Omni-gels to support the patient
And I'd like to think that Dr Shen's lasting impact outside his technology would be a tradition of informed consent

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>>28823111

Given the sheer number of casualties over the course of the war and the number of injured people/veterans requiring prosthetics, I would think public opinion on transhumanist developments would be a bit more accepting than it is in our world. I wouldn't expect it to get as far along as, say, Eclipse Phase, but a hell of a lot can change in 150 years.

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>>28823111
If the dominant human culture remains as competitive as it is now and augmentation offers significant advantages over non-augmentation, people will be forced to accept it.

>>28822629
Indeed most MEC type troopers would be a Crisis like battlesuit. Although MEC conversion would still be possible for cyborgs, and direct interface would make them fer more responsive than suits.

But still the more important fact is the very real thing that handicap people will have a second chance by becoming cyborgs. Then there will be the obvious social issues of far-spread VI/AI taking a lot of overseeing and processing work, cyborgs and genemods propagating into the society being by leaps and bounds more capable and psionics just flat out being walking human lie detectors and mind and memory readers depending on allotted time and skill.

In effect its either going to be a dystopia ultra capitalism/mercantilism thing or a highly welfare socialist state. Those are the choices if the tech gets implemented and nations want to remain competitive, with some areas highly regulated most likely with various approaches in different social and economic areas.

Companies will either outsource or have very few people compared to today and the major employers will be healthcare, administration, service industry, R&D, security and such. Production, mining and processing will slowly be done by very few people overseeing VI/AIs and such.

Human nations will most likely look very schizophrenic in their political choices and application of technology for the Citadel, take into account also the fact that they most likely are not officially united and yeah, Humans wont really be approachable as a whole.

In fact I see the Xcom and its Council still being covert and various nations entering and leaving the Citadel like its a even more porous League of Nations all in a speed chess game by the Shadow council, against Asari diplomats trying to bring Humans into the fold. (Something like allying with the aliens in the game only reversible and sometimes done deliberately)

>>28821506
>I mean, fuck, XCom is fun. It's good. But it's pure fucking fantasy. "We have orbital supremacy. So, our plan is to coast around in ships, get shot down by the equivalent of chucklefucks in technicals, and every once in a while land ten to twenty guys in cities to shoot people in the face at random."
The aliens weren't invading, they were just fucking with us, experimenting on us and seeing what we'd do to ourselves as well. It was never about orbital supremacy. They're just chillin' in hyperspace or another dimension or some shit, and then we start really messing with things, like their point of communication with the Earth forces. When we captured that, they pulled the mothership in to take a look.
On the grand scene of things, the not-ethereals where never very good at what they wanted to do. They could tweak genes, bend minds, and build robots, which worked fine for all the POS races they ultimately found lacking. We, on the otherhand, worked very well with the tool we stole for them.
Hm, I guess, if you survive anyway, XCOM is kinda HFY.

>>28821506
Ethereals weren't trying to wipe us out, if they wanted too they could've easily. However they were trying to uplift humanity to see if they had the "spark" if we didn't then full on invasion and we'd become a servant race like Sectoids and other species.

I think that Ethereals in MassCOM would've been targeted by the Reapers in previous cycle. However they ascended as seen with Ethereals from The Bureau. Yet I'm going to out on a limb and say the ones you see in EU/EW weren't up to the chops. Perhaps with destruction of their homeworld, they took to the void. Their physical forms could be result of genetic engineering to survive the countless years without resources. That's when they sought new species to help them ascend. Only to be defeated by Humanity, victims of their own success.

Flash forward to 2100s, I would see Psionics being much more common and something sought. Genetic Engineering is common, but highly regulated. A.Alloys, E-117, and MELD are synthesized. Laser weapons are common, however they've been refined. Plasma weapons are only in hands of Elites in XCOM's N7 like program. Plasma weapons also have been refined.

Discovery of mass relays was helpful but not essential for FTL. This sparksBureau the Turian-Human war, when Turian vanguard wiped the floor of some poor civilians, but were trumped by XCOM (System Alliance) when they showed up.

One idea I suggested from the previous thread was augments and MECs becoming the next big thing in the terraforming industry. Cybernetics are easier to ship and fix than people, and it would not be that hard to use sealed civilian MECs on early terraforming planets for use in construction and heavy industry - reaching a point where firsts generation colonists are required to be augmented to cope better with the conditions of an untamed world.

This combined with a state of pre-turian frontier and expansionist attitudes and Xcom support lead to a massive boom for the human Council Alliance, masses of worlds terraformed very quickly with the civilian attitude to MECs being almost fatherly and hard-working, pioneers and explorer cyborgs building new human worlds.

This would lead to shanxi having a fairly high population by the time the turians hit it, about 600 million (far higher than ME cannon) and the occupational forces of the turians did not recognise non-combatants in the same way humanity did. Shanxi became a blood bath as planet defence forces teamed up with Xcom space teams and civilian militia with construction MECs pasted the turians but with massive casualties.

The existing bad blood of the human/turian second contact war is beefed up to the Nth degree? Why you ask? 600 million people on shanxi, the same number that died in the first Contact war.

As far as humanity is concerned, aliens that don't want to kill us are a novel idea, but the turians are as bad as the ethereals and deserve nothing more than a rocket punch to the face.

Would XCOM even bother with mass effect based shields before the first contact war? They might look at it and say "This sure would be an effective defense against projectile weapons, like any alien we might encounter/ renegade human faction would use that!" Leaving them fairly vulnerable during the first contact war and turning it into a game of rocket tag, just like the opening days of the ethereal war.

>>28824502

>Plasma Weapons
>Not hand-held Fusion Lances.

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>>28824798

>reaching a point where firsts generation colonists are required to be augmented to cope better with the conditions of an untamed world.

That could be an interesting way to introduce widespread MEC-based civilian augmentation beyond prosthetics for amputees/infirm. Sign up to be the first on a distant world with your own plot of land, at the low low price of your original arms and legs!

>>28824822
>Leaving them fairly vulnerable during the first contact war and turning it into a game of rocket tag
>titan armor
not really seeing the vulnerability here, rail guns are not something new in X com (tier 2 MEC weapon)

>>28824822
I'm not sure the idea would even occur to them, X-Com engineering is so advanced its better to just put on Titan armour then to faff around with shield generators that need a rare substance to power them
>>28824894
I could see MECs taking the place of those big security mechs that were all the rage in Mass Effect 2

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>>28824798

This talk about civilian MEC's does make me think about the availability of Meld.

Perhaps we could make it that in the years after the Ethereal war Meld was very expensive an very hard to reproduce. However about a decade before the events of the first contact war a breakthrough was achieved in the production of meld.

This resulted in an explosion of civilian MEC's as meld was more readily available.

>>28824907
Just trying to make it a little less HFYish, though since I haven't played EW I wasn't aware of the railguns for MECS. Carry on.

>>28824894

Expanding on my own idea with your input

>all first generation colonists are required to undergo augmentation to better survive and terraform New worlds
>with the help of commercial MEC suits purpose built for construction, terraforming and heavy industry
>backed up with scout SHIV units for cartography and exploration purposes

Three generations later

>MECs and cyborgs are commonplace and looked up to as the forefathers of modern colonial life.
>ceremonies held for these hero's quite blatantly state the sacrifices they had to make on the New frontier.
> Blood, sweat, tears, hard work to build new worlds with their lives and limbs.

Emphasis on the limbs. Amputees are now goddamn vets, looked up to with reverence and respect.

So when the construction guilds took up arms on Shanxi, tearing through office blocks to RAWKET PAUNCH turians before opening fire on them with construction bolt guns . . .

>>28824985
I'd argue that the Omni and Medi gels are either knockoffs of MELD, or its evolved form. Not sure which way it should go, after all letting humanity outstrip the Ethereals in something could be bad news for the balance of the setting
Maybe MELD has some dark secret associated with its manufacture? Something like cybernetic stem cells feels like it could have some deeply fucked up origins

>>28825024
>Kinetic Strike Modules have been rebuilt to propel downwards with less force to hammer in bolts
>Flamethrower mounts reworked for welding tools
>Using mass effect tech to propel girders up tall construction sites

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>>28824987

Well, the tricky thing here is that both Mass Effect AND XCOM are pretty much by their very nature HFY. In the former it's about a single human being uniting the galaxy, and in the latter it's humanity pulling itself by its own bootstraps and taking everything the aliens throw at us and returning it ten-fold, albeit at extreme cost.

HFY isn't an innately bad concept, even if a subset of people missed the original point of it.

>>28824985

I'm torn on whether it would be better or worse for MELD and Elerium to be readily available resources for XCOM-Humanity. On the one hand it keeps things from getting too out of control, but on the other making it too rare or completely impossible to synthesize has mankind looking to Eezo just like everyone else.

I suppose I'm just partial to the idea that the reason for humanity being the best bet to fight the Reapers is because the Ethereal Invasion forced our development in an entirely different direction from the other Council Races, rather than it being left as an ambiguous "humans are just better because reasons".

>>28825044

>after all letting humanity outstrip the Ethereals in something could be bad news

Arguably I'd consider it more likely than not that humanity WOULD outstrip the Ethereals eventually, given a century and a half to work with the remains of their invasion force. However, getting to their level could possibly require delving into some seriously shady shit, as Dr. Shen feared.

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>>28825082

>Humans at the fringe of civilization weaponizing construction tools to fend off an alien attack.

>>28824985

(another idea from the civilian MEC guy)

Why not include a page from Terror from the Deeps book and include Molecular control as the missing link in synthetic alien alloys, Elerium and Meld?

Until Xcom hit mars, they could use molecular control salvaged from the temple ship combined with Psi powers to produce miniscule amounts of each - mass effect tech removed things like positive and negative mass and allowed for a much higher compression of materials - from this point on mass effect tech, molecular control and psi combined allowed mankind to produce enough synthetic alloy, elerium and Meld to introduce it on a controlled mass scale?

>>28825210

I like that idea a lot. I definitely would prefer XCOM-Humanity to use the discovery of mass effect fields to help bolster the technology they already have or surmount the issue of limited resources, rather than simply doing the same thing ME-Humanity did with it.

>>28825240

Fuck, and another idea I fucking well missed -

What happens if you combine a kinetic strike module - with a mass effect generator/drive.

>IMMA ROCKET PAUNCH YOU AT FTL SPEEDS INTO FUCKING ORBIT!

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Well the reason why the Alliance was forced to surrender at Shanxi is not because the ground battle, it was because the Turians had an orbital advantage.

>Eventually the turians broke through to attack Shanxi, the closest human colony to the mass relay, and settled in for a protracted orbital siege. With the turians in a superior position, able to kill any human soldiers from above, the Shanxi defenders began to starve, unable to get food or supplies without risking civilian lives. Eventually General Williams, Ashley Williams' grandfather, was forced to surrender the Shanxi garrison.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/First_Contact_War

This does bring the discussion towards how would Xcom develop in space?

I could imagine that Xcom's space fleet would involve carriers holding the successors to the firestorm and large numbers of Frigates and Cruisers.

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>>28825313

Someone above or in one of the earlier threads suggested that the XCOM equivalent to dreadnoughts would essentially be space-faring XCOM command centers, serving as equal parts military, engineering/construction, and research vessels.

>>28825313
I suggested this in the last thread, thought on it and came up with this: Supercarriers
Colossal saucer style ships, the beating heart of the X-Com Navy. Containing research facilities, interrogation chambers, manufacturing facilities and enough X-Com soldiers and Firestorms to conquer a solar system, its essentially a mobile base
Only 5 currently exist with no plans (or funding for that matter) for more, the existing 5 are named for:
And this is where I turn to you guys. I can't think up names for them. I'd like to theme after the continents you can pick from in the X-Com: Enemy games, but I couldn't decide which names to use

>>28825391
>Now building:
>Ant Farm-1 (9 Days)
>Ant Farm-2 (9 Days)
>Ant Farm-3 (9 Days)

>>28825430
Why not major cities of today, with the implication that they were named after cities that were destroyed during those terror missions in the Ethereal War?

>>28825297
>kinetic strike module
>mass lightening
>fake mass
while FTL Kinetic strike modules are unlikely, higher speed strikes do to lowered mass followed by Massive impacts from raised mass at time of impact would definitely be a thing

>>28825430

Alright, so we've got North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

>>28825479

I like this idea. I think that post-invasion humanity would be more inclined towards that kind of sentimentality. Name the ships after the greatest casualties of the war, with the implication that those ships will prevent another tragedy of that scale from ever happening again.

I also think naming them after human achievements / monuments seems more suitable than naming them after geographical locations like mountains.

>>28825479
So
>Berlin
>Washington
>Caracas
>Hong Kong
>Nairobi
Maybe?

>>28825550
Might replace Nairobi with an important city of a council nation, like Cairo or Johannesburg, but the list looks pretty decent.

>>28825611
The Johannesburg perhaps?
>>28825509
Here's an idea for ships names
>Supercarriers: The five hardest hit cities of the war
>Dreadnoughts: Famous soldiers and generals. The class leader is named after the Volunteer
>Battleships: Scientific leaders. The previous class leader was the Dr Vahlen, now undergoing refit. Current class leader is the Dr Shen
>Cruisers: Famous battles of the Ethereal War
>Frigates: famous battles from across human history (because there has to be a Normandy)

>>28825611

I vote Dubai.

Spec Ops: The Line set in XCOM.

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>>28825665

All excellent suggestions.

While we're on the subject anyway...

>The Treaty of Farixen stipulates the amount of dreadnoughts a navy may own, with the turian peacekeeping fleet being allowed the most. As of 2183, the turians had 37 dreadnoughts, the asari had 21, the salarians had 16, and the Alliance had 6 with another under construction. As of 2185, the dreadnought count was 39 turian, 20 asari, 16 salarian, and 8 human. By 2186, humans construct a ninth dreadnought, and the volus have built a single dreadnought of their own. The geth, unbound by the treaty, possess almost as many dreadnoughts as the turians. In preparation for the retaking of their homeworld, the quarians fitted their Liveships with dreadnought cannons, effectively making them dreadnought-class vessels. The batarians are stated to possess dreadnoughts, but the exact number is unknown.

>The ratio of turian to Council to associate dreadnoughts is 5:3:1, which essentially means for every five dreadnoughts the turians construct, the asari and salarians are allowed three, and all other Citadel races one. Signing the Treaty of Farixen is a requirement for any race wishing to open an embassy on the Citadel.

How would XCOM-Humanity react to this kind of stipulation, given that they were previously forced to fight a major invasion that possessed an overall advantage in both numbers and firepower? How many dreadnoughts would they likely possess by the point of the Second Contact War?

>>28825791
I'd say maybe 15, or somewhere around that. Dreadnoughts would probably be THE heavy guns for a region of occupied space, and probably split between that role with a few rolling around with the Super-carriers on their patrols around human space
As for the treaty, I'm pretty sure humanity would argue that unless provoked they'd never use the dreadnoughts outside human space. To be honest the most pressing question is how the Council would react to the super-carrier fleet

>>28825791

I personally think that Xcom would just circumvent the treaty by building more super carriers.

Besides, cruisers armed with fusion lance class weaponry and blaster launchers, backed with lasers and plasma seem like a far better and much more xcom-like use of starships.

>>28825791
>>28825845
isn't xcom's standard procedure simply to steal the fuck out of other people's dreadnaughts?

You know, I kind of wondered how the First Contact War would START with X-COM. I mean, in Mass Effect, the defenders surrendered when the Turians started using orbital bombardment on random neighborhoods. I don't think an X-COM team would actually surrender, they'd probably just keep launching suicidal guerilla attacks until the Turians got fed up and nuked the entire colony into rubble.

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>>28825843

That would probably depend on their size and overall firepower compared with your average dreadnought, though I imagine mankind would be understandably secretive about the exact specifications, to say nothing of the fact that they're all equipped to capture and process aliens for interrogation and dissection.

How large was the Temple Ship exactly?

>>28825845
Cruisers would form the backbone, and be probably the most widespread with the most dangerous deployments
As for Treaty, I'd argue that X-Com would just produce 'pocket' dreads, massively up gunning battleship hulls and just barely staying within the bounds of the treaty

>>28825905

I uhhh, fuck.

I forgot they had Emp weapons as well.

Yeah, carriers armed with EMP backing up super carriers full of SHIV drones and boarding pods.

>Next up, Xcom invents the salvage corvette and fucks the universe.

>>28825905
Yeah, X-COM wouldn't have a Fleet, they'd have a bunch of Avengers try and fly up to the enemy ship, blast their way inside, and try to kill everyone on board. X-COM is kind of balls at ship-to-ship combat.

>>28825924
At that point the rest of X-Com would turn up. Their would be far less shock that a colony was under alien attack. If anything squaddies would be fired up to get off police duty and do what X-Com was born to do: kick alien ass and save humans

>>28825950
Nah, X-COM encounters the Hiigarans. The resulting war destroys the entire galaxy, before they call it a truce.

>>28825845

>Besides, cruisers armed with fusion lance class weaponry and blaster launchers, backed with lasers and plasma seem like a far better and much more xcom-like use of starships.

That is true. Firestorms alone probably pack more firepower than most existing ME ships on top of being extremely small, and that's not even taking into account how far they might be developed over a century after their invention.

>>28825975
True. I think the resulting ethics-free retaliatory strikes on Turian planets would make the war a lot harder to stop though.

>>28825981

Just so you know, I am now imagining Xcom super carriers as miniature higarran motherships.

and it is glorious[/Spoiler]

>>28825992
Don't underestimate ME's GARDIAN defenses, they start out 100% accurate and only degrade as the battle rages on. You'd need a fleet of SHIV-drones to soak up gunfire before the real teams could move in.

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>>28826015
Your face when the BEAST is actually just a single Hiigaaran salvage corvette from the future.

>>28825950
Just had an idea: Battleships with EMP particle cannons
One massive spinal gun, that either fires an EMP pulse to disable the enemy in a wide radius, or concentrates full power on a single target, blowing it apart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty-1zWsXFNs

>>28825997
Quick question: is humanity relying on the Mass Relays, or on the Rift teleports used in the fanfic?
Because if humanity isn't using the relays, then things might actually not get to far before the Asari get a chance to bust out their peacemaker skills

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>In Mass Effect 2, Hahne-Kedar is the manufacturer of the FENRIS, LOKI, and YMIR classes of mechanical infantry units.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/FENRIS_Mech
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/LOKI_Mech
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/YMIR_Mech

Alright, now how much better would these fuckers be with XCOM technology aiding in their development? All I remember of the LOKI is that they were absolutely pathetic in terms of firepower and intelligence and could be busted apart like flimsy tinker toys with minimal effort.

>>28826079
I'm assuming the Humans are using ME drives, as Rift Teleportation seems unreliable and sporadic when they have a fuckton of magical gate thingies lying around.

Meaning that that war would probably get to the point where X-COM lands in Revengeance-Class Abductor ships, launching Terror Attacks on Turian worlds.

-TERROR ATTACK: TURIAN PRIME!-

>>28826079

I imagine they would use both.

However, given XCOM's habit of taking alien technology and making it their own, I would not be in any way surprised if XCOM made it a top priority to try and reverse engineer a Mass Relay and either build some of their own or weaponize them.

>>28826123
Well, X-COM thought the Enforcer was a stupid idea, so they'd probably replace them with more flying fusion-tanks.

>>28826161
What would a weaponized mass relay even do?
Also, is there any way to interdict a mass relay short of destroying it?

>>28826170
Now I'm thinking Hahne-Kedar are making bank selling defective tech to unsuspecting aliens who think its the last word in human technology
>>28826148
Terror attacks from the side of the aggressor side would be interesting, but I wouldn't say one Turian Prime. Be cool if X-Com blasted into the Turian fleet going to reinforce Shanxi
Even better if the Asari turn up to smooth things over while X-Com is in the middle of attacking the closest Turian world

>>28826213
Blow up with the force of a supernova.
No.

>>28826148
I see humanity doing both as it's 150 years before they get to the first Relay, 150 years that will probably be spent working on Rift transportation.

>>28826213

>What would a weaponized mass relay even do?

Fire planetoids at enemy fleets?

>>28826213

Xcom takes a relay apart and rebuilds it ala the conduit from ME1

But they rebuild it as a giant blaster launcher.

Blaster bombs the size of frigates at FTL speeds gentlemen. Where is your god now?

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>>28826264
>Asari turn up to try and smooth things over
>X-Com indiscriminately attacks the Turian delegation meeting them.

X-Com are NOT GOOD AT DIPLOMACY.

>>28826213
Suppose you could float a few clicks out bracketing the rough exit point? But said rough exit point is several hundred thousand kilometers square, so mine it maybe?
As for weaponising a Mass Relay, I'm not sure. They seem to not rotate like a planet would, so you couldn't use it as a direct effect gun. Maybe use it as a means to remotely deploy WMD's?
Nukes, or those Chrysalid missiles from the fan fic. I loved those

>>28826264

>Hahne-Kedar is actually an organization privately funded by XCOM to sell cheap (and ultimately defective) combat robots to the Council Races in bulk.

Fund it!

>>28826341
>X-Com chief scientist desperately hoping he washed all the blood off as the Asari delegation arrives
Now there's a sticking point and a half. X-Com's first contact procedures more or less include an autospy as a matter of course, I can't see that sitting well with the Council. Let alone the things X-Com does in the interrogation chambers

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>>28826355
>X-COM
>Weaponizing Chrysalids

That's completely monstrous, inhuman, unethical and strategically BRILLIANT! WE'LL TAKE TEN THOUSAND!

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>>28826424
WHAT HAVE WE BECOME!?

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>>28826355

I imagine the weaponization of chryssalids would be knowledge best left undiscovered by the Citadel races if they want diplomacy to go smoothly.

>>28826355
I know what fanfic you're talking about, and that was good stuff.
Shame it's ded and abandoned. They were just about to finish ME1 and *really* veer off the rails.

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>>28826457
"So you've encountered these creatures before? Do you have any idea how they could have gotten to Citadel Space?"
>Slides Rift Teleporter behind nearby dresser
"No."

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>>28826421

Would XCOM be willing to capture and dissect sapient aliens that don't immediately attack them, or would they simply send operatives into known conflict areas (like mercenary gang-wars) to make off with whatever corpses they can manage to find?

I feel like Asari themselves would be pretty high on their list of "things I really want to cut into with a scalpel", and of course they'd be buried in turian corpses to dissect after thorough interrogation.

...Now that I think about it, what Research Projects would be unlocked by dissecting each of the Mass Effect races?

>>28826504
I wonder, do other races have zombie analogues?
Or would that be new to them?

>>28826556
>"ASARI AUTOPSY->Enhanced Biotic Implants"
>"TURIAN AUTOPSY->Alien Genetic Mods"
>"KROGAN AUTOPSY->Regenerative Bioarmor"
>"QUARIAN AUTOPSY->Dextro-Gene Immuno-toxin"
>"SALARIAN AUTOPSY->Neurobooster Drugs"
>"BATARIAN AUTOPSY->Slaver Implants"
>"VORCHA AUTOPSY->Xeno Auxiliaries"

>>28826556
I don't think X-Com would go out of its way to get bodies, but all their training had prepared for hostile alien contacts, not blue skinned alien space babe diplomats

As for research options
>Turians
A fascinating development, the Turian species possess metallic chitin over much of its body, perhaps a form of radiation protection. Their arms and armour are of course the most pressing area of research but I believe we could produce improved radiation shielding materials based on what I've observed here
>Asari
After extensive examination we have determined that the species 'Asari' naturally posses the ability to manipulate mass effect fields, a power called 'biotics' within council space. Of particular interest was the array of pheromones the subject could produce, with could go some way to mitigating the risks of excessive combat stim use

>>28826674
>"VOLUS AUTOPSY->Anti-Xeno Gas Weaponry"
>"ELCOR AUTOPSY->Tactical Predictive Techniques"
>"YAHG AUTOPSY->Yahg Allies"

>>28826710
>"REAPER AUTOPSY->THIS THING ISN'T DEAD!"
>"REAPER INTERROGATION->THE CYCLE MUST BE BROKEN"

>>28826761
>HUSK INTERROGATION -> STOP TASING THESE THING, IT WASN'T FUNNY THE FIRST TIME!

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>>28826123

They would probably still exist in-universe in some form, but they'd essentially be the shitty Chinese knock-off equivalents of MEC-Troopers and Alloy/Hover SHIVS.

Why bother fielding a bunch of throwaway "tinker toys" when you can have a psionically-gifted human generate a squad of Outsiders, or whatever equivalent XCOM might come up with?

>"SHEN INTERROGATION -> VAHLEN, THIS ISN'T FUNNY"

>>28826951
>"VAHLEN INTERROGATION->Top Secret Transcript, Command Personnel Only"

>>28826710

>Yahg Allies

Haha, no. That can only end in disaster.

>>28826966
> "Trooper rumors concerning Vahlen Interrogation include everything from control of the XCOM council to being a robot. Persistent rumors insist the inside of the chamber still smells like extreme human female arousal."

>>28826966
">BRADFORD INTERROGATION -> DR. VAHLEN'S PERSONAL FILE"

>>28826926
Outsiders seemed to be machine life, at least that was my impression. Maybe mankind uses outsider crystals to protect major installations?
A fancy crystal art exhibit turning into a fully armed outsider squad would be terrifying
>>28826951
>SHEN INTERROGATION DAY 2 -> VAHLEN, THIS HAS GONE FAR ENOUGH

>>28826979
>"YAHG ALLIES->Yahg Isolation"

>>28827008

Didn't investigation of the crystal reveal that it was in constant direct communication with the Ethereals? I know some people were mentioning in past threads that sufficiently powerful psionics could replicate that remote-control effect, but I wasn't sure if that was canon or merely speculation.

>>28827008
>"X-COM COUNCIL INTERROGATION->Streamline The Acquisitions Process"

>>28827064
>We regret to inform you that the council has withdrawn from the XCOM project

>>28827064
>"EARTH INTERROGATION-> Assuming Direct Control"

>>28827054
Sounds the right conclusion, but it isn't canon as I know. If you could psionically bond the outsider to an area, I'd assume it would react like it does on UFO missions and move to repel invaders
>>28827064
>CITADEL COUNCIL INTERROGATION -> WILL CEASE DOING AIR QUOTES

>>28827064
>"CITADEL COUNCIL INTERROGATION -> DIPLOMATIC FAUX PAS"

>>28827008
>"SHEN INTERROGATION DAY 3 -> VAHLEN, WHAT HAVE YOU BECOME"

>>28827154
>"GETH INTERROGATION->ENHANCED MEC-TROOPERS"

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Question: Given that there exist several Genemods for bolstering and protecting the mind in addition to psionic power, would humanity have an innate advantage against indoctrination by the crossover point?

I wouldn't go so far as to grant them immunity, as the sort of control used by the Ethereals is more of a blunt weapon while Reaper indoctrination is a subtle and clearly more advanced process, but I would think humans (at least those so-modified) would have some kind of resistance.

>>28827209
Indoctrination isn't psionic, it's just brainwashing

>>28827154
>INTERROGATION OF OMEGA STATION LEADERSHIP -> DON'T FUCK WITH ARIA
N.B. ALSO, INTERROGATE COMMANDER UNTIL HE AGREES TO REBUILD INTERROGATION CHAMBER

>>28827209
It's just driving you insane, no psionics involved. It's basically just Super Duper Gaslighting.

>>28827209
>>28827252
I'd say no as well, indoctrination is the slow erosion of reason caused by long term exposure to Reaper tech

>>28827252

It's not psionic, but are the principles really so different? Both ultimately result in the manipulation of those affected, it's just that one is instantaneous while the other takes place over a longer period of time.

>>28827274

There seem to be very different degrees of indoctrination though. I mean, you have those scientists on the derelict that just went nutso bananas, then Saren and Illusive Man who retained higher cognitive functions while ultimately serving the Reaper cause.

To put it another way, would a soldier with a high Willpower Statistic be better at withstanding the effect longer than one with a low Willpower Statistic?

>"INTERROGATION CHAMBER INTERROGATION -> TRANSCRIPT REMOVED FROM DATABASE, AUTHORISATION COMMANDER"

>>28827339
That would be a safe assumption.

>>28827339
Willpower almost certainly plays a part in it, particularly with Saren and the Illusive Man who managed to convince themselves they were doing the right thing
But all those defences trigger on detection of mental invasion, and more importantly react to their source. Reaper indoctrination doesn't target people specifically and doesn't have a source to respond to in the same way

>>28827391
Funnily enough, Indoctrination doesn't work on AIs. Reapers can HACK AI, but they can't INDOCTRINATE them.... Meaning that SHIVs are immune to indoctrination! SHIV drivers can DEFEAT THE REAPERS!

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>>28827391

That's true, I hadn't thought of it like that.

In that case, a better question would probably be whether XCOM could devise a means of defending against indoctrination once its existence was uncovered.

An even better question than that would be whether XCOM's insistence on reverse engineering all the technology they capture would ultimately prove to be their undoing once they get their hands on some Reaper tech.

>>28821430
Boring.

>>28827414
>SHIVCom will save the galaxy
Holy shit, /xcg/ was right!

>>28827448
They might try, but the attempt would need reverse engineered Reaper tech to work properly, bringing us to how badly that would go
First time it would be awful. Like X-Com's first terror mission in years level awful, creeping through their own research lab to find out what the hell just happened
Afterwards, security would be tighter, better screened and more regularly rotated along with the scientists. So painfully slow, but relatively safe. Just don't read the waivers you have to sign to closely

>>28827414
But AI is easily hacked...

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>>28827520

Oh god, what if it occurred aboard one of the five Super Carrier Class Ships?

>>28827558

That's definitely something XCOM scientists would have to contend with early on: Engineer-Class enemies with the Hacking Omnitool power could be absolutely devastating against a fleet of SHIVs.

>>28827561
The rest of the fleet attacks in force to bomb the shit out of it, launching simultaneously Chrysalid Attacks on everyone else in the galaxy to distract everyone while they frantically try to stop their own Super Carrier.

>>28827561
>Base defence: 2185 edition
At least they could be relatively easy to contain, seal the bulkheads and prepare for boarders

>>28827621
>>28827621
>prepare for boarders
Do it FTL style: Open external doors.

>>28827674
And fight Husks in zero gravity? No thank you sir

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>>28827690

MEC-Husks

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>>28827712
>X-Com's Response.gif

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>>28827712

>Chryssalid Husks that turn everything they infect into human-husks that eventually explode into yet more chrysallid husks.

>>28827712
>>28827739
>Husk-alids

>>28827800
Eeeehhhh, that's not worse than Chrysalids. If anything the constant screaming and shambling gait will probably make them LESS threatening.

>>28827814

You gotta be kidding right? They turned rachni into biotic fucking drone tanks, if they had one ounce of genre savvy bullshit to their defence they would remove the crysalids only major downfall and give it the ability to infect at range

>>28827941
So what? Really. I mean, there are FORCE FIELDS in Mass Effect. What, are they going to build Infection LASERS?

>>28827941
>not giving them low profile and Mimetic Skin

>>28827941
>Chrysalids with Thin Men spit
JESUS FUCK NO

>>28827992
Make them invisible and fly too!

>>28827992
>The Illusive Man is actually a Thin Man
>The Commander is actually a Thin Man
>You are actually a Thin Man

>>28827982

Mass effect propelled living husk/eggs fired on masse like a cloud of squirming acid covered death that then squirms at lighting speed across the battlefield and borrows into the first unprotected area of flesh they can find and then starts to incubate.

Force fields in mass effect only do shit against fast moving bullets and objects - as far as I know they don't do shit against swarms moving faster than you, but slower than bullets.

>>28828024
>Valhlen is a muton

>>28828037
Yeah, because their "Paralysis Swarms" took Soulless Modron a whole 20 minutes to defeat!

I have as much faith in Reaper technology as I do in Mass Effect 3's writing staff. The lack of imagination is what kills them. Also the Reapers lack accredited writing skills.

>>28828078

And that's why we are not the mass effect writing team, we actually have half a human brain between us and can - left gasp - make an idea Work if deemed awesome enough.

Now the paralysis swarms where a bit wank I will admit, how would you make crysalids deadly at range? Maybe some form of bio-whip appendage that extends for up to about 15/20 meters that pieces flesh to implant eggs? Or some form of hypodermic needle that is evolved to go right through shields and inject eggs directly into the flesh of the target.

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>>28828237

>How would you make crysalids deadly at range?

Vahlen, you're off your meds again.

>>28828237
If crysalids got a range attack I'd say it should make infection non viable, purely because otherwise they'd be awful to deal with
Perhaps something like a water cutter? A high pressure hose of toxic material cutting through shields and armour is something multiple Mass Effect groups have experimented with

>>28828237
giving ranged attacks to crysalids doesn't make much sense, but making them speedier and giving them Mimetic skin does. play to their strengths rather than invent new ones.

>>28826675
>The species know as "Krogan" required a great amount of force by our soldiers to kill, examining their bodies I can see why. Every single organ in their body has a redundant counterpart somewhere, similar to modifications we've made to our own soldiers in the past but far more extensive. Using our new knowledge of their biology we might be able to further increase the survival rates of our gene-modded soldiers.

>>28827558
Can't hack something without network access. Put a middling AI in the SHIV and take out the wifi card and you're golden.

>>28830240
But then how do the AIs receive orders?

>>28827690
Uh, venting the air doesn't shut off the gravity controls.

>>28828024
I liked the implication that the commander is actually a benevolent ascended ethereal possessing some schmuck

>>28830240
Hard-write the AI and keep your network connection, but orient the AI to detecting hacking attempts and disregard.

>>28830253
From the human brain directly wired into their circuitry.

>>28830253
Verbally. Wifi connected to a speaker taped to their chassis but separate from any other system. Lose the speaker and fall back to simple "hunt down target X then RTB"

>>28830284
Oh, so magic.

>>28821136
>no ingrained fear of synthetic intelligence
>Why does captcha give me 7 completely illegible phrases before I can post?

It wants you to be afraid of it...

>>28830253
When the shiv is activated, a one time pad is created and passed to the guy who activated it. This pad is used for encrypting the commands for the shiv.

Length of the pad does limit the number of orders you can send, however it should be very secure. Though it would limit the shiv to being controlled by squad members as transmitting the pad defeats the point of it.

>>28830324
>we can do it now (albeit poorly)
>magic
Only to the extent that all tech in XCOM is magic.

>>28823397
Off that idea of cyborgs and the like would it be simlair to Ghost in the Shell type of soceity with xcoms ability to allow for higher grade prosthetics? Or would we be reaching into Fullmetal Alchemist prosthetics? As to be fair the I could see the Fullmetal version of prosthetics evolve into the Ghost in the shell prosthetics as a more advanced version once they had a higher understanding of the human body and computer programming

>>28824502
>I would see Psionics being much more common and something sought

Would it be along the lines of Starcrafts Ghost recruitment speel with government coming in and 'recruiting' potential folks and it cuases a social stigma on the gifted?

Or we taking a more liberal stance here with the gifted nad it be the equivalent of a handy tool for day to day live a sort of extra arm or hand?

>>28831658
Given that the willpower requirements for the gift are incredibly high I can't see anyone outside the military having it. To get the best results you have to put your soldiers through hell and hope they come out badasses instead of gibbering wrecks and even then it's only a chance.

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>>28825024
So when the construction guilds took up arms on Shanxi, tearing through office blocks to RAWKET PAUNCH turians before opening fire on them with construction bolt guns . . .

Yes. YES. YES!
I so totally want to see a scene where this happens

>>28826213
If I recall there was a reaper in ME2 that had been hit by a weaponized mass relay gun from a planet that travelled an ungodly amount of distance before being blown to bits by the return fire of the reaper

Also Tarsonis Colony Drops anyone?

>>28826926
Oh that reminds me of an idea someone had about Outsiders in can that could allow for wounded Psionics to still help out on the battlefield by having the people on the ground toss the cystals on the ground and boom instant support.

Was a response to Harbingers fuckery with assuming control thing

>>28831914
>Commander we've found a crate of strange yellow crystals in the base the humans abandoned.
>Maybe they're some kind of powersource. Let me take a closer look...
>And so outpost 17B was recovered and the Turian general Decimas captured at the same time

>>28822777
>>28822828
It's sadly now dead, as the author lost interest in continuing midway through the Battle of the Citadel. He's posted a rough outline of how the story would have continued through to the end of the Reaper War over on Spacebattles.

>>28828237
Reminds me of Samaul from Hellboy when he had the long tounge thing and injected three eggs that had to incubate for a long time before hatching, luckily they got it out of hellboy before he could have minisammies popping from his skin

>>28821111

Because ME2 completely hamstringed all the HFY options to show you that you all manner of alien should work towards a common goal, and ME3 actively punished you for trying to be HFY.

Why? I 'unno, because pop media is supposed to show how everyone, regardless of what seperates them, is supposed to get along.

>>28825791
Why sign the treaty in the first place if it's so unbalanced?

>>28833149
They wouldn't the idea of an alien subjecting them to Military restrictions would be distasteful to begin with and with it directly after the First Contant War, the humans would simply walk out of room as the Turians just justified the need for humanity to defend itself from threats.

>>28833149
Same reason they signed it in the vidya game, to avoid all out war with the turians and because they already had ways to get around it(carriers were not really a thing in council space before the humans showed up).

>>28832609
Probably because HFY is tedious shit that no one worth listening to enjoys.

>>28825791
The humans would build as many dreadnaughts as they could, regardless. Through some loophole if possible, in secret if not.

>>28826450
VICTORIOUS!

>>28826450
Says the guy that invented robot suits that you have to chop your limbs off to use.

>>28833276
HFY is, much like 4chan in general, about diving to the bottom of an ocean of shit to find a tiny golden nugget. Not worth it to the sane but some people just really like gold. At least, that's my take on it.

>>28833294
Build ships just below dread specifications, and mount as much firepower on it as possible. Just a few tons.

>>28833374
As long as we can put the bits in a freezer to reattach later, who cares about a little amputation here and there?

What would a standard xcom combat deployment team look like in this setting?

>>28825791
Why would they care? I think we should go with a non unified Humanity beyond a UN or EU like organization where the Shadow Council pulls the strings.

That would mean that for say a few years a couple of nations are in the Citadel, and then some of them throw a tantrum and leave and others want to join, never one of them staying more than say two years as Citadel associate states. That would mean that only their forces are counted towards said military force. So, say the US, Mexico, Italy and India might have a fifth or less than the turian dreadnoughts, but adding all nations would certainly tip that balance over, and that is actually the main yardstick of prediction of which human nation will join the Citadel once some nations left.

>>28825845
>>28825905

Regarding space doctrine, if we go for it, lets not forget about hypwerwave sensors, and the wraith and sat stealth system. Around a planet or even a station you are going to have a lot of stealth satellites with fusion lances, lasers, emp cannons, blaster bombs, who will be vulnerable only when engaging and the count down for hiding again.

Then the large number of Firestorms wings and probably avengers will make the large part of the space forces and suported in general by a analogue of the Alien Battleship, either as a support class meant to service, repair and house the wings of Fighter and Assault crafts, or probably themselves filled with weapons as a offensive system. Some of these taskforces might have the wraith system on them.

The large temple ship analogue mobile base craft will be something that truly dwarfs even battleships and has most likely docks for them.

These things are not going into battle they jump somewhere in a uninhabited part of a star system and act as logistics base for the battleships and wings of fighter crafts and armies of troopers, tanks, Mechs and shivs aboard Avengers.

A nation who has such a thing is one that can actually do force projection, (Xcom has one too)

>>28833831
given the difference in unit size between prior and current xcoms, extrapolated over time?

Like two dudes. A robot and a psion. They solve crimes.

>>28833831
if we take a squad size of 6, you have at least one psi trooper and one MEC/SHIV, a heavy, a Sniper, and two variable slots..

>>28834001
>Not 5 Squad Sight snipers and one spotter at least for outdoor and open urban missions that is.

>>28834010
before EW I'd agree, but now that Squad Sight can't crit it just isn't the same.

>>28834026
>What is Headshot and Opportunist
But still, snipers with plasma sniper rifles are still really scary and are able to take down so many things in one or two regular shots.

>>28834026
>Squad Sight and Double Tap
>Not hilariously lethal even without crits

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My thoughts on X-COM/Alliance doctrine.

I can imagine that military planners for Xcom would always assume that the next alien threat would have superior firepower, manpower and have more advance technology.

So Xcom space fleet is geared towards harassing their enemy and slowing them down enough for the appropriate reverse engineering to take place.

So I support what >>28833943 says about their space doctrine.

Perhaps only after the first contact war will Xcom realise that the enemy isn't as powerful as they imagine and will start building stuff that can take on the citadel forces in a straight up fight.

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>>28834851

There would also be another lesson that Xcom would take from the Ethereal war is that the civilians are helpless during an alien attack until either Xcom arrives, or when Xcom is busy with other attacks or in the event when Xcom as been defeated.

So I can imagine that as part of the package of being a colonist, you receive military training. The idea is that in the event of an attack, instead of being helpless the colonists will be able to organise a militia which will be able to either hold off until Xcom arrives or even be able to counter an alien attack.

This would give the Batarian's a nasty shock during Mindoir. After eliminating the small garrison they would expect to be free to slaughter and enslave the panicking Civilian populace. Instead they would end up facing an organised and trained militia who would fight back with laser pisols and rifles.

However when we get to Eden Prime I would suspect that everyone, or at lest Saren, would know about Xcom milita tactics and would prepare the Geth accordingly

Ok if it's not been stated before why I think this crossover stinks so much of HFY is that the XCOM canon tech is the gun to the ME canon tech of mounted knight in armor. It's like if XCOM and ME were in the same setting the race that made E-115 based tech were aiming for stuff that would butt fuck Reaper based tech on purpose. If you look at it that way it makes perfect sense why humans in this cross over setting would rape all races using Reaper based tech, the tech humans are using was mean to. HUMANITY IS THE FINAL SOLUTION TO THE REAPER QUESTION.

>>28835014
Well some kind of combat training will be very fashionable, but consider how the ground side military will organize after they had their stuffing kicked out of them by the aliens in the initial months.

So something like XCOM and EXALT bases will be favored. Underground, under water, masked as civilian facilities or something like that or hidden under cameo netting that makes them look like a hill.

A lot of them will be aeromobile, with a lot of airsupport from Interceptor analogues and firestorm. Power armored and MECH suits surrounded by a lot of drones, and supported by Aeromobile IFVs and APCs.

MBTs, SPGs, TELs, and other pices of a armor division will be most likely geared with wraith systems and have the main function of contesting massed landings, or taking on approaching large ships like battleships or enemy armored columns, unlike the air mobile light forces.


So Mindoir will be a slaughter on the Batarians and Eden Prime wont happen with Geth and Saren or they will be blown to bits.

Instead the Batarian slave raids for humans will happen once they landed on citadel worlds, and Eden Prime raid will be a assassination of a Citadel Xenoarcheologist team contracted by the Nation that has that settlement on Eden Prime, and in a covert ops style it will steal the bacon place it in a civilian shipping container and then dissapear. The mission will be once Xcom gets the phone in from the local military or security forces that someone stole a xeno artifact and they may be headed for citadel space and thus have to intervene before it is taken to whoever wants it.

>>28835421
And thus we don't use humanity in the sense as main protagonists. In fact they are not even united beyond the shadow council.

Its going to be Nihilus or Xepards job to persuade, bargain and horse trade with enough human nations to get access to Xcom and then do it again to get their help against either Geth, Collectors or Reapers, depending on how the politics stand.

The humans will be extremely powerful, but at the same time very mercurial, internecine, with more than three or at the very least two nations present on a planet, and also xenophobic.

Its going to be a struggle to keep them focused on the Reapers because they frankly wont care beyond their own worlds. Xenos killing other Xenos being almost a party.

Various Nations, Xcom, EXALT and the Shadow Council would not be the Protagonist. They would be something between a token evil team mate and the secondary antagonist that you sick on the main antagonist.
The ME campaigns would be mainly Citadel Races with no Shepard leading the team and no Human Normandy.

>>28835532
>Batarian Spectre
>Enlisting aid of Humanity

Um.

>>28835555
that does have a snowflakes chance in hell of working. nearly any other Citadel race could pull it off, but not Batarian.

>>28835421
>HUMANITY IS THE FINAL SOLUTION TO THE REAPER QUESTION.

All you need to do is send in Vanguard Shepard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3p26LRBIi8

But seriously, humanity is pretty fucking superfluous to Mass Effect's storyline, or a net loss, considering the #1 most powerful human faction gets completely controlled by the Reapers.

Humanity's fleet gets nearly totally obliterated by one Reaper, the Turian military still has a fleet after engaging a full invasion for quite some time.

So is humanity part of the council or not?

>>28826424
Lets stick Chrysalids into something like those headcrab rocket from HL2 and launch it at our enemies, what could possibly go wrong.

Let's talk post shanxi

>Turians & litreally anyone in the know is shitting there pants at this new species.
>Asari get their shit together and send in the diplomats, may or may not have blown it out of the sky because Itchy triggers
>Stg and Spectres shifting through all the OH SHIT accounts trying to get a solid account of things.
>Meanwhile X-com rounds up Pow's Psi interrogates them and begins working on Universal translators.

Years later and Humans still have a rather Isolationist policy due to Xenophobia & the council [well at least the Turians] have a massive propaganda machine tilting humans as the Boogey man with slogans such as ''Remember Shanxi!'' & pic related except with very Chrysallid looking humans & Monstrous MEC's killing the equivalent of woman & children.

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>>28835620

>But seriously, humanity is pretty fucking superfluous to Mass Effect's storyline, or a net loss, considering the #1 most powerful human faction gets completely controlled by the Reapers.

>Humanity's fleet gets nearly totally obliterated by one Reaper, the Turian military still has a fleet after engaging a full invasion for quite some time.

>One Reaper

You mean that silly retcon that was applied on order to justify the catalyst?

In ME only the fifth fleet engaged sovereign and they lost Eight cruisers. However in ME3 they changed it to the First, Second and Fifth Fleets where they loose a third of the fleet.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Ironreaper/Retcons_and_Contradictions_in_the_Reapers

I think its been decided that we are focusing on the original Mass Effect over 2 and 3.

>considering the #1 most powerful human faction gets completely controlled by the Reapers.

You mean Cerberus? Bioware's creators bet?

>>28835620
Eh? There wasn't a single dreadnought at the final battle of ME1 apart from the Asari flagship.

And the humans only lost a portion of one battlegroup.

>>28835689
I think its stupid that people are claiming that humanity would be breeding Cryssalids and using them in battle. Plasma-equipped hover Shivs are fare more useful, reliable and controllable.

>>28835763
Yeah, but Shiv can't reproduce on their own, can they.
Cryssalids would make a wonderful weapon, until you try to take the land back from them.

>>28835763
>Not Breeding Chryssalids as the Ultimate area denial weapon

Here's how it works
>drop one of on a station/Pirate base etc.
>Two hours later send in S.H.I.V's for clean up
>Rinse and repeat.

>>28835707

>You mean that silly retcon that was applied on order to justify the catalyst?

I know of no such retcon. I am referring to ME1.

You know, where your choice is "engage the reaper to save the alien shitheads, and suffer a near total loss, or pull back and let them deal with it, and be hated for cowardice?" Because

Also, justify the Catalyst? Beating the Reapers with conventional forces isn't like. Something you can do. I didn't particularly enjoy the Catalyst, and would have preferred, essentially, the ultimate downer ending of you rallying the whole galaxy and it being not even the beginning of the sort of forces you'd need. As its pretty clear without a MacGuffin, there's nothing that could be done.

But I can see why people would be unhappy with a downer ending. Frankly, it was a foregone conclusion that ME3 would piss off at least 50% of the audience, as no reality -- other than total crushing defeat -- could possibly live up to Sovereign's hype.

>In ME only the fifth fleet engaged sovereign and they lost Eight cruisers. However in ME3 they changed it to the First, Second and Fifth Fleets where they loose a third of the fleet.

Is that assuming you rush in, or is that assuming you stand back?

>>28835780
So they're area denial weapons at best and oh god its in my skin aroegadkj at worst?

>>28835763
can't gene-mod shivs on account that they are robots

>>28835785
It didn't work for Weyland Yutani, it isn't going to work for you.

Might as well say Xcom should create a virus which turns the dead into zombies to continue fighting, then you can be Umbrella while you are at it.

>>28835802
Why the fuck would you waste material on genemodding cryssalids instead of proper soldiers, are you insane?
Are we turning Xcom into Cerberus now? Doing retarded experiments that then blow up in their faces and kill their researchers?
Leave that shit to NeoExalt.

>>28835804
>Might as well say Xcom should create a virus which turns the dead into zombies to continue fighting,
why bother? anyone weaponizing Chryssalids is already both Weyland Yutani and Umbrella

>>28835654
Yes and no, for parts of it, always changing said parts.

>>28835689
Nah. That is basically Bio warfare on the same level as letting xenomorph hives loose or virus bombing exterminatus.

However considering Chrysalids they might be the answer to husks. if you are about to loose a planet to husks already evacuate and unleash the Chrysalids. That however wont happen unless the Citadel is lost and the aliens loose agains the reapers leaving only humans left.

>>28835555
>>28835606
Who is to say that in this universe the batarians had a few braincells and did not attack or successfully attack the well defended and psychotically aggressive humans, especially after Turain reports of hidden bases and hidden satellites all over the place.

Its going to be a problem more for the Turians because Post Shanxi i see Xcom leading raids into citadel space to find Palaven for a decapitation strike, and nuking every military facility in their wake.

Mongol/ Barbarian Hordes only without the conquest only a massive push and then peace some how.

>>28835804
Yeah but
>X-com>Weyland yutani

But hey that second bit would make some neat Propoganda for the Council races

>Beware the HUMAN!
>Image of a Chryssalid ripping out of a Turian/Asari/Salarian chestburster style.

>> is already both Weyland Yutani and Umbrella
Wow. Thats a level of short-sighted supervillainy stupidity thats hard to surpass.

>>28835814
Because Mimetic skin Chryssalids would be terrifying

>>28835814
That's pretty apt. You know that Xcom isn't always hypercompetent.

>>28835833
>Council races begin thinking that Chryssalids are humans.

>>28835814
well we can always just say Exalt/Cerebus is doing it and not X-com.

>>28835851
>Council races think Chrssalids are the actual humans and everything else is fancy robotics/Vassal species

we ethereal now

>>28835800
Yeah, I can see it being an emergency release for when a base is about to be taken over by enemy forces and you want something to distract them before you blow it all to hell.
>>28835804
>Umbrella
With massive meld genetic modification, you can create the Tyrant. Brilliant!
>>28835827
I wonder if a Chrysalids born from a husk would have husk like feature, like an energy shield or something.
>>28835855
Wunderbar, whenever a research go wrong, blame it on Exalt/Cerberus. If it goes right, totally X-Com.

>>28835841
You are both stupid and suicidal, you should sign up with Cerberus.

>>28835846
What? That makes no fucking sense.
It isn't a question of competence, its a fact that there's absolutely no sane reasoning to put forth that X-Com would continue to breed and make use of the invader's shitty biological terror weapons.

Would we have thin men selling thin mints?

>>28835855
How? How would have Xcom lost Chrysalids? The only living ones would be in stasis for decades if not over a hundred years. And seriously guarded.

>>28835869
>>28835880
Indeed there is no need for the Chrysalids, they are a terror weapon looking for a problem to solve.


Also lets not forget that EXALT was really fucking good at what they did, and were seriously against the aliens too.

>>28835869
>Hey Vahlen hows that plasma weaponary going.
>*Vahlen pushes Burnt Intern corpse behind desk* wonderfully commander we should have a prototype very soon
>Great I look forward to IIIIiii.......
>Exalt cell detected research delayed
>EEEEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!

>>28835880
>You are both stupid and suicidal, you should sign up with Cerberus.
you just don't appreciate the genius that is Invisible Chryssalids, also I plan on never being on the same planet as them.

>>28835909
Exalt remants Infiltration maybe? then they go rogue and take a bunch of crap with them and turn into Cerebus

>>28835909
>Exalt was seriously against the aliens
They were? I thought they were like some crazy Alien supremacy group.

>>28835925
Why should they turn into cerberus?

Xcom is pretty much the wet dream of cerberus.

There is no need for Cerberus if you have Xcom. EXALT should be out to improve themselves, the individual, whereas Xcom is more about humanity as a whole.

EXALT most likely has on of the best intel apparatus inside human territory and probably some of the best outside of it, since a lot of office workers and rich people are in it, are there for themselves and know that the more they trade the more they get.

And I don't mean STG or Commando like shit, but serious intelligence, counter intelligence and spy stuff.

In fact it would not be a big stretch to find that Xcom and Exalt have now a friendly rivalry with informal cooperation, Exalt being the solution when the Shadow council is way to pedantic or obtrusive.

And lets not forget that Exalt probably has under its umbrella the best companies and experts in the xenobiology, xenoarcheology, genetics, transhumanism advocacy, etc.

Its quite likely that a lot of contact with aliens is done via Exalt who from the read on them want to be somewhat isolationist from aliens that would suborn people but at the same time want all the advantages the aliens want to offer.

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>>28835937
>>28835909
Weren't Exalt a secret society that were jizzing themselves over the arrival of the aliens and the possibility they brought with them for genetic enhancement to create THE PERFECT MANKIND, and were planning to use the chaos of after the aliens left to TAKE OVER THE WORLD?

They tried to stay out of the alien's way whenever possible, they only ever engage the aliens in combat if they must acquire something the aliens also have/want, such as the french chick with the unique psionic ability.

>>28835915
And here we learn the secret behind all Exalt disruption, Exalt did nothing except being the scape goat for all the fuck up happening around the base.
>>28835937
They must be against the aliens, it's just that unlike X-Com, Exalt are one of those secret society planning to take over the world and see the arrival of the aliens as a chance to gain new technologies to further that goal.

>>28835937
They thought xcom or its leaders the council was string puppeteered by the Ethereals, and when you win, it seems that the Etherals got everything they wanted with humanity save for the Ethereals survival. Seriously aside from loosing Temple ship, Xcom ends with a Etheral theater victory - loosing the temple ship makes it into a strategic defeat but that is beside the point.

A novel idea:

Humans have the tech, but not the numbers. Against reapers they hit well above their weight class, but after being culled so fucking hard their numbers are still low, nowhere near that of the Asari, and especially not that of the Turians. The dazzling firepower they have puts them at enough of an advantage to make a war between humans and the latter on an even footing, but against an army of physical gods who outnumber the stars themselves...

The challenge for Shepard and his team is to convince Humans to stop hating the fucking Turians, Turians to stop hating the fucking Humans, and the Citadel races as a whole to embrace progress rather than stagnate. The only way to beat the Reapers in an all-out slugfest is to "uplift" the Council races, equipping them with human tech and medical/science advances. Therein lies Shepard's mission for ME2-3: kissing enough ass and helping enough people to make the galaxy think, "Well, humans aren't -that- bad."

Which sets th stage nicely for the big final fight ala ME3 without having any of that Starchild/crucible bullshit.

Just the war to end all wars.

>>28835953
Nu-EXALT would be in the same space in the plot as Cerberus, but their outlook would be completely different.

They would be running their own scenes and advancing their human-genetic manipulation even further than the people of Earth are willing to go, their heavy soldiers by this point would be hardly human anymore. They would be running secret mission and stealing from/trading with aliens to acquire their knowledge and biological material to use in their projects. All as a plot to gain power for their hidden society with no regards to Earth.

>>28835970
Except for all we know by destroying their leader and their templeship we just genocided the majority of the remaining Ethereal race. I'm PRETTY SURE that wasn't part of their plan, if anything they wanted the perfect balanced species to follow their guidance, the Darth Vader to their Palpatine.

>>28835958
>>28835954
But we already have a secret cabal: the Council.

>>28835953
see >>28835980

>>28836043
There's no rule limiting humanity to only one secret cabal, beside Exalt last for a long time if their artifacts are any indication, I doubt X-Com blowing up one of their HQ will be able to put an end to them.

>>28836077
How long are we talking here?

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>>28836077
The Secret society represented by EXALT apparently existed for a long time before the alien invasion as revealed in the game, its not inconceivable it would survive in a broken feeble state that after enough time has a resurgence, coming alive anew when the situation is right, like when humanity expands into space and then later has contact with new aliens races.

>>28836090
Well they have hoplite helmet straight out of the Greek era so I would say it's pretty damn long.
>>28836109
Aye, so they might reappear under a new name and organization, like >>28835980 said, they'll be the one who actively try to trade and interact with the alien while secretly trying to steal shit from them to advance their society into a power that control humanity.

>>28835975
XCOM has always had a bit of internal strife, even back in the Bad Old Days. Shen, Vahlen, etc. Whether from distrust, hatred, or just being traditional, some pushed hard to prevent diplomatic talks between Humanity and the council, keeping the ancient and hallowed XCOM tradition of "All fucking aliens must fucking hang." There is a split between one faction favoring diplomacy, and the other, which thinks that all aliens should go the way of the Ethereals. Bam, there's our Cerberus. When the Reapers show up, they think that they can just Tech their way to victory, like their forefathers did during the Great Invasion, shunning the idea that just maybe we might need more swinging dicks in the bush. With Reaper tech, this has obvious results.

Thoughts?

>>28836133
The Commander of Exalt may just have been very passionate about History or have taken Inspiration from those whose feats may have been considered superhuman.

>>28836135
maybe just the hardest of the hardcore from either side could join cerebus.

>>28836152
I'm just taking it from the description of the artifacts recovered from the base raid:
>None of them appear to be replicas or of modern origin, suggesting EXALT has a lengthy clandestine history

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CtFEYdyYP4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG46DboDfhk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCtsFtPs1fY

If people are so desperate to have Cryssalids show up at some point it could always be a dirty trick by Exalberus...Cerberalt.... they could have the genetic information of the creatures in their databanks, clone a brood in one of their labs and then ship them to and release them on a city/station they are pulling a theft on as a distraction.

Could be a pretty cool/freaky event during a story.

>>28836135

To be fair, I am honestly surprised after a few hours sleep that /tg/ has not pulled out some of the big guns when it comes to ME tech.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7278544/1/First-Contact

Mankind has the power of . . . insane innovation, including ME based black hole and antimatter weaponry . . . by a guy who isn't even part of the military. Asari shit bricks.

Regarding crossovers I would like to remind people that ME tropes and conventiones need not expand to the XCOM side. In fact it would be preferable, else its the same ME with the SA just with Xcom gear.


I would like to see this Exalt as something different altogether. They most likely lost their leadership with the XCOM raids and probably subsequent campaigns.

The surviving Exalt would be the low level ones and the funding apparatus aspiring to the stated internal propaganda.
I see Exalt as a way for people to get all the best gene and cybermods, neural dampners and feedback as well as mind shields and fancy kill switches probably nanomachines like meld erasing choice bits of memory that only Exalt can reconstruct, with a instinctiv impring where to go.

Exalt is now most likely the gene modded elites, and people who want to be the best be they aspirants or wealthy people. They want excellence and independence, and require money, expertise and services or favors - the bigger and the consistent the better.

Exalt wont act like cerberus, and its most likely that Exalt is more active outside of human space than Xcom. They will be the first to recognize the reapers as existential threats particularly because their portfolio, modus operandi and history, unlike Cerberus allows them a far more comprehensive and longer view, also whatever is left of Exalt is probably the secondary and informal alternative of a safety network for all those former Xcom gene moded and psy troops that want to retire.

I would not like to make either Exalt or Xcom paragons of good or dark conspiracies of evil like Cerberus, i want them as they ought to be a hundred or half a century well developed organisations. Xcom like a GDI shadow force of a un united human species, and Exalt as some kind of Nod Cult, because lets face it they will start acting as one, and their tenets will be individual excellence and independence - in other words exaltation.

I kinda of like the idea of using the aliens as terror units, and then you blame it to another group.I know than the shiv are better and all that, but hey, I like the idea of bio-weapons umbrella style (what could go wrong?) so sue me.

>>28836292
>Exalt as some kind of Nod Cult
I can see it, trying to uplift themselves to be something more superior than human, and their front would be like the early Brotherhood, massive corporations and industries elite.

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>>28836294
>>umbrella style
>>what could go wrong?

>>28836329
continuing on the idea from here >>28836292
I see Exalt as the very thing some people fear about genemods and such. Rich people or people with connections are those who will be able to get their kids genemods. Considering meld scarcty at first they will not be modded as adults but pre natal with genetic tailoring in accordance to something similar like the gene modded troopers. I see Adaptive Bone Marrow, Depth Perception and hyper Reactve Pupils as well as Neural Dampening and Feedback as the things its going to be the focus of prenatal augmentation, and probably combination or solutions to the competing augmentations.

This means that these children will most likely be given a greatly increased chance to be Olympic athletes, spies and agents, Corporate Officers, and other such high performing and well compensated positions. Exalt members will essentially for dynasties, if they can ensure they manage to live long enough and secure enough from discovery.

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So call me crazy here but why not just get rid of Cerberus entirely?

Replace them with Exalt and put the Illusive Man on top. Primary difference between Exalts and X-Com being that X-Com has an interest in keeping Humanity and it's colonies (all likely affiliated with one government or another but in truth owing allegiance to The Council) safe while Exalt is dedicated to keeping people with money and political connections in power. They have connections to the Council and Megacorps and are only interested in taking care of themselves.

X-Com is basically Cerberus but without the retarded scientists and administrators, we don't need two morally ambiguous groups that hate aliens.

>>28836510
...thats basically what everyone s saying guy, there would BE no Cerberus because Earth is so different, instead we would have a group based on Exalt