Here is the ordered list of missions (main, side and the fetch-quest missions), in the "optimal" order so that nothing gets missed out on.
I saw in yesterday's stream that Pat had no clue what or where to find such a list. So here's one. (This is taken from screenrant, linked below, and I've verified it myself with a 100% playthrough last month in the leg edition). I hope he sees this, if he hasn't found a similar guide.
Only thing kinda spoilery here are the mission names. So anyone not Pat and super worried about ME3 spoilz, you can look away now.
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"Citadel: XXX" = sidequest picked up and/or handed in at citadel. Pickup / handover may be worth streaming, there's almost always some dialogue fleshing out the world.
"Priority: XXX" = main quest mission. SOME OF THESE ARE HARD LOCKS. Some of these MUST be done before others. This list takes care of it all.
"Location: XXX" = Big sidequest with big story and character stuff. Must do these on stream... They unlock from game progress AND from incoming email messages
"N7: XXX" = combat sidequest out in the universe. Given by Hackett / Traynor / email. Some of these will have sidequest items to find and pick up while doing the mission. If you miss an item, check the store in Normandy shuttle bay (Spectre requisitions) to buy the item(s) you missed. Each N7 mission takes about 5 minutes to complete, and takes place in the multiplayer maps. There's not much meaningful dialogue there.
Normandy crew usually has new dialogue after each Priority: XXX and Location: XXX mission. Use the map to find them. Normandy crew will do things on the Citadel on every visit. Use map to find them. Talk to them on the Normandy after doing their citadel thingies, might be an update. Check Normandy email terminal after each mission for optimal mission unlocks etc. Reapers on map reset their "alertness" after completing one of any of the above mission types.
A note on recommended companions: ME3 is very good at giving everyone meaningful, equal input; pick who you want and how. Any significant exceptions will be mentioned in the list.Vega is generally a legit good pick for any mission that has no obvious "must have" picks.
-----------------------------------------------
Startup / Tutorial (Pat has done this in 1st stream):
Prologue: Earth
Priority: Mars
Priority: Citadel I
First real Normandy visit.
----------------------------------------------
First big mission block:
Priority: Palaven / Priority: Eden Prime. (either is fine 1st. Do both asap because reasons. If doing Palaven 1st, take Gary to EP)
N7: Cerberus Labs Citadel: Alien Medi-Gel Formula (pick item up at cerberus labs)
Citadel Visit to hand in items, pick up new sidequests, explore all citadel areas, check the Spectre terminal in Embassy map...
Aria: Blood Pack Aria: Blue Suns Aria: Eclipse Citadel: Hanar Diplomat
Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation (This MUST be done before the next Priority:Citadel mission!) Citadel: Biotic Amp Interfaces (pick item up at grissom)
Citadel visit to drop off quest item and maybe update character events
Meet the Diplomats followed by: Priority: Sur'Kesh
Attican Traverse: Krogan Team Citadel: Krogan Dying Message (pick up item in the krogan team mission)
Tuchanka: Turian Platoon followed IMMEDIATELY by Tuchanka: Bomb (*companion wise,*>! Garrus in these 2 because he has Turian specific comments here !< ) Citadel: Cerberus Automated Turret Schematics (pick up item in the bomb mission)
N7: Cerberus Attack (yes, we're leaving Tuchanka, it's fine, now is the wrap-up point) Citadel: Improved Power Grid (pick up item in the cerberus attack mission)
N7: Cerberus Abductions Benning: Evidence (pick up item in the abductions mission. This is a \*** to find - just buy it in shop/spectre requisitions after this mission if you missed it)*
Pick up remaining items in universe: Apien Crest: Banner of the First Regiment Kite's Nest: Pillars of Strength Ismar Frontier: Prototype Components Shrike Abyssal: Prothean Obelisk Dranek (Krogan DMZ): Shadow Broker Wet Squad
Citadel visit to drop off items, sidequests, progress Normandy crew (and other character citadel moments/tasks as available), check spectre terminal etc. Make sure you have "cleaned up" all the above missions and collectibles now.
+ Citadel: Barla Von wrapup
Priority: Tuchanka (make sure you have done the two Tuchanka missions before. Make sure you've done your citadel stuff before starting this).
​
Second Big Mission Block:
N7: Cerberus Fighter Base Citadel: Heating Unit Stabilizers (item picked up at cerb fighter base, delivery can be later)
Priority: Citadel II (this will autostart upon visiting the citadel, so all sidequests get paused a bit).
Citadel walkabout, pick up new quests and such, progress character moments if any, etc.
Mesana: Distress Signal
Ardat-Yakshi Monastery Citadel: Asari Widow (item picked up at AY-monastery)
Suggestion: The Omega DLC fits well roughly around this point, before Perseus Veil. The DLC must be done in one straight go, it will take some hours. Mission name: Citadel: Aria T'Loak (point of no return = visiting the fleet near citadel)
Arrae: Ex-Cerberus Scientists Citadel: Cerberus Turian Poison (item picked up at ex-cerb scientists)
Citadel: Volus Ambassador
Citadel visit to drop off quest items, talk to characters, check the spectre terminal, etc.
Suggestion: The Leviathan DLC start fits well here, or later in the 3rd mission block. Levi DLC is not monolithic and can be done in parts, but... it can only be "finished" in the 3rd mission block. No downside to starting it later in the 3rd block. To start now, do the following mission: [Optionally here, else later] Citadel: Dr. Bryson
Priority: Perseus Veil Priority: Geth Dreadnought
Rannoch: Admiral K**** (important: must "rescue" K\***)* Citadel: Target Jamming Technology (item picked up at the above mission)
Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadrons Citadel: Reaper Code Fragments (item picked up at the above mission)
N7: Fuel Reactors (you're leaving Rannoch for now, don't worry it's fine, now is the "wrap up" point) Citadel: Chemical Treatment (item picked up at the above N7 mission)
Collectible items throughout the universe to pick up and deliver to citadel by now: Nimbus Cluster: Library of Asha Athena Nebula: Hesperia-Period Statue Irune: Book of Plenix Valhallan Threshold: Prothean Data Drives Argos Rho: Kaklisaur Fossil Silean Nebula: Rings of Alune Dekuuna: Elcor Extraction Dekuuna: Code of the Ancients Hades Nexus: Obelisk of Karza Hades Nexus: Prothean Sphere
Citadel visit to drop off sidequests, update companion events and tasks, spectre terminal etc...
Priority: Rannoch (important***:*** make sure all other Rannoch missions done. Make sure to have 4 bars of Reputation on your Shepard. Make sure you have "cleaned up" all the above missions and collectibles now.)
​
Third Big Mission Block:
Priority: Citadel III
Priority: Thessia (important: bring Javik and Liara because big lore, this is not optional)
N7: Communication Hub Citadel: Cerberus Ciphers (item pick up at N7 comm hub mission)
Citadel visit for dropping off items, progressing character events, spectre terminal etc.
Citadel: Dr. Bryson (last point to start Leviathan DLC... If started before, then continue the Levi mission chain).
Citadel: Aria T'Loak (Omega DLC, if not finished earlier).
Citadel visit to finish off sidequests, drop off the last items if any, progress character moments and tasks and visits, spectre terminal etc. Make sure you have "cleaned up" all the above missions and collectibles now.
Priority: Horizon (there are prerequisites to get the "best" outcome in this mission: >! Shepard must have talked to Miranda on the Citadel Docks when she 1st emails, then Shep must have warned her about KL via the Specter office, then Shepard must have met with Miranda in the apartment on the Citadel and given her access to Alliance resources !<)
Citadel: Shore Leave (this is the Citadel DLC, and should be the last thing before endgame. Important: Once begun, avoid leaving the Citadel until "after the party". Just do all the citadel dlc event stuff now.)
Everything wrapped up in citadel now? War asset score high? For best best outcome: At or above 7300 (some ppl think it's 7800, game file analysis has shown it's about 7400 and you will get 100 pts in cerb hq)
Endgame:
Priority: Cerberus Headquarters (Starting this = point of no return. Endgame locked in. Make sure \everything else* is done before this.* Suggested companion for cerb HQ: >! EDI (if she isn't mandatory already) !<*)*
Priority: Erf (complaints about the ending go here. Suggested companions: >! whoever is good against many many many reaper enemies in combat !<*)*
​
Sourced from: https://screenrant.com/mass-effect-3-best-mission-order-main-story-dlc/

Not even thinking about characters that may or may not be there in the story. It's a discussion for few years down the line when we actually know what the game is going to be about. However, WHERE the game is going to be set seems to have been the main point of that teaser, and it is a reason for excitement on it's own. All that lore that was developed over 3 games now has a chance to resurface and be a part of, hopefully, an interesting story. Stuff like:

• Homeworlds of all the species from Council Space and beyond could be a place we visit. Maybe we go to some cities in Palaven, Dekuuna, Kahje similar to how we visited Nos Astra on Illium, maybe we revisit Thessia, Rannoch, Earth and see different cultures interacting. Remember how Thane says he visited New Mexico with his son? Imagine seeing turians on Earth, or humans on Palaven! It would look amazing with how much graphics have improved over the last decade.
  
• Yet to be explored parts of the Milky Way. Correct me if I'm wrong, but only like 5% of the galaxy has been explored in ME universe. That right there is why they could always come up with new stories, and even good ones if they give it some thought.
  
• All those species we saw glimpse of, or heard of, who are still out there. What are Leviathans up to? We saw 3 of them, and maybe there's more. Maybe they reproduce like the rachni and could potentially make a comeback. What about the yahg? Hyper strong, hyper intelligent, apex hunters of their world who seem to be scary enough for the Council to quarantine them to their homeworld before they achieve spaceflight, so who knows what they could do if they somehow get mass effect technology. The raloi? They bailed when they saw The Reapers begin the harvest, so how is the rest of the galaxy going to treat them because of that?
  
• Factions that we encountered - mercenary groups, crime organizations from Omega, Cerberus (are they wiped out completely or do some cells still remain?), various corporations who have footholds on many planets - like the one from Noveria. Or some completely new ones that could arise after the Reaper War.
  
• General feeling of this massive galactic community being in the background, ready to come to spotlight whenever story demands it. I don't know if i can explain this right, but when playing the trilogy it just felt more crowded and populated, because i knew from all the codex entries that there was a lot more going on. In Andromeda, we are in one cluster that doesn't have that sense of huge galaxy being present. The only thing we know about Andromeda galaxy is that there's Kett Empire and maybe Jardaan, but even that is too little for the first game considering how Milky Way felt already established in ME1, all the codex entries and such.
  

I'm sure I forgot to mention a lot of stuff, but you get the intent behind this post. It never sat right with me how they seem to have written themselves into this inescapable narrative corner with ME3 ending when it comes to the potential of making some new games in this incredibly established place. Seems they decided to escape that corner by whatever means they have at their disposal, even if it means making a hard decision of canonizing one of the endings, and i for one welcome that.

User _ecco_ wrote a post asking what people would change about the Mass Effect 3 ending. I started this as a comment there, but...well...it got out of hand. So here goes:
I don’t think you can just change the ending. You’d have to make a lot of changes to the narrative.
Drop the organic vs. synthetics stuff. It was introduced in ME3 because they abandoned the originally-planned ending. So, in my ME3 story, the Levaithans made the Reapers to control the Galaxy as an extension of themselves, and Harbinger was First Reaper and the command unit for all subsequent Reapers.
The Reapers turned on the Leviathans because Harbinger wanted to control...everything. He sees himself as a godlike being, as do all the original Reapers. They harvest advanced civilizations to ensure no one can ever challenge them. The Reapers are the Organics vs. synthetics problem. They aren’t worried about us having a conflict with our creations. They are the conflict.
(So, now we have a back story that makes sense, and doesn’t subvert what we’ve learned about AI over the course of 3 games, which is the Geth weren’t actually a problem, and EDI is our good buddy, who wants to kill the Reapers, too. And who also has a sexy, noticeably camel-toed, ladybot body we can, you know, do things with.)
Harbie’s not as smart as he thinks, though, and made a mistake by adding new Reapers when harvesting other civilizations. The newer Reapers are forced to participate in the cycles, but not all of them want to. Some want to just go off by themselves and explore the universe. Some want to destroy the original Reapers and be free, perhaps some want to live peacefully with the Galaxy, and some just want to take the place of Harbinger’s original Reapers. As long as they are under control, however, what they may want is unknown.
(And now we have a story element that Shepard might pursue, finding ancient lore from a past civilization, perhaps at the Temple of Athame, that tells us that the Reapers are not as unified as the Harboid wants us to believe.)
The newer Reapers have some independence when not directly overseen by the Big H and his buddies, though they cannot directly disobey him while the control links are active. One of the those Reapers was badly damaged in a cycle long ago and left for dead when the Reapers departed for Dark Space. Before it died, freed from direct control, it created the plans for the Crucible, and made sure that the the civilizations of the next cycle could find them. The Crucible will, when mated with the Citadel, disrupt the ‘Bingemeister’s control of all Reapers.
(Hey, look! We know what the Crucible does now! It’s not just some big weapon that we build without knowing what will happen when we pull the trigger. Or if it even has a trigger. It’s a thing whose purpose we now know, not a deus ex machina device of mystery.)
I’d make some other changes, like not making Cerberus the big baddies, with their own goddam navy and army, but, hey, we can’t fix everything.
With these changes, though, we can now address the ending.
The important thing is that the Crucible doesn’t always get built. You don’t recruit enough allies who can help with its construction, it doesn’t get finished, and you lose big-time. Also, if you complete the Crucible, but the fleet you gather isn’t strong enough, the Crucible gets destroyed before it can dock with the Citadel. Either way, you lose the game. The cycles continue, and everybody dies in horrible, horrible ways.
If you do get the Crucible finished and docked with the Citadel, you win...for various values of “winning”. If the Crucible’s damaged too much, because the fleet wasn’t large enough to protect its docking run, it can’t generate enough power to completely disrupt Notorious HBG’s control links. Some portion of the Reapers are freed to turn on their masters, though, and it turns the tide. You win, but the more the Crucible is damaged, the higher the cost of victory. The less the Crucible is damaged, the greater the number of harvested Reapers that can revolt. The freed Reapers, along with the galactic fleet, destroys Harbo and his Reaper goons, with varying levels of effectiveness.
The worst-case “win”: - Earth, Palaven, and Thessia are destroyed, along with the Ciadel and the Council. Humans, Turians, and Asari have no home to return to. There aren’t enough Quarians left to return to Ranoch and rebuild, their civilization will be extinct in a generation. - We never get the Turian fleet’s help as it’s destroyed in the skies over Palaven. - Earth’s fleet gets demolished, with Anderson and Hackett dying. - The Normandy is destroyed with the loss of all the crew. and, even if we win, we have no home to go back to. Galactic Civilization, as we’ve known it, is gone. It will take centuries to rebuild. - Some of the ‘Binger’s Reapers, perhaps even Harbinger himself, escape the battle, to go off and do...what? - The Reapers who revolted also take off for parts unknown. God knows what they’re up to, as well.
The middle-tier “win”: - Earth, Palaven, and Thessia survive, but their fleets take heavy casualties. Hackett lives, but Anderson dies in the fighting on Earth. - The remaining Quarians and Geth return to Rannoch. - The Krogan take heavy casualties, and Wrex and Grunt don’t make it out alive. - The Normandy gets destroyed, but almost all of the crew makes out alive. Except Shepard. In a nod to the opening of ME2, Shepard Is killed. A tearful Liara/Tali/Garrus sit silently in their restraints as the escape pod blasts away from the Normandy’s hulk. - Harbinger “assumes direct control” of eternity, along with his buddies, who all go to the land where Reapers are eternally blessed. They go that big Cycle in the sky. - The revolting Reapers tell us that they must go on a big tour of the universe, and leave us to rebuild on our own. Some of them might’ve stayed around and helped us, but they sadly got bumped off during the big battle with the Harb-heads.
The Big Win: - The majority of controlled Reapers revolt, destroying the OG reapers of the Big H crew. - Some of the formerly-controlled Reapers, who aren’t really Reapers any more, I guess, leave to go explore the universe, while some stay behind to help rebuild, and pass their ancient knowledge to us. - While casualties are heavy, the Galactic Fleet is victorious, and with the help of some ex-Reapers, we can rebuild. - Shepard and the Normandy crew live. - Shepard finally gets promoted to Captain. - The Krogan, older and wiser, rejoin the galactic community as respected allies. - There will be peace that passeth all understanding.
In order to have enough EMS to build the Crucible and have it dock, undamaged, with the Citadel, you have to:

• Cure the Genophage. If you try evil Salarian trickery, then Wrex learns you didn’t cure the Genophage, and becomes quite snippy with everyone. Shepard will have to bump him off, and the next Krogan leader won’t be as accommodating. The Krogan remain a problem. You get Salarian scientific support, so you finish the crucible, but, without Krogan support, you don’t get the Turian fleet, and the Crucible gets damaged or destroyed.
• Save and unite the Quarians and the Geth. You get Geth tech support for building the crucible, which makes up for the loss of Salarian scientific help, and both the Geth and Quarian fleets to protect the Crucible on its docking run. Without all of the Geth, Quarian, Turian, Human, and Asari fleets, the Crucible takes some level of damage. Which is bad.

All of the ending outcomes could be tied to EMS values, so the actual “win” states wouldn’t just be the three broad levels I sketched above. It could be any combination of the above based on the EMS levels. The higher the EMS, the fewer “bad” winning outcomes you’d receive. For instance, Shepard only lives if you do everything perfectly, and obtain the max EMS.
It’s not three endings, it’s various proportions of good or bad based on how good your EMS is. I would, of course, remove the requirements for multi-player or other elements to increase EMS. All EMS would come from campaign gameplay. So, yes, that means you have to go get poison cures for the doctors at Huerta, save the Elcor on Dekuuna, find the banner of the 35th regiment, and all that garbage for every single EMS point. You don’t want Shepard to die because you couldn’t be bothered to find an incubator for some salarian’s eggs, or resolve some dispute between two randos in the Citadel Commons about the right to bear arms.
Anyway, that’s what my Mass Effect 3 ending would look like.

It’s been a while since I last played, but I got the dlc bundles when they were on sale and just now got around to a trilogy play through. Also the first time I’ve played on PC, so of course I had to check out the mods. The last time I played ME3 was when I still had a PS3, so when EGM opened up all the clusters I went to work getting assets. Unfortunately, the Silean Nebula is 100% and a scan brings nothing. Can I not complete this quest or is the code of ancients somewhere else? Like the kakliosaur fossil quest I found it on canrum instead of Intai’sei.

Several times in ME3 you hear the term "trillions" being thrown around to describe the scope of what's at stake with the Reaper invasion, but... there are not even close a trillion intelligent beings in the galaxy, it seems.
I quickly added the populations for Earth, Thessia, Sur'Kesh, Palaven, Dekuuna and Tuchanka, and it comes out at 37 billions.
Even considering there are more planets (Khar'shan's population is unknown, as well as Kahje's, the Rachni's homeworld, etc.) I find it difficult to believe that it'll even crack 100 billion, which would be 10% of a trillion.
Furthermore, there's a codec entry that says that the galaxy is very sparsely populated, with a few hubs here and there, and the rest is small populations in remote colonies, so this estimate would include a very large part of intelligent life that is directly threatened by the Reapers.
So, where are these "trillions" of beings that the Reapers are gonna wipe out this cycle?

I'm pretty sure in the first two games when you click on a mission it gives you a list of steps on how to complete the mission and checks the ones you completed. In ME3 all you get is a short description. Yesterday I was doing that mission where you help out that Elcor on Dekuuna; the description doesn't even tell you where the hell it is and I had to look it up on the Internet (it's not even in the codex). Also when gathering all those items for people on the Citadel, you eventually forget if you've gotten a certain one because in ME2 the list would have a check mark if you obtained the item and then say bring it to the Citadel. Yesterday I thought I obtained a certain one because I visited that system already and it wasn't until I got to the Citadel that I found out I had to go back and look for it because the recipient isn't highlighted.
Why would they remove the mission details?

Hi /masseffect,
I had some spare time on my hands so I decided to a breakdown of the galactic population to really determine the stakes of the Reaper War. As mentioned in the title of this post, this is a totally non-scientific measurement and I'll be doing a lot of guesswork/number fudging. All of my numerical sources come from ME3 planetary database entries and/or the Mass Effect wiki unless otherwise noted.
In determining the galactic population at the time of the Reaper invasion, my methodology is to simply find the population of each race's homeworld, add them all up, and then add 25% of that number onto the final total to account for people that live on colonies or space stations. I have no factual basis for the 25%, but it seems like a decent average. Certain races like the asari almost definitely have more than 25% of their population living somewhere other than Thessia (Illium alone has a population of 84 million), while others like the elcor probably have fewer than 25% living off-Dekuuna. I think the 25% number is a solid compromise.

• Earth (Humans): 11.4 billion
• Thessia (Asari): 5.5 billion
• Sur'kesh (Salarians): 10.3 billion
• Palaven (Turians): 6.1 billion
• Tuchanka (Krogan): 2.1 billion
• Dekuuna (Elcor): 2.35 billion
• Irune (Volus): 8.8 billion
• Kahje (HanaDrell): unknown. Considering that Kahje is 90% water, potential hanar numbers could be massive. We'll conservatively put it at 7.5 billion.
• Khar'shan (Batarians): unknown. Hegemony propaganda puts the number at 15 billion, which is completely unrealistic. However, there is nothing that suggests the batarian homeworld isn't capable of supporting an amount of life that's similar to Earth. I'll say 9 billion.
• Heshtok (Vorcha): Estimates range anywhere from 6.0 to 9.3 billion. We'll take the average and say 7.65 billion.
• Migrant Fleet (Quarian): 17 million, really negligible in the greater scheme of things. I'll round up and say 0.02 billion.

Keep in mind, this is probably on the conservative side, as I'm not including the Yahg (spared by the Reapers), the rachni (may or may not even exist by the time of ME3 depending on Shep's choices), and the Raloi (fates are unknown). I'm also not including the geth because that could skew the numbers way up.
Add them all up: 70.72 billion x 1.25 = 88,400,000,000 souls (give or take a couple billion).
Now, let's make things really interesting. We know the age of the Reapers to be, at minimum, one billion years old due to the Leviathan of Dis. It's possible/likely that the Reapers are even older than this, but we'll stick with the billion number.
Knowing that the extinction cycles happen roughly every 50,000 years, we can divide 1 billion by 50,000 to see that there have been around 20,000 extinctions at minimum since the Reapers first rose.
Taking 88.4 billion as the average galactic population before the Reapers roll in, multiply that number by 20,000, and we see that the Reapers have been directly responsible for at least 1.768x10¹⁵ casualties. That's 1.768 quadrillion casualties, or 1,768,000,000,000,000 if I wanted to write the number out. As it turns out, Javik's "stand amongst the ashes of a trillion dead souls" quote is actually underselling it.
I'm not really sure what I was trying to accomplish by doing this (although I suppose a part of me is trying to use it as justification for always choosing the Destroy ending), but I'd be eager to hear your comments on this.
TL;DR the Catalyst is an asshole.

Introduction

Hello there! Those of you who were browsing the BSN before ME3 was released, may know us as the team behind the Known Features thread. Anyway, we have kept contact over Skype, and for some time, we have been considering the idea of modding some grand strategy game in order for it to be based on the Mass Effect universe.
A couple of us have played some Paradox Interactive games over the years. For those who don't know, they are a series of grand strategy games, that allow you to play as a variety of nations, and focus on politics, diplomacy, economy or warfare. But most essentially, they are ridiculously easy to mod.
We originally thought that Hearts of Iron 3 would be the closest to what we'd like to achieve, but after the reveal of East vs West (a sequel with the same basic mechanics) we switched over to it. We would like to hear your ideas and suggestions, before we start.
Here are all the Dev Diaries of EvW, if you are interested for more details on the inner workings of the game: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?634601-East-vs.-West-Developer-Diaries-amp-Developer-Introductions-Archive

Starting Date

The first question is, when should it begin? While obviously important events have been happenning for millenia before the System's Alliance's first contact with the turians, it should be noted that no form of ME media (Games, books, comics), is actually set before the First Contact War. While this may lead to some interesting possibilities, we generally have less of an understanding of how politics worked at the time. Therefore, and while keeping in mind that if we go way over HoI4's default 45 year span, we might screw things up, it could be a good idea to start the game in 2157, with a few months to prepare before a forced "First Contact War" event. Just my suggestion. Let me know what you think.

Ending Date

When we originally started talking about this project, we had agreed to end it right before the Reaper Invasion. Their sheer military strength could be enough to wipe out entire fleets overnight. Not much fun to play against... But there are a few problems with that... What if Saren captures the Citadel and allows for the Reapers to invade through it? What if the Collectors manage to do it instead? What if they go through the Alpha Relay? All these are potential ways for the Reapers to invade before the standard ending date. While this could work by having the Reapers as just a faction that is there to fuck shit up until the ending date is reached, that doesn't sound like much fun...
An alternative could be to have the Reaper War work like this... have the Reapers have a fleet good enough to roll over anything the galaxy has to offer, but disallow the Reapers from having any WMDs that they can use against ground troops (it's after all true, that for the purpose of harvesting, they didn't just nuke the whole galaxy ablaze), and have their ground troops be numerous, but shitty. That would allow for any of the "big players" to hold out territory in their homeworlds for a significant amount of time. The game ends with either the total extermination of all life in the universe, or with the development of the Crucible, a WMD, which when deployed in any Reaper-controlled province completely depletes the Reapers of their "National Unity" stat, thus forcing them to surrender.
Yet another alternative would be to allow the player to play even after the Reaper Invasion, by setting the end date in 2196 or something. Once the Crucible is developed and if the Citadel is controlled, an event could pop up, to allow the player to pick one of 4 choices. "Refusal" which would continue the conventionally war normally (it'd probably be impossible to win, unless you cheat), "Control" which sets all the factions to their original territories, and adds the Reapers as a playable faction that is friendly/allied to all. As such, when one faction decides to attack another one, the Reapers, as allies, may choose to intervene. Then there is "Destroy", which would return all the factions in their original provinces, except for the Geth, which...well...yeah. RIP. Finally, "Synthesis" could perhaps work by setting all territory under control of a "Unified Galaxy" faction. Boring technically speaking, but it seems pretty close to what actually happenned in Synthesis.

Politics

Politics in HoI4 work in this way: There are 2 factions (NATO and Warsaw Pact), the majority of nations are part of. A nation's alignment results to some unique technologies. Then, there are some organizations (which act, iirc, like small alliances, such as the Commonwealth) in which nations can choose to be part of. Specifically, the UN exists as an organization, and member-states may choose to vote on passing some resolutions.
In addition to international politics, there is also the domestic political scene. Political parties which represent different political ideologies may be elected, or take power in a coup.
Should the "Council" (Citadel Races) and "Rogue States" (Batarian Hegemony and all Terminus states) be the two main factions? Which organizations, other the Citadel Council should exist? Furthermore, political ideologies have evolved from our times. "Terra Firma" for example, can't be regarded as a "Market conservative" party, but rather as an "Isolationist" one. Which ideologies should exist? And how should they be represented in the various intergalactic nations?
NATIONS

Major

• Citadel Council (Multi-Race)
• Asari Republics (Asari. Potential Emerging Nations: Maybe the various colonies become independent republics under some circumstances?)
• Systems Alliance (Human. Potential Emerging Nations: United North American States, European Union, Chinese People's Federation)
• Salarian Union (Salarian)
• Turian Hierarchy (Turian)
• Batarian Hegemony (Batarian)
• Geth Collective ("Heretic Geth" emerge prior to the Eden Prime War)
• The Migrant Fleet (Quarian)
• Krogan Empire (Not initially existent, can emerge if Wrex is leader of Urdnot)
• Terminus Alliance (Not initially existent, may be formed under the right circumstances)
• Rachni Kingdom (if Rachni Queen survives the events of ME1)

Minor

• Courts of Dekuuna (Elcor)
• The Illuminated Primacy (Hanar. Potential emerging "Drell Republic" in the case of a schism?)
• Vol Protectorate (Perhaps change to "Vol Autocracy" in the case it develops its own military?)
• Collector Hive (Collectors)
• Turvess (Raloi. Perhaps become playable after a scripted event)
• Clan Urdnot (Krogan)
• Clan Weyrloc (Krogan)
• Republic of Ghurst (Krogan)
• Vorcha Clans (Can be formed under the right circumstances. Maybe it or an alternative should be in control of the vorcha homeworld in the beginning of the game?)
• Anhur (Multi-Race. Splits to "Anhur Abolitionist Front" (human) and "Na'hesit" (batarian) during the Anhur Rebellions)
• Garvug (Multi-Race)
• Omega (Multi-Race)
• Plus other Terminus nations that will be named after their planet.

Mini-Factions

There is some debate on which of these should be included. They all participate on various events in the ME canon.

• Blue Suns
• Eclipse (participates in Anhur Rebellions)
• Blood Pack (regularly attacks the Alliance, for example, it raided Fehl Prime and sunk the Hugo Gernsback)
• Cerberus
• Raiders (initiated the Skyllian Blitz)
• Binary Helix (initiated Garvug War)
• Guanghui Solutions (initiated Garvug War)
• Sonax Industries (initiated Garvug War)
• Shadow Broker

Events

While there are tons of canon events we could work with, they are mostly centered around the Alliance's history. As a result, a lot of other factions are left with no events. For example, the only combat-related event that the Asari Republics would encounter is a minor firefight with the survivors of the Manswell Expedition, as reported on Cerberus Daily News.
This can be handled by either:
a) Just having some factions with no events or major decisions. b) Writting some events that make sense in context of the canon timeline. For example, allowing the volus to push for a seat in the Council. c) Allowing for a wide variety of decisions not necessarily true to the canon, like for example, the turians having the choice to disregard the Council and continuing the First Contact War until Earth is annexed.
Additionally, the question is raised:
How important should events be in the game? Should a player be forced to deal with the canon events of the game? Should their occurance rely with other circumstances? Should the player be able to avoid a lot of them? For example: the First Contact War may* a)* not occur at all, with the turian hierarchy choosing between greeting the humans peacefully or not, b) have its outcome determined based on which provinces are still under human control, c) be forced to end at a certain date.

Technology

We have held off from constructing a tech tree until we can learn more about HoI4's new tech system. But generally speaking, which kind of techs would you like to see?

Units

Considering that the units are give or take the same from HoI3, we have come up with a unit list. Thoughts?

LAND

• Armored Personnel Carrier, such as the Mako could replace "Light Armor".
• Infantry Fighting Vehicle, such as the Grizzly could replace "Armor".
• Main Battle Tank(?), such as the Tomkah could replace "Heavy Armor". There will be no Super-Heavy Armor.
• Infantry (the same as vanilla)
• Mechanized Infantry (same as vanilla, but there is no Motorized Infantry)
• Special units such as the Rachni Infantry or War Beasts can replace Cavalry.
• Rangers replace Mountain Infantry.
• Spec Ops - Asari Commando, Blackwatch, N7 etc.
• Infiltrators - Lower men per company, better accuracy, not sustainable brigade on their own.
• Biotics - Cabals, Adepts etc. Maybe smaller brigade than Infantry but slightly more power?
• Irregulars - Can be mercenaries, pirates, slavers, militia, depending on faction.
• Garrison (vanilla)- Maybe renamed to Guard? Like Serrice Guard. Maybe remove from game in general.
• Tank Destroyer - Probably needs to be renamed, replaces TD and Anti-Tank.
• Mobile LADAR - Replaces AA units.
• Artillery - There will be only ONE kind, not the various that HoI 3 has.
• Engineering - Replaces Engineers, good fortress-busters, also useful for river crossings, but there won't be any rivers in-game.
• Security Unit - Replaces Military Police. Like C-Sec, Hastatim, Police, etc.
• Marine Infantry - Replaces Marine, basically has same function.
• NO Paratroopers.
• Gunships and Battle Drones can also be added.

SPACE (Retextured Sea)

"Escorts" remain the same, Convoys renamed to Freighters.

• Frigate - Replaces Light Cruiser. NO Destroyers or Submarines, the other two escort type ships.
• Light Cruiser - Replaces Heavy Cruiser
• Heavy Cruiser - Replaces Battlecruiser
• Carrier
• Dreadnaught - Replaces Super-Heavy Battleship, has the ability of the carrier, to host CAGs.
• Transport Ships renamed to Transport Shuttles.
• NO Battleships, and Escort Carriers.

AIR

We will just have Fighters to replace fighters, Interceptors to replace CAG but NO Bombers, as no bombers appear in-universe. Bombing can be done by nerfed down weapons that "ships" carry.
Anyway, sorry for the wall of the text. What are some of your ideas for a Mass Effect grand strategy game?

Alright, so here was my vision for the ground battle on Earth at ME3's ending. The scene takes place after Hammer has landed, and opens with Shepard standing alone overlooking a ruined London, with the Citadel beam glowing in the background. The sun is just beginning to rise. Shepard is overlooking an essentially flat plain of rubble with just a handful of standing structures scattered between Shepard and the beam. Massive numbers of every kind of Reaper ground troop are visible milling around near the beam, clearly preparing for the coming onslaught, as 3 destroyer-class Reapers stand ominously behind the ground troops. To Shepard's left on a small mound of rubble lies a hologram transponder machine with representatives of each race that you brought to the fight, including characters like Kirrahe and Wrex if you saved them. Shepard turns to the machine and asks "Everyone in position?" Following their nods, he says "You all know what do do" and the holograms disappear. Shepard's love interest (we'll say Ashley) appears at Shepard's side and loads her weapon. Anderson appears at Shepard's right and barks into his headset "Hammer team, prepare to engage. Volus Wing Irune, begin your run." "This is Irune Wing, beginning our assault, Earth-clan" can be heard over Anderson's headset. A dull roar is heard overhead, and Shepard, Ashley and Anderson are suddenly covered in shadow as dozens of Volus bombers lumber overhead, escorted by human and Turian fighters. The bombers unleash their payload, and the Reapers on the ground are engulfed by the massive resulting explosions. However, more Reapers simply emerge and appear even more numerous than before.
The camera pans up to reveal dozens of Makos waiting with hundreds of human soldiers standing immediately behind them off to Shepard's left. To his right, hundreds of Krogan, led by Wrex and Grunt, appear ready to advance. The Turians are beside the humans, numbering in the hundreds and supported by huge Turian tanks (imagine how cool those would be!). All these soldiers stand ready and waiting to attack. Anderson barks into his headset, "Taskforce Hammer, advance!"
The Makos and Turian tanks begin their advance, with their respective races trotting behind them. Wrex turns to the Krogan clans gathered behind him and roars "KROGAN! FORWARD! FOR OUR CHILDREN! FOR TUCHANKAAAA!" The responding Krogan roars are deafening, and the clans begin their advance. Anderson's headset crackles, and an Asari voice can be heard ordering "All Swarms, begin your attack!" The skies above seem to darken, and are filled with Asari and human gunships.
And with that, the battle is on. The Reapers begin to advance toward the human and alien lines in massive numbers, and composed of every Reaper variant imaginable. The two opposing forces move closer and closer towards one another. Suddenly, Salarian STG units de-cloak, appearing between the advancing Reapers and the united alien and human forces. Kirrahe barks into his omnitool "All units! The prey is in position- spring the trap!" The forward elements of the Reaper force are suddenly engulfed in explosions as the Salarians detonate mines placed before the battle. Armali and Turian Blackwatch snipers appear out of cover beside the STG lines and begin firing, picking off dozens of Reapers.
The Makos and Turian tanks, as well as the soldiers in cover behind them, begin to fire while steadily advancing towards the Reapers. The gunships overhead begin strafing runs, blasting the Reapers apart. As the Krogan clans get closer to the Reapers, their trotting pace quickens into a full-on charge. Krogan vanguards biotic charge forward in one motion, hitting the Reaper lines like a thunderclap. Grunt roars "I AM KROGAN!" as the bulk of the Krogan force engage in brutal close-combat.
These scenes vary depending on which War Assets were gathered and which characters are still alive in your play through. I'm gonna describe if you had virtually every character and War Asset in the battle. Heavily armored Elcor soldiers lumber towards the Reaper force, carrying a variety of miniguns, missile launchers and laser weapons on their backs. As the weapons tear Reapers apart, one Elcor states in his monotone voice "With fury: This is for Dekuuna!"
Blood Pack mercenaries are engaged in close-quarters combat with Reapers- Krogan are seen blasting them apart with shotguns, while Vorcha fry them with flamethrowers and tear husks apart with their hands and teeth. Eclipse mercenaries engage the Reapers while equipped with tech armor and supported by mechs. The Blue Suns are close by, tearing husks apart with concentrated small arms and missile fire.
Drell assassins are seen assisting the previously mentioned STG forces with hit-and-run attacks on the Reapers-one is seen sniping a Marauder at long range, while another takes down a handful of husks with impressive martial arts moves.
Jacob Taylor, in Alliance attire, is seen leading a squad of marines, taking down husks with his rifle before hitting a a Cannibal with a biotic blast.
A Brute is seen moving menacingly towards a group of Asari commandos who are backed up against the wall of a building. Suddenly, Samara biotic-drops between the commandos and the Brute, flanked by justicars on either side. She calmly states "Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess" before charging at the Brute. Jack and her students are covering the advance of Alliance marines with barriers. A Banshee begins its warp-advance towards the students. Jack screams "Get away from my kids, you ugly Asari bitch!" before charging at the Banshee, tearing it apart with biotics.
Miranda sees this spectacle from a short distance away. However, while Jack is distracted by the Banshee, a mixed group of husks and Cannibals has broken through the students' barriers. Miranda runs forward, lifting the entire group of Reapers before throwing them into a building. Jack reluctantly grins, "Not bad, cheerleader" to which Miranda responds "Your students are rather impressive, Jack." A handful of Brutes appear on the scene. Jack and Miranda nod at each other and grin before charging back into the fray.
Zaeed Massani is seen picking off Cannibals before tossing a grenade and blasting a group of husks. "Come on you bloody bastards, I'm gonna rip out your intestines and strangle you with them!" A group of Quarian commandos led by Kal'Reegar (who isn't dead because that's bullshit) advances, shouting "For the homeworld! For Rannoch!"
These scenes are all interspersed with Shepard and his crew taking it to the Reapers. Garrus picks off Reaper after Reaper with his sniper rifle. Liara lifts a group of Cannibals before blasting them into the distance. Tali advances near Kal'Reegar and the other commandos, blasting away with the help of 2 combat drones. Javik roars as he hits Reapers with a biotic blast. Ashley and Shepard move as one, taking down Reapers all around them (think the ending scene of Mr. and Mrs. Smith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G5bi_46Crk[1] ).
However, despite the combined might of all these armies, it isn't enough. The forward momentum of the advance falters, then begins to get pushed back. Gunships and fighters are blown out of the sky by swarms of Harvesters and Oculi. Makos and tanks explode, engulfing the soldiers behind them in the resulting flames. Soldiers are seen being overwhelmed by hordes of husks. Krogan are engulfed by thousands of Swarmers. Everything seems to slow down as Shepard looks around in despair as sad choir music plays (like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8p73GG-ypk[2] ). There is death all around him, the Reapers seemingly endless. The death scenes continue, but in slow motion with the choir music playing-all hope seems lost.
Suddenly, the ground is covered in shadows and a dull rumbling is heard above. Shepard looks up expectantly as his headset crackles "Shepard Commander, we apologize for the delay." Geth dropships and fighters emerge from the clouds above, the morning sun glinting off their hulls. Thuds are heard all around as Geth Primes and Armatures begin combat dropping into the fray, followed by hundreds of Geth troopers, pyros, rocket troops and hunters. The advance begins again, this time bolstered by the Geth.
Geth Primes are shown blasting Ravagers with pulse cannons as rocket troopers blow Brutes apart with their missiles. Geth hunters drop in and out of cloaking, blasting husks and cannibals with their plasma shotguns while pyros cook Ravagers and their Swarmers with flamethrowers. The force moves closer and closer to the beam when the 3 Reaper destroyers, who until this point have been laying dormant, begin their attack.
Shepard puts his hand to his headset and orders "All forces, concentrate all fire on those Reaper destroyers!" The concentrated fire of the Makos, Turian tanks, gunships, fighters, and a variety of heavy weapons including Thanix missiles are all brought to bear on the destroyers. The destroyers are all engulfed in explosions, which shudder and begin to fall. The soldiers cheer and push forward again.
This is when Shepard and Anderson have their conversation before beginning the mad dash to the beam while Harbinger blows everything up, and the game continues as usual.
If you guys have ideas for things I missed, let me know and I'll try and add it in! This ending definitely borrows a lot of ideas from other fan endings I’ve seen on Reddit, so I can’t say this was all my idea. And if you guys like it, I might take a swing at the space battle, too. Let me know what you think.

Alright, so here was my vision for the ground battle on Earth at ME3's ending. The scene takes place after Hammer has landed, and opens with Shepard standing alone overlooking a ruined London, with the Citadel beam glowing in the background. The sun is just beginning to rise. Shepard is overlooking an essentially flat plain of rubble with just a handful of standing structures scattered between Shepard and the beam. Massive numbers of every kind of Reaper ground troop are visible milling around near the beam, clearly preparing for the coming onslaught, as 3 destroyer-class Reapers stand ominously behind the ground troops. To Shepard's left on a small mound of rubble lies a hologram transponder machine with representatives of each race that you brought to the fight, including characters like Kirrahe and Wrex if you saved them. Shepard turns to the machine and asks "Everyone in position?" Following their nods, he says "You all know what do do" and the holograms disappear. Shepard's love interest (we'll say Ashley) appears at Shepard's side and loads her weapon. Anderson appears at Shepard's right and barks into his headset "Hammer team, prepare to engage. Volus Wing Irune, begin your run."
"This is Irune Wing, beginning our assault, Earth-clan" can be heard over Anderson's headset. A dull roar is heard overhead, and Shepard, Ashley and Anderson are suddenly covered in shadow as dozens of Volus bombers lumber overhead, escorted by human and Turian fighters. The bombers unleash their payload, and the Reapers on the ground are engulfed by the massive resulting explosions. However, more Reapers simply emerge and appear even more numerous than before.
The camera pans up to reveal dozens of Makos waiting with hundreds of human soldiers standing immediately behind them off to Shepard's left. To his right, hundreds of Krogan, led by Wrex and Grunt, appear ready to advance. The Turians are beside the humans, numbering in the hundreds and supported by huge Turian tanks (imagine how cool those would be!). All these soldiers stand ready and waiting to attack. Anderson barks into his headset, "Taskforce Hammer, advance!"
The Makos and Turian tanks begin their advance, with their respective races trotting behind them. Wrex turns to the Krogan clans gathered behind him and roars "KROGAN! FORWARD! FOR OUR CHILDREN! FOR TUCHANKAAAA!" The responding Krogan roars are deafening, and the clans begin their advance. Anderson's headset crackles, and an Asari voice can be heard ordering "All Swarms, begin your attack!" The skies above seem to darken, and are filled with Asari and human gunships.
And with that, the battle is on. The Reapers begin to advance toward the human and alien lines in massive numbers, and composed of every Reaper variant imaginable. The two opposing forces move closer and closer towards one another. Suddenly, Salarian STG units de-cloak, appearing between the advancing Reapers and the united alien and human forces. Kirrahe barks into his omnitool "All units! The prey is in position- spring the trap!" The forward elements of the Reaper force are suddenly engulfed in explosions as the Salarians detonate mines placed before the battle. Armali and Turian Blackwatch snipers appear out of cover beside the STG lines and begin firing, picking off dozens of Reapers.
The Makos and Turian tanks, as well as the soldiers in cover behind them, begin to fire while steadily advancing towards the Reapers. The gunships overhead begin strafing runs, blasting the Reapers apart. As the Krogan clans get closer to the Reapers, their trotting pace quickens into a full-on charge. Krogan vanguards biotic charge forward in one motion, hitting the Reaper lines like a thunderclap. Grunt roars "I AM KROGAN!" as the bulk of the Krogan force engage in brutal close-combat.
These scenes vary depending on which War Assets were gathered and which characters are still alive in your play through. I'm gonna describe if you had virtually every character and War Asset in the battle.
Heavily armored Elcor soldiers lumber towards the Reaper force, carrying a variety of miniguns, missile launchers and laser weapons on their backs. As the weapons tear Reapers apart, one Elcor states in his monotone voice "With fury: This is for Dekuuna!"
Blood Pack mercenaries are engaged in close-quarters combat with Reapers- Krogan are seen blasting them apart with shotguns, while Vorcha fry them with flamethrowers and tear husks apart with their hands and teeth.
Eclipse mercenaries engage the Reapers while equipped with tech armor and supported by mechs. The Blue Suns are close by, tearing husks apart with concentrated small arms and missile fire.
Drell assassins are seen assisting the previously mentioned STG forces with hit-and-run attacks on the Reapers-one is seen sniping a Marauder at long range, while another takes down a handful of husks with impressive martial arts moves.
Jacob Taylor, in Alliance attire, is seen leading a squad of marines, taking down husks with his rifle before hitting a a Cannibal with a biotic blast.
A Brute is seen moving menacingly towards a group of Asari commandos who are backed up against the wall of a building. Suddenly, Samara biotic-drops between the commandos and the Brute, flanked by justicars on either side. She calmly states "Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess" before charging at the Brute.
Jack and her students are covering the advance of Alliance marines with barriers. A Banshee begins its warp-advance towards the students. Jack screams "Get away from my kids, you ugly Asari bitch!" before charging at the Banshee, tearing it apart with biotics.
Miranda sees this spectacle from a short distance away. However, while Jack is distracted by the Banshee, a mixed group of husks and Cannibals has broken through the students' barriers. Miranda runs forward, lifting the entire group of Reapers before throwing them into a building. Jack reluctantly grins, "Not bad, cheerleader" to which Miranda responds "Your students are rather impressive, Jack." A handful of Brutes appear on the scene. Jack and Miranda nod at each other and grin before charging back into the fray.
Zaeed Massani is seen picking off Cannibals before tossing a grenade and blasting a group of husks. "Come on you bloody bastards, I'm gonna rip out your intestines and strangle you with them!"
A group of Quarian commandos led by Kal'Reegar (who isn't dead because that's bullshit) advances, shouting "For the homeworld! For Rannoch!"
These scenes are all interspersed with Shepard and his crew taking it to the Reapers. Garrus picks off Reaper after Reaper with his sniper rifle. Liara lifts a group of Cannibals before blasting them into the distance. Tali advances near Kal'Reegar and the other commandos, blasting away with the help of 2 combat drones. Javik roars as he hits Reapers with a biotic blast. Ashley and Shepard move as one, taking down Reapers all around them (think the ending scene of Mr. and Mrs. Smith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G5bi_46Crk).
However, despite the combined might of all these armies, it isn't enough. The forward momentum of the advance falters, then begins to get pushed back. Gunships and fighters are blown out of the sky by swarms of Harvesters and Oculi. Makos and tanks explode, engulfing the soldiers behind them in the resulting flames. Soldiers are seen being overwhelmed by hordes of husks. Krogan are engulfed by thousands of Swarmers. Everything seems to slow down as Shepard looks around in despair as sad choir music plays (like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8p73GG-ypk). There is death all around him, the Reapers seemingly endless. The death scenes continue, but in slow motion with the choir music playing-all hope seems lost.
Suddenly, the ground is covered in shadows and a dull rumbling is heard above. Shepard looks up expectantly as his headset crackles "Shepard Commander, we apologize for the delay." Geth dropships and fighters emerge from the clouds above, the morning sun glinting off their hulls. Thuds are heard all around as Geth Primes and Armatures begin combat dropping into the fray, followed by hundreds of Geth troopers, pyros, rocket troops and hunters. The advance begins again, this time bolstered by the Geth.
Geth Primes are shown blasting Ravagers with pulse cannons as rocket troopers blow Brutes apart with their missiles. Geth hunters drop in and out of cloaking, blasting husks and cannibals with their plasma shotguns while pyros cook Ravagers and their Swarmers with flamethrowers. The force moves closer and closer to the beam when the 3 Reaper destroyers, who until this point have been laying dormant, begin their attack.
Shepard puts his hand to his headset and orders "All forces, concentrate all fire on those Reaper destroyers!" The concentrated fire of the Makos, Turian tanks, gunships, fighters, and a variety of heavy weapons including Thanix missiles are all brought to bear on the destroyers. The destroyers are all engulfed in explosions, which shudder and begin to fall. The soldiers cheer and push forward again.
This is when Shepard and Anderson have their conversation before beginning the mad dash to the beam while Harbinger blows everything up, and the game continues as usual.
If you guys have ideas for things I missed, let me know and I'll try and add it in! This ending definitely borrows a lot of ideas from other fan endings I’ve seen on Reddit, so I can’t say this was all my idea. And if you guys like it, I might take a swing at the space battle, too. Let me know what you think.