[LoweGear]

Looks like we may get a degree of base building afterall:

[PCGamesN] Realising the space opera: we go hands-on with Mass Effect: Andromeda

Originally Posted by PCGamesN

That’s not to say some quests don’t have a bit of formula in common. While driving around, I trigger the ‘settling Kadara’ quest, in which I have to solve various problems to render the planet habitable. First up is taking care of its toxic groundwater, then settling a dispute between two local warring factions (both of which you can, apparently, join, but Condominas politely declined to provide more details). Finally, I have to stabilise the environment by resetting the local Remnant Vault - more on that in a sec.

All these jobs increase Kadara’s ‘viability’, and my goal is to reach 40%, at which point I can build an outpost at a designated site. Some settlements will be part of the game’s critical path - that is, you’ll need to finish some settling quests to advance the plot - while the incentive to complete optional ones is, essentially, more resources: you can designate a specialism for each outpost, so mining outposts might give a steady trickle of crafting materials, while research outposts might give research data. Condominas says the quest to raise viability depends on each planet's problems, so like The Witcher III’s monster hunts, the goal and the reward are approximately known, but the particulars will vary.

Other tidbits from this article:

• Training Backgrounds that can be selected during character creation put points into two pre-selected abilities for immediate use, e.g. "Scrapper" will unlock Biotic Charge and Combat Fitness, while "Leader" will start off with Energy Drain and Team Support.
• Scanning objects in the environment grants "Research Data" (RD) for use in unlocking or researching new blueprints for crafting.
• Augments are additions that can be installed on the gun during crafting, while mods are stuff you can add to the gun once it's built, i.e. attachments.
• You can built a laser Black Widow (and the normal Widow makes a return).
• There's a sudoku-like minigame involving Remnant tech.