Souvenirs from the Citadel

Lyricsaboutcats' (mostly) Mass Effect sideblog. Awkward salarian lore keeper, shy fanfic writer/artist, and sometimes data-miner

[lyricsaboutcats]

Datamining & Cut Content List

Here is a master list of all of my Tumblr posts about cut content in various Mass Effect games. Cut Audio Content from Mass Effect 1: These conversations can be found in the PS3 release of ME1 as...

Hey folks, I’ve been getting some visitors from outside Tumblr (mainly reddit and twitter) so I’ve decided to create a comprehensive list of my data-mining and cut content posts that can be accessed without using Tumblr’s tag system. 

You can browse everything I’ve posted by clicking on the link above, or by using the sidebar on my blog’s main page. I’ll try to keep it up-to-date as I add more in the future. C:

[lyricsaboutcats]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

When Scott keeps the truth of Andromeda from his sister, telling her through SAM that it’s a wonderful place where her father is alive, Jarun Tann finds himself telling her what really happened and unexpectedly becoming her confidant. And after Sara Ryder moves into his quarters, disrupting his carefully scheduled existence as the eighth Director, things between them get complicated.

[lyricsaboutcats]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

When Scott keeps the truth of Andromeda from his sister, telling her through SAM that it’s a wonderful place where her father is alive, Jarun Tann finds himself telling her what really happened and unexpectedly becoming her confidant. And after Sara Ryder moves into his quarters, disrupting his carefully scheduled existence as the eighth Director, things between them get complicated.

[lyricsaboutcats]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

The year is 2160. When an investigation in lower Tayseri Ward leads him to the opulence of the Presidium, salarian C-Sec constable Vel Selar finds himself drawn into the secrecy and politics surrounding the crisis between humans and batarians in the Skyllian Verge. He also finds himself drawn to Meiko Ogawa, a human diplomat from Tiptree. 

But when his partner, a turian investigator named Beran, is falsely accused of murder, Selar begins to question who he can trust and how many of his partner's crazy conspiracy theories might actually be true.

[lyricsaboutcats]

There was this amazing salarian lore post here on Tumblr that I bookmarked a long time ago, and now that I have time to read it… I can’t find it again. My PC died and the bookmark is gone. I can’t remember the username, just that it was a really impressive gathering of official lore from the codex and books (I think they were also mapping ME’s galaxy using all three games, which was also amazing).

If this rings a bell for anyone, I would be really grateful for a link to it!

[ferusaurelius]

So I have one link to cut content and datamining and then I have one link to the Mass Effect Milky Way Encyclopedia (reorganized info), and a fanmade mass effect galaxy map covering all three games.

I’m not sure if any of the above is what you’re looking for, but they may be a start?

@rawliverandcigarettes - Please forgive the summons - you’re the first person I think of when I think of salarians, so if you have any idea for OP, tyty.

[lyricsaboutcats]

The Milky Way Encyclopedia is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you SO MUCH for helping me find it again, and also for the link to the galaxy map! :)

[lyricsaboutcats]

There was this amazing salarian lore post here on Tumblr that I bookmarked a long time ago, and now that I have time to read it... I can’t find it again. My PC died and the bookmark is gone. I can’t remember the username, just that it was a really impressive gathering of official lore from the codex and books (I think they were also mapping ME’s galaxy using all three games, which was also amazing).

If this rings a bell for anyone, I would be really grateful for a link to it!

[uggashundead]

A work in progress of Sara Ryder and the Initiative Director Jarun Tann, this is inspired by the fan fiction Romantic Distraction by @lyricsaboutcats

[lyricsaboutcats]

Oh wow, this is absolutely wonderful! I love their expressions!

[lyricsaboutcats]

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"That’s what happens when you don’t bring protection. Idiots."

"What do you mean, ‘protection?’"

During development of Mass Effect 1, Noveria’s Aleutsk Valley had several encounters and enemies that were eventually left on the cutting room floor. Here’s another one where I’ve spliced the leftover audio files together.

After defeating a group of hostile krogan in the valley, Shepard comments on how lethargic they seemed. Wrex explains that krogan feel the cold more intensely than other races, and has a final request to get out of the weather (which is an ambient comment not directly tied to the conversation).

Every squadmate has recorded lines for this encounter. It was probably intended to be a short cut-scene with dialogue options. 

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(Sources: ice25_trig05_chilly_krogan,snd_ice25_exterior, ice25_trig04_open_boathouse.upk, Mass Effect PS3 Edition. Spliced with Audacity, Image by Bioware for Xbox 360 promotional material)

[lyricsaboutcats]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

When Scott keeps the truth of Andromeda from his sister,  telling her through Sam that it’s a wonderful place where her father is  alive, Jarun Tann finds himself telling her what really happened and  unexpectedly becoming her confidant.

And after Sara Ryder moves into his quarters, disrupting his  carefully scheduled existence as the eighth Director, things between  them get complicated.

[lyricsaboutcats]

My hard-drive died so I’ve been reinstalling all of my games and mod tools. Thankfully I kept many things on a separate drive, but it’ll be a hot minute before I have any custom ME screenshots for my datamining posts again.

On the bright side, I rediscovered screenshots of an NPC edit of my original character, Vel Selar, in one of my folders. Selar’s appearance is supposed to be “average C-Sec salarian” except he’s bad with numbers so he’s more of a bruiser than a tech guy. 

[lyricsaboutcats]

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"Ambush, huh? I need to get my cowardly bastard scanner fixed."

"Temper, temper, Shepard."

During development of Mass Effect 1, Noveria’s Aleutsk Valley had several encounters and enemies that were eventually left on the cutting room floor. 

This particular set of leftover dialogue, where Shepard is ambushed in Aleutsk’s tunnels after either a tunnel door or the Mako itself is sabotaged, was probably intended to be a cutscene with a few dialogue choices for the player. The assassins were sent by Saren and Shepard’s renegade responses to them are a highlight.

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(Sources: ice25_trig09_assassin_enc,snd_ice25_tunnels.upk, Mass Effect PS3 Edition. Spliced with Audacity)

[lyricsaboutcats]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

The year is 2160. When an investigation in lower Tayseri Ward leads him to the opulence of the Presidium, salarian C-Sec constable Vel Selar finds himself drawn into the secrecy and politics surrounding the crisis between humans and batarians in the Skyllian Verge.

He also finds himself drawn to Meiko Ogawa, a human diplomat from Tiptree. But when his partner, a turian investigator named Beran, is falsely accused of murder, Selar begins to question who he can trust and how many of his partner's crazy conspiracy theories about the investigation might actually be true.

[lyricsaboutcats]

yes hello i just wanted to tell you that your salarian fics are so important to me like esp. the way you wrote mordin in em? it makes me feel so happy so thank you for your writing And this blog ! have a gr8 day!

Thank you, I loved writing about Mordin and he’s one of the main reasons I wanted to start learning how to write as a hobby. I'm very happy you enjoyed the fics. :)

[lyricsaboutcats]

Rayla Sanai is an unused asari character from the Pinnacle Station DLC. You can find her name on the station’s scoreboard, but much like Fre Natha you won’t find her lounging around the station. Her character model must be loaded manually with an ini edit. 

Most NPCs in Pinnacle Station were meant to be rivals and quest givers for Shepard, and Rayla’s information suggests that she might have originally been a part of the story-line like Bryant and Vidinos. She is listed as a young asari commando.

(sources: BIOA_PRC2_C.upk, DLC_Vegas_GlobalTlk.upk)

[lyricsaboutcats]

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Keeping peace on this floating city can't be easy.

Here is a set of three ambient conversations, all between a salarian and a somewhat distracted volus, that were cut from the final release of Mass Effect. These leftover sound files can still be found inside the Playstation 3 release of the game, and the file paths suggest the player would have encountered the conversations in Chora’s Den.

C-Sec (0:00)

Citadel Council (0:25)

The Traverse (0:58)

Each conversation has been transcribed under the cut:

About Citadel Security:

Volus: No, he didn't get in. He did well, but it wasn't good enough. Salarian: I hear the entry exams are brutal. Volus: Yeah. Say what you want about C-Sec, but at least they've got high standards. Salarian: I believe it. Keeping peace on this floating city can't be easy.

About the Citadel Council:

Salarian: Don't kid yourself. They're no different than you or me. Volus: Yeah. Except each decision they make effects every living thing in Citadel Space. Salarian: Whatever. The Council spends so much time bickering and posturing, they don't get to make any real decisions. Volus: I don't know. Salarian: Think about it. When was the last time anything changed around here? Volus: Yeah. I guess.

About the Traverse:

Volus: I find that hard to believe. There's no real proof. Salarian: Not yet. But there's something going on in the Traverse. You'll see. Volus: Maybe. But I've got runners going through there all the time and they haven't seen a thing. Salarian: I thought you lost a ship out there. Volus: I've lost ships before, but that's the only one I've lost out in the Traverse. It doesn't mean anything.

—— (Sources: Mass Effect US release for Playstation 3, sta60_amb_choras_customers.isb, sta60.isb, mixed with Audacity)

[lyricsaboutcats]

Pinnacle Station DLC

Test the limits of your combat prowess aboard a remote, top-secret Alliance space station. Enhanced port of the original Mass Effect DLC, which was not included in Legendary Edition due to lost source

The ME3Tweaks development group has successfully ported Pinnacle Station to the Legendary Edition of Mass Effect. All content from the DLC is included and there are several enhancements such as bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.

Along with the release on the Nexus, Mgamerz has also posted an article detailing how the port was accomplished and explaining the technical difficulties that the team faced during development:

Porting Pinnacle Station forward 11 years

“This has been the most ambitious modding project I’ve taken on before, as it touched pretty much every aspect of design. We had to design multiple new custom classes, code a very complex porting pipeline, improve our tools to find assets easier, invent new debugging tools, and more. “

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If you’re interested in how Mass Effect modding works, it’s a really interesting read.

[lyricsaboutcats]

“Is it common for human women to be front-rank fighters, Chief Williams? I know that salarian women do not serve in the military.”

During an elevator ride, Liara reveals some salarian lore while speaking with Ashley.