Please forgive my indulgences. I attempted to open an account at Bioware over a week ago. I am still unable to post at the site for I do not meet the requirements. The FAQ is uninformative. At this point, I have given up.
In the "Lair of the Shadowbroker", an asari Spectre is holding a human female hostage. The player has two choices:
a.) Commander Shepard can attempt negotiation. This attempt is to deflect the attention of the Spectre from Liara to the Commander. As the two Spectres speak, Liara movies into position to biotic throw a table at the asari Spectre. The hostage escapes unharmed. This is the paragon solution.
b.) Commander Shepard can shoot the hostage, and remove her from the equation. This is the renegade solution. (A sly reference to the movie "Speed".)
In the third game, the player is faced with another hostage situation. The Reapers are holding Earth hostage, and have their backs to the planet. Commander Shepard commands a fleet that is capable of taking on the Reapers.
This situation is similar to a battle from the Krogan Rebellion. A krogan warlord seized control of the turian colony Digeris. He placed his fleet over the planet, with their backs to the planet. A turian armada arrived to rescue the planet.
What was the krogan thinking? Krogans, like humans, protect their children and females from attack. They make the distinction between those who are soldiers and those who are citizens.
When confronted by the turian armada, the krogan warlord thought the turian admiral might have feared firing his weapons into the fleet for definitely some of the shots would hit the planet and cause causalities, and that the turian admiral wouldn't want to devastate the planet with element zero. The krogan warlord misjudged his opponent based on cultural misunderstanding - this is a theme common with this conflict. (Anyone remember the Codex entry where it said that bombing turian colonies with asteroids was the wrong approach to go when waging war with them?) The turian armada fired into the krogan fleet parked in orbit above Digeris. In the turian culture, every turian is a soldier-citizen.
Back to the Battle for Earth -
In the Battle for Earth, the Allied Fleet, under the command of Commander Shepard, fired into the Reaper fleet in orbit above Earth. Why is this wrong?
I am looking back at the situation mentioned earlier in the "Lair of the Shadow Broker". The Paragon Shepard uses deflection and strategy to defuse a situation. The Renegade Shepard uses brute force to defuse a situation. Which of these two is closer to what I see at the Battle for Earth? The Renegade.
Why wasn't I given a choice to decide how the fleet assets are used if I am commanding the fleet?
By tacitly accepting Commander Shepard's decision, the writers damaged Admiral Hackett's character. In the first game, the Admiral offers one of two missions - for a Paragon Shepard, liberate a science outpost from biotic terrorists, and for a Renegade Shepard, deal with a warlord who has become a liability to the Alliance. In the Paragon mission, if the Commander saves the lives of every scientist, the Admiral will state (I am paraphrasing here) that he wished every soldier had the same devotion to life, and that every soldier was as careful.Throughout the game, the Admiral praised the Commander for preserving life. If the Commander sacrifices lives, the Admiral expresses his disappointment. How did the Admiral go from a soldier who cared about preserving the life of innocents to one who was willing to sacrifice the life of innocents to achieve his goals? This is especially telling when I see that the situation with Earth was replicated on a smaller scale with the Paragon mission - the civilians are surrounded by the biotic terrorists., and are potentially in the line of fire.
In the "Lair of the Shadowbroker", an asari Spectre is holding a human female hostage. The player has two choices:
a.) Commander Shepard can attempt negotiation. This attempt is to deflect the attention of the Spectre from Liara to the Commander. As the two Spectres speak, Liara movies into position to biotic throw a table at the asari Spectre. The hostage escapes unharmed. This is the paragon solution.
b.) Commander Shepard can shoot the hostage, and remove her from the equation. This is the renegade solution. (A sly reference to the movie "Speed".)
In the third game, the player is faced with another hostage situation. The Reapers are holding Earth hostage, and have their backs to the planet. Commander Shepard commands a fleet that is capable of taking on the Reapers.
This situation is similar to a battle from the Krogan Rebellion. A krogan warlord seized control of the turian colony Digeris. He placed his fleet over the planet, with their backs to the planet. A turian armada arrived to rescue the planet.
What was the krogan thinking? Krogans, like humans, protect their children and females from attack. They make the distinction between those who are soldiers and those who are citizens.
When confronted by the turian armada, the krogan warlord thought the turian admiral might have feared firing his weapons into the fleet for definitely some of the shots would hit the planet and cause causalities, and that the turian admiral wouldn't want to devastate the planet with element zero. The krogan warlord misjudged his opponent based on cultural misunderstanding - this is a theme common with this conflict. (Anyone remember the Codex entry where it said that bombing turian colonies with asteroids was the wrong approach to go when waging war with them?) The turian armada fired into the krogan fleet parked in orbit above Digeris. In the turian culture, every turian is a soldier-citizen.
Back to the Battle for Earth -
In the Battle for Earth, the Allied Fleet, under the command of Commander Shepard, fired into the Reaper fleet in orbit above Earth. Why is this wrong?
I am looking back at the situation mentioned earlier in the "Lair of the Shadow Broker". The Paragon Shepard uses deflection and strategy to defuse a situation. The Renegade Shepard uses brute force to defuse a situation. Which of these two is closer to what I see at the Battle for Earth? The Renegade.
Why wasn't I given a choice to decide how the fleet assets are used if I am commanding the fleet?
By tacitly accepting Commander Shepard's decision, the writers damaged Admiral Hackett's character. In the first game, the Admiral offers one of two missions - for a Paragon Shepard, liberate a science outpost from biotic terrorists, and for a Renegade Shepard, deal with a warlord who has become a liability to the Alliance. In the Paragon mission, if the Commander saves the lives of every scientist, the Admiral will state (I am paraphrasing here) that he wished every soldier had the same devotion to life, and that every soldier was as careful.Throughout the game, the Admiral praised the Commander for preserving life. If the Commander sacrifices lives, the Admiral expresses his disappointment. How did the Admiral go from a soldier who cared about preserving the life of innocents to one who was willing to sacrifice the life of innocents to achieve his goals? This is especially telling when I see that the situation with Earth was replicated on a smaller scale with the Paragon mission - the civilians are surrounded by the biotic terrorists., and are potentially in the line of fire.
It was the "renegade" option and there was no way I was gonna say anything slightly renegade-ish to her considering her state of mind post-Suicide Mission. Then post-Cerberus attack on the Citadel I go back to the Refugee docks and the first thing I hear when walking by that area is "Did you hear what happened to that pretty redhead?" Me: 
So, yeah... that happened. Though after reading the ME wiki, apparently if you yell at her during a second conversation you drive her to suicide? That's... wow, why would you do that, you monster? 
)
so maybe that why though I can't remember how many patches they done if any?
Sometimes I just don't get execs
