Where's the tension on my second playthrough? Do I deliberately put people in the wrong slots like Paragon ManShep is a retard or what?
What you're basically asking for is a diceroll to determine who lives or dies. There's no tension there either because your choices are then meaningless. This sort of RPG is about your choices and their consequences, not random results.
And there should be no saving the game once you start the suicide mission. You have to slog through the whole damn thing again if you bite it or the power fails. Otherwise, just reload that section if your favorite character just bought it.
Uh... how about no. If you can't restrain yourself from reloading after making a bad choice then that's your problem, don't hinder the rest of us because you lack willpower!
Hinder you from what? The final sequence is like 30 mins. One save at the beginning and one at the start of the Terminator would be fine, but that second one isn't even necessary. Did it give you that much trouble?
And sorry to break the illusion, buddy, but there's shit happening in the game that is ... wait for it ... a die roll. Whether Garrus' sniper shot hit's that Geth rocketeer behind waist-high cover is a modified die roll. Harbinger's AI pathfinding his way around that obstacle ... die roll. If THIS is TRUE ... chance of THAT.
And I didn't have to reload the endgame to save people, I reloaded because I go whacked at one point or another. There was never any chance my team was going to die (except with Mordin, who can die at any time due to a low odds die roll).
Do I send the techie for the techie problem or Grunt? Hmmmm...
I need the best biotic! Do I send the multiclass or the pure biotic? Hmmmm...
I need a team leader! Do I send the team leader or the lone wolf? Hmmmm... I'm sensing a pattern here.
Faced with no real choices, my choices become meaningless.
My real life choices aren't meaningless and whatever ends up happening is essentially a die roll. I work at being the best I can be and doing the "right" thing and then life takes over and shit happens and I live with it. I can't anticipate everything. There's no completionist FAQ for life.
A game about "choices" and "consequences" and "suicide missions" should actually have those things in it.
I know what was being discussed upthread. I was discussing it at the time. Mordin is a special case.
No, he is not a special case and he cannot randomly die.
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/105/index/1117936&lf=8
Here are some examples for the group holding the line:
Loyal Mordin by himself: He can't hold the line by himself. He dies.
Non-loyal Grunt by himself: Grunt lives. He hunkers down and gets the job done, and doesn't have to worry about helping any one else.
Loyal Mordin and non-Loyal Grunt: Grunt dies, but Mordin lives. Grunt is able to hold the line but goofs up helping Mordin... he was just too aggressive without his right of passage.
Loyal Mordin and Loyal Grunt: They both live.
Yeah, I read that too, except I've re-un the final mission with my main playthough character, as well as read dozens of other's posts about doing everything right, and we've all had him die randomly.