Mass Effect Randomizer FAQ

Mass Effect Randomizer is a randomization program designed to work with the 1.02 INT (English) localization of Mass Effect (1) on PC. It is based mostly on code from ME3Explorer - ME3Tweaks Fork and ALOT Installer.

What versions of the game does this program work on?

Mass Effect Randomizer is tested only against the Origin version of Mass Effect. It should work on Steam on the DVD release (with the 1.02 update) as well. It will not work on different localizations, and it will not work with pirated copies of the game.

Does this work with ALOT / MEUITM?

ALOT/MEUITM should remain compatible with ALOT/MEUITM as long as it's done before either of those mods are installed. I do not support installing it afterwards. While it is not technically installing new files, there is significant complexity in linking of files and textures which may cause them to break.

It won't find my installation! How can I point it to my installation?

Properly installed versions of the game will able to be automatically detected. I have chosen to not allow manual setting of the path because it will end up like the other programs I support: lots of pirates asking for support and wasting my time. If you want to use this program, you can afford the cheap Mass Effect license to do so.

Where are the inventory randomizers like weapon stats, power stats, and ability randomizers?

There is code in Mass Effect Randomizer for randomizing what powers each character can use as well as stats for weapons and powers. However this is not shown as an option due to the absurd complexity of the systems that power it. For example, each level of a power has an individual string that describes the power. While most of these are simply a stat increase, some increase multiple stats. Each of these is hardcoded into the string so changing the backing values doesn't update the text the player sees - which means I have to write custom descriptions for everything, which is incredibly complicated.

For power randomization, the code is fully implemented, but due to the way the power HUD works, if you don't have a specific power that class normally can use, it won't show up. It seems that Demiurge hardcoded graphics into each slot except the few bonus ones, and thus each character can pretty much only use the powers they have in a normal session. In Mass Effect 2 and 3 this would not be so much of an issue since you can use keybindings, but Mass Effect doesn't have pre-bound keys, so you cannot use the custom power.

Additionally, designing a stat randomizer that is both playable and fun is really difficult. The game is already semi-balanced - randomizing will typically result in severely underpowered or overpowered parts of the game. While this can be fun, it can also be extremely frustrating.

Can I contribute?

Yes, you can fork this project and make your own version of it. However, due to the licensing for the images of the introduction screen, the ending screen, and the galaxy map images, you must seek permission to use those in your own released version of the randomizer, because they were specifcally granted permission to ME3Tweaks for use.

Can I make my own fork?

Depending on what you want to do, yes. Please come to the ME3Tweaks Discord for contribution discussion.

Are you going to make a randomizer for Mass Effect 2 or 3?

Probably not. This project originally came from randomizing the Bio2DA tables, which aren't really a thing in ME2/ME3. Also I am very busy working on several projects at once.

Is this safe? My antivirus is detecting it as a threat.

Yes it is safe. Some less reputable antivirus vendors typically flag my modding software as suspicious because it is not widely used and is designed to bulk modify other files, which is sometimes seen as suspicious. You can build the program yourself if you want using Visual Studio 2019.

Is this safe for streaming?

Yes. There is nothing I would consider stream-questionable. The scottish-language randomizer might make some possibly offensive things, but it's due to randomness, not by design.

Can you randomize X/Y/Z?

Maybe. There are some additional things I would like to randomize, but things take time and I wanted to release this software. Mass Effect has some very interesting limitations and opportunities for randomization that are not present in Mass Effect 2 or 3, due to the way the game was built.

The game or program crashed, what do I do?

Please come to the ME3Tweaks Discord and post in the #masseffectrandomizer channel for support. Please include a log.

I have another question not listed here

Please come to the ME3Tweaks Discord and post in the #masseffectrandomizer channel.