 During the first stages of development, the designers'priority was purely on streamlining and polishing the shooting aspects; RPG elements did not start until this process was complete. According to lead designer Christina Norman, "we wanted more satisfying combat and a big part of that is making weapons more accurate and powerful at level one – basically saying' let's take the RPG out of the shooter.'" Since BioWare had no experience with shooter games, the team spent roughly three months tuning how combat would work using the original Mass Effect as a basis. Norman explained that they wanted the weapons to have their own identity, noting that the final build of the game has 19 weapons with 108 tuning variables. The inclusion of limited ammunition was not initially part of the main game design and was simply implemented for some early playtesting. However, the developers eventually felt it improved the tension and pacing of combat.
