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[Mindlog]

I can understand the various ratings given for this game. I'm a huge Mass Effect fan and none of the games have been near perfect.

However, Andromeda is one weird duck. I'm ~1/2 way through I believe and I wouldn't even want to compare it directly to the other games. There are too many areas where Andromeda is clearly the best and clearly the worst. If I were to rate Andromeda I can only rate it against the game it feels like it was trying to be which is a fantastic new start for the series. I want to see how this budding civilization develops.

Was the first book any good?

 

[DeadlyParasite]

No idea about the book but I'm curious if there's actually a reason to read it at this point given that the whole Nexus uprising was pretty clearly explained throughout the game.

Maybe there's more regarding Jien Garson and (Alec Memory spoiler)

Spoiler

the benefactor and her murder

.

If not I hope that's something DLC will go into detail about.

 

[Heckler456]

I blazed through the book on the day of release. It's somewhat shlocky, but I don't think anyone expected high literature. The book basically start with

Spoiler

a prologue of everyone going into stasis and heading off, and chapter 1 was Sloan Kelly waking up from cryo to a Nexus in full-on panic after the collision with the scourge

and ends with

Spoiler

Sloann Kelley getting exiled

. I felt like the only thing I've gotten out of it (and mind you, I haven't met

Spoiler

Sloan Kelly

in the game yet) is more fleshed out characters and more complex character motivations going into it, but the book hasn't really added anything new of its own that I can think of. In terms of Jien Garson, and again, I'm only on my 3rd planet in the game, so no spoilers:

Spoiler

she only shows up alive during the prologue, and that's basically it

.

 

[Big Nikus]

Thanks, shared my positive thoughts and observations there. Doesn't seem active though so I probably just wasted my time typing all that out but oh well.

Still kind of bummed out that Shinobi is gone, I miss his optimism.

Honestly I'm thinking of taking a break too. The most active Andromeda threads are... well, let's say I had to put someone on my ignore list for the first time, and until a few weeks ago I thought I would never do that on GAF.

Anyway, I haven't got a lot of time to play but my fiancée loves the game. She was quite worried before release, especially because of the characters. She thought she would dislike Liam and Cora just like she disliked Kaidan and Ashley. Turns out she loves them both. She's wondering who she should romance, she likes Liam but she said : "He's nice but I haven't slept 600 years to bang a human."

 

[Heckler456]

My ignore list grew by 13 people ever since shit really kicked off. Sad state of affairs. That being said though, I go to reddit, and it's somehow a hundred times worse.

 

[Big Nikus]

So, about the book, is there a particular moment in the game when it would be the ideal time to start reading it ?
After two planets maybe ? You're on the third planet but the book didn't spoil stuff that'll be revealed later in the game ?

 

[Heckler456]

So, about the book, is there a particular moment in the game when it would be the ideal time to start reading it ?
After two planets maybe ?

You're pretty much good to go. It's entirely pre-game stuff.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

What were the other books going to be called?

 

[Heckler456]

Annihilation and Initiation.

 

[Big Nikus]

You're pretty much good to go. It's entirely pre-game stuff.

Great, thanks !

What were the other books going to be called?

Annihilation, and Initiation. Don't know about the fourth one (writter by Walters).

 

[DeadlyParasite]

I assume there's no brief descriptions on the plot of those other books? I'm interested in any post-andromeda storylines that might set up stuff for the next game.

 

[wesleyshark]

Cora's loyalty mission was pretty good. First loyalty mission I've done so far. Looking forward to getting to the others- most of them are still "on hold", etc.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Played a good 6 hours of SP today.

I love it ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[wesleyshark]

Oh, nothing to see here lol. If there's a way to fall through a map in any game, I'll find it.

Ever hear of personal space, Peebee?

Nightmare fuel...

 

[Plasma]

Cora's loyalty mission was pretty good. First loyalty mission I've done so far. Looking forward to getting to the others- most of them are still "on hold", etc.

The loyalty missions are the best part of the game, the way the levels are designed reminds me of ME2.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

Something I'm surprised they didn't address in the game was

Spoiler

the fact that they're still limited by FTL travel making exploration of the entire galaxy outside the Heleus cluster a challenge

.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Something I'm surprised they didn't address in the game was

Spoiler

the fact that they're still limited by FTL travel making exploration of the entire galaxy outside the Heleus cluster a challenge

.

They did, actually.

Spoiler

Kett drives work on similar-but-different principles that, if reverse engineered, would allow the Andromeda Initiative to cross the boundaries between clusters in reasonable time periods.

 

[Vengal]

On the track of strange technology visuals (remnent related)

Spoiler

What was up with the remnent drive core being the size of a table for a ship larger then a mountain?

 

[DeadlyParasite]

They did, actually.

Spoiler

Kett drives work on similar-but-different principles that, if reverse engineered, would allow the Andromeda Initiative to cross the boundaries between clusters in reasonable time periods.

Spoiler

What defines "reasonable" though? Months instead of years? Days instead instead of years? And when they say boundaries between clusters do they only mean clusters near Heleus or clusters across the entire galaxy?

A lot of unexplained and open-ended questions on that topic.

 

[Poodlestrike]

On the track of strange technology visuals (remnent related)

Spoiler

What was up with the remnent drive core being the size of a table for a ship larger then a mountain?

Remnant stuff runs on Sufficiently Advanced Technology.

Spoiler

Tiny drive core for giant ship is in keeping with that.

Spoiler

What defines "reasonable" though? Months instead of years? Days instead instead of years? And when they say boundaries between clusters do they only mean clusters near Heleus or clusters across the entire galaxy?

A lot of unexplained and open-ended questions on that topic.

Fair enough.

Spoiler

I'd assume weeks or a month, just to keep the "why don't they start taking jaunts to the Milky Way" issues from cropping up, but afaik there's nothing in there that says one way or the other. Would also be in keeping with the Kett's general "religious colonization" theme, massive fleets taking months to cross between clusters.

 

[Vengal]

Remnant stuff runs on Sufficiently Advanced Technology.

Spoiler

Tiny drive core for giant ship is in keeping with that.

I'd be more inclined to agree with that if the place the camera chooses to pan to when you first find it missing wasn't a giant hole bigger then the room.

 

[Son Of Sparda]

I'm enjoying the game a lot, but the majority of those bug videos are definitely representative of game's experience.

I just had two flying fiends coming at me at the same time and before that Peebee was stuck in a dead state which forced me to reload my game. I've actually been forced to reload the game for at least half a dozen time thus far. I also have encountered a lot of t-poses. And Cora once went all Supergirl on me and flew right out of the ship which literally made me laugh out loud. ME:A is a fun game, but it's clearly unfinished and really really buggy.

 

[SliChillax]

Finished the game, didn't hate it but there were too many issues with the writing that kept me from loving it and I kinda hate that lol. I love all games in the original trilogy, this one though ehhh. I'm really sad about this, I really want to support Bioware and this franchise is my favorite but Andromeda has some incredibly awful issues with the writing. I hate how the ending is typical video game cliche

Spoiler

bad guy somehow connects to some powerful source and becomes even more evil and wont shut up by saying evil stuff and how he will annihilate us while I kill countless repetitive enemies for 3 waves. Aren't writers not getting bored of not innovating a bit? Archon wants to destroy worlds or exalt everyone, boo fucking hoo been there done that in a million games and movies. Do something different for fucks sake, that was too similar to the Reapers motives also, where did all the inspiration go? There's so much potential to do something new and they still go with the old bad guy wants to kill worlds cliche.

 

[Renekton]

I didn't get far into SP. Just playing MP until the game gets 2-3 patches. Hopefully that works out.

 

[UberLevi]

Finished the game, didn't hate it but there were too many issues with the writing that kept me from loving it and I kinda hate that lol. I love all games in the original trilogy, this one though ehhh. I'm really sad about this, I really want to support Bioware and this franchise is my favorite but Andromeda has some incredibly awful issues with the writing. I hate how the ending is typical video game cliche

Spoiler

bad guy somehow connects to some powerful source and becomes even more evil and wont shut up by saying evil stuff and how he will annihilate us while I kill countless repetitive enemies for 3 waves. Aren't writers not getting bored of not innovating a bit? Archon wants to destroy worlds or exalt everyone, boo fucking hoo been there done that in a million games and movies. Do something different for fucks sake, that was too similar to the Reapers motives also, where did all the inspiration go? There's so much potential to do something new and they still go with the old bad guy wants to kill worlds cliche.

I actually really enjoyed it. Just beat the game tonight.

Spoiler

It felt like a return to what Mass Effect is really about. A massive, theatrical space conflict in the background of what is actually a deeply character driven series. Mass Effect is about impossible odds bringing unlikely companions together, imo. I think there is some really interesting territory for them to explore going forward and they've got me hooked.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Just started playing the game and finished up with Eos.

I have to say that its not too bad and the feel is growing on me.

I like the exploration aspect so far.

 

[Killzig]

I like the exploration aspect so far.

I feel like they really dropped the ball by removing some smaller landing zones in the grab bag of anomalies. Especially given what a chore it is to fly around the cluster with the zoom out, fly through the level, zoom in, pull back and center action every time.

 

[jmood88]

The loyalty missions are the best part of the game, the way the levels are designed reminds me of ME2.

Liam's loyalty mission is one of my favorite missions in the series and the last part of Cora's was really cool.

 

[Son Of Sparda]

I feel like they really dropped the ball by removing some smaller landing zones in the grab bag of anomalies. Especially given what a chore it is to fly around the cluster with the zoom out, fly through the level, zoom in, pull back and center action every time.

Yeah. I would've loved to land on a few smaller planets.

 

[Killzig]

I assume there's no brief descriptions on the plot of those other books? I'm interested in any post-andromeda storylines that might set up stuff for the next game.

I think annihilation was initially called the lost ark. Initiation seems to deal with the creation of the initiative.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Weird, I've only played around 12hours of SP so far and I love it, have only seen 2 glitches so far, but nothing really jarring, no crashes either.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

It's been mentioned before but my only issue with the game is the soundtrack. Stuff like "A Better Beginning", "A Trail of Hope", the combat music, and the multiplayer menu tracks are all standout to me but everything else is so low volume and ultra-subtle that you don't hear anything throughout the game.

It's also a problem with Dragon Age: Inquisition so I'm wondering if maybe it's BioWare management believing music isn't as important to their games anymore or some kind of internal Frostbite engine issue that makes music loops difficult to fit in.

Either scenario would be a shame because their entire 360 era catalog had fantastic scores and for them to abandon the philosophy or put a lesser importance on it kind of makes me scratch my head.

 

[Big Nikus]

^
Yeah that's part of why I'm usually wary of movie/tv show composers working on videogames, especially if they are given a big project right off the bat. Movie and videogame scores don't work the same way. At all. So that may also explain why Paseano's music don't loop very well. To me it's the weakest soundtrack in the series, with a few highlights, but I love the other aspects of the game.

 

[Heckler456]

For the people playing on insanity, which weapons and armor are you guys using? I'm still stuck using the +% experience armor together with some remnant assault rifle, due to me being somewhat hesitant about spending my research points.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

Avoiding posting in the BioWare update thread for obvious reasons but I'm really curious what they plan on talking about on april 4th. I know they said they had some goodies for deluxe and super deluxe owners coming out in May, wonder if even more is on the way now or if those plans have been accelerated.

It does suck that some people have been having game-breaking bugs, though I consider myself fortunate that in my 79 hour playthrough I only experienced minor things like T-pose animations and an occasional game crash.

 

[Vamphuntr]

For the people playing on insanity, which weapons and armor are you guys using? I'm still stuck using the +% experience armor together with some remnant assault rifle, due to me being somewhat hesitant about spending my research points.

The best armor you can make imo is the one you make from Remnant cores (Heleus Armor). Not sure how far you are but save all your cores to makes the best one according to your level limit. It reduces damages while increasing power damage.

 

[JeffG]

Avoiding posting in the BioWare update thread for obvious reasons but I'm really curious what they plan on talking about on april 4th. I know they said they had some goodies for deluxe and super deluxe owners coming out in May, wonder if even more is on the way now or if those plans have been accelerated.

It does suck that some people have been having game-breaking bugs, though I consider myself fortunate that in my 79 hour playthrough I only experienced minor things like T-pose animations and an occasional game crash.

they are probably going to acknowledge the issues and describe a plan on how to resolve them. Try to gain trust from gamers and let gamers know that they are not going to walk away and leave a broken game.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

they are probably going to acknowledge the issues and describe a plan on how to resolve them. Try to gain trust from gamers and let gamers know that they are not going to walk away and leave a broken game.

Well yes that was implied, I was moreso referring to specifics.

 

[Vamphuntr]

Well yes that was implied, I was moreso referring to specifics.

The easiest stuff to fix is probably to keep ironing out bugs and modify MP balance and matchmaking. If it's possible to make the planet transition skippable it would be good too.

The animations and faces don't seem easily fixable. The quests and writing aren't really easy to modify either. At best they can present story DLC and how they are tackling issues now and offer it at a discount or for free for current users.

 

[Renekton]

I think any animation overhaul is unfeasible, but they can fix many of the animation errors.

 

[Snagret]

Well yes that was implied, I was moreso referring to specifics.

There's no way they don't patch in the ability to skip those galaxy map animations. Or at least speed them up, assuming either option is technically feasible.

I think most of the hate mob in the update thread are going to be gleefully disappointed with the patch notes. As has been mentioned, they can probably go through and fix some of the animation bugs, but to do a complete overhaul of the facial animations just seems totally implausible to me.

Or even worse, people acting like they can just go back in and clean up the writing. Lots of people not really understanding how time-intensive such an undertaking would be, but then again it's a lot easier to be ignorant and angry than informed and setting your expectations closer to reality.

I'd be fine if all they did was a bug fix pass and gave the multiplayer a much-needed rebalancing.

 

[Patryn]

Things I suspect they'll do:

- Lay out a timeline for patches. Nothing too specific, I'm thinking something akin to what SE did with Final Fantasy XV. I suspect a heavy focus on animation improvements.

- Adjust a small number of specific faces. For instance, I fully expect that they'll make changes to Addison's face

- Outline the changes to the Character Creator. We've known since Day 1 that they were looking into improving that, and I suspect we'll learn exactly how then

- Introduce a ship storage system. This is a minor thing, but based on Twitter feeds I know that it's one they're looking at. Honestly, this is one of the more baffling problems with the game, because pretty much every Dragon Age game has had the same problem and they keep needing to do this post-release patch of introducing a storage chest. When will they learn?

- Address the M/M romance controversy. I suspect that the first (only?) story DLC is being adjusted to include a deeper one

Then if I had one off-the-wall guess that I think is unlikely but maybe possible:

- Announce a free DLC for the Salarian squadmember, who was cut during production. I figure they'll probably offer up some form of free single-player DLC, and given how the firestorm covers the entire game and not just the ending it's not an Extended Edition situation, so it has to be more general. And I doubt they'd be willing to do the rumored

Spoiler

Quarian Ark

as a free DLC given it's probably targeted as a $15 DLC, and that's quite a hit.

I also anticipate that it'll be a "The first major patch hits NOW!" situation.

 

[Dany]

- Address the M/M romance controversy. I suspect that the first (only?) story DLC is being adjusted to include a deeper one

Which is? lack of options? I really like Reyes and Gil. Reyes is far more interesting that Liam, Cora and Peebee.. They're both good romances so far, especially Reyes. They both go after different things.

 

[Maledict]

Which is? lack of options? I really like Reyes and Gil. Reyes is far more interesting that Liam and Cora imo. They're both good romances so far, especially Reyes. I like his sass.

No squadmate romance, no detailed love scene (just a kiss and fade to black), proper dialogue only really available for Gil at best, and impossible to get the love interest achievement whilst playing as gay male Ryder (unlike every other sexuality).

Even in a game full of cut corners and issues, it stands out as a very clear afterthought compared to other relationships, and a significant step backwards from ME:3 and DA:I.

 

[Patryn]

Which is? lack of options? I really like Reyes and Gil. Reyes is far more interesting that Liam and Cora imo. They're both good romances so far, especially Reyes. I like his sass.

This is something I'm only peripherally aware of, but there are a ton of loud complaints that compared to both the hetero and the F/F romances, the M/M romances are severely lacking. For instance, I know that many people are complaining that there are no gay romance-able squadmates, as compared to hetero or lesbian options.

 

[Dany]

No squadmate romance, no detailed love scene (just a kiss and fade to black), proper dialogue only really available for Gil at best, and impossible to get the love interest achievement whilst playing as gay male Ryder (unlike every other sexuality).

Even in a game full of cut corners and issues, it stands out as a very clear afterthought compared to other relationships, and a significant step backwards from ME:3 and DA:I.

How fucking shitty. I really liked what they did with DA:I, so i was hoping for something akin to that. What a shame. I'll still bone Reye tho.

 

[Patryn]

How fucking shitty. I really liked what they did with DA:I, so i was hoping for something akin to that. What a shame. I'll still bone Reye tho.

While I am enjoying the game quite a bit (I'm taking it slow, have only just done Voeld and moving to Havarl now), most of it is clearly a step back from DAI.

If nothing else, I really hope that if Montreal leads another game there is dialogue between Edmonton and them, because a lot of the problems with MEA are not present in DAI.

 

[Big Nikus]

- Outline the changes to the Character Creator. We've known since Day 1 that they were looking into improving that, and I suspect we'll learn exactly how then.

If they improve the CC, I really hope they'll allow us to modify existing characters somehow.

 

[Renekton]

Question about Vetra romance:

Spoiler

is it true that her original woohoo scene was cut?

 

[Tigersprite]

Has anyone noticed how high quality the final romance animations are? I've watched Cora and Suvi's now, and in both the facial animations and bodily animations are very noticeably better than at any other point in the game?

Question about Vetra romance:

Spoiler

is it true that her original woohoo scene was cut?

See, I saw this on Reddit and I'm also very curious about the answer now.