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The Mass Effect Community Thread |OT2|

Sai

Member
Gotta agree with those who said that just improving the eye textures/shaders would go a long way in making a lot of these characters appear more convincing.

From the Family Ryder thread



Huge improvement in every way.
I think I actually prefer the one on the left. I've said in the past that the Ryder twins both look goofy, but the only problem I've ever had with Sara's appearance is that permanent smirk she has—which the other model does rectify...
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Been reading the codex a bit, and
there is mention of a quarian-led ark accommodating multiple species where its launch was delayed.

Quarians(and other missing races) DLC maybe?
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Been reading the codex a bit, and
there is mention of a quarian-led ark accommodating multiple species where its launch was delayed.

Quarians(and other missing races) DLC maybe?

That sounds borderline guaranteed, if not
at least giving them the option to add new races in an Andromeda 2 or whatever, or simply reject them for reasons if they decide not to go down that path.
 

Phamit

Member
Been reading the codex a bit, and
there is mention of a quarian-led ark accommodating multiple species where its launch was delayed.

Quarians(and other missing races) DLC maybe?

I remember talking with someone one the nexus about this
 
Been reading the codex a bit, and
there is mention of a quarian-led ark accommodating multiple species where its launch was delayed.

Quarians(and other missing races) DLC maybe?

That sounds borderline guaranteed, if not
at least giving them the option to add new races in an Andromeda 2 or whatever, or simply reject them for reasons if they decide not to go down that path.

There's an active quest to find clues about what happened to the other Arks iirc, so perhaps they show up/are found later on in the game? Maybe they arrived in different parts of the Cluster and are stranded, etc.

Or it'll be dlc content, or maybe even Andromeda 2 as you said.


Nvm you're just talking about the delayed arc. :p
 
By the way, did you guys visit the Nomad skin vendor?
There's one skin designed after a famous sniper wearing black and blue...
 

Ivory Samoan

Gold Member
Been reading the codex a bit, and
there is mention of a quarian-led ark accommodating multiple species where its launch was delayed.

Quarians(and other missing races) DLC maybe?

I would bet my house on it, and I'll be happy to grab that
(as long as there's at least 1 Volus in the mix, oh...and a few Hanar).
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Been reading the codex a bit, and
there is mention of a quarian-led ark accommodating multiple species where its launch was delayed.

Quarians(and other missing races) DLC maybe?

If you talk to
Director Tann he tells you that Drells and Hanars are on this ark too but that they had technical problems so they didn't leave the Milky Way with everyone else.
 

ViciousDS

Banned
I'm saving my playthrough for the Pro version


But watching my buddy play on the Xbox one and this game looks fucking badass. Dear heavens the gameplay looks phenomenal and so fun.



Is radiation their way of keeping players out of areas in the trial?
 

Yeul

Member
I'm saving my playthrough for the Pro version


But watching my buddy play on the Xbox one and this game looks fucking badass. Dear heavens the gameplay looks phenomenal and so fun.



Is radiation their way of keeping players out of areas in the trial?

I mean it definitely helps, because you can only get so many upgrades without the full game in hand, but it wasn't specifically put there for the trial.
 
How do you upgrade it? He went to a base where it said it was too high

Radiation looks like a classic game design idea where unlocking a tougher thing for your Nomad will give you access to more areas as the game progresses, or it might be tied to making progress on the planet questline
 

Yeul

Member
It's story related.
The Remnant tower you unlock will get rid of the radiation on the planet so you can travel around more.
That is, of course, in addition to upgrades to the Nomad that you can get later on. You can't do the first part without the full game though because the trial cuts you off before you can do it.
 
Which MC has better voice acting, Scott or Sara Ryder?

I think Jennifer Hale was better in ME1/2, but by ME3 they were tied. I always played as male Shepard because his face looked better and some of the combat animations were weird as hell on FemShep,

I'm thinking I might go FemRyder considering the animation issues in Andromeda for both genders, I'd rather look at a janky female characters ass than a janky male one. :p
 
Anyone else actually prefer standard default Sara over the bugged French version? Her face has more personality to me (not that I actually use defaults).

Which MC has better voice acting, Scott or Sara Ryder?

I think Jennifer Hale was better in ME1/2, but by ME3 they were tied.I always played as male Shepard because his face looked better and some of the combat animations were weird as hell on FemShep,

I actually really, really like them both. I think Scott's voice actor particularly delivers comedic lines really well, while I'm playing my Sarah is serious and logical and her voice acting delivers that fully. Really well-done all around (also flirting dialogue is delivered really well for both).
 
I actually really, really like them both. I think Scott's voice actor particularly delivers comedic lines really well, while I'm playing my Sarah is serious and logical and her voice acting delivers that fully. Really well-done all around (also flirting dialogue is delivered really well for both).

Interesting. Thanks for the info. :)
 

Retrofluxed

Member
I hit the stopping point in my trial last night, so I'd thought it was time to throw my 2 cents in.

Things I liked:

The story (so far). It starts off as a nice slow burn, and ends in once of the best teases I've ever experienced. Those of you that have reached The Door© will know what I mean. I feel like a space detective trying to solve a grand mystery. I'm scanning, decrypting and translating old and very alien language to piece the puzzles together. I'm in love.

Speaking of scanning, what a great system. I could easily see how this could turn some people off, but I enjoy soaking in every little bit I can. When I devote time to a game, I really like to get lost in it (took 90 hours to beat DA:I without the DLC). The scanning in MEA reminds me greatly of Metroid Prime. You aren't scanning to increase arbitrary numbers, you are scanning to learn more about the environment and alien objects, the arbitrary numbers grow as a impact of scanning.

The party members and crew. I really hate seeing the critique that the new party members are uninteresting when compared to the OT. Well, you had 3 games to get to know those guys, give the new ones a chance. It's been maybe 2 or 3 hours, not hundreds. The new crew have great designs and I'm already starting to feel a connection to these guys. Isn't that the real reason we play Bioware games?

The world. The Tempest has a great layout, as everything seems easily accessible and should become just as iconic to the series as the Normandy. Habitat 7 was amazing, it really felt like an alien world. The Remnant technology is mind blowing, I'm still taken aback sometimes. Eos has been fun to explore. I haven't be able to go too far off the beaten path, but I have found a cave or 2 to explore.

Honestly the combat goes without saying, of course it is fantastic. It feels to me like ME3 on steroids. As a side note, jump is game changing.

Things I didn't like:

The elephant in the room, the (facial) animations. Without beating a dead horse, they are "off". Nothing game breaking and most of the time I don't notice, but every few conversations, something with twitch or glitch and throw me off. It could be a awkward smile, or a strange facial twitch. Lip syncing seems to be a bit off too. Like a delay of .01%. Nothing as bad as the Skyrim lip sync bug (which still to this day hasn't been fixed by Bethesda), and it always isn't noticeable but it is there. It reminds me when your audio receiver need to be delayed because it isn't aligned with the TV.

The character creator. It isn't terrible, and any option is better than no option. It just feels lacking in features. I am happy with my Sara, but it would have been nice to fine tune her a bit more.

So far, Andromeda is living up to (almost) everything I wanted. I've very saddened by the knee-jerk reactions some are giving to the game. If some of the detractors would give the game an honest shot, they would see there as a potentially great game waiting for them to discover underneath those goofy smiles.

I'm every excited for Tuesday. At this point, I've bought the damn thing, just let me unlock it! As an aside, I'm considering pulling an EatChildren and start from scratch, but we'll see. I have a 3 year old and a 6 month old, so my game time is hard to come by.
 
I'm also gonna start from scratch; I started bypassing stuff early on in an effort to make up for time lost to combat deaths, and I'd like to go back and let ambient dialogue play out fully instead of clicking on stuff all at once.

Anyone else actually prefer standard default Sara over the bugged French version? Her face has more personality to me (not that I actually use defaults).



I actually really, really like them both. I think Scott's voice actor particularly delivers comedic lines really well, while I'm playing my Sarah is serious and logical and her voice acting delivers that fully. Really well-done all around (also flirting dialogue is delivered really well for both).

Agreed on all counts. Default Sara's face has a lot more character. It's definitely more wonky looking too, but not in a technical fault sort of way (aside from the eyes, but that's a universal issue). She's just a little bit funny lookin', in a good way.

And both VAs are fantastic. On par with Hale and Meer, easy.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
The first planet(Eos?) ain't so bad, lots of exploring to do. I like it. I could have just went straight to "dad", but went a bit off the main path and found some abandoned alien base, cool!
 
What bothers me most from Andromeda is not the animations, but the lack of ambient music. Play ME1 and you always have the wonderful music in the background, the presidium in the citadel etc. In Andromeda there's nothing.

Maybe it'll be an evolution as the Nexus builds up, no music helps create that feeling of limited crew and ressources, while most of the people are still asleep and the whole operation is drifting in indecisiveness.

I actually like for the Nexus to have no music, at least at the moment.

The first planet(Eos?)

Habitat 7, Eos is the sandy planet
 

Xando

Member
The first planet(Eos?) ain't so bad, lots of exploring to do. I like it. I could have just went straight to "dad", but went a bit off the main path and found some abandoned alien base, cool!

Yeah it even changes the dialogue you have with your father when you discover the alien base and the
cave with the large plants
 

Kneecap

Member
Anybody else planning to reset once the full build unlocks? I had full intention of doing this. I'm just going to start again, especially now I'm accustomed to the new controls.

Naw, gonna see the default Sara through. The jank and animation issues don't bother me so much and I really like (so far, fingers crossed) the early biotics play (singularity and throw mostly).

There are some nasty bugs tho and I almost had to restart when I resumed the game already on the nexus tram and the button prompt to initiate the tram never appeared.
 
Pretty much done with Eos now. There's definitely plenty of good game here, and it has potential to get even better. I'm interested in how the story will proceed from here on out, combat is fun and the Tempest is well laid out.

Now the stuff I dislike. The CC is a huge downgrade from Inquisition, the animation dead horse looks awful at times, the eyes look off, and the fact that you can't control your squad's powers and loadout is a huge annoyance for me.
 

Ralemont

not me
It sounds like, worst case, the sidequests in Andromeda are a massive improvement over DAI, so that makes me happy. Kyle from Playstation Universe has been posting on GAF that he feels they are Witcher 3-tier overall, which is high praise indeed. I'm not expecting anything that good, but the mere suggestion I think demonstrates that they fulfilled their promise of re-examining how they do side content.

Also, apparently that they really start coming into their own after Eos.
 
It sounds like, worst case, the sidequests in Andromeda are a massive improvement over DAI, so that makes me happy. Kyle from Playstation Universe has been posting on GAF that he feels they are Witcher 3-tier overall, which is high praise indeed. I'm not expecting anything that good, but the mere suggestion I think demonstrates that they fulfilled their promise of re-examining how they do side content.

Also, apparently that they really start coming into their own after Eos.

That'd really impress me, since I've been hugely enjoying the side quests so far. Even if they're pretty rote mechanically, they do an excellent job of weaving into and enhancing the story and world. The
Saboteur being motivated by having family exiled during the mutiny, and the "first murder" being both attempted, and directly tied into the fate of the second outpost, were both great.
 
Just preordered from amazon uk after finishing the trial. First physical game I bought since Witcher 3.
Apparently Microsoft fixed all the loopholes to buy from other regional stores so importing from the UK is the cheapest again for me, bummer I'll have to wait for a couple more days to get to play it.

How are Adept's now against shielded and armored targets? Without Warp I'm a bit concerned.
I started with the Energy Drain preset and didn't have too many issues with shields and I took lance that just does straight damage to armor. You really only encounter one opponent with armor in the trial and that's a bulletsponge
 

Kneecap

Member
How are Adept's now against shielded and armored targets? Without Warp I'm a bit concerned.
You can find listings of all the powers and their evolutions online (e.g. reddit, bsn boards) and having read those I'd say that biotics could be very good against shields and armor if you take the right powers and evolutions of those powers. On the con side is the three active powers limit which could prevent a biotic from being effective against both shields and armor simultaneously, without a profile change.

As should be clear, this is speculation on my part.
 

Sai

Member
How are Adept's now against shielded and armored targets? Without Warp I'm a bit concerned.
I've only played as a Human Adept in multiplayer, and my abilities/weapon is still under-leveled, so I don't have the most ideal example, but... It's harder than I remember. Singularity can still prime detonations on shielded and armored opponents, and there's an evolution on it to increase it's efficacy on shields.

For powers like Pull and Shockwave, you have to get those shields down, unless you're detonating a Singularity, and it's rough with the weapon I'm using right now(a Charger; thinking about switching back to the Avenger).

I can stay alive well enough most of the time, but it's hard to keep up on the scoreboard with the standard Human Adept. Unlocked an Asari Adept yesterday, gonna test the waters with that kit once I finish leveling up the Human Adept.
 

SliChillax

Member
Can someone explain how the scanning works because I hear people mention it all the time but maybe I missed it? What are you scanning and where? I know you can scan the planets in the galaxy maps but I can't find anything to scan unless it warns me of an anomaly. Also, how do I equip the N7 armor? I unlocked it in the research but I can't wear it.
 
Take for example those yellow plants right after planet fall. If you use your scanning tool, they'll be highlighted by it. You move your reticule over to it, scan the plant, and you'll get some resources and a little bit of information about the plant. That's the general gist.
 

JeffG

Member
Can someone explain how the scanning works because I hear people mention it all the time but maybe I missed it? What are you scanning and where? I know you can scan the planets in the galaxy maps but I can't find anything to scan unless it warns me of an anomaly. Also, how do I equip the N7 armor? I unlocked it in the research but I can't wear it.

you can change your armor in your room on the tempest
 

Papilloma

Member
Can someone explain how the scanning works because I hear people mention it all the time but maybe I missed it? What are you scanning and where? I know you can scan the planets in the galaxy maps but I can't find anything to scan unless it warns me of an anomaly. Also, how do I equip the N7 armor? I unlocked it in the research but I can't wear it.

I'm pretty sure once you've researched it you need to go into the production side and then have all the resources to build it.
 

SliChillax

Member
Take for example those yellow plants right after planet fall. If you use your scanning tool, they'll be highlighted by it. You move your reticule over to it, scan the plant, and you'll get some resources and a little bit of information about the plant. That's the general gist.

Ahh yeah I've been doing that for everything. I though you guys meant the planet scanning in the galaxy map.
 
Can someone explain how the scanning works because I hear people mention it all the time but maybe I missed it? What are you scanning and where? I know you can scan the planets in the galaxy maps but I can't find anything to scan unless it warns me of an anomaly. Also, how do I equip the N7 armor? I unlocked it in the research but I can't wear it.

They are refering to the in gameplay scanner, it's what is coming from your omnitool and lets you scan the environnement for info/clues/interactions with crew or SAM

You researched the N7 armor but now you have to "craft" it with materials, which are mostly minerals, in the Development tab
 

Vengal

Member
For those that went heavily into MP, what classes & weapons did you play/like?

The human engie felt solid, the turret was surprisingly beefy on Bronze (i hope its hp will scale in higher difficulties). The fact you can designate targets was much needed but at the same time I felt it lasted too long and often when you'd need it deployed elsewhere you'd be forced to self destruct it and eat the cooldown first. There was a synergy upgrade that healed the turret and buffed you while in turret proximity but I don't remember whether it was in the turret tree or the tech passive tree.

-SNIP-

Edit : I forgot to talk about the elephant in the MP room : THE GODDAMN JETPACK.

My GOD how good it feels to be truly MOBILE. Now everyone can feel like the ME3 havocs. And you can still move while you hover. Also the turian has defence boosts while airborne haha!

I spent the majority of my time playing a human engineer. I got a burst fire rifle fairly early and mainly used that without a pistol. Freezing guys then getting them with a Cryo Detonation is nice but I had a fairly hard time doing that against anything with shields. Charging up Overload and letting it chain did let me get some combos like freezing an Assembler then chain overloading it to detonate and hit the shield of an Observer near by.

I unlocked my old fav the Salarian Infiltrator but noticed that the mine used power cells now. Was that a thing in ME3 multiplayer? I remember just chucking those things out on cooldown so after noticing that I decided against playing it.

Jump Jets are very buggy in high latency P2P, I was going through floors and at some points just having pure thrust and not a burst. I went from one side of a map to the other through the floor on a single mouse click. Other then that I really enjoyed my time with it and think its the most "next gen mass effect" thing about this game. It added something different to the combat system without changing the game entirely while also still changing the game entirely by adding vertical layers.

Spoilering this in the even that enemy tactics wants to be kept a surprise, don't click unless you want details my shenanigans with large enemy types.
Having no idea at first how to take down larger enemies and just then realizing you are in a silver match at level 1 had to have been some of the most exciting game play i've had in awhile. The large Remant guys making you target their turrets first was pretty nice. It even gave you an advantage if you have a chaning attack like Overload since it hits both turrets. I still don't really know how to kill the Hive (i mean Kett) big bad but i assume its shooting the orb? I've only seen two and they mop the floor with my team most the time till someone shoots a rocket at it. The big robot from the exiles is meh though not that hard to take down.

I think the biggest problem I've had with multiplayer is the flow of menu design. I was having a hell of a time muting people that just kept their mics open. One game I was in had a bunch of what I assume were college kids talking about graduation and job interviews. I could not mute them, i muted everyone else but it would not let me mute the one with the open mic. I feel like the flow should be like click on person then display options, not click on persons name then show everyone's loadouts at the same time. I also really don't like that you can't setup your multiplayer character before launching an apex lobby. You jump from the tempest menu to a menu to join games but the only options there are to host or join one. So then if you join one you have to waste everyone's time by cycling through characters when you should just be able to do that from the Host Join screen. Now if you load up multiplayer normally from the main menu you can do this but from within singleplayer it has problems. Also I have no idea what causes this but if you click around menus too much going from single to multiplayer it will kick you out to the main menu instead of returning you to singleplayer.

Overall my experiences with multiplayer have been extremely positive.
 
From the sounds of his twitter feed, seems like Shinobi is genuinely done with this place. A shame, but can't say I blame him. I came here from reddit for some actual decent discourse, and now I'm seeing like half a dozen threads on the front page specifically meant to shit on ME pre-release. Say what you want about "wanting a product to succeed"; but seeing people literally getting their jollies off at the expense of others... That's not what I came here to do. Thank god there's still a glimmer of hope in threads like these.
 
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