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The Mass Effect Community Thread

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R

Ridesh

Banned
16836495_1352645744810805_6686937703889900004_o.jpg
 
F

Freezasaurus

Member
DeadlyParasite said:
It'll be interesting to see the manufactured outrage and panic when the game hits and people find out that certain squadmate relationships aren't available to their specific player-character gender of choice. It's gonna weed out the people that take these things too seriously for their own good and bring tumblr to a halt.

Shipping Wars: The Final Frontier (TM)
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I'll admit that I sometimes take this into account during character creation, but I wouldn't freak out about it either way.

...unless Vetra isn't a romance option at all. Then, well....
 
P

Poodlestrike

Banned
On squaddies: gonna have to get to know them first. Not committing to nothing without getting a feel for their abilities and personalities.

Tovarisc said:
"Ryder Family Album" menu or website

------

x-post

Q: How does MEA Insanity compare to ME2 Insanity?

Ian: Hard to compare them apples to apples. ME2 added layers of defense (shield, barriers, armor, etc.) to everybody, which made it brutally difficult to take enemies down. While I enjoyed the challenge of ME2 Insanity, I didn't like that Adepts got the shaft due to all those layers of defense.

With MEA, we decided to keep defenses static (i.e. If an enemy doesn't have shields on Normal, then he doesn't have them on Insanity either), but we increase enemy durability enough to require a well-made character (and ideally well-crafted weapons) to take them down quickly, we increase enemy damage enough to melt you very quickly when you're out of cover, we increase enemy reaction times and make them smarter about flanking and taking advantage of when you do something unwise (trying to use a hover attack when surrounded by entrenched foes, for instance), using more flushing attacks to force you out of cover, and so forth. We also scale the player's health and shield gates, so you've got very little slack if you screw up.

In general I find that if I want to get through insanity without a silly amount of deaths, it's best to:
- Optimize my build. Your skills, armor, weapons, and profile should all have strong synergies.
- Build in some flexibility. Whether with Favorites, Consumables, backup weapons, or some mix of the above, be prepared to deal with different sorts of threats than my "main" build is optimized for.
- Use my squad smartly. Choose their skill evolves in a way that complements yours and each other's. In battle, order them into strong positions which guard my flanks, and order them to directly attack a target when a good opportunity presents itself.
- Git gud

Source: http://bsn.boards.net/post/305838
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Thank god they're not doing the ME2 insanity thing. It made for a solid challenge in spots, but it made Adepts and biotic squaddies mostly useless. No pull, no lift, no nothin'.
 
L

LegalEagleMike

Member
I rarely used the human squadmates in the trilogy games. Kept Miranda around sometimes because it felt like she had more dialogue than the others but I ditched Ashley and Kaidan immediately, as well as Jacob.
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I get stressed thinking about how much ambient dialogue I would have missed across the trilogy due to not regularly using squadmates and squadmate combinations.
 
X

X-Frame

Member
So if I wanted to put together a Twitter list consisting of BioWare developers working on Mass Effect, who should I have on now?

Right now I have Mike Gamble, Ian, Corey Gaspur, the BioWare and Mass Effect twitters, as well as Fryda Wolff and Tom Taylorson as the voices.

Or is there already a good Mass Effect/BioWare Twitter list I can add?
 
A

amoebae

Member
X-Frame said:
So if I wanted to put together a Twitter list consisting of BioWare developers working on Mass Effect, who should I have on now?

Right now I have Mike Gamble, Ian, Corey Gaspur, the BioWare and Mass Effect twitters, as well as Fryda Wolff and Tom Taylorson as the voices.

Or is there already a good Mass Effect/BioWare Twitter list I can add?
Click to expand...

You might find more via this Twitter Discussion Thread over at BSN.

From the OP of that thread:

BioWare (official) (@bioware)
Mass Effect (official) (@masseffect)
Fabrice Condominas, Producer (@faburisu)
Ian Frazier, Lead Designer (@tibermoon)
Mike Gamble, Producer (@gamblemike)
Jos Hendricks, Level Designer (@sjosz)
Joel MacMillan, Art Director (@mrjoelmac)
Yanick Roy, Studio Director, BioWare Montréal (@yanickrroy)
Graham Scott, Senior Level/Tech Designer (biomasika biomasika biomasika biomasika biomasika) [I think this links to several profiles - best check it in the original thread I linked to above]
Mac Walters, Creative Director (@macwalterslives)
Mass Effect News (unofficial) (@masseffect_News)

That twitter thread will surely satisfy the most frustrating of MEA itches.
 
B

Big Nikus

Member
I read the third novel by Karpyshyn and he actually manages to make Kai Leng into a tolerable character. Well, he's a total edgelord but not having his stupid design in front of my eyes helped a lot. And Karpyshyn subtly makes the reader understand why this dude would be okay with drastic cybernetic enhancements. You see Leng in shitty situations, puting his body to his limits and it's written well enough that you feel the frustration of having organic limitations that prevent you to do what your mind wants.
Man what I would give to live in an alternate universe where Karpyshyn was lead writer for ME3.

I've also read the comics with The Illusive Man's origin story, written by Walters, and I could spend hours ranting about how stupid and bland it is. I don't like bashing BioWare folks but I'm sorry, he's just not a good writer :(

I hope the next ME books will be as good as the ones from Karpyshyn. It would have been great to see him write new books, even if he doesn't work on the game. One of them will be written by Walters so I'm already cautious.

Now, should I read Deception to see the cereal killer in action and see what all the fuss is about... or should I keep my sanity?
 
K

Killzig

Member
SliChillax said:
These armor designs are getting way too busy, I hate it.
Click to expand...
It's weirdly frustrating. It looks nice for the most part, but then every single character has like one too many belts/pouches/buckles. Feels very removed from the ME1 aesthetic. I just want to take a magical eraser and take one more pass to remove a little something here or there on every armor or character design I see.
 
K

kosmologi

Member
I wouldn't mind ME2 level of difficulty at all, if BioWare would improve the squad mechanics enough. I'm hoping one of the videos before release addresses this, because this far it seems the gameplay is just going to the opposite direction by emphasizing player powers and fluid action gameplay instead of tactical squad usage, which IMO is a shame. In ME2 biotic builds would've worked just fine, if the squad AI had been better and the gameplay system more refined.
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Man I think everyone looks great. BioWare has a certain style that isn't totally realistic. They've had it forever, and I contest those that say Mass Effect was any different. Character models are a mixed range of varying realism, but Andromeda looks exactly like I expect a current generation BioWare game to look.

And I'm just excited we're finally getting that.
 
T

Tovarisc

Member
Sou Da said:
Just go ahead and make one if you're worried. "Mass Effect Andromeda Previews Thread", leave it empty till they start rolling in.
Click to expand...

If I'm worried about something today it's my physics exam :/ May throw up that OT tho and compile links as they come in.

Edit: Previews should start coming out in 1.5h if my clockfu is right.
 
DevilDog

DevilDog

Member
Big Nikus said:
I read the third novel by Karpyshyn and he actually manages to make Kai Leng into a tolerable character. Well, he's a total edgelord but not having his stupid design in front of my eyes helped a lot. And Karpyshyn subtly makes the reader understand why this dude would be okay with drastic cybernetic enhancements. You see Leng in shitty situations, puting his body to his limits and it's written well enough that you feel the frustration of having organic limitations that prevent you to do what your mind wants.
Man what I would give to live in an alternate universe where Karpyshyn was lead writer for ME3.

I've also read the comics with The Illusive Man's origin story, written by Walters, and I could spend hours ranting about how stupid and bland it is. I don't like bashing BioWare folks but I'm sorry, he's just not a good writer :(

I hope the next ME books will be as good as the ones from Karpyshyn. It would have been great to see him write new books, even if he doesn't work on the game. One of them will be written by Walters so I'm already cautious.

Now, should I read Deception to see the cereal killer in action and see what all the fuss is about... or should I keep my sanity?
Click to expand...
Yeah this is actually something very noticeable. I don't understand how they let Mac Walters be the lead writer in ME3 after being the lead writer in ME2 and his comics/novels.

Drew always has this way of subtly making you understand someone, despite being edgy and whatnot. I always attributed this to him trying to walk in the gray area of morality all the time. After wall, when he got his hands on KOTOR, the first thing he tried to do was get rid of the black and white core aspects.

Mass-Effect-Andromeda-Bilder-aus-dem-Science-Fiction-Epos-1024x576-52165b6f9ec1d18f.jpg
Click to expand...

Everytime they show the characters, they look so different. Right now it's like she is using that snapchat filter with the googly eyes kind of.
 
L

Luxorek

Member
Tovarisc said:
Still her eyes don't look dead here like they do look in character kit stuff.
Click to expand...

I always assumed it was simply a matter of proper lighting. It was the same with DA:I, in certain conditions your character could appear remarkably lifelike and in others... yuck.
 
H

Heckler456

Banned
Kind of a first moment of truth coming up here. I know I'll love the game. I just hope everyone who played at the first preview event did too.
 
L

lazerfox

Member
Man those shots look great. Bioware never had the best animations so I don't really care. Great atmosphere is what I want from a ME game.

Currently playing through DA:I the first time and can't stop playing. The world looks amazing and hypes me even more for Andromeda.

I'm sure once the game is out the community will take some breathtaking screenshots with Amsel. Can't wait!
 
P

Patryn

Member
New combat video looks really nice. Still not necessarily a huge fan of profiles (feels that it kills some of the replayability of the game since you don't have the incentive of trying a new class), but being able to switch those loadouts means that I'm pretty sure I'll just need two: An adept and an engineer loadout and I'll be switching between those two.

Do wish that there were more new abilities, but they may just not be showing those off yet?
 
K

kosmologi

Member
Tovarisc said:
Trailer itself if not interested its thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3q_Nd5arZM&feature=youtu.be
Click to expand...

That long gameplay section better not be representative of the average battle in the game. A small arena and a countdown timer doesn't look good, although I'm thinking that it's a side mission.

But the profiles and favourites system looks very exciting. I'm still a bit worried about how well the squad combat is going to work, though.
 
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