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The Mass Effect Community Thread

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Ugh, aside from Kai Leng he was one of the worst characters in the trilogy.

Easily the worst "good guy"

Although Mass Effect 3 Udina is up there too.
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Patryn

Member
Count me as another Vega fan. I feel like he gets a bad rap for not many good reasons.

As a character that's designed to assist new players to the series I think he does a fine job.
 
Count me as another Vega fan. I feel like he gets a bad rap for not many good reasons.

As a character that's designed to assist new players to the series I think he does a fine job.
yeah, didn't they say he's supposed to take on the perspective of someone who hasn't played ME ever?
 

prag16

Banned
Count me as another Vega fan. I feel like he gets a bad rap for not many good reasons.

As a character that's designed to assist new players to the series I think he does a fine job.
Yeah, once you look past the muscle head faux hawk, he's really not so bad. Definitely an inordinate amount of hate.

How is nobody mentioning Yvonne Strahovski? Yeah I guess they wasted her somewhat with Miranda, but she is great.
 

diaspora

Member
Yeah, once you look past the muscle head faux hawk, he's really not so bad. Definitely an inordinate amount of hate.

How is nobody mentioning Yvonne Strahovski? Yeah I guess they wasted her somewhat with Miranda, but she is great.

We got distracted by remembering ass shots.
 

Mediking

Member
Yeah, once you look past the muscle head faux hawk, he's really not so bad. Definitely an inordinate amount of hate.

How is nobody mentioning Yvonne Strahovski? Yeah I guess they wasted her somewhat with Miranda, but she is great.

Pretty sure Miranda is super high on the list of most desired of the entire ME cast.... Yvonne Strahovski wasn't wasted at all.
 

Patryn

Member
I hope that Bioware does leveling better in Andromeda better than they did it in Inquisition. I'm replaying that game now that I have all the DLC (and screw you haters, I really like the game and nothing you say will make me think otherwise), but I just hit the level cap with multiple story missions, a dragon and portion of one more area, and 2 entire DLCs still left to be completed.

Even worse, I already did the Jaws of Hakkon DLC, so I have some of the best equipment of the game already and I'm unlikely to find much that's better.

I suppose my sin was 100 percenting everything, but you'd think that Bioware would be aware that people would be like me and wanting to do everything. Also, level 27 is a weird cap. Why not 30?
 

diaspora

Member
I hope that Bioware does leveling better in Andromeda better than they did it in Inquisition. I'm replaying that game now that I have all the DLC (and screw you haters, I really like the game and nothing you say will make me think otherwise), but I just hit the level cap with multiple story missions, a dragon and portion of one more area, and 2 entire DLCs still left to be completed.

Even worse, I already did the Jaws of Hakkon DLC, so I have some of the best equipment of the game already and I'm unlikely to find much that's better.

I suppose my sin was 100 percenting everything, but you'd think that Bioware would be aware that people would be like me and wanting to do everything. Also, level 27 is a weird cap. Why not 30?

Oh man, I remember hitting the level 27 cap then getting utterly destroyed by the trap that unleashes like half a dozen level 30 despair demons at you in Hakkon.
 

Patryn

Member
Oh man, I remember hitting the level 27 cap then getting utterly destroyed by the trap that unleashes like half a dozen level 30 despair demons at you in Hakkon.

I have no idea what the normal balance of things are, because at this point I have half the trials activated and I'm playing on Hard.
 

Maledict

Member
Thats an inherent problem with open world games though - Witch er 3 has the same issue. Either you balance for people doing almost everything, in which case your game is a massive grind, or you balance around the main storyline and anyone who does a lot of optional stuff has their game ruined.

Its why the elder Scrolls games have such ridiculous level scaling in them - it's the only way to keep things vaguely sane when your playerbase can have such massive differences in level at the same stage of the game. But that comes with its own host of issues as well of course...

Mind you, I'm in the camp that thinks ME1 was a great but heavily flawed game, and hasn't welcomed the return of the MAKO and the exploration aspect of ME1 very much, so what do I know... :(
 

diaspora

Member
Thats an inherent problem with open world games though - Witch er 3 has the same issue. Either you balance for people doing almost everything, in which case your game is a massive grind, or you balance around the main storyline and anyone who does a lot of optional stuff has their game ruined.

Its why the elder Scrolls games have such ridiculous level scaling in them - it's the only way to keep things vaguely sane when your playerbase can have such massive differences in level at the same stage of the game. But that comes with its own host of issues as well of course...

Mind you, I'm in the camp that thinks ME1 was a great but heavily flawed game, and hasn't welcomed the return of the MAKO and the exploration aspect of ME1 very much, so what do I know... :(

You're pretty much right. I mean the only thing that can be done is level scaling but that's the Even Ground trial which makes it optional. As far as loot is concerned I'm not entirely clear as to what can be done.
 

Maledict

Member
Loot is simple, but takes a lot of work.

They need to spend a lot of time creating interesting, unique items, and putting them at the end of quest lines, or places off the beaten track to explore, or on the corpses of your biggest foes. loot should be like Diablo 3 - you use blues and yellows to get you started, which can be the random loot that can be found anywhere. But ultimately you replace it with legendaries that are unique and cool.

Witcher 3 and Dragon Age both suffered hugely from this issue.

EDIT: Oh, one hugely important thing. No crafting. It doesn't work, its not necessary, its just tedious and it unbalances your games loot system everytime. Drop it. No-one read Lord of the Rings for tales of blacksmithing, no-one watched Story Wars because of the power converters. It's an MMO relic that needs to just *die* in single player games.
 

diaspora

Member
I... spent a huge amount of time in the DAI smithy and loved it >.>

I'd create different weapons and armors to fill different needs and niches.
 

Patryn

Member
You're pretty much right. I mean the only thing that can be done is level scaling but that's the Even Ground trial which makes it optional. As far as loot is concerned I'm not entirely clear as to what can be done.

I've had the Even Ground trial active the entire game. Difficulty isn't the whole problem.

The problem is that when you lose the carrot of gaining experience and gaining levels, and you lose the carrot of getting better equipment, the only carrots left are the story and completionist needs.

The story stuff is fine and works on its own. I generally do feel rewarded just by playing the story stuff to see the story stuff. The problem is the side stuff, that doesn't necessarily have the deepest story stuff. When you have someone like me that's a completionist, it's easy to get annoyed at a game for having quests that feel so flimsy, but you can't just ignore that quest marker. It's like an OCD that makes you dislike the game because you feel compelled to do it.

Going back to Even Ground, it's actually a double-edged sword. I turned it on because the first time I played the game, I found areas too easy because I had outleveled them. Even Ground took care of that, but the problem is that by leveling the enemies it meant that they were always giving me experience. Now that I think about it, it's possible that Even Ground screwed me over because in a normal game a lot of the enemies I killed shouldn't have been giving my experience.

I'm curious if they made level 27 the max level because there could be issues if you hit the point where you had all the possible skills and then gained more skill points?

Regardless, I think I'd rather that Bioware just have a crazy level cap for Andromeda, but have a point where after a certain level you always gain just 1 exp point, regardless of the enemy's level. That way you always feel a little bit of progress, even if it's just an illusion.

Loot is simple, but takes a lot of work.

They need to spend a lot of time creating interesting, unique items, and putting them at the end of quest lines, or places off the beaten track to explore, or on the corpses of your biggest foes. loot should be like Diablo 3 - you use blues and yellows to get you started, which can be the random loot that can be found anywhere. But ultimately you replace it with legendaries that are unique and cool.

Witcher 3 and Dragon Age both suffered hugely from this issue.

EDIT: Oh, one hugely important thing. No crafting. It doesn't work, its not necessary, its just tedious and it unbalances your games loot system everytime. Drop it. No-one read Lord of the Rings for tales of blacksmithing, no-one watched Story Wars because of the power converters. It's an MMO relic that needs to just *die* in single player games.

Crafting is a double-edged sword for me. I enjoy it, but too many times it's easy to get materials and schematics to create equipment far above what's currently being dropped that it makes most drops pointless.

FWIW, I didn't get my best gear until I did Hakkon where I could get Veil Quartz in larger quantities.

I've done Hakkon. I'm a warrior and I got a Bitter Axe to drop with 330 DPS. Even Hakkon's Honor with my best materials tops out at 220 DPS. I don't think I'll ever craft a better weapon.
 

Maledict

Member
I... spent a huge amount of time in the DAI smithy and loved it >.>

I'd create different weapons and armors to fill different needs and niches.

That's the problem though. Crafted gear in DAI was better than the gear you could find, so the game became about min-maxing your crafted stuff using the rubbish you found lying around the place whilst actually doing the adventuring thing.

I know some people love it, but I really do think for the health of the game crafting should at best be a minor supplementary thing that in no way gives you the best gear in the game, or even close to it. I can't think of an RPG with crafting where the crafted gear didn't end up being best - because players min-max.
 

Patryn

Member
That's the problem though. Crafted gear in DAI was better than the gear you could find, so the game became about min-maxing your crafted stuff using the rubbish you found lying around the place whilst actually doing the adventuring thing.

I know some people love it, but I really do think for the health of the game crafting should at best be a minor supplementary thing that in no way gives you the best gear in the game, or even close to it. I can't think of an RPG with crafting where the crafted gear didn't end up being best - because players min-max.

See above. I have an Axe I got from a drop in Inquisition that is better than any crafted one-handed weapon I could ever possibly craft. I've looked stuff up, mind you, so I can say with certainty.
 

diaspora

Member
It really depends. There are staff drops better than the ones you can craft as far as DPS is concerned but DPS isn't be all end all as I find more utility in crafting staves with lower DPS but adds armor/health on hit or has an x% of executing a special.
 

Patryn

Member
Oh, I also hope Bioware learns from Inquisition and doesn't attempt to craft areas where they expect the player to leave, go elsewhere, and then come back and finish out an area.

I get the sense that many, if not most, people think they're supposed to complete an entire area before moving on. If the only thing you have to signify to a player that they should leave an area is tougher enemies, it's not going to work. A lot of people will just throw themselves against those enemies until they win, gain disproportionate amounts of experience, and then break the balance of the rest of the game.

One thing I'm curious about: Do people feel that Bioware games have "core" romances? For instance, I've always had the sense that Liara is the "core" LI in Mass Effect, Morrigan is the "core" LI in Dragon Age: Origins, and Solas is the "core" LI in Inquisition.

Of those, Morrigan is by the far the most obvious and pushed, but there are things that make me feel like Liara and Solas are the preferred option in their respective games.

Do others feel the way that I do? Do people mind?
 

diaspora

Member
Oh, I also hope Bioware learns from Inquisition and doesn't attempt to craft areas where they expect the player to leave, go elsewhere, and then come back and finish out an area.

I get the sense that many, if not most, people think they're supposed to complete an entire area before moving on. If the only thing you have to signify to a player that they should leave an area is tougher enemies, it's not going to work. A lot of people will just throw themselves against those enemies until they win, gain disproportionate amounts of experience, and then break the balance of the rest of the game.

I'd wager everyone thought this when they first played the game. It feels similar to SMT IV where it just inundates you with needless shit though the difference being SMT didn't tell you that some of the useless shit was in fact necessary.

One thing I'm curious about: Do people feel that Bioware games have "core" romances? For instance, I've always had the sense that Liara is the "core" LI in Mass Effect, Morrigan is the "core" LI in Dragon Age: Origins, and Solas is the "core" LI in Inquisition.

Of those, Morrigan is by the far the most obvious and pushed, but there are things that make me feel like Liara and Solas are the preferred option in their respective games.

Do others feel the way that I do? Do people mind?
Liara and Morrigan's was pushed way over the top. Inquisition is more muted but you can still tell that some characters are more important to romance than others. Like Cassandra's is far more fleshed out than Josephine's and Solas offers core story lore hints.

FWIW, I welcome fleshed out romance options like Cullen, Solas, or Cassandra but I'd rather it be less like Origins as in DAO it was too much of a core part of the story.
 

Mediking

Member
I'm really loving Witcher 3. It's really scratching that itch that Mass Effect: Andromeda oughta scratch someday. More player customization and making your decisions feel like they really matter to the story is such an rewarding feeling.
 

diaspora

Member
You know, in hindsight something like the Suicide Mission seems more appropriate for the Dragon Age series than Mass Effect imo. The former has largely a new cast each game so having a final act where you could potentially lose everyone makes more sense in a series that refreshes the cast with each iteration since it doesn't tie the story into knots.
 

Patryn

Member
You know, in hindsight something like the Suicide Mission seems more appropriate for the Dragon Age series than Mass Effect imo. The former has largely a new cast each game so having a final act where you could potentially lose everyone makes more sense in a series that refreshes the cast with each iteration since it doesn't tie the story into knots.

If you watch the early leak vids of Inquisition, it sounds like they were planning on having some more complex systems that would utilize the Power and Influence system along with the Strongholds in a greater fashion and have more lasting consequences, but having to get the games running on the PS3 and 360 forced them to cut most of that stuff.

Instead we ended up with Power and Influence being pretty forgettable. Power totally fails as a gatekeeper, because it's far too easy to accrue way more than you'll ever need, and the perks that Influence grants are mostly poorly thought out. There are about 5-7 that are useful, and the rest are just terrible. Like, if you only get 10-15 in a normal game, why are so many single-time item gains? Hell, to get to the final material shipment perk, you need to have bought 2 prior perks. Who would waste 3 points on that nonsense?

As for Strongholds, they ended up just being camps that have crafting stations.
 

diaspora

Member
I feel like you can see the seams in Inquisition where they clipped and pruned parts of the game to make it viable to run on last-gen. Strongholds being a good point where capturing the stronghold was reasonably fun but once you were done... nothing.
 

Patryn

Member
We all can agree that Kai Leng boss fight in ME3 is pretty cheap and unfair... especially on harder difficulties.

Depends on the class. I never have that much of a problem with my Engineer, but that's because the enclosed space works for her and her small army of drones and turrets.

But, yeah. Pretty much everything surrounding Kai Leng is bullshit.
 
We all can agree that Kai Leng boss fight in ME3 is pretty cheap and unfair... especially on harder difficulties.

I never had much trouble with it. Took a bit the first time, but after you know how it works he gets rolled up pretty easily.

For reference, beat him as a Soldier, Sentinel, Engineer, and Vanguard. Might be harder with Infiltrator, considering the range thing.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Miranda in a nutshell:

- I'm torn between these different situations. I'm emotionally affected by what might happen with my sister. I'm also a proud and strong woman. I trust you Shepard :)

*Ass shot*
 

Patryn

Member
Miranda in a nutshell:

- I'm torn between these different situations. I'm emotionally affected by what might happen with my sister. I'm also a proud and strong woman. I trust you Shepard :)

*Ass shot*

I feel like the Inquisition party members were deeper than those found in Mass Effect, which gives me hope for Andromeda.
 

Patryn

Member
Let's just hope inquisition mission structure and gameplay wasn't an inspiration because otherwise I'll be using the game as a sleeping aid.

I would like to have a more focused mission structure, and definitely more core missions than in Inquisition, yes.

But maybe I'm strange, but having a bunch of that throwaway stuff doesn't bother me except in how it mucks with the leveling and balancing, as I've explained previously on this page.

I keep bringing up Inquisition because I'm currently replaying it and I'm looking at how Andromeda might draw from it.
 

Mediking

Member
Depends on the class. I never have that much of a problem with my Engineer, but that's because the enclosed space works for her and her small army of drones and turrets.

But, yeah. Pretty much everything surrounding Kai Leng is bullshit.

I never had much trouble with it. Took a bit the first time, but after you know how it works he gets rolled up pretty easily.

For reference, beat him as a Soldier, Sentinel, Engineer, and Vanguard. Might be harder with Infiltrator, considering the range thing.

I'm sorry but Kai Leng boss fight and that boss fight on Liara's planet was unfair on harder difficulties. I barely won. There's also like a mission on ME3 when you're being bomb rushed by tons of enemies with crazy high speed.
 
I would like to have a more focused mission structure, and definitely more core missions than in Inquisition, yes.

But maybe I'm strange, but having a bunch of that throwaway stuff doesn't bother me except in how it mucks with the leveling and balancing, as I've explained previously on this page.

I keep bringing up Inquisition because I'm currently replaying it and I'm looking at how Andromeda might draw from it.

Autogenerated trash missions and metagame layers really ruined the experience entirely for me. Having my logbook fill up with that nonsense every time I arrived in an area made me just not care.
 
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