So, managed to get the harpoon style sniper rifle, decided to try it out on my batarian soldier, and... It's awful.
The shot dips, so you have to aim above your target, then when you do hit it does very little raw damage, and the scope is awful, it automatically brings up the scope if you use any powers/grenades with it equipped, and then (as happened with me) will occasionally glitch so you're stuck with the scope up less than 2 metres from a geth prime with you being the only person on your team who is still alive. not using that again.
In other news, managed to unlock the first level of Geth SMG, so will see what that's like tomorrow, probably with one of my infiltrators.
Does anyone else find it kind of annoying that you have to have an N7 character in your squad to take part in the operation this weekend? It's like a "use hammer to break glass to get hammer" situation, because I can't seem to get any characters unlocked, no matter how many spectre/premium spectre packs I get, so it looks like I won't be able to get any individual goals.
No the Rio/Platinum idea wasn't supposed to be in combination with our Destroyer run. It would be something to try instead of doing the FBWGG farming but still give us decent credits.
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Goliath wrote:So, managed to get the harpoon style sniper rifle, decided to try it out on my batarian soldier, and... It's awful.
The shot dips, so you have to aim above your target, then when you do hit it does very little raw damage, and the scope is awful, it automatically brings up the scope if you use any powers/grenades with it equipped, and then (as happened with me) will occasionally glitch so you're stuck with the scope up less than 2 metres from a geth prime with you being the only person on your team who is still alive. not using that again.
In other news, managed to unlock the first level of Geth SMG, so will see what that's like tomorrow, probably with one of my infiltrators.
Does anyone else find it kind of annoying that you have to have an N7 character in your squad to take part in the operation this weekend? It's like a "use hammer to break glass to get hammer" situation, because I can't seem to get any characters unlocked, no matter how many spectre/premium spectre packs I get, so it looks like I won't be able to get any individual goals.
If you are on 360 you can join me for a few games, and I'll play one of my N7's so you can complete the squad goal at least. My gamertag is AldarionnEB
Aldarionn wrote:If you are on 360 you can join me for a few games, and I'll play one of my N7's so you can complete the squad goal at least. My gamertag is AldarionnEB
Did not realise you were on 360, is it OK if I add you too?
edit: you too kanluwen, all this time I thought you guys were on PC
I will be playing Friday, so I'll get SilverMK2, Morathi's Darkest Sin, and someone else and drag them through Bronzes to get them a guaranteed Commendation Pack if you want to join FM Ninja.
Sidenote:
Ald, I just got another frickin' Particle Rifle.
Aldarionn wrote:No the Rio/Platinum idea wasn't supposed to be in combination with our Destroyer run. It would be something to try instead of doing the FBWGG farming but still give us decent credits.
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Goliath wrote:So, managed to get the harpoon style sniper rifle, decided to try it out on my batarian soldier, and... It's awful.
The shot dips, so you have to aim above your target, then when you do hit it does very little raw damage, and the scope is awful, it automatically brings up the scope if you use any powers/grenades with it equipped, and then (as happened with me) will occasionally glitch so you're stuck with the scope up less than 2 metres from a geth prime with you being the only person on your team who is still alive. not using that again.
In other news, managed to unlock the first level of Geth SMG, so will see what that's like tomorrow, probably with one of my infiltrators.
Does anyone else find it kind of annoying that you have to have an N7 character in your squad to take part in the operation this weekend? It's like a "use hammer to break glass to get hammer" situation, because I can't seem to get any characters unlocked, no matter how many spectre/premium spectre packs I get, so it looks like I won't be able to get any individual goals.
If you are on 360 you can join me for a few games, and I'll play one of my N7's so you can complete the squad goal at least. My gamertag is AldarionnEB
Ps3 sadly, which now means I can't play tonight due to network maintainance? On the other hand I have all of tomorrow off, so much shooting will be done then
Kanluwen wrote:I will be playing Friday, so I'll get SilverMK2, Morathi's Darkest Sin, and someone else and drag them through Bronzes to get them a guaranteed Commendation Pack if you want to join FM Ninja.
Sidenote:
Ald, I just got another frickin' Particle Rifle.
Hehehehehehe, I think the store personally hates you.
Kanluwen - I'm interested in setting up a few speed runs with you, me, Lord Shiv and any 4th that can follow directions and hold their own. Not sure if I want to include Eddie in these because I don't trust that he will be able to keep up with the pace.
If you are interested we need to talk strategy with Shiv, and you guys should probably watch a video or two for how speed runs work if you haven't already.
I dunno, I've always liked the idea of trying a speed run once or twice. Not constantly because you burn through gear like nobody's business, but a few of them now and then for fast credits and amusement is nice.
Also, I've been buying almost nothing but Jumbo Equipment Packs lately because I'm trying to build a base of gear and consumables to support me on higher difficulty. I've stopped using most gear on Gold, and I don't use any gear at all on Silver, and I try my best to avoid using consumables in game.
I would be up for some Cerberus farming on Rio, but I doubt Shiv will be interested. He has gotten sick and tired of farming in any form and only wants to play random/random/gold or Platinum now. Perhaps I can talk him into a few matches at least.
And I need a means of using minimal consumable items for maximum reward, and thus I am not against farming. I'll only be on for a short time this evening, but I should be set to play quite a bit tomorrow, and Sunday night.
Aldarionn wrote:
I would be up for some Cerberus farming on Rio, but I doubt Shiv will be interested. He has gotten sick and tired of farming in any form and only wants to play random/random/gold or Platinum now. Perhaps I can talk him into a few matches at least.
I'm up for some credit farming, I need the credits.
I've only done gold once though, and I didn't die... much.
Also, some jackass tried to kick me from FBWGG last night because I wasn't sharing my grenades on my Demolisher. I got top score by 20k, the most medals, multiple revives, and I helped with all of the objectives, but he wanted me gone because I wouldn't let him camp my Pylon.
I think I pissed him off even more when all 3 of them died early during extraction and got executed, so I bossed the wave and made them wait two and a half minutes while I got a lone survivor.
Heh, my Demolisher thread on BSN went to over 20 pages in just over 24 hours. That's kinda ridiculous. Seems like a lot of people have something to say about that particular issue.
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Goliath wrote:How long does it take before you recieve victory/commendation packs normally?
They almost always go out on Tuesday or Wednesday after the event ends. So tomorrow most likely.
Victory Packs go out on Tuesday, almost in synch with the announcement of failure or success of the community goal and everyone gets theirs at the same time.
Commendation Packs begin going out on Tuesday, but given that they have to be manually enabled during business hours it will take until Thursday for them to all be enabled. Sometimes, there are "stragglers" which get enabled on Fridays.
If you do not have your Commendation Pack by 8pm PDT on Friday, you need to contact EA Support.
Missed it sadly, starting to think I have a jinx. Friday evening watched the Olympic opening, and had a migraine all day Saturday, then working Sunday.
From: Admiral Steven Hackett
Re: Operation OVERWATCH
Confidentiality classification: XB-PRIME
Distribution: N7 Forces Only
Soldiers of the Milky Way –
By now you have probably heard that Operation OVERWATCH succeeded on many fronts. Frankly, I would not be surprised if this message goes unread until tomorrow due to excessive celebrating. You have struck the Reapers where they are strongest and lived to tell the tale. Credit goes to you, to those shuttle pilots who retrieved your teams, and to the many personnel who supported and planned the missions.
But I also want to speak to some of what you may be seeing in the media soon. Eventually, it will be public knowledge that we had operations on Earth, retrieving data and personnel necessary for the military and economic well-being of the galaxy.
This success will bring hope to billions of people. It will also enrage some of them. Be prepared for the tough questions – when are we starting our full-scale assault? Why retrieve this helium-3 magnate but not another one, or save my loved ones? Who are you to play God?
There are no good answers to these questions. The reality is, the Reapers have almost every conceivable advantage -- numbers, firepower, technology – and we make do with what we have. We strike and retreat because facing the foe head-on would be a disaster. Nowhere is this truer than at Earth.
We have started to give them a death by a thousand cuts. Take heart in this, celebrate, and relax tonight. Tomorrow morning, we will get down to business, because there’s nine hundred and ninety left to go.
--Admiral Hackett
Log in today and grab your Victory Packs for a free Earth DLC character!
For myself and Aldarionn, it will be a new Rank IV ammunition consumable! Wooo!
Commendation Packs will begin going out later today, with all distributed by Thursday at the end of business hours.
Technically I still need my lights unlock for the Demolisher and the Destroyer, so it will be one of those. My PSP's have all been rank IV consumables lately though.
So I just played a game, started normally, except there was only one other guy and I got put straight into it from hitting search, no lobby or anything.
So the game starts, and the other guy sprints off, and when he stops sprinting he sort of glides around in this wierd position with both hands to his right (Thriller came to mind).
This in and of itself wasnt too wierd, but then he got downed, and I was nowhere near him, and he got back up, having done it twice before already, which again isn't too odd, he could have just gotten a medi-gel upgrade.
Then it gets really wierd.
He got downed, and then bled out, and I was doing the round on my own, and didn't have any medi-gel, and got revived. With noone else able to revive me.
in round ten, we both bled out and spent 4 minutes spectating our own corpses, with the triggers supposedly not being activated, and then as soon as the timer hits 0:00, it comes up with "Mission Failed" and "Mission Complete" at the same time, and then the enemies that were left were slowly dying.
I think there may have been an invisible guy in our game.
Kind of freaked out
also my victory pack hasn't arrived yet, but I'm sort of fine with that at the moment, I can wait.
Commendation Pack:
Crusader III
Power Amplifier III(Consumable)
+3 Cobra Missile Launchers.
THE LAW OF THREEEEEEEEEES!
And now for the "Ahahahaha, you SUCK!" Pack...also known as the Victory Pack:
Consumables of all shapes: +5
Shotgun Amplifier V(Gear Mod, Uncommon)
...
Oh. Thanks Rare Card...Armor Piercing Ammunition IV.
I was away for the entirety of Operation OVERWATCH
However, I did unlock the Krogan Battlemaster today, and not knowing how to spec him, and frankly not caring because Sean is to much fun I just auto upgraded him. so how does the Krogan play, all I can tell is it has carnage, and health, so that seems good for going against tougher enemies.
Slowly but surely I'm getting characters, Maby by the time the next DLC comes out I mught have all of them, and just be able to unlock them straight away
Yes.
Victory/Commendation packs came through, got a few consumables, an N7 Slayer, and most importantly for me, because it's the weapon a large number of my classes are based around, N7 Hurricane III
Whelp, looking over your manifest I would say you need to buy some more Veteran Packs to build up your weapon mods. You have a potential build for a Paladin that can do very well against all enemy types using tech bursts detonated via Energy Drain, but without a Piercing mod for an Assault Rifle or a Pistol, you are going to have a very rough time with Guardians or armored targets.
Personally I would use this spec: Use Disruptor Ammo with the Avenger (and eventually the Geth Pulse Rifle once you get it to a higher rank) in order to prime targets for Tech Bursts, then use Energy Drain to detonate them. I use that spec on my Salarian Engineer and it is very successful, so there is no reason the Paladin should not also be good with it. Snap Freeze is also nice for targets that get close, and the chill effect on your shield can help mitigate some of the issue with armor, but until you get an Assault Rifle Piercing Mod, you will not be able to kill Guardians without mail slotting them.
Whelp, looking over your manifest I would say you need to buy some more Veteran Packs to build up your weapon mods. You have a potential build for a Paladin that can do very well against all enemy types using tech bursts detonated via Energy Drain, but without a Piercing mod for an Assault Rifle or a Pistol, you are going to have a very rough time with Guardians or armored targets.
Personally I would use this spec: Use Disruptor Ammo with the Avenger (and eventually the Geth Pulse Rifle once you get it to a higher rank) in order to prime targets for Tech Bursts, then use Energy Drain to detonate them. I use that spec on my Salarian Engineer and it is very successful, so there is no reason the Paladin should not also be good with it. Snap Freeze is also nice for targets that get close, and the chill effect on your shield can help mitigate some of the issue with armor, but until you get an Assault Rifle Piercing Mod, you will not be able to kill Guardians without mail slotting them.
BioWare wrote:Today we are pleased to announce a new Story-Driven Single Player DLC for Mass effect 3 – Leviathan!
Something lurks in the dark corners of space, something powerful enough to kill a Reaper. Shepard must discover the most closely guarded secret in the galaxy before the Reapers silence it forever. Discover more about the origins of the Reapers as you race across the galaxy to find the Leviathan. Unravel the dark history of the Reaper Race before it is too late. Coming later this summer there is no war, only the harvest.
Taking place during the events of Mass Effect 3, players will be thrust into the darkest corners of space where they will hunt a mysterious being rumored to be powerful enough to destroy a Reaper. As they race against time, they will begin to unravel the secret of the Leviathan. Explore uncharted systems and new areas on the Citadel, interact with brand new characters, unlock the AT-12 Raider shotgun and M-55 Argus Assault Rifle and discover more about the mysterious history of the Reapers. Available on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Cost is $10 or 800 Microsoft points.
But wait, there's more!
BioWare wrote:But that is not all. Players will soon be able to arm themselves with the Firefight Pack, a new Single Player Weapon Pack available for download August 7. Available on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Cost is $2 or 160 Microsoft points. The Firefight Pack will feature two powerful new weapons and five bonus weapons to use in the fight to Take Back Earth!
Per Chris Priestly of BioWare:
The Firefight Pack includes the following weapons:
Indra Sniper Rifle: Fully automatic sniper rifle.
The Indra's low-powered scope leaves it most effective at medium range, but many soldiers believe this limitation is offset by the gun's rapid rate of fire. The Indra is the first military-grade, fully automatic sniper rifle. It has an extremely efficient heat-sink system that allows a surprisingly large number of shots to be fired before the weapon ejects its thermal clip.
Krysae Sniper Rifle: Heavy turian sniper rifle with explosive rounds and an automatic scope for all-range fighting.
This turian antimateriel rifle is modified to kill Reaper enemies. The Krysae's scope uses a rangefinder that adjusts to keep the target in proper proportion to the shooter, which comes in useful when the sniper is forced into close range. Its specialized ammunition is both armor-piercing and explosive. In a desperate move, the turians released its specifications over the extranet so that nearly anyone with a fabricator could manufacture this weapon to help the war effort.
Reegar Carbine: Quarian electrical weapon that's best at close range.
This electrical weapon improves upon the arc pistol's design by generating a sustained current on its target. This weapon is named for the quarian Reegar family, whose marines have served valiantly against the geth.
Harrier Assault Rifle: Full-auto Cerberus rifle with low recoil and heat generation.
These Cerberus-modified Mattock rifles are fully automatic. Cerberus gunsmiths reined in the recoil issues, resulting in a gun that stays on target but delivers slightly less punch per round than a standard Mattock. As such, the weapon is typically utilized by Cerberus's elite troops who train constantly to make every burst count.
Geth SMG: Fully-automatic geth submachine gun. Its rate of fire increases when the trigger is held.
This submachine gun works on the same principles as the Spitfire: it shoots superconducting toroids that break apart on impact, retaining an electrical charge that flash-converts the shrapnel into plasma. Unlike the Spitfire, however, this smaller geth weapon has been modified to take thermal clips. Holding down the trigger speeds up its rate of fire, rapidly depleting the gun’s heat sink in exchange for nearly continuous fire.
Blood Pack Punisher SMG: Submachine gun with a secondary barrel that fires armor-piercing rounds.
The Punisher features a secondary barrel that fires one armor-piercing round per main-barrel burst. It was developed by Blood Pack gunsmiths who found that their vorcha recruits frequently forgot to optimize ammo loads in the heat of combat. This configuration makes the process automatic and highly effective at penetrating armor.
Adas Anti-Synthetic Assault Rifle: Electrical weapon that's effective against shields and synthetic targets.
Named in memory of the quarians killed in the Morning War on the planet Adas, this weapon's electrical attack has been optimized for medium- to long-range firefights. Alliance marines take issue with calling it a "rifle" since, technically, it has no rifling in its barrel. The quarians shrug this off, as quarian weapon terminology rarely translates flawlessly into human languages.
however I have a funny feeling that this DLC will be staggered through the campain, like first after Mars, then tuchanka, then finally after Thessia. Or something similar...
however I have a funny feeling that this DLC will be staggered through the campain, like first after Mars, then tuchanka, then finally after Thessia. Or something similar...
I hope that if you start the campaign it's like that, but if you're already a long way through you can do the entire thing.
Although I'm probably gonna do a new character started on ME2 to carry through to ME3 on insanity, so it wouldn't bother me too much.
I think what I am most looking forward to is the addition of the Cerberus Harrier to Single Player. I have never played any of the Mass Effect games as a Soldier, but with that gun available I might just do it. I could also see taking it on an Engineer if the cooldown at higher rank is low enough.
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FM Ninja 048 wrote:
Goliath wrote: hope that if you start the campaign it's like that, but if you're already a long way through you can do the entire thing.
Although I'm probably gonna do a new character started on ME2 to carry through to ME3 on insanity, so it wouldn't bother me too much.
Yeah, I'm just doing multiplayr before I start Priority:Cerberus Headquaters, so I'm better of starting again.
I thought Hardcore would be Hard on Mass effect, but importing a ME3 character that's imported from 2 with multipile playthroughs...
now I'm 60 something and it doesn't seem hard...
Nope, insanity in this game is not very insane. I did it on my Infiltrator and while I got hung up in a few annoying places it was not very difficult. I blame Multiplayer for that, honestly. Playing on Gold difficulty really bumped my skill level up, and between the Valiant on early levels and the Black Widow later in the game, I pretty much had a smooth run.
Ayes cheers Kan, and also Silver, got few great games in there.
Also cheers to Kan for pointing out the Biotic explosion thing. As someone who even with multiple play throughs on ME1-3, I still haven't played a pure biotic class, that was useful.
Best fun I've had in ages, and now that class is up there with my Krogan Sentinel and Quarian Engineer as faves.
I need to do some extra playing tomorrow night and Thursday. I want to get my gear maxed out before the next DLC hits. Also, some more upgrades to my Harrier would be nice. I haven't had one since the Rebellion launch day when I got two Harriers in two consecutive packs.
The Blood Pack Punisher is pretty awesome. It's like a buzzsaw on cocaine. The "extra armor piercing round" is quite awesome, as it actually mitigates the recoil of the main rounds.
How? I have no clue, but it does!
The Adas Anti-Synthetic Rifle is...strange. It just flat-out destroys shields like they're not even there but is very "eh" against armor. It fires lighting bolts and is fully automatic; and I like shouting that "I AM THOR!" whilst firing it.
OK I watched a few gameplay videos. Gonna have to give these things a go when I get off work. One of the videos that showcased the Harrier and the Punisher had some absolutely awful gameplay in it, so I want to test it out without firing half of my bullets into the ground.
KamikazeCanuck wrote:Got an N7 Shadow. Kind of fun but don't think she's that effective on Silver and above because she can't handle the heavy stuff.
Oh she can compete. One of the very first solo platinum videos used a Shadow and finished in 45 minutes.
The idea is to spec her for full melee damage, and carry a light weapon like the Piranha, then cloak-shadowstrike-cloak-shadowstrike-repeat. If properly speced, she can 1-shot Phantoms on Gold with a Shadowstrike.
Make sure to take the shield draining evolution, and add the anti-shield/barrier effect to her weapon for maximum damage to shielded targets. Against armor, the Piranha shreds everything with a shredder mod and smart choke. Use it to clean up anything that doesn't die from shadowstrike or against big bosses.
I've actually found her to be incredibly useful against Banshees because of the way she works. When you Shadowstrike, it teleports you to where the target was at the time you activated the power, but there is a delay between when you activate it, and when you hit the target. So if you activate it against a Banshee while she is jumping, you will teleport to where she WAS and hit her for massive damage, leaving you safe from her grabby hands most of the time.
Do not underestimate the Shadow. Use her wisely, and she will take you far.
Maximum melee damage on Sword Mastery, max melee damage on Tactical Cloak, and shield drain for Shadowstrike. I set up Electric Slash for extra damage, but you can just as easily set it up for range. Either way works, really.
For weapons, take a Talon with Melee Stunner and Shredder mod (They are nerfing the Piranha with the balance changes this week so it's probably going to be less useful than something like a Talon), and take all of the melee damage increasing gear you care to use.
For tactics, pick targets wisely. Priority targets should be as follows, in order:
For Cerberus, your job is to execute Phantoms before they become a threat to your team, and pick off Engineers before they can lay down turrets. With those two things out of the way, Nemesis should be priority since Shadow Strike can target them around corners. If you are neutralizing those threats while keeping out of the line of fire of Centurions and Assault Troopers, it will make life for your team MUCH easier. Use things like Assault Troopers and Centurions for mobility purposes, IE Shadowstrike them to get out of the line of fire if you are in a bad position, or want to get across the map quickly.
Against Reapers, the biggest threats are Marauders which have ungodly accuracy and damage. Shadowstrike can 1 shot them on Gold with the above configuration as long as you Tactical Cloak, so hitting them is relatively safe. From there, Ravagers are the biggest threat and you have the mobility to hit them from anywhere and avoid their goo and a reasonable weapon to finish them off, but they will not replenish your shields like the other targets I have mentioned. Of course, Banshees are always a priority and as I mentioned earlier it's relatively safe to Shadowstrike them when they are jumping since you will land where they WERE, and hit them anyway.
Geth are probably one of the hardest targets for a Shadow, since they have the most means of seeing through Tactical Cloak. Primes and Hunters both can see through it, and the Prime's Drone can point your location out to others. Rocket Troopers should be your primary target if possible, followed by Geth Hunters, but both targets are dangerous. Both can stagger you during your teleport, ending your Shadowstrike before you do any damage, and Hunters are hard to target in the first place and they travel in packs. Use your mobility and hit-and-run tactics to kill them. Pyros should be avoided if possible. They also travel in packs along with hunters and they kill VERY quickly, so it's extremely dangerous to shadowstrike them directly unless you can catch a straggler or hit them from an angle with a safe retreat.
In any of the above situations it is important to cloak before you shadowstrike, because just performing the shadowstrike alone will NOT break the targets ability to shoot you. It's frustrating as all hell to teleport behind a Phantom only to have her shoot you to death with her Palm Blaster, or melee you the moment you land and follow it up with a synch kill.
Hmmmmm.
Managed to play all the way through till Priority:Thessia, without realising that despite thinking that I had, I in fact had not downloaded the Extended Cut. I feel rather silly now.
Also, has the firefight pack appeared for anyone else in europe yet? It has yet to appear for me
I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!
But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!
Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(
I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!
But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!
Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(
That's weird. Sure you weren't more of a renegade guy?
Just started another run through of ME2 Playing as a female adept, I've never played as an adept on the single player, so has anyone got any tips?
at the moment I've got level 2 warp and singularity, and level one energy drain (I figured that since adept has very little ability to take down shields, I could use it as my bonus power)
I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!
But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!
Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(
That's weird. Sure you weren't more of a renegade guy?
Supposedly, it is something which bugs in a specific set of circumstances.
Goliath wrote:Just started another run through of ME2 Playing as a female adept, I've never played as an adept on the single player, so has anyone got any tips? at the moment I've got level 2 warp and singularity, and level one energy drain (I figured that since adept has very little ability to take down shields, I could use it as my bonus power)
Keep in cover. Adepts are very squishy. Use your powers wisely.
For ME2: Throw and Shockwave kill Husks/Explodey Husks instantly and have low cooldowns (Throw especially) so these should be choice number one when facing these enemies, Warp is good for pretty much anything and causes Biotic Explosions when used on an enemy affected by Pull and Singularity, Singularity is awesome for dragging enemies out of cover and setting up for Biotic Explosions which hit lots of people, Pull is good to set up for a powerful Throw or a Biotic Explosion.
Singularity/Warp combo is going to be one of your most widely used abilities in ME2. Catch enemies in the Singularity and then detonate it with Warp to do big damage to everybody caught in the explosion.
When you get to pick a weapon on the collector ship Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles are usually the best choice due to their longer range and the aforementioned squishiness of an Adept.
In ME3: Same as before for squishiness. Keep your weapon weight down to lower power cooldowns. A lot more possibilities for Biotic Explosions now (Hooray!). As Throw can cause Biotic Explosions it makes a better choice for a combo move than Warp due to it's lower cooldown. For unprotected enemies (no armour, barriers or shields) Singularity/Throw is the best. For protected enemies you start with a Warp and detonate with a Throw and repeat. Apart from that the tactics are pretty much the same, keep in cover, use the right powers on the right enemies etc.
ME website wrote:Operation OLYMPUS (August 10th-12th)
Increased Reaper activity has been reported around London. Operation OLYMPUS will focus large-scale strikes on the Reapers to buy the Resistance time to investigate.
Squad Goal: Full extraction from Firebase London using any Kit on any difficulty
Allied Goal: Using any Kit/ Map combination against any enemy, complete wave 10 on a combined community total of 200,000 Bronze missions, 175,000 Silver missions and 70,000 Gold missions.
Special Circumstance: None
Squad Goal Success: All squad members awarded a Commendation Pack
Allied Goal Success: All players awarded a Victory Pack
I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!
But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!
Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(
That's weird. Sure you weren't more of a renegade guy?
Renegade/Paragon scores actually do not matter in Mass Effect 3. Previously, Renegade and Paragon points were counted separately and if you did not have enough of one type or another, you could not choose the associated reputation choice in conversation. In Mass Effect 3 however, Renegade and Paragon points are represented by a percentage of total "Reputation". Whenever Commander Shepard gains "Reputation", this increases his total reputation score which is used to unlock dialogue options. When Shepard gains "Paragon" or "Renegade" points, these increase his total reputation, but adjust the overall ratio of Paragon and Renegade. So, it is perfectly acceptable to play a Paragon character and choose a Renegade option for dialogue, and the Renegade points you get will just increase your overall reputation, and slightly skew the balance of Paragon/Renegade to the Renegade side. This won't affect your ability to choose further Paragon options, because your total Reputation is what determines if a conversation option is selectable or not. In other words, select the option you think best fits you or the character you are playing, and don't worry about how it affects your Paragon/Renegade slider, because it only changes cosmetic options, and all of the points are simply "Reputation" points.
So, for example, if you did not do every side mission on the Citadel, did not talk to your crew between every mission, and did not select red or blue choices for dialogue where possible, and if you don't take the evolutions in your passive class ability that increase reputation, you very well might not be able to access the final red/blue choices when speaking to The Illusive Man on the citadel, because those choices have a VERY high reputation cap. In fact, if your reputation is low enough, you don't even get the Renegade Interrupt option to shoot The Illusive Man and prevent Anderson from getting executed.
I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!
But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!
Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(
That's weird. Sure you weren't more of a renegade guy?
Renegade/Paragon scores actually do not matter in Mass Effect 3. Previously, Renegade and Paragon points were counted separately and if you did not have enough of one type or another, you could not choose the associated reputation choice in conversation. In Mass Effect 3 however, Renegade and Paragon points are represented by a percentage of total "Reputation". Whenever Commander Shepard gains "Reputation", this increases his total reputation score which is used to unlock dialogue options. When Shepard gains "Paragon" or "Renegade" points, these increase his total reputation, but adjust the overall ratio of Paragon and Renegade. So, it is perfectly acceptable to play a Paragon character and choose a Renegade option for dialogue, and the Renegade points you get will just increase your overall reputation, and slightly skew the balance of Paragon/Renegade to the Renegade side. This won't affect your ability to choose further Paragon options, because your total Reputation is what determines if a conversation option is selectable or not. In other words, select the option you think best fits you or the character you are playing, and don't worry about how it affects your Paragon/Renegade slider, because it only changes cosmetic options, and all of the points are simply "Reputation" points.
So, for example, if you did not do every side mission on the Citadel, did not talk to your crew between every mission, and did not select red or blue choices for dialogue where possible, and if you don't take the evolutions in your passive class ability that increase reputation, you very well might not be able to access the final red/blue choices when speaking to The Illusive Man on the citadel, because those choices have a VERY high reputation cap. In fact, if your reputation is low enough, you don't even get the Renegade Interrupt option to shoot The Illusive Man and prevent Anderson from getting executed.
Interesting, and a much better system than the ME2 but still has some problems. Seems like there should be situations where only the Paragon option is unlocked and vice versa.
The idea is that Shepard voices his opinion, and the weight of his reputation makes people consider it more carefully. That opinion can sometimes fall along the Paragon/Renegade axis, but the game lets you make that choice for yourself.
For instance, I play Paragon when interacting with characters that I respect, and Renegade interacting with characters I dislike or hate. When speaking to Garrus, I sometimes alternate between them based on the circumstance. When dealing with my Romantic Interest, I always play Paragon, and I always support them, which should not hurt an otherwise Renegade playthrough by denying me the ability to pick a Renegade option because I didn't completely forsake Paragon choices.
In other words, it's safe to actually roleplay. Rather than pandering to the press in an otherwise Paragon playthrough, I can tell Diana Allers to blow me, and I can deck the Al-Jilani woman for simply annoying me. I can be supportive of Tali, Garrus and Liara who have supported me from the beginning, but keep a firm hand on James and Ashley who show doubt and mistrust.
I personally think it's a much better system all around.
Damn forgot about this, and I'm at work till 10.30pm ish. Might have to ask Aura is she can pop on and do a London mission or two, until she gets a full extraction.
Unfortunately it looks like the weekend event is doomed to fail. As of 7pm last night we were less than 1/3 finished with the community goals. Of course, it barely matters because the victory packs are kinda useless, and as long as you get the squad goal done you get your real reward.
If you want to make damn sure you get a full extraction, do solo bronze with your most effective class (I did it with a Fury) and if you extract at all you get a full extraction.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
FM Ninja 048 wrote:BTW, you can only get 1 commendation pack per operation, right?
if I do 10 full london extractions i'm not going to get 10 commendation packs, correct?
Sadly, you are correct. That would be awesome though.
I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!
But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!
Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(
For you to get that option you need to have performed a charm statement EVERY TIME you talk with him. I missed the very first option because I didnt click the investigate equivlent in my first meeting with him on Mars.
Note: I dont know think that if you pick charm or intimidate maters, it only maters that you picked one of them everytime
Anderson cannot be saved, but you can prevent The Illusive Man from executing him by either talking him down (conversation option) or breaking his hold long enough to shoot him (renegade interrupt), assuming you have the requisite reputation score. If Anderson is not executed, the required War Assets total needed to keep Shepard alive in the Destroy ending is reduced from 5,000 to 4,000. Anderson still dies, but he bleeds out after telling you he is proud of you rather than being executed by The Illusive Man.
Operation Olympus was SOMEHOW a success. No idea how we got it, but people must have really stepped it up on Sunday! Apparently we are getting something special in our victory packs for it. No idea what until I get home.
Aldarionn wrote:Operation Olympus was SOMEHOW a success. No idea how we got it, but people must have really stepped it up on Sunday! Apparently we are getting something special in our victory packs for it. No idea what until I get home.
So I've been playing through the solo campaign the past few days with the new weapons and I have to say, I very much dislike the new Quarian Assault Rifle when used on teammates.
For example, I have Garrus using it, and when he fires it from cover, half the time he hits the cover near me instead of the enemy, which results in the world shaking violently around me. It makes me wonder how often NPC characters actually hit their target with weapons where it's much less noticeable if they miss.
I have yet to try the weapon on my Shepard because I haven't fully upgraded it yet and the Harrier is just too freaking sexy NOT to use, but I'll give it a try soon. The Punisher is also interesting when used against Atlases but that's about it. It can't hit the broad side of a barn otherwise.
I've noticed that the Krysae has the pre-nerf rate of fire, but seems to have a different mechanic for the splash damage. It doesn't hit as wide of an area as in Multiplayer and it doesn't do as much damage on the splash. Or maybe It's just because I'm playing a Soldier, not an Infiltrator. Could be that.
The Reegar is much less useful in single player since there are more linear levels and getting close to a well defended position is more difficult, but I have found it very useful against Brutes.
Blehhhhh, the Crusader. The game seems obsessed with giving me that gun. I currently have a Crusader VI, which is as good as not getting any reward from three months worth of the weekend operation if you ask me. It's a terrible gun. If they would give me a Hurricane or a Valiant almost every week I would be perfectly fine with that. The only reason I look forward to the day I get a Crusader X is for the joy of never seeing it in my Commendation Pack again.
In other news, my rare gear was a Barrage Package III, meaning I have only 21 more unlocks of Rare gear until I have every Rare quality item in the game maxed out, and only have Ultra Rares left.......at least until the next Multiplayer DLC that is.
It's just kinda silly, really. Bosses spawning on wave 1, and then from wave 3 and up, other factions start spawning. It's not that it's really hard or anything, it's just annoying when Banshees start showing up in a game against Cerberus where you have been dodging Phantoms since wave 1, and lack of communication makes it near impossible when randoms are running off to play Rambo.
The key to beating Platinum effectively is camping. Pick a map, pick a choke point, sit there and go nowhere else. Unfortunately most people don't like to do that, and it's not really very entertaining. If you want some good pointers on beating it anyhow, look up INVADERONE's videos with IAMxSHADRACH on YouTube. He covers some good camp spots on several maps.
2: Bioware has inherited EA's inability to be subtle, and has adopted a Black and White morality system.
Seriously, in ME3 Renegade = Bad decision, Paragon = Good decision. No middle ground. To top it off, your renegade character now gets scars that are a real pain to remove, just so that everyone may know that Shepard is EEEEEVIL!
fething bs.
3: Kaiden is an idiot.
4: Bioware still can't make decent endings. Why do the refusal and control options even exist? There is no reason for Shepard to choose them.
Any Shepard, for that matter.
Let's be fair. The Geth Plasma Shotgun is awesome. The SMG is terrible, the Assault Rifle is mediocre at best, and the Sniper Rifle suffers massively from Shield Gate dispite being the single highest damage weapon in the game. It doesn't matter if you can do 10,000 damage in a shot when 1 damage knocks of their shield and the other 9,999 is blocked.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:2: Bioware has inherited EA's inability to be subtle, and has adopted a Black and White morality system.
Seriously, in ME3 Renegade = Bad decision, Paragon = Good decision. No middle ground. To top it off, your renegade character now gets scars that are a real pain to remove, just so that everyone may know that Shepard is EEEEEVIL!
fething bs.
I completely disagree. Renegade does NOT mean evil. It means playing fast and loose with the rules for the greater good. For example, Shepard needs to gain Krogan support for Palaven, and to do that he needs to do a favor for the Krogan in the form of curing the Genophage. If Wrex is dead, and you destroyed Maelon's data, Eve will not survive the process and Wreave is the Chief of Clan Urdnot. If the Genophage is cured (the Paragon option), Wreave will help Palaven, but he is an unstable warmonger with no balancing factor to keep him from going on an expansionist crusade across the galaxy after the war with the Reapers. But, if you side with the Salarians and sabotage the cure (the Renegade option), you lie to the Krogan for the good of the galaxy. They help the Turians on their homeworld, but without a real cure of the genophage, they cannot wreck the galaxy after the war. It's not the NICE thing to do, but it's the RIGHT thing to do given the circumstances. The EVIL option is to sabotage the cure if Wrex and Eve are both alive anyway, and you are punished for that decision later when Wrex finds out and tries to kill you on the Citadel.
There is a very big distinction between those two, and I think BioWare has done an excellent job of writing these kinds of moral decisions into the game. Many decisions involve choosing between imperfect options and hoping for the best.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:3: Kaiden is an idiot.
I never had a playthrough where I DIDN'T choose Kaiden to die. I never liked him as a character.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:4: Bioware still can't make decent endings. Why do the refusal and control options even exist? There is no reason for Shepard to choose them.
Any Shepard, for that matter.
There is little reason to choose refusal, but there is plenty of reason to choose control. Given the extended cut showing us what Shepard does when in control of the Reapers, it is a reasonable option for a Paragon ending. Everyone survives, and the galaxy gets rebuilt with the help of the Reapers. Of course, Shepard is now the new Catalyst and responsible for continuing to police the galaxy against abusive races, so it's not all fun and games.
Let's be fair. The Geth Plasma Shotgun is awesome. The SMG is terrible, the Assault Rifle is mediocre at best, and the Sniper Rifle suffers massively from Shield Gate dispite being the single highest damage weapon in the game. It doesn't matter if you can do 10,000 damage in a shot when 1 damage knocks of their shield and the other 9,999 is blocked.
Really? I found a fully upgraded Geth AR to be pretty badass, and I love the Javelin. Never found the SMG though.
Completely agree with the plasma shotgun. That thing is beastly.
Aldarionn wrote:
CthuluIsSpy wrote:2: Bioware has inherited EA's inability to be subtle, and has adopted a Black and White morality system.
Seriously, in ME3 Renegade = Bad decision, Paragon = Good decision. No middle ground. To top it off, your renegade character now gets scars that are a real pain to remove, just so that everyone may know that Shepard is EEEEEVIL!
fething bs.
I completely disagree. Renegade does NOT mean evil. It means playing fast and loose with the rules for the greater good. For example, Shepard needs to gain Krogan support for Palaven, and to do that he needs to do a favor for the Krogan in the form of curing the Genophage. If Wrex is dead, and you destroyed Maelon's data, Eve will not survive the process and Wreave is the Chief of Clan Urdnot. If the Genophage is cured (the Paragon option), Wreave will help Palaven, but he is an unstable warmonger with no balancing factor to keep him from going on an expansionist crusade across the galaxy after the war with the Reapers. But, if you side with the Salarians and sabotage the cure (the Renegade option), you lie to the Krogan for the good of the galaxy. They help the Turians on their homeworld, but without a real cure of the genophage, they cannot wreck the galaxy after the war. It's not the NICE thing to do, but it's the RIGHT thing to do given the circumstances. The EVIL option is to sabotage the cure if Wrex and Eve are both alive anyway, and you are punished for that decision later when Wrex finds out and tries to kill you on the Citadel.
There is a very big distinction between those two, and I think BioWare has done an excellent job of writing these kinds of moral decisions into the game. Many decisions involve choosing between imperfect options and hoping for the best.
Really? I found that the renegade option always gives a bad result. Like if you choose the save the breeder queen (renegade iirc. Its been a while) you lose grunt, arklakh company AND you get betrayed by the rachni. Likewise, if you try to summarily execute that traitor Udina (renegade), Kaiden/Ashley gets in the way and you have to shoot him/her. You then find out that his death was pointless; it was C-Sec at the elevator the whole time.
And there's still that stupid cosmetic change with all of the scars.
Idk...maybe you had better experiences with renegade than I had, but I feel like I got a bad deal.
Aldarionn wrote:
CthuluIsSpy wrote:4: Bioware still can't make decent endings. Why do the refusal and control options even exist? There is no reason for Shepard to choose them.
Any Shepard, for that matter.
There is little reason to choose refusal, but there is plenty of reason to choose control. Given the extended cut showing us what Shepard does when in control of the Reapers, it is a reasonable option for a Paragon ending. Everyone survives, and the galaxy gets rebuilt with the help of the Reapers. Of course, Shepard is now the new Catalyst and responsible for continuing to police the galaxy against abusive races, so it's not all fun and games.
Here's my problem with the control ending; Shepard just risked his life and the lives of his men to stop the Illusive Man from doing exactly that. Why would he copy his nemesis? Yes, I understand that it would work with Shepard as he isn't indoctrinated, but still, its a bit of a stretch that he would choose the control option.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Really? I found a fully upgraded Geth AR to be pretty badass, and I love the Javelin. Never found the SMG though.
Completely agree with the plasma shotgun. That thing is beastly.
I guess I should clarify. Are you talking about single player only, or multiplayer? Also, what difficulty are you playing on.
Mass Effect 3 has a mechanic called Shield Gate. If a Shield/Barrier is active, and has even 1 point remaining, it will block a certain percentage of damage from carrying over to health. On Bronze/Normal, this is a mere 25%. On Silver/Hardcore it goes up to 75%, and on Gold/Insanity, it used to be 100%. For Insanity in Single Player it is still 100%, and on Gold in Multiplayer they reduced it to 90%.
So for example, that 10,000 damage shot on Insanity against an enemy with 1 point of shields/barrier left will knock off the shield and do no damage to health/armor. The same shot on Normal/Bronze on the other hand will strip the 1 point of shields, and only 25% of the excess 9,999 damage will be blocked, meaning you deal 7,499 damage to health/armor which is enough to kill most enemies. On Normal/Bronze, the Javelin is an excellent weapon, but since I play Hardcore/Silver and Insanity/Gold most of the time, it really loses much of its use because it can only fire a single shot before it needs to be reloaded, giving the opponent's shield time to recharge and block my next shot.
As for the Assault Rifle, it has a high rate of fire, amazing accuracy and almost no recoil to speak of. That said, it does almost no damage. I find it most useful when used with a character that specializes in tech bursts. For example, a Salarian Engineer (Or a Shepard Engineer/Sentinel with Energy Drain), because they can use Disruptor Ammo to prime targets with the Geth Pulse Rifle (the high ROF means it primes targets more often) and use Energy Drain to detonate it, dealing large amounts of damage while simultaneously restoring their shields. Outside of that though, there are much better weapons to use, especially with the new Firefight weapons pack. Give the Harrier a try and you will never use any other Assault Rifle!
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Really? I found that the renegade option always gives a bad result. Like if you choose the save the breeder queen (renegade iirc. Its been a while) you lose grunt, arklakh company AND you get betrayed by the rachni.
This only happens if you did not save the Rachnii Queen in the first game, and if you did not complete Grunt's Loyalty Quest in the second game. If you did both of those, choosing to save the queen (Renegade) will net you the Rachnii as an ally, and while Arlakh Company gets beat to hell, Grunt survives. If instead you opt to destroy the queen, you get Grunt and a full strength Arlakh Company. If you did NOT do both of those, then the true Rachnii Queen is replaced by a cobbled together fake engineered by the Reapers, and it's so unstable that it goes crazy and betrays you if you let it live. And if you did not do Grunt's Loyalty Quest in ME2, he will die instead of surviving when he offers to cover your exit.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Likewise, if you try to summarily execute that traitor Udina (renegade), Kaiden/Ashley gets in the way and you have to shoot him/her. You then find out that his death was pointless; it was C-Sec at the elevator the whole time.
If you read the Dossier on Ashley Williams you will find that you only kill her in that conflict if you were hostile toward her through the earlier parts of the game and fail to talk her down. If you do talk her down (which you can do with Paragon OR Renegade options) she turns her gun on Udina and Udina attempts to kill the Asari Consulate, at which point you can either Renegade Interrupt to shoot him yourself, or if you wait, Ashley does the job for you.
You are not punished by playing Renegade. You are punished for poor decisions relating to a prominent character.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:And there's still that stupid cosmetic change with all of the scars.
It's relatively in-expensive to have them removed in ME2, and personally I kinda like the look. They give Shepard a menacing look that speaks of no nonsense. A Renegade Shepard is not evil. One way or another he is fighting for the survival of the galaxy. He is just harsh in his methods of going about it, and is willing to make the hard decisions to get the job done. He's willing to assassinate a Turian General that would place a personal grudge with the Blue Suns over the good of the war effort. He is willing to let a criminal out of prison and trust that Aria will keep a short leash on her if it means he gets Eclipse support. Alternatively, he can have her assassinated in prison and place her second officer in command. These things might not be by the book, or nice, but they directly work toward the overall good of the galaxy.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Idk...maybe you had better experiences with renegade than I had, but I feel like I got a bad deal.
You have to get into a mindset with it. You are not playing Superman who tries to save everyone with no collateral damage. You are playing Batman, who is willing to bruise a few egos and play fast and loose with the rules to get the job done.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Here's my problem with the control ending; Shepard just risked his life and the lives of his men to stop the Illusive Man from doing exactly that. Why would he copy his nemesis? Yes, I understand that it would work with Shepard as he isn't indoctrinated, but still, its a bit of a stretch that he would choose the control option.
I actually had a bigger problem with this ending until the Extended Cut. Not that the EC really changed much, but it did give me a bit more context about what Shepard would do with that control. I actually tend to pick this option when I play a Renegade Shepard as opposed to Paragon because it was originally the Illusive Man's idea, and a Renegade Shepard might be willing to get in bed with his enemy if it saves the rest of the galaxy. Still, an argument can be made that a Paragon Shepard is making the right choice choosing control, because a destroy choice effectively commits genocide on an entire race without even consider their motives in this whole mess.
Personally, my problems with the ending is not the choices you are given. It's the justification for being forced to make those choices. The Reapers are the creation of some long forgotten race who made an AI to solve the problems between synthetic and organic relations. Synthetics always kill their organic creators as a means of evolving past their influence. So the solution of this organic race being threatened with extinction by their synthetic creations was to create ANOTHER synthetic to solve the problem, and unsurprisingly that synthetic killed them all and turned them into the Reapers against their will, and programmed them to harvest all organic races that come after to prevent those races from destroying themselves with their synthetic creations. The logic is terrible, and it's the biggest plot hole in the entire series in my opinion.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Really? I found a fully upgraded Geth AR to be pretty badass, and I love the Javelin. Never found the SMG though. Completely agree with the plasma shotgun. That thing is beastly.
I guess I should clarify. Are you talking about single player only, or multiplayer? Also, what difficulty are you playing on.
Mass Effect 3 has a mechanic called Shield Gate. If a Shield/Barrier is active, and has even 1 point remaining, it will block a certain percentage of damage from carrying over to health. On Bronze/Normal, this is a mere 25%. On Silver/Hardcore it goes up to 75%, and on Gold/Insanity, it used to be 100%. For Insanity in Single Player it is still 100%, and on Gold in Multiplayer they reduced it to 90%.
So for example, that 10,000 damage shot on Insanity against an enemy with 1 point of shields/barrier left will knock off the shield and do no damage to health/armor. The same shot on Normal/Bronze on the other hand will strip the 1 point of shields, and only 25% of the excess 9,999 damage will be blocked, meaning you deal 7,499 damage to health/armor which is enough to kill most enemies. On Normal/Bronze, the Javelin is an excellent weapon, but since I play Hardcore/Silver and Insanity/Gold most of the time, it really loses much of its use because it can only fire a single shot before it needs to be reloaded, giving the opponent's shield time to recharge and block my next shot.
As for the Assault Rifle, it has a high rate of fire, amazing accuracy and almost no recoil to speak of. That said, it does almost no damage. I find it most useful when used with a character that specializes in tech bursts. For example, a Salarian Engineer (Or a Shepard Engineer/Sentinel with Energy Drain), because they can use Disruptor Ammo to prime targets with the Geth Pulse Rifle (the high ROF means it primes targets more often) and use Energy Drain to detonate it, dealing large amounts of damage while simultaneously restoring their shields. Outside of that though, there are much better weapons to use, especially with the new Firefight weapons pack. Give the Harrier a try and you will never use any other Assault Rifle!
Ah, that would be why. I never play multi, and I played on Normal. Ok, cool.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Really? I found that the renegade option always gives a bad result. Like if you choose the save the breeder queen (renegade iirc. Its been a while) you lose grunt, arklakh company AND you get betrayed by the rachni.
This only happens if you did not save the Rachnii Queen in the first game, and if you did not complete Grunt's Loyalty Quest in the second game. If you did both of those, choosing to save the queen (Renegade) will net you the Rachnii as an ally, and while Arlakh Company gets beat to hell, Grunt survives. If instead you opt to destroy the queen, you get Grunt and a full strength Arlakh Company. If you did NOT do both of those, then the true Rachnii Queen is replaced by a cobbled together fake engineered by the Reapers, and it's so unstable that it goes crazy and betrays you if you let it live. And if you did not do Grunt's Loyalty Quest in ME2, he will die instead of surviving when he offers to cover your exit.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Likewise, if you try to summarily execute that traitor Udina (renegade), Kaiden/Ashley gets in the way and you have to shoot him/her. You then find out that his death was pointless; it was C-Sec at the elevator the whole time.
If you read the Dossier on Ashley Williams you will find that you only kill her in that conflict if you were hostile toward her through the earlier parts of the game and fail to talk her down. If you do talk her down (which you can do with Paragon OR Renegade options) she turns her gun on Udina and Udina attempts to kill the Asari Consulate, at which point you can either Renegade Interrupt to shoot him yourself, or if you wait, Ashley does the job for you.
You are not punished by playing Renegade. You are punished for poor decisions relating to a prominent character.
Aldarionn wrote:
CthuluIsSpy wrote:And there's still that stupid cosmetic change with all of the scars.
It's relatively in-expensive to have them removed in ME2, and personally I kinda like the look. They give Shepard a menacing look that speaks of no nonsense. A Renegade Shepard is not evil. One way or another he is fighting for the survival of the galaxy. He is just harsh in his methods of going about it, and is willing to make the hard decisions to get the job done. He's willing to assassinate a Turian General that would place a personal grudge with the Blue Suns over the good of the war effort. He is willing to let a criminal out of prison and trust that Aria will keep a short leash on her if it means he gets Eclipse support. Alternatively, he can have her assassinated in prison and place her second officer in command. These things might not be by the book, or nice, but they directly work toward the overall good of the galaxy.
Heh, I actually let the general live. Thought it might piss off the turians. I did have that prisoner killed though.
Aldarionn wrote:
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Idk...maybe you had better experiences with renegade than I had, but I feel like I got a bad deal.
You have to get into a mindset with it. You are not playing Superman who tries to save everyone with no collateral damage. You are playing Batman, who is willing to bruise a few egos and play fast and loose with the rules to get the job done.
Oh, I like playing as batman. In the previous games I always went full renegade. Its just that it felt like a raw deal in ME3. Then again, I was playing a new game with no imports. I'll try to import a save and see if that changes anything.
Aldarionn wrote:
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Here's my problem with the control ending; Shepard just risked his life and the lives of his men to stop the Illusive Man from doing exactly that. Why would he copy his nemesis? Yes, I understand that it would work with Shepard as he isn't indoctrinated, but still, its a bit of a stretch that he would choose the control option.
I actually had a bigger problem with this ending until the Extended Cut. Not that the EC really changed much, but it did give me a bit more context about what Shepard would do with that control. I actually tend to pick this option when I play a Renegade Shepard as opposed to Paragon because it was originally the Illusive Man's idea, and a Renegade Shepard might be willing to get in bed with his enemy if it saves the rest of the galaxy. Still, an argument can be made that a Paragon Shepard is making the right choice choosing control, because a destroy choice effectively commits genocide on an entire race without even consider their motives in this whole mess.
Personally, my problems with the ending is not the choices you are given. It's the justification for being forced to make those choices. The Reapers are the creation of some long forgotten race who made an AI to solve the problems between synthetic and organic relations. Synthetics always kill their organic creators as a means of evolving past their influence. So the solution of this organic race being threatened with extinction by their synthetic creations was to create ANOTHER synthetic to solve the problem, and unsurprisingly that synthetic killed them all and turned them into the Reapers against their will, and programmed them to harvest all organic races that come after to prevent those races from destroying themselves with their synthetic creations. The logic is terrible, and it's the biggest plot hole in the entire series in my opinion.
Yeah, the justifications for the choices are horrible. They basically give you no reason for the other choices except for destroy. Deus Ex : HR did the whole "press a button to choose the fate of humanity" thing a lot better, by showing you different points of views and the pros and cons of augmentations. ME3 shows you only one facet of the reapers : that they destroy everything without mercy.
Well I found out why they called it insanity, because it's driving me insane. It just took me 15 attempts to get through the central chamber on the Prison Ship Purgatory (the bit with the YMIR mech). I do recall having loads of difficulty with that section of the level previously on other runs, but if it was that difficult on that level, I'm really not looking forwards to the level on Horizon with the first Praetorian, that was a nightmare even on veteran.
Goliath wrote:Well I found out why they called it insanity, because it's driving me insane. It just took me 15 attempts to get through the central chamber on the Prison Ship Purgatory (the bit with the YMIR mech). I do recall having loads of difficulty with that section of the level previously on other runs, but if it was that difficult on that level, I'm really not looking forwards to the level on Horizon with the first Praetorian, that was a nightmare even on veteran.
Goliath wrote: Well I found out why they called it insanity, because it's driving me insane. It just took me 15 attempts to get through the central chamber on the Prison Ship Purgatory (the bit with the YMIR mech). I do recall having loads of difficulty with that section of the level previously on other runs, but if it was that difficult on that level, I'm really not looking forwards to the level on Horizon with the first Praetorian, that was a nightmare even on veteran.
Goliath wrote:Well I found out why they called it insanity, because it's driving me insane. It just took me 15 attempts to get through the central chamber on the Prison Ship Purgatory (the bit with the YMIR mech). I do recall having loads of difficulty with that section of the level previously on other runs, but if it was that difficult on that level, I'm really not looking forwards to the level on Horizon with the first Praetorian, that was a nightmare even on veteran.
Infiltrator? Vanguard? Soilder? Other?
Adept on this run, but sentinel on the veteran run.
Goliath wrote: Well I found out why they called it insanity, because it's driving me insane. It just took me 15 attempts to get through the central chamber on the Prison Ship Purgatory (the bit with the YMIR mech). I do recall having loads of difficulty with that section of the level previously on other runs, but if it was that difficult on that level, I'm really not looking forwards to the level on Horizon with the first Praetorian, that was a nightmare even on veteran.
I don't remember that in ME3...
It's in ME2, but since there isn't an ME2 thread, I thought a single post commenting on the difficulty I was having would be okay
Goliath wrote:Well I found out why they called it insanity, because it's driving me insane. It just took me 15 attempts to get through the central chamber on the Prison Ship Purgatory (the bit with the YMIR mech). I do recall having loads of difficulty with that section of the level previously on other runs, but if it was that difficult on that level, I'm really not looking forwards to the level on Horizon with the first Praetorian, that was a nightmare even on veteran.
Infiltrator? Vanguard? Soilder? Other?
Adept on this run, but sentinel on the veteran run.
Goliath wrote: Well I found out why they called it insanity, because it's driving me insane. It just took me 15 attempts to get through the central chamber on the Prison Ship Purgatory (the bit with the YMIR mech). I do recall having loads of difficulty with that section of the level previously on other runs, but if it was that difficult on that level, I'm really not looking forwards to the level on Horizon with the first Praetorian, that was a nightmare even on veteran.
I don't remember that in ME3...
It's in ME2, but since there isn't an ME2 thread, I thought a single post commenting on the difficulty I was having would be okay
I thought those names looked familar! Its been a while since I played ME2 though.
Right now I'm playing ME1 so I can have an imported save...its not as good as I remember it.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Right now I'm playing ME1 so I can have an imported save...its not as good as I remember it.
The wonders of nostalgia eh?
Yeah, you may recall a level where you have to destroy three YMIR mechs before they destroy some smuggled goods. It just took me at least 20 attempts and a trip to the wiki for tactics help. I attempted that far far far too early. They'll stay the same level no matter when I try the mission, but I'll get stronger as I play the game, so I should probably have done it a bit later.
CthuluIsSpy wrote:Right now I'm playing ME1 so I can have an imported save...its not as good as I remember it.
The wonders of nostalgia eh?
Just did the same for an Infiltrator. It all feels so clunky!
Your squad members are totally thick and will stand shooting at a solid wall unless you order them into a better position, the varieties of each weapon type all work the same way, the inventory is infuriating, the quest journal sucks and you can win almost any battle by using Biotics to ragdoll the enemy (Mastered Throw will fling anyone into a heap) and then just blast them.
Still a good story though so it shall stay installed
Makes me laugh when I look at the Bioware forums and see someone saying that ME1 is better in every way to ME3. They obviously haven't played the first one in a while
Mind you, just moved onto ME2 and that still feels clunky compared to ME3. Not being able to seamlessly get out of cover into a sprint or roll to a different bit of cover is annoying.
I think I was correct about doing the levels out of order meaning that I was having trouble, I've been doing story missions and they've been fairly easy so far, I and I've only died a couple of times.
I've even got my sanity back Just one question though, Do the bonus powers you use in ME2 get carried over to ME3?
I'm not sure i did an insanity run on ME2. I played the whole game through on Veteran on my first playthrough though, because I refuse to play on normal. Gonna have to go back and do Insanity on ME1 and ME2 for completion sake now.
I remember things being MUCH easier with an Infiltrator on ME2. Tactical Cloak was basically true invisibility in that game, so it made harder difficulty runs a lot easier.
I've just restarted ME1 on Hardcore, so I can unlock Insanity. I have an eventual goal of having all three Mass Effect games in my complete section of my achievements tab.
I tried Insanity on ME2 ages back, but got annoyed with it, and chickened out back to Normal. Going to force my way through this time on Hardcore, then repeat ME1-3 on Insanity. Although, the thought of the fight with the Shadowbroker and the corrupt Spectre sends shivers of horror down my spine.
Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote: the fight with the Shadowbroker and the corrupt Spectre sends shivers of horror down my spine.
God damn spoilers XD Yes I havn't played the SB DLC. Even then its a minor add on. Gotta get back into ME1, got 2 characters ready to go. Male Infiltrator and a female soldier. Any idea who is gonna be the paragon and the renegade? lol
I'll be doing Leviathan right when it comes out. It looks pretty awesome, thought whether or not it comes out tomorrow or next week I'm not sure. It should be out by the end of this month either way.
Aldarionn wrote: I'll be doing Leviathan right when it comes out. It looks pretty awesome, thought whether or not it comes out tomorrow or next week I'm not sure. It should be out by the end of this month either way.
KamikazeCanuck wrote: Not sure which is my favorite Mass Effect. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. I guess we should treat them as one giant game anyway .
Wait...so does that mean that Bioware just pulled an Activision/Blizzard?
A training center will only take a recruit so far. Our recruits need field experience, so it’s time to integrate them with seasoned squads during our next series of sweeps.
Individual Goal: Promote 2 characters
Allied Goal: Promote 50,000 characters
Special Circumstance: None
Individual Goal Success: All players awarded a Commendation Pack
Allied Goal Success: All players awarded a Victory Pack and an increase to medi-gel capacity
Really.. well I can do that in two minutes, with the changes to the single player, I haven't felt the need to promote anyone else, was just building them all up to twenty.
Just got to make sure I promote two classes I enjoy playing.
A training center will only take a recruit so far. Our recruits need field experience, so it’s time to integrate them with seasoned squads during our next series of sweeps.
Individual Goal: Promote 2 characters
Allied Goal: Promote 50,000 characters
Special Circumstance: None
Individual Goal Success: All players awarded a Commendation Pack
Allied Goal Success: All players awarded a Victory Pack and an increase to medi-gel capacity
Whelp, all my classes are 20 so I think I'll just promote everything this weekend and do my part to help with the 50k overall. If I promote another 4 classes after that I'll be at N7 1,500 even. That's a good number.
I foresee a number of bronze games this weekend lol.
Edit - Either that, or we try the level 1 Gold challenge. We would need a 4th other than Eddie though.
Unfortunately I am working straight through the weekend so my play time will be limited strictly to evenings 6:30-11:00ish on Saturday and Sunday, and perhaps a few hours on Friday evening.
So Um yea played a few games just now and ME3 matchmaking decided to troll me. After a few silver I decide to do a bronze just because. It put me into a Platinum match.
So here I am a level 16 with rather pathetic guns (M-8 Avanger and the Carnifex heavy pistol) and no gear added. Safe to say I got killed alot. Sadly we only made it to wave 10(I joined at wave 8 I think).
That happens from time to time, and it's amusing, especially if you get thrown into an existing game. If you didn't equip consumables there is no reason not to at least try and finish. At worst you waste 5 of each of your equipment, but if you get ANY wave completed you make it back with a single Jumbo Equipment Pack purchase.
I got thrown into a Gold match once when I was looking for a Silver.
Managed to finish off two rounds (7 and 8) single-handedly after my team-mates got themselves killed (it seems their survival plan when one person was taken down was to just charge up to the body and try to revive it despite it being surrounded by Reapers, end result is they're all dead and I can't get to them without also dying).
I ended up running around in circles round the map (the Palaven moon one) being chased by a Banshee whilst blasting it and Cannibals in the face with a shotgun. Gotta love Krogan soldiers.
We all died on round 9 though so all that hard work was for nothing
Gutted, got to lvl 10 of a Gold game and it borked... about 20 secs away from the end of a download signal. Would have been my first Gold as well.
Sadly leader had no option to log us out, and we lost all the goodies. Happened on a Bronze later on as well, net was playing up something rotten last night.
On a side note, is that the standard fare for a Gold match, all hide in a dead end, and blitz stuff when it gets close?
Oh and I think I got the goal, will find out this week. on a side note, came into a game with my Lvl 1 Quarian Engineer (trying to start raising it again as its my fave class) and helped through to the end to discover I'd joined a silver. Did pretty well, so I think when I get her back lvl 20, might start trying gold.
Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote: Gutted, got to lvl 10 of a Gold game and it borked... about 20 secs away from the end of a download signal. Would have been my first Gold as well.
Sadly leader had no option to log us out, and we lost all the goodies. Happened on a Bronze later on as well, net was playing up something rotten last night.
Well that sucks. It's never fun getting kicked out of a Gold game by internet problems. Likely the host lost his connection, and you were kicked as a result. That happens from time to time, and on wave 10 it's especially painful.
Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote: On a side note, is that the standard fare for a Gold match, all hide in a dead end, and blitz stuff when it gets close?
It depends. What map were you playing on?
Many people farm Fire Base White, Fire Base Rio, Fire Base Glacier, and probably a few others, because they have solid, defensible positions where you can hang out as a group the whole time and kill anything that gets close. I would not say it's the "norm" for a Gold game, but it's definitely a sound strategy because it's efficient and low risk. Most people that dislike that type of game dislike it because it gets boring after a while, but you cannot blame people for picking an efficient strategy and sticking with it. I always tell people to play with friends if they don't want to farm. When I play with Lord Shiv and Kanluwen, we rarely farm matches that way, but when I'm playing alone more than half my matches end up being farms because that's what random players do.
As long as you promoted two characters you got the goal completed.
Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote: on a side note, came into a game with my Lvl 1 Quarian Engineer (trying to start raising it again as its my fave class) and helped through to the end to discover I'd joined a silver. Did pretty well, so I think when I get her back lvl 20, might start trying gold.
Yeah, give Gold a shot more often. If you happen to be on 360, I'll be more than happy to run some games with you to get your feet wet. I'm busy as hell this week, but next week I should have an easier schedule for play. Let me know.
The lvl was the labs one, can't remember its name. We holed up in the little control room that looks down over a sub room and has a corridor running down from it, and a room opposite it. Our leader picked that lvl and the geth as opponents.
I was playing the Asari Justicar adapt, so was bubbling all the time, while the whip adapt kept casting the whips through the walls, and two Vorcha with flamethrower things minced anything that came in close. Had one escort we had to do, and that final upload, got lucky and had no kill target missions.
JUst a shame as I did that one from round 1, where as the silver I joined at round 4.
Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote: The lvl was the labs one, can't remember its name. We holed up in the little control room that looks down over a sub room and has a corridor running down from it, and a room opposite it. Our leader picked that lvl and the geth as opponents.
I was playing the Asari Justicar adapt, so was bubbling all the time, while the whip adapt kept casting the whips through the walls, and two Vorcha with flamethrower things minced anything that came in close. Had one escort we had to do, and that final upload, got lucky and had no kill target missions.
JUst a shame as I did that one from round 1, where as the silver I joined at round 4.
That's Fire Base Glacier. It's one of the easier maps to farm, especially the way you did it. The Phoenix characters are excellent on that map because they can smash through the walls and still hit whats on the other side without taking any fire.
It might be better to try a few Gold games on Unknown/Unknown to really get a feeling for what Gold is all about. Playing on farm games is a good way to get your feet wet and see how the waves progress, but it won't really improve your skill.
So far:
I'm liking it. I got some weapon mod, the "SMG Mass Pulse Recoil System" but cannot find it to equip it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Multiplayer Balance Changes are up!
Ald, we are gonna be loving these...
Eric Fagnan wrote: Gold and Platinum Difficulties
- Enemy shield/barrier damage gates on weapon damage reduced from 90% to 75%, which means
25% of the remaining weapon damage will pass through to health.
Medigel maximum capacity increased from 5 to 6 due to the success of Operation Alloy
Falcon Assault Rifle
- Encumbrance decreased from [2.0-1.4] to [1.75-1]
Geth Pulse Rifle
- Damage increased from [24.1-30.1] to [27.4-34.2]
Hawk Missile Launcher Power
- Rank 3 damage bonus increased from 20% to 30%
- Evolve 1 shield penalty reduction increased from 15% to 25%
- Evolve 2 damage bonus increased from 30% to 40%
- Evolve 3 missile refire time reduction increased from 25% to 35%
- Evolve 5 damage of split missiles increased from 50% to 75%
- Evolve 6 damage bonus increased from 100% to 150%
So far:
I'm liking it. I got some weapon mod, the "SMG Mass Pulse Recoil System" but cannot find it to equip it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Multiplayer Balance Changes are up!
Ald, we are gonna be loving these...
Eric Fagnan wrote: Gold and Platinum Difficulties
- Enemy shield/barrier damage gates on weapon damage reduced from 90% to 75%, which means
25% of the remaining weapon damage will pass through to health.
Medigel maximum capacity increased from 5 to 6 due to the success of Operation Alloy
Falcon Assault Rifle
- Encumbrance decreased from [2.0-1.4] to [1.75-1]
Geth Pulse Rifle
- Damage increased from [24.1-30.1] to [27.4-34.2]
Hawk Missile Launcher Power
- Rank 3 damage bonus increased from 20% to 30%
- Evolve 1 shield penalty reduction increased from 15% to 25%
- Evolve 2 damage bonus increased from 30% to 40%
- Evolve 3 missile refire time reduction increased from 25% to 35%
- Evolve 5 damage of split missiles increased from 50% to 75%
- Evolve 6 damage bonus increased from 100% to 150%
Hmmm, missile launcher buff. That's pretty nice. Perhaps I will have to try a missile launcher build now that my Soldier is level 1 again.
And yes, I think we do need to run some Gold games, but I need to rebuild my team. Currently it's in pretty sad shape after I promoted everyone for the event last weekend. My Soldier and Adept are at level 15ish, and I think my Sentinel is around level 10, but everything else is below that by quite a bit.
Well I've been doing that myself, and to be honest I won't have a lot of time to play this weekend because I'm working straight through, but I will be off on Monday, and I'll likely be playing most of the day until people show up for Pathfinder.
I dug leviathan too but I think we knew this stuff already from the ending Extended Cut.
Anyways, I think I accidentally killed someone in it because I was impatient... D'oh!
Well, the extended cut did go over some of the stuff, but what we DIDN'T know was that the Leviathans were not originally part of the wars that were causing their thrall races to destroy themselves. They simply wished to end those wars, because without the thrall races they cannot survive in any meaningful fashion. So they created the Catylist to preserve life thinking they were so far above the thrall races that they were infallible, and could not suffer from the same problems as those lesser races. Of course the plan backfired in the biggest way possible and Harbinger was born, and the harvest began.
So we got a motive as to why they created a synthetic to solve that particular problem, and an acceptable enough answer as to why they followed the logic they did. For my money, it most certainly cleared up my biggest problem with the ending, and the rest of it can be hand-waived away with suspension of disbelief.
The biggest question is "What happens after?"
The Synthesis ending should theoretically satisfy the Leviathans because if you choose that route, the Catalyst has served its final purpose. The wars between synthetics and organics end, and everyone has a new understanding of life in its various forms, thus life is preserved and there is peace throughout the galaxy.
Control puts the Reapers under Shepards command, but the problem has not been solved and ultimately Shepard would be responsible for wiping out races that become disruptive to galactic peace, which could very well include the remaining Leviathans since they need to enthrall races in order to thrive. If they ever wanted to expand, they would begin subjugating lesser races to rebuild their empire, and the Reapers would probably return to deal with them, sparking another massive war.
In the destroy ending, the Reapers are gone and their objective was never achieved. Theoretically this is complete failure for the Leviathans. Their creation never fulfilled its purpose and the wars continue. All tech is gone, but everyone eventually rebuilds and creates new tech and new synthetics, which perpetuates the problem. Additionally, there is nobody alive to oppose the Leviathans should they desire to rebuild their empire. Assuming there are enough of them alive to repopulate, they would enthrall the current races of the galaxy to do their bidding.
It's definitely an interesting addition to the game in my opinion. I find it amusing that everyone hemmed and hawed at the ending being so vague, forcing BioWare to release the Extended Cut, and then this DLC includes all of that information and more. Had we just waited for the first DLC, most of our questions regarding the ending itself would have been answered. I think that since BioWare obviously had this DLC in mind well before the game was released, they lost sight of exactly what the on-disk ending meant and how little context it actually gave with regards to Shepard and his team, and what happens to the galaxy afterward. It would have behooved them to consider the transition a little better, and make it clearer that there was more to the ending than meets the eye, but I presume that EA threw a release date at them and they could not do everything they wanted before that time elapsed.
I wouldn't say there is nobody alive to oppose them.
A person seems to need to spend time close to an artifact or a Leviathan itself for them to be able to exert control, so once the war is done all the races would have to do is destroy the artifacts and make the Leviathan's planet a no go area.
They seem to just want to be left alone and if they try anything you just get the Turians to annihilate them from orbit.
FM Ninja 048 wrote: holy wall of spoilers Aldarionn, some of us haven't played Leviathan yet...
This thread is FULL of spoilers for the entire game. My recommendation is if you do not want spoilers, do not visit Mass Effect related sites until you have played the content you want, or you risk seeing spoilers. I saw Leviathan spoilers on the bloody Multiplayer BSN page of all places. I used to post spoiler tags in here. I don't any more because frankly it doesn't seem necessary with the mountain of spoiler material already being discussed openly.
For what it's worth, I apologize if I spoiled things for you.
Raaaaaaage.
Final level? Check
Just killed the destroyer? Check
Cutscene with the crucible entering the solar system, then loads of talking starts? Check
Juddery as all hell, causing me to lose any immersion in the game? Check
Game freezes up, causing PS3 to need to be restarted as I start the final run towards the beam? Check, check and check.
Now I'm not certain about how the saves work on PS3, but I had that happen on my 360 and when I re-loaded the game had auto-saved at the beam. I actually had it freeze just after killing Marauder Shields, so when I loaded back in I just had to kill him again and take the beam up to the Citadel. If you froze during the run to the beam, but before you get nailed by Harbinger, it should just be a reload and run again.
Aldarionn wrote: Now I'm not certain about how the saves work on PS3, but I had that happen on my 360 and when I re-loaded the game had auto-saved at the beam. I actually had it freeze just after killing Marauder Shields, so when I loaded back in I just had to kill him again and take the beam up to the Citadel. If you froze during the run to the beam, but before you get nailed by Harbinger, it should just be a reload and run again.
Agreed, theres a fair few auto saves around the end there, there should be one late enough that you wont have to do the whole run again...
Oh, it saved at the top of the crater thing, I just found it really irritating that I'd been playing for about 3-4 hours (uni doesn't start for another 2.5 weeks so I have loads of free time) with no problems, then the game builds towards its difficulty and emotional climax and... It breaks, meaning I have to shut it down, run a disk check and then try again, so there was an interval of about 20 minutes between destroying the reaper and making the final run, ruining almost all of the immersion.
Also, did anyone else go for the synthesis option? It was pushed quite hard by the catalyst, but the whole "everyone is now partially synthetic, you can tell because they have glowing green lines on" was kinda wierd.
I also thought that the fact that no-one in the entire galaxy freaked out over the fact that they now had green lines on their skin that were glowing kind of odd.
Ahhh good, at least you didnt have to go back to the whole 'shooting the missiles/surviving in the most awkward street ever' bit....
Know what you mean about the loss of immersion though, i had similar things happen to me across all 3 games at similar points (including a save point inside a wall in ME1....bloody clipping)
Agreed, i found it odd how everyone was fine with it. If it had really happened people would have lost their minds!
Revenent Reiko wrote: Agreed, i found it odd how everyone was fine with it. If it had really happened people would have lost their minds!
Exactly, I mean, I get that they're fighting for their lives against the reapers at this point and they've probably seen some pretty wierd stuff, but that doesnt mean that they arent going to turn around and go "HOLY F*** MY ARM IS GLOWING."
And another thing, why was it that the krogan who were fully encased in their armour had glowing lines on the armour? The armour wasn't organic, nor was it a synthetic life form, so why on earth (or tuchanka in this case) would it start glowing?
Revenent Reiko wrote: Agreed, i found it odd how everyone was fine with it. If it had really happened people would have lost their minds!
Exactly, I mean, I get that they're fighting for their lives against the reapers at this point and they've probably seen some pretty wierd stuff, but that doesnt mean that they arent going to turn around and go "HOLY F*** MY ARM IS GLOWING."
And another thing, why was it that the krogan who were fully encased in their armour had glowing lines on the armour? The armour wasn't organic, nor was it a synthetic life form, so why on earth (or tuchanka in this case) would it start glowing?
That is all.
Yeah, im with you! TBH, there would be a difference between what you would see in the war (some pretty brutal stuff i would imagine) and then suddenly being part synthetic...i can tell you straight off the bat that would feth with my head....
I dont agree with the Krogan armour, i thought it was that everything was made partly synthetic...at least thats how i remember it, i may well be wrong.....
Ald...they are giving us the most bizarre operation this weekend.
Unexpected attacks have taken out several squads and damaged vital Alliance equipment. We will deploy drones to repair damage and investigate the nature of these attacks.
Individual Goal: Complete up to and including wave 10 on any difficulty without using a consumable (medi-gel, ammo, Ops pack or Cobra missile launcher)
Allied Goal: Complete 250,000 escort missions on any difficulty.
Special Circumstance: None
Individual Goal Success: All individual players awarded a Commendation Pack
Allied Goal Success: All players awarded a Victory Pack
Kanluwen wrote: APPARENTLY, the "Individual Goal" requires all players in the game to not use any consumables.
That will be quite interesting.
They've actually changed it to a squad goal. I'm kind of disappointed that they constantly come up with unclear or blatantly wrong wording for these contests and have to change them. They can't use Englsih as a second language as an excuse like those Ubi branded Canucks! Either way, I'm out of town and away from the old xbox so won't be able to help this time around.
I'm hoping that the next round of multiplayer DLC will come out next week. The last N7 weekend completion fluff text had the usual cryptic mention of something new happening but wasn't follwed by new DLC as in previous months. I guess we'll find out when the followup post to this weekend's contest is posted next week.
Kanluwen wrote: APPARENTLY, the "Individual Goal" requires all players in the game to not use any consumables.
That will be quite interesting.
Looks like I'll be soloing another bronze match on my Fury, though it's going to take two or three times as long without being able to use medi-gel or an ops pack. Dark Channel is going to be my friend.
It really shouldn't be that hard. We just can't make mistakes or run off like idiots playing rambo. Move together, fight together, and revive wherever possible.
Still haven't tried the Extended Cut yet. I admit I'm a little afraid of it messing up the nice closure I cobbled together in my headcanon.
By the way, just stumbled over these:
Have to confess, I'm somewhat unimpressed - it seems as if they could've done with a higher framerate, and definitively better music. The one they chose for the trailers is almost anticlimatic. Would have expected better from the studio that made GitS.
Then again, comparing the trailers for the Dragon Age movie with the final product, maybe they somehow just suck at doing previews. Here's hoping BW/EA actually allowed the studio a big enough budget instead of trying a cheap moneygrab based almost entirely on the license, like I still suspect was the deal with GW's Ultramarine movie.
It looks like an interesting project. Of course, I'm a whore so I'll buy it when it comes out regardless. Personally I like the style and I'm glad they got some of the same voice actors from the game to do the characters.
Aldarionn wrote: It really shouldn't be that hard. We just can't make mistakes or run off like idiots playing rambo. Move together, fight together, and revive wherever possible.
It's not that hard (especially if you're doing bronze) but I suspect there will be alot of trolls that solo it for themselves and then use an ammo or spec ops pack without mentioning to purposely screw over the other players. There is no way to monitor that unfortunately so I'd probably recommend doing a solo bronze with a very tanky or stealthy character or doing the squad goal only with friends.
Aldarionn wrote: It really shouldn't be that hard. We just can't make mistakes or run off like idiots playing rambo. Move together, fight together, and revive wherever possible.
It's not that hard (especially if you're doing bronze) but I suspect there will be alot of trolls that solo it for themselves and then use an ammo or spec ops pack without mentioning to purposely screw over the other players. There is no way to monitor that unfortunately so I'd probably recommend doing a solo bronze with a very tanky or stealthy character or doing the squad goal only with friends.
Or if your lucky, then have 3 friends join you. I'm not that lucky though. I think i managed it earlier but like you said theres no way to monitor usage of certain packs. Medi-gel and rockets are pretty easy to spot though XD
EDIT: Dammit my eyes decided to not register the last part of that post that mentioned friends.... maybe i should go sleep....
I tried soloing it a bunch of times on Friday night, but I kept having problems. The game kept throwing me retrieve objectives, which sounds super easy until you end up having to walk all the way across Fire Base Giant as a Fury with no consumables and no ability to teleport-jump. When I switched to Fire Base Glacier, they stared giving me 1234 objectives which are hard to do on that map against Cerberus. Perhaps I should try against Geth.
I'd use my Krogan Vanguard, but after the promotions from the last event, my team has not fully recovered, and my vanguard is the lowest priority.
Ah yes... the pc gaming master race with its glorious high res textures and nude elcor mods! Kan, I too am part of the console proletariat. PM incoming in case you need a middle man for ME3.
This makes you come across as incredibly arrogant.
Aw, c'mon. I'm fairly sure he just did that because of the comic and the cliché. The "PC Master Race" term is obviously intended to let PC users, even PC users in general come off as arrogant pricks, but why would anyone willingly admit to being "that guy"?
It was a joke, and I had to smirk. And I say that whilst having had huge disagreements with him in this very thread before!
Karon wrote: It was indeed a joke, plebeian console peasants.
Yes but if you remember, Mass Effect 1 (and 2 I think?) was a console exclusive, so you would not even have this game to play if it were not for us console peasants, getting our hands dirty with things like controllers and red rings of death. If it weren't for us, out on the front lines of gaming, your PC Master Race would have far fewer titles to choose from. It's time we threw off the stigma of being "Filthy Console Gamers" and drag the PC's down into the mud with us! Rise up Con's! We won't stand for these PriCks insulting us any more!
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September 11, 2012
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Overload Power
- Duration that Tech Burst power combos are set up increased from 3.5 to 5 seconds
Cryo Blast Power
- Base duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
- Base cooldown reduced from 6 to 5 seconds
- Evolve 3 movement speed penalty increased from 20% to 30%
- Evolve 5 recharge speed bonus increased from 50% to 100%
Crusader Shotgun
- Damage increased from [530.9-663.6] to [573.4-716.75]
Graal Shotgun
- Damage increased from [80.0-100.0] to [88.0-110.0]
- Damage multiplier for head shots increased from 2.5 to 3.0
Kishock Sniper Rifle
- Damage increased from [645.4-806.8] to [774.5-968.1]
- Percentage of total damage that is done as bleed damage increased from 20% to 33%
- Bleed damage duration remains at 10 seconds
Interesting changes. That's a pretty huge buff to the Kishock, and a reasonable buff to the Crusader, though it's still crap until it gets a scope. The Cryo Blast buff is kinda nice since it will make setting up explosions quicker and easier. Ultimately it's useless though until they unlock fire/ice blasts. I'm not positive what good the Overload buff does.....I've never really used it to PRIME combos. Only detonate.
Can't really see why you'd want a scope on the Crusader.
I've always viewed it as a medium range weapon if you're going for headshots. At long range you aim for the body to be sure you hit (and with good mods and a weapon damage build a bodyshot is enough to kill unprotected enemies anyway, at least on silver), the only exception being Guardians due to their slow movement and the fact you know exactly where their head is behind the shield.
johnscott wrote:Console exclusive?? I find that hard to believe when I have both 1 & 2 sitting on my shelf for the PC.
Knowing my luck however I have managed to completely miss that the part I quoted was also a joke within a running joke.
Well 1 was released on 360 first and ported to PC later. ME2 was released for 360 and PC at the same time.
And ironically, ME2 is much more consoley than ME1.
johnscott wrote:Console exclusive?? I find that hard to believe when I have both 1 & 2 sitting on my shelf for the PC. Knowing my luck however I have managed to completely miss that the part I quoted was also a joke within a running joke.
Well 1 was released on 360 first and ported to PC later. ME2 was released for 360 and PC at the same time.
And ironically, ME2 is much more consoley than ME1.
If by consoley you mean streamlined then yes. A lot of the people who complain about 2 and 3 seem to have forgotten how bad some of the stuff in ME1 was.
- The inventory was a total mess and a nightmare to use with its 150 item cap and complete lack of any sorting feature. - The quest journal and Galaxy Map were rubbish. Finding the right system for a side quest was so annoying, considering there was no indication on the map of which cluster you had to go to, so instead you had to leave the map, open your journal, find the quest, read through it to find the system and cluster and then head back into the map. - The weapons were all identical in their function. - A lot of the side quests were just "go to this planet, land in the Mako, drive over some cliffs to a building whilst hoping not to encounter a Thresher Maw, enter the building and kill everything inside, profit."
I boarded the ME train late and played the three games back to back just this year (started 2 months prior to me3's release). ME1 basically felt like KOTOR without the ability to turn off the autostop between game turns and I really didn't enjoy the very beginning due to crap gear and low skills. My soldier couldn't hit the broad side of a barn at 30 paces with his assault rifle (the reticle was bigger than the me3 claymore one!) and I felt like a drunk sailor trying to play darts when using the sniper.. I actually found it more effective to simply let the crosshair wander instead of adjusting it and simply pressing the trigger when it meandered over an enemy. I joked about the Mako finally making me appreciate how "stable" the halo warthog was but I found the driving parts to be enjoyable overall in the end as was the combat in the later 2/3 of the game. ME2 felt like a huge improvement with its combat action style but still truely felt like an RPG as it kept those great elements from the first game... about the only "complaints" I had were that the scanning was tedious and I didn't like the idea of thermal clip ammo introduced after the cooldown mechanic of the first game (it felt less futuristic to me). The 3rd game was good storywise right up until the end (which definitely soured the overall experience) but went too far down the action road for me personally and crossed the line from RPG with action elements firmly into a 3rd person action game with RPG elements. The multiplayer, despite all the flak it gets online, really took me out of my comfort zone though as I had only played soldiers in the 4 playthroughs of the previous games since I didn't feel comfortable with the biotics (especially in the 1st game).
I've always viewed it as a medium range weapon if you're going for headshots. At long range you aim for the body to be sure you hit (and with good mods and a weapon damage build a bodyshot is enough to kill unprotected enemies anyway, at least on silver), the only exception being Guardians due to their slow movement and the fact you know exactly where their head is behind the shield.
The point is, the Crusader is a Black Widow with an extra shot instead of the scope. The way the reticle works is wonky on a shotgun making aiming more difficult, and without the added accuracy of a scope, it makes using the weapon far more problematic than it's worth. If I want to use weapon that behaves like a Sniper Rifle, I'm going to use a Sniper Rifle. If I want to play a Shotgun Infiltrator, I'm going to use the Piranha or the GPS.
Also, it's f***ing heavy! Too heavy to use on anything that actually uses powers, and on classes that don't need a fast cooldown (Infiltrators, Destroyers, Demolishers, Krogan Soldier/Sentinel) there are MANY better weapons to take........like a Black Widow.........
A Town Called Malus wrote: Why would you take a Black Widow on a Krogan Soldier? You can't stick a knife to a Black Widow!
I actually use a claymore/widow combo with my krogan. I don't know if its due to the shotty sniper mode of Halo creeping in or the idea that a real son of Tuchanka only needs one bullet to kill a foe! If it's still moving, it needs a good solid headbutt to finish it off.
johnscott wrote:Console exclusive?? I find that hard to believe when I have both 1 & 2 sitting on my shelf for the PC.
Knowing my luck however I have managed to completely miss that the part I quoted was also a joke within a running joke.
Well 1 was released on 360 first and ported to PC later. ME2 was released for 360 and PC at the same time.
And ironically, ME2 is much more consoley than ME1.
If by consoley you mean streamlined then yes. A lot of the people who complain about 2 and 3 seem to have forgotten how bad some of the stuff in ME1 was.
No, its much more based towards having a console controller actually in your hand IMO, rather than using a keyboard...
A Town Called Malus wrote: - The inventory was a total mess and a nightmare to use with its 150 item cap and complete lack of any sorting feature.
Apart from going in to each weapon/Mod and looking that way....in fact, theres no way not to sort items...
A Town Called Malus wrote: - The quest journal and Galaxy Map were rubbish. Finding the right system for a side quest was so annoying, considering there was no indication on the map of which cluster you had to go to, so instead you had to leave the map, open your journal, find the quest, read through it to find the system and cluster and then head back into the map.
Except that you can go straight from the map to the journal, and God forbid you have to remember something as opposed to you having a marker that tells you exactly where it is...
A Town Called Malus wrote: - A lot of the side quests were just "go to this planet, land in the Mako, drive over some cliffs to a building whilst hoping not to encounter a Thresher Maw, enter the building and kill everything inside, profit."
Agreed, my single biggest problem with ME1, i LOVE the Mako, but not every planet has to be 'Mountains-with-some-plateaus'
warboss wrote: The multiplayer, despite all the flak it gets online, really took me out of my comfort zone though as I had only played soldiers in the 4 playthroughs of the previous games since I didn't feel comfortable with the biotics (especially in the 1st game).
Biotics in the first game were so overpowered by the end it was hilarious. You could Throw/Singularity/Lift literally anybody with them having no defence against it. Robo-Saren was so easy when you just keep throwing him into the wall and blasting him whilst he can't move. Throw was especially powerful as you got massive force and a large radius in the first game, rather than choosing which one to have in the sequels.
A Town Called Malus wrote: Biotics in the first game were so overpowered by the end it was hilarious. You could Throw/Singularity/Lift literally anybody with them having no defence against it. Robo-Saren was so easy when you just keep throwing him into the wall and blasting him whilst he can't move. Throw was especially powerful as you got massive force and a large radius in the first game, rather than choosing which one to have in the sequels.
They're still pretty powerful IMO. I played a soldier on my first me3 runthrough and struggled a bit at certain points mainly due to a lack of ammo (even on regular difficulty). After playing the multiplayer and getting used to the biotics, my second playthrough is now as a sentinel (basically an asari adept with tech armor power wise) and I'm finding the game slightly easier on Insanity than I did on regular due to the biotics.
A Town Called Malus wrote: - The quest journal and Galaxy Map were rubbish. Finding the right system for a side quest was so annoying, considering there was no indication on the map of which cluster you had to go to, so instead you had to leave the map, open your journal, find the quest, read through it to find the system and cluster and then head back into the map.
Except that you can go straight from the map to the journal, and God forbid you have to remember something as opposed to you having a marker that tells you exactly where it is...
It's not hard to have a little bookmark on the map telling you that in that particular cluster there is a mission for you to do. It isn't a bad thing to have a clearly marked map so the player knows whereabouts they should be looking without having to flick back and forth between several different screens and looking through all their missions in the journal in case there are two missions in the same cluster.
Every Assault Rifle is fully automatic, every sniper rifle is bolt action etc. You effectively got one assault rifle, one sniper rifle, one pistol and one shotgun which come in a variety of different shapes and colours.
A Town Called Malus wrote: - The inventory was a total mess and a nightmare to use with its 150 item cap and complete lack of any sorting feature.
Apart from going in to each weapon/Mod and looking that way....in fact, theres no way not to sort items...
That's fine and dandy until you try to sell something to make some space. Then you realise that all of those upgrades are scattered throughout a long list of all your items, with no way of narrowing down the number of items you're looking through such as sorting it to show only ammo mods, or only weapons.
A Town Called Malus wrote: - The quest journal and Galaxy Map were rubbish. Finding the right system for a side quest was so annoying, considering there was no indication on the map of which cluster you had to go to, so instead you had to leave the map, open your journal, find the quest, read through it to find the system and cluster and then head back into the map.
Except that you can go straight from the map to the journal, and God forbid you have to remember something as opposed to you having a marker that tells you exactly where it is...
It's not hard to have a little bookmark on the map telling you that in that particular cluster there is a mission for you to do. It isn't a bad thing to have a clearly marked map so the player knows whereabouts they should be looking without having to flick back and forth between several different screens and looking through all their missions in the journal in case there are two missions in the same cluster.
It isnt that hard to read and remember either. Obviously they changed it for the later games, but it really isnt difficult to just read the journal entry and then remember what it says...
Every Assault Rifle is fully automatic, every sniper rifle is bolt action etc. You effectively got one assault rifle, one sniper rifle, one pistol and one shotgun which come in a variety of different shapes and colours.
...And different specs of course, that being the point...
Honestly, i didnt care that they all worked the same way, it was the increase in 'power' that i was interested in (and the look of some of them, some weapons just dont look as good)...
A Town Called Malus wrote: - The inventory was a total mess and a nightmare to use with its 150 item cap and complete lack of any sorting feature.
Apart from going in to each weapon/Mod and looking that way....in fact, theres no way not to sort items...
That's fine and dandy until you try to sell something to make some space. Then you realise that all of those upgrades are scattered throughout a long list of all your items, with no way of narrowing down the number of items you're looking through such as sorting it to show only ammo mods, or only weapons.
I just sold in order, it is sorted from lowest upgrade to highest, so i sell from the top upwards, occasionally checking that im not selling something i dont have a spare of...yeah it wasnt the best system in the world, but neither is it particularly difficult to use, its not like the order changes every time you sell something (like...some other game i own and cant remember the name of right now)
Karon wrote: You are okay with just having "Generic Shotgun/Sniper Rifle/AR/Pistol" with higher numbers?
That sounds incredibly boring, and one of the reasons I find combat in ME1 a chore more than actual fun.
Yes. While it is better having a more diverse set of weapons, it really didnt impact with me that much at all. I expect AR to be full auto (or burst if you dont hold the trigger as it were), for a shotgun to be a shotgun, or not to have an assault/machine pistol, but to have a semi instead (wow, that sounds more wrong than i wanted it to...) etc. Im fine with that. While a Sniper Rifle with a magazine as opposed to bolt action would have been nice, it doesnt instantly make it boring either when that isnt included.
ME1 combat was more about the powers for me anyway, being able to non-stop shoot with a heinous Shotgun that has rounds that set people on fire was just icing on the cake...
They've said if there will be another Mass Effect game, it will not focus upon Shepard--even if it is a prequel covering instances like the Skyllian Blitz.
Did anyone from here send me a friend request recently on 360? Got a friend invite from someone I didn't recognize. Asked who they were and didn't get a response. They invited me to chat last night, but it didn't work, and when I invited them to a party they did not join.
Gamer tag was "Ultimate Man" and some number......
If you look at "The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3" (which, incidently, a lot of people got for free the other day), there are quite a few pieces of insight.
Including the answer to that question.
'Hudson isn't sure where the series goes next, but he's pretty confident that he never wants to tell any stories that take place in a post-Shepard era. "Whatever we do would likely happen before or during the events of Mass Effect 3, not after."'
Compel wrote: If you look at "The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3" (which, incidently, a lot of people got for free the other day), there are quite a few pieces of insight.
Including the answer to that question.
'Hudson isn't sure where the series goes next, but he's pretty confident that he never wants to tell any stories that take place in a post-Shepard era. "Whatever we do would likely happen before or during the events of Mass Effect 3, not after."'
During would be quite good, a different team on a different front (even though you cover a fair few of them in game). Or, actually, a new team set up to cover the loss of Shepard at the beginning of ME2 (that year or so he/she was gone) would be quite a good premise as well IMO.
I'd take a strong guess that they'll be doing something with Major Coates (the English dude from the trailer that hangs out with Anderson) as either some chunky dlc or maybe an expansion.
Mainly because we never really did explore future-Earth properly, the guy was rather bigged up and it's something I think people will be wanting to see.
If they do another game (likely), I personally hope they let you totally customize your character instead of making you go human with some backstory/quests based on your race included ala Dragon Age.
warboss wrote: If they do another game (likely), I personally hope they let you totally customize your character instead of making you go human with some backstory/quests based on your race included ala Dragon Age.
I second this.
I also call shotgun on playing as an elcor.
A vVnguard Elcor... Hehe
So I'm expecting word of a new DLC next week, possibly involving the Collectors considering the photos that have been surfacing lately, but there's no guarantee. Still, getting the Collectors as an enemy in Multiplayer would be very nice indeed. Some fresh enemies to rekindle peoples desire to play. Even I have been flagging lately, since I've been on a painting binge that doesn't look like it will end any time soon.
Possibly, but it's so small that it's hard to tell. I think there is still a case to be made for any kind of ship, including a collector ship.
It's probably wishful thinking, but it's by no means impossible. I would very much like to see the Collectors included, because there have got to be a number of Collector ships isolated outside the galactic core since the destruction of their base. Also, we need new enemies in multiplayer or it's going to go static soon. Borderlands 2 is going to take a big toll on the ME3MP player base and a strictly single player DLC won't do much to help that.
I think, if we're going to see Collectors introduced, they are going to be part of the Reaper faction as "alternate" enemies replacing things like the Marauders with Collector Assassins, the Cannibals with Drones, Brutes with Praetorians, etc.
I definately noticed a lack of Collectors to shoot in ME3. Not to mention Krogan and Vorcha. I guess they're good guys now but they still could of worked in some rogue groups of them.
I didnt miss the collectors (i got the impression that there wasnt as many of them as people thought, and they all, or nearly all, died on the base....) but i definitely missed Krogan and Vorcha in ME3, good shout KC
The problem is that they wrote themselves into a corner with the mercs, eliminating them as a possibility for a multiplayer enemy. The quest that brought them all under Aria's control set up the likely Omega DLC we will get in the future, but now there is no reason to fight them because they are on your side. That was a potential enemy faction that could have been added to multiplayer later on, and they made them an ally instead.
Personally I think the problem is that the Multiplayer and the Single Player don't have a whole lot of synergy even though they try to make them connect. The Multiplayer follows cannon, and since the cannon is that Shepard wants to bring everyone together to fight the Reapers, the enemies we are stuck with are factions that the Reapers control, the extent of which are the Reapers themselves, Cerberus, and Heretic Geth. Unless they bring back the Collectors, there really are not a whole lot of options for adding enemies to the game.
It would be a ton of work, but I would love to see a story mode in multiplayer, where a team of N7 operatives are given a mission and must clear a "level" in a similar pattern to the Single Player. That gives BioWare so many options for making it harder, since the level is linear and spawns are not random. It's much harder to exploit the spawning system in a linear level, and adding more enemies or an ambush by a different faction would actually make things more interesting rather than just annoying. It would definitely help rekindle interest in this game.
Compel wrote: Sorta like a Mass Effect-does-Left-4-Dead?
If you are talking about L4D1 then perhaps, to some degree. If you are talking about L4D2 then no.
More like a Mass Effect does World of Warcraft Instanced Dungeons. IE, you get into a lobby of 4 people, like it is now, and you select character, weapons, etc...and you select one of a dozen or so "Missions" which take place on a linear map where you move from point A to point B, completing objectives at set points along the way. In other words, Trash Groups> Boss Fight>Trash Groups>Boss Fight>Trash Groups>Final Boss. The "Boss Fights" could be objectives, like secure the area against attackers, or destroy X number of gun emplacements, or protect one player against attack while he fires missiles at a Reaper Destroyer/Geth Colossus/Etc...Those kinds of things. Things that encourage teamwork and provide a challenge to overcome, the difficulty of which can be increased easily by adding more enemies, increasing their health and damage, and improving their AI to take advantage of map layout.
The "Missions" don't have to have anything to do with the main story. They could be off the front-lines, dealing with things Shepard doesn't have time for, but making a difference in the grand scheme of things. Attacking a Server of heretic Geth operating under Reaper control in a system that cannot defend themselves. Taking down a Reaper Destroyer that's attacking a colony or industrial planet that is doing research or making weapons for the front lines. Liberating a Cerberus base in order to secure some scientists that want to defect. Each of these types of mission parameters are VERY easy to come up with, and the maps can be generated with existing texture models to keep production costs to a minimum. I'm not saying it's a small project, but it would not take much effort on the design front to come up with this kind of thing. It would be a departure from the current paradigm of "Here's a random map with a random enemy and random spawn points. Kill them for 10 waves and every few waves, complete one of 5 random objectives for credits."
Big News.
The Bioware team allegedly "has plans" for another Mass Effect game, and the new DLC has been named as "Omega" Linky
IGN wrote:BioWare has hinted at a new game in the Mass Effect franchise, plus provided a name for Mass Effect 3’s next single player downloadable content. The news comes in the wake of the announcement that BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuck have retired from the company. In a blog post from BioWare Edmonton and Montreal general manager Aaryn Flynn, Mass Effect is mentioned as part of the company’s plans looking forward.
“Executive Producer Casey Hudson and his team are coming off an amazing eight-year run with the Mass Effect trilogy. But they’re not done yet,” Flynn wrote. “We are releasing more multiplayer content and we have more single-player stories coming throughout the next six months, including Omega which is coming in the Fall. But the Mass Effect universe is vast, and Casey and our teams have plans for another full game. ‘Where to go next?’ with such a project has been a question a lot of us have been asking, and we’d all love to hear your ideas.”
In talking about the future, Flynn also hinted at a new fictional universe in development at BioWare, mentioning alongside it that “Casey [Hudson] continues to oversee the development of our new Mass Effect project.”
BioWare has said in the past that the Mass Effect franchise could continue but that it won’t revolve around Shepard. As for Omega, this marks the first time that BioWare has released a name for the content, which it teased during Montreal Comic-Con last weekend.
For now, no additional information about a new Mass Effect project has been revealed, but check out five ideas for a new Mass Effect game for where we think the series should go next, and why no more Shepard could be a good thing.
Interesting. Knew Omega had to be up next. Probably would have been first but got shuffled around due to ending furor. I'm up for some Non-Shepard related ME games.
So we can expect about another 6 months of support for ME3, which is good to hear. Wonder if the Multiplayer team will continue making content past that.
The news that the next DLC is Omega does not surprise me. We knew they had set that scenario up for a DLC pack from the get-go, and hearing that it will come in the "fall" likely means middle to end of October at the earliest. I also suppose this means Kanluwen was right about the ship in that teaser photo, though I am not surprised. It really could have been anything.
I look forward to hearing more about this Omega DLC, though a friend of mine brought up an interesting point in conversation the other night. Why does Aria deserve to have Omega back, or Shepards help in getting it? She's a pretty boring character. A badass gangster is hardly original and she seems a bit unhinged at times, willing to do anything for her own profit or survival. Shepard owes her no favors, since he gave her the mercs in exchange for their use in the war. If anything, SHE owes HIM a favor. What could Shepard possibly gain by liberating Omega for Aria, other than a re-affirmation that she owes him a favor? I'm curious what this DLC will entail, and how it will play out. If it's just a straightforward liberation of the station back into Aria's control, I think I will be a little disappointed.
Aldarionn wrote: So we can expect about another 6 months of support for ME3, which is good to hear. Wonder if the Multiplayer team will continue making content past that.
The news that the next DLC is Omega does not surprise me. We knew they had set that scenario up for a DLC pack from the get-go, and hearing that it will come in the "fall" likely means middle to end of October at the earliest. I also suppose this means Kanluwen was right about the ship in that teaser photo, though I am not surprised. It really could have been anything.
I look forward to hearing more about this Omega DLC, though a friend of mine brought up an interesting point in conversation the other night. Why does Aria deserve to have Omega back, or Shepards help in getting it? She's a pretty boring character. A badass gangster is hardly original and she seems a bit unhinged at times, willing to do anything for her own profit or survival. Shepard owes her no favors, since he gave her the mercs in exchange for their use in the war. If anything, SHE owes HIM a favor. What could Shepard possibly gain by liberating Omega for Aria, other than a re-affirmation that she owes him a favor? I'm curious what this DLC will entail, and how it will play out. If it's just a straightforward liberation of the station back into Aria's control, I think I will be a little disappointed.
I guess you could say that if you don't think Aria deserves Omega back that you could simply just opt to keep her tight blue butt on the couch @ purgatory by simply not buying the DLC. Mass Effect DLC has been entertaining but frankly missed alot of the point (IMO) of Mass Effect for me in that the choices should matter in the end. Bring down the sky had some tie in for ME3 but ultimately what you chose in LOTSB and Arrival didn't mean much of anything. Leviathan had even less choice in that you only chose whether one very minor character (in the grand ME3 universe scheme) lived or died... nothing else. My hope is that you get a choice between screwing over Aria by turning over omega to the people (to hopefully remake for the better) or to help out the person who helped you out in ME3. I suspect that you'll just get to do the later.
I assume it means full extraction with every member of the squad playing the exact same non-human race. I'm going to take it a step further and make sure it's the same race AND class, just in case there is some hidden requirement they forgot to mention.
Aldarionn wrote: I assume it means full extraction with every member of the squad playing the exact same non-human race. I'm going to take it a step further and make sure it's the same race AND class, just in case there is some hidden requirement they forgot to mention.
It's not even difficult on Bronze with a Vorcha fully speced for regeneration. I completed a wave 10 hack against Geth with all of my teammates dead by just standing in the circle for the duration of the timer and meleeing everything that got in range. Once I had a 3 stack of Bloodlust going I literally stood there and took a beating from the entire wave. They gave me their best shot, and I found them......lacking.
Today we are excited to announce Mass Effect 3: Retaliation, a new expansion to the critically-acclaimed Mass Effect 3 multiplayer mode, and our largest upgrade to date! The Retaliation begins on October 9th (October 10th for PS3 in Europe), and will be free to download for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
New Enemy Faction
Prepare to face off against the Collector Praetorian, Scion, Abomination, Trooper, and Captain. Reports have also come in that Cerberus has enlisted the Dragoon to their ranks and the Geth are deploying new Drones to the battlefield.
New Class Kits to Unlock
A host of new characters have joined the war to fight this new threat, including the Turian Havoc Soldier, Turian Ghost Infiltrator, with many more being added on a regular basis.
New “Hazard” Versions of Existing Maps
Wage war across six maps, featuring new environmental hazards and traps. A regular rotation of Firebases will be introduced to different hazards as they come under attack. Survive the onslaught of Acid, Lightening, Meltdowns, Sandstorms, Swarms and Whiteouts!
New Unlockable Weapons
The Collectors have also brought deadly new weapons to the fight: the Collector Assault Rifle, Sub-Machine Gun, and Sniper Rifle. Unlock these weapons and new equipment upgrades to build to your arsenal.
New Powerful Upgrades
Outfit your weapons with new ammo modifications and fortify your gear with unique upgrades to defeat even the toughest foes.
New Multiplayer Challenge Feature
Think you are the best soldier in the Alliance? Make sure to track your progress in the new “Challenges” database. Complete various multiplayer assignments and feats of strength to unlock titles and banners to display in-game, and then compare your progress against your friend.
How does it work?
The “Challenges” database tracks various in-game statistics, such as your N7 Typhoon usage. To earn challenge points, you’ll need to complete mini-goals. For example, accumulate 140,000 points while using the Typhoon in multiplayer and you’ll be rewarded with 10 challenge points.
What Can You Do With Challenge Points?
Challenge points are used to unlock cool in-game multiplayer bonuses, such as new titles and banners. Want other players to know that you’re a Council Operative? You can do that. Want to be the envy of your friends with a flashy new banner to display in the player lobby? You can do that, too!
Challenge points lead to unlocks, and unlocks allow you to personalize your multiplayer experience. Now, you’ve got some work to do, Soldier!
AND the long awaited patch dropped today.
Chris Priestly wrote:New Multiplayer kits including:
Turian Havoc Soldier
Turian Ghost Infiltrator
and more
6 maps with new environmental hazards and traps including:
Firebase Ghost
Firebase Dagger
Firebase Giant
Three new weapons
Collector Assault Rifle
Collector Sniper Rifle
Collector SMG
Three new Ammo types
Explosive rounds
Phasic Rounds
Drill Rounds
Five new Gear Items
Medi-Gel Transmitter
Armored Compartments
Responder Loadout
Survivor Loadout
Assault Loadout
The Medi-Gel Transmitter sounds like we'll be able to mass revive our teammates.
DLC definitely sounds cool. The initial post in the forums said that 16!!! new classes (or kits as they call them now) would be released but that has since been edited out (along with mention of the asari huntress and krogan shaman adept). I don't know if the loss of those from the announcement means they found a bug and that they won't be available (like the missing weapon mods and gear from the Earth DLC) or if they're trying to slowly release detailed class info at a steady pace.
They've since posted that only 4 classes will be available next week and the rest will be drip fed released over the coming months/weeks similar to how the argus rifle just appeared one week followed by the batarian shotgun this week (can't recall the name).
I KNEW there would be Collectors eventually. They didn't end that arc with the total destruction of the Collectors, only one base. I'll be very interested to see where they go with this.
I've had so little time for ME3 lately. I'm going to have to make some more. Borderlands 2 is currently the priority game for me right now but I definitely want to play ME3 for this expansion pack. I just don't want to spend hours farming credits to unlock the stuff I want, which is the biggest problem I'm going to have. I am well and truly tired of the RNG.
Farming is supposedly more difficult (haven't tried playing myself yet). Geth drones that previously did nothing are now mobile flame throwers, pyros can't get grabbed, and both white and glacier are on the list of maps with environmental hazards. I personally expect losts of lightning strikes and collector swarms converging on the counter at the far end of FWB.
Kanluwen wrote: The good news is that the releases of characters are going to be staggered.
The 2 Turians and 2 more classes are going to be the first four to unlock on Tuesday. The rest will come gradually according to Priestly.
Yeah, I posted that earlier. That's not personally good news for me as the new stuff is all I have to unlock outside of URs but I do think it's better for the community overall. I may want the stuff right away but friends of mine that done play one game at a time (I tend to be single minded with AAA video games) still don't have even all their races unlocked let alone maxed out. A staggered release doesn't thin out the pool as much for those players.
I'll also leave you with the following picture. Just hum Ride of the Valkyries when looking at the jetpackin' Turian!
Mass Effect 3: Retaliation is out now and damn is it difficult.
I was playing on the Reactor level under 'hazard' mode against collectors, on bronze...
Most of the team was relatively high level and... We got our butt kicked. On bronze!
10 seconds from extraction, we got hit by I think it was 2 scions, a possessed scion and a praetorian. We all had to medpac ourselves just to avoid wiping.
Yeah, the Volus are a love/hate character for me right now.
Love:
They're a new playstyle, entirely. They have no melee, practically no shields/health, and are very much a "support" character.
They're like playing the Medic on TF2...if the Medic had even less HP.
They have a unique, relatively, skill set in their abilities.
Hate:
That they were added as frontline troops. The skills could easily and should have been passed to Asari/Salarians, respectively.
The Volus are a joke. The way they act in game, their aesthetic, and their mannerisms all suggest a race of people who avoid physical confrontation at all costs, and prefer to act through agents. They have a relatively strong navy which is not surprising, but I could never see one as an N7 Operative. Personally I think they added them just to appease the people who were calling out for a Biotic God character, and I think it's a little silly.
Aldarionn wrote: The Volus are a joke. The way they act in game, their aesthetic, and their mannerisms all suggest a race of people who avoid physical confrontation at all costs, and prefer to act through agents. They have a relatively strong navy which is not surprising, but I could never see one as an N7 Operative. Personally I think they added them just to appease the people who were calling out for a Biotic God character, and I think it's a little silly.
Don't forget that if you shot one, It would probably explode.
Plus they're a Turian Client race, They don't do war, they just ask/pay the turians to do it for them
Aldarionn wrote: The Volus are a joke. The way they act in game, their aesthetic, and their mannerisms all suggest a race of people who avoid physical confrontation at all costs, and prefer to act through agents. They have a relatively strong navy which is not surprising, but I could never see one as an N7 Operative. Personally I think they added them just to appease the people who were calling out for a Biotic God character, and I think it's a little silly.
Don't forget that if you shot one, It would probably explode.
Plus they're a Turian Client race, They don't do war, they just ask/pay the turians to do it for them
Exactly. The only more absurd addition to MP would be a Hannar.
Aye, I raised an eyebrow when I saw they added Volus, my first thought was, ah so added the mastermind class from CoH then, as I was expecting at least two bodyguards.
I'm betting Hanar infiltrator if they do bring them in though.
I think Elcor Could be cool though, give them an Inbuilt primary similar to a grenade launcher or a Typhoon/GPR/Revenant and inbuilt secondary systems similar to the N7 soilder's Missile launcher
In regards to what you guys are saying about the Volus, sure that's all true but this is a war of galactic genocide. Everyone needs to fight, there's no bystanders.
KamikazeCanuck wrote: In regards to what you guys are saying about the Volus, sure that's all true but this is a war of galactic genocide. Everyone needs to fight, there's no bystanders.
Close, Everybody need to Contribute to the war effort not fight, if everybody was fighting then who would be building the Crucible, or making ammo, or houses for refugees, or shipping guns, or looking after the wounded
KamikazeCanuck wrote: In regards to what you guys are saying about the Volus, sure that's all true but this is a war of galactic genocide. Everyone needs to fight, there's no bystanders.
Close, Everybody need to Contribute to the war effort not fight, if everybody was fighting then who would be building the Crucible, or making ammo, or houses for refugees, or shipping guns, or looking after the wounded
There comes a time when those people must fight on the frontlines too. I don't think it's that implausible 1% of Volus may choose the path of soldier when they see the state their protectors, the Turians, are in. Palaven is lliterally burning and I believe Irune is under attack too.
KamikazeCanuck wrote: In regards to what you guys are saying about the Volus, sure that's all true but this is a war of galactic genocide. Everyone needs to fight, there's no bystanders.
There is however people fighting in the ways that work best for them.
The Volus have no ground troops. They have no ground forces, period.
They have the Bombing Fleet, which supports Turian ground forces.
I see the bombing fleet, which is only recently introduced, as a way militarizing the seemingly incapable Volus. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying they're the new Krogan. I wouldn't doubt the total number of Volus with combat experience is in the double digits.
KamikazeCanuck wrote: I see the bombing fleet, which is only recently introduced, as a way militarizing the seemingly incapable Volus. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying they're the new Krogan. I wouldn't doubt the total number of Volus with combat experience is in the double digits.
The point is that a race of physically pitiful creatures should in no way be attempting to fight on the front lines against an opponent that will exploit every weakness they have. If they wore giant mechanical suits capable of improving their strength and letting them fight properly (Like Tau Battlesuits from 40k) then I could see them being added, but on their own they are physically no match for any of the four enemies you face in MP. They are supporting the war effort with their fleet and that is plenty enough support. Trying to send in front line troops only endangers everyone else fighting on the front lines, support role or otherwise. BioWare can try to justify it however they want, but the lore up to and including ME3 has had the Volus in non-combat roles because of the reasons listed above.
KamikazeCanuck wrote: I see the bombing fleet, which is only recently introduced, as a way militarizing the seemingly incapable Volus. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying they're the new Krogan. I wouldn't doubt the total number of Volus with combat experience is in the double digits.
The "Volus Bombing Fleet" is nothing new.
It's existed since Mass Effect 1.
So no matter how it's spun, the Volus were a completely inappropriate choice for Retaliation.
Plus they're Ultra Rare and ruining my freaking Typhoon chances.
warboss was faster.
