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Gamertag is AldarionnEB

The Steamdriven is mine.

I think we got our Four right there.

It's my B-Day today, so around... oh... 9:30-10'oclock (EST) I have a ladyfriend picking me up for various hijinx, but I can definitely get a couple of games in with you guys.

We'll definitely get our points in for Dakka!

...I'll be sober. Promise! No really. I can't hit the broadside of an Atlas when drinking, so I'll stay off the sauce till I logoff.

Sounds like a good strategy for gold, but that won't ever work with me since I only get to group with random noobs :(

Tried a gold game last night and it was mostly a nightmare of 1 awesome infiltrator and 3 dummies (including me) .. the infiltrator spent the whole game running around cloaked reviving everyone. We made it to wave 6.

I just got the Raptor X last night, I like that it shoots fast and does good damage but it kills my trigger finger. Lately I've been doing the starter sniper rifle that I have maxed with extended barrel and clip, and a level 5 locust for when I have to spray and pray. I'll switch over to the Widow when I level it up some more, right now it's super heavy and I just do better with the other sniper rifle.

Sent you both Friend Requests, you'll very very easily be able to recognize the gamertag I think.

Sounds good! I'll be on around... 7 or 8 o'clock EST and I'll be playing till I get that phonecall. So I'll see you then!

Not sure if I will be on ME3 alot due to playin Me1 & 2 again, but add jscott10 on origin and i may help out in MP. Just be sure to either pm on here or origin with who it is

Necros wrote:Sounds like a good strategy for gold, but that won't ever work with me since I only get to group with random noobs :(

Tried a gold game last night and it was mostly a nightmare of 1 awesome infiltrator and 3 dummies (including me) .. the infiltrator spent the whole game running around cloaked reviving everyone. We made it to wave 6.

I just got the Raptor X last night, I like that it shoots fast and does good damage but it kills my trigger finger. Lately I've been doing the starter sniper rifle that I have maxed with extended barrel and clip, and a level 5 locust for when I have to spray and pray. I'll switch over to the Widow when I level it up some more, right now it's super heavy and I just do better with the other sniper rifle.

Actually if you queue in for Golds there are plenty of lobbies set up to farm Geth on Fire Base White. Most people are aware of how it works now, and most people know the strategy. As long as someone plays the Salarian Engineer and someone plays an Infiltrator you should have no issues.

johnscott10 wrote:Not sure if I will be on ME3 alot due to playin Me1 & 2 again, but add jscott10 on origin and i may help out in MP. Just be sure to either pm on here or origin with who it is

Same here. I just let Garrus blast Dr. Heart. It might a bit before I get back to ME3.

Aldarionn wrote:For those of you having trouble completing a Gold match, do the easy one.

Select Firebase White and Geth for your match, and set to Gold difficulty. Make sure you have a Salarian Engineer and some form of Infiltrator in the team.
(snip)

There are plenty of lobbies designed specifically to do this, so queue up and you can easily complete the objective. The REAL challenge is completing the team goal WITHOUT doing this strategy

Oh man you were so right. I did, and passed, my first gold on the very first try. All I did was hunker down with my soldier, snipe, and wait. Only died once and got 4 other people revived so I did alright. It was substantially easier than doing silvers actively, although the special classes you prescribed did most of the heavy lifting.

Thanks for posting this; I would have never even tried if not for this advice.

Well a migraine screwed me over all of yesterday, so will be trying again tonight.

Thanks for the Gold advice. Will give that a go with the Asari Justicar, loving the bubble and pull abilities.

I sent several of you invites for games both Friday and Saturday and nobody accepted them =(

I ended up playing with a couple friends and a random guy yesterday and we cleared out Cerberus on Gold pretty much all afternoon. I think I might have single-handedly completed the community goal with the number of Phantoms I killed yesterday. Dear god they send them at you in droves on Gold!

@Ouze - Glad the advice worked. It's a simple enough tactic to pull off, but it gets super boring after a while. It's repetitive and not particularly challenging. Most people consider it to be near Bronze level difficulty to complete that combo with those classes. That said, of the 8-10 Gold matches we completed last night, 1 of them was against Geth on Fire Base White and I did notice that Hunters seem to flank around to the back door more than they used to, and Primes seem to be throwing more turrets in annoying locations than they used to. Wonder if BioWare messed with the programming for the AI to make it a little more challenging.

Also a word of advice to those that have the Geth Infiltrator unlocked. TRY THE GETH PLASMA SHOTGUN BUILD!! I've been using this build almost exclusively over the last week or so (much to the chagrin of my N7 rating) and oh man. It's perfectly equipped to deal with Cerberus and Reapers, and does relatively well against Geth depending on teammates. It's also the only class I've played so far that I feel confident enough to take straight into Gold at level 1.

Aldarionn wrote:I sent several of you invites for games both Friday and Saturday and nobody accepted them =(

Strange. I never got them. I'll be on today though, I'll be looking for it.
I joined your party last night while you were playing with a friend but you lot were in Game Chat rather than Party Chat so eventually I just went and did some Silver.

Will be looking as well, might be lucky and get some pretty much all Dakka team games in.

Kanluwen wrote:

Aldarionn wrote:I sent several of you invites for games both Friday and Saturday and nobody accepted them =(

Strange. I never got them. I'll be on today though, I'll be looking for it.
I joined your party last night while you were playing with a friend but you lot were in Game Chat rather than Party Chat so eventually I just went and did some Silver.

Not sure if I sent you one or not. I sent out a lot of them. Eventually though we got a full lobby and we were in game chat because one person was a Pub who actually had an active mic for once!!

I should be online tonight around 6-6:30 pacific time. I want to get as many credits as possible while the Jumbo Equipment Pack is still available (though I prefer not to Credit Glitch).

Is there much of an advantage getting the jumbo pack?

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:Is there much of an advantage getting the jumbo pack?

If you want to get a buttload of various equipment pieces?

Yes!

If you want actual weapons, classes, etc?

No!

Just wondering on the weapon Mods, as some of my weapon types seem quite short in that regard.

Only three sniper and shotgun mods for example, four sub-machine and five for pistols, rifles.

The Recruit and Veteran Packs are your best bets for weapon mods.

Jumbo Equipment Packs will come with one stack of 5 of each of the basic gear (Cobra Missiles, Ops Survival Packs, Medi-Gel and Thermal Clips), and then 6 random consumables, which can sometimes be stacks of 2 of the above mentioned pieces of equipment, or 1 rail amp/ammo type/armor mod. It's the best bang for your buck if you need to stock up on supplies, and I've made it a rule to buy only Jumbo Equipment Packs whenever they are available. I don't like running out of Medi-Gel or Cobra Missiles!

When buying other equipment packs, consider buying Recruit Packs until you have each of the 5 basic weapons at rank X (Avenger, Predator, Mantis, Katana, Shuriken). This will keep them from appearing in your Veteran Packs. Then buy Veteran Packs to upgrade your uncommon weapons (Mattock, Vindicator, Tempest, Etc..) and the mods for all of those weapons. The Mods are all uncommon, and uncommons appear with the highest frequency in Veteran Packs. You can get 3 Veteran Packs for the price of one Specter Pack, giving you 3 guaranteed Uncommons and the chance to get 3-6 more. Once you are satisfied with your uncommons, you can start buying Specter Packs, but keep in mind that Uncommons will appear in Specter Packs as well until you have them all maxed out at rank X.

So what exactly is Bioware going to do concerning the ending?

They are releasing a DLC that will "offer expanded context and more closure" for those that felt the ending was lackluster. The DLC will be free, and it will include extended cutscenes and epilogue sequences to flesh out the ending and provide a better experience.

Personally I think this means they wrote a bad ending, but refuse to acknowledge it and are unwilling to change it to avoid setting a precedent. They have stated flat-out that they do not intend to offer any extra gameplay content to change or alter the ending in any way.

So....wait and see. Depending on what they do with this "Extended Cut" DLC they might at least answer some questions.

I'd rather they just leave it as is and just say "oops, our bad. Sorry it's sucked. Here's another free multiplayer DLC with 20 new maps and guns."

You know, I'm playing the game through for the 3rd time, this time on Insanity difficulty, and I really can't say I hate the ending anymore. It's most definitely flawed, but the biggest plot holes could be filled by this "Extended Cut" DLC to make it acceptable. If they explain how the destruction of the Mass Relays doesn't demolish the galaxy, then most of the civilians from each race are still on their homeworld, which means the military is stranded near Earth, but otherwise the people are still there, and alive. In fact, it could be a large fork in the evolutionary road for many species, having half their population separated and cut off from the other half, allowing for one race to follow two evolutionary paths and create greater diversity within the galaxy.

I don't have an issue with Shepard sacrificing himself to prevent the Reapers from killing everyone. I just want a better reason for it than the Catalyst/StarChild gave, and I want them to fill in the holes that destruction of the Mass Relays created, and give me a reason as to why the team all ended up back on the Normandy. If they do those things, then I can live with the current ending.

I would have liked a final boss too. If they were going to make The Illusive Man's weapon his intellect rather than transforming him a-la Saren, then I'd have at least liked a more epic fight against Kai Leng. Sure the end of that fight was awesome, but actually killing him was easy, even on Insanity. I died and re-started the fight once, then I shot him down like a b*tch.

Operation: Exorcist update

Soldiers of the Milky Way –

By now it is no secret that the Reaper War has had its share of logistical SNAFUs. It is to the galaxy’s credit that, when we put out the call for volunteers, we were answered by individuals of every species from Citadel, Traverse, and even Terminus space. Unfortunately, the diversity of equipment sources meant our allies ran into hardware and software incompatibilities.

These brave men and women have been fighting beside you and, in doing so, have gone above and beyond normal duty. Because their units were not properly tracked, they fought without pay and sometimes without proper training, equipment, even rations. It is a mark of their character that these warriors took the grave task set before us and stuck it out through sheer determination.

It is time to honor their service. A volunteer task force has fabricated the necessary hardware and is rolling out compatibility software. When these installations are complete, these soldiers will benefit from being properly equipped and combat-ineffective troops will get off the bench. We’ll all have more comrades watching our backs, and we’re now watching theirs.

–Admiral Hackett


When it comes to retrieving classified data, Cerberus has been beating the allied forces to the punch. New intelligence has tipped us off to one of their offensives, and it is time to give the N7 teams the payback they want.

Allied Goal: Kill 1,000,000 Cerberus Phantoms.
Squad Goal: Survive until extraction on any map and any enemy on Gold difficulty.

Successful completion of the Allied Goal will grant all players a Victory Pack.
Successful completion of the squad goal awards a Commendation Pack to all squadmates.

MAJOR OPERATIONS UPDATE: Good news Spectres! Starting with Operation EXORCIST, N7 Weekend Challenges will extend to the PlayStation 3 platform. Operation EXORCIST begins today, April 27th at 6:00PM PST until April 30th at 5:00PM PST, on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Please remember to set the “Upload Gameplay Feedback” setting to “On” in the online options to be able to participate in this N7 Operation.

UPDATE: Please note that due to a known issue, PlayStation 3 users will not see the promotion screen but they will be participating in Operation EXORCIST and will be rewarded.

Good luck and see you on the battlefield.

No clue if the goal was met, no commendation or victory pack yet or whatever,

Aldarionn wrote:If they explain how the destruction of the Mass Relays doesn't demolish the galaxy [...]

Most colonized systems in the galaxy don't have a Relay in direct vicinity.

Although the guys at BioWare apparently stated that the Relays did not even go supernova but just crumbled - the difference between a sudden discharge due to containment failure (as it may happen when you, say, throw an asteroid against one) and all energy being drained in a controlled burst (as it may happen when, say, triggered by an impulse the system was actually designed to receive). I don't even think this sort of technobabblish circumvention of expectations is necessary due to the relative rarity of Relays, but there you go.

Aldarionn wrote:In fact, it could be a large fork in the evolutionary road for many species, having half their population separated and cut off from the other half, allowing for one race to follow two evolutionary paths and create greater diversity within the galaxy.

Well, it's not like evolution happens that fast.
More important (and more interesting) will be how technology will develop once science is no longer able to tread the pre-established path of Reaper tech. Suddenly, people actually have an incentive to research new types of starship drives!

Aldarionn wrote:I just want a better reason for it than the Catalyst/StarChild gave

The reason is somewhat reasonable, though personally I think that a better one would have been the danger to life that organics pose themselves. Once you start being able to weaponize and fling entire planetoids through space ... well, there are only so much planets in the galaxy that can support life, so at some point one might come to the conclusion that a civilization can become so powerful and knowledgeable that you run a risk of galactic genocide.
There are people who think Earth would be better off without (modern) humans, so perhaps whoever constructed the Catalyst thought that the galaxy would be better off without advanced civilizations. This reasoning holds one truth: it certainly is less risky for organic life as a whole.

Aldarionn wrote:[...] and give me a reason as to why the team all ended up back on the Normandy.

Alliance Command actually issues a general retreat via radio; you can hear it in the background as you approach the beam. They think everyone including Shep is dead, so they pull their forces.

It's true that they could have made this more obvious, tho - all you can do right now is draw conclusions. It's like a piece of the movie is missing. Maybe the upcoming Extended Cut will clarify this bit, too, though I've already found my explanation.

Aldarionn wrote:I would have liked a final boss too. If they were going to make The Illusive Man's weapon his intellect rather than transforming him a-la Saren, then I'd have at least liked a more epic fight against Kai Leng. Sure the end of that fight was awesome, but actually killing him was easy, even on Insanity. I died and re-started the fight once, then I shot him down like a b*tch.

Meh, personal preferences...
I've seen the concept art for the reaper-fied Illusive Man boss, but personally I'm glad they changed their minds and went for a more cinematic approach. It made for a more dramatic storytelling this way, in particular because gak didn't happen in a blur of FX and bombastic sound and an insanely difficult boss fight like you have in just about any other game out there, but actually have an emotional ending to this epic adventure.

Anyways - the Resurgence DLC actually changed my mind regarding the geth. Previously I wasn't interested in them at all, but now the "Gethgineer" is one of my favorites. Playing a support 'bot can be quite fun.
I'm still somewhat mad at the random card gak, though - system seems to purposely hold out on me when it comes to character customization. At least for the species-class-combinations I actually like to play (Asari Adept/Justicar, Geth Engineer, Human Infiltrator, Turian Soldier).

The only bone I have to pick with the random lottery for unlocks is that character cards show up even after all cosmetic options are unlocked for a certain character and they have hit level 20. A character being level 20 and having no other unlockable options should remove them from the lottery, allowing other character cards to be unlocked. With the current system, it is within the realm of possibility that I will never unlock Geth Engineer and/or Krogan Vanguard, both of which I still need.

*nods* I'm fairly sure I've received a lot of "wasted" character cards already.

I guess I'm too much of a pessimist to really enjoy this "gambling style" system - it'd be different if people could trade cards like it's done in TCGs, or even just if there were an option to buy specific character unlocks for lots of credits.

Character customization shouldn't be something you win in a lottery. For weapons and mods I can understand it, but ...

... ah well, all the little rants aside, it still is insanely fun. Been waiting for a chance to play an Asari Commando ever since seeing them in ME1.

I wonder if they will introduce new game modes via DLC over time?

As a followup to something I posted previously; that I had never made it more than a few waves into a silver game:

It's been what, 2 weeks since then? and it turns out, unsurprisingly, that there aren't any magical secrets to beating silvers or that the people that beat them are just naturally gifted gamers or super lucky. This sounds so dumb it's almost not worth posting, but apparently practice was all that was required. Go figure. At this point I really only play silvers and rarely lose; only if someone bails at a bad time or we get really unlucky. I only play Bronze if I'm trying to learn how to play a character now, like my Vanguard.

So, that happened.

I pretty much just do silvers now. Seems like the best way to spend my time. Bronzes take just as long to play for half the credits, gold is full of dummies who drop out or die so much that it stops being fun, so it's silver for me When I try a new character I'll do a couple of bronzes to get the feel for it, but usually I just get back on my infiltrator sniper and do silvers. Hide + Energy Drain + Headshot = dead stuff

Aye! Personally I like to level a new character until ~10 in Bronze, then it's credit farming time in Silver for me... Maybe I should try switching earlier?

And Infiltrators rock. Sticky Grenade + Banshee Boobs