Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Was the Andromeda Initiative mentioned in any of the other games? I don't remember it..

Seems like a convenient way to reboot the franchise when Part 3 wrecked everything, kinda like what they did with the Xmen movies

Oddly, the end of 3 was mostly written the way it was so that they could do sequels without worrying about how players left the galaxy in the original trilogy.

 Necros wrote:
Was the Andromeda Initiative mentioned in any of the other games? I don't remember it..

Not really, but from where I'm at so far in Andromeda it seems to have been an "invitation only" kind of deal.

Having played a whole load more of the game, my initial impressions haven't really changed. The gameplay is still fantastic, the graphics (some animations aside) still stunning, and the wonderful sense of discovery and exploration still present.

In fact, I'd say it's even got much better since the point where the trial ended. Getting to see a few more worlds that are a bit more interesting than Eos (not to mention the very different part of Eos itself you access just after the cut-off for the trial) proves the world design is still going strong, and getting to know more about the various factions, characters and histories makes me wonder what all the reviews bashing the writing were on about.

The crew of the Tempest are a fascinating bunch and for the most part, have avoided retreading any ground the OT characters inhabited. Jaal is very interesting to chat to, and Drack is of course just a badass, and being a thousand years old or so, he's got a very different perspective on things to Wrex and Grunt.

So yeah, much further in and still massively impressed.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Necros wrote:
Was the Andromeda Initiative mentioned in any of the other games? I don't remember it..

Not really, but from where I'm at so far in Andromeda it seems to have been an "invitation only" kind of deal.

Word would have gotten around about something this ambitious regardless. And it's mentioned in the Lore entry on the Tempest that special permission had to be received from the Systems Alliance (i.e. the Human government) to build the ship with the stipulation that it would only be used in the Andromeda Galaxy (aside from the test flights, obviously). So the Initiative couldn't have been a secret.

So, my FRryder... Looks vaguely reminiscent of a chipmunk.



Aside from character design drama, I'm really enjoying the game, probably 8/10 for me.

Did you use a Hot Ryder creation guide from youtube? Other than hair color, she's very similar to one channel's I'm subscribed to.

 Necros wrote:
Was the Andromeda Initiative mentioned in any of the other games? I don't remember it..

Seems like a convenient way to reboot the franchise when Part 3 wrecked everything, kinda like what they did with the Xmen movies

I played the games religiously (actually put 124 hours in a single play through of ME3) and never heard anyone name drop it. I kind of wish there was a tie in to the originals because the new one just feels... different. Having some closure on what happened after ME3

would have been nice. Even a tiny, one sentence or dataslate of info would have sufficed.

 warboss wrote:
Did you use a Hot Ryder creation guide from youtube? Other than hair color, she's very similar to one channel's I'm subscribed to.

Nope, the closest thing I did was make mRyder, then took photos of his values of his settings, transferred them over and then fudged to marginally less than utter horribleness.

 Tactical_Spam wrote:

 Necros wrote:
Was the Andromeda Initiative mentioned in any of the other games? I don't remember it..

Seems like a convenient way to reboot the franchise when Part 3 wrecked everything, kinda like what they did with the Xmen movies

I played the games religiously (actually put 124 hours in a single play through of ME3) and never heard anyone name drop it. I kind of wish there was a tie in to the originals because the new one just feels... different. Having some closure on what happened after ME3

Spoiler:

You know, If Shepard actually survives in the Red 4000+ War Assests ending. Still gotta know if he hit it off with Jack or not

would have been nice. Even a tiny, one sentence or dataslate of info would have sufficed.

The Andromeda Initiative left before ME3, though. It's pretty much required that ME:A not talk about what happened in the Milky Way since some of the endings have rather dramatic effects on the inhabitants of the Milky Way (killing all of them, for instance). They can't give you any further information on what happened to the Milky Way because they can't incorporate the various differences that happened in each game. The writers have no way of anticipating what happened at the end of the game. So the only thing that this game tracks about the previous games is whether your Shepard was male or female.

I was waiting to read some reviews on the game before purchasing, and have to say that I'm now rather torn.

The thing I liked more than anything about the originals (well, first two) was the scripting, dialogue, story and overall cinematic scope of the games. Some of the dialogue I have seen on watching the vids seems laughably poor as do the stereotyped characters. This is more important to me than the combat which, as long as it is passable, complaints about which won't bother me unduly.

But I do find it incredible that, considering how much the game costs to make, the facial animatons don't look like they are a patch on something like the Witcher. Why on earth didn't they look at that game and say, we're doing a block buster here and we need to match it?

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Necros wrote:
I've only been playing for a day, but In finished the first big mission on that desert planet so far.. and I haven't seen anything really bad. I think game reviewers are just too critical these days. Some of the animations and facial expressions are stiff sometimes, but almost all games are like that. Story seems fine to me so far too. No issues with any characters really either.

But one thing that I was confused about... did they leave after the events of ME3? Or was it earlier so all of the stuff that happened in ME3 didn't matter? I know it took 600 years to get there, so technically it's after, but do the Andromeda folks even know what happened?

They do not. They left as the events of ME2 were starting to unfold.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kanluwen wrote:
One of the Mass Effect devs was kind enough to retweet a fan-created graphic of the timeline for Mass Effect.

Spoiler:

Liam's Loyalty Mission is frigging hysterical.

"Nope, not that way. This way."

Does multiplayer still have enemies that one hit kill players? If so, are any classes immune to that like Geth primes in ME3?

I played multiplayer a bit last night. The only thing that I really got instakilled by was turning a corner and getting a face full of rockets from the equivalent of a ME3's Atlas mech.

 warboss wrote:
Does multiplayer still have enemies that one hit kill players? If so, are any classes immune to that like Geth primes in ME3?

There are enemies that can synch kill, but there's a bit of warning to it now rather than it just happening.

The Ascendants and Fiends for Kett are the only two I really know of. Ascendants' synchkill is related to an energy sphere that will show up around you and start lifting you up; if your team sees it happening and damages the Ascendant while its shield is gone, it can be interrupted.

The Fiend starts stomping its feet on the ground before charging. If you don't dodge, it gores you and then stamps you out.

 Compel wrote:
I played multiplayer a bit last night. The only thing that I really got instakilled by was turning a corner and getting a face full of rockets from the equivalent of a ME3's Atlas mech.

That's not instakill... Just really unlucky!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Does multiplayer still have enemies that one hit kill players? If so, are any classes immune to that like Geth primes in ME3?

There are enemies that can synch kill, but there's a bit of warning to it now rather than it just happening.

The Ascendants and Fiends for Kett are the only two I really know of. Ascendants' synchkill is related to an energy sphere that will show up around you and start lifting you up; if your team sees it happening and damages the Ascendant while its shield is gone, it can be interrupted.

The Fiend starts stomping its feet on the ground before charging. If you don't dodge, it gores you and then stamps you out.

Thanks. Is the ascendant a big character model? I could deal with the big model telegraphed instakills but the tiny phantom's cheap ninjaskewer that yoyo'ed you back to her was a frequent source of frustration.

PMing you, as "The Ascendant" is a genericized version of some of the Kett named bosses for various planets and fights. Don't wanna spoil for anyone else.

It's a "you'll know it when you see it" moment, as they have an "orb" you have to shoot.

The thought occurs to me. My Shepard was essentially Sisko. My Ryder, basically Kirk.

Seems Janeway might be more appropriate thematically but your Ryder, your choice!

My Ryder has been on a pretty interesting character arc so far, for the first few sections of the game he basically made a joke of everything, an idealist to whom this was all one big adventure. Now though, about 30 hours in, he’s changed rather significantly; still a bit of a dreamer, but one who’s come to realise it’s going to take some responsibility and diplomacy to make that dream a reality.

What’s fascinating is how this is actually reflected in the character bio in the codex. When I first checked it, there was a note from Lexi about how my sarcasm and flippant approach was starting to piss off Director Tann and co. Now, that section has been amended with comments about how Ryder’s diplomacy has become his greatest asset.

None of this was part of a conscious decision to change the way I played, it was just an organic change, possibly triggered by a couple of key events in the story. The fact the character bio changes to reflect that character growth though is something I absolutely love.

The resupply stations have three usable points. One calls the Nomad, and one lets you change your load out. The third point is linked to the node that resupplies your health and ammo. But that happens automatically. So what does the usable point do?

The third point opens up a series of messages that you can read. The first couple are typically boring (standardized messages about the station deployment protocols). But after that, they start to get more interesting. Some are quite serious. Others are pretty funny. And each station that you deploy adds another message to the list. So while the messages are pretty boring on the first two or three stations, they rapidly change with the subsequent stations.



Also -

Architect.

Wow.

I got my hands on the art of MEA book and I have to say that had Cora looked like her original concept art then I'd have broken my thumb jamming on the button to romance her. Also, my comment about folks looking like they're walking around in Space Kawasaki riding gear has some basis in fact at least with Liam. His original idea was to actually had that inspiration and he looked like an extreme sports enthusiast originally to me. Also, Drack actually had at one point a mechanical arm shown on the character model (not sure if they actually show it in the game although I've seen a medbay cutscene telling you about it).

Is the art book as a whole worth it? I'm considering picking it up at some point, but I could get the collected Original Trilogy one for roughly the same price which might have a bit more stuff in it. One thing the Andromeda one has in its favour is that I'm being continually blown away by the world design in the game, so if there's a lot of concept art for the various environments and landscapes then I'll definitely have to pick that up.

I did most of the frozen planet missions yesterday, now I have 2 outposts going .. and Liam's mission was fun, especially when the villain started monologuing. I've been mostly exploring and doing side missions rather than the main story.

Really enjoying it so far.. which sucks because all of the pissy gamer reviews I read almost made me skip it.

 Paradigm wrote:
Is the art book as a whole worth it? I'm considering picking it up at some point, but I could get the collected Original Trilogy one for roughly the same price which might have a bit more stuff in it. One thing the Andromeda one has in its favour is that I'm being continually blown away by the world design in the game, so if there's a lot of concept art for the various environments and landscapes then I'll definitely have to pick that up.

I'd recommend the original trilogy one more. The Andromeda one is worth it if you can get it at a big discount (40% off) depending on your shipping cost. It's a bit lean on character, weapon, and equipment art for my tastes personally and too heavy on scenery/planets.

To be honest, that actually sounds better to me, I am immensely enjoying the landscape and world design in Andromeda (possibly some of the best designed maps I've seen in a game, and the most fun I've had just going round and exploring them since Skyrim first came out!) so if the book focuses on that then that's right up my alley. I can get about a third off and free shipping via Amazon, so I'll keep an eye on it and if the price drops just a little more I'll probably pick it up.

I'm at least 10 hours into the game, and I am enjoying it so far. Went with the default Sara Ryder, since I've never been very successful with almost every Bioware character creator (whether it be male or female). I've seen the complaints online, but she looks fine to me; it's just the facial animations that make you cringe sometimes, and that's the same no matter what face you go with.

Which leads me to what I think is the core problem with this game: it needed just one more round of polishing. If they could have taken just a bit more time to go over the animations again (maybe hire the people who did the facial animations for The Witcher 3), it would have been so much better. The writing would have benefited, too. It's not so much that I've come across any truly horrible lines (let's face it, people in real life say stupidly bad stuff all the time, we don't all have people writing our lines for us). but there are so many instances where the dialogue seems rushed. By "rushed", I feel like they try to do too much with too few lines at times. A character's reaction to a life-changing event shouldn't be resolved in a sentence or two, but that's how it's handled often. I get there is limited time, can't spend all the budget on voice recording, etc., but I do feel some of it could be handled better.

Overall, I'm still enjoying the game a lot, it's just the little things that often stand out to me. There's a lot this game is doing right, and I hope Bioware learns from it.

 Paradigm wrote:
To be honest, that actually sounds better to me, I am immensely enjoying the landscape and world design in Andromeda (possibly some of the best designed maps I've seen in a game, and the most fun I've had just going round and exploring them since Skyrim first came out!) so if the book focuses on that then that's right up my alley. I can get about a third off and free shipping via Amazon, so I'll keep an eye on it and if the price drops just a little more I'll probably pick it up.

That works out quite well for you then! I don't have it in front of me at the moment but iirc more than half is world design and scenery visuals. It's not that I don't appreciate those but I just find the character/equipment/vehicle development and changes from concept to final product more interesting. For instance, one of the first pictures (without a caption as it's full page) in the book I assume shows the pathfinder and it really screams Destiny's particular art style (which is why I assume it hasn't made it into the game at least from my viewings so far). I'm not suggesting they copied it but rather that they probably changed it as Destiny captured that particular iconic look midway through the 5 year MEA development.

 Necros wrote:
I did most of the frozen planet missions yesterday, now I have 2 outposts going .. and Liam's mission was fun, especially when the villain started monologuing.

I could not stop laughing about the fact that the villain, every time he connected his vidlink, actually had dramatic music playing on his end.

That just made me so happy.