The Mass Effect thread

[Umbrage]

until you get knocked out of cover

or some random mook flanks you

[Umbrage]

sentinels fucking SUCK

engineers are <3 though

ea should fix their servers though, these random disconnects are ridiculous

-----

You know, when I heard

EDI now had a body and was a squadmate,

I thought to myself: they have to pull some fancy bullshit for that to make sense. And... it doesn't. Like, OK, they find out that

Cerberus used a sophisticated robot to infiltrate Mars, even though we've never seen anything remotely like this in ME before, Cerberus has advanced tech or whatever. Tech advanced enough to so that the robot could live among organic scientists for days if not months studying stuff without anyone noticing, despite the fact that Cerberus also built EDI, who is discovered for her true nature by anyone halfway competent. (YES, THAT MEANS BRITISH CHICK IS INCOMPETENT.) I mean, it took Mordin a matter of seconds to catch her. But Liara is fooled by the doctor with plastic hair, OK.

And then they absolutely have to take the robot body aboard because DATA IS LOCKED INSIDE, sure, don't take it to a tech, just bring the supposedly dormant AI that's like 10x as dangerous as any lone geth in the AI core, which if you recall has complete uncontrolled access to the ship. And then off-screen EDI fights and kills it even though they were made by the same people, only Eva was made later and displayed more advanced programming in evading detection so logically it should be a complete upgrade over EDI and should've overpowered her in a millisecond, as EDI said in ME2, in an computer fight whoever has the better software wins.

And there's no self-destruct program in Eva that deletes all the data although it's already been shown that happens in ME. And EDI now wants to go out in combat and alter her programming, even though no part of her programming would be designed to do either of those things, because this is CERBERUS and they're not STUPID, they wanted to do that to SHEPARD, why wouldn't they put that control chip in EDI? And despite that EDI now has FREE WILL (I still can't believe they fucking said that) she still doesn't mind Joker drooling over her body of METAL AND/OR PLASTIC. Hell, he fucking creeped ME out. The whole thing just reeks of some scary fanboy fantasy. I can forgive asari, but this is just sad and contrived.

[esuriospiritus]

I might actually read that if you make it not a textwall.

[Umbrage]

k

I FIGURED IT OUT

HUMAN VANGUARD = FAIL

ASARI VANGUARD = FAIL

KROGAN VANGUARD = BEST THING EVER

[VP Baltar]

I do fine with my human vanguard. idgi

[GreyICE]

until you get knocked out of cover

or some random mook flanks you

Half damage for five seconds and double tap with scimitar. I actually dodged out of cover and back in for all the harbinger shots, which results in zero damage, and that's 90% of what knocks you out of cover.

[Iecerint]

And there's no self-destruct program in Eva that deletes all the data although it's already been shown that happens in ME. And EDI now wants to go out in combat and alter her programming, even though no part of her programming would be designed to do either of those things, because this is CERBERUS and they're not STUPID, they wanted to do that to SHEPARD, why wouldn't they put that control chip in EDI?

They did put one in her. Joker has magical skills and freed her.

Sentinels suck in ME3, but they're EXCELLENT in ME2.

[Umbrage]

I do fine with my human vanguard. idgi

I will admit, part of the problem is that for my ME2 vanguard I mapped charge to '2', because that's the easiest button for me to hit. Now it's '1' on multiplayer and I keep hitting the wrong button.

[VP Baltar]

Yeah, that would make it more difficult. Honestly, after I played vanguard for awhile, I just realized you basically need to almost never use your gun. It's just a matter of spamming biotics/tech powers for quick kills. On the other hand, I never seem to get decent weapon upgrades.

[Iecerint]

Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova -> Charge -> Nova ->

[VP Baltar]

yerp. sometimes i throw a big punch in there for style points

[Umbrage]

i still don't really know what nova does...

[Iecerint]

Nova is AOE from your position that causes damage proportional to your shields and drains your shields. It doesn't require a timer other than shields being non-zero.

Charge moves you to the position of an enemy and restores your shields a little.

So long as you keep your timer down, you can basically charge->nova with impunity. The problem is when a team-mate kills the enemy you were going to Charge onto, because any delay in your charge->nova tree leaves you very vulnerable.

Glass cannon fun.

[Umbrage]

but why would i give up my shields to do damage when i have a BADASS SHOTGUN?

[Iecerint]

Nova has some invincibility frames, and it does AoE damage. You can also pretend to be Captain Falcon when you are doing it if you want to.

[Iecerint]

Charge -> Shotgun is just fine if you Charge'd a solitary guy, though, since the Nova would kill the solitary guy and leave you shield-less, which is risky.

[GreyICE]

ME3 Vanguard is 1000% percent better, mostly because of 200% power recharge rate.

[Umbrage]

yeah, but i miss my time warp effect...

[Umbrage]

ok, i've officially changed my mind about multiplayer.

it's bullshit

First off, EA needs to fix their servers. The state they are in now is inexcusable, and there's no sign of a patch.

The item system needs a total rehaul. I've got some characters with no additional colours and shit unlocked, and some classes which I almost never play are higher than the ones I do play because of how many XP drops they are getting. I've got around 3 new snipers, but they're all at level 1, so they're all shit compared to the same old level 10 rifle I've been using. I don't know how many stupid fucks PAID for RANDOM drops, but it's going to kill the game in a couple months. Nobody wants to grind in a shooter.

On a similar note, the default classes and weapons are absolute shit compared to what I've been seeing. If someone is running an N7 or Phoenix character, then they get all the XP, and if there isn't an N7 or Phoenix, we're all scrambling to revive each other. Character level is a joke, it doesn't matter, all that matters is playing the game long enough, or shelling out enough dollars to get the good shit. Which could take quite a while because the item system is the most blatantly pathetic scam I've seen in a video game.

I'm trying to get better at the game, but there's always random bullshit that kills me. When running down a corridor, I graze an invisible wall and get stuck in cover, and no matter how much I spam Spacebar it doesn't move me anywhere. I go up to revive someone and either get stuck in cover again or it just... stops, for no reason. Just about every enemy can kill you in half a second if you're not paying attention, which I guess is fine, except that often enemies will spawn behind you, or they spawn in clumps at a point you need to get to, and the entire team can't clear them out without using rockets. This isn't a difficulty curve. It's random bullshit. And even when everything goes right it doesn't matter because I don't have the powerful characters or weapons unlocked, I only manage to kill a few baddies before the rest of the team swoops in and clears them in two seconds.

I think they might've had something really good here, but they ruined it by adding ridiculous unlocks on an even more ridiculous random item drop system, while the actual gameplay is underdeveloped. It's a quick cash grab that'll die in a month, maybe two unless it gets rebalanced. I've gotten to the point where I'm not even playing enough to finish the weekend challenge, because I know I'm not starting it up again.

[Iecerint]

Actually, if CoD is any indication, grinding in a shooter can be pretty popular. I agree with the server situation. It's an embarrassment. I think the classes are pretty well balanced with some salient exceptions (e.g., Salarian Infiltrator). I played before the Earth expansion, though, so maybe those new classes are unbalanced.

[Ankamius]

Asari Vanguard is pretty good. You just have to focus on grenades since they're horrifically powerful.

The default weapons are pretty bad, yes, but there are pretty good weapons in the uncommons, rares, and ultra-rares. I don't particularly mind the random-drop system, although I generally have a lot of problems having enough survival packs without buying equipment packs in the store.

I've played three of the N7 characters. I'd say the three I have (Fury, Destroyer, Demolisher) are pretty strong, but I don't usually have as much success as with my Turian Sentinel or Asari Justicar. The Ex-Cerberus guys are actually pretty bad compared to the other characters.

The problems you're seeing about cover and things like that is present in single player as well. It's a side effect of spacebar doing everything in this game. I've never had the problems you're seeing about the enemies. I rarely need to use rockets, and generally I only ever do when I'm getting overrun by phantoms or banshees.

[Iecerint]

Umbrage, it's recommended that you try saving up from PSPs, if you're not doing so already. This will increase the odds that you pick up fancy things rather than getting lots of mediocre stuff that'll never be used in the long run.

[Umbrage]

At first I thought it was that the people with the new classes were just more experienced at the game, but I've seen those characters charge the enemy blindly and take them all out with those electric whips or a flamethrower or something, and rarely have their shields drop. These aren't experts at the game, all they are good at is killing enemies. Whenever there's an objective they lose their shit, they can kill them as they come but they don't focus on the objective, and it ends with them running out of time or succumbing to endless waves. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but from where I'm sitting the whole thing just seems like a pointless waste of time, hoping you'll get the upgrades you need. I've gotten all default character upgrades maxed out except feminfiltrator and both vanguards. So do I get those upgrades? No, I get more XP bonuses for the classes I've unlocked everything for. And since the only good and fast way to get those is to buy the now near-useless recruit packs, I'll probably never unlock them. Meanwhile I'm getting upgrades for weapons I don't use, no matter what I do I just can't kill enemies as fast as my teammates, and there're only a couple builds I've made that I can play properly since I don't know half of what the new abilities do or when to use them. I SWEAR incinerate is bugged. As if enemies being able to randomly roll and instantly nullify whatever power you're using wasn't bad enough, I've had powers enemies with health bars and have no effect. They might be catching on more invisible walls. I can't figure out the logic used for gaps in cover, sometimes bullets go through, sometimes they don't. I'm shooting at a target in cover, their head in my sights, and they don't take any damage. But I can be in cover from enemies head-on and they still hit me because they're two inches higher. And don't get me started on how many times I've been hit by a grenade because the cover controls don't work the way they're supposed to.

[Umbrage]

although I generally have a lot of problems having enough survival packs without buying equipment packs in the store.

This is the entire fucking point of the multiplayer.

t's a side effect of spacebar doing everything in this game.

It's shitty, and it should've been fixed in beta. Did BioWare forget how to make PC games?

Umbrage, it's recommended that you try saving up from PSPs, if you're not doing so already. This will increase the odds that you pick up fancy things rather than getting lots of mediocre stuff that'll never be used in the long run.

So yeah, the item system is broken.

[Ankamius]

You buy recruit packs after all the weapons are maxed? o_O

Some people swear by this, and it's fine, but I would skip directly to veteran packs to start off with. The Mattock, Phalanx, and Phaeston (among others, although I haven't used most of them) are three pretty good weapons to max and they're all uncommon. You'll also be swimming in consumables while you're buying them.

Find a group to play with and the game will be much funner. I've been playing golds mostly with people from Legion and it's a lot more relaxing than playing silvers with pubs.