Gorbles
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Posts posted by Gorbles
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I was going to go on a multi-paragraph thing about how video games got me to where I am in life, but in keeping with this thread:
Cats do not respond well to attack orders like Pokemon do.
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As much as I didn't want it to be true, perhaps the game is running on a skeleton staff now (as supposed to the usual cut-down support staff). Would explain the relative silence since they fixed most of the egregious stability and animation-related issues.
In slightly-nicer MP news, the new Mission Funds item is a Revive enhancer (120 MF) that makes your Revives AoE. Need to test radius, but this seems like a genuinely-useful item that makes dive-bombing an area where your team has fallen viable (especially as a Biotic or Infiltrator of sorts).
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19 hours ago, Bjorn said:My only disappointment in this feature is that you can't just open each category of crate. I'd like to be able to open all crates except for items, because if I open all the items then I have to take the time to sell or break down 60+ items to clear my inventory back out.
Agreed. At this point I'll take anything I can get with the UX, mind. Lowered expectations and all that (not even unique to this product; even well-supported games can make . . . odd UI and UX choices. White text on light backgrounds in Overwatch - I see you Blizzard).
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This might seem like a trivial thing to bump the thread for, but it seems like I missed it earlier on (too much MP, not enough SP). Patch 1.07 seems to have added a "claim all items" for Strike Team loot crates (for Pathfinder rewards). This is one of the best UX improvements they've made to date, though I do wish they'd focus a bit more on it in general.
No more opening 200 individual crates!
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Yeah, I was playing SMAC from about 10 - 12ish (I honestly forget), I have fond memories of all the early games I had for the family computer. Tomb Raider III, better than any other in the (old) series for me, because it's the one I had (t'was also pretty decent). Never knew there was a novella for SMAC though!
For Beyond Earth, it received only one expansion, but in my opinion it really does help the game. Whether or not it addresses the issues you have with the game (I've found) is very much personal, though! It improves the early game massively, it makes a number of UX improvements, it makes diplomacy more engaging (in my opinion) and gives you a new diplomatic resource to trade with. The problems set in the in mid-to-end game common in Civilisation games in that you're just clicking through turns waiting for things to happen. I haven't found a strategy / 4X game that doesn't suffer from this to some extent, though.
I really liked it. It was worth the money for me. If you don't own BE though, you might be worth waiting on a sale to pick up BE + the Rising Tide expansion at the same time. -
Hi yes, I am here for excitement. I loved DS2, more than the original, though even that holds up well (Warmastered version runs very nicely, thankyou).
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Ooh, that Turian is new? The Turian Agent, with a lovely eyepiece. I predictably don't have him yet!
Don't know what the new AR is, but I can't browse that from the ingame selection tab (I don't think?!).
I'm GorbMort on Origin. I'm trying to find a link for it but EA have done weird, weird things to profile display. I don't have a background set if that helps. Won't be online for much longer tonight but I see myself playing a lot more now the weapons really feel good.
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Yeah, that's in one of the pages of notes, I think? Incredible box of goodies. I got three consumables, three Silvers, two Golds (Krogran Mercerny, up to IV now, and Angaran Insurgent, up to III now) and my first UR class, the Salarian Operator.
I'm about to roll with KroMerc with a Ruzad VII on Silver, see how I do. Nine Power Cells thanks to the buff to Flak Cannon
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Currently sitting dead on Wave 5 because the patch reset my keybinds (heads up) and I forgot to reset them. Evade not being Ctrl is really messing me up, haha. Ruzad is hitting like an absolute beast though, basically two-shotting basic mooks on Silver. That's more like it. -
Welp, not that I like double-posting, but:
http://blog.bioware.com/2017/05/09/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-06-notes/
http://blog.bioware.com/2017/05/09/patch-1-06-combat-balance-updates/
And they explicitly noted that shotguns felt like they were underperforming. Score one for my intuition, or just a lucky guess?! Combo damage buffed across the board, and Kett difficulty reduced (general tl;dr for you folks).
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Really solid changes all-round, I think. Also, of particular interest @BjornQuoteFixed issue that caused singleplayer difficulty to impact multiplayer
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Also, is it just me, or do shotguns seem wildly inefficient? I'd put the at the bottom of the four types (Snipers at the top, Pistols second). Though again, host difficulty issues could be impacting this. A Disciple V shouldn't be taking four shots to kill basic mooks on Silver, no?
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Understandable. I'm still having fun because I enjoy swapping through characters as I burn interest in the previous ones, but that will reach an end (at some point, bearing in mind I'm only like 20% through the SP, haha). I still don't have a single Vanquisher, which is annoying considering how much of everything else I have. Not sure I have a Lanat, but if I do, I need to rank it some more for Power Recharge.
Good point about the difficult modifiers making Gold a pointless chase, might just stick to getting my characters Silver-worthy and having fun with that. My KroGuard and Asari Adept are basically Silver-carriers, understandably. KroGuard could do with a respec, though.
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I'm hoping that they're fixing core game issues before moving onto the meatier stuff. A shame that it has to go this way (or even that that's my positive spin on it, as that's not very positive, haha), but that's what I'm holding out for.
Still grinding Uncommon and Rare classes me, I don't have the kind of kits to reliably do Gold except on a couple of classes I'm really played out on at the moment (the Asari Adept, for example). Been having a bit of fun with a Viper X / Charger X Human Soldier, to be honest. Never enjoyed Soldiers beforehand but homing Concussive Shot makes a world of difference. The Munitions trait (however it's named) in the offensive passive tree is fantastic too; vastly increases the ammo I can carry for my Viper. I need to get my Widow up a level so I can use that without any Power Recharge issues (currently at -1% with a Widow VI).
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The issue with worldbuilding in Civilisation is always placing that information in the UI in a way that makes sense to the user. In that this doesn't usually happen too much. The Civilop(a)edia has a huge amount of information here, but it's squirreled away, hidden almost. Beyond Earth is no different in this regard. There is an absolute wealth of information on the history, emerging factions, and so forth. Quotes too, from the leaders, fleshing out their inspirations, aims and general personalities.
Which, if you don't go digging (and this isn't a slight, digging isn't exactly a preferable choice in a game you play for the gameplay interactions), you won't find. Which is why quotes were criticised as dry, as "not being grounded in reality" (the Wonder quotes for example were mostly from Beyond Earth characters, but unlike SMAC without the straightforward, even trope-ish characterisations found there, these simply aren't as recogniseable).
So I get that.
But I also love systems-first design. I played endless hours of SMAC, but these days the cracks in its design are really, really obvious. And no amount of dated Wonder clips (as great as they were at the time, when I was young) is going to change that for me. The best thing about that game, that still sticks with me, are the dreaming sequences and the breaks in the gameplay flow they create. But it's very hard to create something like that from scratch in a semi-spiritual successor in a way that doesn't ape it (and actually does it well). Which could be why they didn't. Or maybe they just didn't care for it, I don't actually know, heh.
I certainly prefer BE these days, on the whole, as a game. I still have SMAC (and Crossfire) installed, and I revisit it really not that occasionally. But I do, and mainly just to see how it holds up.
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You could argue Star Wars tries, but repeatedly and consistently fails. You have to accept certain tenets, for example, the Force is basically space magick. This magick has no rules and is frequently a plot device stand-in. A lot of the weapons because "because they do".
This is an argument I encounter a lot, and to my mind unfortunately it's leveraged at science fiction people personally don't like. Inconsistently, even. Star Wars is okay because X, or Star Trek is okay but Y.
In this case, Alpha Centauri is okay because X, but Beyond Earth isn't because Y.
You not being able to name leaders in Beyond Earth doesn't mean they're poor personalities. I can't always recall all the SMAC leaders, and SMAC is something I put a lot of time into. And don't get me started on the aliens in Crossfire, with Generic Good Guys and Generic Bad Guys rounding out the factions there. If, like me, you got very bored with the specific agendas of SMAC's leaders, maybe you enabled Random Personalities. Maybe you enabled Random Agendas. You play enough games with all of these, and all of a sudden you have a fervent Chairman Yang that also favours (Sparta-like) military dominance.
You prefer the default, strong personalities (to the point of being caricatures) of SMAC. And that's fine! But because BE opted for a different way of portraying its leaders, doesn't make it inferior. I mean this is not me saying BE is perfect (though I enjoy it greatly, and have played it more than CiV), but certainly, you're focusing on an angle that no developer can satisfy. Only you can satisfy your requirements for what you want to happen to this game, and I hope you can agree that's something that won't necessarily please others.
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I am the Typical Sprawling RPG Audience Demographic (TSRPGAD, for short) in that I will always compulsively check every single squad member after every single mission or major cinematic event. Can absolutely see how that design doesn't work for others, though.
It's weird, I have limits on other types of game for what I can be bothered to do, but much like weapon grinding in more Diablo-style RPG games (Torchlight is a big favourite of mine), I never get bored of this kind of busywork.
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I actually stuck with Liam and Cora for a bit, but I've literally hit the same point in the story that Bjorn was at yesterday. Choosing between the two planets (and running back to the Nexus for side-mission stuff, because why not). Jaal is an immediate contender for Best Person Ever, and I might drag PeeBee along because heck I've decided to romance her why not (I really don't find her annoying). Just to switch it up. I quite like Liam and Cora isn't as stiff as she originally tries to be. Her backstory is actually quite interesting (considering I loved the Asari society bits with Samara in the original trilogy).
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Gonna be trying to split my time between the DoW III Beta, Andromeda SP and Andromeda MP this weekend. Real Life might successfully manage to get in the way though, hah, it always does.
Finally got started on the SP! Made some characters I've pretty proud of, and DadRyder turned out ace I think. Currently at the Nexus just having been introduced to the situation, and trying frantically to get the story to the level where I can start unboxing my 190 Strike Team crates, hahaha.
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Damn, I actually have to be careful around Hydras now?
sadface.jpgDidn't get a chance to try out MP last night, most of yesterday was a write-off for me personally. Looking forward to doing some this weekend if I get the time.
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Doing what Bjorn suggested r.e. credit crates and all my gear is coming along quite nicely. Adept is now IV (level 11) with double-width / extended-length Shockwave (such a good skill). Weapons are at V or above (for the commons) and ranking up a lot of my other Human classes as well. Probably going to start pushing Silver with my Adept soon just to speed up the credit farming. Biotic Combo + controllable Detonating Singularity deals brilliant damage (and hitting Singularity early starts the cooldown earlier, with no penalties, as far as I can work out).
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I would, uh, not be as charitable as to call TheRalphRetort a "creator" of any kind. But that's a small concern, it's a good piece
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In terms of Multiplayer, I decided to rank one of my other duped classes, the human lady Adept.
My goodness.
The facial animations might be drawing a lot of (warranted) criticism, but they've absolutely nailed how Krogan and human-types feel different. Kinda intrigued to give an Angaran class a try now; their frame's a bit exaggerated compared to human / Asari / Salarian. Krogans were incredibly clunky in ME3, and they're clunky in ME:A - but understandably so. It feels more like they're their actual weight, instead of them just being an awkward physics collider shape bouncing off of geometry left, right and centre.
Which makes the change to a human class all the more amazing. First (Bronze) mission as a Level 1 Adept, and I topped the scoreboard on my team simply by dint of being a Fecking Space Ninja. Jumps feel faster. Running feels fast. Melee lunges are beautiful and look vicious, too (as supposed to the ME3 clunky "I bop you with my elbow" attacks you got a lot of the time). I was able to dodge so much enemy attention in a way that didn't feel possible as either Krogan class (Vanguard had Charge, but that only goes so far).
Kinda not looking forward to going back to my Kromerc now, haha. But man, moving animations deserve all the praise.
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I don't quite get what the passage is getting at; I'm at work so I can't easily shove on the video right now.
All I'm getting is slightly weird vibes from someone criticising a woman in a video game for being "less than conventionally attractive". Given that this phrase has the most traction around the <certain hatemob> circles of social media, I don't even know if it has an official source. Have Bioware actually said "yeah we tried to make a more 'normal'-looking woman"?
Not forming a judgement yet, but that kind of undertone just doesn't sit well with me, and at best has been formed based on utter speculation rather than any actual concrete news wrt. Bioware's motives.
15 hours ago, Bjorn said:Yeah, just glanced at those, and some of them are super pretty.
I've actually got in quite a bit of good playtime in MP between Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Regularly doing Golds now, and mixing in some Silvers leveling up classes that aren't ready for Gold yet. All common kits and weapons are at X, still have about 20 common mod cards left to drop. Have got a few Rare AND UR weapons to drop, which is nice, because I was getting a little tired of putting the Hurricane on everything. The Vanquisher SR is by far the best SR I've got. It feels like the Black Widow from ME3, and is honestly one of the few guns that just feels "right" in terms of its damage. I also got a couple of new weapons whose names escape me, an SMG that's very similar to the Geth SMG and a Krogan Shotgun, both of which tentatively feel pretty good. The Krogan shotty has a really slow reload though. I super miss reload canceling.
There are some real bad guns in MP though. Like, wow, holy shit bad. Canceling the public beta was a very poor idea, because damage on guns is just all over the map. And not every gun needs to be equal, but generally one would expect all Rare guns to be able to perform at least comparably on Silver, and that's not the case. I got an AR called the Sweeper, and had to resort to just punching things to death for the whole match, because it worked so poorly. It's the second weapon I've got now that doesn't require a reload (has an overheating mechanic), and both are very bad weapons. I think the greatly overestimated the value of not having to reload when trying to balance them.
Overall, I think making the jump to Gold is easier in Andromeda than it was in ME3. Some of that is probably experience, but I think the movement speed, jumping, and the new fitness trees that include some shield regen all help. Even when I shifted to playing ME3 on the PC after starting on the 360, I had to build up my manifest with some decent guns before I could regularly do Gold.
Haven't even tried Gold yet. I probably should, given that my Kroguard has been sitting at Level 20 for a few days. Problem is I don't have any of my weapons geared up to the level you have, haha. I might give it a go once my Kromerc™ gets a bit higher (Level 11 right now); he's been unlocked three times which gives me a crucial extra ability point or two to sink into my choices. Means I might get a set of maxed abilities that I want by Level 20.
Good to know it's not just me that has been finding issues in weapon balance. Been getting some rares (because I've been messing about with the Expert packs, and one top-end pack for a laugh) and honestly astonished at how the basic variants are more reliable. It seems that they've traded effectiveness for quirks, but they're not effective enough at their quirks to be reliable weapons. Compounded by the rarity index, not the best way to incentivise unlocking those tiers of weaponry.
That said, at least the Scorpion is solid. Really getting good usage out of a Scorpion / Sidewinder (another reliable pistol) combo on my Kromerc.
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Concussive Shot homing as a basic ability really helps Soldier-style ability lines perform at the lower levels, especially at the start having poor gear.
Can confirm getting the regeneration bonuses in the Rage tree really help survivability. Sadly I don't have enough points to max Rage even at Level 20 due to the point auto-invested in Fortify for you when you unlock the character.
Want to re-roll him and see how Biotic Combo Nova works out, but focusing on a soldier-esque class for now, my recently-unlocked Krogan Mercenary. The Flamethrower is fun, pure and simple. Going to try and avoid Rage and go for a Flamethrower / Flak / APEX build. Few points in Fortify for fun.
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Still haven't started SP. I'm having entirely too much fun in MP so I might as well wait to see Bioware's patching plans, and then make the drop. -
To help Bjorn some more, an update on our friend the Kroguard.
I specced into Nova eating Shields (in place of a recharge time), and I'm actually quite underwhelmed. The problem is I haven't advanced my Rage tree (or the APEX training tree at all) far enough for decent shield regeneration bonuses. I reckon with a maxed set of abilities, this becomes very flexible. As it is, I kinda have to lead with Nova (which means I need to be in position first) and follow up with Charge to restore my Shields. Especially on Silver; incoming fire strips my health way too fast.
So it's potentially a strong a build, but I need a few more levels to play with it yet. I'm actually more intrigued by the other 6-point Evolution; increases force and damage, but it also turns the ability into something that primes combos. Which combined with Charge would give me a Biotic Combo effectively on-command.
It does make me appreciate how they've improved the ability design since ME3; I think Nova was new there, but the shield consumption made it quite tricky to use and as a consequence most people took the half-Shield Evolution (which reduced damage output too). Now it doesn't take your Shields at all unless you deliberately spec it to, and I think the assumption there would be to take any and all abilities and equipment that improve Shield regeneration (means maybe dropping Fortify in favour of some of the APEX tree bonuses).
Mass Effect Andromeda - Thumb Drive Engaged!
in Video Gaming
Posted
http://blog.bioware.com/2017/06/06/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-08-notes/
Quite a lightweight patch all told, but then again, not sure how much resources adjusting the SP like this takes. Previous ME games never had this kind of post-release SP focus (outside of DLC, and excepting the Extended Cut which happened quite a while after release).