Mass Effect Andromeda - Thumb Drive Engaged!

[Gorbles]

Bit of a break in The Discourse™ (sorry, been great to read though), time for Gorbles' Multiplayer Thoughts:

 

The Krogan Vanguard, or Kroguard, is magnificent.

 

<< end of thoughts >>

 

More seriously, he's a straight port of the character class in ME3 and I managed to get him in one of my early Advanced or Expert packs (that I grinded Bronze missions for). The only difference (barring some tweaks to Power Evolutions) is Barrier has been swapped out for Fortify, but it's basically the same thing. Takes him a little while to get going, and as you're very Power-reliant you want that delicious 100% Power Recharge stat. which makes choosing weapons a bit difficult. I tried with a combination of pistols for some time; didn't really give me the stopping power I wanted. So I sat down with your basic M-8 Avenger and it's been doing me very well, thankyou very much.

 

I've actually swapped it out for the Thokin Assault Rifle that I recently unlocked, but the rate of fire combined with the limited ammo is making me reconsider. Going to give the Thokin a few more missions to see if I get used to it; the homing feature on the projectiles isn't as strong as the description makes it out to be.

 

Anyhow. Skill Rage. Rage is your friend. The effects could do with work, even on Ultra (what is with Andromeda and pixel / voxel-style particle effects on everything, I don't know), but boy do you feel the difference. Stacking it on top of Fortification turns you into the absolute tank the Kroguard was always meant to be.

 

My recommended order is (because I've forgotten what's unlocked at default now I'm level 14) one point in Charge, Fortify, Nova and Rage, and then go to town maxing Charge, and follow it up with Nova. I'm about 1 experience point from L15, which should let me max Nova, which is when I get super-happy-funtimes (no recharge time on Nova, at the cost of Shield usage). I recommend the anti-Armour Evolution on Nova because I use an Assault Rifle (you can use any good-magazine high-ROF weapon) to strip or damage shields, then follow up with melee and Biotics in whichever order you prefer.

 

With the late introduction of Rage into my skillset I'm regularly topping scoreboards on Bronze missions (haven't made the move to Silver yet, hahaha) and the only thing I have to worry about, like I did in ME3, is getting too cocky and getting oneshot by some of the big beasties. A thoroughly-satisfying class to play, with massive advantages over its debut in ME3 given both the inclusion of jump jets and the forward charge motion that I've bound to Ctrl (which means I can charge into a piece of cover and combat roll over it in two taps, because those binds can co-exist). You're a massive, armoured wrecking ball that also has some of the most flexible movement I've seen on a dinosaur-esque-rage-monster.

 

Good times.

[Badfinger]

I dunno, I'm pretty firmly with Jeff. If you cant point to big, obvious things in this new game that you can say are better, or newer, or innovative, or even just different (things that do not come with the natural march of time like texture resolution), why did you work so hard and long on something? It feels so Big Corporation to make something that screams new and different which is so much the same, and that doesn't feel very BioWare. It would have been way more exciting to me to see them really go for it and fail rather than achieve breathless sameness.

[clyde]

Y'all don't know what you are talking about. If it was up to you

 

Me and my boy-doll Liam wouldn't have just now made-out on a couch he smuggled in from another galaxy.

I mean, there are new planets, new characters, new species, new cultures, new politics. Mass Effect: Andromeda provides a lot of new canon to enjoy in a shooty-shooty RPG in the Mass Effect Universe. AND having new party-members of the already established species helps me get a more wholistic understanding of what is inherent in their species and culture. I am really surprised that there are people here who believe that the game should not exist.

Beyond that, saying that fantasy universes require more and more labor with every iteration just seems so anxiously capitalistic and limiting to me.

[Badfinger]

You can kiss all of the characters I dunno why that's particularly spoiler-worthy. It's no different than kissing Kaidan or Jacob.

 

It doesn't provide any big new reveals or ideas, though. We've now neatly talked around the important point he made that they took the absolute milquetoast safe way out. Rather than commit to a story universe where one ending of Mass Effect 3 was the real one, they rolled back to some nebulous time between the end of ME1 and end of ME2 that's very comfortable, where you get a Normandy, a Mako, one conscientious male soldier, one strong female soldier, an Asari, a punch-man Krogan, and a cocksure Turian to go find ancient alien technology with the exact same loadouts you had 5 years ago. All of the politics are the same, which makes all the planets interchangeable.

 

And crucially, I don't actually have a problem with that if they teed that softball up and hit a 500 footer! If the reviews were that they made ME1 but the shooting is good now, that'd be awesome! But most of the reviews and personal experiences are that they tried to make ME or ME2 again and it's a big shrug. They hit a single. Singles are valuable but not exciting or interesting. That doesn't make the game bad or liking it wrong, but I think wondering why someone went to all the trouble when this is the end result is pretty valid. The game feels like it needs another 18 months in the hopper.

[clyde]

For me, the experience of playing Mass Effect: Andromeda could not just be replaced by playing through the original series again. I'm discovering new things I find interesting every time I sit down to play. If I helped make this game, I would be incredibly proud of it. A lot of pieces can be reduced into generalities in text, but in reality I'm finding neat quests constantly. 

Personally I have no problem with leaving the mess of the previous game in another galaxy, but I can understand how one could be disappointed if that was their expectation. 

And conflating Liam with Kaiden is so misguided. I didn't spend much time with Jacob, I just remember that he had daddy-issues rivaled only by

Cora's obsession with my dead father.

 

[Twig]

I wish they'd made a new IP instead of Mass Effect cause then it wouldn't have the baggage of being a descendant of one of my favorite games from the previous generation that, as far as I'm concerned, has only gone downhill since the first entry, and, as far as I can tell from all the dialogue I've seen in this game, just looks so incredibly dull and, crucially, not well-written. Plus the combat I'm uninterested in because "okay mediocre shooter again that's not why i even play this series".

Same with Dragon Age, in fact. Though I think DA2 would've been better than DA1 if they'd just had the time to finish it, but that's neither here nor there.

 

Bioware is good at ones, bad at twos and threes. C'mon team, do better! Stop wasting effort on this stuff that never pans out the way I want. And yeah that's selfish and yeah I won't apologize.

 

I actually blame EA in all of this, but what're you gonna do.

 

And yeah I haven't played Andromeda, and yeah I won't, and yeah I'm happy for people who like it, and yeah that doesn't mean I'm not sad they wasted all that time making something I think looks pretty shit.

[Bjorn]

I haven't been able to play since last Wednesday night and this thread just makes me want to be able to play.

 

[Gorbles]

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).

[clyde]

This game is so broken.

The noise of having so many quests mixed with the ability to do them without getting the quest in the first place mixed with apparently having no sort of plan for when that happens is a mess.

I guess I'll leave the planet and come back later and see if anything changes.

[Kyir]

On that note, I recommend against interacting with any space weed dealers you may or may not meet until you have a reason to meet them. Most easily broken quest I've ever seen.

[Bjorn]

On 3/29/2017 at 8:39 AM, Gorbles said:

Bit of a break in The Discourse™ (sorry, been great to read though), time for Gorbles' Multiplayer Thoughts:

 

The Krogan Vanguard, or Kroguard, is magnificent.

 

<< end of thoughts >>

 

The Kroguard is definitely an excellent baby's first Silver/Gold kit with all the DR it has.  I got him up to level 16 tonight and took on my first two Golds, and extracted on both.  To be fair, there were players with better weapons and higher level than me in both, but I was able to contribute and only went down a handful of times.  On the second match, three of us carried a Level 1 guy who only had a few Apex points (so was really super duper new) to extraction. So many of my other characters are still just levels 1-4 because I've put far more matches into the Kroguard and a Human Novaguard.  But being able to mix in some Gold matches with him will make unlocking stuff bunches faster.  One more level and I'll be able to get the final evolution in Fitness, and activate Rage on 2 kills instead of 3. 

 

I know this complaint existed early in ME3 as well, but it does bum me out a bit that it feels like quite a few characters share 2 powers.  One of the Turian soldiers is almost identical to both Human Soliders.  The Asari Sentinel shares Energy Drain/Throw with the Human Sentinels.  The few new powers don't feel like they make up for all the cut powers in allowing for more diversity in the kits.  Adrenaline Rush, Reave, the Asari Bubble, Lift Grenades, Cluster 'Nades and Incendiary Grenades all feel like they should be in here.  And a few of them may make a return with DLC (the hopefully hinted at return of Drell and Quarians).  But for weapon boosting powers, ME3 had both AR and Marksman, which both favored different weapons and playstyles.  MEA just has Turbocharge which tries to work with everything.  It lacks the defensive boosts that AR gave, which is what made the Human Soldier really stand out.  Although I do look the looks of how they changed Concussive Shot, it's got some interesting evolutions in it now. 

[Gorbles]

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.

 

EDIT

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.

[Bjorn]

6 hours ago, Gorbles said:

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.
 

 

I'm feeling pretty much the same way on MP vs SP right now.  I did start, and made it to the Hub area, but I might just park there until the first big patch hits, particularly with people talking about quests breaking. 

 

I've been pretty happy with the Priming evolution on Nova.  It changes your flow some, where you're wanting to get in, Nova, then Charge, but it definitely gives those kits some more firepower.  I'll end up speccing one of my Humans into the other evolution to see what I think of burning shields to Nova.  But right now I think it would be a hard sell to take that on Gold, but probably runs fine on Bronze/Silver.  I think the shield use evolution goes better on the Humans in general though, with their Fitness tree having two options to recharge shields. 

[clyde]

Havarl compared to Voeld

 

I chose to go to Voeld and I did a ton of the quests there even after the main one. I wouldn't think I'd enjoy driving around an ice-planet after 100% viability, but I did. I was surprised when the main-quest line didn't suggest I go to Havarl next; I had just assumed that I would be going to both in succession and the only choice would be which one to hit first. I was also assuming that Havarl would be pretty much the same as Voeld (and Eos for that matter). But I had been planning to go to Havarl next the entire time I was on Voeld so I did (after a few other check-up stops). It's not until I climbed a sacred temple and spoke to a sage and then watched an Initiative drop-pod land directly on top of the sacred temple that it really started sinking in that this entire planet would be densely furnished areas for platforming and shooting on foot. I think it's kinda cool that there is this variety. I don't like the quests here nearly as much as I enjoyed the ones on Voeld though.

[Korax]

Just finished the main storyline and every non-task mission I could find. I took screenshots of every galaxy map close-up I saw. All planets, moons, asteroids, shipwrecks, etc, etc, etc. It's 233 images. Assuming 15 seconds per object in travel time, that's just over 58 minutes of flying around in the map. There are a few locations that are sort-of-duplicates or redundant scans, so that time is a bit inflated, but it doesn't count all the repeat visits to major areas.

[Gwardinen]

That's great.  I genuinely might use some of those as wallpapers or something.

[Bjorn]

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. 

[clyde]

I just found out that this game has Nvidia Ansel support. I'm trying it out now...

 

It works. Pressing alt+f2 opens tge interface. I can take stereoscopic 360 screenshots and then look at the stills in VR. The Remnant structures feel much larger. I haven't tested any otger spots yet but I will. Seems pretty cool.

[itsamoose]

This might not be the exact right thread for this, since it touches on social issues around gaming recently more so than MEA, but it's something I've been seeing more and more of, particularly in relation to this game.  I came across this essay in response to MEA's visual issues (particularly Sara Ryder) that I think goes a long way in describing the extreme reaction people have been having to the game itself.  The whole thing is pretty long, but really worth listening to, and I think she hits on something here I've been noticing in the response to MEA but also games generally.  If you don't feel like watching the whole thing her position is summed up pretty well by the last few sentences:

 

But At the end of the day, does it really matter that Sara Ryder is less that conventionally attractive, considering the character is customizable?  Well yeah, yeah it does, for multiple reasons.  First of all, we want our heroines to seem every bit as heroic as their male counterparts--we don't want to see the heroine portrayed as less than the hero in any way, including appearance, because it hints at the attitudes of developers regarding the proper place for women in gaming.  We don't want to be seen as mousy affirmative action figures that should feel grateful to be involved at all.  That Bioware thought that depiction was good enough to show in marketing does say something about what they think about the women who are passionate about their products.

 

But we also want to see the definition of beauty itself expanded.  Beauty isn't expanded by hiring a model to masquerade as a regular woman.  That completely misses the point that models are glorious freaks of nature with turbocharged metabolisms and improbable body proportions.  We should celebrate women who fit that description, but also celebrate women who don't.  We can't do that in the way Bioware went about it because, essentially, they didn't proceed on merit based hiring.  if they wanted a more common looking woman, they should have hired one to play that part.  Bioware isn't practicing what it preaches when it comes to inclusion, and this deepens the suspicion in gamers that social justice movements are exploiting insecurities to seize power, not actually making things any more equitable.

 

 

I'm not sure if there is anything in particular that can or should be done with regards to any of these topics--I certainly wouldn't have the answers if they do exist--but I've found this to be a particularly profound insight into modern social trends in video games.

 

[Gorbles]

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.

[clyde]

I am also at work so I can't watch the video. But as I understand it, one of her premises is that the default female character is physically unattractive? Does she give examples of what attractive women look like in games? Maybe I have weird taste in digital ladies. The only physical attribute I find unattractive is that she looks like she might snap in half when she wears Angarian armor. She looks like a half-finished fried chicken-leg that some art-schooler spray-painted flourescent colors on. The colors are probably my fault.

She's such a weird character though (regarding her responses and voice acting). She does come off as an adrenaline junky who just wants to shoot stuff, but she also wants to be liked.

Spoiler regarding themes based on missions up to and including Aya:

 

I'm looking forward to finishing the game so I can start reading think-pieces about how ME:A expresses its colonialization themes. I can't think of an examples of a game that has expressed the colonizer who wants to be liked and who tries to respect the indigenous population but doesn't really because survival of the colonizer's group is the priority. So far in my playthrough there hasn't been much conflict and Jaal defaults to my decisions in affairs that mostly affect his people which is weird. I'm hoping there are some moments where the Milky Way folks have to respect the Angara as an actual authority rather than just giving them lip-service and establishing trade.

Is anyone playing as Scott Ryder? Is the character interesting or just kinda a reluctant leader bland space dude?

[Bjorn]

6 hours ago, Gorbles said:

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.

 

Oh, I'm punching/headbutting my way through Golds right now   It's by far my most consistent damage source at that level.  The guns so far are mostly for applying ammo effects and shooting when we have to hold a hack zone or whatnot.  I've got a few weapons now that will clearly be Gold worthy once they're leveled up, have better damage mods and are on characters with weapon focused passives.  And between Rage on the Kroguard and the Melee Shield Regen on the Novaguard, melee is also what's keeping me alive.  I got the Ishara (sp?), a strong single shot SR last night, and decided that was good enough to take my level 10 infiltrator to Gold   We got through it, and I held my own, but it was a rough, rough match. It would also help if I could aim for headshots worth crap.  Might be better to wait until level 12-15, but I was being impatient. 

[Bjorn]

A gun that showed up all over trailers and marketing, and even appears in cut scenes in the game.....doesn't exist as a weapon you can actually find and use. 

 

[itsamoose]

9 hours ago, Gorbles said:

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.

 

She does make some assumptions regarding Bioware's motives that she elucidates on somewhat in the video, and they are somewhat sketchy, it's more the last couple of sentences I find interesting.  This particular criticism of MEA is one I've seen get a lot of attention, and I think that passage effectively describes why this has become a sticking point of a lot of the game's criticism when other more glaring issues exist.  There is a sense I've noticed around Bioware games in recent years that there is some malice assumed in the development proceedings, and while this is true of almost any fan base, Bioware seems to be a unique version of it.  Ultimately her argument boils down to Bioware's attempts at inclusion are poorly handled and that is creating a distrust in fans that is causing otherwise open minded people to reject any inclusive sentiment in all it's forms.

[clyde]

I watched 10 minutes of the video. I don't want to watch any more. I'm only saying this because I commented above with the intention of watching it.