199 replies to this topic

[craggy]

chris, the levels gained by one character in a class go to the other characters in that class, so I fear it will work the other way too, and when I get any soldier or whatever to 20 and promote them, all soldiers will get wiped. I did the single player prologue and then went back to multplayer. Silver is very hard. only done it once or twice, but yeah, i hate Banshees, so sticking to Bronze right now.

[Chris D]

Yeah, that's what I assume, which is why I haven't promoted my Vanguard. I just got to the point where I can play silver matches and do pretty well. I'll work on getting my Sentinel to level 20 and then promote him.

[Ogul]

Well, if it's just the banshee that are the problem, can't you just choose games with the enemies set to Cerberus or Geth? It doesn't have the XP bonus, and it might be harder to find a group, but it would be less hassle.

[Eduardo]

Two articles:


Mass Effect 3 Fan Complains to the Feds Over the Game’s Ending


Mass Effect’s Producer Promises ‘We’ll Keep Listening’, and New Content that Brings ‘Closure’

[Ogul]

I hadn't tried a second character, but you guys are saying that if I have a level 12 human Infiltrator and unlock the Salurian Infiltrator that I can just whip up a level 12 Salurian Infiltrator right away? Do I get to reallocate the skill points or do they fall into the same rows that they are on the human? Also, is money/gear shared? Would I need to start the equipment train all over again?

Seriously? Complaining to the FED?

[craggy]

Gear is shared. Stuff I've unlocked with one class becomes available to all classes. Mods and weapons and all those confusing power-ups. (whatever happened to the green tortoise shell? ) Money is too. Earn 20,000 on a Vanguard, spend it on your Engineer. But the gear being shared means it's not really a problem what character you spend the money with.

The skill points are unique to each character though. I'd unlocked the Turian Sentinel after playing a match with my Human one, and quickly swapped. Wasn't till I came back to him today that I saw he had gained a half a dozen levels. Other races have different skills as well, whilst I suppose the two genders of humans in each class means you could try out another build.

Another thing I've noticed, is that sometimes/often you'll unlock a class you already have, and, whilst it is a bit disappointing, you get more visual customisation options, and a bunch of XP for them when you get a "doubler". Yes, the whole collectible upgrades pack thing stinks of sticker books or trading cards to me. It's not a bad stink as such, but I sort of dislike that you can pay real money for them using MS points.

[Chris D]

Well, if it's just the banshee that are the problem, can't you just choose games with the enemies set to Cerberus or Geth? It doesn't have the XP bonus, and it might be harder to find a group, but it would be less hassle.

Yeah, you can do that. I just generally join a random game, though. Oddly, it was against the Reapers the only time I finished a silver mission. Only 2 of us made it out alive and by the end we had 2 Banshees and a Brute chasing us (along with husks and cannibals, of course). But yeah, it's probably a bit easier without Banshees, if only because other super-enemies are much easier to hit with missles.

[Ryan Landau]

For me the Banshee menace is magnified this weekend because of the promotion they're doing (clear a Silver Reaper match with at least partial extraction and get an item pack with a random N7 weapon inside). But yeah in general I just set everything to random, if only to cut down on the amount of time it takes to find a group.

If you're gonna pick one faction for Silver, I'd say go with Cerberus. Their highest DPS unit (turret) is stationary, save missiles for Atlases and keep out of reach of Phantoms and you're good.

[Ogul]

Ah, Cerberus turrets, the one thing that made me miss Sabotage on my MP Infiltrator. Do you know what a complete joke those things are with an Infiltrator on single player? They're like my MVP whenever they come into play.

Anyways, yeah, I've had pretty decent luck fighting most things in MP, the ones that tend to get me are the ones that sneak up and melee you when you aren't paying attention. As long as I see them coming from a distance, I'm good. In one round we all ended up dead except for one engineer, facing an Atlas. It took him about a minute or two, but he was able to kite him in circles around the base while plucking away at him. I wish you could see life bars in spectator mode, so you could tell how much damage they were doing with each attack.

[Ryan Landau]

That happened to me in the demo, Silver Cerberus match with an Infiltrator playing last-man-standing against an Atlas. Took him about ten minutes of chipping away at it before it finally blew up.

It seems that Infiltrators and Engineers are particularly suited to taking down Cerberus on higher difficulties. I did a Gold match with two level 20 Salarian Infiltrators and a Turian Sentinel yesterday; I can't think of a single Atlas or Turret that didn't croak within four or five seconds. Vanguard, on the other hand, feels rather UN-suited to higher difficulties; Charge's usefulness is dramatically reduced when you can't use it without being immediately shot in the back by your target's five buddies. The only reason I got 30,000 points in the aforementioned Gold match is because I'm getting really good with my precious Falcon.

[Ogul]

I just played as a Salarian Engineer for several matches and I felt a LOT more effective than as an Infiltrator. I racked up a ton of kills, head shots, SMG kills, and tech kills, and other good stuff, while my Infiltrator mostly got assists. I don't know how it counts headshots though, because I know I was getting headshots with my Infiltrator, but never medaled in it.

Anyways, the SalEng was fun, they had Decoy, which was even better than Cloak for avoiding damage, Incinerate, which did fantastic damage, especially to armored targets, and Enery Drain, which was lovely against shielded or barriered enemies, and was also effective against armor until I got Incinerate maxed. And my SMG was doing a lot more damage than I would expect it to. I was more of a "sidekick", picking what I considered to be the best player on the team at any given time, or at least a good tank, and then following along to kill shields and pick up spares. I got him up to level 14 and had enough credits to buy several mid-tier packs. I even did a "last man standing" of my own against a whole bunch of engineers, turrets, and regular soldiers.

At first I had a pistol equipped, but then I couldn't figure out how to switch to it, and never needed it anyways, so I unequipped it for more power-goodness. I ended up with nearly 200% power refresh and could practically spam Incinerate. I certainly killed more enemies with it than I did my gun.

Is vanguard the one that teleports? We had a few of those and they seemed to do quite well. They also died somewhat frequently, when they got too far ahead of the pack, but it wasn't terrible.

[Ryan Landau]

Vanguard has Biotic Charge, yeah. It's a tricky class to play on higher difficulties because Charge is simultaneously the Vanguard's primary offensive AND defensive move--it hits hard, but it also replenishes your barrier to 100%. Knowing when to use it--and who to target with it--is extremely important. If you do it right, you can even go toe-to-toe with a Banshee or a Brute, as long as you master a "stick and move" technique, Charging and then immediately rolling out of the way.

Typically a Vanguard will constantly be on the brink of death, desperately pounding on the hotkey for Charge so they use it as soon as it comes off cooldown (this is also why you'll frequently see Vanguards with a single weapon loadout, to try and keep weight low). It probably has the highest risk-reward factor of any class in the game, but when you do it right you are an unstoppable pinball of destruction.

[Ogul]

Typically a Vanguard will constantly be on the brink of death, desperately pounding on the hotkey for Charge so they use it as soon as it comes off cooldown (this is also why you'll frequently see Vanguards with a single weapon loadout, to try and keep weight low). It probably has the highest risk-reward factor of any class in the game, but when you do it right you are an unstoppable pinball of destruction.

Do human Vanguards get access to the "reduce weapon weight" passive? That's a must-have for anyone that can get it. Anyone.

[Hank Cannon]

So I discovered something remarkable on my 2nd play through. The Shep I got to 42, on my first play through can be "imported" into a new game. No starting from level 1 to replay the story.

I go forth to save the galaxy with my biotic might intact.

[Ryan Landau]

Do human Vanguards get access to the "reduce weapon weight" passive? That's a must-have for anyone that can get it. Anyone.

Yep, it's the only reason I can use the Falcon, because that thing is normally heavy as all hell.

That said I'm still hopeful that I'll find a Disciple (http://masseffect.wi...m/wiki/Disciple) eventually; lightest shotgun in the game, you can pair it with an SMG or pistol and still basically Charge on demand.

Someday....

[Ogul]

I'm now toying with the idea of trying a Vanguard that uses really light weapons, like an SMG or a pistol. If it reduces the cooldowns enough I might be able to go 90% powers and just ignore the weapon completely aside from finishing people off. I mean, my Engineer was doing perfectly good damage with his SMG, so that should work for a Vanguard too. It could be especially good if I could find a melee damage enhancer for my pistol. Oh, if only I had my single player arsenal in MP. At the moment all I have is the default weapons, the Viper and Raptor rifles, an upgraded default SMG, two SMG ammo mods, the ammo and scope pistol mods, and two shotguns (and I almost never use shotguns anyways). Now the Raptor and upgraded SMG have been a godsend, but there are some lovely weird weapons out there too, and I really need some good rifle upgrades.

[Mikha'il Tegler]

RE: the end/conclusion/whatever. since there's a lot of talk about bioware changing it. i don't think anyone wants a "happy" ending. they could give us just a few details. and tell us what that bit with the grandfather and the little boy is supposed to be about, or why joker and the normandy seemed to be in a position running away from "sword" or how teammates from the final push on earth, got onto the normandy.

the director casey hudson has been pretty glib about there decision to make the ending "memorable" there were a lot of way he could have done that without all the nonsense.

[Ryan Landau]

I think what ME3 needs primarily

Spoiler

is a denoument. It doesn't have one in its current state, and so I think a lot of people felt like the ending lacked closure or any measure of catharsis. When the end to The Matrix Revolutions is more cathartic than your ending, you've got problems.

That's what concerns me about the "Retake ME3" movement; what does victory look like in this particular conflict? As disappointed as I am with what Hudson and Mac Walters (the head writer) came up with, I don't think a shiny new ending-by-fan-committee is the answer either. I don't even think they necessarily need to change the nature of the ending(s) at all, they just need to do a better job of explaining what happened in the aftermath.

[Ogul]

You should spoiler tag most of that post. But to answer at least one of your questions,

Spoiler

and tell us what that bit with the grandfather and the little boy is supposed to be about,

It's just a little "life goes on" story trick. It's meant to convey the message that whatever Shepard did worked, that life in some form lived on for presumably hundreds, if not thousands or millions of years, to the distance that the details of her life had passed from history into legend. Humanity, or something very like it, lived on to continue active space exploration. Basically it lets the players know that things worked out, without getting too heavily into the details. It's a perfectly solid sci-fi ending, a bit like how Return of the Jedi ended without going into all the details that the later books did about what each of the characters did with their lives following the battle at Endor.

I agree that they could use better explanation of how everyone got onto the ship and why they were trying to outrace the wave, but the bigger picture stuff I'm content with them keeping an open question.

I think that a lot of the people that feel let down by the ending are viewing "the ending" as the three-prong choice and the cutscenes that follow. To me, "the ending" was the entire segment after committing to attack Cerberus HQ, with it's numerous dialogs with your team to get a final word with each of them, the big battles on earth, all of that stuff.

[Chris D]

You should spoiler tag most of that post. But to answer at least one of your questions,

Spoiler

It's just a little "life goes on" story trick. It's meant to convey the message that whatever Shepard did worked, that life in some form lived on for presumably hundreds, if not thousands or millions of years, to the distance that the details of her life had passed from history into legend. Humanity, or something very like it, lived on to continue active space exploration. Basically it lets the players know that things worked out, without getting too heavily into the details. It's a perfectly solid sci-fi ending, a bit like how Return of the Jedi ended without going into all the details that the later books did about what each of the characters did with their lives following the battle at Endor.

I agree that they could use better explanation of how everyone got onto the ship and why they were trying to outrace the wave, but the bigger picture stuff I'm content with them keeping an open question.

I think that a lot of the people that feel let down by the ending are viewing "the ending" as the three-prong choice and the cutscenes that follow. To me, "the ending" was the entire segment after committing to attack Cerberus HQ, with it's numerous dialogs with your team to get a final word with each of them, the big battles on earth, all of that stuff.

My biggest problem with all of that

Spoiler

is that your choice at the very end feels completely irrelevant. You're given 3 fairly crappy choices (but hey, it's war and that's life), but no matter which choice you make you get basically the same cut scene and are show that grandpa talking showing that everything worked out. Being that this was the final part in the trilogy I expected your final choices to have an actual impact on the way things ended. But they didn't at all. I don't feel like there was anyway to even come close to losing that fight either. Where as with the final mission in Mass Effect 2, choices you made could have drastic impacts on your survival.

Also, I was pretty disappointed that after all the alliance building that none of that really seemed to play into the final battle. I mean sure I know all those races are there, I guess, but I never really felt their impact or presence. How great would it have been to interject part of that final push to get to the Citadel with a couple cut scenes where you show a Geth and Quarian fighting Reapers side by side. Or a Krogan and a Turian trapped in a foxhole surrounded by Reapers only to have a swarm of Rachni come to their rescue. Once you've talked to your squad for the final time, I felt the game narrowed it's scope too much because it really seemed to forget about everything else that it had you work for. But as others have said, I don't actually want a new ending. I just wish they'd given a better resolution. More actual closure with regards to my allies.

But hey, what's done is done. And most of the game was really quite awesome. I just wish the final mission had managed to live up to the rest of the game.

Edited by Chris D, 19 March 2012 - 05:09 PM.