Mass Effect

[HoveringCheesecake]

I did something crazy, and picked up a Widow instead of the assault rifle for my Shep soldier . Adrenaline Rush + Sniping is actually quite a fun combo as it makes headshots so much easier... much more so than Cloaking and Sniping imo. Though I'm doing this playthrough in normal, not sure if this holds up well on higher difficulties.

That isn't crazy, that's what I wish I did with my Soldier. The Revenant is awful compared to the Mattock, and the Widow is my favorite gun in the game.

[Lynx7725]

any way to keep her from dying then?

You don't need the team to be totally loyal to not get killed off.

You just need to remember not to assign non-loyal folks to key positions. My experience was that I de-loyaled Jack, but she still survived my first run-through.

I'm guessing, but I think you only need 3 loyals for the mission itself: a sub-commander, a tech, and a biotic. A big team also means better odds of survival. However, IIRC, the number of loyals may have an impact on if Shepard survives. I'm not too sure on that.

That's not to say Miranda can't get killed; there's plenty of runthroughs that deliberately goes all the way out to kill off everyone. She can die, just that her loyalty isn't the key factor.

[eugimon]

You don't need the team to be totally loyal to not get killed off.

You just need to remember not to assign non-loyal folks to key positions. My experience was that I de-loyaled Jack, but she still survived my first run-through.

I'm guessing, but I think you only need 3 loyals for the mission itself: a sub-commander, a tech, and a biotic. A big team also means better odds of survival. However, IIRC, the number of loyals may have an impact on if Shepard survives. I'm not too sure on that.

That's not to say Miranda can't get killed; there's plenty of runthroughs that deliberately goes all the way out to kill off everyone. She can die, just that her loyalty isn't the key factor.

My de-loyaled jack died on my run and I didn't use her for anything, just saw her corpse laying there as I ran past during the final cutscene.

Edited February 4, 2011 by eugimon

[Lynx7725]

My de-loyaled jack died on my run and I didn't use her for anything, just saw her corpse laying there as I ran past during the final cutscene.

I take it that you didn't bring her to meet Mr. Terminator? I left her with the delaying group. It seems like as long as you have a big enough group who can splatter out enough rounds, that group will survive ok. The exact formula can be suss'ed out over at the Bioware forums, but since I had loyal Grunt, loyal Garrus, loyal Thane, unloyal Zaeed -- all your major hitters -- in that team everyone survived.

Since I'm doing a RenAdept run, and that class is a crowd control class, I'll need to bring major hitters into the endgame. I'll see what happens at that point -- I'm fairly sure I'll end up with unloyal Jack in this run through.

[David Hingtgen]

It was mentioned/calculated that there is an aspect of randomness. Even with "the most perfectly assigned utterly loyal" team, someone may die.

[Wanzerfan]

Eh, I think I put a smilie there...

Actually today hit an odd thing. I was doing Overlord, on the dish -- just sucked a Geth Prime and a normal trooper and Warped the trooper. Geth Prime went flying off screen, and the whole game just hung. Had to reboot the whole system. It's late here so I'm not bothering with it tonight.. maybe tomorrow.

Did Grunt's mission. The Maw was less of an issue than I remembered. There's an exploit on that map and 'sides, I was just warping my way off planet with that thing. The subsequent fight was worse, as I accidentally let a Krogan get too close. Ugh.

Don't forget to scour that part of the battlefield for Krogan corpses, That's the only way to max out your credit bonus in that mission.

It was mentioned/calculated that there is an aspect of randomness. Even with "the most perfectly assigned utterly loyal" team, someone may die.

Not if you have a loyal Zayeed and Grunt help hold the line. They'll actually help keep people in the line alive. It's also a given that anyone in your squad will live through the final battle of The Suicide Mission.

[Lynx7725]

Don't forget to scour that part of the battlefield for Krogan corpses, That's the only way to max out your credit bonus in that mission.

Not a problem. Didn't you know? Shepard's subclassing. His/ Her main class is galatic strip-miner, sub-class is scavenger, sub-sub-class is whatever you chose for him/ her.

Not if you have a loyal Zayeed and Grunt help hold the line. They'll actually help keep people in the line alive. It's also a given that anyone in your squad will live through the final battle of The Suicide Mission.

I had disloyal Zayeed and Loyal Grunt. Grunt I usually leave for the hold-the-line; he's great there and reputedly swings the odds. That's why most kill-'em-all runs had him off'ed during the Long Walk.

[SherylFan888]

Do you guys think we'll see some re-release of ME1 on PS3 so that players who stay on PS can get the full effects of decision-making from the previous 2 games?

[Lynx7725]

Unlikely. ME1 appears to be MS-specific and Microsoft isn't likely to cooperate.

[eugimon]

Don't forget to scour that part of the battlefield for Krogan corpses, That's the only way to max out your credit bonus in that mission.

Not if you have a loyal Zayeed and Grunt help hold the line. They'll actually help keep people in the line alive. It's also a given that anyone in your squad will live through the final battle of The Suicide Mission.

Not true, I had grunt and zayeed in the line and jack died and non loyal party members in the fight with terminator can die, they can be crushed or fall.

[Lynx7725]

Good runs today. Did Jack's loyalty -- had to respec RenAdept to max out Renegade Points but managed to keep both their loyalties. Then did Samara's loyalty, and got Dominate -- finally! Also nice: 7/7 Assault Rifle damage. Wow.

It's a bit harsh to have to respec, but there's no real way 75% increase is going to reach the necessary level. Even with 100% increase, it was scraping every renegade point you can find...

Did the IFF mission too, with Arcangel and Thane. It was fun watching the husks go flying everywhere thanks to Improved Shockwave; there are times I didn't have time to lay down Wide Singularity, but against husks shockwave by itself was good enough. Not so against the Scions -- the pair-by-pair fights were tough, Scions aren't my favourite to go against.

The end "boss" was comical. We just camped at the entrance, and with two snipers and shockwaves it was relatively simple to keep the husks away -- if there were Scions it would have been quite tough. I had to empty out my Assault Rifle mags (down to 2 or 3 rounds IIRC) since biotics can't hit the target.

I'm actually left with a totally loyal team, stronger than any other playthrough as I routinely had problems with Zaeed and Jack. Being a badass apparently has benefits. Now left: Legion's Loyalty, Joker, Pipes, Walk and Mr. Terminator. Frankly, I think I just want to get this over with; The Engineer-AI Hack/ Dominate/ Drone build I'll probably do just before ME3, to get back into the game. I'm going to switch to Dragon Age for a bit after this run.

[Ghost Train]

Finally... No One Left Behind !!! . I've done so many runs through the game but for 1 reason or another, something always got in the way of me taking the effort to make sure everyone is alive.

My combo:

- Everyone loyal (this is must)

- Pick a good tech person to run through the tunnel, in practice I've found this to be only Tali or Legion

- Pick someone with good leadership skills to lead the second team, Miranda always was a safe bet for me. In 1 play through I picked Samara, but given that she's a loner for hundreds of years, this obviously didn't work out good.

- Pick a true A++++ biotic to put up a field for you. Miranda and/or Jacob did not come through for me, but Samara did, I'm guessing Jack could do it too.

I haven't downloaded the new character packs, so I'm sure the dynamics change when it happens.

... this time Terminator fight went by really quick. 1 shot with Cain, 3 rounds of Incendiary (not fully upgraded) from the Widow, and it's over.

[one_klump]

Latest playthrough, I did better in the game than the first playthrough, and I still lost Zaeed, Jack, and Thane. Thane got picked up by the seeker swarms, jack was dead as I ran by, and Zaeed died leading the fire team.

[kaiotheforsaken]

My combo:

- Everyone loyal (this is must)

- Pick a good tech person to run through the tunnel, in practice I've found this to be only Tali or Legion

- Pick someone with good leadership skills to lead the second team, Miranda always was a safe bet for me. In 1 play through I picked Samara, but given that she's a loner for hundreds of years, this obviously didn't work out good.

- Pick a true A++++ biotic to put up a field for you. Miranda and/or Jacob did not come through for me, but Samara did, I'm guessing Jack could do it too.

Just to add some additional info to this for those who still haven't gotten through with everyone alive. As Ghost said, Loyalty is a must, they are dead on either the push to the Collector Base or inside at various points.

Tali or Legion are the only 2 that can do the tunnel/vent as Ghost said.

Miranda, Garrus are (iirc) the only 2 people that are sure things to lead Team 2.

Jack and Samara (or her daughter if you went that route) are the only 2 characters that can hold the biotic field.

Mordin can be tough to keep alive, make sure he is either in your team or you send him with Chakwas and the Normandy survivors. Having him "hold the line" with team 2 can (and often does in my experience) lead to him dying before the games climax.

[Lynx7725]

Tali or Legion are the only 2 that can do the tunnel/vent as Ghost said.

Miranda, Garrus are (iirc) the only 2 people that are sure things to lead Team 2.

Jack and Samara (or her daughter if you went that route) are the only 2 characters that can hold the biotic field.

Mordin can be tough to keep alive, make sure he is either in your team or you send him with Chakwas and the Normandy survivors. Having him "hold the line" with team 2 can (and often does in my experience) lead to him dying before the games climax.

Basically, any key decision where you have to choose a candidate, go with the loyal specialist.

I sent loyal Katsumi into the vents in my first try. She works -- but her updates are annoying. My second, loyal Tali went. Less annoying, simply because I've gotten used to the mission and just stormed my way through.

Loyal Garrus is always good as a sub-commander. Anything you need a leader for, Garrus can do it. As long as he's loyal, he's good. I never used Miranda; Garrus was always my first choice.

Biotics, considering the description of what has to be done, only the strongest biotics can try it. In game, asari -- either Samara or Morinth -- or genetically enhanced humans can match up. It's fairly clear that Jack is way more powerful than Miranda. I always went with loyal Samara, because I couldn't be sure of a loyal Jack. This time round I might choose Jack just because.

In game dialogue often gives clues as to what a character is good for. Garrus' post-Normandy 1 days were spent helming a team, that gives a good indication of his suitability as a sub-commander. In this case, there's a piece of dialogue for Mordin in which he states he never believed in holding the line, and that doing the job and getting home is better. His combat abilities are strictly defensive; he's never my first, second, third... ok, he's my LAST choice as a squaddie; even Tali and Jack gets chosen over him. He's reputedly usually the first to die on the mission, so I usually take the opportunity to send him back with HackSaw.

EDIT EDIT: Oh I forgot.

UPGRADE YOUR SHIP. Should have gone without saying, but there are three critcal upgrades: Guns, Shields, Armour. Each will claim a semi-random squaddie if you don't have it.

EDIT:

Furthermore, I have a theory:

The game ought to be playable with only the initial four recruitments. You need to have a loyal sub-commander, a loyal tech, and a loyal biotic.

You have Miranda (unsuitable) and Garrus right off the bat.

You have Jacob, who is not suitable so he'll die; if you have Katsumi, you have a loyal tech.

You have Jack, whom you would need to stay loyal (hence likely unloyal Miranda).

Almost certain to lose everyone holding the line, though with Zaeed it might be possible. So it becomes:

Waking Up

Freedom's Progress

Mordin, Garrus, Jack, Grunt Recruitment

Horizon (forced after 4th recruitment)

Katsumi Loyalty (if you have her)

Garrus' Loyalty

Jack's Loyalty

Two other missions, probably Grunt and Mordin's loyalties (since both are on Tuchanka).

Collector's Ship (forced after 5th 2nd round missions)

Derelict Reaper

Joker's Mission

Suicide Run

Collector's Base

Long Walk

Mr. Terminator

So, 19~20 missions.. that's actually fairly long. It's one of those "speed" runs that I have to try at some point.

Edited February 6, 2011 by Lynx7725

[Lynx7725]

Ok, just did the rest of the game for my RenAdept. Actually had to do the Legion loyalty run twice -- I forgot about the Tali/ Legion tiff and didn't have enough Renegade points after I respec'ed back. That's annoying but at least it's geth...

All loyal, first up is Tali in the vent, Arcangel as the subcom. No surprises there -- I used this before. Adept in the Storming is a bit tough, because I ran with a Bastion Adept to keep the Renegade points up. Not enough killing power, even taking Legion and Grunt and their one-hit wonder. So I couldn't always keep up with the vent rat, but nothing serious. Warp on Harbinger throws a surprisingly loud explosion though. As usual, sent Mordin back with the crew.

Adept in Long Walk really came through. I took Jack as I previously never had her loyal; unfortunately, I think Samara's voice acting is better suited to the Long Walk. Jack works fine, btw. Just sounds.. off. As it is I took Legion and Grunt again and their one-shot weapons did a lot of the hard work. However, the Husk bottleneck was quickly cleared by Shockwaves; with the charging Husks/ Abominations cleared away, the two hitters concentrated on the Scions and took them down.

Mr. Terminator isn't so different either. I took Arcangel and Legion. Legion for the Widow, Arcangel for a Viper. Could have taken Thane but prefered to listen to Arcangel. Left Grunt to boost the Line.

Hitting the Collectors with Singularity before they settle it can result in them floating off into the void; I tried to do that as often as I can to ease workload. The final boss fight was a bit anti-climatic; Warp apparently is able to hit the relevant target zones and (i) had unlimited range, and (ii) there was no blocking terrain, and (iii) it homes. So it ended up hiding behind cover and popping off Warps every time he shows his ugly mug. Slow going and the Harbinger came to liven things up, but that's why I brought two long rifles...

So, mission accomplished, all made it back. I got my Renegade run, excuse me if I don't ever want to do that again. Gotten Dominate, so my Hacker/ Brainwasher/ Drone-maker build can proceed.. but I'm going to park ME one side for a bit.

Edited February 6, 2011 by Lynx7725

[Lynx7725]

Gotten Dominate, so my Hacker/ Brainwasher/ Drone-maker build can proceed.. but I'm going to park ME one side for a bit.

So much for that.

Started on my Hacker/ Brainwasher/ Drone-maker. Dominate is truly a game-breaker. with so many organic enemies. Even a level 1 Dominate can quickly turn a battle around. I guess that's why they made it such that you can't curve Dominate around corners -- that's really going to make things break.

The build looks to be a bit difficult, as you need 2 ranks in Combat Drone, then 2 ranks in Cryo Blast, then you can start on the AI Hacking. Not really sure if it's doable, since that sucks up 6 points already.. 30 points into the 3 skills, plus 6 for the necessary, plus 10 for the Tech Mastery. That's 46, meaning you're pushing level 26~27 already. There goes my plans for a quick run, and looks to require at least 1 re-spec to get the points distributed right.

Other than that, I'll be picking up the sniper skill, which means I'll need to do Thane's recruitment to get to good Viper... won't have the Widow, but in a lot of cases the Viper's good or better. Not really caring about Paragon or Renegade at this point.

Still trying to figure out the Engineer's playstyle. Like an Adept, he's a support class, with the difference that he can start interfering further out (Drone homes to enemy even if they are not on scope, I notice). Otherwise, he needs to get into range for Overload and Dominate, but doesn't quite have the knockdown/ juggling powers of the Adept. I got this feeling Cryo Blast will become quite important since using Incinerate doesn't seem workable, and at max it can work as crowd control too.

At the moment I'm still not quite effective with the Engineer. Was fun turning Vorcha Pyros and Heavies against their own and sending Blood Pack Krogans back against his old friends, but the workload is quite intensive and it's sometimes hard to remember the Engineer actually has an SMG. Working to max out the Tech Mastery first -- probably will tackle Dominate next (since a lot of organics around), then Drone/ Cryo.

[Lynx7725]

Argh. This.. this... THING.

The new alternative appearance pack. Urgh. Miranda's armour looks ok, nice even.. 'cept for the visor. Grunt's look... ok, 'cept for the visor. Tali's look bland, 'cept for the visor. See a trend here? Urgh urgh.

BTW been meaning to ask -- do you guys mind if I post DA:O commentary here? It'll help motivate me to play through. Prefer a ME2 gun to a Longbow, but I may as well grind through that...

[eugimon]

Might as well start a new thread, I have a feeling a bunch of us will be playing DA2 when it comes out

[Knight26]

how does DA:O compare to ME?

[Lynx7725]

how does DA:O compare to ME?

Quick Response to this one -- I'll start a DA thread separately on my next session.

I only have DA:O and ME2, so can only compare that. Bottom line -- different.

Dialogue methodology is different (DAO actual response vs. ME2 attitude basis) but the big thing is no voice for the PC (I miss Jennifer Hale! Thank goodness DA2 is reputedly fully voiced).

Exploration is more akin to ME2's Overlord DLC -- big areas for you to wander through on your own time. Combat's very different; more MMO style than the FPS style of ME2. Wonky zoom levels make it harder than necessary, and Allies AI is a bit terrible at the start (it gets better if you bother to work at it). Enemy AI however is fine.... It's a jump, not difficult but jarring.

Biggest difference is that ME2 chops the story up into digestable chunks, each mission taking about an hour or two at best. You can set aside a bit of time each night and see progress. Get a bit of free time, jump in and kill some Collectors.

DA:O's style is more flowing, not so discrete breaks; you can't exit or save during the cinematics (which may have dialogue options and which may be rather long), and you have to be in game world before you can save. Areas can be tough to clear especially at the start -- you can't expect to game an hour or two and clear an area.

So, different. ME2 feels like an epic squeezed into a movie timeframe, DA:O feels (at the moment) like one of those epic Taiwan drama serials. With 500+ episode. And going strong.

[David Hingtgen]

It's a Bioware game, so you know how the dialogue tree/choices work. Combat is more old-school quasi-turn driven, akin to KOTOR.

[Duke Togo]

Finally got around to playing again. LOVED the Overlord DLC, going to work on Shadowbroker tonight.

[Duke Togo]

Shadow Broker was fantastic as well. I wish I had gotten around to playing these months ago. And we still have one more DLC coming!

[Knight26]

I want an Ashley/Kaiden DLC, or at least something with a bit more alliance stuff going on, maybe convincing the alliance to start building up for the Reaper threat.

[HoveringCheesecake]

Next DLC will be called "Arrival." Apparently revolves around you saving the scientist who unlocked the true age of the relays in the last Cerberus Daily News update. The PS3 trophies were leaked in a patch yesterday and BioWare has acknowledged that it is not fake.

And yeah, hopefully the Alliance is involved. Makes sense, at least.

http://social.biowar...3/index/6128586

Trophies:

The Ultimate Sacrifice

Complete the Arrival DLC

Last Stand

Survive all five waves in the battle for Object Rho

Covert Action

Rescue Dr. Amanda Kenson without attracting hostile attention.

Some people don't think this will be the last bridging DLC, but I'd be willing to bet that it is. BioWare has to tie up your savegame somehow in preparation for ME3.

More spoilerific info:

http://www.destructo...nt-194762.phtml

Edited February 22, 2011 by David Hingtgen

[Lynx7725]

... And having a trophy called

"The Ultimate Sacrifice" doesn't bode well for Shepard...

Edited February 22, 2011 by David Hingtgen

[HoveringCheesecake]

I dunno, if they kill him AGAIN, it's going to be more than silly. My bet is one of your close squadmates or the Virmire Survivor. Pretty lame to off the survivor in DLC, though.

Edited February 22, 2011 by David Hingtgen

[David Hingtgen]

Re: previous 3 posts. WTF people, massive spoilers there. I had intentionally NOT looked at the trophy list because they said there's some big spoilers in there--but they're even bigger than I imagined.

[Wanzerfan]

Quick Response to this one -- I'll start a DA thread separately on my next session.

I only have DA:O and ME2, so can only compare that. Bottom line -- different.

Dialogue methodology is different (DAO actual response vs. ME2 attitude basis) but the big thing is no voice for the PC (I miss Jennifer Hale! Thank goodness DA2 is reputedly fully voiced).

Exploration is more akin to ME2's Overlord DLC -- big areas for you to wander through on your own time. Combat's very different; more MMO style than the FPS style of ME2. Wonky zoom levels make it harder than necessary, and Allies AI is a bit terrible at the start (it gets better if you bother to work at it). Enemy AI however is fine.... It's a jump, not difficult but jarring.

Biggest difference is that ME2 chops the story up into digestable chunks, each mission taking about an hour or two at best. You can set aside a bit of time each night and see progress. Get a bit of free time, jump in and kill some Collectors.

DA:O's style is more flowing, not so discrete breaks; you can't exit or save during the cinematics (which may have dialogue options and which may be rather long), and you have to be in game world before you can save. Areas can be tough to clear especially at the start -- you can't expect to game an hour or two and clear an area.

So, different. ME2 feels like an epic squeezed into a movie timeframe, DA:O feels (at the moment) like one of those epic Taiwan drama serials. With 500+ episode. And going strong.

I already tried that, but he moderators merged it with the first All Video Games thread. They might merge yours with the second one.

[Ghost Train]

Rewatching the ME3 trailer I hope the Clock Tower Sniper is a playable character. That guy just has bada$$ written all over.

Edit: Playable character = part of Team-Shepard

Edited February 23, 2011 by Ghost Train

[renegadeleader1]

Rewatching the ME3 trailer I hope the Clock Tower Sniper is a playable character. That guy just has bada$$ written all over.

Edit: Playable character = part of Team-Shepard

He may be a badass, but he's also kinda oblivious with his "I don't know who they are or what they want" speech. He obviously knows who Shepard is so he should know a little about what Shepard is doing trying to beat the reavers and all. Then there also happens to be that big black squid looking ship called a reaver that tried to blow up the seat of the galactic government... nah doesn't look anything like whats coming down on top of your head.

[Ghost Train]

He may be a badass, but he's also kinda oblivious with his "I don't know who they are or what they want" speech. He obviously knows who Shepard is so he should know a little about what Shepard is doing trying to beat the reavers and all. Then there also happens to be that big black squid looking ship called a reaver that tried to blow up the seat of the galactic government... nah doesn't look anything like whats coming down on top of your head.

By the way, I think it's reaper.

His obliviousness is probably due to the Council's proactive attempt to downplay the Sovereign incident after ME1. Note that during Shepard's visit back to the Citadel in ME2, the trio still had problems buying the whole reaper thing. And also Alliance forces have only really encountered a Reaper once, and that was just a fraction of their fleet, as such a human soldier (in particular a ground trooper) would have little or no idea of what a Reaper looks like.

[renegadeleader1]

By the way, I think it's reaper.

His obliviousness is probably due to the Council's proactive attempt to downplay the Sovereign incident after ME1. Note that during Shepard's visit back to the Citadel in ME2, the trio still had problems buying the whole reaper thing. And also Alliance forces have only really encountered a Reaper once, and that was just a fraction of their fleet, as such a human soldier (in particular a ground trooper) would have little or no idea of what a Reaper looks like.

Dammit I've been watching Firefly alot lately damn reavers .... anyways

[CoryHolmes]

By the way, I think it's reaper.

Ah yes [finger quotes]reapers[/finger quotes]