Mass Effect Andromeda: To Boldly Go

[Anonymouswizard]

In the actual missions, the Mako was excellent - every mission had mostly flat or gently rolling ground that was easy to steer on, and its durability and firepower were great.

The problem is on all the random exploration planets. Such places tend to have large amounts of hilly and mountainous terrain, often with sharp curves and/or near-vertical inclines with no obvious way around, which has to be navigated through to reach the special loot/explorer/resource locations. In that kind of terrain the Mako's steering goes straight wildly swerving to hell, and on the steeper slopes finding the path that's just barely gentle enough to drive up can be an exercise in frustration.

I'm not surprised here, most of the time when I went on a nonmission planet the Mako was harder to control, but I did that maybe three times before I got bored (I'm not an exploration junkie, which makes it harder for me to complete all those little quests). I suspect that the problem is then the fact that the designers didn't make terrain that fit the Mako (which really should have been a nice thing to drive in a few missions).

I must say that Mako combat was terrible. I ended up using it because the alternative was basically taking on Mako-assuming enemies at level 10 with crappy gear, but it was just a case of 'park the mako, shoot the gun until it's dead, use Omni-Gel if you lost Mako health' as far as I was concerned, so losing that is a big bonus.

What I'm hoping is that either the Nomad is able to hover, or we'll be able to jetpack up the troublesome areas and then either nab all the stuff and jetpack back down, or just ask our ship to deliver a new Nomad so I don't have to retrieve the old one. Of course, my actual plan is to leave the Nomad where it begins the darn mission if jetpacking about is at all feasible, it really seems redundant with the jetpack (have I mentioned that the jetpack is my favourite part of the new stuff? I'll just slap on heavy armour and rain biotic death on foes from above).

[LibraryOgre]

I found that by using the map, I could usually find a relatively easy path to go through. Check the overhead map, figure out my route, drive the route, check the map every so often to see if I'm in the right spot, and so on.

[VoxRationis]

I'm not surprised here, most of the time when I went on a nonmission planet the Mako was harder to control, but I did that maybe three times before I got bored (I'm not an exploration junkie, which makes it harder for me to complete all those little quests). I suspect that the problem is then the fact that the designers didn't make terrain that fit the Mako (which really should have been a nice thing to drive in a few missions).

I must say that Mako combat was terrible. I ended up using it because the alternative was basically taking on Mako-assuming enemies at level 10 with crappy gear, but it was just a case of 'park the mako, shoot the gun until it's dead, use Omni-Gel if you lost Mako health' as far as I was concerned, so losing that is a big bonus.

If you just park the Mako, you'll end up taking a lot more damage. A ton of enemies in that game have bad tracking on their slow-projectile weapons. Plus, watching Geth Armatures and Colossi flail about like geese when you ram them is hilarious.

What I'm hoping is that either the Nomad is able to hover, or we'll be able to jetpack up the troublesome areas and then either nab all the stuff and jetpack back down, or just ask our ship to deliver a new Nomad so I don't have to retrieve the old one. Of course, my actual plan is to leave the Nomad where it begins the darn mission if jetpacking about is at all feasible, it really seems redundant with the jetpack (have I mentioned that the jetpack is my favourite part of the new stuff? I'll just slap on heavy armour and rain biotic death on foes from above).

What if the distances to traverse are too long for the jetpack? I could easily see it as being of a speed more appropriate to an infantry battle. I feel as though it is likely that the game space is huge for most explorable planets and the Nomad's speed will be tailored to that far more than your running speed.

[Sholos]

If you wanted to be REALLY cheeky in ME, you could weaken the big enemies to almost-death with the Mako's weaponry, then hop out and deliver the final shots on foot. Which meant you didn't get the XP nerf you normally would for killing them in the Mako. Cue easy XP.

[Anonymouswizard]

If you just park the Mako, you'll end up taking a lot more damage. A ton of enemies in that game have bad tracking on their slow-projectile weapons. Plus, watching Geth Armatures and Colossi flail about like geese when you ram them is hilarious.

Yes, but I have dyspraxia. I have bad aiming when on the move in the Mako. Not that the extra damage mattered, considering how much Omni-Gel I had.

What if the distances to traverse are too long for the jetpack? I could easily see it as being of a speed more appropriate to an infantry battle. I feel as though it is likely that the game space is huge for most explorable planets and the Nomad's speed will be tailored to that far more than your running speed.

I suspect that this is going to be the case, which actually saddens me a bit because the jetpack is much more exploration-friendly than a vehicle that mainly moves in two-dimensions. I think I'd be much more accepting of the Nomad if it wasn't for the jetpack, it just feels like saying 'we have sticky toffee pudding for the main course and roast beef for pudding', just wrong.

If you wanted to be REALLY cheeky in ME, you could weaken the big enemies to almost-death with the Mako's weaponry, then hop out and deliver the final shots on foot. Which meant you didn't get the XP nerf you normally would for killing them in the Mako. Cue easy XP.

That's exactly what I did. At least until I got bored and decided to see if I could snipe an Armature to death without running out of medi-gel.

[Corvus]

You call it OCD fodder, but when most of us played the first game we had no idea what would and wouldn't carry over to future titles. We basically had to do all these annoying little meaningless quests or risk missing out of future plot points.

Well, the good news is that now we can safely ignore every single one of those quests as they have zero impact on the way the game ends.

[Anteros]

Well, the god news is that now we can safely ignore every single one of those quests as they have zero impact on the way the game ends.

And all the story quests as well!

[Haruspex_Pariah]

If you wanted to be REALLY cheeky in ME, you could weaken the big enemies to almost-death with the Mako's weaponry, then hop out and deliver the final shots on foot. Which meant you didn't get the XP nerf you normally would for killing them in the Mako. Cue easy XP.

Ha ha, once I found out about this I tried it as often as I could. Mostly against Thresher Maws.

[Psyren]

Well, the good news is that now we can safely ignore every single one of those quests as they have zero impact on the way the game ends.

I know (or at least hope) you're being facetious here, but still wanted to point out that "this affects the trilogy's ending" isn't a particularly good yardstick for how meaningful a given piece of content is. Lots of stuff that mattered a great deal to people didn't impact the endings at all, or at best just gave you a handful of war assets for your trouble. For example, who Shepard chose to romance (if anyone at all) is a pretty big deal to lots of people, but doesn't change anything about the Crucible.

Ha ha, once I found out about this I tried it as often as I could. Mostly against Thresher Maws.

It works well on Geth Colossi too. (Anything smaller generally isn't worth it, just mow em down.)

[tonberrian]

I never bothered, seeing as you can fairly easily hit level cap without it. I'd rather not spend more time on the shooting instead of getting to the interesting parts.

[Psyren]

It's not just about the cap/total XP though; leveling quickly is a quality of life issue too. For instance, the longer it takes your tech character to max out their lockpicking skills, the more likely it is that you'll come across a chest or safe that you'll be unable to hack, which means either missed loot or more backtracking. And while they're pouring points into those skills, they're weaker in combat or healing, particularly vs. organic foes. Similarly, a low-level biotic can be annoying to play with their long cooldowns and weak force. So it's easy to see why XP tricks are desirable; you can hit cap without them, but faster is still better.

[tonberrian]

It's not just about the cap/total XP though; leveling quickly is a quality of life issue too. For instance, the longer it takes your tech character to max out their lockpicking skills, the more likely it is that you'll come across a chest or safe that you'll be unable to hack, which means either missed loot or more backtracking. And while they're pouring points into those skills, they're weaker in combat or healing, particularly vs. organic foes. Similarly, a low-level biotic can be annoying to play with their long cooldowns and weak force. So it's easy to see why XP tricks are desirable; you can hit cap without them, but faster is still better.

To a certain extent, yeah, but getting more experience doesn't necessarily equate to getting experience "faster" due to the more time it takes to get the experience. Moreover, I never had any problem getting my lockpicking skills high enough to get any loot I wanted, and it's not like the randomly generated loot in Mass Effect is really worth backtracking for - there's very few points where any given loot piece available in a safe will dramatically effect your character's efficiency anyways, and often enough you'll have enough credits to buy whatever you need when you stop back at the Citadel.

Granted, I played ME1 on Normal, and gameplay wasn't my focus, so I could be a bit biased.

[Dienekes]

I never bothered, seeing as you can fairly easily hit level cap without it. I'd rather not spend more time on the shooting instead of getting to the interesting parts.

But, you can't even reach the level cap in a single playthrough of ME.

[Anonymouswizard]

But, you can't even reach the level cap in a single playthrough of ME.

To be honest, I personally never hit the level cap due to not finishing any NG+ playthroughs and hitting the cap being really redundant on the difficulties I play (normal when I started, Veteran these days as it's better balanced, although I've completed a Hardcore run of ME2 and plan to do so fou the other games.

Yeah, I normally finished ME1 in the mid 30s and ME2 in the low 20s (essentially what you'll get from doing all the story and loyalty missions). Even at those levels I could beat Saren by having my biotic disable him and shooting.

[Anteros]

I wouldn't bother doing a hardcore run of ME1. To call the enemies bullet sponges would be an insult to bullet sponge enemies everywhere. They're all raid bosses. I got about halfway through before just giving up. It's not even hard, it's just tedious.

[GloatingSwine]

I wouldn't bother doing a hardcore run of ME1. To call the enemies bullet sponges would be an insult to bullet sponge enemies everywhere. They're all raid bosses. I got about halfway through before just giving up. It's not even hard, it's just tedious.

Use the Warp power and Shredder ammunition. That resolves all your bullet sponge problems.

But, you can't even reach the level cap in a single playthrough of ME.

You can, but you have to farm the bit on the Citadel at the end where you can spawn infinite geth. IIRC if you do absolutely everything with no cheese you hit about 58-59.

[Morty]

Seems we have a... somewhat more substantial gameplay trailer. Using a jetpack will be a major feature of combat, looks like. And it seems we're going to be picking up resources bit by bit. Yee.

[VoxRationis]

Not liking it. The default Pathfinder looks cartoony, so we'll have to put in a lot of effort in character creation. The "craft everything yourself" idea is... out of place, in my opinion. Mass Effect is supposed to be a setting full of science and progress. Cutting-edge armor and weapons should be made by large corporations and specialized groups full of people who devote their lives to engineering, not someone who is also a soldier and also a surveyor and also the expeditionary leader of what is for all intents and purposes all of humanity. Also, seriously? We have a bunch of renegade pirates setting up their own independent ports? How does that happen? We all just came from the same sleeper ship! How do you desert a sleeper ship and get enough materiel to build up a pirate town before representatives of the sleeper ship come to visit? I have a feeling that the writing is going to be Fallout 4-level.

[Corvus]

Something does seem a little odd about the femRyder, yeah.

And it does have a shooty-actiony feel to it. ANd they went with the ammo system. Amazing that aliens from another galaxy use the same ammo...

Nut on the plus side - female turian squadmate.

[Dienekes]

Huh. Some of the abilities look interesting. I agree that human pirates are a thing now is weird.

I could see Krogan getting off the ship and right away hiring themselves out to pre-existing alien bandits. But to see a human run one this early seems weird.

Or is it so early? Do we know how many years since arrival it's been?

About crafting, do we know we're building it. Or are we just gathering new alien materials so our tech people back at base can implement the new "andronium" to make stuff.

[Psyren]

The trailer in question: (Note that I can't add it to the OP as posts have a one video limit)

Spoiler

Show

My thoughts:

1) The jetpack looks like it will add A LOT of fun, variation and dimensionality to the combat. It's the Turian jumpjets from ME3 on steroids.

2) It looks like elite mobs with instakills are back, so kiting and dodging will remain key.

3) Yes! Portable cover! I knew they would need this going into a more Inquisition-y open combat world and it neatly solves the "chest-high-walls-therefore-combat-is-imminent" problem that ME2 and ME3 had. Looks like we have a biotic handheld shield, and an engineering "tech wall." we can pop out from behind. Soldiers will probably just have really thick armor and shields to tank shots, and use the natural terrain.

4) They've kept the Inquisition dialogue system where your responses include a mood icon to preview what you'll say.

5) If the fighting looks that good on console, I can't wait to see what the much faster-paced PC version will look like. I'm also wondering if, like ME2 and ME3, the PC version will be able to map more powers.

Also, seriously? We have a bunch of renegade pirates setting up their own independent ports? How does that happen? We all just came from the same sleeper ship! How do you desert a sleeper ship and get enough materiel to build up a pirate town before representatives of the sleeper ship come to visit? I have a feeling that the writing is going to be Fallout 4-level.

Um, you may want to reread the OP

Simply put, we're not the first group of settlers from the Milky Way; The first group are the ones we are traveling there to meet, i.e. the folks who built the new Citadel-esque hub called the Nexus. So yes, there's been plenty of time to establish a government, economy, piracy etc before we get there.

ANd they went with the ammo system. Amazing that aliens from another galaxy use the same ammo...

Well... no matter where you're from, physics are physics and guns generate heat. So heatsinks would need to be a thing. Any differences in design can be handwaved by the microfacturing technology in our omnitools, which was established in the first game's codex.

Or is it so early? Do we know how many years since arrival it's been?

It's early for our wave, but not for the settlers as a whole. Note that the Pirate Queen Lady knows what Pathfinders are; you're not the first one she's met.

About crafting, do we know we're building it. Or are we just gathering new alien materials so our tech people back at base can implement the new "andronium" to make stuff.

I'd imagine it works this way, just like Skyhold had a forge person that we handed all the unobtainium to.

[Dienekes]

Thank you for the clarification Psyren.

Also may I add, I love that more games (including MEA it looks like) are moving away from the silly rolling around on the floor and are now going for the smoother looking side-step. Thank you, Bloodborne. Or whatever game Bloodborne got that idea from.

[Psyren]

Thank you for the clarification Psyren.

Also may I add, I love that more games (including MEA it looks like) are moving away from the silly rolling around on the floor and are now going for the smoother looking side-step. Thank you, Bloodborne. Or whatever game Bloodborne got that idea from.

To be fair to dodge-rolling, a sidestep really doesn't build that much distance unless you're on a pretty slick floor. Or in the case of MEA, if you have a means of quick propulsion, like multi-directional suitjets or biotics.

Note however that ME3 had side-step dodging years before Bloodborne existed. Only certain kits had it (e.g. Asari, Geth, and Turians), but it was there.

[Dienekes]

To be fair to dodge-rolling, a sidestep really doesn't build that much distance unless you're on a pretty slick floor. Or in the case of MEA, if you have a means of quick propulsion, like multi-directional suitjets or biotics.

Note however that ME3 had side-step dodging years before Bloodborne existed. Only certain kits had it (e.g. Asari, Geth, and Turians), but it was there.

And a roll isn't actually a fast recovery like it is in video games or serve a purpose outside of the very specific diving behind cover. It's all a fantasy. Only the side step has less of an effect on the camera, and doesn't look as dumb as flopping on the floor every second.

Never once played the multiplayer though. So now I learned they had side steps. Neat.

[Psyren]

Even in single-player you can watch the Geth bunny-hopping side to side to avoid your powers and shots. (It can get pretty annoying actually, especially when you're trying to prime a biotic detonation.)

[Anonymouswizard]

About crafting, do we know we're building it. Or are we just gathering new alien materials so our tech people back at base can implement the new "andronium" to make stuff.

If the designers/writers have any sense the crafting will work in a couple of steps:
1) find materials/sources of materials to build stuff.
2) get scientists back at the base to design blueprints.
3) feed materials and blueprints into Maketron 3000 to get items.

Can't really comment on the rest right now, I'll watch the trailer later, but most of it sounds good.

[Morty]

Implementing crafting systems has an unfortunate tendency to remove any sense and restraint from designers. So I make no assumptions.

[Anonymouswizard]

Crafting systems can be done well, but they usually aren't. I actually in theory like how the crafting in Dragon Age: Inquisition works, although I'm not willing to go through all the materials and recipes scrounging required to make gear better than I can find in the next sidequest (and if DA:I had gone full action RPG I'd be playing it far more). I used it once to make a sword, then spent most of my materials on Requisitions in order to get more Power with the occasional enhancement (and even then I didn't use sockets anywhere near as much as DA:O or DA2).

I think a game should either make crafting the primary way of getting good gear, or just drop the idea completely, and I mean 'anything bar the basic tier must be crafted'. Which for MEA might actually be a reasonable thing, but for most systems if I can already loot good gear and buy good gear, why am I going to waste steel ingots crafting a sword I could just buy from Geoff the shopkeep or loot from the dime-a-dozen bandits. Having upgrades makes it all worse, your average player won't jump through hoops to get the skills and materials necessary to forge the Epic Sword of Awesome when they can just take a basic sword and slap a few upgrades on there until it's good enough to beat the game with. Especially as late game goblins might be carrying fully upgraded basic swords anyway.

[Inarius]

If the designers/writers have any sense the crafting will work in a couple of steps:
1) find materials/sources of materials to build stuff.
2) get scientists back at the base to design blueprints.
3) feed materials and blueprints into Maketron 3000 to get items.

Can't really comment on the rest right now, I'll watch the trailer later, but most of it sounds good.

I actually think that's how it will be. In ME2/3 you weren't buying the guns from the store, instead you were buying the licensing and designs in order to allow your armory to fabricate the weapons for yourself and your squad mates.

[GungHo]

And a roll isn't actually a fast recovery like it is in video games or serve a purpose outside of the very specific diving behind cover. It's all a fantasy. Only the side step has less of an effect on the camera, and doesn't look as dumb as flopping on the floor every second.

Now there needs to be a Top Shots Part Tre' where the hero rolls around back and forth on the ground everywhere dodging and is left gasping for air after a minute.