Violentvixen
(She/Her)
9.4GB patch downloading now oof
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Mass Effect General Thread: This is My Favorite Thread on Talking Time
- Thread starter Issun
- Start date
I had no idea Liara was controversial. I wasn't that impressed with her in Mass Effect 1, but I did appreciate her arc over the series as someone who starts off young, naïve, and in way over their head, with no appreciation for the dangers, but pushes herself unsettlingly far once motivated to harden up.
I think I might break with convention and play a male Shepard this time. See one or two different romance lines than usual, hear different voice acting, you know.
I'd like to encounter the more substantial replacement characters, so perhaps Wrex will have to take one for the team in order for me to see Wreav's scenes. I'm undecided about the others, though: Tali's replacement, Admiral Xen, is already heavily involved either way, so there's not much difference. Legion's replacement doesn't even have a name. Padok Wiks, the replacement for Mordin, is pretty deeply involved and really changes the tone of the scenes, but one of the best Wreav scenes is mutually exclusive with them. There's a replacement for Thane, but depending on how things go I might accidentally fail to access them by triggering a conversation that locks him in.
Alternatively, I could just go for another nice, satisfying golden run.
Looks like it finished installing, but I'll have plenty of time to decide most of that.
I think I might break with convention and play a male Shepard this time. See one or two different romance lines than usual, hear different voice acting, you know.
I'd like to encounter the more substantial replacement characters, so perhaps Wrex will have to take one for the team in order for me to see Wreav's scenes. I'm undecided about the others, though: Tali's replacement, Admiral Xen, is already heavily involved either way, so there's not much difference. Legion's replacement doesn't even have a name. Padok Wiks, the replacement for Mordin, is pretty deeply involved and really changes the tone of the scenes, but one of the best Wreav scenes is mutually exclusive with them. There's a replacement for Thane, but depending on how things go I might accidentally fail to access them by triggering a conversation that locks him in.
Alternatively, I could just go for another nice, satisfying golden run.
Looks like it finished installing, but I'll have plenty of time to decide most of that.
I played male shep in my original run, and only later did I discover how much people became attached to fem shep (in no small part thanks to Jennifer Hale). I've wanted to play a run as her ever since.
Unrelated, one year at Dragon*Con I ran into the face model for Samara cosplaying Samara. Extremely uncanny moment.
Unrelated, one year at Dragon*Con I ran into the face model for Samara cosplaying Samara. Extremely uncanny moment.
It’s been a hot minute since I last played ME1, so I was pleased to realize how quickly you could dump Kaiden and Ashley in favour of outer spaces most eligible bachelors, Garrus and Tali.
You can really tell that some characters got a lot more attention than others for the gussying up; Most of the human NPCs look like they haven’t been touched since 2007.
You can really tell that some characters got a lot more attention than others for the gussying up; Most of the human NPCs look like they haven’t been touched since 2007.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Oh yeah, like I said once Shadow Broker comes out she becomes interesting.
I don't think I listened to any ManShep dialogue until ME2 was out and was really surprised at how much worse it was! I would have enjoyed the game less.
And that face model thing is hilarious.
How can I unlearn this curséd knowledge?
R.R. Bigman
Coolest Guy
Did they remember to put Harbinger in the third game this time?
In addition to ensuring that the dumbest possible outcome is attained for each individual mission, it'd probably be something like this:
- Save recruiting Liara for last, so she thinks you're a hallucination
- Get Wrex killed
- Never recruit Garrus on the Citadel
- Get Kirrahe killed (with both Kirrahe and Thane dead, the Salarian councilor will die)
- Kill the Rachni Queen, but later use the Breeder as a war asset
- Never activate Grunt
- Never activate Legion
- Recruit Morinth
- Ensure that one of the two necessary Suicide Mission survivors is Morinth
- If Jack is the other survivor, skip the Grissom Academy mission so that Jack is turned into a Phantom
- If Tali is the other survivor, side with the Geth so that she commits suicide
- If Mordin is the other survivor, shoot him personally
- If Thane is the other survivor, don't visit him in the hospital
- Let the bomb go off on Tuchanka
- Allow Joker to date EDI
I don’t think failing to recruit Garrus does anything. He treats you like an old friend regardless. I don’t think the failure can even seem spiteful in Mass Effect; you just have to miss him. Haven’t played in a while, though.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Yeah, I don't seem to remember it being actively antagonizing him or anything that avoids recruiting him. It's more that you just don't bother to follow that sidequest marker and move the story along. I do believe it prevents romancing him in ME2 though which would be THE WORST.
Man, I knew Liara was a total drip in ME1, but I had forgotten the sheer degree to which she was a drip.
The Normandy needs a plumber, because there's a big drip in it
The Normandy needs a plumber, because there's a big drip in it
I’m not sure it does. As far as I know, ME2 doesn’t acknowledge not recruiting Garrus at all. But I have never romanced him so I don’t know. There might be some ancillary dialogue related to whether or not Garrus was hardened or softened (Dragon Age brain) and it just defaults to hardened. But I dunno.
Just bought this even though I do not have the time.... love these.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I found a video of the meeting and it looks like there's a line about him getting fed up with C-Sec and heading out on his own. Definitely not a lot of changes. Found a few other random posts from people saying he won't be a romance option in ME2 if you don't recruit him.
But really, if someone doesn't recruit Garrus they're wrong so whatever.
Feeling paralysis about whether to go adept or vanguard in ME1... one thing I know: even though it's broken, (? maybe) I will not be doing the stasis-damage thing because it's totally contrary to what's fun about biotics. (knocking shit around) Obviously, from ME2 onward, I will be a vanguard.
Does the new "classic level" system mean you start ME2 in the late 20s/30 or is it just for... fun? Or something.
Does the new "classic level" system mean you start ME2 in the late 20s/30 or is it just for... fun? Or something.
On the one hand, a Vanguard in ME1 lets you chuck enemies around with a psychokinetic fastball.
On the other hand, the cool down is extremely long, even if you master it. And it’s weirdly precise, so if your aim isn’t dead on with it, you’re going to accomplish nothing.
Shockwave replacing Push might be the single greatest improvement in ME2
On the other hand, the cool down is extremely long, even if you master it. And it’s weirdly precise, so if your aim isn’t dead on with it, you’re going to accomplish nothing.
Shockwave replacing Push might be the single greatest improvement in ME2
Just watched this. Had no idea there was a slight modification to dialogue. Tmyk!
They’ve modified the weird cheevos incentivizing you to only use two characters for the majority of the game (traditionally for me, Kaidan and Wrex) to more sensibly incentivize you to vary your party until you’ve used everyone for a bit. (I never generally bother with achievements, but Mass Effect 2 was the first, almost only, game I ever platinumed just because you get almost everything playing normally)
Changes... thresher maw fights seem a little different, maybe? Not sure. Pretty sure you used to get more xp from kills outside the mako than in, but that’s not the case now so just stay in your vehicle when possible.
Apparently the infinite morality points trick on Noveria still works. Good.
Apparently the infinite morality points trick on Noveria still works. Good.
Thresher Maws have been changed quite a bit. They fire multiple blasts of acid instead of one now, move around more, and sometimes enter a phase where they deploy a bunch of "sensory tentacles" while they lurk underground.
The threshold for the ally cheevos is now 5 missions instead of 45, which is much nicer. Still get the same reward for each of them, too.
Mako kills now grant the same EXP as on-foot kills, because they observed that players would get out of the car to finish enemies off so they would get more EXP. With the Legendary leveling curve I have heard it's now possible to reach the level cap in one playthrough.
They have given all the guns different action now to make them feel more distinct (some of them are semi-automatic, for instance), so it's quite a bit more shootery. Being behind cover actually matters now, too.
In Mass Effect 1, none of the classes have the signature abilities that they'd get in later games. The fun physics power in ME1 is combining Lift with Throw, which both Adepts and Vanguards can do. Accessing loot requires having ranks in Electronics and Decryption somewhere in your team, which are accessible to Engineers, Infiltrators, and Sentinels. Or you could just bring Tali. Garrus and Kaidan can get them too, but they have to level up more to do it.
There are some known bugs, but I heard a patch was released today.
The threshold for the ally cheevos is now 5 missions instead of 45, which is much nicer. Still get the same reward for each of them, too.
Mako kills now grant the same EXP as on-foot kills, because they observed that players would get out of the car to finish enemies off so they would get more EXP. With the Legendary leveling curve I have heard it's now possible to reach the level cap in one playthrough.
They have given all the guns different action now to make them feel more distinct (some of them are semi-automatic, for instance), so it's quite a bit more shootery. Being behind cover actually matters now, too.
In Mass Effect 1, none of the classes have the signature abilities that they'd get in later games. The fun physics power in ME1 is combining Lift with Throw, which both Adepts and Vanguards can do. Accessing loot requires having ranks in Electronics and Decryption somewhere in your team, which are accessible to Engineers, Infiltrators, and Sentinels. Or you could just bring Tali. Garrus and Kaidan can get them too, but they have to level up more to do it.
There are some known bugs, but I heard a patch was released today.
I find myself getting used to male Shepard's voice. I know Mark Meer's performance improves over the course of the series, but I was never able to get used to him in ME1 before. I figured out that this is because my previous attempts at making a male Shepard had me trying to give him a cool, suave, conventionally heroic face, and that is not the kind of voice he's got. Making him look like someone who's had a desk job since first contact suits him better in this game. Though it's gonna be weird when I go see Jack's romance plotline while playing a character who looks old enough to be her dad. I'll just imagine that he aged prematurely from the stress of being a goody-two-shoes all the time.
One new bug I think is Shepard will sometimes lose the ability to do anything but move forward. Can't turn around. You just need to reload. Maybe the patch fixed this.
I always just used a save editor for 1 to give me an absurd number of paragon/renegade points because grinding that is nonsense.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I couldn't come up with anything I wanted to do specifically on this playthrough, so I've decided to not allow myself to use a guide for any decisions in the games, and instead just go with my own decisions. I realize this means I might lose a lot of people in ME2, but I've done a playthrough where I saved everyone so it'll be interesting to see how this ends up. Not the most exciting plan but I'm looking forward to it.
I love Shockwave even though it is not that useful. Or at least not useful in a fun way. (don’t talk to me about staggering! I want to shove everything around in the air, no matter how large!) Last time I played ME3, I bumped the difficulty up to insanity to maybe have the opportunity to bounce things around with it, but everything still died too quickly.
Sarge
hardcore retro gamin'
I actually agree with this. I think the reason I was okay with the male Shepard's voice was because I changed his appearance quite a bit. I never could get a character that actually looked like me, but it was definitely closer than the default model, so the face and voice actually matched up pretty well. And I played as a goody-two-shoes, so it all worked out.
She only does that if you ask, but it's possible to ask without realizing that you are selecting the dialog option that will make you ask.