jstout

I tried to do bronzes solo with my IV Angara and failed on wave 1 both times. It, of course, didn't help that I had a "no first aid, no revives" rule. I was trying to finish that challenge and couldn't find anyone to play a Bronze with. I know it's been the case since this new patch, but it didn't really hit me how mammoth of a task all of these new cards are until last night. You have all these guns you don't use, which you have to get up to X, then they introduce three variants of every uncommon, rare and ultra-rare gun, all that go up to 10. It's ridiculous. The only thing I want to do is improve my ultra-rare Angara Avenger up to X from IV, and it seems like the chances of doing that with all the new shit in the card pool is hilariously low. Everyone's saying they're trying to sell Andromeda Points, and they're right, but it would still cost a fortune in Andromeda Points to get anything, and imagine the frustration in having to spend real money to get a variant of a gun you've never used and have no plans to use. Dunno how Bioware gets out of this one. The best solution would've been to make the gun variants mods instead of individual guns, but since that ship may have sailed, the best thing to do might be to really up the credits for completing all levels to make the packs easier to buy. It'll be interesting to see how Bioware's bragging that it listens to its community will hold up under this one, because everyone seems pissed and wants adjustments. EDIT: And it seems harder to find a game lately. Wonder if these changes have ran folks off?

Sounds like a Chikara storyline.

It don't matter at all what you've played before, Platinum's a brand-new game.

As a side bonus of buying low-level packs, you shouldn't have to worry about buying Supply packs (lots of RPGs, first aids, etc.) and you get all sorts of low-level consumables. Think I'll stick to Basics for now. Edit: An XX character gives you a 39 percent boost to power damage, combo and melee. There's gonna be some common characters that are going to become beasts. I think the Soldiers are really gonna shine after they increased the damage to concussive shot and grenades. I can imagine the uncommon Krogan Vanguard being tough with his charge power and not so difficult to move up.

Some people on Reddit are going back to the old strategy of buying basic and advanced packs to level their commons up to XX. One thing I learned reading last night is that you don't get the variants of the weapons (siphon, etc.) until you have that weapon up to X, and the variant at I has the same stats as the regular weapon at X. So you're not losing any power using the variant at I compared to the regular version at X, just gaining whatever bonus comes with the variant.

I encourage everyone to try it. You gotta see it. It's a hoot.

I don't think I got any skill points. I don't know because it was for a character that got re-speced, so I had to start from scratch. I could do some math when I get home. This game has given me a crazy case of right thumb tendonitis. I'm suing EA.

I got an 11 character. It gave me a 4 percent bonus on three things.

Dragon brought up the point that they should have interrupted hacks, but non-interrupted uploads, since there are three of them. I'd agree with that, but apparently they're going in a different direction. I haven't played one yet, but the new Devices sounds intense. It definitely will put the emphasis on getting the devices first and dealing with enemies later. It seems like a lot of the tweaks, and the Platinum mode, are trying to get players together to work on team strategies more. The Apex Elite Pack (the one I mentioned earlier) mission should be up and running.

Here she blows: http://blog.bioware.com/2017/07/04/mass-effect-andromeda-combat-balance-updates/ More things covered in the stream but not the patch notes: 1. The Remnant bunker is back, as a Silver APEX mission. WHEN BIOWARE FIXES IT (yep), completing it will earn you a gigantic Apex Elite Pack (value 600,000 credits) with a lot of really, really cool stuff in it through the weekend. Multiplayer players will want to find time to do this. 2. Two new maps this month, both of which will enter rotation by the end of the month. 3. Eleven-wave missions are coming, not here yet. 4. From the way they're talking, Platinum pays 100,000 for extraction. 5. This is completely anecdotal personal gameplay: They seem to have toughened things up across the board. A Bronze APEX wasn't the cakewalk it usually is, and I just got done playing a Silver with Remnant that could best be described as psychotic. I have played easier Golds. I dunno if it was lousy teammates (one of them definitely was), or what. The big thing I noticed is that Observers on Silver travel in twos - while you're busy dealing with one, the other's beating you into submission. I also THINK (have no hard data to prove it) that they've reduced the Observer's laser's "spin-up" time (it takes less time for the Observer to go from not shooting a laser to absolutely wrecking you).

Really just an overwhelming bunch of changes. The Revive Pack Transmitter got tweaked to also work with First Aid and Ammo, and increases the RPG blast radius by 50 percent. That may be huge. Two daily challenges a day. Bunch of weapon variants (concussive, siphon and bulwark variants).

They're talking about all sorts of changes that aren't mentioned in the patch notes. For example, no more insta-kills, period. New enemies in all three classes. List of changes coming on the blog after the stream.

Big changes on this stream thing. I'll let the experts speak.

Welp, only 550 to go.

This is just plain nuts. http://kotaku.com/gta-online-hackers-activate-secret-alien-mission-early-1796558370?rev=1499273134113

We've played bronze with four Remnant VI and none of us fired a shot until a Fiend on Wave 6 was in the way of the hack. Sea Rug was a random we played with, and it occurred to me while playing that it would be positively the most random redneck nickname ever recorded. Try it, it fits: "Dammit, Sea Rug, I don't care if she started it, you can't do that with your cousin. I know she's hot, but that's not the point here." Or there's: "Sea Rug, what in the hell are you doing with those Vice-Grips? Naw, naw, they're yours now, keep 'em." One more I just thought of: "Sea Rug, if I've told you once, I've told you a million times, marinara sauce is not made out of pot."

It was a silver APEX mission, so we had some wiggle room.

Especially when it's two seconds into the battle and he's sworn off one of the guns forever. Jump into the silver, Odessa - remember my little motto of multiplayer - "we've got this shit." Trust me, I damn well guarantee you I've played with worse in Silver. And since I'm posting anyway, I gotta try to get this out of my system, dammit: "Dang you, Sea Rug, you get down off that roof right now before someone gets hurt."

I don't even wanna know about Platinum. I hope they don't make APEX missions platinum, because I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do them and I'm not sure my NPC team is made of strong enough stuff to do them. And, I mean, it looks like we're not getting any single-player DLC. That sucks, but whatever, moving on. It'd be nice of Bioware to fix the seemingly hundreds of problems in multiplayer. I'm playing the Angara Avenger (sounds like a good name for a wrestler) and one of his big three powers (stealth grid) doesn't work 90 percent of the time. I just quit a match (I know it's a dick move, but screw it, I don't have to put up with this shit) when I got that bug where enemies' health bars are empty, yet they don't die. Now normally, I wouldn't mind because they generally stop shooting, but the Angaran's Avenger Strike still targets them after they're technically dead. So I waste a strike on a dead enemy and have to wait for it to recharge. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

"Somebody get my truck keys, Sea Rug's drunk at the Moose Club and he's tryin' to start a fight."

Well, considering the single-player DLC ship sailed a long time ago... I dunno how much more content they're adding for this game (maybe a little more), but I wouldn't be surprised to see an alien-themed online update that culminates in the much-rumored jet pack.

Man, that's a steal. Any little whines about graphics ought to be cancelled by the price tag. It was entirely worth it at $60, to me .

Hey, did y'all hear about ol' Sea Rug? He's back in jail again.

That "no revives" was a shitshow. Made it to Wave 6. I died reviving a guy, who didn't revive me despite being literally a step away from me. That was fun. I think I wanna try to work on some new characters and guns and get away from the points rat race. Wanna try out the Angara Avenger some more. Update: The Angara Avenger is a beast, so far. I wanted to get away from using the Ruzad, but it's the no-brainer weapon for this character, really.

My only multiplayer strike team right now is Gold, against the Kett, One Life to Live (no revives). I really don't think I have it in me. I think I'll try it to see how comical it is. Me and Melraz and Robert did a Gold last night that featured me getting perma-deathed about 15 seconds into waves 5, 6 and 7. Thankfully, our teammate managed to carry us to victory ... no, wait, I'm totally lying, he got killed more than all of us combined. That was a rough one. It seems like some regular Golds are a bit worse than a Silver and some of them are completely psychotic. There's no way of really knowing until you're neck deep in it.