MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA (Here be Spoilers)

[RIPPA]

1 hour ago, Gonzo said:

But progress is being made. Ridiculously slow progress.

You are so far ahead of JT it isn't funny

[Casey]

Completed most of the missions on Voeld, besides the one from Peebee that I didn't notice until I get back on my ship and checked my email. Still have to clear out the Kett from the planet, I guess, but that's my 2nd world down. I've played this game for like, 6 hours a day so far this weekend and it feels like I've done a lot but that's only the second world that I've been on with missions.

So far, so good. Hopefully this doesn't go the way of ME3 and be finished in another 6 hours. 

[Gonzo]

I do get a kick out of the loading screen that says "Decisions can have long-lasting consequences" or whatever the exact verbiage is.

Maybe the next patch can remove that one.

[jstout]

Got the new Shorty shotgun (ultra-rare). Fun gun. Fires semi automatically in bursts of 3. Does 300 or so damage, I guess that's each shot so a burst of 3 would be 900 (just guessing). Downers: Takes a while to reload, but holds 15 shots (five bursts of 3). It's got a really big clip, too. It's also a shotgun, so it's not the most accurate gun ever built. Big downer: Damn thing weighs a ton - it has to be one of the heaviest guns in the game. If you're counting on keeping your weight down to keep your power recharge speed up, good luck. 

The weight's gonna keep me from using it in serious games - I gotta have that recharge speed at 100 percent. There's no weight reducing mod that I know of for shotguns.

Also testing using a sniper rifle with the Avenger. I can cloak and be invisible to enemies while I line me up a nice, juicy headshot. Problem is, I lose my melee damage boost that comes with the shotgun, but I'm trying to think in terms of how to play this Avenger in Platinum where frequency of enemies makes the running melee style a bit more difficult than it is in Gold.

[J.T.]

On ‎8‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 1:33 AM, Casey said:

Xbox One, and eventually I'll do multiplayer probably. I'm more of a campaign oriented player, but if the online crew here is active enough on the weekends I could be talked into joining.

 

On ‎8‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 3:15 AM, jstout said:

Yeah, there's several of us still playing on the XBox One side, three or four with some regularity. My gamertag is jstout423.

My XB1 gamertag is Kid SixXx.  It's an old Unreal Tournament handle that I refuse to get rid of.

We're on most weekday afternoons, but my weekend gameplay is limited.  I work in Virginia and stay on post at Ft. Lee during the week, but my actual residence is in Maryland and I do my best to stay away from video games and spend time with my beloved domestic partner.

Looks us up and toss out a few Friend Requests, Casey.

[J.T.]

Casey is catching up to me in Campaign Mode and Gonzo has passed me.

I will try to take comfort in my Multiplayer accomplishments like my 15K+ APEX rating and nearly complete character roster.

6 hours ago, jstout said:

Got the new Shorty shotgun (ultra-rare). Big downer: Damn thing weighs a ton - it has to be one of the heaviest guns in the game. If you're counting on keeping your weight down to keep your power recharge speed up, good luck. 

Okay, so that's not the same shotgun that Cora uses in the game then.

[AxB]

There's something new in the Item Store. A massive loot box that costs 600,000 credits.

[J.T.]

32 minutes ago, AxB said:

There's something new in the Item Store. A massive loot box that costs 600,000 credits.

It's the same APEX Item Pack that they've offered as a reward for completing some of the Featured Weekend Missions. 

No one will save up 600K creds to buy that thing so it is pretty obvious that the best way to afford one is through Andromeda Dollars aka actual money.

EA is upping the ante on microtransactions because they know that some players will bite the hook and pay real currency to unlock stuff.

[J.T.]

God, I may have played with an entire squad of Sea Rugs last night.

I went into a Silver / Remnant / Firebase Vertigo match as my Level 16 Salarian Architect X because I needed Bonus Stat points towards Max Shields and wanted to get in some PAW time.  I also wanted to finish off the Tech Mastery DC by using something other than an Engineer. 

I got matched up with MayMay9778, gamtzs, and ImmortalStalkeR.  Three of the worst co-op players in known existence.

I knew things were bad when I late joined and everyone was down.  Rather than bounce, I went with the old ME3 ways, drank some hero juice, and went to work.  Obsessing over the Friendly Fire RA has caused me to get really good at painting enemies for my Remnant VI to fire on and I managed to Fire Combo my way to one of the players and score a revive, but the others were executed. 

The two of us managed to clear the wave without anyone else getting put down.

The rest of the match went the way you would've expected it to go. I got a Gold Revive medal for the second time in my life and had a final score of close to 30K.  I think I killed or damaged nearly every available enemy. 

The Challenge Waves were ridiculous.  We lucked out and got Assassination for the first Challenge Wave, but the squad nearly wiped on the Hack Wave.   Something told me that depending on these guys to defend an area would turn out badly, so anything that consisted of plain old fighting would've been best.

No one used a Revive Pack when they went down and I could barely count on anyone other than myself to attempt and / or survive a Revive Run, so it got to a point where I didn't even bother to go for Revives unless I was sure I wouldn't die in the process..  If I bled out, we'd fail the mission.

Also, I was the only guy to fire a Cobra.  I thought they weren't popping or using rockets out of pure stinginess, but now I honestly believe that none of them knew how to use consumables.

It should not surprise you that I was the Lone Survivor on the Extraction Wave.  There were a couple of times I checked my Pause Menu to make sure this was a Silver match.  I did not stick around for the end game tally to see what their respective levels were.

I figured that lack of skill + lowbie characters + medium difficulty was their recipe for awfulness.

I'm all caught up on Strike Team stuff and I watched the most recent episode of GoT on HBO GO last night, so I am going to get into Campaign Mode a bit more tonight.  I am always up for co-op if anyone else is online.

[RIPPA]

I don't get people some times

I go to the Bronze APEX last night and I am put in a match where there was a going solo.

I drop in and it is only Wave 1 and the guy is already dead.

I am half way across the map to revive him and he just quits out.

So I wait out the reset and got a new squad and we knocked it out.

Only thing I can think of is he was a Level 1 or something doing MP for the first time but still

[J.T.]

10 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

I don't get people some times

I go to the Bronze APEX last night and I am put in a match where there was a going solo.

I drop in and it is only Wave 1 and the guy is already dead.

I am half way across the map to revive him and he just quits out.

So I wait out the reset and got a new squad and we knocked it out.

Only thing I can think of is he was a Level 1 or something doing MP for the first time but still

That has happened to me quite a few times. 

I try not to get pissed off because I can remember the culture shock of really being shit at Andromeda multiplayer.

I think players who were really good at ME3 multiplayer get the worst of it, because they go in expecting no learning curve and are rudely awakened.

[Casey]

On 8/14/2017 at 6:57 AM, J.T. said:

 

My XB1 gamertag is Kid SixXx.  It's an old Unreal Tournament handle that I refuse to get rid of.

We're on most weekday afternoons, but my weekend gameplay is limited.  I work in Virginia and stay on post at Ft. Lee during the week, but my actual residence is in Maryland and I do my best to stay away from video games and spend time with my beloved domestic partner.

Looks us up and toss out a few Friend Requests, Casey.

I'll add you guys, but weekday afternoons (except Friday) I'm in bed, since I work from 7:30pm to 6:30am Monday through Thursday.

Sunday night/Monday morning I crammed in a few hours - did the main missions on Havarl, just have a few lingering side quests left now. Same with Eos and Voeld.

[J.T.]

1 minute ago, Casey said:

I'll add you guys, but weekday afternoons (except Friday) I'm in bed, since I work from 7:30pm to 6:30am Monday through Thursday.
 

I hear ya. 

I'm an IT guy with the US Army National Simulation Center and the big training exercise with the South Korean military / 8th Army US starts on Saturday and I will be pulling 0001-0800 from the 20th to the 30th.

Now you know why the NKs go batshit insane every summer.

[jstout]

Usually, they offer the massive loot box as a prize for finishing an APEX mission over the weekend. It usually doesn't pop up this early.

It's 10 cards, five of which are experience booster IVs, so I think it's overpriced at $600,000.

[Robert C]

It's tempting.  600,000 for a Soned II. 

I'm really hoping this means they'll bring back Into the Ruins, or whatever it's called.

[RUkered]

Robert, I'm finally feeling your pain with these boxes. As I mentioned, I'm buying arsenal packs because all I need is a decent pistol. That's it. Then I will go back to buying shitty packs.

All I get, ever, is a mess of shotgun barrels. To make matters worse, I get all excited when I see an N7 weapon, only to find out it's a sniper rifle. You know....the one gun type I never use unless it's a sniper skirmish.

I think the game is sentient and a troll.

[J.T.]

14 minutes ago, RUkered said:

Robert, I'm finally feeling your pain with these boxes. As I mentioned, I'm buying arsenal packs because all I need is a decent pistol. That's it. Then I will go back to buying shitty packs.

All I get, ever, is a mess of shotgun barrels. To make matters worse, I get all excited when I see an N7 weapon, only to find out it's a sniper rifle. You know....the one gun type I never use unless it's a sniper skirmish.

I think the game is sentient and a troll.

The game takes sadistic glee identifying what I want and refusing to give it to me.

I have yet to unlock the Carnifax heavy pistol and will receive an upgrade for a character I already have rather than getting the new Batarian Vanguard.

[jstout]

I hate to complain again (actually, I enjoy it quite a bit), but here's how a $100,000 "reserves pack" works for me:

1. A rare assault or sniper rifle variant I will never use

2. A booster for a weapon I never use

3. Another rare assault or sniper rifle variant I will never use

4. An uncommon assault or sniper rifle variant I will never use

5. An ammo pack

So essentially, I paid $100,000 for an ammo pack. Anybody got any game recommendations?

[J.T.]

Yep.  Sneaky jail break option was far more satisfying than kissing Sloane Kelly's ring.  I even got a Hasty Action prompt where I got to do the Jackie Chan gun disarm thingie on the Turian guard.

I was baffled as to why Sloane's Krogan guards didn't immediately mow me down or at least bash me in the back of the head with their rifle butts or shoot me in the legs.  They were fucking standing right there behind me.  I'd have never seen it coming.

That cutscene made me miss Renegade Shepard.  He would've clipped everyone in that throne room with no problem.

So now I've recovered the last drink ingredient for the bartender on the Nexus, I'm investigating a murder, and otherwise collecting plant and mineral samples for my last two science team fetchits.  I've also stumbled onto some ransom bullshit between the Collective and the Outlaws as well as some conveniently mysterious weapon shipments. 

I need to learn to ignore those camps in the middle of nowhere.

It is hilarious how close the mission waypoints are in this game.  SAM was all "Here is the domicile where Reyes wants you to look into the Roekkar murder thing and oh by the way the Kett transponder is buried not far from this location."  That just tells me that this game was rushed to market.

I've parked myself in some huge cave and am investigating some shenanigans and I'll pick up from there after I get home from work.

I've also got the prompts to push along the Turian ark mission as well as Jaal's loyalty mission, so I will head back to Havarl as soon as I clear out more Blue !'s on Kadara.

[J.T.]

8 hours ago, jstout said:

I hate to complain again (actually, I enjoy it quite a bit), but here's how a $100,000 "reserves pack" works for me:

1. A rare assault or sniper rifle variant I will never use

2. A booster for a weapon I never use

3. Another rare assault or sniper rifle variant I will never use

4. An uncommon assault or sniper rifle variant I will never use

5. An ammo pack

So essentially, I paid $100,000 for an ammo pack. Anybody got any game recommendations?

I got a Sidwinder I (Siphon) yesterday and a Sidewinder I (Bulwark) this morning.. 

The game refuses to give me the baseline Carnifax.

[RIPPA]

Ignore those camps if you enjoy having about 8 undone tasks in your queue

[J.T.]

50 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Ignore those camps if you enjoy having about 8 undone tasks in your queue

Investigating those Outlaw camps when prompted by my squaddies is how I get those damn tasks in the first place so now I have to haunt every Outlaw hidey hole on Kadara in order to finish them up.

I didn't hit any of the Kett camps or Remnant enclaves on Voeld, so there are probably two or three random fetchits waiting for me to find them.  The only times I attacked Kett camps on Voeld was when it was required for another task I already had.

I forgot that I also need to R&D an Outcast weapon for some random task.......... even though Outcast enemies in the field carry normal Milky Way guns......

I'm actually thankful for that because I'd probably be in deep shit if Outcast Sharpshooters used the Vanquisher instead of the Mantis.

I was also amused by Drack's blasé response while I was processing the murder scene with my scanner.. 

SAM: The Krogan had his headplate peeled back before he was murdered.

Scott:  Poor bastard.

Drack: Wasn't one of mine..

[J.T.]

Went home for lunch to get in a quick session of Campaign Mode.  The Collective may have the worst secret hideout in the history of secret hideouts. 

I don't think that Kadara has a more distinctive natural feature than the cave system these assholes chose to use as their clandestine base of operations.  I am impressed, however, that they seemed to know that I was coming.

Concluding this Roekkar murder investigation thing is going to take longer than I expected it to.'

[sarcasm] And no wonder that Kadara's water is all fucked with all of the radioactive uranium nodules sprouting from the ground and shit. [/sarcasm]

[Gonzo]

I believe I've arrived at the end game.

Went through Meridian last night. Was significantly less challenging than I expected it to be, but I'm probably a bit overpowered for it at this point. My biggest worry was accidentally falling into the electrified sludge after hitting a Charge attack or something.

As it stands now, I have to beat the Architects on Voeld and Elaaden, find a couple more memory triggers to unlock the final memory for Ryder, and then I should be able to take on the end mission.

[RIPPA]

You might have one little thing to do first before the final mission

Did you do the scans for Suvi yet?

And everything else you mentioned you can do after the final mission though it does makes sense story wise to at least do all the memory triggers before