MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA (Here be Spoilers)

[AxB]

5 hours ago, jstout said:

So you have one rare character up to XX, all the rest of them to XIV and you don't have the Batarian Scrapper at all? What's the chances of that? As a matter of fact, you should get him because of the newish stip that you have to have all of the characters in a class up to X before you start getting XI and above. Hmmm.

Not Rare.  Uncommon. My Rare characters are all V-ish.

[Gonzo]

Beat the architects, got the memory triggers. . .officially ready for the final run.

I've got some of the other random quests to do (like the rock and plant collecting and that sort of stuff), but at this point I suppose I just want the damn thing finished. Probably has a lot to do with knowing that none of the stuff that I see in the end game is going to go anywhere because EA took a series that was on the short list of the greatest video game series ever and just completely wiped their asses with it. I can always come back to those sorts of quests if I get bored or something.

Overall, the game has actually been pretty good, in my opinion.

[Robert C]

8 hours ago, jstout said:

Yeah, but y'all are family.

Cue Roger Alan Wade singing Bigass Happy Family. 

[AxB]

And then the Batarian Scrapper just drops into my roster like it's not even a big deal. Now if only I had a Kineticist, an Operator, an Exemplar and the other Batarian.

I've got Pistol Mastery Bronze now. Biotic and Tech Mastery Gold are just a matter of time.

[J.T.]

Finished the Oblivion Drug task.  I imagine that the DLC would've had Ryota becoming the new narco-kingpin after getting his formula back, but I chose to rat out the Asari anyway since this franchise has a bad track record when it comes to Asari and illegal biological research plots.

The message on the terminal at the Oblivion lab and SAMs dialogue following my scan on the plant samples tend to make me think that Ryota is indeed a pusher and I may have just tied the Kadaran drug trade up in a pretty pink bow and handed it over to the Collective, but no upcoming DLC means me not giving a shit. 

I will take comfort in my naïvete.

I extracted back to the Tempus to hit up my Strike Team console because I got a message that I had reached the upper limit of Pathfinder Rewards.  When I got back, we held a meeting and the team talked up Elaaden and some mystery planet so I have brand new stuff to investigate once I am done on Kadara.  After the group chat, I cleared out most of the boxes my Pathfinder Rewards queue and made about 10K creds on the weapons and excess bio-materials I sold.  I tend not to sell minerals back to the store.  I also saved a few Gold Loot Boxes and Research Bonus Boxes for later.

I decided to start up Jaal's Loyalty Mission so that I could get access to the habitats on Havarl that I need to unlock in order to finish the Rokkar Manifestos thing and it would be nice to have more than one squaddie with access to Tier 6 abilities...  The gun battles at Site 1 and Site 2 were a lot of fun!  Using my Murderbot to set up Tech Combos is not getting old.

Jaal's e-mail for the LM follow-up mission is already at my terminal, but I decided to deal with that later as I had a gaggle of tasks I could work on at the same time by going back to the Nexus.  I stopped at the R&D console long enough to craft a Sidewinder to complete the Craft An Outlaw Weapon task and sold the gun at the Buy / Sell kiosk.  Profit.

I also chatted with Addison about the mysterious exploding satellite I encountered after leaving Eos orbit.  This secretive potentially villainous scientist sounds a lot like crazy ass Dr. Catherine Halsey from the Halo games so I am already inclined to gun her down if she does anything stupid.

Got back to the Nexus and gave Keri another interview, Still no fade to black.  Oh well.

Turned in the Kadaran Hops to the Bartender and FINALLY got a really old side task out of my queue for good.

The game was also decent enough to give me a goofy side mission where I ran around the Nexus scanning stolen cargo containers and answering the question, "How in the fuck are the Outlaws getting all of that equipment?' 

Answer = Sympathizers on the Nexus with a smuggling network.

Next, I responded to Captain Dunne's message and got hemmed up tracking down Patient Zero.  Totally mind farted on having to talk to SAM about Drack's Loyalty Mission so I did that before landing on Kadara again to stop paranoid bird flu woman from infecting every Exile on the planet. 

I am guessing that the meandering route around the Cluster that she took to get to Kadara was a product of the paranoia brought on by the disease.... or the game just wanted me to scan more planets and map some more systems.

I marked when I finally found Conrad Verner's sister at Tarterus.  Was bummed that I did not get a lap dance from her, but I did find the interaction spot where I could hit the dance floor and do the Shepard Shuffle.  Also bummed that with all of these criminals around, there is no relative of Helena Blake around twirling their metaphorical moustache... unless one of the Blake clan runs the Collective in a DLC that I will never get to play...

Oh, and in proper Black Isle / Bioware tradition, I decided to keep my miniature giant space hamster in my cabin instead of releasing him into the wild.  I am just happy I don't have to actually feed him cereal on a regular basis.  Dead fish are one thing but I'd be kinda traumatized if I got back from a mission to find Boo dead inside of his glass box.

I ran some mutlplayer this morning before packing it in for the weekend.  I nearly have a full set of the Special Edition standard weapons.  I think I am only missing the Katana S.  I bought the Berserker mod.  I'll find use for it when I am running a KroGuard or a KroMerc or one of my Human Vanguards during a match where there is a Shotgun Skirmish modifier.

Did not find the Weekend Silver APEX mission to be terribly difficult, but I did run it with a Level 20 Krogan Engineer X so I was probably overpowered for that scenario..  We had a Level 14 Angaran Inusurgent II in our squad that died a lot for some reason.  I think that Stout is correct and this mission series will conclude next week with a Gold match on the other map mentioned in the briefing text.

[jstout]

Bioware admitted they put up that APEX chest (the 600,000 one) too early, so that's why they took it down. That makes me think it's the payoff to the strike team series, probably next week or maybe this weekend.

[jstout]

OK, dammit, I gotta tell this tale. This just happened to me:

One of the daily challenges is Biotic powers. I usually skip any of the power challenges because it's a pain in the ass to play a different character after being used to playing one specific character so much. But I figured "oh, come on, man, don't be a spoilsport, you can do it. Besides, you could really use those 30 mission funds."

So I pick the Asari Duelist and look for a Bronze game on Firebase Magma (the map daily challenge). There's a guy soloing it. I join. It was COMPLETE FREAKING CHAOS. I got so pinned in by a Blaze Hydra on a Boss wave that I had to RPG my way out. On Bronze.

Now, here's what I do with mission funds. You can do whatever you like, but here's what I do. I don't need weapon mods or XP boosters or respecs, so if I'm not saving mission funds for a piece of equipment, I use them to buy consumables piecemeal for 5 mission funds apiece. Let's say I use an RPG in a match, so I'll go buy my way back to 5 RPGs by spending five mission funds.

Remember when I said the match was a disaster? I used five revives, one first aid pack and an RPG. Replacing these using mission funds will cost me 35 mission funds. My Biotic points after this disaster? 1,595 - four percent of the 35,000 I needed. So I'm in the hole on mission funds and I still have 33,500 Biotic points to go.

As of now and the rest of the time I play this Godforsaken game, powers challenges can kiss my ass. Every single time. If it's Combat powers and I make it over the course of my regular gameplay, that's fine. But otherwise? Absolutely not.

Just needed to share. Thank you.

 

[AxB]

I solo'ed a Bronze on Magma with my Human Adept (Level 15 XX) and got 80% of the power damage  points I needed just from one mission.

[jstout]

Congratulations.

[AxB]

I change characters all the time, so I'm pretty good with a lot of them  Was just doing Silver APEX's with the number 5 guy in the world (on Sony). He's very conservative in his play style. Find a safe spot and hold it. Not reckless like me.

[RIPPA]

And it is official - Andromeda is dead

Quote

Since the release of Mass Effect™: Andromeda, we’ve worked hard to address feedback from our community. From improving animations to expanding customization options, we looked to respond to your concerns, and build on what you loved.

With each patch, you let us know we were heading in the right direction, and we're grateful to everyone who joined us on this journey. We're proud of what we created, and we hope you enjoyed it as well.

Early in development, we decided to focus Mass Effect: Andromeda’s story on the Pathfinder, the exploration of the Andromeda galaxy, and the conflict with the Archon. The game was designed to further expand on the Pathfinder’s journey through this new galaxy with story-based APEX multiplayer missions and we will continue to tell stories in the Andromeda Galaxy through our upcoming comics and novels, including the fate of the quarian ark.

Our last update, 1.10, was the final update for Mass Effect: Andromeda. There are no planned future patches for single-player or in-game story content.

In the coming weeks, our multiplayer team will provide details of their ongoing support and upcoming content, including new multiplayer missions, character kits, and what’s in store for N7 Day.

We appreciate all the millions of people who came with us to the Andromeda galaxy. We hope to see you again in the Mass Effect universe.

The Mass Effect Andromeda Team

https://www.masseffect.com/news/mass-effect-andromeda-update-from-the-studio

[RIPPA]

So very angry

[The Man Known as Dan]

To the shock of absolutely nobody.

I kinda want to play some ME3 Multiplayer tonight after Takeover just for the fuck of it. See what type of player base it still has.

[RIPPA]

I do wonder if Quarians get added to MP because clearly they had the character models created since the clearly were supposed to be the first DLC

And even not being surprised doesn't mean that my rage hasn't returned

[The Man Known as Dan]

I think I got my rage out of me a while back. I'm done with Bioware for most likely a good half decade now, and have came to peace with it.

[jstout]

The MP adds are crazy, as if the loot pool isn't horribly bloated enough. It's hard to find four people to play matches sometimes. How much do you think they could make on microtransactions with such a small player base? That apparently won't stop them from trying.

And also notice that you're getting ripped off on Gold APEX missions. I get paid 40,000 for them, even though regular Golds pay 50,000 and APEX missions usually have a little money multiplier.

[Eivion]

5 hours ago, RIPPA said:

And it is official - Andromeda is dead

https://www.masseffect.com/news/mass-effect-andromeda-update-from-the-studio

At at least nice to get official word finally. At this point though I'm not even angry, just disappointed.

[Gonzo]

9 hours ago, Eivion said:

At at least nice to get official word finally. At this point though I'm not even angry, just disappointed.

I'm sure that EA and Bioware could have fucked this up worse.

I'm just not entirely sure how.

[AxB]

On 18/08/2017 at 0:26 PM, AxB said:

And then the Batarian Scrapper just drops into my roster like it's not even a big deal. Now if only I had a Kineticist, an Operator, an Exemplar and the other Batarian.

I've got Pistol Mastery Bronze now. Biotic and Tech Mastery Gold are just a matter of time.

One Reserves Pack - One Operator and one Exemplar. Two characters away from a full roster (so far).

Does anyone know whether Snap Freeze or Invasion scores points faster? Because getting 100% in either will give me Tech Mastery Gold. Taking the Operator to level 20 will give me level 4 Power Recharge though. 2 million XP away.

[melraz09]

I don't have a lot of ponts in either the snap feeeze or invasion i actually looked last night. Have both those characters to 20 but didn't try to use them as stand alone. I doubt I'll ever get the gold in tech. Got the biotic and just need combos for combat. Cant figure out how to get combat combos for shit. Think I only have around 120. 

I got all the characters to skill XX thats probably the only other maxed achievment I will get. 

[AxB]

Combat Combos are anything you detonate with Concussive Shot. The Batarian Brawler is actually a bit of a combo machine, because you can Snap Freeze and Concussive Shot immediately without worrying about someone stealing your detonation. Or just find someone who Primes a lot and follow them around the map.

The game made my decision for me. One of the Daily Challenges is score points with Combat Powers. The Batarian has two Combat Powers, so I'll roll with him a while.

[Casey]

This is the second time a Remnant Architect has hindered me from completing a side quest. Motherfucker.

[J.T.]

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 7:52 PM, RIPPA said:

Our last update, 1.10, was the final update for Mass Effect: Andromeda. There are no planned future patches for single-player or in-game story content.

So I am stuck with random dialogue bugs and the other cosmetic shit that never got fixed...

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 7:52 PM, RIPPA said:

We hope to see you again in the Mass Effect universe.

Why is it that this sentence infuriates me the most?  Because I know it is probably a lie?

The most rage inducing thing about the comic books and novels is that the Ryder handling business in that scenario won't be MY Ryder.  Once again, EA manages to screw up the Your Decisions Matter allure of this franchise.

[J.T.]

12 hours ago, AxB said:

The Batarian Brawler is actually a bit of a combo machine, because you can Snap Freeze and Concussive Shot immediately without worrying about someone stealing your detonation. Or just find someone who Primes a lot and follow them around the map.

The Batarian Scrapper you mean and yes, it and the Angaran Avenger are also Combat Mastery machines as well.  Those are the two classes I play the most when Combat Mastery is a daily challenge.

Every melee kill scored with Avenger Strike counts as a CP kill and if you are packing the Grenade mod, you will have at least six Stickys to throw to help pile on points towards CM.

I tend to depend on my Asari Adept or my Kineticist for the Biotic Mastery challenge as the Humans aren't quite able to cause BCs at will and someone always manages to poach the enemy I have trapped with Pull before Shockwave recharges.

I have soloed Bronzes with my Krogan Engineer and gotten between 80% to 85% of a Tech Mastery challenge completed and just played a Salarain Architect in an open match to make up the difference. 

Combat Mastery DCs are definitely the most time consuming to complete.

The pendulum of what MMO-ish game to invest my future time in just swung towards Destiny 2 over Anthem, although I cannot say that I am completely jazzed about the idea of handing over money to EA or Bungie right now.

[Robert C]

With the way EA is handling Mass Effect right now, I expect them to eventually reveal that the benefactor was actually Vince Russo.

Played a handful of matches yesterday.  Last one was the silver strike team of the day.  Had an interesting bunch of teammates.  One was a run of the mill 8K or so Apex rating guy.  One was a 39K+ named Puber Tee.  The third had an Apex rating of 3.  Surprising that last one only died once.  Unrsurprisingly, he made no attempt to make it to extraction on wave 7.