MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA (Here be Spoilers)

[J.T.]

The Weekend APEX mission is up and it is the most bugged thing ever in the history of this franchise.

It is a Bronze mission on Firebase Aqua and you're fighting the Roekkar.

Challenge Wave 3 is always a hack and every enemy on the board is a Hydra mech.  There are literally dozens of them converging on you, if not more.  I fired a Cobra at a group and took out seven in one shot.

Needless to say, the game crashes the original host and eventually crashes whomever hosts next until there are no more players in the queue.

Hopefully this gets patched soon because I'd like to see if that Celebration Pack gets me a Batarian Vanguard.

I've decided to budget my creds to see if I can buy the APEX pack before it expires in six days.

[RIPPA]

I was working late last week and so my wife and son watched a DVD - thus taking Andromeda out of my XBOX drive.

I haven't put it back in yet and I realized this morning that there is a real good chance it never does.

[J.T.]

6 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

I was working late last week and so my wife and son watched a DVD - thus taking Andromeda out of my XBOX drive.

I haven't put it back in yet and I realized this morning that there is a real good chance it never does.

I have decided to get Platinum and once I have all of the achievements, it is getting uninstalled and I am trading it in for credit. 

I should have most of the achievements in this playthrough including the Romance one and I can fire up something quick as Sara for the Biotic specific stuff I have left to do.

Still haven't decided if I am going to bother with Anthem or Destiny 2.  It would be smart not to bother with either game but I am not terribly bright.  I may get Destiny 2 if I find that the Crucible is not terribly annoying.

[jstout]

Aqua is a notoriously buggy map anyway. I may actually have to see this in action.

They won't patch it - no more patches. The best they can do is take it down.

[J.T.]

Someone did not think that scenario through.

I may try one more time later on as I am taking a half day and headed to the crib around lunchtime.

Failing that, I will assign that shit to a strike team and claim the pack after I put in some work in the Kadara vault.

[jstout]

Some people on Reddit were able to finish it, but most weren't. PC players were especially unlucky.

The Celebration Pack is the same as a $100,000 Premium Pack.

A couple of people said you don't get the pack if you send a strike team to do the mission.

It's like they're running people off purposefully.

[J.T.]

5 minutes ago, jstout said:

It's like they're running people off purposefully.

If it's on purpose then that's a pretty stupid thing to do when you're depending on the same customer base to invest in the new IP you're developing.

The expiration timer is ridiculously long.  Like close to two hundred hours, I think.

[RIPPA]

1 hour ago, J.T. said:

Still haven't decided if I am going to bother with Anthem or Destiny 2.  It would be smart not to bother with either game but I am not terribly bright.  I may get Destiny 2 if I find that the Crucible is not terribly annoying.

Well again - you have at least a year to decide on Anthem... but more likely at least 18 months.

I would be stunned if they hit their August 2018 timetable considering the now Andromeda fiasco of not delaying a game.

Deciding about Destiny 2 is a different story (though you know the answer to that question is "yes - you should bother")

[Robert C]

1 hour ago, jstout said:

Aqua is a notoriously buggy map anyway. I may actually have to see this in action.

They won't patch it - no more patches. The best they can do is take it down.

Think of it this way - no more patches means they won't ever nerf the Avenger.  If you ever bother to play this again.

[Robert C]

2 hours ago, jstout said:

A couple of people said you don't get the pack if you send a strike team to do the mission.

It's like they're running people off purposefully.

it's always been that way on the special strike team missions.  Only way to get the packs is to play em. 

And I'm not sure they're not trying to run people off.  I doubt many people are spending actual money on multiplayer.  They may actually be losing money on it.

[Robert C]

I played a few rounds last night, for the first time this week.  I'm still intending to buy whatever comes out this week, so I needed some mission funds.  The took me 2 full missions, and 2 wave 4 joins to finish.  One match was completely broken by lag.  Fortunately that was one of the joins.  The two full matches both had twits that were still across the map shooting stuff when the timer ran out.  

Ran a regular, silver strike team on Aqua.  2 guys camped the back corner, and I figured they weren't coming out for anything, so I stuck with them. 4th guy kept charging shit and getting killed for his trouble.  He died on every wave.  Got teabagged on most of em.  I revived him 3 or 4 times in the first couple waves, but he'd be dead again 30 seconds later anyway, so I gave up.  No surprise that he was one of the 2 that didn't extract on that mission.  Had to use 4 rockets on wave 6, since the 3rd device was in that center room, along with both Destroyers, and nobody else was coming to help.

[J.T.]

2 hours ago, jstout said:

Some people on Reddit were able to finish it, but most weren't. PC players were especially unlucky.

The Celebration Pack is the same as a $100,000 Premium Pack.

A couple of people said you don't get the pack if you send a strike team to do the mission.

It's like they're running people off purposefully.

Bioware tweeted that they're investigating the crashes.

Maybe it will get fixed by the time I get home from work.....

[RIPPA]

Keep living that dream

[jstout]

4 hours ago, Robert C said:

Think of it this way - no more patches means they won't ever nerf the Avenger.  If you ever bother to play this again.

Actually, they can adjust character stats (damage numbers, etc.), just not make fixes.

And I'm still ready to go if wanted by anybody, but as you saw again, constantly fooling with teams of randoms is a pain in the ass.

[Robert C]

36 minutes ago, jstout said:

Actually, they can adjust character stats (damage numbers, etc.), just not make fixes.

And I'm still ready to go if wanted by anybody, but as you saw again, constantly fooling with teams of randoms is a pain in the ass.

I ought to be around some, either tonight or over the weekend, on either this or GTA.  Next game I buy will probably be Red Dead, so it's gonna be one of these two till then.

[odessasteps]

Once JT finishes story mode, Phil should just Lock the thread and everyone can move on with their lives. 

[Robert C]

I got through the celebration mission just fine - nobody got dropped, and it barely took over 10 minutes.  I think I saw 3 hydras on wave 7, but that was the most I saw.  Mostly it was just Roekkar runninga round.

[jstout]

They had to have toned it down. Got the new character and played one game with him. He's solid. 

Robert and I couldn't get four for a bronze (the challenge level) on the challenge map. We got a fourth on wave 7. Bless this game's heart.

[J.T.]

They stealth patched the Celebration Mission.  I got the new Human Juggernaut with my Celebration Package.  

I got to bail from work early thanks to the Commanding General of 8th Army being happy with the way the exercise went down.  I played MP until around 2PM yesterday afternoon when I finally amassed 600K credits and unlocked the Batarian Vanguard with the APEX Pack it took me about three days to save up for.

The weekend event allows for you to buy up to three APEX Packs, but the idea of scraping together 600K creds again or paying real money for Andromeda Dollars can eat a bag of mule dicks.

So yeah, I have a full roster now and my APEX rating is now over 18K.  I was surprised to see that I am higher on the Friends List leaderboard for Challenges than I thought I was.

As Stout said, the new Juggernaut is very solid.  He's the less broken version of the Batarian Scrapper.  He can still create Cryo Combos effectively, but not quite with the speed of the Scrapper. 

There are players out there that already have Level 20 Juggernaut XX characters.

In other Campaign Mode news, the Kadara Vault is a wrap.  I just focused on getting the Data Core, solving the puzzle, and activating the environmental scrubber.  Didn't really care about locating containers as I make my creds by selling off my MP trade fodder.

I knocked out the Ransom fetchit and the other one where you nearly get your ass shot off tracking down the arms shipment.  I wanted to kill that fucking Turian, but at least she gave me a discount on the Kett shuttle model she had in stock.

Rescued Reyes from the smuggler ambush and then went to Sloane's party.  She was unusually gracious given that our first meet didn't go so well.  Good to see that the guards haven't figured out that it was me that broke Vehn Terev out of the holding cell.

Tracked down the parts for Peebee's Remnant Scanner, so hopefully I will prompted for her Loyalty Mission soon.  The crew gives Scott a lot of shit.  Too bad I can't fucking chew everyone out for letting Kalinda's peeps board the Tempest undetected and steal POC.

I was stoked to hear that my Remnant VI actually has a name.  Too bad I don't use it.

Parked Scott in front of the Death Caves in prep for the big showdown.  It does not take rocket science to figure out that I've been working for the Charlatan / Reyes the entire time since all of his missions have thematically been about winning the loyalty of the local Angaran population.

I just have to decide if Reyes is the lesser of two evils.  Maybe Sloane is better because she's the devil I know and Reyes is the devil I don't know.

17 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Once JT finishes story mode, Phil should just Lock the thread and everyone can move on with their lives. 

So if Rippa succeeds in getting me to play Destiny 2 and I put Andromeda on the back burner for six months, I don't want to hear any shit from you.

[RIPPA]

I am totally giving you a pass if you move to Destiny 2

[J.T.]

6 hours ago, jstout said:

They had to have toned it down. Got the new character and played one game with him. He's solid. 

Robert and I couldn't get four for a bronze (the challenge level) on the challenge map. We got a fourth on wave 7. Bless this game's heart.

If it helps (probably won't) but check the NAT settings on your router.

I adjusted the settings on my router at home and my parent's router to get true Open NAT and people funnel into the matches I create a bit faster now.

It still does not help that the player base is bottoming out.

13 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

I am totally giving you a pass if you move to Destiny 2

It is highly likely that I will put a copy on reserve before going to pick my kid up this afternoon for my custody weekend.

If I am going to end up hating myself for months on end, I may as well get my hands on a pre-order bonus.

I won't be able to pick it up or install it until Thursday though, since me and the woman are going to spend Labor Day and the following Tuesday in Ocean City and there is a strict No Casual Tech rule being enforced. 

I have to leave my console at home and her phone cannot stay in her hand more than five minutes at a time.

We get back on Wednesday, but that is Recover From The Vacation day.  I'll be back in the 804 early on Thursday morning and will get my copy and install sometime that afternoon.

I will still split the difference between D2 and Andromeda.  I don't want to play this game any longer than I have to.

[J.T.]

Did I mention that none of the packs I purchased unlocked the Carnifax?  No?  Well then..

FUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK~!!!!!!!!

While going to get something to snack on, I reminded myself of the Oblivion dealie where Sloane chose to run a drug cartel while the Collective secretly funded Ryota's free clinic, so I think I will side with the Latino Shadow Broker.

 

[AxB]

I've nearly got Carnifex Mastery to 100%. But my Apex rating is only 14K, and I've not got anything close to a Full roster.

[jstout]

I think that if leveled up and specced right, the Juggernaut could be a viable platinum character. Someone else tell me how that goes

[melraz09]

Well hell, I have another character to get to 20. Got on yesterday long enough to run some strike team stuff. Got the chest. 2 N7's another level on a character and the harpoon gun. Ran 2 other strike teams bought one 100,000 pack and got the new character. Haven't played with him yet. Will take em for a test drive tomorrow night when I get home from S.C. just hope i can solo a bronze with the little feller. Not to many people left on andromeda.