MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA (Here be Spoilers)

[TheVileOne]

2 minutes ago, Andrew POE! said:

I bought Mass Effect Andromeda Friday without giving any f*cks about the derpy faces and animations, the story or the backlash.

 

I don't really care about the derpy faces other than that the graphics at times look PS3-level and I thought PS4 and such would be past those issues.  Despite my complaints, I generally like the story for the most part.  You can really make your Ryder's personality whatever you want it to be.

[RIPPA]

21 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

The only person I pissed off was Moshae.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

One, she's a bitch.  And two, she gets over it really quickly anyway.  I did the right thing not blowing up the church.  I beat the Kett priest and we wanted to liberate the kidnapped Angarans and Moshae anyway.  We did it.  Blowing up the church would've been wrong.

 

Yup - she was one of the ones pissy at me last night too

[RIPPA]

Well the soul crushing bar has been set at the Erics 

Damm you Bioware

[J.T.]

Last night was pretty busy on night duty, so I only had the energy to work on the Meet Your Crew bullshit before falling into a coma for the rest of the day.  I'll finish rolling to Eos tomorrow after I get up from my first bit of downtime.

• Liam and I finally had that beer.  He's a good bro.  He's also part-Titan from Destiny since he's got a fucking Fist of Havoc.  I'm going to enjoy using my Energy Drain and detonating fools off of his power.
• I can flirt with Gil, so he is one of homoerotic romance options.  Even if I did swing that way, it wouldn't be with Gil because of the mutton chops.  I don't fancy the idea of making out with a dude with Ambrose Bierce stubble. Gil is professional grade, but there are no words that express how much I miss having a Quarian in Engineering.
• Cora is more than a little frustrated that I am the new Pathfinder.  A little flirting managed to diffuse the situation.
• I consider Vetra to be my real second in command even though she's apparently just my logistics officer.  I've got to figure out a good build for her.
• Suvi is cute and serious about her work, but how does she have an Egyptian name yet looks and sounds like she's from Scotland?
• Lexi is waaaay toooo focused on the idea of dissecting Kett corpses for me to flirt with her.  I will keep it professional.
• Kallo is Kallo.  He's got a good attitude, so I've got no issues with him.

I'm not going to hate crafting as much as I thought I was.  I went to the Loadout Locker on board the Tempest and saw that I only have mod controls for my own personal arsenal, so I only have to worry about my own equipment and the ground vehicle when it comes to R&D. 

I don't have to angst or waste credits and resources on weapons classes I don't plan on using extensively (right now, that's assault rifles and shotguns), even though I will potentially be good with everything in the game if I bother to level up high enough.  The SAM Profiles thingie obviously wants me to eventually go from a specific build to being Superman so that I can be like dad and swap tech, combat, and biotic powers on the fly.

I can tell that I am going to depend on salvage and assignments for money and any trade fodder weapons or armor I get as loot will end up getting shredded for raw materials so that I don't go bankrupt while maintaining a good supply of crafting resources..

Something told me to head back to the Ops Center before going to the Tempest and yeah I knew I didn't talk to enough people.  I totally brain farted on talking to all of the DARPA crew to get their fetch it quests, so now I'm rolling with a full contingent of "scan this please" stuff as well as a proper "missing science team that is probably dead" dealie and the two assignments I have on Eos: the murder investigation and the yellow ribbon stuff with the dead soldier's medallion.

If I had scanned a bunch of shit and then realized that it didn't count towards a quest, I would've been pissed off.

What is with starship engineers?  Why are my quarters in the forward section of the ship?  If an enemy vessel catches us flat footed (we're not in stealth if we're in orbit or are discharging the core) and targets the bridge during general quarters,  I am a fucking goner.

Obviously our space combat engagement strategy is to either run like hell or not get caught in the first place.

Why is this Trance bullshit on my music player in my cabin?  Where is the fucking Dubstep or the Club Beats?

Why is my connection to the Bioware servers so sketchy?  One minute I have access to APEX and the next I get the "Try Again Later" message.

[odessasteps]

Have you started doing the strike team missions yet? Plenty of credits and resources to be had. I got my 4th guy today when i got up to cash in the missions from yesterday.

I had time to do some nexus stuff before work, including dealing with spenser and getting some folks boosted from cryo storage.

[TheVileOne]

Yeah the design for the Tempest seems a bit counter-intuitive.  I never really played the older Mass Effect games, so I'm not sure if this is comparable to how the Normandy was.  

I do kind of feel a little bad for my crewmates.  I know I'm the Pathfinder and all, but I've got the luxury suite, while all they have are tiny little cubbies.  And it doesn't look like they can accommodate big boys like Drack.  

I was curious, do the cutscenes radically change depending on changing your Strike Teams for certain story missions?  Like what if I didn't take Jaal with me on that Kett siege on Voeld?  Or are some of the team member options fixed for certain missions?  I haven't really tried to experiment too much.

[J.T.]

4 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

Have you started doing the strike team missions yet? Plenty of credits and resources to be had.

Not yet, but I plan to mess with strike teams and multiplayer tomorrow since there is an achievement for getting an APEX team up to Level 20 so I need to get cracking and start putting the mllitia to work.

[odessasteps]

3 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

Yeah the design for the Tempest seems a bit counter-intuitive.  I never really played the older Mass Effect games, so I'm not sure if this is comparable to how the Normandy was.  

I do kind of feel a little bad for my crewmates.  I know I'm the Pathfinder and all, but I've got the luxury suite, while all they have are tiny little cubbies.  And it doesn't look like they can accommodate big boys like Drack.  

I was curious, do the cutscenes radically change depending on changing your Strike Teams for certain story missions?  Like what if I didn't take Jaal with me on that Kett siege on Voeld?  Or are some of the team member options fixed for certain missions?  I haven't really tried to experiment too much.

I always chose Jaal for Voeld, so dont know if he is mandatory. I did run into a scene invilving the asari ark where i needed Cora on the team. And of course crewmembers are mandatory on their loyalty missions. Not sure if i have seeb anything else. 

Also, is there anyone else on the tempest crew but your squad mates? Is there a beta or gamma shift? When do Suvi and Katto sleep otherwise? 

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

 Also, is there anyone else on the tempest crew but your squad mates? Is there a beta or gamma shift? When do Suvi and Katto sleep otherwise? 

You and I know that this more or less works like the Navy, so small quarters means hot racking and Suvi and Katto would normally swap bunks with the rest of crew.

However the crew is really tiny, so I imagine that we're not on mission for days or weeks at a time and the crew quarters are there for getting quick naps in between shifts.

SAM probably handles basic in transit nav so that Kallo can get some rest, but remember that Kallo is a Salarian and they don't require much sleep because of their metabolism.

Liam probably crashes on his couch in the aft and Nyx probably sleeps in the arsenal like a true Turian.

[odessasteps]

In my game, Suvi will hopefully be sleeping in the pathfinder's quarters sooner rather than later.

[J.T.]

2 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

In my game, Suvi will hopefully be sleeping in the pathfinder's quarters sooner rather than later.

It was the red hair and the accent, wasn't it?

[odessasteps]

I thought when the game started, Cora was going to be the #1 lesbian option and was surprised she is a male Ryder only choice. 

Also surprised 

Spoiler

Vetra

Is an option for both. 

[J.T.]

3 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

I thought when the game started, Cora was going to be the #1 lesbian option and was surprised she is a male Ryder only choice. 

I could see how her rolling with an Asari commando unit for most of her career might make you think that.

[odessasteps]

I was expecting Liam and Cora to both be options for either Ryder, as your main human squadmates. And then the various alien teammates would be male, female or both. Biggest surprise might be that the doctor is not an option at all. 

[J.T.]

44 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

I was expecting Liam and Cora to both be options for either Ryder, as your main human squadmates. And then the various alien teammates would be male, female or both. Biggest surprise might be that the doctor is not an option at all. 

I figured that Cora and Liam would probably be hetero like Ashley and pre ME3 Kaiden and that any Asari would bat for either team since Asari are non-gender anyway and are only concerned with genetic factors when it comes to mating.

I also figured that Vetra was probably either bi or lesbian given Nyreen Kandros's weird relationship with Aria T'Loak.

I am sure that the Natalie Dormer fans are shaking their fists at the sky for charcters not being able to romance Lexi, but I am guessing that Dr. Harry Carlyle is Lexi's casual lifemate and she is saddened that he is getting older and she has to leave him behind. 

It is a sad yet sweet side story.

[J.T.]

I am kinda bummed that I can't arm my squaddies with loot weapons. 

I've got no reason to arm my Infiltrator Ryder with crazy shit like heavy Krogan shotguns nor can I pass a weapon like that on to my eventual Krogan crew member. 

Gone are the days where I armed Garrus with a Phaeston or gave Zaeed a M-96 Mattock and made them my medium gunner / flanker while lunkhead James grabbed an M-76 Revenant or Grunt used his modded M-300 Claymore and I sent them in heavy straight up the gut.

My new guys will use whatever generic firearms they have until doomsday, but I sure hope that Liam starts packing something other than that Tempest SMG.

I need to cop some resources and stack up some Alliance R&D points so I can start work on getting myself an M-90 Indra and an M-5 Phalanx.  I don't think I can advance the pre-order weapons and armor past Level One, so I'll have to work on developing my in-game blueprints.

Since I am a game purist, I don't really feel the need to work on Kett, Angaran, or Remnant items for use since I am a human and prefer to stick to proper Terran firearms and armor, but I can still use Helios R/D points to draft augmentations.  I can't wait to mod a high ROF Terran SMG with this Kett ricochet tech I just put into development.

[Eivion]

1 hour ago, J.T. said:

I am sure that the Natalie Dormer fans are shaking their fists at the sky for not being able to romance Lexi, but I am guessing that Dr. Harry Carlyle is her casual lifemate and she is saddened that he is getting older and she has to leave him behind.

As far as I can tell they are only friends.

[J.T.]

I am starting to miss some of the ME3 powers.  I kinda wish that Cora had something more Vanguardy than Shield Boost as her Tier 2 ability; maybe Barrier or Lift Grenades. 

Of course I'll change my tune when her timely use of that power saves my ass.

1 hour ago, Eivion said:

As far as I can tell they are only friends.

Yeah, but it sounds like they've been friends since Harry was a young man and she's had to watch him grow older while she's stayed relatively the same.

[odessasteps]

Still trying to figure out my #1 squad.

So far, mainly been Jaal and Drack or Jaal and Vetra. Again showing my pro-alien bias in squad mates. 

[J.T.]

8 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

Still trying to figure out my #1 squad.

So far, mainly been Jaal and Drack or Jaal and Vetra. Again showing my pro-alien bias in squad mates. 

I know that using the up d-pad squad command to sic both team members on the same target is how you usually generate Power Combos between your helpers, so I'll have to match up squad members along the lines of primers and detonators.

Cora and PB (when I eventually find PB) should make for an effective Biotic team, if PB has the Biotic primers that I think she should have in her load out.

[odessasteps]

So far, i've able to bum rush most opponents, so havent felt the need to strategize who partners best with whom. I presume as things gets harder, i will need to put more thought into it. The two boss fights were not that hard, at least compared to the two Architect fights ive done. 

[J.T.]

I've only used Liam and Cora so far and they're lowbies, so I am still a little ways away from having to get into the weeds when it comes to tactics.

IIRC, in ME3 a Biotic Charge could detonate some Tech Primers like Incinerate so in theory Liam's Havoc Strike and Cora's charge should be an effective Power Combo.

 

[Eivion]

I never really use squad mates properly using orders and whatnot. I tend to just snipe things and hope for the best. I tend to base who I take with me on story so it switches up often. I use Peebee for vaults and Jaal for Voeld & Havarl as he has p;enty of minor extra dialogue/story bits. I'm currently using Vetra & Drack for Kadaara.

Found another Milky Way connection.

Spoiler

Met Conrad Verner's sister on Kadaara. Less insane but still pretty dumb. Its all funnier since I figured poor tech Danny on Eos was essentially Andromeda's Conrad.

 

[J.T.]

i need to get into the habit of being proactive with squad commands rather than being passive and sending my folks to guard a patch of land. 

It looks like the more you actively direct your squad toward certain enemies, the more you are likely to generate power combos.

This Andromeda combat schema works completely opposite to the old Power Wheel system.  No more just putting people into cover and letting them sit there.

[J.T.]

Okay, so it is possible to make a fairly hot version of Sarah Ryder with this shit Character Creator.

Most of the better Sarah's I've seen online are constructed using Preset 5.

Since the Preset 5 base model appears to be an African American female, does that also make your dad look like a black person or does the game tweak his features to make you both look as genetically similar as possible even if you build a caucasian Sarah out of that starter head?