MASS EFFECT FRANCHISE CATCH-ALL THREAD

[J.T.]

8 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I haven't looked it up but when do you get the hamster in ME3. 

You "get" the hamster as soon as you are able to walk around the Normandy freely.  Just after you get Kaiden / Ashley to the Citadel.  He's wandering around the Engineering sub-deck and you have to catch the little fucker with your hands.  He's too fast to chase.  You'll have to get his routes down and listen for his squeak if you want to capture  him.

8 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Javvik's dialogue with Liara is always funny. 

It is bittersweet.  Liara has hardened since ME2 and become rather ruthless over time.   She starts to show flashes of the old, optimistic Liara once you bring Javik aboard and then he just ruins things by being a bitter d-bag.  But given all he's been through and now that he's the last member of a dead race, I can kinda understand why he's an asshole.

[Craig H]

Starting to plow through all of the recruitment and loyalty missions now in ME2. I really loved the one with Grunt and Mordin. Prior to those missions I got the nuke heavy weapon that basically just explodes a star or whatever it does (I can't remember the exact functionality from the codex). But there's that part during Mordin's loyalty mission where you run into some Krogan dudes on a catwalk and the one guy just keeps monologuing until you go with the Renegade option to tell him he talks to much, which sends out a bunch of Krogan at you. One shot from that nuke gun ended that mission and it was the first time I used that gun. Holy shit. The effect it gives with the rumbling and shaking was pretty epic. I used that gun one other time and that was against the Thresher Maw, which nearly killed it in one shot.

[Craig H]

Oh, question for you guys. When I look at the systems, not planets, in ME2, there's a percentage for them. What is that percentage for? I thought it was for clearing out all the missions in that system, but that can't be it. There's one system sitting at 40% or something and there's nothing else to do there. I identified all of the planets there too.  Does the percentage instead mean how close I am to depleting every planet's resources in that system?

[J.T.]

58 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Oh, question for you guys. When I look at the systems, not planets, in ME2, there's a percentage for them. What is that percentage for? I thought it was for clearing out all the missions in that system, but that can't be it. There's one system sitting at 40% or something and there's nothing else to do there. I identified all of the planets there too.  Does the percentage instead mean how close I am to depleting every planet's resources in that system?

The percentages represent the amount of the cluster that is explored.   If it is sitting at a percentage and there is nothing left to do, then there is a hidden encounter there you have to unlock elsewhere.

The Hahne-Kedar mission line that starts with N7- Wrecked Merchant Freighter is like that.  The Jarrahe Station in the Strabo system of the Eagle Nebula Cluster cannot be found until you finish the Wrecked Merchant Freighter mission.  EDI will message you so that you can start the Abandoned Research Facility mission and Jarrahe Station will appear in the appropriate location.

1 hour ago, Craig H said:

.One shot from that nuke gun ended that mission and it was the first time I used that gun. Holy shit. The effect it gives with the rumbling and shaking was pretty epic. I used that gun one other time and that was against the Thresher Maw, which nearly killed it in one shot.

If you want to make the best use of the Cain, keep collecting Heavy Weapon Ammo buffs until you are around 6/6 or 7/7 and buy the Ordinance Packs leg armor piece from Harrot's Emporium at Omega AFTER you complete the Horizon story mission. 

You'll be able to buff the Cain to 200% and get two shots which will melt the Proto-Reaper boss during the final fight.

Edited July 27, 2021 by J.T.

[Craig H]

Holy balls. Well, I'll definitely be doing that. I thinks that's one of the coolest guns to be in a game.

[J.T.]

There is also a similar Cain kinetic detonation that occurs if you kill an YMIR mech with a headshot.  It's the easiest way to kill a bunch of dudes when you are breaking Jack out of cryo.   Target the YMIR, kill it with a headshot and the nuke will obliterate any roaming enemies that aren't in cover.

Edited July 27, 2021 by J.T.

[Craig H]

I learned that the hard way against the YMIR. I charged it, point blank shot it in the head with my shotgun, and then died. So that was neat.

[RIPPA]

When watching random videos at my Mom's this weekend - I learned that you can technically do Grissom Academy after Priority Tuchanka if you go there before going to the Citadel.

Thus I learned that Mordin gave Jack some killer sex advice

[J.T.]

I have not broken the habit of doing side gigs first before Priority missions.   I'm too afraid that something bad will happen.

I'm usually good with Jack's sexbot jokes when I bring EDI along.

[odessasteps]

The Legion/EDI  and Tali/EDI jokes were good when they first meet up. 

Edited July 27, 2021 by odessasteps

[RIPPA]

Spoiler

 

Bioware tweeted out how folks played the game (it is an infographic). No context provided on if this is all playthroughs ever or just the first time

[odessasteps]

I'd say most of those are expected, except killing the reaper queen

 

[J.T.]

Leuss is a wrap.   Once again this game punches me in the stomach.

No Spectre authorized transfer for you, PVT Talavi.  You stay right the fuck where you are. 

BTW, if you take a close look at the datapads during the Cerberus Lab mission on Sanctum, you'll see that PVT Talavi is absolutely right.  Her brother is a Cerberus Trooper and you probably blew his head off during the mission, so she doesn't have to worry about facing her brother in combat.  You kinda took care of that already.

Now to go rescue Jacob's punk ass.

Edited July 28, 2021 by J.T.

[odessasteps]

Finished up Rannoch and then did a bunch of the Citadel stuff to get the Thessia mission and see Miranda and all the side quests. Also did the mission that features the reacttor map from multiplayer. 

also now have over 7000 in war assets. 

[Gonzo]

8 hours ago, RIPPA said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Bioware tweeted out how folks played the game (it is an infographic). No context provided on if this is all playthroughs ever or just the first time

Spoiler

 

[J.T.]

I hate the way armor pieces are doled out in this game.   It will be nearly over by the time I collect a full set of Hahne-Kedar armor.

I'll have to restart the Arrae mission when I get home from work.  I totally brain-farted on picking up the Carnifex heavy pistol for free before ambushing the Ceberus assholes on the roof.

[odessasteps]

Ive been rocking the Cerberus armor gor a whille, although i did just get the “new N7” armor. 

[Kevin Wilson]

After I beat 1, 2, and 3 I decided to finish up the series and play Andromeda. Holy shit is that a long game, I had forgotten about that. I actually like it more than ME3 (don't get me started) but I can see how it turned off people. I think my Official Final Mass Effect Goodness Ranking is ME2 -> gap -> ME1 -> Andromeda -> ME3. Easily 150+ hours between them in the last two months, money will spent.

Expanding on the tweet above, kotaku had an article about how some choices had 90%+ of people picking the same thing, which is interesting. It seems like A LOT of people play the game like I do, which is making decisions that either 1. I think Shepard would take, or 2. are just common sense. Some of the choices someone would only make if they were *trying* to be a contrarian asshole as they don't make sense within the story. All games with choices nudge people a certain way, but it just shows they didn't do great at "shades of gray, neither is right or wrong" choices if the percentages of some of the bigger ones are that high.

[RIPPA]

2 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Expanding on the tweet above, kotaku had an article about how some choices had 90%+ of people picking the same thing, which is interesting. It seems like A LOT of people play the game like I do, which is making decisions that either 1. I think Shepard would take, or 2. are just common sense. Some of the choices someone would only make if they were *trying* to be a contrarian asshole as they don't make sense within the story. All games with choices nudge people a certain way, but it just shows they didn't do great at "shades of gray, neither is right or wrong" choices if the percentages of some of the bigger ones are that high.

Well at least in 3 - that was part of the problem with using the Galaxy Readiness system

With the current system - throwing away war assets isn't as easy to overcome and a few of the choices (especially around the rachni queen) are huge war asset losses

At least with the old game - you could beef up your score via multiplayer and thus have more ending choices

In general - it is hard for me to rate ME3 as lower than my #2 ever (and I debate if it is my #1) because of how much I dedicated to the multiplayer

[odessasteps]

I’ve never played the game all the way through in Renegade mode. I’ve definitely chosen the heel option to see what happened and then loaded a save to do it the right way. (In the era beforeyoutube)

[Kevin Wilson]

4 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Well at least in 3 - that was part of the problem with using the Galaxy Readiness system

With the current system - throwing away war assets isn't as easy to overcome and a few of the choices (especially around the rachni queen) are huge war asset losses

At least with the old game - you could beef up your score via multiplayer and thus have more ending choices

In general - it is hard for me to rate ME3 as lower than my #2 ever (and I debate if it is my #1) because of how much I dedicated to the multiplayer

I'm not a multiplayer guy so that wouldn't impact my ranking, but in this case I am just going by the versions I played with the re-release as they are, so with DLC and anything else. My rankings ten years ago may have been different.

[RIPPA]

I, too, will probably give Andromeda another shot after this is all done

Just so I can get angry all over again

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

I, too, will probably give Andromeda another shot after this is all done

Just so I can get angry all over again

Not me.   I have a platinum score for Andromeda.  If I ever reinstalled, it would be to do multiplayer and hopefully ME: LE will fix that urge by bringing ME3 multiplayer back.

[odessasteps]

I actually found my Andromeda discs while looking for my World Class set. I just laughed. 

Hit 7400 in War Assets today while doing side stuff before doing the Thessia mission after dinner. 
 

edit: replaying thessia because i forgot to use Jaavik. 

Edited July 28, 2021 by odessasteps

[J.T.]

Jacob and the ex-Cerberus scientists are now under Alliance protection and (more importantly) the Carnifax is in my arsenal.  I'll probably start Leviathan after I deliver the Turian anti-toxin to Huerta Memorial and talk to Jacob.

I remembered to use the chain gun during the rooftop gunfight where you have to reactivate the AA guns, but the gun battle during the evacuation got dicey when the Phantoms started showing up.  EDI, Garrus, and I were able to hold out by spamming Overload and targeting the Phantoms before switching to the Centurians and normal Troopers. 

The little sidebar where the human girl sold her car and bought her Salarian homie a phat set of assault armor is sweet.  I was starting to cheer up until I went down to the refugee camp and the story between the Turian C-Sec guard and the human refugee kid crushed my spirit.

Edited July 29, 2021 by J.T.