Poll of the Day > playing through mass effect again

(+) Yeah! (+)

never realized that wrex and tali are actually pretty adorable together.

scanning keepers still sucks ass.
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I think the intent with the Keepers is that you just grab them when you pass one while doing other things, so the quest gets spread out over time. Realistically, obsessives like me immediately track them all down so it takes time and is a bit annoying.

Tali's just adorable in general, though I'm sad that only male Shep can romance her, and then only in MEII. But it's also kind of nice that Tali and Garrus hook up if you don't romance either.


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some of them are so out of the way or in spots nobody would actually look without intent of finishing this asinine quest. i specifically went through the entire citadel trying to find the last 3 i needed and still had one left at the end. i'm just pretending it's <sp>the one saren blasted randomly before the last fight</sp> and getting a small sense of smug satisfaction from that.

and yeah tali is bae. totally cheating on liara in ME2.
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Keepers will never not suck ass
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I was always more of a jack man myself

Nade Duck posted...

and still had one left at the end.

I'd assume it was the one in the mid-level area you almost never go to (especially if you use the fast-travel cars to bypass the elevators). That's usually the last one I find/look for.

There ARE minor side-missions that take you there, and you have to pass through it at least once to unlock all the fast travel points, but it's kind of out of the way otherwise.


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If it weren't for those various side-missions with the Mako, I'd be tempted to play through again with a new class. I've gone through Insanity on a Vanguard but am curious about Infiltrator. Can't say I'll do it on Insanity again though. Enemies being bullet sponges got tedious eventually.

Who do you folks usually choose to save/sacrifice. I never get any attachment with William or Alenko so typically go with saving the higher ranking/longest party member, Alenko.
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InfestedAdam posted...

Who do you folks usually choose to save/sacrifice. I never get any attachment with William or Alenko so typically go with saving the higher ranking/longest party member, Alenko.

I usually find biotics more useful than guns. When the bad guys start floating around, they can't shoot back.

tali best space waifu confirmed
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Nade Duck posted...

and still had one left at the end.

I'd assume it was the one in the mid-level area you almost never go to (especially if you use the fast-travel cars to bypass the elevators). That's usually the last one I find/look for.

There ARE minor side-missions that take you there, and you have to pass through it at least once to unlock all the fast travel points, but it's kind of out of the way otherwise.

nope, made sure to check that one. it's so out of the way that it actually becomes memorable because of it. also got the one in the embassy bar that hides on the balcony and the ones at the tower that are nowhere near anything useful. literally no clue where the last one could've been, so i'm just assuming saren shot it.

InfestedAdam posted...

If it weren't for those various side-missions with the Mako, I'd be tempted to play through again with a new class. I've gone through Insanity on a Vanguard but am curious about Infiltrator. Can't say I'll do it on Insanity again though. Enemies being bullet sponges got tedious eventually.

Who do you folks usually choose to save/sacrifice. I never get any attachment with William or Alenko so typically go with saving the higher ranking/longest party member, Alenko.

i loved the mako. so much better than probing every freaking planet in 2. i usually save kaiden, he's boring but less abrasive than ashley.
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Nade Duck posted...

i loved the mako. so much better than probing every freaking planet in 2.

"Probing Uranus" Always gives me a chuckle. I was tempted to get the Mass Effect T-shirt showing the Mako vertically driving up a cliff. Out of all the side missions involving the Mako, the UNC: Rogue VI mission is probably my favorite but I almost hated the ones involving the Thresher Maw. Dunno how many times I had the Mako almost instagibbed from those critters.
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Gotta save Kaiden so you can sex him up in 3
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InfestedAdam posted...

Who do you folks usually choose to save/sacrifice. I never get any attachment with William or Alenko so typically go with saving the higher ranking/longest party member, Alenko.

My first run I used mostly logic. Kaiden's the calmer, more tactical mind (and he outranks Ash), so he's better to help coordinate attacks (which leaves Ash with the bomb). When the time comes to evacuate, you're effectively choosing to either pull Ash out alone, or evacuate Kaiden AND Kirrahe's men (mechanically, that's not necessarily true, but narratively, that's how it should work out).

On top of which, Kaiden IS the ranking officer, so is technically a more valuable asset in purely logistical terms. The fact that she's a somewhat blacklisted grunt while he's a powerful biotic with a sterling service record also swings that ball into his court. A purely dispassionate, unbiased analysis would probably lead to saving him 100% of the time.

On a more visceral level, I've never disliked Kaiden as much as some people do, and Ash has always been slightly irritating (more so when you never play maleShep, so she's never a potential love interest). She's also pissy to Liara early on, which sways me even more negative when I'm actively romancing her at the time (which is 95% of the time). And Ash dying on Virmire actually completes her character arc more thematically than it does for Kaiden. So Ash bites the dust in almost every single run I've ever done.



Nade Duck posted...

nope, made sure to check that one. it's so out of the way that it actually becomes memorable because of it. also got the one in the embassy bar that hides on the balcony and the ones at the tower that are nowhere near anything useful. literally no clue where the last one could've been

In that case, did you get the one at the top of the loading ramp for the Normandy?

The one hidden to the side in C-Sec traffic control?

The one hidden in the back passage in the Financial District?



InfestedAdam posted...

"Probing Uranus" Always gives me a chuckle.

Really, Shepard?



InfestedAdam posted...

but I almost hated the ones involving the Thresher Maw. Dunno how many times I had the Mako almost instagibbed from those critters.

If you think that's bad, try and make a habit of whittling down their health almost to death, then jumping out of the Mako and fighting them on foot, so you can get double the XP for the kill.

My last few runs, that's how I did pretty much every Mako combat. Geth Colossus? Ridiculously powerful missile turrets? Take them all out with a pistol and roll around in the XP.


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weird! there are no ponies or sexualized children in mass effect, ok?

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Nade Duck posted...

nope, made sure to check that one. it's so out of the way that it actually becomes memorable because of it. also got the one in the embassy bar that hides on the balcony and the ones at the tower that are nowhere near anything useful. literally no clue where the last one could've been

In that case, did you get the one at the top of the loading ramp for the Normandy?

The one hidden to the side in C-Sec traffic control?

The one hidden in the back passage in the Financial District?

yes, yes, and yes. it seriously felt like the game was just bugging out on me. doesn't matter now though, since they're all dead.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

InfestedAdam posted...

but I almost hated the ones involving the Thresher Maw. Dunno how many times I had the Mako almost instagibbed from those critters.

If you think that's bad, try and make a habit of whittling down their health almost to death, then jumping out of the Mako and fighting them on foot, so you can get double the XP for the kill.

My last few runs, that's how I did pretty much every Mako combat. Geth Colossus? Ridiculously powerful missile turrets? Take them all out with a pistol and roll around in the XP.

maws stopped giving me issues on my second play through. as long as you move around and are used to the mako's physics it's just a matter of patience.

didn't know the double exp trick though, gonna have to remember that for next time.
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MICHALECOLE posted...

I was always more of a jack man myself

Best girl.
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*chooses hackett for councilman*

writers:
sorry, that choice was wrong, udina is now in charge
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Thinking bout it a bit, kinda peeved me that certain paragon and renegade decisions cannot be chosen at lower levels unless you spend the talent points on them. So you're stuck either having to replay if you don't want to waste the talent points or accept being unable to choose the paragon or renegade decisions on your first playthrough.

On another note, what is the "official" background story of Shepard? For whatever reason I thought it was Earthborn and Sole Survivor but of course that does give me a sliver of renegade which is almost an eyesore.

Nade Duck posted...

ParanoidObsessive posted...

then jumping out of the Mako and fighting them on foot, so you can get double the XP for the kill.

My last few runs, that's how I did pretty much every Mako combat. Geth Colossus? Ridiculously powerful missile turrets? Take them all out with a pistol and roll around in the XP.

didn't know the double exp trick though, gonna have to remember that for next time.

I thought kills in the Mako gave reduced experience while being outside gave the normal amount? Of course I've read one can just tweak some files so kills in the Mako can give the normal or more experience than usual.
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Bloody hell I forgot how bad the sway is with sniper rifles until you get the better ones and/or get better upgrades. Least I already have the achievements unlocked and need only raise enough funds to buy the Spectre weapons.
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Nade Duck posted...

doesn't matter now though, since they're all dead.

Yeah, but now this is like a mystery that my OCD needs me to solve.

Did you scan the one Chorban was standing right next to? You might have assumed he'd already scanned it, but he hasn't, so you need that one.

Also, there are like three others in the Council Chamber area - one all the way in the back (where you'd probably never go unless you were just dicking around), one on the right side, and one on the left side.

There's also two over by Udina (well, three, but you said you already got the one in the bar). One's in the Elcor/Volus embassy, and one's in a computer room with a bunch of terminals and an Elcor.

Did you go into the casino? There's one in the back.

Trying to think which ones I've missed, but all of the other ones are kind of blatantly out in the open.

OH. There's also one back by where you meet Tali for the first time.



InfestedAdam posted...

Thinking bout it a bit, kinda peeved me that certain paragon and renegade decisions cannot be chosen at lower levels unless you spend the talent points on them.

Still sort of prefer that to how ME2 handled it, where it actually calculates your percentage of points, so if you don't slavishly go full Paragon or full Renegade, certain options will close off for you (and in some pretty major, massive storyline-shifting situations). Basically, the game is saying "Wait, you want to try and be more "neutral"? You want to react instinctively to events as less of a cartoonish caricature and more as a complex individual who can be both good and bad? You want to try and bypass some of the stupider aspects of how Paragon/Renegade points are classified, where you're kind of forced to either be a saint or a brutal asshole thug? Too bad, fuck you."

I know I would love the option to potentially be more of an asshole Renegade to enemies or obstructive politicians, but more Paragon when dealing with your own crew - but if you walk the center line like that, it can lock you out of things. I'll happily take giving whatever answers I want but having to to spend points on Charm/Intimidate (and picking whichever one suits my personality better, or spending points on both so I can judge in the moment which is more appropriate) if it means not getting locked out of dialogue.

Then again, in any game with a Persuade/Charm/Intimidate/Charisma-based skill available in level up, I almost always spend it to max as soon as possible anyway, so it's not a huge problem for me.



InfestedAdam posted...

On another note, what is the "official" background story of Shepard? For whatever reason I thought it was Earthborn and Sole Survivor but of course that does give me a sliver of renegade which is almost an eyesore.

There's no "official" or "canon" answer, but the default the game uses if you don't change anything is a Earthborn Sole Survivor Soldier.



InfestedAdam posted...

I thought kills in the Mako gave reduced experience while being outside gave the normal amount? Of course I've read one can just tweak some files so kills in the Mako can give the normal or more experience than usual.

That's how it works - when in the Mako, everything you kill gives 1/2 XP.

But the larger enemies that only show up in areas where you're in the Mako have their XP gains scaled to the assumption that you'll kill them in the Mako, so jumping out to kill them normally gives you 2x the XP and gives a slight artificial boost to leveling.


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Oh, and:

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I know I would love the option to potentially be more of an asshole Renegade to enemies or obstructive politicians, but more Paragon when dealing with your own crew

This was one of the things I liked about Dragon Age 2 (and part of why I will defend it no matter how many people shit on it for mostly stupid reasons). My first playthrough in that game, I mostly gave "polite/diplomatic" answers to family members, "innocent" friends, or authority figures I respected, "sarcastic/charm" answers to "casual" friends, and "aggressive/hostile" answers to enemies, asshole authority figures, or anyone who just pissed me off.

I also sort of did a shift through the course of the story as overarching plot happened. I was definitely more sarcastic early on, then shaded more into brutally direct and hostile after some dark things happened in my life that would probably leave me bitter as a character, and then by the end I sort of sucked it up and started being a bit more heroic and "good". And while the game would occasionally alter how I'd speak in general based on those choices, at no point did it lock me out of future major dialogue options or otherwise punish me for actually ROLEplaying.

And since companion affinity was based more on your overall actions and how you interacted with your companions as individuals and not on how "noble" or "asshole" you were, it meant that I could cultivate people into liking or loving me without having to worry about whether or not the next Renegade prompt I picked was going to ruin everything somehow.

ME3 actually fixed this slightly, but it was definitely a major problem in ME2 (and still a problem in ME3, honestly). But Dragon Age always handled that sort of thing better - mainly because ME as a series was still locked in the Good/Evil and Law/Order scales Bioware had slavishly picked up from D&D while working on Baldur's Gate/KotOR, while Dragon Age was trying to blaze its own trail right from the beginning and focused more on giving each individual companion separate reputation tracking (an idea they may have gotten from Obsidian when they did KotOR2).


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^
in da 2 you do get locked out of some dialogue options if you pick the complete opposite multiple times
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the citadel tower is the only place i can think of that i missed one. i made sure to check it thoroughly near the end though, so that's unlikely.

come to think of it, i did check the volus/elcor embassy and saw a keeper terminal there, but there was no keeper. so yeah i think the game really did bug out on me.

..motherfucking keepers.
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Nade Duck posted...

come to think of it, i did check the volus/elcor embassy and saw a keeper terminal there, but there was no keeper. so yeah i think the game really did bug out on me.

That happened to me as well. A simple quick save and load and that Keeper reappeared.
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he's dead and the galaxy is better off tbh.
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

in da 2 you do get locked out of some dialogue options if you pick the complete opposite multiple times

Yeah, but it's all minor stuff. Like being able to intimidate a dock worker into helping you if you have an Aggressive personality, but not with Diplomatic or Charming. While a Charming Hawke can distract guards later in the same mission by saying there's a warehouse fire, but Diplomatic and Aggressive can't. Most of it is minor dialogue shifts at best, and even when it has a tangible effect it's usually minor and has no effect on the ending of any given quest.

In ME2 you can literally ruin the ending of certain major quest-lines and get multiple companions straight-up killed (up to ruining quests in ME3 as well), solely because you didn't maximize your Paragon or Renegade points enough to swing crucial dialogue branches.

More specifically, not being able to persuade Miranda and Jack to put aside their differences likely lowers your combat readiness score enough that you might lose a squadmate in the Hold the Line segment of the final battle. But Tali's the real problem - without relatively high Paragon or Renegade it's difficult to both keep her loyal AND part of the Quarian fleet, which locks you out of being able to make peace between the Quarians and Geth in ME3. As does not being able to persuade Tali and Legion to compromise when they fight, because both pretty much NEED to be loyal to give you enough persuasion points in the final choice to sway both sides.

And all three of those persuade dialogues are pretty close to being 90/10 requirements. If you're, say, 80% Paragon and 20% Renegade, you're basically going to fail them.

It's made worse by the fact that those dialogues are calculated by total possible points at the time you speak to them, so those persuades actually become harder the later into the game you do them. Ultimately, either picking dialogue choices or doing interrupts from both alignments, or even picking more neutral options when available, can screw you over.



Nade Duck posted...

come to think of it, i did check the volus/elcor embassy and saw a keeper terminal there, but there was no keeper. so yeah i think the game really did bug out on me.

That's the one then.

MYSTERY SOLVED.

~puffs on pipe contentedly~


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i love being right.
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