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drat op I wish I knew someone was making a new Mass Effect thread, I was gonna make a modding guide for anyone not getting the remaster
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# ¿ Feb 2, 2021 18:14 |
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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 23:36 |
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Thought about buying the Mass Effect remaster but don't have $60-$150 to drop on a decade-old game? Or maybe you already own the entire trilogy and can't justify buying them again, even for HD graphics? Or perhaps you're just interested in spicing up a game series you've already played 25 times over (Engineer Shep no pistol no powers GOGOGO)? ...it's the lens flares, isn't it? Jesus you're gonna blow out someone's eyes with all that post-processing! There has to be another way! The Mass Effect trilogy, being possibly the last good Bioware games ever, has a small but incredibly dedicated mod community. Over the last few years they have produced a ton of content for all three original trilogy Mass Effect games, including gameplay tweaks, 4k textures and even new missions and content! Better yet, they've created an incredibly easy-to-use community mod manager that handles all the complicated bits of modding with a literal drag-and-drop interface. Obviously it's early days yet but the community expects that the Legendary Edition won't be moddable at all. Chances are, if you want mods you'll have to use the original versions. If you want to check it out for yourself, then you can find pretty much everything you need - mods, tools, graphics presets - on the Nexus websites for Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. Otherwise, if you want to know about how it all works, read on. MOD MANAGERS Broadly speaking there are two different kinds of Mass Effect mod: content and textures. Most mods are content mods: they add or change dialogue, gameplay, characters, missions etc. Texture mods change texture files themselves: 4k upscales, recolours, NPC complexion tweaks and so on. I mention this because the Mass Effect engine handles the two kinds of mod in different ways, which means that if you want to mod your game you will need two community mod managers. ME3Tweaks Mod Manager, despite the name, is the content mod manager for all three Mass Effect games. Most mods you download will use ME3Tweaks. ME3Tweaks can backup your installs (so if mods break your game you can revert quickly and easily), check for mod updates and download automatically, applies compatibility patches for DLC and other mods, and does all the fiddly stuff like AutoTOCs and binkw32.dll bypasses as well. How to use:
ALOT (A Lot Of Textures) is the texture mod manager for all three Mass Effect games. Only texture mods use ALOT. ALOT is also the name of basic upscaled texture packages for each game, made by the same people. The mod manager is included with each of the texture packages. ALOT has similar functionality as ME3Tweaks, but for texture mods. Both mod managers can work together as well to avoid conflicts and ensure stable installations. Thing is, the way the Mass Effect engine works means that any changes to texture data must be the last changes made. In other words once you install texture mods you can't install anything else. Trying to install or even update mods after changing the textures will break the game! ALOT and ME3Tweaks work together to make sure you don't accidentally do this. How to use: official illustrated guide here but it's similar to ME3Tweaks - drag-and-drop the mod files onto ALOT, click "install textures" and the manager will do the rest. Again, the main thing to remember is that you should make sure you've installed all the content mods you want before using ALOT, as you can't do it afterwards! ALOT has additional advanced settings if, for example, you don't want to install the default ALOT core packages or if you're having memory problems when running the game. Once you've finished with texture mods you can go back to using ME3Tweaks to launch the games. Word of warning - sometimes in old mod descriptions you'll see mention of a program called "Mass Effect Explorer". This is a mod developer tool that shouldn't be used to install mods any more. Use ME3Tweaks or ALOT!
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# ¿ Feb 2, 2021 22:25 |
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MODS Okay, enough background - what Mass Effect mods are actually out there? This is mostly the mods I use - not an exhaustive list by any means. There actually aren't all that many content mods for Mass Effect 1 as it's apparently hard to edit. Most of them are relatively minor tweaks. ME1 Recalibrated - the Recalibrated mod series is a set of unofficial patches for each Mass Effect game. This one fixes a lot of incorrect plot flags and quest bugs. FemShep Appearance Consistency Project - imports the ME3 FemShep head morph into ME1. There's a ME2 version as well! Improved Mako - changes physics behaviour for the Mako to be less bouncy. I used V1 but would consider trying the more extreme versions, as V1 was still a bit floaty XP Rescale - reach level 60 in one playthrough Pinnacle Station Tweaks - rebalance for Insanity challenges Galaxy Map Trackers - shows outstanding quests on the galaxy map No Intro Videos - no intro videos! Faster Elevators - the elevators are faster! Controller Support - I don't know what you want from me here! The main draw of modding Mass Effect 1 is obviously the texture upscales, as the base textures were a hot console-port mess even on release. ALOT - upscaled textures and lighting A Lot Of Videos - ALOT sister project, contains upscaled videos Mass Effect Updated/Improved Textures Mod - another texture pack that can be used alongside ALOT. It slightly edits the textures to add more detail so if you're an absolute purist, you might want to stick to just using ALOT There are many other texture updates/reskins for individual characters, weapons, outfits etc. if you want a particular look. For example there's a nice retexture of Explorer armour for Liara that better matches her style in later games. The modding scene for Mass Effect 2 is a little more developed, both in the number of mods available and how much those mods change the game. ME2 Recalibrated - an unofficial patch like the others, but also includes much bigger changes: Illium, Samara and Thane are available straight away, DLC missions are gated behind plot missions, and lots of minor edits (e.g. FemShep no longer comes on to Jacob every time you talk to him) FemShep Appearance Consistency Project - it's back, in Mass Effect 2 form Modern Weapon Pack - backports 16 ME3 weapons so you have a choice of, like, more than two kinds of pistol Recovered Powers - 4 new bonus powers for Shepard, salvaged from ME2 enemies Add Powers to Squadmates - gives every squadmate 2 extra powers, and changes weapon loadout for a few of them as well. Slightly janky in implementation due to engine limitations but not buggy per se Gameplay Tweaks ME2 Gameplay Tweaks and Improvements - not tried these but both let biotic/tech powers ignore enemy protections which I know quite a few people wanted Same Gender Romances, FemShep and Miranda, FemShep and Jack - there are a few romance mods for squadmates available - due to the scale of changes required they are often incompatible with other mods or sometimes even other playthroughs! Not my cup of tea but they are there if you want them Controller Support - why would you want this when the mouse and keyboard are right there? Well, here it is anyway There are ALOT and ALOV packs for Mass Effect 2, naturally. MEUTIM has a pack that changes some squadmate textures to resemble those used in the ME2 trailers. Others are complexion tweaks for major NPCs, often with a ME3 equivalent by the same modder. Here's where it gets juicy. Mass Effect 3 easily has the most mods available, either because it's the easiest to mod or the game that needs it the most. These mods offer the most content and the biggest changes. ME3 Recalibrated - an unofficial patch more like the ME1 version - bug fixes rather than content edits Expanded Galaxy Mod - whole game mod that touches up what I would call the "connective tissue" of ME3: the Normandy, the Galaxy Map and War Assets. Customise the Normandy, visit every system from all three games, take ME2 squadmates along on missions... honestly too much to fit here. Community standard that's required for a couple of other mods Spectre Expansion Mod - EGM expansion that adds more entries and dilemmas to the Spectre terminal. Want to authorise strapping bombs to pyjaks and pointing them at the Reapers? You can now! Also adds new enemies to the game Miranda Mod - EMG expansion that brings Miranda onto the Normandy for the final segment of the game. Bit janky in parts but fun otherwise Ark Mod - EGM expansion that adds a couple of new missions with Collector enemies using multiplayer maps. Difficult! Project Variety - whole game mod that adds more NPCs to the Citadel, changes NPC outfits, fixes cosmetic bugs. Also a bit janky, and has some issues with ALOT and the game's memory management Bonus Power Packs - adds powers from multiplayer as Bonus Powers for Shepard Omega Hub - visit Omega after clearing the DLC Aria Arena Mod - Omega/Citadel combo DLC for those who can't get enough Carrie-Anne Moss Better Dreams, Shorter Dreams - changes Shepard's dream sequences to get rid of the slow-mo hide-and-seek forest Take Earth Back, Priority Earth Overhaul - two different overhauls for the final mission in ME3. Take Earth Back is low-key, more stable and compatible with other major mods. Priority Earth Overhaul is bigger, more ambitious and buggier. Both are still being actively developed, so expect updates Singleplayer Controller Support, MP Controller Support - mutually exclusive controller mods BackOff - dialogue mod that adjusts how ME3 handles romances to make them easier to start, finish or avoid. Did you pick an upper-right dialogue option and accidentally end up marrying Liara? This mod stops that. Poor compability with other mods due to scale of changes, so I haven't used this ThaneMod - one of the oldest mods, ThaneMod stops Thane from dying in the Citadel coup. Currently awaiting a major update. Also not great compatability with other mods. I haven't tried this mod either! Same Gender Romances, FemShep and Miranda, FemShep and Jack - continuation of the ME2 mods, with the same kind of compatability issues. Not for me but some might be interested! MEHEM, JAM, CEM, LIME - ending mods of different flavours. I don't use these mods so I don't really know what changes they make but whatever! ALOT and ALOV have packs for Mass Effect 3. Again, there are a lot of complexion tweaks for major NPCs, and specific HD textures for individual weapons and armour. If you look on the Nexus sites you will also see lots of ReShade presets and the like. ReShade is a generic post-processing injector that's entirely separate from content and texture modding. It's a bit out the scope of this post but if you want fancier graphical effects, then grab the framework and a preset you like and go hog wild. Unlike the other mods, you can do whatever whenever with it without potentially breaking the game. CONCLUSION So: as you probably guessed, a lot of this stuff - bug fixes, new graphics, ME1 gameplay tweaks - is gonna be in the Legendary Edition remaster, and to a higher (professional) standard. You could save yourself some hassle and just shell out for the remaster in three months time. On the other hand, Warcraft 3 Reforged showed that you don't have to be an amateur mod developer working out of a bedroom to utterly gently caress a game beyond all salvaging. And if any of the new content or twists on old content strike your interest... well, that's probably not gonna make the jump to the remaster. The original games are fairly cheap, cheaper if you wait for a sale, and if you're reading this thread chances are you already own all three anyway. If you don't mind putting in a bit of work, there's basically a community-sourced remaster right here, entirely for free. It's worth a look.
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# ¿ Feb 2, 2021 22:26 |
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thrilla in vanilla posted:I added those to the OP. Thanks no problem - thank you for the cool new thread. you can run Firebase White with me any time
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# ¿ Feb 2, 2021 22:52 |
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apparently Bioware are running a survey about whether to change parts of the ME3 story? probably just a dumb publicity stunt but might be worth checking out https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2BDQ5B3
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# ¿ Feb 3, 2021 01:04 |
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if I remember rumours right in very early pre-production the geth were gonna resurrect Shepard, not Cerberus later plans were to recruit Legion on a mission to the Normandy SR1 crash site Pattonesque posted:Kai Leng has a gunship to cover him while he recharges his shield in the open (????) very powerful lens flare cannon. the remaster will give us the Kai Leng bossfight we deserved e: personally I am fine losing to Kai Leng but the forced sad rock-bottom scene afterwards was weak as hell. Shepard should have yelled at the asari for messing up so badly Lt. Danger fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Feb 3, 2021 |
# ¿ Feb 3, 2021 02:20 |
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nine-gear crow posted:Just gonna repost this because it kind of got lost on the last page nice. I have some of these but others I didn't know existed!
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# ¿ Feb 3, 2021 03:00 |
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the ME3 OC ending was just the Final Fantasy 7 ending for millenials
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# ¿ Feb 3, 2021 04:17 |
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:Anyway, the Protheans and the Collectors - assimilated or destroyed?
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# ¿ Feb 3, 2021 05:22 |
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Mordin is a good character because it's Bioware tricking the player into liking something terrible through really basic short-term gratification. specifically, Mordin is a war criminal who helped plan and execute a genocide, but he's funny and sings! so that's all right! (like Cerberus, the hosed-up government conspiracy people from X-Files, where people feel like they're supposed to be the good guys just because they're currently running the main plot?) same for Miranda, where players get really horny for a socially-stunted incest baby just because she wears a catsuit and there's some rear end shots conclusion: the rear end shots are a test of character and Bioware should keep them in
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# ¿ Feb 6, 2021 01:11 |
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Jacob was a
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# ¿ Feb 6, 2021 03:18 |
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Radio Free Kobold posted:who even thought kai leng was a good idea? he's like a bad fanfiction character. wow, who pissed in your (plant pot and ate your) cereal?
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# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 01:47 |
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planning doesn't make or break an ending alone - the (star)child was written into ME3's intro and dream sequences long before any endgame crunch, and nobody likes that
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# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 02:54 |
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proposal: Miranda, Jacob and Zaeed stay loyal to Cerberus and form a miniboss gang with Kai Leng opposing Shepard throughout ME3
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# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 16:36 |
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Pattonesque posted:Some account of different factions and POVs in ME3's development would be fascinating agreed on Final Hours of ME3 but I believe it was also made during the game's development, so it offers an interesting window into a moment between Mass Effect 3 being largely complete and Mass Effect 3 being released to subsequent backlash in particular it's interesting to see Hudson's ideas about science and technology around apparently during development for ME1, ahead of any need for Bioware to do PR damage control - suggests that "Hudson and Walters locked themselves in a room and pulled something out their asses for the ending" has been exaggerated by the fanbase i.e. the basic concepts were there from the start, it was just the mechanical line-by-line script that needed to be rushed out by the producer and lead writer
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# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 20:37 |
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it seems like game development in general is a very chaotic process with stuff being planned, scrapped, re-used and transformed on a continual basis. that recent Mac Walters interview about the cut Mass Effect 2 characters has design docs that are completely different to anything we saw in the final game, even for characters that made it in (Jacob was gonna kill himself over his feelings for Miranda! what the gently caress)
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# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 21:06 |
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gotta pick middle investigative options and pass a speech check every time you speak with TIM (Mars, Thessia, Cerberus HQ)
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# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 22:44 |
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Bioware has always been a little uneven: Mass Effect 2 has "humans are genetically diverse", butt shots, a mis-balanced Suicide Mission, an awkward transition to working for Cerberus; Mass Effect 1 has Malthusian economics, Saren/Benezia, awful gameplay, a scientific explanation for psychic blue space babes in turn Bioware aren't all that egregious - even Obsidian got in on the gaming-journalism-stunt-casting with the New Vegas DLCs
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# ¿ Feb 8, 2021 18:12 |
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cyclical posted:It's been years since I played FNV, who are we talking about here? Old World Blues - Christine and the talking stealth suit were voiced by some gaming journalist lady Psycho Landlord posted:The cause and resolution of the Geth stuff in and of themselves nowhere near as bad as the loving pinnochio plot that got foisted on them after Patrick Weekes spent so much time making them cool and different in ME2. Chris L'Etoile - Patrick Weekes wrote Mordin in both games now personally say what you like about Rannoch, but I reckon Tuchanka is far worse. at least Rannoch commits to the bit
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# ¿ Feb 8, 2021 23:34 |
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SlothfulCobra posted:You get to go to the Turian and Asari homeworlds, and it doesn't really teach you that much more about either of the races. Reapers apparently don't all hit as hard as Sovereign so you can have a sprinkling of Reaper fights throughout the game in a way that really reduces their dramatic impact. Anderson is somehow fighting a groundwar resistance against them, and more than ever, it highlights how weird it is that Bioware chose a race of sentient spaceships to be the antagonists in their most action based game. Thessia reveals that the asari have been hiding prothean technology from everyone else, despite their own laws against this. the Reapers you fight (in exceptional circumstances) are subservient destroyer-scale mini-Reapers, not full-blown Sovereign-class. Reapers harvest populations which requires working on a humanoid scale I'm not sure how much we can fault Bioware for tying up loose ends and revisiting core characters/places - one of the major fan complaints about ME2 was how it didn't do enough with ME1 import choices: emails, fleeting encounters, teasers for the next game. if nothing else Bioware has always been very sensitive to audience feedback, with a tendency to overcorrect e: to be clear I'm not disagreeing as such but these seem like odd examples when you have all the forced appearances from the ME2 crew - Jacob and his good Cerberus scientists that nobody asked about; Kasumi's sidequest, which tries to tie up Kasumi, her greybox, the Spectres, the hanar and the Leviathan of Dis in the space of a 15-minute sidequest; Zaeed's sidequest, which is just confusing but in a really boring way Lt. Danger fucked around with this message at 05:36 on Feb 9, 2021 |
# ¿ Feb 9, 2021 05:29 |
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fwiw the Expanded Galaxy Mod does a really good job fleshing out the war - systems fall gradually to the Reapers, major battles are detailed with some push-and-pull between the two sides, more is made of the logistics of war even for the unkillable robot gods
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# ¿ Feb 10, 2021 13:58 |
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You fight against inevitability. Dust struggling against cosmic winds. This seems a victory to you. A star system, sacrificed. But even now, your greatest civilisations are doomed to fall. Your leaders will beg to be harvested. Human, you've changed nothing. Your species has the attention of those infinitely your greater. That which you know as Reapers are your salvation through destruction.
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# ¿ Feb 10, 2021 16:36 |
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I don't think the reading of Reapers as unknowable robot-Cthulhus is accurate. Sovereign's boast is that the Reapers have worked out how everything works to the point they can predict the future. reality is rational, the cosmos is deterministic, it's just very specifically that Sovereign thinks humans are too stupid to understand
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# ¿ Feb 10, 2021 18:37 |
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very brief amount of research provides https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/6gw93c/ot_spoilers_leaked_ending/ the leaked ending was incomplete but not substantially different, and it wasn't changed because of the leak. Dark Energy never got further than pre-production. the big change was apparently Javik had Vendetta's role
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# ¿ Feb 11, 2021 00:55 |
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specifically the Crucible is just a sufficiently large "dark energy" reactor that can be used for anything. its purpose is to provide enough energy to perform whatever ending you eventually select the actual mechanism for how the Crucible defeats the Reapers is that it's like a Science victory in Civilisation: the Catalyst sees the Crucible, realises that its completion means organic races have developed enough that the culls won't work anymore, and surrenders
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# ¿ Feb 11, 2021 07:21 |
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the only awkward, clunky vehicle I liked driving was Mass Effect 2-era Shepard
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# ¿ Feb 13, 2021 23:28 |
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Best Bi Geek Squid posted:the test of a true sci-fi franchise is the ability to come back from some really dogshit installments and still have people like you they passed that test with the very first game though
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# ¿ Feb 16, 2021 01:21 |
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exquisite tea posted:A dirty dozen style Mass Effect game we did that already with Mass Effect 2, which is why we should do it again because ME2 was fucken sick
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# ¿ Feb 19, 2021 02:17 |
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Cerberus are like Ashley in that they're not racist, but they are opposed to the Council's multiculturalism - and the Council shows that it's possible to be multicultural and racist at the same time, in its treatment of the krogan, the quarians, the volus etc. then ME3 shows us that the Council aren't just quietly racist, they're also hypocrites who abandon any pretence of a united galaxy when the Reapers invade honestly I'm not sure Cerberus ever went rogue... or at least rather than "going rogue" they just went private, getting funding directly from human industrialists and politicians. they're supposed to be the bad guys from the X-Files, complete with their very own Cigarette-Smoking Man; the unaccountable "deep state" of the Alliance. they really suffer from the half-baked ME1 writing where they run around doing nonsense things so the player has an excuse to fight more rachni and husks
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# ¿ Feb 23, 2021 15:08 |
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Shepard dies if there aren't two squadmates still alive - closest you can get to no-survivors is probably Morinth and either Zaeed/Kasumi (barely in ME3) or Mordin/Legion (story-mandated deaths) full rundown: understudies: Wrex becomes Wreav, Mordin becomes Padok Wiks, Legion becomes Geth VI, Grunt becomes Urdnot Dagg everyone else: a different character steps in to cover the necessary plot points, if at all. Daro'Xen and Shala'Raan replace Tali on the dreadnought/Reaper base Rannoch missions. Oriana sends the signal in Sanctuary. Kirrahe fights off Kai Leng (and if he's dead, the salarian councillor bites it). Jacob's girlfriend/Samara's daughter/Jack's student do mission control for their missions. Garrus, Zaeed and Kasumi are just not present. you don't get replacement squadmates for Garrus and Tali
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# ¿ Feb 23, 2021 22:16 |
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turns out you don't have to do tedious Fallout ending slides to have reactivity
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# ¿ Feb 24, 2021 15:57 |
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Priority Earth could have been better but the rachni technically are non-violent engineers who attacked the Council out of Reaper/Leviathan-induced madness e: like the point of the Hammer command base is you do a tour of all your troops and get to see the krogan/salarians/turians etc, all your squadmates and former squadmates. it's underdone but your choices and consequences are displayed
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# ¿ Feb 24, 2021 16:57 |
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c'mon
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# ¿ Mar 3, 2021 23:56 |
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you're supposed to be using Pull/Throw to stagger enemies so they're out of cover, then following up with a teammate power or some well-placed bullets just because you can't instantly ragdoll an enemy doesn't mean biotics are useless. the red filter on power buttons really did a number on people
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# ¿ Mar 13, 2021 21:27 |
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1st leader gets the tech specialist killed, 2nd leader dies themselves speaking of, time to separate the boys from the men https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect2/mods/346
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# ¿ Mar 27, 2021 15:47 |
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I think it's more because you wouldn't have a way to pick the Reject ending if you accidentally ended the dialogue
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# ¿ Mar 31, 2021 22:53 |
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Star Trek, Darmok e: smugly, the link to Mass Effect would be the elcor who preface every sentence with an emotion Lt. Danger fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Apr 1, 2021 |
# ¿ Apr 1, 2021 11:00 |
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OctaMurk posted:Eh, I think it is a problem though. The whole conceit of the games is that Your Choices Matter, and ME2 had a whole gamut ranging from everyone dies to everyone lives and it was a gut punch if you hosed up and lost a favorite character. ME3 needed to have a range of endings including a happy ending if you did everything well. the more accurate conceit of the game is that you can have your ideals, or you can have your results, but you can't have both. Bioware admits themselves they messed up when they made the Suicide Mission too easy
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# ¿ Apr 1, 2021 20:55 |
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why doesn't Shepard-Catalyst just Control all the Reapers to fly into the sun as an ending it's kinda compromised and vague. it's worse because it's TIM's preferred choice so not only do you get this limp excuse about how it wouldn't work for TIM (but it might for you), but also every time you see TIM you have the same conversation about how Shepard wants to destroy the Reapers, but TIM wants to control the Reapers, and if you destroy the Reapers you can't control the Reapers, but you can't control the Reapers so you have to destroy the Reapers Cerberus needed a more specific plan with more tangible hooks than "technology: good or bad?" (proposal: TIM wants to jumpstart the Singularity for him and his .1% funders by liquefying refugees into a slave Reaper, wait out the current war then spend 50,000 years shaping the next cycle into an empire to kill Reapers next time around; Javik's plan but worse). some kind of plan that could be debated more rigorously, something more horrifying than a choice you theoretically expect a third of players to make themselves you could try to tie the ending choices back into the central Paragon/Renegade conceit but ideals vs results sorta goes out the window when you're fighting an apocalyptic war of survival anyway. a solution would be to make Destroy the "renegade" choice and Reject the "paragon" one but guddamn that would have been even more unpopular with audiences
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# ¿ Apr 12, 2021 21:13 |
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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 23:36 |
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the ME3 intro wastes quite a bit of time being needlessly vague. "something's entered the system but we don't know what" "satellites are going dark, what could have caused this?" "we're getting info from London *guy screams into a camera for less than a second before being cut off* ooh what a mystery" like c'mon, this isn't suspense it's just boring the initial setting of the Alliance hearing in itself is directionless as well, perhaps because of a possible late change from putting Shepard on trial for their actions in ME2/Arrival. the purpose of the hearing is to figure out what we should do when killer robots invade, and Shepard's big insight that marks them out as a hero is the idea that we should fight instead of dying
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2021 19:34 |