New Mass Effect 2 character

[Fionavar]

Oh look, sand out of the box. Perhaps if people really need to personalise their discussions, PM could be used (this is direction not inquiry). If not, I guess moving from the Roost will follow ... remember, don't worry what someone else says, just take some time to consider what you are going to say. It's all about choices and I like to choose to do nothing when everyone posts with butterflies and sunshine, not baiting and trolling ...

 

FLoSD.ObE

[cronicler]

You don't (usually) get banned for criticizing BIO games or even BIO themselves. It's how one does it. People criticize BIO all the time there. *shrug*

P.S. ME > KOTOR and ME2 > KOTOR2

 

Well Tastes and Colours cannot be argued over

Edited August 22, 2009 by cronicler

[Magnum Opus]

Baseless speculation re: announcing Shep's potential demise:

 

To prepare gamers for the notion that what they do in ME2, as they're playing, could very well lead to a "reload moment" if they don't play it carefully? Only that the reload-moment won't be so obvious as the main character exploding into chunks on the battlefield?

 

Have to admit, I tend to play a little fast-and-loose with my characters in games sometimes, mostly because I know that, for all the talk about Choice And Consequence, there really aren't any choices that I can't recover immediately from with a simple reload. Consequences are either trivial in nature, or immediately obvious in effect... usually both. ME2 (at least from the PR) suggests that there'll be longer-term consequences that players might not be able to recover from so easily, particularly if the gamer in question doesn't maintain a robust save game regimen or if they don't feel like going back three chapters to do something differently.

 

Because as far as OMG factors go, I don't know that I'd be all that thrilled with that one in particular. "OMG, I earned a suit of golden plate armour!" That one I could live with. "OMG, I killed my character!"... not so pleasant.

 

Aside from that, though... *shrug* No idea. Unless it's just a pure marketing thing, to keep people talking and speculating about the games.

Edited August 22, 2009 by Magnum Opus

[Maria Caliban]

...everything I've read on DA forums leads me to believe there is no M/M romance, could be wrong but I doubt it.

 

I'd be willing to bet money there is a M/M romance.

 

which version o' tink? is a considerable range possible characters based on tinker bell.

That

[Gromnir]

"Is your post referring to Legion, the speculated Geth teammate in ME2? "

 

have absolutely no idea what you is referencing. in any event, our comment were not directed at any specific me2 element.

 

is typical that if you got a story that includes sentient machines, the Pinocchio shtick becomes inevitable... and as much as Gromnir liked Blade Runner, we not necessarily need to see what is bioware's take on the subject o' machines with soul.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[alanschu]

That's correct, much of their post BG stuff was generic, that's why i didn't mention it. They make passably good design, except for Jade Empire which was better than the usual, but you have to keep in mind that:

 

 

Their BG stuff was generic too.

[Bos_hybrid]

. I noticed they had Maria Sartis in ME, and Cladia Black and Kate Mulgrew in DA. I wonder what science fiction actor they

[RPGmasterBoo]

Baseless speculation re: announcing Shep's potential demise:

 

To prepare gamers for the notion that what they do in ME2, as they're playing, could very well lead to a "reload moment" if they don't play it carefully? Only that the reload-moment won't be so obvious as the main character exploding into chunks on the battlefield?

 

Have to admit, I tend to play a little fast-and-loose with my characters in games sometimes, mostly because I know that, for all the talk about Choice And Consequence, there really aren't any choices that I can't recover immediately from with a simple reload. Consequences are either trivial in nature, or immediately obvious in effect... usually both. ME2 (at least from the PR) suggests that there'll be longer-term consequences that players might not be able to recover from so easily, particularly if the gamer in question doesn't maintain a robust save game regimen or if they don't feel like going back three chapters to do something differently.

 

They'll probably just rip off Witchers delayed consequences thing.

[Volourn]

"They'll probably just rip off Witchers delayed consequences thing."

 

You make it sound TW invented the concept. It did not. In fact, BIO's done it before. As has BIS, Obsidian, and heck even Squaresoft.

[Maria Caliban]

Infos: One of the new powers is a purple 'combat drone.' The quarian teamate was seen using it in this image: Image 1. It's the floaty ball.

 

 

 

They'll probably just rip off Witchers delayed consequences thing.

 

I can't see how this is a bad thing. Though I'd say the best example of 'delayed consequences' comes from FO.

Edited August 23, 2009 by Maria Caliban

[Purkake]

What does the glowy drone do? Shoot at stuff?

[RPGmasterBoo]

I can't see how this is a bad thing. Though I'd say the best example of 'delayed consequences' comes from FO.

 

Its not, I was just commenting on the possibility. Fallout 1/2? You meant the epilogue or the occasional changes to the gameworld while you're playing?

[Guest Slinky]

I can't see how this is a bad thing. Though I'd say the best example of 'delayed consequences' comes from FO.

 

Its not, I was just commenting on the possibility. Fallout 1/2? You meant the epilogue or the occasional changes to the gameworld while you're playing?

 

I think she means the epilogues, because I remember only one occasional change during game in FO1 and two in FO2. And in all of them some locations were just mass murdered, so nothing special.

 

Those epilogues were great though, every rpg should have those.

[Bos_hybrid]

From the ME2 boards:

 

Brenon Holmes Programmer

 

 

Every time you finish the game a character file is saved. That file contains everything needed to transfer your character from ME1 to ME2.

 

If you finish the game multiple times, multiple files will be generated (and available for import into ME2).

 

Example:

 

Jane Shepard, Level 40 Adept finishes the game, making friendly happy choices.

 

That character file is saved.

 

Jane Shepard starts over using NG+ and finishes the game again as a Level 50 Adept making angry choices.

 

That character file is also saved.

 

There are now *two* adept Jane Shepard files, one level 40, one level 50.

 

 

When importing your character into ME2, you will see both of those records available for import.

 

Hopefully this helps.

[alanschu]

I think it's cool but given what I understand of game development, I don't expect a whole lot of the things you do to have more than a superficial effect on Mass Effect 2. Though IMO, even if it's a subtle change such as motivation because say, the Council is dead instead of alive, I still appreciate those changes.

 

 

I mean, it makes sense that you can't have too much involved with Ashley/Kaiden given one of them might be dead. It's easy as consumers to say "well write it in differently to make it work," but when you start creating large amounts of dialogue for characters that may never even possibly be in a particular playthrough, it starts to become a weaker investment of resources. Not just in the time for the writer to write dialogue either, but also in terms of voice over, which is very expensive. Top it off with localization issues that have you doing voice overs in 10+ different languages, and suddenly it's pretty expensive!

 

This is a lot like KOTOR 2 which had a lot of different dialogue options to determine what had happened in KOTOR 1's timeframe, but ultimately the game is still almost identical.

 

 

I expect (I have not touched ME2 so this is just a guess) that the decisions made in the previous game will open up small subplots and whatnot, similar to how your backstory in ME would lead to different optional sidequests, as well as the occasional difference in line of dialogue. Little things to acknowledge the choices that you made, but nothing too drastic because it's just a poor production decision to do so.

 

Anyone expecting more than this is being unrealistic IMO. If you wanted a significantly different game experience based on the previous choices that you made in the earlier game, then you're being unreasonable. You can complain about this all you want, but would you prefer it if the game simply ignored your previous decisions and just assumed that your Sheppard saved the Council when he actually didn't?

[Maria Caliban]

I mean, it makes sense that you can't have too much involved with Ashley/Kaiden given one of them might be dead. It's easy as consumers to say "well write it in differently to make it work," but when you start creating large amounts of dialogue for characters that may never even possibly be in a particular playthrough, it starts to become a weaker investment of resources. Not just in the time for the writer to write dialogue either, but also in terms of voice over, which is very expensive. Top it off with localization issues that have you doing voice overs in 10+ different languages, and suddenly it's pretty expensive!

 

I've heard this excuse several times, and it doesn't wash for me. As far as we know, there are 12 possible party members, and of them, only two are mandatory. That means that the other 10 may or may not be in a specific play-through for a specific player.

 

If I choose to not pick Thane in play-through X, than that NPC is as much a waste of resources as Ashley is if I choose to kill her in play-through Y. If a player decides to never take Thane, he is as much a waste as Ashley is if a player always chooses to kill her.

 

The wasted resources argument applies to every, single non-mandatory teammate. In fact, it applies to every, single sidequest. According to Patrick Weeks (ME 2 writer), a player could finish ME 2 in three hours if they only did the main story, though they'd get the worst ending. If you do everything possible, ME 2 should be slightly longer than ME 1, and they're working on providing 'richer side-quests' than ME 1. That tells me that the *vast majority* of content in ME 2 is what you call a weaker investment of resources.

Edited August 24, 2009 by Maria Caliban

[RPGmasterBoo]

According to Patrick Weeks (ME 2 writer), a player could finish ME 2 in three hours if they only did the main story, though they'd get the worst ending. If you do everything possible, ME 2 should be slightly longer than ME 1, and they're working on providing 'richer side-quests' than ME 1. That tells me that the *vast majority* of content in ME 2 is what you call a weaker investment of resources.

 

That's a joke right?

[Maria Caliban]

According to Patrick Weeks (ME 2 writer), a player could finish ME 2 in three hours if they only did the main story, though they'd get the worst ending. If you do everything possible, ME 2 should be slightly longer than ME 1, and they're working on providing 'richer side-quests' than ME 1. That tells me that the *vast majority* of content in ME 2 is what you call a weaker investment of resources.

 

That's a joke right?

 

You've never see the speed run times for various BioWare games, have you?

[RPGmasterBoo]

According to Patrick Weeks (ME 2 writer), a player could finish ME 2 in three hours if they only did the main story, though they'd get the worst ending. If you do everything possible, ME 2 should be slightly longer than ME 1, and they're working on providing 'richer side-quests' than ME 1. That tells me that the *vast majority* of content in ME 2 is what you call a weaker investment of resources.

 

That's a joke right?

 

You've never see the speed run times for various BioWare games, have you?

 

No? But this was supposedly 3 hours of gameplay + cutscenes, nothing is that short?

[Maria Caliban]

I don't know if this included cutscenes or not.

 

Just so you know, a speed run of BG is half an hour. BG II is one hour.

Edited August 24, 2009 by Maria Caliban

[kirottu]

Fallout is under 10 minutes.

[RPGmasterBoo]

I don't know if this included cutscenes or not.

 

Just so you know, a speed run of BG is half an hour. BG II is one hour.

 

I understand we're not talking about speed runs and tricking the game into finishing too early but the average gameplay for the main quest only. In BGII it was around 40-50 hours, in BG around 30. Definitely not 3.

[Niten_Ryu]

I tested last year how fast I could run certain old titles. All were non optimized but I obviously knew all encounters. BG2 was about 4 hours, BG about 3 hours, Fallout 1 about hour. All still way slower then most optimized speedruns. My first run of BG2 took about 60 hours and ME about 45 hours.

[RPGmasterBoo]

My first run of BG2 took about 60 hours and ME about 45 hours.

 

I've no idea what you did to make ME last as long. I searched every single one of those stupid planets, finished every quest and side quest and it wasnt above 22-23 hours total.

[Maria Caliban]

My first run of BG2 took about 60 hours and ME about 45 hours.

 

I've no idea what you did to make ME last as long. I searched every single one of those stupid planets, finished every quest and side quest and it wasnt above 22-23 hours total.

 

It's quite possible that you didn't unlock all the planets and sidquests. What level were you at the end of your first playthrough?

 

In all honestly, I assumed that ME 2 would be shorter than ME 1 as they're removing the tedious 'fetch 15 asari sex dolls' quests.

Edited August 24, 2009 by Maria Caliban