Mass Effect Andromeda

[Drowsy Emperor]

You guys are really making me want to delve into Mass Effect 2....

 

I love space pigs, interstellar travel and rpg's... sometimes I question myself to why I still haven't played it. No, seriously I question myself - as in talking to myself out loud.

 

Is it as good as Kotor 1&2? You can be honest, I can take it!

 

They're quite similar. In the broadest sense, specifics can be rather different.

 

That said Kotor 1 is much more playable as a game. I say that and I don't even like Star Wars. At all. Yet I played it 3 times. It doesn't have the floaty shooting, the driving sequences and the pacing is better. The locations tend to be much more believable because they weren't constrained by the tunnel like level design that was devised to make ME's pop shooter combat work. You just play it and enjoy the ride, even if much of it is on autopilot.

 

Mass Effect has more bling, more cinematics - more everything, but the core "let's make a well designed fun game" is really noticeable in KOTOR whereas Mass Effect really requires you to buy into the story to suspend everything else (empty super streamlined locations, little diversity in character models and levels, clunky mechanics, endless "cinematic" dialogue etc. etc.). Its a great game to showcase but a rather mediocre one to actually play. 

 

ME2 polished up the story, pacing, some of the mechanics to give a good experience - but I still think the dialogue>tunnel>dialogue>tunnel>dialogue>tunnel structure of the game makes for an on the rails action game rather than good roleplaying. 

Edited March 31, 2017 by Drowsy Emperor

[ShadySands]

Walking around the Tempest and it seems so poorly designed. There's so much wasted space while there is only one bathroom/shower (for 11 people) and the crew quarters only has four bunks and it poorly laid out. The Pathfinder's cabin is at least twice as big as it needs to be and yet it doesn't have its own facilities

Edited March 31, 2017 by ShadySands

[Raithe]

Walking around the Tempest and it seems so poorly designed. There's so much wasted space while there is only one bathroom/shower (for 11 people) and the crew quarters only has four bunks and it poorly laid out. The Pathfinder's cabin is at least twice as big as it needs to be and yet it doesn't have its own facilities

 

Don't you realise, the designers obviously knew everyone was going to hot-bunk, and also that any future crew would invariably set themselves up in the escape pod and the kitchen for sleeping quarters...

 

Edit: Also, since Pathfinders are obviously going to Kirk it up, they need the extra large sleeping quarters for the numerous romance interests to share together.

Edited March 31, 2017 by Raithe

[Raithe]

Designing Mass Effect

 

Okay, it is paid content by EA, but it can be somewhat interesting to see some of the writers talking about the reasons and whyfors.

[majestic]

The game caps you at 19 (at Nexus level 20). At the end of the game I had tons of AVP but instead of unlocking the next level it just keeps going. It might be meant to make your decisions have some trade-offs or it could be a bug because I think it started showing negative. Still I don't think I would have gotten enough points to unlock them all even without the cap

 

 

In DA:I it wasn't possible to unlock every Inquisition perk so that players need to make some decisions. There's no real reason why Mass Effect: Inquisition should be any different. It's essentially the same mechanic, although in Inquisition it somewhat made more sense as it represented the Inquisitions influence in Thedas, not a numerical abstraction on how livable the Heleus cluster is. *shrug*

[Tel Aviv]

 

Andromeda taking its cues from avant-garde cinema, I see. Was Salvador Dali lead designer?

[majestic]

Spoiler free and absolutely comprehensive ME: Andromeda review:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yewHl_TcOE8

 

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

Which comes back to project mismanagement, huh...

Basically anything in the software world.

 

 

Except for this. Sometimes badly written code is just that

[the_dog_days]

 

 

https://youtu.be/yewHl_TcOE8

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ

Edited April 1, 2017 by the_dog_days

[ShadySands]

https://techraptor.net/content/report-bioware-outsourced-mass-effect-andromeda-facial-animations

[majestic]

Don't be silly, this is the result of Bioware's social justice agenda. Not outsourcing, new tech nobody tried that much before or the garbage idea to transition from UE to the modified Frostbite garbage EA made for Dragon Age: Inquisition.
 
Also, LOL:
 

An interesting tidbit that Robertson mentioned was the speculation as to why the facial animations were also kept. One source believed that the reason the Cyberscans were not modified was due to internal pressure within both BioWare and Electronic Arts, pushing for more realistic-looking human characters. Robertson stated that an artist “suggested that there are “sensitivities” within the company about representing women in a certain way.”

Right, so that women are more realistic in this game they left the facial animations  on a first draft level on purpose. Because having goofy looking animations in many models and in dramatic cutscenes is realistic. And... of course, uhm, those eyes are pretty awesome as well. Because everyone in real life looks constantly surprised like that.

 

Sure, right. Source is legit fo' sho. But what do I know, I'm only a beta male who doesn't want to mate with pixels and thinks that the models don't look that bad in the game. As long as no animation is playing, that is.

[Fenixp]

 

An interesting tidbit that Robertson mentioned was the speculation as to why the facial animations were also kept. One source believed...

 

My granny told me that her childhood friend had good sources on the fact that chicken are actually born from dirt, not from eggs.

 

Seriously, there are rumors worth spreading and then there's this :-P

Edited April 3, 2017 by Fenixp

[Malcador]

Not sure why people can't buy a mix of incompetence, inexperience and inadequate resources and have to think up grandiose BS.

[majestic]

Chemtrails, I guess.

[213374U]

https://techraptor.net/content/report-bioware-outsourced-mass-effect-andromeda-facial-animations

 

Pretty awesome that companies outsource **** overseas to reduce costs, but if the end user tries circumventing regional pricing, that's a big no-no.

 

That's globalization for ya.

Edited April 3, 2017 by 213374U

[marelooke]

 

https://techraptor.net/content/report-bioware-outsourced-mass-effect-andromeda-facial-animations

 

Pretty awesome that companies outsource **** overseas to reduce costs, but if the end user tries circumventing regional pricing, that's a big no-no.

 

That's globalization for ya.

 

 

Except that outsourcing seldom never reduces costs in practice.

[majestic]

After two terribly laggy multiplayer attempts to finish an APEX mission where I had to listen to two spanish speaking 10 year olds in one and a group of russians in the other because the mute button for some reason decided to do diddly squat I score a match with three high rating players the damned game crashes at the end of wave 6.

 

Boy am I glad Bioware is working on the neckbeard issue. *grunt*

[213374U]

After two terribly laggy multiplayer attempts to finish an APEX mission where I had to listen to two spanish speaking 10 year olds in one and a group of russians in the other because the mute button for some reason decided to do diddly squat I score a match with three high rating players the damned game crashes at the end of wave 6.

 

Boy am I glad Bioware is working on the neckbeard issue. *grunt*

 

The mute button works fine, but the interface is crap. The player you currently have highlighted doesn't change when hovering the cursor over others, and clicking on them brings up their Origin profile, but does NOT highlight them. I use the mouse wheel to select the correct player and then mute them. I generally just auto-mute everyone while in the lobby because I'd rather not have to do it if they decide to start yelling at mom or whatever, mid game.

 

The crashes are widespread, and worryingly enough, very frequent on consoles as well. After they canceled the MP open beta just weeks from launch, it's clear as day that no real testing was done and the released product *is* the beta. Hey, early access games do it all the time, why not BWEA?

 

Shoot me a PM if you want to run some games. At least if you crash, you can reconnect.

[Darkpriest]

Yeah, the thing is, Early access games are advertised as such. I guess EA can stand for early access. Even matches in abbreviation.

[Fenixp]

Yeah, the thing is, Early access games are advertised as such. I guess EA can stand for early access. Even matches in abbreviation.

You are saying this on Obsidian's discussion boards :-P

[redneckdevil]

 

Yeah, the thing is, Early access games are advertised as such. I guess EA can stand for early access. Even matches in abbreviation.

You are saying this on Obsidian's discussion boards :-P

Lol very very true. I will give it to obsidian though, they will eventually get it alot better, but never perfect. Close, but never perfect

[majestic]

 

After two terribly laggy multiplayer attempts to finish an APEX mission where I had to listen to two spanish speaking 10 year olds in one and a group of russians in the other because the mute button for some reason decided to do diddly squat I score a match with three high rating players the damned game crashes at the end of wave 6.

 

Boy am I glad Bioware is working on the neckbeard issue. *grunt*

 

The mute button works fine, but the interface is crap. The player you currently have highlighted doesn't change when hovering the cursor over others, and clicking on them brings up their Origin profile, but does NOT highlight them. I use the mouse wheel to select the correct player and then mute them. I generally just auto-mute everyone while in the lobby because I'd rather not have to do it if they decide to start yelling at mom or whatever, mid game.

 

The crashes are widespread, and worryingly enough, very frequent on consoles as well. After they canceled the MP open beta just weeks from launch, it's clear as day that no real testing was done and the released product *is* the beta. Hey, early access games do it all the time, why not BWEA?

 

Shoot me a PM if you want to run some games. At least if you crash, you can reconnect.

 

 

Okay, that explains it. I thought a mouseover and pressing the mute key would mute the player. Thanks for the offer by the by, should I venture into MP territory again I'll call on you to carry me.

Edited April 4, 2017 by majestic

[Raithe]

I think it's also that no-one talks to coordinate or apply teamwork. They pretty much only do random commentary, heavy breathing, insults, or snark.

[_underscore]

[the_dog_days]

The single player doesn't help because it teaches players that they're one man armies do to inadequate options to coordinate with squadies.

Edited April 4, 2017 by the_dog_days