[Megathread] Mass Effect Andromeda

[Tenjen]

Hmmm wondering if i should save my super deluxe boxes to open later when i fill up my rankings more.

The same logic behind mass buying 5000credit boxes before going for the higher value crates. give you a better chance for rare drops when you eliminate all the common ones with rank 10

[Deleted]

Aaaand FINISHED after 97 hours! Whew, that was fun and intense.

Did everything except tasks that didn't show on the minimap, cba checking every nook and cranny for crap that isn't marked on the minimap.
One thing I'm really not a fan of: the MMO-like mini quests scattered all over the map. Better than in Shitquisition but still bothersome.

Not playing it again until the DLCs, when I'm gonna start over.

Don't forget to save your...saves, you will need them for the sequel.

[mickybrighteyes]

Looking into picking this game up... Spoke to a friend and did a bit of digging around and it seems a Melee/Shotgun close range Vanguard build is 100% possible.

Basically built around using Charge to get up close, then Shotgun for the melee buff and spending the rest of the time wailing on people, with the Vanguard Passive that recharges your shield when you deal damage to keep me alive.

anyone tried anything like this, is it even possible to use that setup on higher difficulties?

Personally didn't see the shotgun bonus as a must have once you get your shit together. I wound up grabbing the tact cloak first (it's a larger bonus and you can have it stacked with charge/biotic related buff/debuff effects). Though the cloak doesn't help as much on higher difficulties as charge and nova (both granting momentary invulnerability through animation effects).

In multiplayer, people are damn near soloing non-remnant matches with Krogan Vanguard... not firing a single shot... But the kind of melee bonuses they get aren't the same as in single player and arguably lower compared to a more advanced build.

[Jastall]

Looking into picking this game up... Spoke to a friend and did a bit of digging around and it seems a Melee/Shotgun close range Vanguard build is 100% possible.

Basically built around using Charge to get up close, then Shotgun for the melee buff and spending the rest of the time wailing on people, with the Vanguard Passive that recharges your shield when you deal damage to keep me alive.

anyone tried anything like this, is it even possible to use that setup on higher difficulties?

I'm doing exactly that on Hardcore, and as I stated upthread I could do it on Insanity if enemies didn't become a bit too bullet spongy for my tastes. Early game is hell for a Vanguard, but once you get some nice equipment and level up the Charge, Barrier and Containment trees, you become a killing machine that basically can only die to sync kills because your barriers regenerate so fast. Grab a good shotgun (Crusader, Dhan, Disciple for lighter weight), a fast attacking melee weapon such as biotic punch or omni blade, and go to town.

Some enemies will give you trouble because meleeing them is dangerous/not possible (Architects, Destroyers, Ascendants, Fiends can also sync kill you quickly) so investing in assault rifles or pistols for a backup ranged weapon is an advantage too.

[frogger237]

Hmmm wondering if i should save my super deluxe boxes to open later when i fill up my rankings more.

The same logic behind mass buying 5000credit boxes before going for the higher value crates. give you a better chance for rare drops when you eliminate all the common ones with rank 10

I opened my super deluxe boxes right away and glad I did, would hate to be stuck with an avenger for 100+ hours of gameplay.

I did do one bronze match on every char tho and use the 10k credits to get 2 5k credit boxes. But with every gun going to rank X and each char getting like 6 ranks or something I don't think its really worth it to wait out till you completely clear out all the commons.

[Micke]

Hmmm wondering if i should save my super deluxe boxes to open later when i fill up my rankings more.

The same logic behind mass buying 5000credit boxes before going for the higher value crates. give you a better chance for rare drops when you eliminate all the common ones with rank 10

I've read the commons/uncommons are just replaced with consumables instead, so the chance stays the same. Which means if you are after specifically rare stuff you should just get the expensive packs right away probably, would need to see some drop% data on all the packs for rares though.

[Deleted]

- - - Updated - - -

News from BioWare:

From their website:
-Allowing you to skip ahead when travelling between planets in the galaxy map
-Increasing the inventory limits
-Improving the appearance of eyes for humans and asari characters
-Decreasing the cost of remnant decryption keys and making them more accessible at merchants
-Improving localized voice over lip sync
-Fixing Ryder’s movements when running in a zig zag pattern
-Improving matchmaking and latency in multiplayer

https://www.masseffect.com/news/the-...d?sf53509845=1

Nothing about DLC or making SAM stfu.

i really don´t get them. why couldn´t they wait another 1-2 months and bring the game with all these fixes? it´s really a shame, their reputation took a massive hit because of such a laziness or maybe they were only greedy and wanted to ship the game out?

sad, many of us (me 88%) finished the game already

[Edge-]

i really don´t get them. why couldn´t they wait another 1-2 months and bring the game with all these fixes? it´s really a shame, their reputation took a massive hit because of such a laziness or maybe they were only greedy and wanted to ship the game out?

sad, many of us (me 88%) finished the game already

Because the game was very likely already overbudget and way behind schedule. They wanted it out in time for their Q4 earnings report (which ended March 31), simple as that.

So yeah, EA is partially to blame, but so is BW. The game should not have been in this state with 5 years of development and a $40M+ budget.

[Orby]

i really don´t get them. why couldn´t they wait another 1-2 months and bring the game with all these fixes? it´s really a shame, their reputation took a massive hit because of such a laziness or maybe they were only greedy and wanted to ship the game out?

sad, many of us (me 88%) finished the game already

Because, 'deadlines' EA probably pushing for this games release before Bioware could add any touches.

[Deleted]

but in the end they will earn less? people won´t buy any further games with the label mass effect? there are so many jokes and memes about ME:A now and i understand them.

EA is to blame, like 99% of the time

[Edge-]

but in the end they will earn less? people won´t buy any further games with the label mass effect? there are so many jokes and memes about ME:A now and i understand them.

EA is to blame, like 99% of the time

They may earn less on the game, but they're avoiding a potential hit to their stock value by missing the revenue for this earnings report.

EA is in part to blame. BioWare shares the blame, these issues are on them as a developer.

[Gallahadd]

Some enemies will give you trouble because meleeing them is dangerous/not possible (Architects, Destroyers, Ascendants, Fiends can also sync kill you quickly) so investing in assault rifles or pistols for a backup ranged weapon is an advantage too.

Champion, this is exactly the kind of info i needed.

It really sounds like Vaguard is the Knight Enchanter of Andromeda. Hell at early levels, but once you have your shit together, you're a BEAST.

[DaveL]

Because, 'deadlines' EA probably pushing for this games release before Bioware could add any touches.

True, imagine the acclaim of ME3 (and its ending) could be better if DLC Extended Cut was part of the game.

[Micke]

What's funny/sad though is that before the official date announcement it was simply stated "sometime in spring" with the addition that EA would give them some extra time if they needed it, so maybe late spring if necessary. But nope 21st of March basically start of spring it was. (btw every single ME game was launched in March) Seems like that was either a lie or naivety from BW. (Don't have a source on me atm, but considering how little info they put out back then it can't be too hard to track down, unless it was in a tweet)

[Edge-]

True, imagine the acclaim of ME3 (and its ending) could be better if DLC Extended Cut was part of the game.

The extended cut was in direct response to how much folks hated the existing ending, no? It was purely a reaction to the onslaught of criticism from consumers who were disappointed, wasn't it?

If that's the case, I see no reason to think that additional development time would have made them change the ending.

[Derah]

The game should not have been in this state with 5 years of development and a $40M+ budget.

People keep saying this as if this was a big sum of money.

it is not.

Frankly, I'm more surprised they were able to make the game at all with only $40 million. For an indie dev, 40 million is a lot of moolaah, but for a triple A company, 40 million is very little money. SWTOR had a budget of over a hundred million. GTAV had a budget of something like 250 million.

Even your cookie-cutter yearly Call of Dooty/Assassin's Creed game has a budget way above the 90+ million mark.

So with all of that considered, that they were able to make the game at all with such a low budget (even hiring a few big-name actors like Natalie Dorner) with only 40 million is actually quite impressive.

[Edge-]

People keep saying this as if this was a big sum of money.

it is not.

Frankly, I'm more surprised they were able to make the game at all with only $40 million. For an indie dev, 40 million is a lot of moolaah, but for a triple A company, 40 million is very little money. SWTOR had a budget of over a hundred million. GTAV had a budget of something like 250 million.

Even your cookie-cutter yearly Call of Dooty/Assassin's Creed game has a budget way above the 90+ million mark.

So with all of that considered, that they were able to make the game at all with such a low budget (even hiring a few big-name actors like Natalie Dorner) with only 40 million is actually quite impressive.

Yes, yes it is. That's well within the normal range of most AAA development budgets. Yes, there are outliers like GTAV (the numbers cited range from $150-250M last I recall, though that includes marketing costs as well, which the $40M number does not as far as I know), but they're the exception rather than the rule.

As for SWTOR, MMO's are notoriously expensive compared to non-MMO's, and SWTOR blew ludicrous amounts of money on stupid shit. That's not a great comparison.

And yes, AC/CoD numbers include marketing budgets as well, I believe. ME:A's marketing budget likely places it at similar levels.

If they blew a lot of it hiring big-name voice talent, leading to a lack of budget for other areas, that's their problem and that's on BW management.

Because it's often compared, Witcher 3 reportedly had a development budget closer to $15M with its total budget around $30M apparently (sauce). So it's not as if huge, open world RPG's aren't possible without investing $100M plus or some nonsense.

[Deleted]

Question.. Is the end of the game really close after when you're on the "Chasing the Archon" or whatever quest? I hope not.

[Jastall]

Champion, this is exactly the kind of info i needed.

It really sounds like Vaguard is the Knight Enchanter of Andromeda. Hell at early levels, but once you have your shit together, you're a BEAST.

Haha, exactly. Magic knight types are my favorite classes to play generally, and Bioware does a good job with them. Taking Backlash can help you a lot in the early game; later on it becomes a bit superfluous, but is still useful.

[Gallahadd]

Haha, exactly. Magic knight types are my favorite classes to play generally, and Bioware does a good job with them. Taking Backlash can help you a lot in the early game; later on it becomes a bit superfluous, but is still useful.

Indeed! Especially when it's Bioware. Pre nerf Knight Enchanter is honestly the most fun I've had in an RPG is YEARS. Hoping to recapture some of that with my Vanguard.

So maybe one point in Backlash for the early game, but don't bother leveling it?