Anthem: Bioware's next Mass Effect-like IP

[SirCowdog]

Ughh been zoning out for alot of dialogue i hope i let hack know i like solo buut doubt i did..also bad idea to use a ropeplaying game firva poll as i tend to answer how i feel my character would often

Eh, it's not all the time. But often enough that I noticed it.

Change of topic: I'm primarily a solo player, and so far I've found that the Storm is the best for it, at least in the lower levels. Freeze then nuke. Freeze then melee. Freeze then headshot. The dodge is super good for getting behind cover. The ultimate just wipes the board of enemies. Been clearing everything on Hard difficulty with very little trouble.

Reached level 8 and I tried the colossus again. And was disappointed....again. Not sure how much that will change in later levels, especially with no energy shield to regen behind cover.

What are your thoughts?

[zealo]

Ughh been zoning out for alot of dialogue i hope i let hack know i like solo buut doubt i did..also bad idea to use a ropeplaying game firva poll as i tend to answer how i feel my character would often

At any rate, that's not the only telemetry data any competent developer would collect on player behaviour. They're also likely to track whether and how often you actually play with others too.

[Gaidax]

wow.. i'm still torn between ranger and interceptor. think i'll have to focus on them both :P

Interceptor is pretty useless in GM at the moment. Melee simply does not do anywhere close to damage guns or abilities do, which basically leaves you as a squishier Ranger with worse abilities.

Upside, Interceptor has a great ultimate. I don't know if it's intended, but they can revive allies while in ultimate, this is a big deal because ultimates make you immune for the duration.

[Shakadam]

Oboy... just what my Devastator boi has ordered...

For those wondering, gear +200% charges gives this grenade 3 charges, so you can carpet bomb the shit if you want. Makes getting that bonus much easier.

Ugh how do you guys get so lucky with those modifier rolls.....

I've got 1 legendary and 6 masterwork items this far and the best of them has "meh" modifiers, the rest are just shit with stuff like +ammo and other useless crap.

[Gorsameth]

And how much are you able to complete in GM3 again? I'm betting nothing yet. That is the carrot to chase, get better gear to run higher difficulty content JUST like how you compared it to Diablo 3. Are you forgetting that greater rifts didn't come out for over two years after D3 was released? Stop making these comparisons when you seem to be unsure of you what you are talking about...

And vanilla D3 was loudly decried as dogshit and Blizzard worked to try and get people back into it.
The comparison definitely holds up, Bioware needs to do what Blizzard had to do to keep players interested in playing. And one can argue that Blizzard ultimately failed in doing that.

[Thelyron]

This is my main gripe with the game. I have a pc below minimum specs and my loading times are long, often I load in and I get the message I'm outside the Mission Area and then get hit by another long loading screen. This even happens if you are ALMOST there. I really wish they wouldn't force load you but just let you fly there as it is faster and definitely more fun.

>pc below minimum specs
>complains about load times

[Gaidax]

Ugh how do you guys get so lucky with those modifier rolls.....

I've got 1 legendary and 6 masterwork items this far and the best of them has "meh" modifiers, the rest are just shit with stuff like +ammo and other useless crap.

Well Legendaries and MW as far as I understand have at least partially set rolls. Legendary I think is two and MW is one. So 200% gear thing is a specific legendary affix for this item (and I think it's probably always that 200%) and Blast Damage is affix that at MW Seeker Grenade also seems to have set, because I got one too and it has it as well and there is another guy I seen having that one on his MW item.

Rest 2 affixes are random. Because I rock Devastator which is ammo hungry, I'm ok with these, but I bet I could get much better like +damage or something.

Basically welcome to real hard ass RNG, as expected in these games. Only way to beat it really is to maximise your drop rate and get correct items with correct affixes, because difference is staggering.

That's why I do this silly 2 chest run to maximise the gain before it is inevitably fixed. I hope the fix will be heavily boosting final boss loot - I think it should be worth like 3-4 chests by itself.

---

Update, now that I think about it, probably only legendaries have 1 guaranteed affix, rest are free for all.

[Cairhiin]

>pc below minimum specs
>complains about load times

No I complain about FORCED loading times when you are flying towards an objective and you are literally 5 seconds away from it, and yet it FORCES you to load.

[Gaidax]

>pc below minimum specs
>complains about load times

That is really a wrong way looking at it, this is clearly on Bioware, heck their CM guy tweeted just that - that they realise not everyone has or puts this game on SSD and it's up to them to fix the whole loading screens thing.

So yes, maybe they should loosen that rubber band leash a bit and make respawns not reload half the bloody game, for reasons I don't understand why and my pet favourite - you are like one second away from reaching the checkpoint and bam loading screen to put you 2 meters ahead. Bungie somehow managed to do that, Bioware can too.

[Lex Icon]

Interceptor is pretty useless in GM at the moment. Melee simply does not do anywhere close to damage guns or abilities do, which basically leaves you as a squishier Ranger with worse abilities.

Upside, Interceptor has a great ultimate. I don't know if it's intended, but they can revive allies while in ultimate, this is a big deal because ultimates make you immune for the duration.

yeah that's what i've been hearing so i may just use the interceptor for some dicking around in free play every now and then. it's whole niche doesn't seem to work that well with group play either.

it's a shame since it was really fun to play on the lower difficulties.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Has anyone noticed how NPCs ask you questions that seem to be within the context of their characters, but are actually polls to determine what players want most out of the game?

For instance, the cosmetic vendor asks you if you like big guns or looking cool more. This is CLEARLY a poll to find out if you want weapon options in the store, or more cosmetics.

Another time "Lucky Jack" asks you if you like grouping more, or solo. It's obviously polling you to find out which style of gameplay you're interested in.

There are a few others, but it's blatantly obvious Bioware is using this as an info-gathering tool in a kind of clever way. Or maybe it's just me being paranoid?

While that thought crossed my mind, the issue here is that giving RP answers within RP segments would lead to massively skewed polls. For example the answer with the guns or cool looking seemed like my character would go full dude-bro gun-nut, which with me perfering the Storm and Interceptor in the first place seemed just off.

The same case for the group and solo one. From an RP perspective it made imho more sense to aknowledge that team mates are important, even though I would vastly prefer solo play with NPCs (if it wasn't as poorly balanced) compared to multiplayer with some fucking strangers that are called xx_GoAtFuXXeR_LOL.

[Thelyron]

No I complain about FORCED loading times when you are flying towards an objective and you are literally 5 seconds away from it, and yet it FORCES you to load.

That is really a wrong way looking at it, this is clearly on Bioware, heck their CM guy tweeted just that - that they realise not everyone has or puts this game on SSD and it's up to them to fix the whole loading screens thing.

So yes, maybe they should loosen that rubber band leash a bit and make respawns not reload half the bloody game, for reasons I don't understand why and my pet favourite - you are like one second away from reaching the checkpoint and bam loading screen to put you 2 meters ahead. Bungie somehow managed to do that, Bioware can too.

It's not even that i disagree with you, loading times are fucked. My pc sits a bit below the middle between minimum and recommended, got the game on ssd and my load times are... acceptable, at best. Could be a bit faster. My gf got it on her hdd, and it's horrible. And yes, while there's no justification for it nowadays, not everyone runs the game on an ssd (though you really, really should, and have no reason not to). So yeah, in essence, i agree with you, it just confused me that someone that runs below minimum specs even got to a point where repeated loading screens could bother him, seeing as the game shouldn't run on that rig in the first place.

[apelsinjuice]

It would be nice if you had the option to get a new contract when you finish one, without having to go back to fort taris, pick up a new one and then load in on a mission, would save a lot of annoying downtime

[Cosmic Janitor]

It would be nice if you had the option to get a new contract when you finish one, without having to go back to fort taris, pick up a new one and then load in on a mission, would save a lot of annoying downtime

They'd need to fix the fucked reward system first. Losing everything with a disconnect because you haven't visited the damn fort yet is just pants on head retarded. Who ever thought that was a suitable system for an online game deserves a few turns in code monkey hell until they learn the basics.

Imho they should restructure the whole part of the game, it would also play way better to the strenghts of the game itself. Allow people to finish multiple quests in one go and add a proper checkpoint system for the rewards.

[kaelleria]

They'd need to fix the fucked reward system first. Losing everything with a disconnect because you haven't visited the damn fort yet is just pants on head retarded. Who ever thought that was a suitable system for an online game deserves a few turns in code monkey hell until they learn the basics.

Imho they should restructure the whole part of the game, it would also play way better to the strenghts of the game itself. Allow people to finish multiple quests in one go and add a proper checkpoint system for the rewards.

You don't lose anything if you dc... it will be rewarded next time you complete something. If you hit I after you do and load back in you will see it.

[Cairhiin]

It's not even that i disagree with you, loading times are fucked. My pc sits a bit below the middle between minimum and recommended, got the game on ssd and my load times are... acceptable, at best. Could be a bit faster. My gf got it on her hdd, and it's horrible. And yes, while there's no justification for it nowadays, not everyone runs the game on an ssd (though you really, really should, and have no reason not to). So yeah, in essence, i agree with you, it just confused me that someone that runs below minimum specs even got to a point where repeated loading screens could bother him, seeing as the game shouldn't run on that rig in the first place.

I have a vidcard way above the minimum. My CPU is slightly below minimum. The loading times are insane but it doesn't bother me as I knew my PC wouldn't be running this game awesomely. I just find it really strange the game forces you into a really big loading screen when you are literally near the objective. In fact I wonder why it does that in the first place. Why not let people just fly there? The loading time takes longer and is most certainly more annoying. It's also strange it even gives you a loading screen seeing as you are literally already there. Let's however see how the game feels after Friday's patch.

[SirCowdog]

Quick question for Alliance: Does the game use your account name, or the pilot name you provided?

[kaelleria]

I have a vidcard way above the minimum. My CPU is slightly below minimum. The loading times are insane but it doesn't bother me as I knew my PC wouldn't be running this game awesomely. I just find it really strange the game forces you into a really big loading screen when you are literally near the objective. In fact I wonder why it does that in the first place. Why not let people just fly there? The loading time takes longer and is most certainly more annoying. It's also strange it even gives you a loading screen seeing as you are literally already there. Let's however see how the game feels after Friday's patch.

Load times have generally been ok for me unless the Freeplay instance is fucked. When that happens I usually just crash out.

What's interesting is that my husband loads slower than I do. We're both on SSDs with pretty beefy computers. His processor is a little bit older so that's probably the difference, but I was not expecting as sizable of a difference. He always loads in at least 2-3 seconds behind me.

With any luck, the Friday patch will help a lot of loading issues.

[everydaygamer]

I do think it's important to remember the game isn't technically released yet. I'm honestly debating whether or not to continue to play or just wait for the day 1 patch since it's supposed to fix a lot of problems.

[Cairhiin]

Load times have generally been ok for me unless the Freeplay instance is fucked. When that happens I usually just crash out.

What's interesting is that my husband loads slower than I do. We're both on SSDs with pretty beefy computers. His processor is a little bit older so that's probably the difference, but I was not expecting as sizable of a difference. He always loads in at least 2-3 seconds behind me.

With any luck, the Friday patch will help a lot of loading issues.

I also noticed the same thing when playing with some friends. I have the slowest PC and yet I wasn't even last loaded.