[QUOTE=Sharp_Shooter;35274813]Human Engineer master race, overloading and Incinerating erry day. I only use the combat drone to distract assholes. It makes guardian and pyro's turn around so I can shoot them in the back and for the pyro, its gas tank.[/QUOTE]
I went Soldier in singleplayer, but started with engineer in multi. That drone is useful as fuck.
I find that Gold is much easier with Infiltrator. Whole team down ? Banshee and Brutes everywhere ?
Cloak, Run around reviving team then use the 40 % sniper damage bonus to pick off enemies
Grenades are useful though
Low-load ME3 Soldier is really a beautiful thing to play.
When you're not busy with Adrenaline Rush, you can just fire 700 newton Concussive blasts at a faster rate then most sniper rifles.
[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;35274659]You're thinking about this in the wrong terms. This isn't an actual war being fought in the real world(if it were that would bring a lot more complications), this is a story. How they act affects their emotional impact.
Remember in ME1, where Sovereign just straight up wrecks everything around it without even trying? How he was surrounded by the meanest and baddest enemies in the game? Remember how on Eden Prime he fucked people in the head just by moving?
Their emotional weight doesn't lie in their ability to make things asplode, it lies in their presence. They don't have that this time around. Their dramatasse is undermined because of the writer's insistence on getting the plot moving as quickly as possible.
And here's the thing about autoconversation and roleplaying. It might help make your fancy cutscenes smoother, but I'm not Shepard the moment he starts taking on his own opinions about things. In ME1 if I saw that kid I could have said "FUCK SURVIVORS, THE MISSION COMES FIRST" and ignored his scrawny ass. The moment they force Shepard to care, he stops being the player and you stop driving the story. It's literally like having a back seat driver telling you exactly where to turn, it's annoying and jarring.
For example, why do I have to tell Vega to go guard the ship? Why not Ashley? I fucking hate Ashley. I want Ashley to piss off. But no, that would interrupt the flow of the scene.
Fuck your "cinematic experience". I want to fucking roleplay damnit, not yell stage directions at Buff Manmeat.[/QUOTE]
You have no idea how much that angers me. It's not my Shepard anymore. My shepard is an emotionally ravaged bitch. She doesn't give a flying fuck about death. She could care less. She responds to death like someone responds to a lecture. Without interest. So why is it in the 3rd one she's suddenly all shocked by death? She lived on Mindoir.
I think that we're missing something here. I think that the thought process that lead to the ending of ME3 started long before this point. I think this has been an issue that people have failed to bring Bioware up on.
Mass Effect is an RPG that's based around self determination and player controlled character development. Hell, every Bioware game is. But lately it seems that they don't quite think that, or they don't know how to tell a story like that. Because now they're sacrificing player choice and involvement for the sake of their "cinematic experience".
If you look at DA2, you'll see that that is why it truly failed. It wasn't the gameplay, which I honestly enjoyed despite it's flaws. It's that the writers decided that they knew better than the player what kind of character Hawk should be.
They settled on three paths. You can play a funny Hawk, a mean Hawk, or a nice Hawk. And they know the best way to portray all three, and you can't mix them together because they already worked it out for you. They decided that they knew what your character was, what the intent behind your words was. They co-opted [I]you.[/I] And that's what made it unappealing and uninvolving.
That is exactly what's happened in ME3. The writers, writer, or whatever in between decided that they know Shepard better than you. That their Shepard is more fun to be. And that is a line that a DM cannot cross. Ever.
They're DMs. They make worlds, they let us make our way through them. When they direct our characters, it stops being a game and it becomes masturbation for people who wished they'd gotten into entirely narrative based mediums.
[editline]24th March 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Sardonus;35274868]You have no idea how much that angers me. It's not my Shepard anymore. My shepard is an emotionally ravaged bitch. She doesn't give a flying fuck about death. She could care less. She responds to death like someone responds to a lecture. Without interest. So why is it in the 3rd one she's suddenly all shocked by death? She lived on Mindoir.[/QUOTE]
Precisely. And it goes beyond this.
You need to be the one to initiate every line, when possible. Every line. Even if every choice results in the same dialogue, you need to initiate it. Because it's your Shepard. Your intent is what matters. If they take intent away from you, you're severed from Shepard. Because without the knowledge of Shepard's intent, you are no longer in his/her mind, you no longer are him/her.
[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;35274871]I think that we're missing something here. I think that the thought process that lead to the ending of ME3 started long before this point. I think this has been an issue that people have failed to bring Bioware up on.
Mass Effect is an RPG that's based around self determination and player controlled character development. Hell, every Bioware game is. But lately it seems that they don't quite think that, or they don't know how to tell a story like that. Because now they're sacrificing player choice and involvement for the sake of their "cinematic experience".
If you look at DA2, you'll see that that is why it truly failed. It wasn't the gameplay, which I honestly enjoyed despite it's flaws. It's that the writers decided that they knew better than the player what kind of character Hawk should be.
They settled on three paths. You can play a funny Hawk, a mean Hawk, or a nice Hawk. And they know the best way to portray all three, and you can't mix them together because they already worked it out for you. They decided that they knew what your character was, what the intent behind your words was. They co-opted [I]you.[/I] And that's what made it unappealing and uninvolving.
That is exactly what's happened in ME3. The writers, writer, or whatever in between decided that they know Shepard better than you. That their Shepard is more fun to be. And that is a line that a DM cannot cross. Ever.
They're DMs. They make worlds, they let us make our way through them. When they direct our characters, it stops being a game and it becomes masturbation for people who wished they'd gotten into entirely narrative based mediums.
[editline]24th March 2012[/editline]
Precisely. And it goes beyond this.
You need to be the one to initiate every line, when possible. Every line. Even if every choice results in the same dialogue, you need to initiate it. Because it's your Shepard. Your intent is what matters. If they take intent away from you, you're severed from Shepard. Because without the knowledge of Shepard's intent, you are no longer in his/her mind, you no longer are him/her.[/QUOTE]
Mass Effect 3, I loved it to death for the most part but it was the first one where I felt really detached from my Shepard.
What the hell is up with all the people trying to play silver games when they're under level 7? I mean we just lost a game because of a level ONE, and then a level 6 and a level 3 wants to play silver games. They are too fucking low, they will just DIE, don't they get that? I've left 10 lobbies in a row because of some retard lowbies who just wont fucking understand that they can't do silver games.
[QUOTE=Sardonus;35274868]So why is it in the 3rd one she's suddenly all shocked by death? She lived on Mindoir.[/QUOTE]
This really bothered me. I was a paragon but I delved into renegade when it felt right. My Shepard was the Butcher of Torfan, why is he so upset about 1 kid getting killed?
Vangiuard here. Nothing cooler than charging a cannibal and punching his head in.
[QUOTE=Swebonny;35274954]Vangiuard here. Nothing cooler than charging a cannibal and punching his head in.[/QUOTE]
Kill stealing scrubs, that's what Vanguards are
[QUOTE=Swebonny;35274954]Vangiuard here. Nothing cooler than charging a cannibal and punching his head in.[/QUOTE]
Vangaurds in MP are always the one who charge everything then get smacked by the Banshee, then the team has to rush in and save yo' ass
they should totally add more races for MP
[QUOTE=noneshallpass;35275007]they should totally add more races for MP[/QUOTE]
Or atleast more skins and genders.
Like male quarians and stuff
[QUOTE=Sardonus;35274987]Vangaurds in MP are always the one who charge everything then get smacked by the Banshee, then the team has to rush in and save yo' ass[/QUOTE]
only the bad vanguards
team manguard, go!
I'm still upset there's no Geth in Multiplayer
[QUOTE=Scar;35275017]Or atleast more skins and genders.
Like male quarians and stuff[/QUOTE]
They said we'd see female aliens didn't they? Like turians and whatever.
[QUOTE=Sardonus;35274939]Mass Effect 3, I loved it to death for the most part but it was the first one where I felt really detached from my Shepard.[/QUOTE]
The problem is that you need DMs to write these games, not novelists. I don't think the people in charge understand the difference.
A DM doesn't write in some stupid emotional dream sequence like they're fucking Kurosawa or some shit, they need to establish a varied and complex environment for players to move through. Players are the ones who decide if Shepard is having nightmares, players are the ones who decide if you care about casualties. DMs rule the boundaries, they write all of the possible reactions, they anticipate the course the player might take.
It's a field unto it's own. It's about being clever and predictive, not poignant and manipulative. Bioware doesn't understand that.
So of course when the time comes to make the ending, they make an ending for themselves. They make Shepard do what their Shepard does. Because to them, Shepard is their character. But he isn't. He's a blank slate with a lot of stickers for us to put on him. That is the structure of the Role Playing Game.
I need to write a fucking manual on this shit because it's not complicated and they're fucking up big time.
[QUOTE=Sardonus;35275040]I'm still upset there's no Geth in Multiplayer[/QUOTE]
yeah, why aren't there geth?
I want Yahg in multiplayer
And vorcha
[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;35274953]This really bothered me. I was a paragon but I delved into renegade when it felt right. My Shepard was the Butcher of Torfan, why is he so upset about 1 kid getting killed?[/QUOTE]
It's a paper thin metaphor for innocent lives lost that you can't protect. It has nothing to do with one kid, it's just that the writing is so ham fisted that that's never communicated beyond the kid's wretched emotionless dialogue. "You can't help me?" What kind of fucking kid says that? Honestly.
That's what I'm talking about. They're trying to add in all this allegory and metaphor when they aren't the ones who decide what Shepard feels and what he wants. It doesn't work because when they do that Shepard becomes a completely new and alien character and we become frustrated and alienated. Fucking novelists behind the DM curtain, I'm telling you.
you only see 3 vorcha in the game
[QUOTE=XanaToast.;35275108]you only see 3 vorcha in the game[/QUOTE]
And you only kill 2 of them.
[QUOTE=XanaToast.;35275108]you only see 3 vorcha in the game[/QUOTE]
Makes sense. They were [sp]focused on Omega and Cerberus captured that. The rest are stuck on their homeworld, waiting to die.[/sp] I'd still like to see some more though.
[QUOTE=Sardonus;35274987]Vangaurds in MP are always the one who charge everything then get smacked by the Banshee, then the team has to rush in and save yo' ass[/QUOTE]
Hehe sounds just like me.
Streaming ME2, watch it plz
[url]http://www.livestream.com/scarschannel?t=800098[/url]
[QUOTE=Sardonus;35274987]Vangaurds in MP are always the one who charge everything then get smacked by the Banshee, then the team has to rush in and save yo' ass[/QUOTE]
You're talking about human vanguards.
After you leave the citadel for the first time, you're all like 'fuck yeah time to do some shit', but no, suddenly a kid running through a forest. What the fuck kind of forced, shitty, cunting storytelling is that? Jesus fuck.
I'm just going to write this down because I don't know where else to post it, but here are Mr. Scorpio's Laws of RPG Writing and Design.
[B]1. The Game Master is the controller of the world and all NPC characters. The player is the controller of the protagonist.[/B] This boundary lets the player become immersed in the world. To break this boundary is to separate the player from the protagonist, and by extension the world of the game.
[B]2. All actions taken by the protagonist are to be initiated by the player.[/B] An insult, an order, a gunshot. Anything that the protagonist does should be known in advance by the player, just as they know in advance what they themselves would do. To have your protagonist act separately of the player is to separate them from the protagonist, and by extension the world of the game.
[B]3. Do not arbitrarily reward a player for following one course of action or punish them arbitrarily for another.[/B] A character who cares for all life and spends all of their effort on altruistic endeavors is no more legitimate a character than a traumatized warrior who cares for life but has little respect or mercy for the cowardly or the manipulative. A character who walks the line should be as viable and effective as one who sticks to a single driving principle. To break this rule is to punish creativity on the part of the player and to reduce their investment in the protagonist.
[B]4. All actions taken by the player must have an appropriate reaction.[/B] As a bullet fired results in a loss of health in the enemy hit, an action taken by the protagonist during the course of the story should have a reaction matching the importance and scope of the action. To break this rule is to make the decisions of the protagonist seem meaningless and to lessen the importance that the player puts on them, therefor lessening the connection that the player has to the world.
[B]5. All precedents set by the Game Master must be adhered to unless the reason for their change is adequately explained.[/B] If a character is established to think in a certain way or an object established to act in a certain way, they must continue to do so until their change is explained. To break this rule is to confuse the player and to make them feel that the world is confusing or unfair.
This all seem to be sensible? It's not like there are any professional colleges or schools of thought for this shit, so I thought it would be interesting to get it all down.
Are pretty much everything supposed to see you in stealth? Banshees follow you and pick you up and oneshot you, ravagers do their usual rape shit, marauders can see you just fine. Atlas and geth rocket shits fires double homing rockets at you etc, everything in stealth. Often through walls too.
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