10 réponses à ce sujet

[Whole Particle]

Anybody else ever encounter several moments throughout the game where team mates never used any offensive powers? It happens quite often, mostly with biotics, less so with techs.

I have Squad Power Usage set to "active", yet still the only powers my allies tend to use during battle are barrier, shield boost, and immunity. So I'm not sure why they don't use their powers whenever they get a chance too.

[CajNatalie]

If they were always used 'whenever they have the chance', that would mean instantly unloading all powers the moment their cooldowns are off.
This is terrible for people who want the squadmates to do their own thing mostly, but still be there if the player panics or needs their powers for a specific situation.

Squadmates will sometimes unload absolutely everything at once (damnit Liara, why use Lift when an enemy's in a Singularity, WHY?!), sometimes they'll pop the right (mostly) powers here and there, or sometimes they'll just bulletspray (most common with heat modded weapons).

I've also found the squad to use powers a hell of a lot less in Pinnacle Station, which is perfect because you need everything you can get from the squad in certain challenges.

Modifié par CajNatalie, 03 septembre 2011 - 12:16 .

[The Grey Ranger]

I usually set my group's power usage to defensive only. That way when I want that overload or singularity, it's there.

[Whole Particle]

I understand not everyone would like the setting, but isn't that what "active" is supposed to be used for? People that want control over their squad settings manually can always select the "defensive" option.

It's just sometimes frustrating, especially in places like pinnacle station, having two other biotics on timed missions never using their powers offensively, when I myself usually play as adept and already have my focus on managing all my powers on as many enemies as I can.

Not saying the missions aren't doable, but it would've been nice if the ally AI were smart to use their powers wisely. And active means to use their powers whenever they get a chance to.

[CajNatalie]

You can't expect the game to play itself for you, and you can't expect the game to read your mind anyway.
Tali uses Overload on some shields you decided to shoot down yourself.
Liara decides to use Lift on a geth you want to Hack.
Garrus sabotages someone before you land a Throw on them and they can't get back up to shoot anyway.
Limiting active power useage helps reduce situations like these.
Besides, Pinnacle Station is crap. When you learn to beat it as a Soldier on Insanity mode (where all powers are from your squadmates) see if it would have gone so well if your team were popping powers like the idiots they normally are outside Pinnacle Station. Every power must be used in a specific opportunity in the Hunt missions. You can't trust a little video game's programs to do that.

And oh since we're on the subject... 'if AI were smart'... HAHA!!!
The day we have smart AI is the day we're all long dead... or at least when we're old and wrinkly.
You have no idea how difficult AI programming is, and also how underrated it is in video game business (it's only more recently getting more focus and specialisation).

[Whole Particle]

This isn't about my skill level or my abilities to beat the various missions. I'm just wondering why the "active" setting doesn't do what it's supposed to do in several locations.
 
And all I meant by the AI comment was that perhaps there could have been programming variables where squadmates only use powers in certain instances (IE use singularity only when two or more enemeies are near each other). I liked the tactics system in DA: O, I think a similar system could have worked well in ME too.

[RedCaesar97]

I understand why you would want to set squad powers to Active, but that usually leads to some bad situations. CajNatalie said it best:

CajNatalie wrote...
If they were always used 'whenever they have the chance', that would mean instantly unloading all powers the moment their cooldowns are off.
This is terrible for people who want the squadmates to do their own thing mostly, but still be there if the player panics or needs their powers for a specific situation.

Squadmates will sometimes unload absolutely everything at once (damnit Liara, why use Lift when an enemy's in a Singularity, WHY?!), sometimes they'll pop the right (mostly) powers here and there, or sometimes they'll just bulletspray (most common with heat modded weapons).

I always set Squad Power usage to Defense-only but one time my game glitched and I found out first-hand why Active was a terrible setting:
For some strange reason, while Squad Power usage was set to Defense-only, the game glitched and Tali somehow got stuck in Active power mode. This meant she unloaded all of her powers in quick succession and then charged like a Krogan Battlemaster into the midst of a group of enemies. This meant:
- Hacking a high-level geth with a low-level AI Hacking, which meant the hacking failed (stupid ME1 power upgrade system)
- Overloading everyone's shields
- Sabotaging everyone's gun, including that Destroyer which caused it to charge and melee Tali and then me. And the geth armature was not sabotaged so it was still firing at me.
And this was very early game so cooldowns were excruciatingly long.

It was like that the whole mission: Tali unloads everything she has, then runs into danger and dies, leaving me and my other squadmate to run around trying to survive.

[CajNatalie]

Unloading powers whenever possible only works in Mass Effect 2, where you have to pick the best power and you only suffer a few seconds of cooldown.

In Mass Effect 1's individual cooldowns, the game HAS to limit the squad's useage, even in active. Sadly, it doesn't... and I can't understand empathise or even sympathise with your request in the slightest.
It's too loose for the reasons myself and RedCaesar gave... the team will unload everything and reduce themselves to an exhausted bulletspray machine that you can't rely on any more and will probably get shot to pieces.
I keep active on because I try to real-time Mass Effect 1 more, and I accept the difficulty presented by team stupidity - the game's easy enough for me now already, so why not?

Modifié par CajNatalie, 04 septembre 2011 - 12:31 .

[The Grey Ranger]

A bullet spray machine that, unless managed, will spend a great deal of time shooting Shep in the back.

I love the game, but the AI really leaves a lot to be desired.

Modifié par The Grey Ranger, 04 septembre 2011 - 02:20 .

[Whole Particle]

I'm not "requesting" anything, I have no idea where that's coming from.

Yes, I get people don't want the squad to spam powers whenever they get a chance, the squad is too stupid to use it properly, etc. That's what the "defensive" setting is for. That's not the issue.

I'm asking why doesn't the squad use more offensive powers when usage is set to "active" in certain instances. Am I misunderstand what "active" is supposed to be used for? For example, on Pinnacle Station, members like Liara will not once use an offensive Biotic Power, ever, on her own.



Bulletspraying has never really been an issue for me, by the time I cycle through all the powers available, the first power has usually already cooled down by that moment, especially when squadmates have Adrenaline Rush.

[The Grey Ranger]

Asked and answered, because the AI is bad, end of story.